Forget turning a profit, Helio needs to figure out how to stop bleeding cash (much like Sprint). On the upside, Helio’s fiscal 2007 revenues were $171 million, up from $46 million in 2006. But, what good is taking in more money when you’re burning greenbacks at a significantly faster rate?
Not much.
Helio posted a loss of $326 million in 2007, compared to $192 million in 2006. Albeit, Helio did increase their advertising out-go, but with $47.5 million advertising dollars in 2007, their advertising costs only increased about $25 million (from $21.6 million in 2006). In fact, Helio’s losing money so fast that once-parent Earthlink had to relinquish control of the MVNO venture to SK Telecom, the other parent company that helped start Helio.
Can Helio last? Time will tell. But, if history is any sort of predictor, MVNOs aren’t going to fare too well.
We can’t imagine Helio has more than another year and half to prove themselves (or run out of funding).
[Via: RCRNews]