Revenues from online marketplace services increased 33% to $14.8 million from $11.1 million in last year’s first quarter.
The net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2001 was $2.1 million, or $0.08 per share, versus a loss of $4.6 million, or $0.18 per share, in the prior year period. Income from operations excluding non-cash compensation, depreciation and amortization for the first quarter of fiscal 2001 was positive $900,000.
Chairman and CEO Merle Hinrichs stated, There is no question that recent economic conditions have been difficult for our entire industry. Many of our customers have reduced or delayed marketing and IT expenditures. I am pleased with the tenacity of our management team in quickly adapting to reduce our cost structure. We have taken decisive action to control expenses. Compared to the previous quarter ended December 31, 2000, we reduced cash operating expenses by more than $1.9 million.
However, the strength of Global Sources goes much deeper than our ability to react to short-term downturns. Our fundamental strength is the management expertise and customer relationships that we have established over three decades of service to the global trade community. Although we have had to temporarily scale back our growth plans, we are well positioned in the marketplace, and have been successfully transitioning our customer base to our e-commerce services and online marketplace. In the words of Graham Day-Myron, the president of Zetag Corporation, ‘Suppliers not on it are missing business, end of story.’ Zetag is just one of the more than 226,000 merchandise buyers that rely on Global Sources.
Going forward, we will be introducing enhanced transaction, messaging and cataloging software for buyers and suppliers, suitable for public and private environments. These solutions will leverage our supplier enablement and content management capabilities and represent an exciting opportunity for new revenue streams.
In today’s business environment, customers demand results and will choose the most trusted and proven vendors. A key measure of the value we provide is the number of requests-for-information, or RFIs that we facilitate. I am pleased to report that RFIs from buyers to suppliers through Global Sources Online reached a record of 775,711 in the first quarter of 2001, a 35% increase from 575,470 in the same period last year. In addition, our independently audited buyer community reached 226,361 in over 230 countries and territories as of April 1, 2001.
Commenting on the first quarter results, CFO Eddie Heng pointed out a number of factors that should be considered in analyzing the company’s year-over-year expense comparisons. In the prior year, Global Sources was still a private company, and therefore did not bear the public company overhead costs that are included in the current quarter. In addition, Global Sources is now investing more than $3 million per quarter to develop its e-commerce services. These software development costs are being expensed in the current quarter, whereas in the prior year, the majority of such costs were capitalized. The result is that this year’s quarter contains current software development expense plus the amortization costs of prior software development, whereas last year’s quarter contains neither of these charges. These are significant factors that affect the expense comparison.
With respect to future guidance, we still expect to achieve our previously stated revenue target range for the full year of $100 to $110 million.
