MindSpring losses mount

MindSpring Enterprises (MSPG), which recently jumped from being a regional to a national Internet service provider, has reported a substantial and widening loss in the third quarter as the company expanded its businesses.

Atlanta-based MindSpring reported a loss of $2.7 million, or 53 cents a share, for the quarter ending September 30, compared with a loss of $389,000 or 11 cents a share for the period a year ago. MindSpring's loss exceeded analysts' estimates of 59 cents per share.

Revenues, meanwhile, jumped to $5.3 million during the quarter--up from $590,000 a year ago.

The quarter was marked with the purchase of PSINet's consumer dial-up business and the dial-up subscriber accounts of Nando.net in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.

"During the third quarter, we changed from a strong regional company into a leading national provider of Internet services," said Charles Brewer, chairman and chief executive, in a statement. "Our total number of subscribers at the end of the third quarter was approximately 117,360, up from 34,460 at the end of the prior quarter."

The quarter, however, included 59,000 subscribers from the PSINet transaction and 4,000 from Nando.net. But even without those additional subscribers from the acquisitions, the company's customer base still grew 58 percent in the third quarter over the previous quarter.