Exhibit 99.1
SOHU.COM REPORTS THIRD QUARTER 2020 UNAUDITED FINANCIAL RESULTS
BEIJING, November 16, 2020 –Sohu.com Limited (NASDAQ: SOHU), China’s leading online media, video, search and gaming business group, today reported unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Third Quarter Highlights
As previously announced, on September 29, 2020, the Company’s subsidiary Sogou Inc. (“Sogou”) entered into a definitive Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Sogou Merger Agreement”) with THL A21 Limited, TitanSupernova Limited (“Parent”), and Tencent Mobility Limited, each of which is a direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent, which contemplates that Parent will be merged with and into Sogou in an all-cash transaction (the “Sogou Merger”), and Sogou will become a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Tencent. As also previously announced, on September 29, 2020, the Company entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with Parent (the “Share Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Sohu.com (Search) Limited (“Sohu Search”) agreed to sell all of the Sogou Class A ordinary shares and Sogou Class B ordinary shares owned by it to Parent (the “Share Purchase”), shortly before the effectiveness of the Sogou Merger, at a purchase price of US$9.00 per share, which is equal to the per-share consideration under the Sogou Merger Agreement. In view of the Share Purchase Agreement, the results of operations for Sogou have been excluded from the Company’s results from continuing operations in the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of operations for the third quarter and are presented in separate line items as discontinued operations. Retrospective adjustments to the historical statements have been made in order to provide a consistent basis of comparison. Unless indicated otherwise, results presented in this release are related to continuing operations only.
| • | | Total revenues were US$158 million, down 6% year-over-year and 1% quarter-over-quarter. |
| • | | Brand advertising revenues were US$41 million, down 11% year-over-year and up 8% quarter-over-quarter. |
| • | | Online game revenues were US$101 million, down 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. |
| • | | GAAP net loss from continuing operations attributable to Sohu.com Limited was US$15 million, compared with a net loss of US$33 million in the third quarter of 2019 and a net loss of US$77 million in the second quarter of 2020. |
| • | | Non-GAAP net loss from continuing operations attributable to Sohu.com Limited was US$7 million, compared with a net loss of US$30 million in the third quarter of 2019 and a net loss of US$75 million in the second quarter of 2020. |
Dr. Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu.com Limited, commented, “In the third quarter of 2020, to further consolidate our core competitiveness and credibility, we continued to optimize our products, refine our technology, enhance the quality of premium content, and improve its distribution. At the same time, we kept exploring creative new and differentiated monetization opportunities. Benefiting from our more mature and sophisticated Sohu Video App and its advanced live broadcasting technology, we successfully hosted several innovative content marketing campaigns that could leverage the broad reach of our product portfolio. We saw positive feedback in terms of user interaction and from advertisers. For this quarter, despite the current challenging macroeconomic environment, our brand advertising revenue reached the high end of our prior guidance and achieved 8% quarter-over-quarter growth. Changyou’s online games performed well for the third quarter of 2020, with revenue exceeding the high end of our prior guidance.”
Third Quarter Financial Results
Revenues
Total revenues for the third quarter of 2020 were US$158 million, down 6% year-over-year and 1% quarter-over-quarter.
Brand advertising revenues for the third quarter of 2020 totaled US$41 million, down 11% year-over-year and up 8% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the continuous negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to increased revenues in the portal and video advertising businesses resulting from continuing efforts to boost revenues.
Online game revenues for the third quarter of 2020 were US$101 million, down 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the natural decline in revenue of Legacy TLBB Mobile and TLBB Honor.