ShopHQ parent company ValueVision Media caught shareholders by surprise Wednesday by reminding them that palace coups don’t come cheap.
Despite a 5 percent revenue gain, as well as a swing in adjusted net income of $800,000 from a year-earlier loss of $800,000, ValueVision shares sank 6.2 percent after the company reported a second-quarter net loss of $4.3 million.
Perhaps investors spied the $5.1 million write-off that ValueVision attributed to “CEO transition costs” and “activist shareholder response costs.”
Those costs stemmed from a brutal proxy battle spearheaded by the Clinton Group that ended with a stunning upset in June.
Not only did nominees from Clinton’s dissident slate win five of eight board seats, but the coup also succeeded in replacing sitting CEO Keith Stewart with former QVC and Home Shopping Network executive Mark Bozek.
Bozek, who claimed to be “humbled to lead” Minneapolis-based ValueVision, told The Post after his first earnings call that his new regime derived great confidence from knowing that 30 of the company’s 35 top institutional investors had voted for change.
He also called the market’s reaction to Wednesday’s earnings report “illustrative of events of the past year — not where we are today.”