Earnings Roundup: Breakaway leads clean sweep for techs

Breakaway Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: BWAY), an e-business software company, reported Tuesday a fourth quarter operating loss of $2.6 million, or 15 cents a share, on sales of $10.6 million.

The results topped First Call estimates, which called for a loss of 17 cents a share.

Breakaway said its fourth quarter sales were up 324 percent from the $2.5 million reported a year ago. Sales were up 47 percent from the third quarter. Application hosting revenue were 12 percent of sales.

Including goodwill related to acquisitions, Breakaway reported a fourth quarter loss of $3.4 million, or 20 cents a share.

For the year, Breakaway reported a net loss of $10.4 million, or $1.19 a share, on sales of $25.4 million. Excluding goodwill amortization, Breakaway lost 96 cents a share.

In other earnings news Tuesday:

Cognizant Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: CTSH), an e-business and application management specialist, reported fourth quarter earnings of $3.1 million, or 31 cents a share, topping estimates by a penny.

Revenue for the fourth quarter gained 24 percent to $24.1 million compared to a year ago.

For 1999, the company reported a profit of $1.16 a share on revenue of $88.9 million.

EBenX, Inc. (Nasdaq: EBNX), a business-to-business software company, topped Wall Street estimates with a fourth quarter operating loss of $1.6 million, or 14 cents a share, on sales of $5.8 million.

First Call was expecting a loss of 17 cents a share.

Including $700,000 in amortization of stock-based compensation, the company lost 36 cents a share in the fourth quarter.

Onemain.com (Nasdaq: ONEM), an Internet service provider focusing on small cities and rural areas, topped estimates in its fourth quarter Tuesday as the company reported sales of $32.7 million, up 27 percent from the third quarter. The company also said its subscriber base jumped 25 percent sequentially to 701,000.

The company reported net loss of $32.7 million, or $1.37 per share, for the fourth quarter. First Call expected a loss of $1.40 a share. For the year, Onemain.com lost $4.45 a share, on target with estimates.

Separately, Onemain.com announced its first local Internet portal, which will provide localized content, services and e-commerce.

Talk.com (Nasdaq: TALK), which markets long-distance service on the Internet and America Online (NYSE: AOL) , topped estimates by a penny with fourth quarter earnings of $17 million, or 25 cents a share, on sales of $149 million.

In the quarter, the company generated online revenue of $105 million, up 40 percent from a year ago, and acquired 150,000 new customers. In the fourth quarter a year ago, Talk.com reported a loss of $1.56 a share excluding charges.

For the year, Talk.com reported earnings of $58 million, or 90 cents a share, excluding a extraordinary gain from debt repurchases, on sales of $348 million. The company reported 1.5 million customers at the end of 1999.