AOL earnings bring no surprises

Jim Hu CNet

Published: 30 Jan 2002 13:43 GMT

To nobody's surprise, AOL Time Warner on Wednesday reported financial earnings in line with Wall Street's expectations.

The world's largest media and Internet company said revenue for 2001 hit $38.2bn, up from $36.2bn the previous year. For the fourth quarter 2001, revenue reached $10.6bn, up from $10.2bn from the same period the year before.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the year rose 18 percent to $9.9bn, up from $8.4bn in 2002. For the quarter, EBITDA climbed 14 percent to $2.8bn, compared to $2.4bn the year before.

These results do not include the pro forma effect of AOL Time Warner acquisition of European magazine publisher IPC Media and its remaining stake in AOL Europe.

Today's news comes weeks after the company warned Wall Street that its earnings for the year would come up short. Since the merger was announced, AOL Time Warner's top executives insisted the company would generate $40bn in revenue and $11bn in EBITDA. Many on Wall Street have since faulted management for being too stubborn and not factoring in the tough advertising market.

For 2002, the company reiterated its guidance for 5 percent to 8 percent revenue growth and an 8 percent to 12 percent EBITDA increase. The financial performance of AOL Europe and IPC Media were included in these estimates. AOL Time Warner added that revenue and EBITDA would be flat for the first quarter of 2002 compared with the same time frame in 2001.

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