What’s Mamma.com?
That’s one of the first questions coming up in today’s news, reported by the WSJ’s Kara Scannell, that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban faces insider-trading charges related to the site.
Mamma.com is a Canadian search engine that merged with Copernic Technologies, which also offers search software and online advertising services, in December 2005. It now trades under Copernic’s ticker, CNIC.
It received 669,000 unique visits in September, down 66% from the 2 million it got a year earlier, according to comScore.
Like many tech companies of late, Copernic has been streamlining operations in the weak economy. Last week it said it would close its Montreal office and that its marketing VP wouldn’t be staying on past the end of the year.
Its third-quarter loss narrowed to $621,677 from $974,716 a year ago, though its revenue shrank 10% to $1.7 million over the same period.
Mr. Cuban has mentioned Mamma.com as far back as 2004, when he blogged about investing in it despite its obscurity.
“I invested in mamma.com for the same reason I invested in Netidentity.com back when it was known as mailbank.com. I love businesses with low overhead, that don’t need to be technology leaders to succeed, that generate cash that they can put in the bank, and at some point, hopefully payout to shareholders. I think mamma.com has that potential,” he wrote. “It’s not Google or Yahoo, nor will it be a top 5 search engine anytime soon. But it is a good metasearch tool that I use and have used. Google and Yahoo have become carbon copies of each other, and for me, other than usenet and news searches, it’s too big. I like the way Mamma.com organizes websearches, and I use it for picture searches.”
A year later, he wrote that he’d changed his mind because of financing concerns: “Im glad I sold my
stock.”
- Andrew LaVallee
