In what company president Chris MacAskill called "a pivotal point in our strategic evolution," Fatbrain.com saw online sales jump 183% for the third quarter ended October 31 to $8.3 million; sales through Fatbrain's retail and other channels fell 26% to $1.7 million, resulting in an overall company revenue gain of 91% to $10 million. The company's net loss increased to $9.1 million from $2.9 million. Fatbrain added more than 50,000 new onlline customers in the quarter; its customer base is now more than 188,000.
The major new initiative in the quarter was the launch of eMatter, Fatbrain's digital publishing platform (News, Sept. 6). Through the end of the third quarter, 19 publishers, including Nolo.com, Macmillan USA and McGraw-Hill Professional Book Clubs, agreed to provide content for purchase over the eMatter platform. In addition, 5400 writers signed on to self-publish eMatter material.
To help lead eMatter's growth, Fatbrain named Judy Kirkpatrick v-p and general manager of the unit. She had been director of marketing at Adobe Systems. Additional appointments include Ina Gottinger to the post of senior director of market development and Umberto Tosi as managing editor. Gottinger, previously director of online marketing and business development at Simon & Schuster, will be responsible for eMatter content acquisition and marketing, while Tosi, an editor and author of books and articles, will head the eMatter editorial team.
For the nine-month period, online sales rose 157% to $18.5 million, with total revenues ahead 63% to $23.5 million; retail sales fell to $5 million from $7.3 million. The net loss in the period increased to $20.3 million from $6.5 million in the first nine months of fiscal 1999.
