To: Clint E. who wrote (22322 ) 7/28/1999 1:23:00 AM From: Clint E. Respond to of 69971
FOCUS-InfoSpace posts lower profits, higher sales Reuters Story - July 27, 1999 20:59 SEATTLE, July 27 (Reuters) - InfoSpace.com Inc. , a provider of White and Yellow Pages directories, news and maps to many of the biggest Internet portals, said on Tuesday that second-quarter profits slid while sales more than tripled. The company said profits fell to $409,000, or 1 cent per share, from $463,000, or 2 cents, in the year-ago quarter. Both periods excluded acquisition charges and other unusual items. The current-year results were well above analysts' consensus estimate of a loss of 4 cents, according to First Call Corp., which tracks estimates. Revenues jumped to $6.73 million from $1.84 million. The results were reported after the stock market closed. Earlier InfoSpace fell $1.69 on Nasdaq to close at $55.19. Chairman and chief executive officer Naveen Jain said in an interview that the company, which posted a loss in the first quarter, turned profitable two quarters ahead of Wall Street expectations, boosted in part by its new ActiveShopper service. "The business outlook is extremely strong for the rest of the year," he said. Including all the unusual items, InfoSpace had a net loss of $5 million, or 11 cents, compared with a loss of $2.7 million, or 11 cents, in the year-ago period. The company said traffic to InfoSpace Web sites grew to 1.4 billion page views in the quarter from 375 million a year ago. The Redmond, Wash.-based company began by providing Web customers with national Yellow Pages and White Pages directories. Its offerings have grown to include maps, classified ads, news, stock quotes, and TV listings. Customers include America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corp. In a conference call with analysts, broadcast over the Internet, Jain said the company would continue its electronic commerce push by launching a service in the summer that allows merchants to distribute targeted promotional offers. In the autumn, InfoSpace will launch a "desktop portal" that provides access to InfoSpace affiliate pages from the main toolbar on the computer screen, Jain said.