The online service Slack has already been counted among the possible winners of the coronavirus crisis because company employees work more on the Internet. The reaction on the stock exchange was all the harder when the hopes in the latest quarterly report did not materialize.
San Francisco (dpa) - The office chat service Slack disappointed investors so much with its forecast for the upcoming business that the company temporarily lost around a fifth of its value. The stock plunged 19.34 percent in after-hours trading in the US.
Slack had exceeded the analysts' estimates with the figures for the past business quarter ended at the end of January, but failed to meet expectations with its sales forecast for the current quarter.
Slack was already seen among the potential beneficiaries of the coronavirus crisis, since companies let more employees work from home and do without business trips. Among other things, video conference services such as Zoom are experiencing a surge in demand. However, Zoom also had to concede lastly that it was uncertain how far this would bring permanently paying customers.
In its fourth business quarter, Slack increased sales 49 percent year over year to nearly $ 182 million. The company now has 70 customers who spend more than $ 1 million a year, with 893 more than $ 100,000. Slack is free in a basic version with limited functions. Annual sales reached $ 630.4 million, an increase of 57 percent.
For the current quarter, Slack anticipates sales of between $ 185 million and $ 188 million, an increase of 37 to 39 percent. Analysts had expected more than $ 188 million. For the full fiscal year, Slack expects sales to grow by up to 37 percent to up to $ 862 million.
At $ 89 million in the quarter just ended, the loss was more than double the previous year. For the full year, the balance sheet was $ 571 million in the red, compared to a loss of $ 140.7 million the year before.
Slack stock started trading in June last year at over $ 38. In after-hours trading on Thursday, the price dropped to $ 17.22.