A 2025 cybersecurity incident weighed heavily on fourth-quarter results at Coupang (CPNG), pushing the online marketplace into a loss and causing it to miss profit expectations by roughly 75%.
Late last year, Coupang (CPNG) disclosed it was the victim of a data breach in which personal information of as many as 33M users was compromised. The initial hack occurred in June and continued until November.
While the full scope of the breach was not as damaging as feared, Coupang (CPNG) pledged $1B in compensation for the 33M affected customers in the form of vouchers worth as much as $35.
“The data incident is estimated to have adversely impacted Q4 revenue growth rates, active customers, and WOW membership, as well as profitability,” the company acknowledged in a statement Thursday.
As a result, Coupang (CPNG) swung to a loss of $0.01 in the fourth quarter, versus a profit of $0.09 in the same quarter last year and 5 cents worse than anticipated despite generating 11% more revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter slid to $267M, down 37% from the same quarter last year, compressing the adjusted EBITDA margin by 226 basis points to 3.0%.
The company also turned free cash flow negative from $463M in Q4 2024 to $(278M).
Shares are down 3.3% in after-hours trading.