| To: manito888 who wrote (30645) | 9/13/1999 12:56:00 PM |
| From: Shafik Habal | Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 41363 |
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Bloomberg Terminal: America Online Says It'll Meet 1st-Qtr Profit Expectations
Dulles, Virginia, Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- America Online Inc., the No. 1 Internet service, said it will meet analysts' profit and subscriber estimates for the fiscal first quarter ending later this month.
The company is expected to add about 900,000 subscribers in the quarter ending Sept. 30 and earn 13 cents a share, according to the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. AOL's 20 million subscribers, which it reached in mid-August, include 2 million CompuServe Corp. customers.
Dulles, Virginia-based AOL shares have lost about half their value since mid-April on concern that subscriber growth could slow as competitors offer lower cost and free Internet access. Still, AOL also said its growth should continue over the next five years.
``We feel that we're on track to meet the street's consensus for subscriber growth,' said Michael Kelly, chief financial officer at America Online. ``The U.S. Internet market is only 30 percent penetrated, we see that moving to 70 (percent) to 80 percent in the next five years.'
AOL wants its U.S. operations to set the pace for overall growth, even though its international business should accelerate at a faster rate, Kelly said. Recently the company added Netscape Online, a free Internet access service that completes directly with Freeserve Plc, the U.K.'s largest Internet service provider.
Shares of America Online fell 4 7/16 to 91 13/16 in early afternoon trading.
Sep/13/1999 12:42
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