|
T-Online eyes break-even
|
 |
August 29, 2001: 7:32 a.m. ET
Germany's T-Online upbeat on take-up of new Web access tariffs
|
LONDON (CNN) - German Internet service provider T-Online has said it is cutting its costs and aims to break even at the core operating level in 2003.
The Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) controlled group said it expected its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in its domestic market to reach break-even in 2002, with the whole group moving out of the red the following year.
T-Online, Europe's largest Internet service provider, said net losses increased to  145 million ($132 million) in the second quarter from 121 million in the first, mainly due to a rise in depreciation and amortisation.
But the company narrowed its second-quarter EBITDA loss to 57 million from 66.4 million in the year's first three months. Its formal first-half report confirmed preliminary figures released on August 1.
Much of T-Online's improvement in performance follows the introduction of a method of charging customers metered rates for their time spent online.
T-Online confident of business model
"We have new tariffs that are highly accepted among consumers and this has increased our number of users to more than 7 million," Chairman Thomas Holtrop told CNN. "We aim to have 10 million across Europe within the next few weeks."
T-Online's shares price was 8.02 by midday Wednesday - down 7.6 percent on the day, and less than half the level it set at its peak for the year, in mid-January.
Shares in ISPs have been shunned amid a general downturn in tech stocks, suffering particularly from concerns that online advertising spend will dwindle amid the global economic slowdown.
T-Online this year has agreed a number of joint ventures with media partners to offer new content features and entice Web surfers to stay online longer.
The partnerships are part of a drive to double the share of total sales generated by portal revenue -- income deriving from e-commerce and advertising on its Web sites -- to over 30 percent by 2004, Reuters news agency reported. That would lessen T-Online's reliance on barely profitable Internet access services. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
