CNet Inc, the online news organization, service provider and television company has come in with fourth quarter results well below Wall Street’s expectations, but clearly believes it has turned some sort of corner, as is predicting break-even results for the company as a whole in 1998. The San Franciscan company reported fourth quarter net losses of $10.7m, after a charge of $2.0m; $1.3m of which was a reserve for reorganizing real estate needs, and a $700,000 write-off of unused domain names, up from $4.3m losses last time. At the per share level that’s net losses of $0.76 a share, or $0.62 before the charge Zacks Investment Research’s average of seven brokers following the company had an average estimate of $0.42 before charges. Revenues were up 71.4% to $10.3m. But whatever way it’s spun, it was a bad quarter for the company. Publishing accounted for 76% of revenues in the quarter and television16%, although the latter’s revenues were actually flat year on year. In December CNet completed financing totaling $18m and the focus now, says the company is to make each CNet brand profitable. Yesterday CNet announced an agreement with Bloomberg LP for Bloomberg’s financial news and data to appear on CNet’s sites over the next three years. For the year the company reported net losses of $24.7m, after a $9.0m charge, up from losses of $16.9m for the year, on revenues that rose 127% to $33.6m. The shares were dropping throughout the day, eventually closing down $1.4375 at $29.75.
