The portal reported a net loss of $31 million, or 31 cents a diluted share, for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared with a loss of $13.9 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding amortization of goodwill, merger-related expenses and other one-time items, Lycos had a profit of $3 million, or 3 cents a share. On that basis, it was expected to report a profit of 1 cent a share, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial.
A year ago, the company lost $1.6 million on a pro forma basis, or two cents a share.
Revenue more than doubled to $68.6 million from $31.1 million in the year-ago period. Analysts expected the company to generate about $63 million in revenue.
Shares of Lycos fell $1.25 to $69.06 at the close of regular trading at 1 p.m. PST. Lycos made its report after the market closed.
The company has been looking to increase its number of customers by snapping up popular Web sites such as Gamesville.com, an online-game company, and Quote.com, which tracks stock data. It's also boosted spending on advertising to catch up with rival Yahoo, the No. 1 Internet search service.
Lycos wants to add users because it can then charge companies more to advertise on its own Web sites.
"Lycos is doing a good job of being a scrappy No. 2," said William Blair analyst Abhishek Gami, who rates Lycos shares a "strong buy." "A lot of their pieces are coming together nicely."
The company's spending on sales and marketing rose to $35.4 million from $18.1 million. Lycos had 30.3 million visitors during December, compared with 42.4 million for Yahoo.
Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
News.com's Kurt Oeler contributed to this report.
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