Dice Holdings, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013 Results

• Revenues increased 11% to $58.4 million in the fourth quarter
• Cash flows from operations totaled $7.9 million and $48.6 million for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2013
• The Company expanded into online recruiting in the healthcare and hospitality industries during the quarter
• Dice's Open Web™, a social recruiting product, launched out of beta as a paid service

NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Dice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DHX), a leading provider of specialized websites for professional communities, today reported financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2013.

Revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 totaled $58.4 million, an increase of 11% from $52.7 million in the comparable quarter of 2012 due primarily to revenues from businesses acquired within the past year.  Recruitment activity improved in financial services in Europe and Asia, while activity was fairly consistent in technology and energy.  OnTargetjobs®, acquired in November 2013, and The IT Job Board®, acquired in July 2013, contributed revenues of $4.5 million and $2.1 million, respectively, in the fourth quarter.

On December 1, 2013, the Company's social recruiting product, Open Web, launched as an additional paid service, sold either as part of Dice's recruiting package or as a stand-alone product accessible through Dice.com.  Open Web combines publicly available information from about 50 social and professional networks to create an all-in-one candidate profile and a more efficient way to connect with candidates. 

Operating expenses for the fourth quarter totaled approximately $64.0 million, including $11.8 million for the onTargetjobs and The IT Job Board acquisitions and a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $15.0 million related to the goodwill and intangible assets of Slashdot Media and Health Callings.  See "Recent Developments" for additional detail.

The Company's net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 totaled approximately $5.9 million, resulting in diluted loss per share of $0.11.

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $7.9 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013, as compared to $10.1 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2012.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 totaled $19.2 million or 33% of revenues.  This amount includes a contribution of $1.3 million from the onTargetjobs acquisition, offset by $2.2 million of acquisition related expenses.  See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

Operating Segment Results

The Company's operating segments have been recast primarily to reflect the Company's expansion into healthcare and hospitality online recruiting.  A financial supplement, including a recast of comparative periods to reflect the changes in reporting segments, has been provided on www.diceholdingsinc.com.  

Key changes:

• Tech & Clearance now includes Dice.com, ClearanceJobs, and The IT Job Board;
• Healthcare, a new segment, includes HEALTHeCAREERS and BioSpace from the onTargetjobs acquisition, as well as Health Callings, which was previously in the Other segment;
• Hospitality, a new segment, includes Hcareers from the onTargetjobs acquisition; and
• Corporate & Other includes Slashdot Media, WorkDigital and corporate-related expenses. 

For the quarter ended December 31, 2013, Tech & Clearance segment revenues increased 4% year-over-year to $33.9 million, or 58% of Dice Holdings' consolidated revenues.  The acquisition of The IT Job Board added $2.1 million to Tech & Clearance revenues in the fourth quarter, while revenues from Dice and ClearanceJobs declined 2% and 9% year-over-year, respectively. 

Finance segment revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013 decreased 1% year-over-year and increased 6% from the prior quarter to $9.1 million. Recruitment activity in financial services increased in the quarter, particularly in Continental Europe and in small-to-mid sized staffing agencies in the UK.  

The Energy segment grew 9% year-over-year to contribute $6.0 million in revenues in the quarter ended December 31, 2013, accounting for 10% of consolidated revenues, driven by double-digit revenue increases in career center and data services businesses.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2013, the Healthcare segment and the Hospitality segment contributed $3.7 million and $1.4 million of Dice Holdings' consolidated revenues, respectively. 

Corporate & Other segment revenues decreased 9% year-over-year to $4.3 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 from the comparable 2012 period, due primarily to the financial results at Slashdot Media.

Full Year Operating Results

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013 increased 9% to $213.5 million, as compared to $195.4 million in 2012.  The increase was primarily driven by businesses acquired during the last year and strong growth at Rigzone. 

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2013 was $16.2 million, including a pre-tax non-cash impairment charge of $15.0 million related to the goodwill and intangible assets at Slashdot Media and Health Callings.  See "Recent Developments" for additional detail.  Net income for the year ended December 31, 2012 was $38.1 million.  For the year ended December 31, 2013, diluted earnings per share were $0.27 per share.

For the year ended December 31, 2013, net cash provided by operating activities totaled $48.6 million, compared to $54.7 million in 2012.  Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2013 was $72.6 million or 34% of Revenues.  This amount includes a contribution of $1.3 million from the onTargetjobs acquisition, offset by $2.2 million of acquisition related expenses.  In 2012, Adjusted EBITDA was $77.4 million or 40% of Revenues. See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

Balance Sheet

Deferred revenue at December 31, 2013 was $77.4 million compared to $69.4 million at December 31, 2012 and at September 30, 2013.  The $8.0 million or 12% sequential increase was primarily driven by $6.4 million recorded at onTargetjobs and an increase in our Dice.com service.  

Net Debt, defined as total debt less cash and cash equivalents and investments, was $79.6 million at December 31, 2013, consisting of total debt of $119.0 million minus cash and cash equivalents of $39.4 million.  This compares to Net Debt of $15.3 million at September 30, 2013, consisting of total debt of $60.0 million minus cash and cash equivalents and investments of $44.7 million.  The increase in debt was primarily driven by the acquisition of onTargetjobs.

In November 2013, the Company purchased the outstanding shares of onTargetjobs for $46.3 million, net of cash acquired. 

During the fourth quarter of 2013, the Company purchased 2.6 million shares of its common stock on the open market pursuant to its stock repurchase plan at an average cost of $7.84 per share, for a total cost of approximately $20.5 million.  During the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company purchased 6.6 million shares of its common stock on the open market pursuant to its stock repurchase plans at an average cost of $8.45 per share, for a total cost of approximately $55.4 million.

In December 2013, the Company's Board of Directors authorized the purchase of up to $50 million of its common stock pursuant to a stock repurchase plan that is in effect for one year.  Under the plan, management has discretion in determining the conditions under which shares may be purchased from time to time.  Repurchases will be made in accordance with applicable securities laws in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. Depending on acquisition opportunities, market conditions and other factors, these repurchases may commence or cease from time to time without prior notice.

Recent Developments

Slashdot Media was acquired to provide content and services that are important to technology professionals in their everyday work lives and to leverage that reach into the global technology community benefiting user engagement on the Dice.com site.  The expected benefits have started to be realized at Dice.com.  However, advertising revenue has declined over the past year and there is no improvement expected in the future financial performance of Slashdot Media's underlying advertising business.  Therefore, $7.2 million of intangible assets and $6.3 million of goodwill related to Slashdot Media were reduced to zero. 

In November 2013, the Company determined that Health Callings will be merged into HEALTHeCAREERS™ with the expectation that the combination will create a stronger and more complete service for healthcare professionals, as well as employers and recruiters.   Therefore, goodwill related to Health Callings was reduced from $1.4 million to zero.

Management Comments

"It's good to see a healthier recruiting environment in Europe, which both our financial services and technology brands can capitalize on," said Michael Durney, President and CEO.  "In the fourth quarter, we've taken several considerable internal and strategic actions to shift to higher long-term growth, including reorganizing our Dice sales teams, extending our market opportunity into healthcare and hospitality, and launching Open Web as a paid service.  In 2014, we will be investing in Dice product development and sales, as well as additional products built around our Open Web technology.  The focus of those investments is on expanding our relevance to professionals throughout their careers and on delivering talent efficiently to hiring managers and recruiters."

"In the fourth quarter, we delivered better revenue and profitability than we thought we would in October, particularly from improvement in our finance segment," said John Roberts, CFO.  "In 2014, our growth investments will slightly impact our industry leading profitability.  Our financial model is flexible allowing us to invest, return cash to shareholders and make acquisitions in pursuit of our strategic plan."

Business Outlook

The Company is providing a current, point-in-time view of estimated financial performance based on what it sees as of February 4, 2014 for the quarter ending March 31, 2014 and the year ending December 31, 2014.  The Company's actual performance will vary based on a number of factors including those that are outlined in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 in the sections entitled "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." In addition, for a description of Adjusted EBITDA as used below, see "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

Conference Call Information

The Company will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year 2013 results today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.  Hosting the call will be Michael P. Durney, President and Chief Executive Officer and John J. Roberts, Chief Financial Officer.

The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 866-515-2909 or for international callers by dialing 617-399-5123; the passcode is 23539138. A replay will be available two hours after the call and can be accessed by dialing 888-286-8010 or 617-801-6888 for international callers; the replay passcode is 71837798. The replay will be available until February 11, 2014. 

The call will also be webcast live from the Company's website at www.diceholdingsinc.com under the Investor Relations section.

Upcoming Investor Conference

On Monday, February 10, 2014, Mr. Durney and Mr. Roberts will participate at the Stifel Technology, Internet & Media Conference 2014 to be held in San Francisco.  The fireside chat will be held at 2:45 PM Pacific time/5:45 PM Eastern time and will be webcast live from the Company's website.

Investor & Media Contact:

Jennifer Bewley
Vice-President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Dice Holdings, Inc.
212-448-4181
IR@dice.com

About Dice Holdings, Inc.

Dice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) is a leading provider of specialized websites for professional communities, including technology and engineering, financial services, energy, healthcare, hospitality and security clearance. Our mission is to help our customers source and hire the most qualified professionals in select and highly skilled occupations, and to help those professionals find the best job opportunities in their respective fields and further their careers. For more than 20 years, we have built our company by providing our customers with quick and easy access to high-quality, unique professional communities and offering those communities access to highly relevant career opportunities and information. Today, we serve multiple markets primarily in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has provided certain non-GAAP financial information as additional information for its operating results.  These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures reported by other companies.  The Company believes that its presentation of non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash stock based compensation expense, and other non-recurring income or expense ("Adjusted EBITDA"), free cash flow, net cash and net debt, provides useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations.  In addition, the Company's management uses these measures for reviewing the financial results of the Company and for budgeting and planning purposes.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is a metric used by management to measure operating performance.  Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure for internal monitoring and planning, including preparation of annual budgets, analyzing investment decisions and evaluating profitability and performance comparisons between us and our competitors.  The Company also uses this measure to calculate amounts of performance based compensation under the senior management incentive bonus program.  Adjusted EBITDA, as defined in our Credit Agreement, represents net income plus (to the extent deducted in calculating such net income interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock option expenses, losses resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business, certain writeoffs in connection with indebtedness, impairment charges with respect to long-lived assets, expenses incurred in connection with an equity offering, extraordinary or non-recurring non-cash expenses or losses, transaction costs in connection with the Credit Agreement up to $250,000, deferred revenues written off in connection with acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, writeoff of non-cash stock compensation expense, and business interruption insurance proceeds, minus (to the extent included in calculating such net income) non-cash income or gains, interest income, and any income or gain resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business. 

We consider Adjusted EBITDA, as defined above, to be an important indicator to investors because it provides information related to our ability to provide cash flows to meet future debt service, capital expenditures and working capital requirements and to fund future growth as well as to monitor compliance with financial covenants.  We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental performance measure because we believe that this measure provides our board of directors, management and investors with additional information to measure our performance, provide comparisons from period to period and company to company by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense) and tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), and to estimate our value. 

We present Adjusted EBITDA because covenants in our Credit Agreement contain ratios based on this measure.  Our Credit Agreement is material to us because it is one of our primary sources of liquidity.  If our Adjusted EBITDA were to decline below certain levels, covenants in our Credit Agreement that are based on Adjusted EBITDA may be violated and could cause a default and acceleration of payment obligations under our Credit Agreement.

Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our profitability or liquidity.

Adjusted Revenues

Adjusted Revenues is a metric used by management to measure operating performance.  Adjusted Revenues, represents Revenues plus the fair value adjustment to deferred revenue related to purchase accounting of acquisitions. 

Free Cash Flow

We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities minus capital expenditures. We believe free cash flow is an important non-GAAP measure as it provides useful cash flow information regarding our ability to service, incur or pay down indebtedness or repurchase our common stock.  We use free cash flow as a measure to reflect cash available to service our debt as well as to fund our expenditures.  A limitation of using free cash flow versus the GAAP measure of net cash provided by operating activities is that free cash flow does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance from operations for the period since it includes cash used for capital expenditures during the period and is adjusted for acquisition related payments within operating cash flows.

Net Cash/Net Debt

Net Cash is defined as cash and cash equivalents and investments less total debt. Net Debt is defined as total debt less cash and cash equivalents and investments. We consider Net Cash and Net Debt to be important measures of liquidity and indicators of our ability to meet ongoing obligations.  We also use Net Cash and Net Debt, among other measures, in evaluating our choices for capital deployment.  Net Cash and Net Debt presented herein are non-GAAP measures and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contains forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include information without limitation concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of our business strategy. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions.  These statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our experience in the industry as well as our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.  These factors include, but are not limited to, competition from existing and future competitors in the highly competitive market in which we operate, failure to adapt our business model to keep pace with rapid changes in the recruiting and career services business, failure to maintain and develop our reputation and brand recognition, failure to increase or maintain the number of customers who purchase recruitment packages, cyclicality or downturns in the economy or industries we serve, failure to attract qualified professionals to our websites or grow the number of qualified professionals who use our websites, failure to successfully identify or integrate acquisitions, U.S. and foreign government regulation of the Internet and taxation, our ability to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility or refinance our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations under such indebtedness.  These factors and others are discussed in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website at www.diceholdingsinc.com, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012, under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."

You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by the Company or its representatives herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible to predict these events or how they may affect us. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by federal securities laws.

Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations

On the pages that follow, the Company has provided certain supplemental information that we believe will assist the reader in assessing our business operations and performance, including certain non-GAAP financial information and required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure.  A statement of operations and statement of cash flows for the quarters and years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 and a balance sheet as of December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 are provided elsewhere in this press release.  Supplemental schedules provided include:

Quarterly Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation

A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA for the quarters and years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 is provided.  This information provides the reader with the information we believe is necessary to analyze the Company.

Non-GAAP and Quarterly Supplemental Data

On this schedule, the Company provides certain non-GAAP information as of and for the quarters and years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 that we believe is useful to understanding the business operations of the Company.

SOURCE Dice Holdings, Inc.