CNet Beats Estimates as Sales Jump 86%
CNet Inc., which runs Web sites and TV programming about technology, said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings topped estimates as sales surged 86%.
The company, which also declared a 2-for-1 stock split, said profit from operations was $3.3 million, or 18 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $8.7 million, or 62 cents, in the year-earlier period. The company was expected to earn 10 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. Revenue rose to $19.2 million from $10.3 million.
CNet’s shares have nearly doubled this year on speculation that the San Francisco-based company will be the next Internet-related concern to be acquired. CNet is trying to boost its revenue, derived mainly from TV programming and online advertising, by linking merchants with its users.
Shares fell $7.19 to close at $91.31 on Nasdaq.
At a Glance
Other earnings, excluding one-time gains and charges unless noted:
* Cendant Corp. said fourth-quarter profit rose 65% and said it also plans to sell its RentNet, Match.com and Bookstacks Inc. Internet businesses.
New York-based Cendant, climbing back from an accounting-fraud scandal last year, said profit from operations rose to $190.3 million, or 22 cents a share, from $115.2 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier. That exceeded the 20-cent average estimate of analysts. Revenue rose 29%, to $1.42 billion from $1.1 billion.
* Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., the world’s largest personal computers distributor, exceeded Wall Street’s reduced expectations with a 6% rise in fourth-quarter earnings.
Ingram said net income rose to $73.2 million, or 49 cents a share, from $69 million, or 47 cents, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped 21% to $6.22 billion from $5.13 billion.
The consensus on Wall Street was for earnings of 48 cents.
* Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded insurer of U.S. homes and cars, said fourth-quarter earnings fell 7% amid increased weather-related losses.
Profit from operations, which excludes gains on investment sales, declined to $641 million, or 78 cents a share, from $691 million, or 80 cents, a year earlier. The earnings matched estimates.
Revenue grew 2.2% to $6.45 billion, fueled by property and liability policy sales.
* Loews Corp., the No. 3 U.S. cigarette maker, posted a fourth-quarter loss after taking a $360.7-million charge related to settling health claims brought against major tobacco companies by 46 states.
New York-based Loews said it lost $172.8 million, or $1.52 a share, excluding losses from the sale of securities. The company earned $228.1 million, or $1.99, in the same period of 1997. Revenue fell to $5.06 billion from $5.34 billion.
* Balance Bar Co., the Carpinteria-based maker of energy bars and other natural foods, said fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to $1.2 million, including a charge, or 10 cents per share, compared with $525,000, or 5 cents, a year ago. Sales increased 81%, to $22.1 million from $12.3 million.
