NetGravity Posts Loss Despite Higher Revenues

Online ad solutions company NetGravity Inc. in San Mateo, CA posted a net loss for its fourth quarter ending Dec. 31 of $2.66 million, or $0.20 per share, compared to a net loss of $2.47 million or $0.88 per share in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues were $4.16 million, up from $1.86 million in the year earlier quarter.

A strong contributor to the company’s revenue growth in the fourth quarter was a 58 percent quarter-to-quarter growth in software license revenue, NetGravity said.

The company reported revenues of $11.55 million for the fiscal year, up from revenues of $6.36 million for the prior year.

The net loss for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1998, was $11.29 million, or $1.28 per share compared to a net loss of $6.88 million or $2.46 per share for the prior year.

“During 1998, NetGravity continued to demonstrate its leadership in Internet advertising solutions by successfully penetrating both the e-commerce and ad agency segments,” said John Danner, chairman and CEO of NetGravity. “In addition to our strong software licensing, we introduced the most reliable and fastest-growing outsourced ad management service with AdCenter.”

Last week, NetGravity announced a new outsourced ad management service specifically aimed at the agency market segment–AdCenter for Agencies, an end-to-end ad management solution, designed by agencies for agencies, including top interactive agencies as key contributors–Agency.com, Anderson & Lembke and Ogilvy Interactive.

Still, the company said that it “expects to significantly increase its expenditures on research and development, and sales and marketing in connection with its efforts to expand its presence in its target markets. . .Because NetGravity does not expect incremental revenues to offset these incremental expenses in the short term, the company expects. . .continued quarterly operating losses through the first half of 2000. . .”