Germany-based internet services provider United Internet reported revenues up 15 percent to EUR 1.907 billion in 2010, while EBITDA increased slightly from EUR 356.1 million in 2009 to EUR 357.7 million. Due in particular to scheduled depreciation of EUR 21.6 million on freenet's DSL customer base acquired in late 2009, the EBIT fell by 9.5 percent to EUR 271.5 million. This led to a net profit of EUR 127.7 million for 2010, down from EUR 271.2 million in 2009, which included extraordinary income of EUR 75.6 million from the sale of freenet and Drillisch shares, write-ups on the MSP holding and write-downs in particular on Versatel shares, as well as non-recurring, net positive tax adjustments of EUR 26.6 million. In contrast, the 2010 net profit was burdened by impairment charges (especially for the shares in freenet still held) of EUR 13.8 million and by increased losses of associated companies (especially Versatel) of EUR 31.8 million. The company's internet access customer base grew by 130,000 year-on-year to 3.63 million on 31 December 2010. The growth was driven by unbundled DSL customers, up by 500,000 to 2.32 million, and mobile internet users, which grew from 90,000 at the end of 2009 to 270,000 at the end of 2010. These increases offset the drop in dial-up and resale DSL customers to 1.04 million from 1.59 million a year earlier. Access revenue grew by 19.8 percent to 1.23 billion, and the EBITDA dropped to EUR 122.6 million from EUR 124.1 million in 2009. United Internet's applications segment revenue growth slowed due to the contract conversion of a major customer of Sedo's subsidiary affilinet. As a result, the listed subsidiary Sedo Holding posted a fall in sales of 14.2 percent for 2010, whereas the rest of the segment enjoyed growth of 12.5 percent. Against this backdrop, total segment sales grew by just 7.1 percent to EUR 676.5 million. The number of fee-based contracts grew by 480,000 to 6.13 million. Business Applications contributed 290,000 new contracts for a total 4.30 million), and Consumer Applications added 190,000 new contracts to reach 1.83 million.
