NO-Brainer!...AOL Piles on the Profits
Giant ISP reaches almost 24 million subscribers.
by Clare Haney, IDG News Service
January 20, 2000, 3:39 a.m. PT
In the wake of its planned $350 billion merger with Time Warner announced last week, America Online (AOL) on Wednesday reported strong sales and earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31.
Revenue soared 41 percent to reach $1.6 billion, up from $1.1 billion for the year-earlier quarter. Net income including one-time items was $271 million, compared with net income of $115 million for the year-earlier quarter, the company said.
By the end of the quarter, AOL had notched up a total of 23.8 million subscribers for its range of services, with the AOL-branded service itself adding 1.8 million new members during the three-month period. CompuServe 2000 grew its membership by 440,000 subscribers, while AOL gained over 740,000 subscribers for Gateway.net, via an agreement the company signed with PC vendor Gateway Inc. for AOL to act as its custom ISP.
AOL's ICQ instant messaging service gained 7.9 million users during the quarter. That brings its total membership to 53.1 million, 17.9 million of which are active users, the company said. |
