Internet service provider PSINet continues to rein in its losses slowly but surely, this time posting fourth-quarter red ink of $14.3m, down from the year-ago quarter’s $16.8m net loss. Revenue for the quarter rose 52.6% to $34.8m. The loss for the quarter amounts to $0.36 per share, when Wall Street was expecting the Herndon, Virginia company to do one penny worse than that. For the year, net loss was $45.6m on revenue up 35.7% at $121.9m, down from a loss of $55.1m. Yearly results did, however, include a one-time gain of $5.7m from the sale of the company’s software subsidiary, InterCon Systems Corp, to Ascend Communications Corp (CI No 3,088). During the fourth quarter PSINet added 3,400 corporate customers, an increase of 15% over the previous quarter. In addition 550 customers upgraded their service. At year-end, total corporate accounts numbered 26,400, up 48% year- over-year. The company also said that the average annual value of the new customers increased to $5,500 from $4,500. The company’s Carrier and ISP Services unit increased its customer base from 22 to 47 ISP customers year-over-year. The PSIWeb service increased its hosted sites by 66% to 4,200. Even though the company appears to be on the right track, it is a slow road to profit, as analysts surveyed by First Call don’t expect PSINet to show a positive bottom line until the fourth quarter of 1999.
