After E.W Scripps' (ticker: SSP) announcement of its intention to purchase comparison shopping company Shopzilla (formerly Bizrate), CEO Ken Lowe and CFO Joe NeCastro hosted a conference call with analysts. Interesting reading, given eBay's (ticker: EBAY) prior announcement to acquire competitor Shopping.com (ticker: SHOP). Extracts:

Shopzilla is just that kind of business, a market-making Internet business, that efficiently brings consumers and merchants together literally right at the point of purchase. It's precisely the kind of interactive media business that we've been searching for; an intermediary, if you will, that edits, organizes and provides useful information, but at the same time taking the consumer much closer to the transaction than does traditional media… What's better, Shopzilla is a fundamentally strong business and one of the Internet's fastest growing marketplaces.

It's not usually a capital intensive business…  however, we would really see more of some international opportunities. And… we have been focusing more on our overall company intention in that area anyway…

...they do a lot of business in home and garden… Soft goods is one of their areas of concentration… so we believe there is a natural connection there.

…home and garden is their number one category.

We've been aggressively moving on to the Internet since 1995 in a lot of ways. We built some pretty powerful brands… with HGTV.com and foodnetworktv.com. We just have been very careful and very deliberate...  I can't tell you how many companies we have looked at…

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

Power Tip: Search
across all our transcripts by typing a phrase like "Apple iPod" or "solar power" in the site's general search box (top right corner).

On the search results page, click "Transcripts" to filter the results to show transcripts only.

Become a Contributor Submit an Article

ETFs In Focus

  • Long Ideas

  • Short Ideas

  • Cramer's Picks