MAMA Manufactures "Profits" - Bambi Loves It !
Late Wednesday, Mamma.com said it earned $1.38 million, or 13 cents per share. Much of that profit reflects the gain on disposal of the asset sale of the company's billing technologies subsidiaries. In the fourth quarter, Mamma.com posted $800,000 in earnings from operations, much of that came from the addition of half a million dollars in "recovery of future income taxes." Mamma, with $11.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, is trading in line or at a discount to other search engines. It could mean that Mamma is cheap or that the entire group -- InfoSpace (INSP: news, chart, profile), Ask Jeeves (ASKJ: news, chart, profile), Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) and LookSmart (LOOK: news, chart, profile) -- is expensive. And, when the paid-search boom ends or evolves into another business, only the ones that can keep up with the competition will deserve that multiple.