AllThingsD » The Knot

Groupon and the Clone Wars

Tomio Geron — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:55:57 +0000

Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of its local-discount offers, Groupon Inc. now generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, commands a valuation north of $1 billion, and has attracted some $170 million in venture capital–all in less than three years.

But that explosive growth–-Forbes called Groupon the “fastest growing company ever“–-has presented several challenges.

One of them is fending off the many “clones” that have sprung up to copy Groupon, some of which have nearly identical designs and layouts as Groupon’s site. Some legitimate venture-backed start-up contenders have also launched, such as Washington-based LivingSocial Inc., which raised $14 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in April, and New York-based BuyWithMe Inc., which in July raised $16 million in Series B financing led by Bain Capital Ventures. And publicly traded companies such as Travelzoo Inc., OpenTable Inc., and The Knot Inc. are also jumping on the trend.

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The Knot: Susquehanna Upgrades on Improved Local Ad Outlook

Eric Savitz — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:00:41 +0000

The Knot (KNOT) shares are trading higher this morning after Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Malindi Davies upgraded shares of the online wedding site to Positive from Neutral, setting a $9 price target.

“The risk/reward balance for KNOT has improved over the last few months, in our view,” Davies writes in a research note. “We are upgrading based on expectations that the local business should improve given a recent reorganization and platform upgrades. We believe the Macy’s overhang is well understood and see opportunities in registry and China longer term.” Davies notes that she sees “an improved outlook for local advertising.”

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The Knot: Investors File For Divorce

Eric Savitz — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:37:24 +0000

The honeymoon is over for investors in The Knot (KNOT).

The wedding planning site’s shares are down sharply lower following disappointing Q1 results. Revenues for the quarter of $23.7 million were slightly ahead of the consensus at $23.5 million, and down a tad from $23.8 million a year ago. But the company lost 4 cents a share in the quarter, slightly worse than expected. And adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 million was down 52 percent year over year, and well below the Street consensus at $2.8 million. EBITDA margins fell to 6 percent from 11.5 percent a year ago.

Hurting margins in the quarter: an 8.4 percent jump on operating expenses.

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Tying the Hyperlocal Knot

Elizabeth Holmes — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:07:31 +0000

The Knot is launching 75 new localized sites in the hopes of reaching brides-to-be from Tampa to Tucson.

David Liu, CEO of the wedding Web site, said the idea is to provide the “ingredients” that people planning weddings seek out. Brides are best served by content available in their specific location, he said. Likewise, wedding vendors want to advertise in bridal outlets that target a region.

The new sites, which range from the Ozarks to Oahu, Orange County to Orlando, are catalogued under weddings.com. The local sites bring the total number of niche Web sites under the Knot umbrella to 85. Mr. Liu says the company plans to have more than 200 such sites by the end of the year.

Hyperlocal content is increasingly popular with media outlets, especially among news organizations. The New York Times (NYT) recently launched a pair of sites called “The Local” to cover communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Patch, a startup Web company backed by new AOL (TWX) CEO Tim Armstrong, covers community news in a handful of neighborhoods in New Jersey. Topix aggregates content by zip code.

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