EarthLinks Revenues Climb on Acquisitions

By Josh Long

Lifted by acquisitions of ITC^DeltaCom and STS Telecom, EarthLink Inc. on Thursday revealed that its revenues in the first quarter of 2011 climbed to $243 million.

That figure reflected 55 percent growth over the same period a year ago and excludes Earthlinks recent acquisition of One Communications valued at $370 million.

Atlanta-based EarthLink posted a lower profit (net income of $16.4 million, or $0.15 per share) than in the first quarter of 2010 ($26.7 million or $0.25 per share).

EarthLink, which was one of the nations first Internet service providers, has been transforming itself into a service provider more oriented to businesses.

Thanks to its acquisitions and the New Edge Networks subsidiary, business services now comprise 59 percent of the company’s revenues.

A year ago, EarthLink only derived 21 percent of its revenues from business services.

The ISP lost 79,000 customers in its consumer segment, although that represented fewer losses than in the quarter a year ago (114,000). Consumer subscriber churn dipped year over year from 3.1 percent to 2.7 percent.

EarthLink ended the quarter with $551.6 million in cash and marketable securities.

In updated guidance provided for the entire year, which includes the One Communications acquisition that closed on April 1, 2011, EarthLink anticipates the following results: adjusted EBITDA of $305 million to $315 million; free cash flow of $175 million to $200 million; and a profit of between $13 million and $20 million.  EarthLink expects to incur between $115 million and $130 million in capital expenditures for the year.

Shares of EarthLink closed Thursday at $8.31 on the NASDAQ. Over the last 52 weeks, the shares have ranged in price from a high of $9.31 on April 29, 2010 to a low of $7.73 on March 17, 2011.