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.
EXPN’s snowboard blogger Tracy Anderson got to sneak in a little interview during the media storm that followed Danny Davis‘ Winter Dew halfpipe win at Breckenridge yesterday and it perfectly captures the kind of chaos that the new media spotlight is brining to snowboarding:
Okay, okay…listen for all ya’ll who don’t know what snowboarding is, this is my run: I dropped in, did a switch back 7, umm…back 9, front 10, cab 10, front 9. You got it?
And for all ya’ll who do know snowboarding, click the link for the rest of the interview.
Hey, look: Shaun White has won another contest. This time it’s slopestyle at the Breckenridge stop of the Winter Dew Tour.
The 22-year old White scored a 95.17 on his second run, which began with a frontside 270 at the top rail, a frontside 1080 on the first jump to a backside 900. He finished with an impressive 1260, a three and a half revolution spin, on the bottom jump.“I knew I could do it, I just kind of believed in that spin at the end there,” White said. “I didn’t really practice it at all, but for some reason I knew I had it.”
Spencer O’Brien apparently edged Jenny Jones for the women’s slope. All the press release details and full results after the jump. [click to continue…]
We’d really like to say that Christian action sports movies like ONEYear don’t creep us out a little, but they do. Not because we’re God haters, but more because we think religion is private. Listening to people spill their salvation stories on film has always felt a little like listening to our grandmother talk about how much she loves sex.
Apparently, Andy Finch, Kelly Clark, Tommy Czeschin, Matt Hammer, Janna Meyen, and Dave Downing don’t agree. But we’re not here to tell them they are wrong, praise God. Just to tell them we think it’s a little creepy when they share too much.
Despite an avalanche of hype, the game wiped out with critics on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, earning less-than-gnarly respective scores of 63 and 62 out of 100 on Metacritic. GameSpot’s own reviewer was even less kind, giving the two games just 5.0 out of a possible 10. . . . This afternoon the Reuters news service reported the game sold 259,000 copies in the US in the two weeks after its November 16 launch. The figure, which was supplied by Arcadia Research analyst John Taylor, says sales of the game racked up $13.6 million during the month. France-based Ubisoft declined to confirm the sales numbers.
Looks like Ubisoft might still have a ways to go before they recoup the $10 million they spent on advertising in the first weeks of November. The company won’t comment, but it sounds like Shaun is planning on a follow up.
Now that I have the knowledge and I can speak to programmers better and I understand a lot more about what’s possible and what’s not possible, this will all help with the next game,” White explained.
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
Due to heavy snowfall, Winter Dew Tour sport organizers and athletes gathered and agreed to postpone today’s practices and competitions. The call was made to end activity for the day at 1:45 p.m. MT. The events will be rescheduled and the new Friday schedule will be sent later this evening.
Breckenridge is getting plowed. Great news for everyone, bad news for AlliSports. Oddly, this news is not even posted on their own website yet. . . someone needs to wake those VBS.tv guys up and tell them to start producing some content. Damnit!
Anon Optics. Great for snowboarding, even better for shielding eyes from tear gas while attempting to disrupt a government in Greece’s Syntagma Square.
Now where is his photo incentive? (Click photo to enlarge).
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.
