Telecommunications company ICG Communications Inc plans to dispose of its Netcom ISP business and is actively looking for a buyer. ICG acquired the unit in October 1997 in order to offer customers a full spectrum of telecom services, including internet access and web hosting. It now says the loss-making business will be jettisoned to one or more third parties sometime in the next twelve months. For the third quarter, Netcom’s revenues rose only $0.4m to $40.8m, marking its first sequential increase this year. Its net loss for the quarter amounted to $13.9m, up from $6.8m in the corresponding quarter a year ago and $10.6m for the prior quarter. Netcom’s rolls aren’t exactly growing, either, as it finished the quarter will 502,000 subscribers, down from 512,000 at the end of the second quarter. During the third quarter, the company began marketing initiatives designed to stabilize and eventually grow its subscriber base, but they succeeded only in reducing subscriber losses from 4% to 3% on a quarter-to-quarter basis.
