FREE cementing its dominant position:
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Freeserve Cements UK Web Dominance
January 6, 2000
Business News Archives
Freeserve Plc's second quarter results clicked all the right icons on Thursday, showing it was swiftly attracting new users and cementing its dominance of Web access in Britain.
The Internet service provider (ISP), pioneer of no-fee access through the cost of a phone call, capitalised on its "first mover" advantage to chalk up a current 1.68 million active accounts -- one third of the UK market.
That is 100,000 more than mid November, when the quarter ended, and up from 1.4 million in August.
Losses were held in check at 3.6 million pounds ($5.9 million), with rising income from third-party advertising, e-commerce deals and a share of telephone call revenue balancing out hefty marketing aimed at making Freeserve a household name.
Analysts, who expect no profit for another two to three years, said the results were solid and confirmed Freeserve's success, with lighter losses than expected.
Its shares, which had joined the recent rollercoaster ride for Internet stocks and lost seven percent on Wednesday, jumped over five percent but then succumbed to the falling market and were down 0.77 percent at 485 pence by 1140 GMT.
SG Securities analyst Nick Bubb said Freeserve was cheap compared to European peers like Spain's Terra Networks.
Freeserve's shares have stepped up with each new deal -- to offer share trading, personal finance, messaging services, auctions, and most recently to start a wireless Internet service with mobile phone operator BT Cellnet. |
