Net companies post earnings

Wall Street hit the bull's-eye today with predictions of losses for @Home and DoubleClick. EarthLink, however, beat estimates, even though it still finished in the red.

For the quarter ending June 30, cable Net access provider @Home posted a loss of $11.1 million, or 10 cents a share--narrower than the loss of $11.9 million, or 12 cents a share, posted for the like period a year ago.

@Home's results matched Wall Street's expectations. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of 10 cents a share, according to First Call.

The company's second-quarter revenues of $9.2 million marked a substantial increase from revenues of $1 million posted for the like period a year earlier.

Company executives said the number of @Home cable modem subscribers--about 147,000 in North America--has nearly tripled this year.

"We believe the cable infrastructure is clearly the vehicle of choice for offering a full range of voice, video, and Internet services to consumers in the home," @Home president and chief executive Tom Jermoluk said in a statement.

Also today, Internet advertiser DoubleClick posted a second-quarter net loss of $4.7 million, or 28 cents a share. The company posted a loss of $1.2 million, or 11 cents a share, one year ago.

First Call's consensus of analysts' estimates had pegged a loss of 28 cents a share--right on the mark--for DoubleClick, which is still in its first year as a public company.

DoubleClick reported second-quarter profits of $17.3 million, up from $6.1 million posted a year earlier.

"We are extremely pleased with our significant growth in both revenue and traffic during our second quarter as a public company," Kevin O'Connor, DoubleClick's CEO, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, nationwide Internet service provider EarthLink also posted a loss today of $4.8 million, or 39 cents a share, down from a loss of $7.8 million, or 80 cents a share, reported for the like period a year ago.

Wall Street expected the company to lose 55 cents a share, according to First Call.

EarthLink's net loss did not include a charge related to a June deal with Sprint to launch the EarthLink Sprint Internet service. As part of that deal, Sprint acquired a 28 percent stake in EarthLink and received two board seats.

EarthLink posted revenues of $37.6 million, doubling the $18.8 million in revenues it posted for the second quarter of 1997. The company has added some 210,000 new members, bringing its total to 710,000 accounts, executives said.