Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. on Tuesday reported its second quarter financial results for the period ending June 30, 2003. Highlights of the report show that revenues are up year-to-year and net losses are down.
EarthLink ended the quarter with 5.04 million paying subscribers, up 180,000, or about 3.7 percent, from a year ago. Of those, 102,000 users were subscribers to EarthLink’s broadband service, which now totals 993,000 subscribers — up 64.4 percent from a year ago. In fact, EarthLink’s “narrowband” (or dial-up) subscriber base fell 4.9 percent to 3.9 million users, reflecting a continued shift towards higher-speed, higher-priced access.
Broadband revenues reflect 25.1 percent of EarthLink’s total revenue base — US$88.5 million of the $352.3 million in quarterly revenues was a result of broadband — a 53.0 percent growth over the second quarter of 2002. Narrowband revenues were $245.4 million, down 5.9 percent. Other revenue was derived from Web hosting revenues and advertising, as well as content and commerce revenues.
EarthLink ended the quarter with $456 million in the bank and in convertible securities. The company also repurchased 9.4 million shares of its own common stock for $55.5 million during the quarter — that included a 9 million share purchase that EarthLink made from Sprint Corp.
Going forward, EarthLink concedes that its “MailStation,” a thin appliance used to read e-mail, hasn’t been well-received — the company writing down inventory and taking a $4.8 million charge in the process, though it plans to continue supporting existing users. The company also expects to see another 230 – 280,000 broadband subscribers within a year, with a total of 5.15 million or so paying subscribers. EarthLink expects to achieve break-even net income in the fourth quarter.