Despite a Zona Research Inc report suggesting 13% fewer users are accessing the web with Navigator as their primary browser than three months ago, Netscape Communications Corp share price managed to ride the bull market in technology stocks yesterday, putting on $0.87 to reach $38.00. Netscape yesterday reported fourth quarter net income up to $8.8m compared with $0.5m last time, or $0.10 a share, on revenue up 177% at $115.1m over the $41.6m it did last time. For the year it made a profit of $20.9m compared with a loss of $6.6m in 1995, on revenue up 305% at $346.2m over $85.4m last time. Although Netscape’s share price has lost more than 50% its value in the last year, the company is reportedly still the fastest growing software start-up in history. Its market capitalization is a staggering $3.8bn. The company made an operating profit of $10.73m in the quarter, up from a loss of $1.74m last time. Netscape president and CEO Jim Barksdale said the company shipped one million servers during 1996, many during the fourth quarter, despite recent rumors the company had dropped the ball toward the end of the year. The latest Zona study shows Navigator’s use as the primary browser on the desktops of 211 enterprises surveyed has fallen by 13% to 70% in the last quarter, while use of Microsoft Corp Internet Explorer has risen from 8% to 28%. NCSA is used at 2% of sites. However the study reveals that almost all users surveyed have two browsers on their desktops. More positively, 52% of organizations now say they specify a particular browser for corporate use; 38% Netscape and 14% Microsoft, while 48% have no policy. Netscape has appointed 3Com Corp chief executive Eric Benhamou to its board.
