Find What or Clean Up?
Recently a FindWhat (Nasdaq FWHT) sales representative asked me if I wanted to purchase traffic through FindWhat. The short answer was- no. I felt their sources of traffic were dubious at best and it would simply be throwing money away.
In this sales person’s latest salvo he quoted from a FindWhat press release as if it were some sort of magic talisman that would acknowledge that I knew what I wasn’t supposed to know, but I could now feel O.K. because the problem was being acknowledged and solved.
I offer up the press release with my own translation of what I think it really means.
Excerpts from the press release.
FindWhat.com also said that in recent weeks it has been removing certain distribution partners, representing a meaningful percentage of daily click-through revenue thereby negatively affecting the Company’s short-term financial performance. The Company believes these partners and/or their sub-affiliates had developed methods for obtaining new users that did not follow the Company’s distribution guidelines.
My Translation: We are kicking out nasty spyware, traffic laundering types, bad affiliates and their lowly kin the rogue sub-affiliate as well as other dirty players that we have built part of our revenue stream on for years now. We actually acknowledge we have been accepting this money and it is significant enough to expect notable short term losses but we are being honest about it because you will probably notice it in the next earnings call so better get you prepared now. After all we are already on some website’sSpitzer’s Danger List.
Mr. Pisaris-Henderson said, “Undeniably, it is difficult to turn off partners that had produced substantial revenue for our Company. Nevertheless, we remain committed to leading this industry in the implementation of, and adherence to, best practices with respect to delivering high quality prospects from trusted sources to our advertisers. To this end, we will continue to strive to work with our partners to ensure that we foster and maintain high standards in this area. We believe this is absolutely critical for the end users of our services and for our own long-term prospects.”
My Translation: It sure is hard to kick out anyone that makes us a ton of money, no matter how under-handed or low quality the methodology might be. However, our reputation is becoming so tarnished we already see the cracks in the foundation. In the long-term we will *really* suffer so we better get out a large mop and high pressure water hose now.
Looking forward, the Company plans to continue to leverage its unique position as the leading independent player within a growing market, and to invest in an expanded portfolio of services for its traffic partners. These investments include Pay Per Call, private-branded toolbars, and the Company’s license of FAST’s search technology, all of which are designed to help FindWhat.com’s traffic partners capitalize on their relationships with their users. The Company also said it plans to increase communication about what it can offer to clients and to enhance its branding strategy, which will be a focus in the second quarter.
My Translation: Looking forward they plan to build new innovations like private label toolbars which really isn’t that innovative. Ironically I would hazard a guess this is the same type of software product that some of their worst partners pawned off on unsuspecting users in the first place. In addition FindWhat will also focus on their branding strategy which I would assume is an attempt to get its brand out of the perceived gutter.
So long and thanks for for all the fish guys. Readers should be sure to follow this piece too:
FindWhat.Com, Inc. Issues Statement in Response to Shareholder Class Action Lawsuits
