AOL Inc reported a 90 percent decline in profit for the third quarter compared to last year. Earnings per share for the quarter also missed analysts' expectations. However, revenues beat Street estimates.
The company reported net income for the third quarter of $2 million, which is $0.02 per share. The previous year's earning for the comparable quarter was $20.8 million or $0.22 per share. In December 2009, the New York-based AOL spun off from Time Warner, Inc.
The reason for which the latest quarter's results were negatively affected was the pre-tax restructuring costs of $19 million as well as $25 million related to non-cash asset impairments in the company's Patch operations.
15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, expected the company to produce earnings of $0.35 per share for this quarter. One-time items are typically excluded by the analysts' estimates.
Total revenue for the third quarter increased by almost 6 percent from $531.7 million in same quarter last year, to $561.3 million. Analysts had estimated $548.81 million.
The increase in revenue was hugely driven by global advertising revenue growth. The company noted that growth continued in all advertising revenue lines for the third consecutive quarter this year.
The global advertising revenue for the quarter rose to 14 percent, which equals to $386 million. AOL properties revenue rose 4 percent and global display revenue increased around 5 percent. The global search revenue improved 3 percent and third-party network revenue rose by 32 percent compared to last year.
Unique visitors for AOL properties grew 4 percent from the last year to 115 million. However, the subscription revenues for the quarter declined 7 percent to $161.6 million.
