Ouch! Shares of China.com parent CDC (NASDAQ:CHINA) traded as much as 18% lower this morning after the company posted a loss in its latest quarter, withdrawing its full-year guidance along the way.
The actual financials weren't that bad. Healthy gains in enterprise software found revenue climbing 35% higher to hit $103.9 million. Yes, CDC posted a loss for the period, but it's an adjusted profit of $0.08 per share once you back out acquisition, restructuring, and investment related charges. Analysts were looking for CDC to earn $0.09 per share on $98.5 million in revenue. The real killjoy here is axing its guidance as a result of divisional uncertainty, as well as potential spin-off and dividend policy implementations.
Don't let the ticker symbol or the China.com ownership fool you. CDC's biggest gains are still coming from its enterprise software lines, now accounting for a fat 85% slice of the revenue mix pie.
The China.com portal is growing briskly, and that should continue, given the company's recently enhanced partnership with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). But at $3 million in revenue this past quarter, it's still just 3% of the CDC picture.
The only weakness is in the company's mobile entertainment business, but that's no surprise. Stand-alone players in wireless valued-added services like TOM Online and KongZhong (NASDAQ:KONG) have been in a funk under tighter regulatory and mobile carrier control.
CDC's online games are growing, but no one is going to confuse the company with market leaders Shanda Interactive (NASDAQ:SNDA), NetEase.com (NASDAQ:NTES), and The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY). CDC may claim to have rolled out the first major "free-to-play, pay-for-merchandise" game, but Shanda is the company that has taken that Come-Stay-Pay model and really run with it lately.
Add it up, and this morning's markdown is making CDC an intriguing play for vulture investors to pick at both China and the enterprise software sector. The next few quarters may not be pretty. New game launches are proving costly, and a recovery in mobile services seems to be nowhere in sight. Until we get more details on the company's potential carve-outs and payouts, it's hard to gauge the value of those waiting room catalysts.
Still, for a company like CDC where different subsidiaries are growing at different paces, it's easy to fathom the company's individual pieces being worth more than the sum of its parts. So keep watching for falling prices and news that may make this a more obvious buying opportunity.
Other things shaking up in China:
