BREAK OUT THE CALCULATOR, HERE COMES THE MATH PORTION

Surprising many in the financial community, because they're really the only ones who pay close attention to these types of things, online music distributor MP3.com on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter loss that was smaller than most forecasts. The company said sales during the quarter rose 44%.

In its report, the one-time industry whipping post said its pro forma net loss totaled $3.1 million or 5 cents per share, compared with a loss of $10.6 million or 17 cents per share during the same period in 1999. Revenues increased to $22 million from $15.3 million.

Analysts on average had predicted a loss of 13 cents per share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks financial results.

"This has truly been an incredible year for MP3.com and the entire music industry," said Chairman/CEO Michael Robertson. "Throughout the year, we held to our key objectives of building the infrastructure and technologies that we believe will unlock the enormous possibilities of digital music, broadening our business model to incorporate new and innovative revenue streams. And by ‘incredible year' I mean 'damn, we spent a lot on lawyers'."