|
Infoseek 2Q tops forecasts
|
 |
July 23, 1998: 5:50 p.m. ET
Search engine loss 4c a share in 2Q despite drop in traffic due to Netscape
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Infoseek Corp.'s second-quarter losses narrowed at a faster-than-expected rate as revenue more than doubled, the search engine portal announced Thursday.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said losses from its operations narrowed to $1.3 million, or 4 cents a share, from $5.1 million, or 19 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had anticipated losses of 7 cents a share, according to First Call.
The year-ago operating losses excluded a $7.4-million restructuring charge associated with management changes and discontinued operations. Including the charge, net losses totaled $12.5 million, or 47 cents a share, in the second quarter of 1997.
Revenue jumped 119 percent to $17.1 million.
But the improvements came despite a drop of overall traffic. Average daily pageviews dropped 8 percent to 20.3 million in June from 22.1 million three months earlier.
Infoseek (SEEK) said the decrease was primarily attributed to reduced traffic from its partner, Netscape Communications Corp., (NSCP) which has contracted to become less dependent upon Infoseek's searching capabilities.
In June, Infoseek agreed to purchase 15 percent of Netscape's search rotation, down from 35 percent during the prior 12-month period. Accordingly Infoseek registered a decline of 1.9 million pageviews per day from Netscape from March to June.
"One of our goals is to not be dependent on any single source of traffic," said Harry Motro, president and chief executive at Infoseek.
"With Netscape constituting only 13 percent of our daily pageviews in June, we have made progress towards that goal," Motro said.
For the first six months, net losses totaled 3.07 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $31.5 million.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
