Shares of Irvine-based Local.com Corp., which runs online search engines for finding local businesses, plunged Friday after the company warned of lower fourth-quarter profits and sales.
Local.com’s shares closed down 25% on Friday on a market value of $86 million.
The company said it is seeing less revenue with a move by Yahoo Inc. to use Microsoft Corp.’s Bing as the basis of its search software.
Yahoo started using Bing for searches late last year.
The switch resulted in a “(revenue per click) reduction,” for Local.com, Chief Executive Heath Clarke said.
Local.com said it now expects an adjusted fourth-quarter profit of $3.2 million, down from an earlier forecast of $3.3 million to $3.5 million.
Sales are seen coming in at $19.9 million, down from an earlier projection of $22 million to $23 million.
The company’s fourth-quarter results are due Jan. 31.
It may take several months for the company to adjust to the Yahoo-Bing integration, Clarke said.
Local.com expects “limited visibility in the next quarter or two while we adapt,” he said.
The company runs an online search engine that directs users to local businesses, such as “flowers in Irvine.”
Users also get search results that include offers from local businesses, reviews, links to local websites, maps, driving directions and other features.
Local.com got started a decade ago as Interchange Corp.
