AOL profit more than doubles

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Signaling that the problems of many Internet start-ups are not hurting their larger cousins, America Online on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $338 million, up 115 percent from a year earlier.

America Online, the world's biggest Internet company and one of the few profitable ones, earned 13 cents a share, 2 cents more than analysts had expected.

Despite the well-publicized problems of many Internet companies, most of which had been big advertisers on AOL's services, the company's advertising and electronic commerce revenue increased by 95 percent to $609 million.

AOL said there was little overlap between the top advertisers at AOL and merger partner Time Warner, creating the opportunity to sell more to existing clients.

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