Sun Microsystems said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 15 percent, citing record shipments of server and workstation computers and lower expenses.
Sun (SUNW), also known for its Java software, said its earnings rose to US$273 million, or 69 cents a share on a diluted basis, from $237 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding a one-time charge for an acquisition, Sun earned $288 million, or 73 cents a share, in the latest quarter. Wall Street had expected 71 cents a share, according to First Call.
Revenues rose 13 percent to a record $2.9 billion from $2.5 billion, Sun said.
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Excite loss narrows: Excite, the No. 2 Internet directory, Thursday reported a smaller-than-expected operating loss for the second quarter. Sales more than tripled, spurred by the company's pact with Netscape Communications.
Excluding charges, Excite (XCIT) posted a loss of US$4.6 million, or 10 cents per share, for the quarter ending 30 June. That compares with a loss of $6.4 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street expected a loss of 42 cents a share, according to First Call.
Excite's announcement followed the sharp rise in operating income reported earlier this week by its arch-rival, Yahoo, which also blew past analysts' estimates. Excite said its revenues more than tripled to $33 million from $10.1 million a year ago.
Traffic to Excite rose to 44 million page views per day in June, up 10 percent from March levels.
Earlier this year, Excite announced a major strategic partnership with Netscape in which the two companies agreed to co-brand various services on Netscape's Netcenter Web site.
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Inktomi loss widens: Internet search and software company Inktomi posted a slightly smaller-than-expected loss in its first earnings report since its stunning Wall Street debut last month.
Inktomi (INKT) reported a net loss of US$4.7 million, or 24 cents a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended 30 June, compared with a loss of $2.1 million, or 17 cents, a year ago. Wall Street analysts had expected a loss of 26 cents a share, according to First Call.
Revenues more than quadrupled to $6.3 million from $1.5 million, said the company, based in San Mateo, California.
Inktomi, whose technology powers many of the leading Internet directories, went public in June at $18 a share and its stock price more than doubled on its first day. The stock fell 6 cents on Thursday to $67.94 on Nasdaq ahead of the earnings release.
"Revenues in the third quarter alone surpassed revenues for the entire 1997 fiscal year and for the first six months of the current fiscal year, underscoring the strong momentum for our search and traffic server product lines worldwide," Inktomi President David Peterschmidt said in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
