The Knot Inc. posts loss in 4Q

NEW YORK - The Knot Inc. on Thursday posted a loss for its fourth quarter, despite gains in membership and advertising on its wedding-related Web site.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company said it posted a net loss of $981,000, or 3 cents per share, compared with net income of $2.6 million, or 8 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2007. Net loss for the quarter was impacted by a pretax $4.0 million impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of long-lived assets.

Revenue increased 1 percent to $24.4 million, largely from gains in national and local advertising.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average expected the company to earn 3 cents per share on $25 million.

The company also said new membership grew 11 percent in 2008.

But the company — which acquired a breast-feeding Web site and the developer of a wedding application for social networking site Facebook — saw operating expenses jump 51 percent during the quarter.

For the full 2008 fiscal year, The Knot's net income fell to $4.1 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with $11.9 million, or 36 cents per share, in 2007.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $103.9 million for the quarter. The company said the gains were largely from increases in local and national online advertising revenue.

"After a challenging year, we are well-positioned to weather the economic headwinds of 2009," Chief Financial Officer John Mueller said in a statement. "We expect that the coming year could be even more challenging than 2008, but we plan to leverage our diverse businesses to quickly adapt."

Shares of The Knot rose 67 cents, or nearly 10 percent, to close at $7.38 on Thursday before the results were released.

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