Tucows report: the loss of the Namecheap domains decreased revenue

Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC) reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018.

“Our third quarter results again demonstrate how the consistent performance and cash flow generation of our Domains and Ting Mobile businesses are enabling us to invest in the build out of the Ting Internet footprint for our next phase of outsized growth,” said Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucows Inc.

“Gross margin contribution expanded in each of our businesses, with Domains benefiting from normalized margins following the Enom acquisition and Network Access benefiting from Ting Mobile’s lower costs, a larger subscriber base and higher usage per subscriber, as we continue to reposition our offering for renewed growth. Importantly, Ting Internet continues to steadily advance its network builds, grow its number of serviceable addresses, and expand its subscriber base. We now have five fully active towns where we are installing, activating and supporting customers every day.”

Financial Results

Net revenue for the third quarter of 2018 was $83.5 million compared with $85.0 million for the third quarter of 2018, with the decrease due primarily to acceleration of revenue in the first quarter of 2018 related to the bulk transfer of 2.65 million very low margin domain names, which was partially offset by the continued growth of Ting Mobile and a bulk transfer of 0.2 million very low margin domains names in the third quarter of 2018. Excluding the impact of these of bulk transfers, net revenue for the third quarter of 2018 increased 3.5% compared to the third quarter of 2017.
Net income for the third quarter of 2018 increased 55% to $5.3 million, or $0.50 per share from $3.4 million, or $0.33 per share, for the third quarter of 2017.

Adjusted EBITDA¹ for the third quarter of 2018 increased 27% to $11.9 million from $9.4 million for the third quarter of 2017.
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter of 2018 was $10.8 million compared with $11.2 million at the end of the second quarter of 2018 and $12.5 million at the end of the third quarter of 2017.

All figures are in U.S. dollars.