YTB’s Quarterly financial report came out on Friday. During this years Convention, Scott Tomer announced a Q2 profit on earnings before income taxes. He was correct, as YTB did post a $1.2 million net income from continuing operations. What he may or may not have known until after the Convention however was a $2.6 million in contract termination costs for the disposal of REZconnect, which resulted in a “discontinued operations” line item resulting in a loss of $2.8 million total dropping the $1.2 million profit into a $1.5 million loss overall for the quarter. The current portion of the $2.6 million liability balance is $608,000 and is required to be shown in our SEC filing based on future commitments.

REZconnect has been somewhat of a sore spot in years past. Micheal Brent had been selling off shares like it was candy. Rumors surrounding the subsidiary also pointed to a net loss in revenue for the entire company for years. This was the first time the subsidiary had been broken out to show it’s contribution. REZconnect operations reported net revenues of $869,000 and a loss from operations of $463,000. The Board of Directors made a strategic decision about the REZconnect business model, which they stated was serving primarily brick and mortar travel agencies, and felt it was not compatible with YTB’s current and future plans.

“As a result, the Company expects to realize cash savings of $2.4 million over the next 5.5 years based upon the cash payments to be made under the employment severance agreement versus the cash payments that would have been required under the original employment contracts.  Thus, while the Company has recognized significant expenses in the current period, the cash savings in the coming 5.5 years will serve to contribute a significant savings in terms of liquidity, helping to strengthen the Company’s position.”

In this current economic climate companies need to cut dead wood. While I have not seen, nor do I really care to see what others will be saying about YTB’s financial condition, I’m willing to bet you that they’ll be pointing to the huge loss in revenue over the last year do to the pyramid crumbling. While they will most certainly be pointing YTB’s “business model” as the cause of the loss in revenue, you should take a look at other company revenues to compare what they’re doing in this current economic climate. Royal Caribbean’s revenue (and profit margins) have declined significantly, resulting from large profits plummeting to significant losses over the last four quarters.

People are not spending in this current economic climate. Period.

It should be noted that the hemorrhaging of our RTA’s has slowed significantly in part due to the California settlement. While there was an enormous amount of speculation over California winning it’s argument of a gigantic pyramid scheme and successfully shutting the company down, the truth (as always) finally came to light. In addition, the “ungainly monster of 39 pages and 133 paragraphs” that was submitted as a class action law suit was also thrown out by the courts. Current RTA’s are just now starting to realize what I’ve known all along.

If you’d like to read my analysis of what our critics actually know about MLM and YTB in general, I invite you to read my e-book entitled “What the Critics Know About YTB“.

To further illustrate my point, I did take note of a couple of things in the notes section that critics were speculating (as they always do) about YTB’s financial condition and what the company would and would not be able to do.

Once Scott mentioned “profits from continued operations” our second payment for the California settlement was brought up. Some wondered if we happened to skip that payment in order to show profits. It should be pointed out that it was in fact paid and half of the settlement money is behind the company. Payment of $250,000 was paid as scheduled before the June 30 quarter ending.

In March, YTB’s credit card processor increased it’s reserve requirements, resulting in a $2.7 million balance to be held in reserve. While it was speculated that YTB would not be able to acquire the funds necessary to obtain the balance, that request was also achieved during this quarter. This too is now behind the company.

One of the funniest twists found in the financial statement that I doubt you will find anywhere but here is the saga of the proposed Conference Center that was envisioned by YTB to be built on land the company currently owns. Back in November, YTB sold a 9.9 acre out parcel of the 59 acres it owns to an undisclosed buyer. In late July, we found out through the media and the blogs that the buyer plans to build a Holiday Inn Express and a Country Kitchen gas station on the land that has been purchased. When news came out that the Wood River City Council voted to approve a funding agreement with Aventurs Development LLC. nobody bothered to check if the land in question had in fact been paid for.

“In addition to other consideration, the Company received a $500,000 promissory note dated November 24, 2008 as proceeds for the sale of land situated in Madison County, Illinois, which was non-interest bearing so long as there was no event of default thereunder.  Principal and other amounts under the note, collateralized by the related land sold, was due and payable on March 24, 2009.  On April 22, 2009, the Company sent a notice of default under the promissory note and mortgage to the purchaser because the purchaser failed to satisfy all obligations under the note within 120 days.  The notice required the purchaser to cure such non-payment within five business days of receipt of the notice, as required by the mortgage.  On May 6, 2009, the Company filed a complaint for foreclosure in Madison County, Illinois Circuit Court under the terms of the promissory note and mortgage because the purchaser failed to cure the non-payment within the required five business days.  On June 2, 2009, a notice of foreclosure was recorded against the land.”

Of course, like everything else that backfires on our critics for drawing conclusions based on what he reads and hears on the internet without checking actual facts, mums going to be the word on this. Instead, they’ll continue to focus on yours truly and the gross error I made when I didn’t check my source. As I’ve learned over the weekend, thanks to many comments, e-mails, and phone calls, it’s much better to surrender defeat in cases such as this in order to move on and get back on track.

Lastly, it should be noted that the company has made significant advances in curbing it’s spending and keeping an eye on the bottom line. Those of us who were at this years Convention saw evidence of that. With the current details listed in the notes section of the quarterly report just filed, we see more documentation of YTB doing what it needs to do in order to survive. Many of the hard choices made in prior months have proven to be significant, and while time will tell if the elimination of REZconnect will help YTB’s bottom line, the future looks to be significantly better than a single number found at the bottom our financial report.

A major key in YTB’s survival and prominence in the industry is educating those who may be looking for opportunities as the country starts to come out of the current economic condition. With YTB’s new tools and upgrades just announced at Convention, it may prove to be significant in showing the company’s strength instead of weakness.

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Tags: Board of Directors, REZConnect, SEC, YTB International, YTBLA

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Board of Directors, Bob Van Patten, SEC, Scott Tomer, YTB, YTB Illinois Class Action, YTB Lawsuit, YTB Marketing, YTB News, YTB Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.