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USWeb/CKS squeezes by Street views

The Internet services and consulting company reports fourth quarter earnings that just beat consensus estimates, on strong revenue numbers.

Kim Girard
Kim Girard has written about business and technology for more than a decade, as an editor at CNET News.com, senior writer at Business 2.0 magazine and online writer at Red Herring. As a freelancer, she's written for publications including Fast Company, CIO and Berkeley's Haas School of Business. She also assisted Business Week's Peter Burrows with his 2003 book Backfire, which covered the travails of controversial Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. An avid cook, she's blogged about the joy of cheap wine and thinks about food most days in ways some find obsessive.
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Kim Girard
2 min read
Internet services and consulting company USWeb/CKS today reported fourth quarter earnings that just beat consensus estimates, excluding charges related to its recent acquisition of CKS Group.

The company posted a profit of 7 cents a share before non-cash and merger-related charges, which just beat Wall Street's forecast of 6 cents a share, according to First Call. In the year-ago period, the company reported a loss of $2.5 million, or 7 cents per share, excluding items.

USWeb/CKS posted a net loss for the quarter of $84.1 million or $1.26 per share, compared with a net loss of $17.8 million or 48 cents a share a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter more than doubled to $72.6 million, up from $34.9 million a year earlier.

Last month, Santa Clara, California-based USWeb completed its purchase of CKS in a deal valued at $540 million in stock.

The company recorded a charge of $28.8 million to cover the cost of the merger and integration of the two companies.

The company, which helps firms design Web pages and use the Internet to improve their businesses, said it wouldn't change its name as previously announced as many investors and clients identify USWeb with its current name.

Last year, USWeb also picked "Reinvent Communications," as its new name, but nixed the idea after being sued by another company. The company today said it has decided to permanently adopt the name USWeb/CKS.

USWeb's stock closed today at 29.75, up 1.18. Shares have traded as high as 38.75 and as low as 7.75 in the past 52 weeks.