• by Ross Fadner , November 1, 2004

One day after ad-serving giant DoubleClick formally announced it was exploring strategic options-- including selling all or part of its properties--FindWhat.com, a global pay-per-click ad-serving network, delivered record revenues of $58.3 million for the third quarter ending Sept. 30.

"This was truly a historic quarter for FindWhat.com," said Craig Pisaris-Henderson, FindWhat chairman and chief executive officer. "In Q3 2004, we achieved record revenue and earnings, meeting and in some areas, greatly exceeding our expectations."

The Fort Myers, Fla.-based company's third-quarter revenues increased a mammoth 227 percent over the third quarter 2003, when it earned $17.8 million. FindWhat's third-quarter tally was within the company's previously announced guidance of between $55 and $60 million, and represents 20 consecutive quarters of revenue growth.

FindWhat's net income for the quarter was $4.8 million--an increase of 72 percent over the $2.8 million it earned in the third quarter of 2003. Cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30 were approximately $46.2 million.

For the first nine months of 2004, FindWhat.com's revenues total $110.7 million, an increase of 116 percent from $51.2 million for the same period in 2003. The company's net income for the first nine months of the year was $12.3 million; full year 2004 revenue is expected to be between $168.8 and $175.8 million.

The tremendous increase in revenue can be attributed to the company's completion of its merger with Espotting Media Inc., a large European paid listings provider. FindWhat.com also acquired three other businesses in the first nine months of 2004: Miva, an ecommerce services provider for small to medium-sized businesses, on Jan. 1; Comet Systems, a marketing technologies firm, on March 22; and B&B Enterprises on June 4. The company's 2004 third-quarter results include the operations of each of these companies.

FindWhat.com, which serves sponsored listings for several small to medium-sized businesses, completed 224 million paid click-throughs in the third quarter--an increase of 5 million over the second quarter 2004. It completed paying transactions with 70,000 different companies during the quarter.

FindWhat.com is the first major sponsored listings provider to sell Ingenio's pay-per-call advertising platform, in which advertisers pay only for received phone calls that are the direct result of a consumer clicking on the advertiser's sponsored listing.