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YTB International filed its 2008 annual report. Details provided in the report continue to fuel the speculation as to whether the company is going to be able to survive many of the recent challenges that it has faced over the last several months.

As a publicly traded company, YTB International is required to file an annual report as part of the form 10-K once a year. This report reveals the financial status of the company so investors can make informed decisions as to whether to invest in the company.

YTB Reports Revenue Growth Yet Back To Losing Money

For the year 2008, YTB reported revenue of over 162 million dollars for the year. This is up from 2007’s revenue of 141 million dollars. After finally making a 3 million dollar profit last year, YTB is back to losing money, reporting a 4.4 million dollar loss. This makes 4 out of 5 straight years since 2004 that YTB has posted an annual loss.

Also troubling is the amount of money the company makes from its distributors when compared to the amount of money that the company makes from the sale of travel. The company’s travel sales revenue is up to 27 million for 2008 from 20 million in 2007.

However, the company reports revenue of over 122 million from what it refers to as “Internet business center sales and monthly fees.” Whenever a distributor gets started in the YTB business opportunity, he or she is charged an upfront fee plus monthly fees for a travel web site.

The company also collected an additional 9.6 million in revenue from training programs and marketing materials. However, to be fair, they spent 11.3 million on these programs and materials, so they were just trying to recoup some of their costs here.

Still with over 122 million dollars being collected from the field, this is a huge concern. Based on the Amway case back in 1979 regulators like to see at least 70% of your income coming from end users. YTB is nowhere close to this number.

In addition to the financial loss, the stock has taken a nose dive trading as high as $4.19 in the 2^nd quarter of 2008 to as low as $0.19 in the fourth quarter of 2008. This is a more than 90% loss in share price for the company’s overall stock price.

Troubling Report from YTB’s Independent Accounting Firm

The company also received a troubling report from its independent accounting firm. All publicly traded companies are required to be audited by a public accounting firm.

Based on the audit, the accounting firm found a number of “material weaknesses” in the company’s overall financial reporting. Here’s what the accounting firm defines as a material weakness:

“A material weakness is a control deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevent or detected on a timely basis.”

What this basically means is that the financial performance, although bad, could in fact be even worse than what is being presented because the company’s financial statements are not reliable.

This troubling news along with the pending lawsuits by the attorney general in the state of California as well as former distributors spells serious trouble for YTB. It remains to be seen as to whether they will be able to overcome these challenges or not.

This article is a contribution from the Renegade Super Guides Program, RenegadePro, Marketing Merge Network.To find more on how you can become involved with the latest cutting edge internet network marketing strategies, tips, secretes, and training click the link above and join us today!

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