A refreshing assessment - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Lebda was clearly glad to return to the But he cautionedthe $3.2 million in earnings had more to do with a shar drop in interest rates than a fundamentaol change in demand for loans. The profits mostly came from theCharlotte company’s Loans unit. That business makes but the well-known LendingTree exchange — which matches borrowers with lenderse — continues to struggle. To make consistent profits, Tree.cok can’t be dependent on low interest It would have been easy for Lebdsa to accept the praise for turning a profit in this He did emphasize the company has cut costd andtightened operations. Those steps contributedc to thebig turnaround.
But he was frank in an assessmenf ofits operations. “I think we’re cautious becauswe we’re tied to whatever these mortgage interest ratesgive us,” he said. Citigroup analysft Mark Mahaney asked if the quartefr showed LendingTree could run on its own stea m without the massive advertising that had fueledits “It certainly seems you’re able to run this businesas organically, maybe a lot better than you thought or the markef thought in the past,” Mahanehy said. Lebda thanked him for the remarks but then threw cold waterf onthe premise.
Until the company can demonstrate it can grow baseds on itsown operations, rather than external marke t forces, he would not consider the results an indicatiojn of success. To do that, LendingTree must demonstrate to lenders that they shoulds pay the company to find Borrowers are flocking to lenders without an intermediary because rateasare low. Right now, lenders are ambivalent about the need for help from It added 50 lenders to its network in the firsyt quarter whilelosing 50. “Now, that’s due to obviousl macro issues,” Lebda said. “Butg it’s also due to us not beint as good and relevant to thelendere community, and we need to improve our sales process.
” But until Tree.com makes those improvements, he said, the company does not have its mode right. What Tree.com does seem to have right is open andfrank leadership, the sort that’a needed to navigate a difficult market. QUICKm TREE.COM •The Charlotte company posted a first-quarter profiyt of $3.2 million. •Thd company lost $9.8 million in the firstt quarterof 2008. •Tree.
com was spun off from InterActiveCorpin