Net earnings roundup: VeriSign, Vignette lead parade
VeriSign and Vignette led a slew of upside surprises from Internet companies Wednesday. Phone.com, Extreme Networks and Ticketmaster-CitySearch also reported.
VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN) reported a first quarter pro forma profit of $2.2 million, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $34.1 million. First Call was expecting a profit of a penny a share.
VeriSign provides authentication, validation and payment software.
Including the amortization of goodwill and other intangibles and realized gains on investments, VeriSign reported a net loss of $26.2 million, or 24 cents a share, in the quarter. VeriSign had goodwill amortization of $61 million related to the purchase acquisitions of Thawte Consulting and Signio in the first quarter, and a one-time gain of $32.6 million from the sale of Keynote Systems common stock as part of their secondary offering.
VeriSign's biggest acquisition -- the pending purchase of Network Solutions (Nasdaq: NSOL) is expected to close in the third quarter. VeriSign and Network Solutions agreed to merge last month.
The company reported record revenue of $55.2 million in the first quarter, up 505 percent from $9.1 million a year ago.
Vignette gave a series of figures for its quarter to account for various charges and other items. Operating loss from core operations, which excludes acquisition-related charges, amortization of deferred stock compensation, amortization of intangibles and interest income, was $5.3 million, said Vignette. Net income from core operations was $432,000, or break even on a per share basis.
Net loss including charges was $83.5 million, or 47 cents a share.
Among other Net earnings Wednesday:
Revenue surged to $18.7 million, compared to $3.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.
In the quarter, Ticketmaster-CitySearch recorded an estimated 765 million page views, up 21.5 percent sequentially.
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