INSP news
SEATTLE (Reuters) - InfoSpace Inc. (NasdaqNM:INSP - news), which syndicates content to Internet and wireless companies, on Wednesday posted a quarterly profit that more than tripled as the benefits of its purchase of Go2Net and its portfolio of Web sites kicked in.
Seattle-based InfoSpace, which supplies Yellow and White Pages directories, maps, news and stock quotes, said its pro forma profit for its third quarter came in at $9.5 million, or 3 cents a share, up from $2.9 million a year ago.
InfoSpace had been expected to break even in the quarter, according to consensus analyst estimates compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Investors cheered the results, sending InfoSpace stock up $2-3/8, or more than 10 percent, to $22-11/16 in after-hours trading. The company fell 7 percent in regular trading and is far below its year high of $138-1/2.
The pro forma results include the Go2Net acquisition but exclude non-cash charges and other items not related to its core operations, the company said.
Revenues rose to $57.7 million in the three months, compared to $19.9 million a year earlier.
``The big number here is that our wireless revenue is approximately 10 percent of the total,'' Chief Executive Arun Sarin said in an interview. ``Our wireless business is doing stunningly well.''
The purchase in July of Go2Net for $4 billion in stock had given InfoSpace an entrance into Internet search services, financial information and online payments, and brought a long list of smaller merchant customers.
``With Go2Net we've added some great technology and are really putting new products and services into place,'' Sarin said.
Go2Net's properties included payment processing service Authorize.Net and the Dogpile search service. It also licensed the technology behind those sites to other companies.
Sarin said InfoSpace had not been affected by a slowdown in online advertising because less than 25 percent of the company's revenues came from advertising. That would shrink to 10 percent in a year, he said.
InfoSpace also said it had a committed backlog of orders totaling $130 million for the next four quarters, and that it had $425 million in cash.
Sarin gave no specific guidance for future profits but said he expected fourth-quarter revenues to total $66 million, with revenues for all of next year coming in at $360 million.
``Every part of the business is growing,'' he said.
InfoSpace would also soon roll out voice recognition and a unified messaging service, which would integrate e-mail and voice mail so people could access it through a mobile phone, Sarin said. |
