AOL Shares Surge 12.5 Percent On Better-than-expected Quarterly Revenue
AOL Inc issued third-quarter results Wednesday, posting an 6 percent drop in revenue due to the continued decline of its once-lucrative dial-up Internet access business. The results surpassed the expectations of analysts, however, fueling a 12.5 percent surge in the company's shares. During the three months ended September 30th, AOL reported overall revenue of $531.7 million, surpassing the consensus estimate of $524 million projected by analysts in a recent Thomson Reuters survey.
Prior to Wednesday's surge, AOL shares were down 40 percent for the year. Investors had become accustomed to weaker-than-expected results from the company, which dominated the Internet access market a decade ago. The company's stock plunged over 30 percent, for example, when it released second-quarter results back in August.
Since being spun-off from Time Warner, AOL has been struggling to regain its status as one of the Web's most popular destinations in order to attract advertising revenue from companies spanning a wide variety of industries. Toward that end, CEO Tim Armstrong has invested heavily in efforts like the building of a vast network of local news sites collectively known as Patch, and spent $315 million last year to acquire the popular online newspaper the Huffington Post.
|
