Rare Medium jumps on 3Q results

Rare Medium Group Inc. (Nasdaq: RRRR) shares surged nearly 23 percent in early trading Thursday on the news that the company beat analyst estimates for the third quarter on strong Internet services revenue.

The end-to-end Internet service and Web consulting company’s Internet services business came in with cash earnings of $3.2 million, or 4 cents a share, for the period ending Sept. 30. The numbers easily topped First Call Corp.’s estimate of 1 cent a share.

The company’s shares rose 1.00 to 5.38 in early trading.

The EPS for the quarter grew sequentially compared with the 1 cent per share result in the second quarter.

Revenue from Rare Medium’s Internet services business swelled to $33.8 million in the quarter, a 185 percent increase over the same period in 1999, and a 12 percent jump over the previous quarter.

This was the company’s eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth.

Rare Medium did, however, report a net loss of 64 cents per share when all of the company’s consolidated businesses are measured.

In other news, the company said that inked a new strategic alliance with webMethods, Inc.(Nasdaq: WEBM), and expanded its existing arrangements with Sun Microsystems Inc.(Nasdaq: SUNW). New clients in the quarter included Corporate Express, Cablevision, and NextJet.

As well, RareMedium sunk a total of $26.5 million into new and existing venture investments.

<