uBid reports 3rd quarter earnings

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uBid.com Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: UBHI) whose uBid, Inc. subsidiary is one of the leading business-to-consumer and business-to-business online marketplaces in the U.S., today announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2006.

Highlights for the third quarter of 2006 include:

    * Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS), a key business metric, were $26.5 million compared to $27.2 million one year ago.(1)
    * Gross Profit was $1.9 million or 13.5% of net revenues versus $3.1 million or 16.7% in the third quarter of fiscal 2005. The inventory reserve recorded during the quarter was $0.8 million or 5.6% of net revenues. Gross profit was 19.1% of net revenues before reserve adjustments to inventory.
    * Net Loss of $2.7 million, although adjusting for $0.8 in inventory reserves, $0.2 in severance costs and $0.2 in non-cash compensation, the net loss would have decreased by 44.4% to $1.5 million, compared to $2.0 million in the second quarter of 2006 and $1.8 million in third quarter of 2005.
    * uBid.com Certified Merchant Program (UCM) grew by 31.3% to 1,716 participating merchants at September 30, 2006 from 1,307 merchants reported at June 30, 2006. This also represents an increase of 328% from 401 participating merchants at the end of the third quarter of 2005.
    * Active Auction Participants totaled 289,000, while the number of Auction Events increased 17.6% to approximately 562,000. Auction Events have more than doubled from the same period in 2005.
    * Customer Registrations totaled approximately 54,000 in the third quarter of 2006 compared to approximately 52,000 in the second quarter of 2006.

Robert H. Tomlinson Jr., CEO of uBid.com Holdings, Inc. commented, “Our third quarter results underscore continued progress in the transformation of uBid.com. We think there has been meaningful progress made to date and now hope to see a move toward profitability in the fourth quarter. To that point, we further streamlined our business over the last three months and focused our attention on the highest margin areas of our business. In addition, we have continued to grow our Certified Merchant program, while integrating the assets of last quarter’s Bidville acquisition. The upshot of these initiatives is underlying momentum in our business thus far in the fourth quarter.”

Recent highlights include:
On July 27, 2006 uBid announced the acquisition of certain auction assets of Bidville, Inc., a Nevada corporation founded in 1999 as an Internet auction alternative to eBay. Bidville, Inc. is well known for its innovative auction site user features, such as Storefronts, Watch Lists, Image Gallery, and fixed price listing options. The purchase price was $746,000.

On August 3, 2006, uBid announced that Paul Traub was elected to the Board of Directors. Mr. Traub is a founding partner of Traub, Bonacquist & Fox, LLP, a New York based law firm, focusing on strategic asset acquisitions and disposition, insolvency and corporate restructuring, distressed financings, and litigation. In September 2006, the “Traub Group” joined Dreier LLP, a New York full service law firm. In addition, Mr. Traub is an advisor to Petters Group Worldwide, LLC, a principal shareholder of uBid.com.

On August 24, 2006 uBid announced an affiliation with NetBank, Inc. whereby uBid.com customers will qualify for financial incentives upon opening and funding accounts. The affiliation allows uBid.com to bring a broader suite of services to enhance the customer experience. 

full earnings release: http://www.ubid.com/about/Press_room/press57.asp