CMGI Unloads Internet Stocks As Losses Widen

BOSTON (Reuters) - Amid large losses and a 94 percent stock price swoon this year, CMGI (CMGI) Inc., whose holdings include Web site AltaVista (dossier) and online marketer Engage Inc., said on Thursday it sold Internet investments worth more than $1 billion during the first quarter.
Including charges, CMGI posted a net loss of $636.6 million, or $2.07 a share, in the first quarter even as its revenue rose 184 percent to $366.1 million. That's more than four times the year earlier loss of $117.4 million, or 54 cents a share.
Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial were looking, on average, for CMGI to post a loss of $2.13 a share.
Andover, Mass.-based CMGI beat Wall Street estimates, but last year's Internet darling has spent the past several months exiting money-losing businesses, shelving expansion plans and cutting its work force.
CMGI's operations and venture fund span nearly 70 Internet companies.
CMGI said it recorded a pre-tax gain of $651.4 million unloading shares of Lycos (LCOS) Inc., Yahoo (YHOO) Inc., Kana Communications (KANA) and Critical Path (CPTH) Inc.
Offsetting those gains, however, CMGI recorded pre-tax losses of $450 million from selling shares of Hong Kong's Pacific Century CyberWorks' and writing down four investments.
CMGI's five Internet business segments generated $896.7 million in operating losses, compared with $277.2 million in the year-ago period.
Shares of CMGI fell to a year-low of $9 during Thursday trading on the Nasdaq, closing down about 6 percent to $9-1/16, way below its year-high of $163.50.
Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service