To: Sean Sheldon who wrote (9706 ) 6/10/1999 10:16:00 PM From: Sean Sheldon Respond to of 19700
CMGI posts loss wider than the consensus BCAUSE of charge for I/PRO acquisition Reuters Story - June 10, 1999 20:44 ANDOVER, Mass., June 10 (Reuters) - Internet venture firm CMGI Inc. on Thursday posted a net loss of nearly $28 million for its fiscal third quarter as investment gains were offset by a charge tied to an acquisition during the quarter. For the fiscal third quarter ended in April, the company reported a net loss of $27.8 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, compared with a net profit of $13 million, or 14 cents per share in the quarter ended April 1998. The reported loss was wider than the published consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts, which was for a loss of 13 cents per share, but the comparisons are typically muddied by divergences over when to include some of CMGI's investment gains. Revenues for the quarter were $43.7 million up from $18.1 million reported in the same quarter last year, fueled by growth in the company's Internet investment business and to a lesser degree by its marketing fulfillments services unit. The latest quarter's results included a pre-tax gain of $859,000 from its holdings in GeoCities, the Internet community site that was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in late May, after CMGI's quarter closed. These results were weighed down by a one-time charge of $4.5 million for writing off research and development costs of Internet advertising firm Internet Profiles Corp. (I/PRO), which it acquired during the period. CMGI's third quarter operating expenses for continuing operations of $77.7 million, reflect a 29 percent increase from the second quarter ended in January 1999 and an 87 percent increase from the year-ago third quarter results. CMGI hired an investment bank during the period to help wage a successful battle against the merger of Lycos Inc., its largest investment, into broadcaster and electronic commerce company USA Networks Inc.