Wanadoo narrows its losses

NEWS French ISP Wanadoo reported a widened net loss for 2001 after acquisitions in Spain and the UK. However, without the acquisitions taken into consideration, the company has actually begun to claw its way back to breaking even Full-year loss widened to E193m (£118m), up from E102m (£62.4m) in the previous year. Revenue jumped 41 per cent to E1.56bn (£950m) and should increase by 30 per cent this year, according to Wanadoo executives. Wanadoo bought Freeserve in the UK in 2000 for $2.4bn and Indice Multimedia in Spain for $321m. Losses before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation narrowed to E64m (£39m) from E66m (£40) in 2000. The company said it expected to be profitable on this basis by the end of 2002, a year earlier than expected.