March 6, 2008 | Posted By : Tom Millitzer at 2:43 PM PERMALINK | Blog Comments (1)

My Portuguese is rough - But I like UOL

Last week Universo Online S.A. (UOL) acquired the "clients" of web hosting company Digiweb, also of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In November, UOL also acquired the web hosting "clients" of Plug In another Brazilian firm.

The importance: UOL is now the third-largest provider of web-hosting services company in Brazil.

UOL did not mention the "third largest" part after the Plug In acquisition --- letting me believe that Digiweb was a fairly large deal.

I check out UOL - Basically an Internet/media powerhouse. They are vertical, horizontal, diagonal and the karma sutra all rolled into one. You really have to read the corporate bio --- Brazilian portal with 1.4 billion page-views a month, 1.7 million content paying subscribers, 1 million broadband customers…and now the THIRD LARGEST web hosting company in Brazil (Which I may add has a population of 184 million).

They want to collect the tolls on the electronic highway...including all entrances and exits. Someone has to collect.

The UOL financials…some great info…

My favorite part: "The Company had no outstanding loans or financings at the end of the 4Q07". (Same position as Microsoft)
They have a lot of cash - $284 million USD.
2007 EBITDA - $91.8 million USD - a fantastic 29% of net revenues.

The largest shareholder (41%) is the San Palo newspaper owner Folhapar.

UOL stock has dropped some 60% in the past 12 months...but the one thing I know about newspapers, they are long term players with long term visions.