frank.
regarding today's action, ABOV reported earnings after the close on friday. shame on me as i'm not on top of the company, but methinks perhaps someone doesn't like the price we're paying.
oh, and regarding the dearth of today's press, perhaps it's because the news wires botched the release. well, i sure as hell hope it was the PR wire and not ABOV. this child deserves a spanking if they don't know their impending parent's full ticker.
cheers,
-chris.
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AboveNet Reports Fourth Quarter Results
PR Wire
July 29, 1999, 1:59 p.m. PT
Revenues Up 47 % Over Prior Quarter
SAN JOSE, Calif., July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- AboveNet Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ABOV), the architect of a global one-hop network that brings together high-bandwidth content sites, ISPs, and Application Service Providers in centralized co-location facilities, today announced financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter and year ended June 30, 1999.
Revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 1999 were $5,670,400, an increase of 47 percent over revenues of $3,851,200 for the quarter ended March 31, 1999, and a 315 percent increase over revenues of $1,367,600 for the quarter ended June 30, 1998.
The net loss for the quarter ended June 30, 1999 was $12,155,400, or $0.38 per share (on 32,168,600 weighted average shares outstanding), compared with a net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 1999 of $5,856,400, or $0.22 per share (on 27,189,200 weighted average shares outstanding), and a net loss of $2,596,000, or $ 3.90 per share (on 666,000 weighted average shares outstanding), for the quarter ended June 30, 1998.
Fourth quarter operating costs included $2,722,000 of telecommunications costs resulting from the renegotiation and extension of a supplier contract. The renegotiation accelerated the commencement of certain arrangements, but reduced capacity rates over the remaining term of the contract. Results were also effected by $700,000 in legal and other expenses related to the proposed merger with Metromedia Fiber Network and by increased sales and marketing costs incurred during the quarter.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999, revenues were $13,967,800, a 306 percent increase over revenues of $3,436,400 for fiscal year 1998. The net loss for fiscal year 1999 was $26,554,900, or $1.60 per share (on 16,643,000 weighted average shares outstanding) compared with a net loss of $5,425,000, or $10.34 per share (on 524,600 weighted average shares outstanding), for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998.
The Company also reported that as of June 30, 1999, cash and short-term investments totaled $220,870,500, and working capital was $203,864,500. "The combination of our customer growth, the expansion of our network, and the increase in bandwidth intensive applications resulted in our outstanding financial performance in the fourth quarter," said Warren J. Kaplan, President and Chief Operating Officer of AboveNet. Our customer base increased in the fourth quarter from 449 to 560, representing an increase of 25%, adding such Internet Centric customers as eCommerce Corporation, Quotesmith.com, MSN Hotmail, Homestead, Akamai, Activate; ISP's such as Equinox/MacConnect, Korea Telecom, Crys-Tel; and Systems Integrators such as CAT Technologies and Rand Worldwide.
"In June, we acquired the Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX), the only major commercial Internet Exchange not owned by a telecommunications company," Kaplan continued. "At the same time, PAIX announced the expansion of its Palo Alto facility, which resulted in a 75% increase in customer rack space. PAIX is expected to operate as an independent entity, but we will work together to expand the infrastructure of the Internet by supporting open business policies that promote superior network performance and reliability."
"As part of our ongoing network expansion, we increased our network capacity from 10.5 Gbps as of March 31, 1999 to 18.2 Gbps during the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999. We also increased our peering relationships from 257 to 273, allowing us to continue providing even higher quality and faster connections to our customers," said Kaplan.
During the quarter the Company declared a two-for-one stock split. The stock split was effective on April 14, 1999 and was distributed as a stock dividend to shareholders on May 7, 1999. All shares and per share amounts have been restated to reflect this split.
The secondary pubic offering of 6,850,356 shares of Common Stock during the quarter raised $273,400,000. The net proceeds of the offering are being used for capital expenditures relating to the build out of the Company's ISX facilities, increasing network capacity, potential strategic investments, working capital and general corporate purposes.
"Just prior to the close of the quarter and our fiscal year, we agreed in principal to merge with and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Metromedia Fiber Network Services, Inc. (MFN) [sic], one of the leading suppliers of high density fiber optic networks," said Kaplan. "AboveNet's shareholders, under the merger plan, will receive 1.175 shares of Metromedia Fiber Network for each share of AboveNet." |
