by The Editors on December 22, 2008
Facebook and eBay have joined to help seven celebrities (including Tony Hawk) raise money for their favorite charity. It’s called Re-Gift The Fruitcake on Facebook, according to a story on VentureBeat.com.
“It’s an incentive to get the Facebook generation into philanthropy,” Hawk said. “It encourages people to pass along the message about the charities and donate money.”
Sadly, we ignore all apps. If we didn’t, this would probably be a cool way to make a donation to the Tony Hawk Foundation.
[Link: VentureBeat]
by The Editors on December 22, 2008
Bob McKnight, Joe Scirocco, Bruce Thomas, and Marty Samuels covered a lot of ground in last week’s conference call, but there was one topic that they didn’t go over: the rumor that Quiksilver is actively negotiating the sale of DC Shoes.
This rumor has gained momentum lately most likely because the deal seems to make sense. On the conference call DC was repeatedly spoken of as a bright spot in Quiksilver’s brand portfolio. If Quik could unload DC Shoes for somewhere in the $700 million range, that would go a long way toward covering the company’s $1 billion debt. It would also allow Quiksilver to get back to basics with its core business after spending a couple years running the whole expansion thing into the ground. Not to mention it being a relief to many DC employees who believe all their hard work is being blown by bad business decision at the mothership. It probably wouldn’t hurt the company’s stock price, either.
So far no “official word” on the sale.
by The Editors on December 22, 2008
Camp Woodward has signed a licensing and consulting agreement with the Chinese government to help develop the next wave of Chinese action sports automatons as they create their “first international camp in Beijing next summer.”
Woodward Camp President Gary Ream is obviously looking forward to monetizing China’s billions.
[Link: Sports Business Journal]
by The Editors on December 19, 2008
It’s always nice to break the commerce up with a little art. And Skate One Corp is hosting a show to “celebrate the Ripper’s influence on skateboarding since his introduction” featuring artwork from pretty much every who ever created anything in the world of skateboarding. It will be on display in Room 28B at the ASR Show Jan. 22-24, 2009.
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Looks like we should have jumped in on the $.80 Quiksilver share prices several weeks ago because Quiksilver is fighting its way through some rough times. In their conference call today with analysts they stated that they doing well, but still have a ways to go.
Consolidated net revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 3% to $606.9 million compared to $587.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. . . . Consolidated net revenues for the full year of fiscal 2008 increased 11% to $2.26 billion compared to $2.05 billion in fiscal 2007. . . . European net revenues increased 16% during the full year of fiscal 2008 to $933.1 million and were up 4% in local currency.
Bob McKnight says:
I am proud of the efforts of the entire Quiksilver team around the world as we fought through a deteriorating global economy to deliver financial results that were consistent with the outlook we provided 6 months ago. As economic conditions continue to worsen in our key markets in the US and in Europe, we’ve continued our efforts to reduce expenses and capital expenditures, to carefully control inventory and to reconfigure our post-Rossignol capital structure.”
Notes from the conference call:
- Europe has been doing extremely well for the company.
- The DC footwear business has been “quite strong.”
- Sales will be down in the low double digits for the first quarter of 09
- Expecting a revenue decline in the high single to low double digits for 2009
- Every five cent swing in the Euro translates into $30 million in sales.
- Quik will open “very few new stores” in 2009. “Two in the US and maybe 2 or 3 in Asia Pacific and a couple in Europe”
- The company is looking to 25 retail stores. Nine will close in 2009; 21 of the stores are in the US, 12 are full-price stores and 41 percent of those are in California, Arizona, Florida.
- Quiksilver’s top 30 customers worldwide do less than 25 percent of the company’s sales.
- Capital expenditures for the coming year will be cut approximately $34 million from $94 million to $60 million.
- They are looking at every area of expenditure and trying to adjust to a new reality as to the projected 2009 revenue.
- Company debt still in the $1 billion range
- In 2009 there will be $70 million in interest expense
- The company also has a $55 million loan, which CFO Joe Scirocco called “the big one” is due on March 14, 2009
The Street appeared happy with the report as the stock rose 10% in after-hours trading.
For the whole press release, follow the jump, or click here for a transcript, or listen to the whole call right here.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Santa Cruz Skateboard Shop has partnered up instructional applications developer Whagga Software to produce an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called GoLearn Skateboarding. The horribly named, 348 mg app costs $4.99 and reportedly allows skaters to “learn different tricks with over 45 high definition videos with slow motion, multiple angles and detailed instruction, and find nearby skateboard parks.”
Skaters want to see different tricks performed by different people in different places. By providing an intimate discussion of how to re-thread a truck axle or watching Josh Mattson walk you through doing a Miller Flip, it’s as if we are speaking directly to the skater. Couple that with a GPS-driven Skate Park Locator for the traveling skater and the GoLearn Skateboarding application is unparalled in today’s market. Our partnership with Whagaa is an exciting one allowing us to transform our vision of Action Sport applications into reality,” comments Danny Keith, CEO of Santa Cruz Skate Shop.
We haven’t downloaded the app yet (and we’re not too optimistic about it teaching us backlips on a rail), but we’ll let you know. If you do download it make sure you do it from iTunes on your computer, not on your phone. This thing is HUGE!
[Link: MarketWatch]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
According to reports ASA Entertainment, the action sports event marketing company, has made at least four staff cuts in recent days.
Their director of marketing, senior producer (who produced all of the events and television for the last three years), athlete coordinator and one sales person out of the Indialantic, Florida office were all laid off. As our source says:
It seems the company is changing direction away from competitive events and more into “customized corporate marketing solutions” or as the rest of the industry calls them . . . demos.
And maybe some of that direction change is showing up at BFD.com.
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
We’ll probably hear more about this in the conference call tomorrow, but ASR is reporting that Quiksilver (and all its brands but DC Shoes) will “miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” according to a Shop-eat-surf.com.
Today Quiksilver told organizers that the brand will miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” the statement said. . . . “ASR continues to look for ways to work with Quiksilver and the industry as a whole through these hard times.”
Anyone want to buy a great surfwear brand?
[Link: Shop-eat-surf]
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
Going up against Tony Hawk in the video game world requires an army and EA brings one with this amazing opener to Skate 2, all to the beat of ELO’s Showdown. We want to play it right now.
[Link: Skateboardworks]
Facebook and eBay have joined to help seven celebrities (including Tony Hawk) raise money for their favorite charity. It’s called Re-Gift The Fruitcake on Facebook, according to a story on VentureBeat.com.
