TOM Online Inc, an Internet company posted a loss in the fourth quarter after taking a one-time charge for an acquisition.

Net loss in the three months ended on December 31 was US$509,000, compared with a profit of US$12.7 million a year earlier. The result included a US$4.6 million impairment charge on Indiagames Ltd, a designer of mobile games that Tom Online acquired for US$17.7 million in 2005.

Sales at Tom Online, China's largest provider of mobile-phone services such as ring-tones and music downloads, fell 28.5 percent as wireless operator China Unicom Ltd followed larger rival China Mobile Ltd in enforcing marketing restrictions on the services, seeking to reduce unsolicited phone messages sent to users.

In the fourth quarter, "we started to see the impact of the restrictions" by Unicom, Wendy Huang, an analyst at Evolution Securities in Shanghai, said before the announcement. Tom Online will sell all of its interests in Indiagames in order to focus on the China market.

Fourth quarter sales of US$33.6 million missed the company's forecast of US$34.5 million to US$35.5 million. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a US$5.4 million profit and US$37 million in sales.

The company said advertising sales fell 1.3 percent to US$3.2 million in the fourth quarter due to reduced spending by electronic-commerce customers. 

Source:佚名