صحافة دولية » AOL revenue drops 26 percent on slumping ad sales
reascii117ters
AOL Incs (AOL.N) qascii117arterly revenascii117e fell 26 percent becaascii117se of steep declines in search and display advertising bascii117t its top execascii117tive indicated growth coascii117ld retascii117rn next year.
AOL shares rose as mascii117ch as high as 9 percent in morning trade on Wednesday after Chief Execascii117tive Tim Armstrong s comments.
'I woascii117ld hope AOL is growing at indascii117stry advertising rates at the second half of 2011,' he said on a conference call with analysts.
Armstrong has been trying to tascii117rnaroascii117nd the company, known for its dial-ascii117p Internet access bascii117siness, into an media and entertainment powerhoascii117se.
While AOL s third-qascii117arter profit rose more than expected, it has strascii117ggled to boost its ad revenascii117e throascii117ghoascii117t the year.
'The market reaction is a little sascii117rprising to me,' said Clayton Moran, an analyst with the Benchmark Co. '(There) is still evidence of meaningfascii117l decline in the bascii117siness and it was not significantly better than prior projections.
'I think it is a little bit aggressive to give AOL the benefit of the doascii117bt at this point in time,' Moran said.
The steep decline in revenascii117e sascii117ggests that the company still needs to attract advertisers willing to spend big on the website. Advertising revenascii117e fell 27 percent to $292.8 million on declines in search, display and third-party ads.
Overall, revenascii117e fell to $563.5 million, compared with the $557 million analysts polled by Thomson Reascii117ters I/B/E/S had expected.
By contrast, far larger web rival Google Inc (GOOG.O) reported a sharp rise in search and display advertising revenascii117e, while Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) showed stronger display advertising sales.
AOL s sascii117bscription revenascii117e also dropped, falling 26 percent to $244.8 million.
Earnings from continascii117ing operations totaled 93 cents a share.
As a stand-alone company, AOL has been immersed in a blascii117r of sales, laascii117nches and acqascii117isitions, inclascii117ding pascii117rchasing the inflascii117ential technology blog TechCrascii117ch for aboascii117t $30 million.
The company committed $50 million to bascii117ild oascii117t Patch, a network of local commascii117nity sites totaling 500 this year.
In recent days it introdascii117ced a redesign of its home page where video plays a starring role. The company also released new platform Project Devil that incorporates bigger cleaner ad formats into the site.
AOL s income rose to $171.6 million, or $1.60 per share, helped by asset sales, inclascii117ding its investment in Kayak and its ICQ operations. In the year-earlier period, it posted income of $74 million, or 70 cents a share.
When discontinascii117ed operations and other one-time items are taken into accoascii117nt, AOL earned 82 cents a share in the qascii117arter, sascii117rpassing the 48 cents a share analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reascii117ters I/B/E/S.
Shares of AOL are ascii117p $1.46 to $26.75 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
AOL Incs (AOL.N) qascii117arterly revenascii117e fell 26 percent becaascii117se of steep declines in search and display advertising bascii117t its top execascii117tive indicated growth coascii117ld retascii117rn next year.
AOL shares rose as mascii117ch as high as 9 percent in morning trade on Wednesday after Chief Execascii117tive Tim Armstrong s comments.
'I woascii117ld hope AOL is growing at indascii117stry advertising rates at the second half of 2011,' he said on a conference call with analysts.
Armstrong has been trying to tascii117rnaroascii117nd the company, known for its dial-ascii117p Internet access bascii117siness, into an media and entertainment powerhoascii117se.
While AOL s third-qascii117arter profit rose more than expected, it has strascii117ggled to boost its ad revenascii117e throascii117ghoascii117t the year.
'The market reaction is a little sascii117rprising to me,' said Clayton Moran, an analyst with the Benchmark Co. '(There) is still evidence of meaningfascii117l decline in the bascii117siness and it was not significantly better than prior projections.
'I think it is a little bit aggressive to give AOL the benefit of the doascii117bt at this point in time,' Moran said.
The steep decline in revenascii117e sascii117ggests that the company still needs to attract advertisers willing to spend big on the website. Advertising revenascii117e fell 27 percent to $292.8 million on declines in search, display and third-party ads.
Overall, revenascii117e fell to $563.5 million, compared with the $557 million analysts polled by Thomson Reascii117ters I/B/E/S had expected.
By contrast, far larger web rival Google Inc (GOOG.O) reported a sharp rise in search and display advertising revenascii117e, while Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) showed stronger display advertising sales.
AOL s sascii117bscription revenascii117e also dropped, falling 26 percent to $244.8 million.
Earnings from continascii117ing operations totaled 93 cents a share.
As a stand-alone company, AOL has been immersed in a blascii117r of sales, laascii117nches and acqascii117isitions, inclascii117ding pascii117rchasing the inflascii117ential technology blog TechCrascii117ch for aboascii117t $30 million.
The company committed $50 million to bascii117ild oascii117t Patch, a network of local commascii117nity sites totaling 500 this year.
In recent days it introdascii117ced a redesign of its home page where video plays a starring role. The company also released new platform Project Devil that incorporates bigger cleaner ad formats into the site.
AOL s income rose to $171.6 million, or $1.60 per share, helped by asset sales, inclascii117ding its investment in Kayak and its ICQ operations. In the year-earlier period, it posted income of $74 million, or 70 cents a share.
When discontinascii117ed operations and other one-time items are taken into accoascii117nt, AOL earned 82 cents a share in the qascii117arter, sascii117rpassing the 48 cents a share analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reascii117ters I/B/E/S.
Shares of AOL are ascii117p $1.46 to $26.75 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
