EARNINGS SEASON:
CATCH THE FEVER!

Musicland Stores Corporation, the parent company of Sam Goody, On Cue, Media Play and Suncoast Motion Pictures, delivered its third quarter earnings today (10/19), and golly were they exciting. Store earnings were up $.02 per share over last year, at $.07. But e-commerce's loss of $.07 per share for the quarter dragged the overall earnings back down to zero. Reading the lengthy report had the same effect on us.

The same quarter last year saw e-commerce losses of $.03 per share and consolidated net earnings—e-commerce and stores combined—at $.02 per share. Year-to-date Musicland's sales are at $1.21 billion, up slightly from the previous year.

Chairman/CEO Jack W. Eugster said: "I am pleased that we continued the earnings growth momentum of our store operations in the face of lower than expected sales due to the quarter's weak new music release schedule. Isn't there some way that I can blame Napster?"

The company's stock closed at $6.69, down $.31 for the day.

MP3.com—you may know it from such lawsuits as "RIAA v. MP3.com" or one of the many sequels such as "Universal v. MP3.com" or "TVT v. MP3.com—delivered its earnings today and it beat analyst's expectations. The embattled company said its pro forma net loss, excluding "special items" (i.e. the cost of litigation) was $6.1 million, or $.09 per share. In the same quarter last year the company lost $17.8 million, or $.30 a share. Revenue, at $20.5 million rose slightly over the second quarter, but quadruples last year's 3Q total of $4.1 million.

No word if there will be a 3Q for the company in 2001.

MP3.com closed at $4.62, up $.63.