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Bill Rice is the CEO of Kaleidico, a leader in lead management systems. Prior to founding Kaleidico he was the VP of National Home Equity and the Home Loan Benefit program at Quicken Loans and one of the founding executives of DeepGreen Bank, an Internet-only bank that was one of the first and (at that time) largest buyers of LendingTree leads in early 2000.

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Bankrate misses estimates, but remains bullish

February 6th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Bankrate, like most of the Internet advertising market with mortgage market exposure, has missed quarterly earnings estimates. I think the key trend line that needs to be watched is reflected in this statement from Bankrate’s CEO, Thomas Evans:

“It was an unusual quarter in that we had two record months followed by a soft December, when several display advertisers cancelled booked business in that month as a result of anxiety in the mortgage and financial sectors,” said Thomas Evans, president and CEO at Bankrate, in a prepared statement. “However, January’s activity generated record traffic and click volume and 2008 is off to a great start.”

Are these company’s glossing over the real concern? Sure traffic and click volume volume is up. Rates are returning to historic lows and the Federal government is helping with several unique mortgage rescue programs, but is there anyone out there to buy the advertising space or the leads?

Another indicator that potentially the mortgage lead supply is heavily over-weighting the the demand, which could be indicative of continued softening of prices and revenue.

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