Inktomi's Loss Smaller Than Expected

Inktomi Corp., whose Internet "spider" technology powers several of the most popular search engines, reported a fiscal first-quarter loss that was smaller than forecast and said its sales grew more than fourfold. The San Mateo-based company said its loss widened to $6.4 million, or 24 cents a share, in the latest quarter from a loss of $4.3 million, or 25 cents, a year ago. Analysts had expected a loss of around 29 cents, according to estimates compiled by First Call Corp. Revenue jumped to $10.7 million from $2.4 million. The number of queries its search engine processed climbed to about 1.8 billion during the quarter, which it said was about 33% higher than the previous quarter's 1.35 billion searches. Inktomi, which first sold shares to the public for $18 each on June 10, announced its earnings after the close of regular U.S. trading. Its shares rose $1.63 to close at $158.50 on Nasdaq.