DoubleClick Inc, the New York-based advertising network has expanded its deal with Compaq Computer Corp’s AltaVista web site and announced fourth quarter numbers on or around Wall Street’s expectations. However, it is more of a solidifying of its deal with AltaVista than anything too substantial, as it amounts to a replacement of its contract that was due to expire at the end of this year that both sides could have left with 90-days notice, with a three year contract to the end of 2001. This time, neither side can get out of the deal, says DoubleClick. However, the firm warns that AltaVista has the right to assume full control of the accounts of certain of its key advertisers, whereby it could push DoubleClick out of the picture. However, it does not seem too bothered by this, having more than 2,000 advertisers on its books. Fourth quarter net losses per share were 25 cents per share, or $4.4m, up from losses of $3.7m last time, on revenues that rose 1661.% to $29.1m. The First Call average consensus estimate for DoubleClick’s losses per share was 26 cents, so it bettered it by one cent. The DoubleClick Dart system delivered an average of 172 million impressions per day during December, compared with 108 million a day in September. The number of web publishers using Dart increased to 570 with 6,400 unique web sites, from 440 publishers and 4,200 web sites in the third quarter. Cash at the year-end stood at $136.8m, boosted by a recent secondary offering that raised about $86m before expenses (12/14/98). For the year to December, DoubleClick recorded net losses of $18.2m, up from $8.4m the previous year, on revenues that were up 162.1% to $80.2m.
