At a Glance
Other earnings, excluding one-time gains or charges unless noted:
* Internet brokerage Ameritrade Holding Corp. said it lost $9.2 million, or 5 cents a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, contrasted with a profit of $5.8 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier, as it doubled ad spending and new accounts and as trading fell. The results were in line with analysts’ estimates. Revenue net of interest expense almost doubled to $74.5 million.
Ameritrade said it spent $24.8 million on advertising in the quarter, versus $4 million a year earlier. It added 62,000 new accounts at an average cost of $400 each.
* Juno Online Services, an Internet service provider controlled by hedge fund manager David Shaw, said its third-quarter loss widened to $16.1 million, or 46 cents a share, from $6.5 million a year ago, when the company was a private partnership. Revenue soared 157% to $13.1 million but was outstripped by spending of $15 million to add new customers.
* Macromedia Inc. said its operating profit jumped to $8.94 million, or 19 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter, beating analyst estimates of 16 cents. Including acquisition costs, profit soared to $4.74 million, or 10 cents a share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $2.43 million, or 6 cents, a year ago. Revenue jumped 62% to $57.7 million, on rising demand for its Dreamweaver and Shockwave software, which let Web designers add features such as animation and online stores to Internet pages.
* NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. said its third-quarter loss widened dramatically to $46.5 million, or 37 cents a share, from $7.8 million, or 32 cents, a year ago, on the cost of adding customers and entering new markets. Analysts were expecting a slightly larger loss of 39 cents, according to IBES International Inc. Sales soared to $5.73 million from $240,000 a year earlier.
* Read-Rite Corp. said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened to $80.1 million, or $1.61 a share, from a loss of $29.5 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier, as revenue plunged 40% to $105.3 million. The maker of recording heads used in computer disk drives was expected to post a much smaller loss of $1.08 a share, the average estimate of five analysts from First Call Corp.
* Ziff-Davis Inc. said its third-quarter loss narrowed to $14.9 million, or 14 cents a share, on higher revenue from its trade show division and advertising gains at its consumer magazines. The largest U.S. publisher of computer magazines had a pro forma loss of $27.6 million, or 28 cents, in the year-earlier period, after adjusting its tax rate to make the periods comparable. Before the adjustment, it lost $4.5 million, or 4 cents a share. Revenue rose 10% to $232 million.
* Jones Apparel Group Inc. said its third-quarter profit, including charges, rose to $75 million, or 59 cents a share, from $59.1 million, or 57 cents, a year ago. The results also include recently acquired Nine West Group, which accounted for 3 cents a share of earnings. Excluding the pretax charge of $39 million, or 18 cents a share, and Nine West, Jones earned 78 cents a share, exceeding estimates of 72 cents. Sales more than doubled to $1.15 billion, from $500.3 million.
* Reader’s Digest Assn. Inc. said its fiscal first-quarter profit climbed to $28.6 million, or 26 cents a share, from $2.5 million, or 2 cents, a year ago, well above analysts’ forecasts of 17 cents. Revenue fell 10% to $519.2 million.
Bloomberg News and Reuters were used in compiling this report.
