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MindSpring's in full bloom
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July 23, 1998: 1:58 p.m. ET
Net access provider's CEO talks of profits, takeovers and happy customers
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - For those who see Internet stock prices balloon and feel only a gust of hot air blasting from lemming-like investor enthusiasm, MindSpring provides a welcome -- and impressively profitable -- relief.
The proof is in its ever-growing subscriber base.
For the Atlanta-based Internet access provider, the word-of-mouth recommendation is one of its greatest marketing strengths, CEO and founder Charles Brewer told CNNfn's Tony Guida Thursday in an on-air interview. [315K WAV] or [315K AIF]
Customers' enthusiastic satisfaction has quickly turned to cash in terms of the company's revenues and escalating share price.
MindSpring posted second quarter profits Wednesday that beat the Street and further cheered investors. On Wednesday, the stock (MSPG) soared to 154-1/2 before cooling off slightly by midday to 149-1/2, up 9-3/16 from the day before.
More impressive still has been the stock's meteoric climb from 12-7/8 just a year ago.
MindSpring's growth -- past and forecast -- begs the question of acquisition, and a recent Forbes article suggested the company may be taken over by BellSouth (BLS).
But whether the company intends to be more predator or prey is hard to say. Brewer himself doesn't rule out either option.
"We've done a lot of acquisitions and we're ambitious to do more. ... We do think that the environment is really excellent for us to grow right now. Operationally our act is really together ... and that sort of frees us up to maybe try some things that will be a little bit on the audacious side."
But, he added, being acquired by a telecom, is far from illogical.
"I think it's pretty clear that the thing we're really good at, which is serving individual Internet access customers, more and more becomes the core piece of telecommunications," he said. "The packet switch network is going to tend to take more and more of the traffic. And ... what we're doing is a very valuable skill, so ... something like that might make some sense someday."
When asked how comfortable he felt with profit forecasts, Brewer said he encourages analysts not to extrapolate.
If investors fear this caution might be a sign Brewer has lower expectations for MindSpring's future than its soaring stock price suggests, they can take heart.
"What we're going to try to do heading forward is to match profit expectations that are out there ... not to exceed them," Brewer said. Instead, he added, his company plans "to invest that money back into, hopefully, accelerated growth." 
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MindSpring
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