The oOh!Media Ltd (ASX: OML) share price is having a red day. At the time of writing, shares in the advertising and communications company are swapping hands for $1.65, down 2.37%. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), for comparison, is 1.32% lower.
Despite the company not releasing any market sensitive updates in months, there are a couple of big news items that might be affecting the oOh!Media share price today.
Let's take a closer look.
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oOh!Media selling Junkee
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is reporting the ASX-listed company will sell its online youth publication, Junkee Media, by the end of this year.
oOh!Media chief executive Cathy O'Connor is quoted in the paper as saying the sale will help the company focus on its core business of outdoor advertising.
"We've been proud owners of Junkee but the online publishing side of it is not core to… us," Ms O'Connor told SMH.
"Digital publishing needs to contemplate new things — does it leverage… things like audio, go after video strategies — and as the CEO of oOh!Media, I just feel that those things that Junkee rightly should contemplate are not core to our strategy."
oOh!Media bought an 85% interest in Junkee for $11.1 million, back in 2016. Ms O'Connor would not speculate on a potential price she would like to see for the sale. This may be one reason driving the oOh!Media share price today.
Sydney's COVID restriction could be extended even further
In the 24 hours up to 8pm last night, NSW recorded its highest ever daily infections of 44 coronavirus cases – 34 of which were infectious in the community.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian signalled in her daily press conference that these numbers could mean Sydney's lockdown could extend beyond its already delayed end date of next Friday.
Motley Fool Australia has previously reported on how lockdowns may have affected the oOh!Media share price.
In its most recent half-yearly report, revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 34% and 55% respectively. The company attributed the steep fall to the effect of lockdowns and the pandemic at-large.
oOh!Media share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, the oOh!Media share price has increased 83%. It has, however, still not fully recovered from the March 2020 COVID market crash.
On the first trading day of january last year, shares in the company closed at $3.07. Today's share price is still 46% below this level.
oOh!Media has a market capitalisation of $986 million.
