Sina 2Q profit drops 41 percent

SAN FRANCISCO — Sina Corp., operator of a leading Chinese Internet portal, said Monday that its second-quarter profit fell 41 percent. When excluding items, the Shanghai-based company met analyst expectations.

Sina said that for the quarter that ended June 30, its earnings fell to $13.3 million, or 23 cents per share, from $22.5 million, or 37 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

When one-time items, Sina earned 29 cents per share, which is what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected.

Sina's revenue dipped 1 percent to $90.3 million from $91.3 million last year, beating analyst estimates for $88.1 million in sales. The company said advertising revenue fell 11 percent to $57.8 million, while non-advertising revenue — which is comprised chiefly of mobile value-added services that could include things like game and ringtone downloads — rose 23 percent to $32.5 million.

Revenue costs climbed nearly 14 percent to $40 million from $35.2 million in the same quarter last year.

The company's interest and other income in the second quarter was much lower than in the year-ago period — $1.7 million, compared with $4.1 million in 2008. It also benefited from a $3.1 million gain on investments in the second quarter of 2008.

Sina added that as of Monday it had bought back 2.5 million shares under its $100 million share buyback plan, at an average purchase price was $20.37, for a total of $50 million.

Shares of Sina, which also predicted third-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates, fell 20 cents in after-hours trading, after finishing regular trading down 34 cents at $30.