Sales Up, Losses Down at Audible
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 3/31/2003
Audible Inc. finished 2002 with a net loss of $17.2 million, down from a loss of $26.7 million in 2001. Total revenue rose 36.2%, to $12.4 million. The revenue increase was driven by a 113% increase in sales in its content subscription segment, to $10.9 million. The number of subscribers to the service topped 205,000 at the end of 2002, a gain of 67%.
Audible reduced its operating expenses by $6.7 million in the year and cut costs by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. The better management of its costs means that the company will not need to raise additional capital until the second half of 2003: it was originally expected that new funding would be needed during this year's first quarter. Audible ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $2.8 million, down from $7.6 million at the end of 2001.
