Dice Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DHX) operates a variety of sites -- focused on professionals -- such as eFinancialCareers, ClearanceJobs, and JobsintheMoney.com. With the meltdown on Wall Street, the company is definitely feeling the pain.
Despite all this, the company continues to find ways to deal with the environment.
In Q3, Dice saw a 4% increase in revenues to $39.6 million and net income of $6.4 million. In fact, the company has impressive operating cash flow, which increased 22% to $13.1 million. It's certainly been a big help in paring down the debt load.
The key driver of Dice is eFinancialCareers, which is making headway in international markets such as in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. However, there are signs that the financial crisis is spreading around the globe -- crimping growth. In other words, it's a good bet that Dice will see a reduction in new accounts and existing customers (with more problems with smaller recruiters).
But, the good news is that Dice has a highly scalable model; that is, lots of the costs are variable. This makes it easier to remain cash flow positive. And, with the cash, the company is poised to strike some acquisitions at much better valuations nowadays.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market
. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.










