<p>Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. reported a narrower first-quarter loss on slightly lower revenue.</p><p>The Atlanta-based company's results, released Tuesday, beat Wall Street expectations. Its shares soared on the news.</p><p>The nation's third-largest ISP said it lost $11.79 million, or 7 cents a share, for the three months ending March 31, compared to a loss of $65.68 million, or 43 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.</p><p>Excluding one-time items _ mainly facility exit costs _ EarthLink turned a profit of $18.44 million, or 11 cents a share, in the quarter, compared to a loss of $29.08 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago.</p><p>On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of 7 cents a share.</p><p>Revenue in the January-March period was $351.56 million, compared to $353.75 million a year ago.</p><p>Shares of EarthLink rose $1.38, or 15 percent, to $10.47 in early trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.</p><p>"The numbers speak for themselves as EarthLink had a great quarter," said Garry Betty, EarthLink's chief executive officer. "We once again achieved strong operational efficiencies and improved underlying access revenues as our broadband and value-priced narrowband services helped drive subscriber growth."</p><p>Also Tuesday, EarthLink raised its earnings outlook for the rest of the year and announced a business deal with telecommunications giant Sprint, which is EarthLink's largest individual shareholder. Sprint owns nearly 18.9 million shares, or 12 percent, of EarthLink stock, according to an EarthLink proxy filing Monday.</p><p>The company said it expects net income of $54 million to $80 million for the year. Before one-time items related to office closings, the company said it expects earnings of $84 million to $110 million for the year.</p><p>As for the business deal, Sprint and EarthLink said they have signed a three-year marketing and sales agreement.</p><p>Under the deal, Sprint and EarthLink will offer a co-branded high-speed Internet service to residential and small-business customers in Sprint's local territory, billed on a single monthly statement. The service will be sold by both Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint and EarthLink.</p><p>EarthLink has significantly reduced the size of its company over the last 15 months.</p><p>In January 2003, EarthLink said it was cutting about 25 percent of its work force because of increased competition. At the time, EarthLink had 5,100 employees.</p><p>This past January, EarthLink announced it was cutting another 1,300 jobs, which then represented 40 percent of its remaining work force. The company said 2,000 employees would remain after the latest round of cuts.</p><p>At the same time, EarthLink gave its CEO a 76 percent increase in his annual bonus last year, a regulatory filing released Monday shows. Betty's $346,790 bonus last year was on top of $621,154 in salary he received.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x28655d8)</p>
