Good news..profitable next quarter....Excite At Home 3rd-Qtr Loss Widens as Revenue Rises (Update2)
10/19/99 4:44:00 PM
Source: Bloomberg News
(Adds analyst comment, updates after-hours trading.)
Redwood City, California, Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Excite At Home Corp., which provides high-speed
Internet access, said its third-quarter loss widened, matching expectations, as revenue nearly
doubled and the company added 220,000 new subscribers.
The net loss rose to $498.6 million, or $1.37 a share, from $23.3
million, or 10 cents, a year earlier. Excluding expenses for
amortization of goodwill and other intangible assets, the company said
it had a pro forma net operating loss of $4.2 million, or 1 cent a share,
compared with a pro forma net operating loss of $7.9 million, or 2
cents, a year ago. Analysts expected the company to report a loss of
1 cent, the average estimate according to First Call Corp.
Revenue rose to $112.6 million from $57.8 million.
The Redwood City, California-based company has been trying to
integrate its Web properties more tightly with its Internet access
service. Excite At Home shares have fallen 57 percent since April amid
speculation that the company's largest shareholder, AT&T Corp., is
exploring alternatives for its investment in the company. Excite At Home's shares have risen 93
percent over the past year.
''I was a little bit surprised by the subscriber number; it was better than expected,'' said Abhishek
Gami, an analyst at William Blair & Co., who rates the stock ''long-term buy.''
He had expected the company to have about 815,000 subscribers at the end of the quarter. The
company reported 25,000 more subscribers than his forecast. It was the largest subscriber increase
in any quarter, Gami said.
The company told analysts that it expected to meet or beat its goal of 1 million subscribers by the
end of the year and reach profitability on an operating basis, Gami said.
''They're doing what they said they'd do,'' he said. ''The 1 million (subscribers) is a given. The
question is can they hit 1.1 million?''
Excite At Home shares rose 1 7/8 to 42 1/2 on electronic networks and regional exchanges after the
4 p.m. close of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The results were released after the close.
During the regular session, it rose 2 1/16 to 40 5/8.
More Subscribers
Analysts had expected the company to generate $105.6 million to $108 million in revenue, according
to a survey of three analysts by Bloomberg. The company said it had 840,000 subscribers at the end
of the quarter, compared with 620,000 in the June quarter.
Traffic on the Excite network of Web sites rose to 89 million average daily page views in September,
the company said, up 10 percent from 81 million in June. A page view is one page of electronic
information displayed upon a user's request.
The company's registered users rose to 44 million on Sept. 30, up 16 percent from 38 million at the
end of June. Registered users are Internet users who registered personal information such as age,
gender and occupation.
Excite At Home expanded its program making Internet access service available through retailers
such as Circuit City, The Good Guys! and Office Depot.
Excite@Home Applauds Miami-Dade County Vote
10/19/99 4:16:00 PM
Source: Bloomberg News
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), a global media
company, applauds the 10-2 vote by the Miami-Dade County Commission to reject a proposal to
impose new regulations on cable broadband offerings. In voting down the proposal, the
Commissioners have set the stage for the rapid deployment of competitive new broadband services
that will benefit consumers by providing them more choices for high-speed Internet access. Today,
the Miami-Dade County Commission demonstrated that they cared about bringing new choices to
consumers and were not fooled by the efforts of the entrenched monopolists to slow down
competition.
(Photo: newscom.com )
Having studied the matter for six months, the County Commissioners
wisely agreed that free market competition, not onerous government
regulation, is the best and surest path to building out America's
high-speed Internet infrastructure. Miami-Dade's views are shared by
the Federal Communication Commission and hundreds of
high-technology companies nationwide who have urged local
governments to maintain a hands-off approach to new broadband
offerings. As the FCC recently concluded, regulation slows broadband
deployment and hurts consumers. |
