Key3 Reports Wider Loss, Lowers Projections

Key3Media Group Inc., a Los Angeles-based producer of technology trade shows, reported a wider quarterly loss and again lowered its projections for revenue this year. Key3 lost $3.7 million, or 5 cents a diluted share, compared with a deficit of $2.1 million, or 4 cents a diluted share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $51.5 million, from $60.5 million a year earlier.

Excluding depreciation, amortization, interest, taxes and nonrecurring charges, Key3 reported a $7.1-million profit, down from $18.1 million the year before. The results would have been worse had the company’s lucrative Network+Interop show in Paris not been moved this year from the fourth quarter to the third.

For the full year, the firm projected revenue from $250 million to $260 million, which is $25 million less than it was projecting in September. That compares with $286 million in revenue last year.

The earnings report, released after the markets closed Wednesday, came as Key3 was pulling down the curtain on its largest event, the fall Comdex show in Las Vegas. Attendance at Comdex was down dramatically from the previous year, with estimates as low as 100,000--or less than half of last year’s total. Key3Media shares closed at $5.15, up 10 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.