AOL’s Profit Drops 86% on Subscriptions as Display Ads Rise

AOL Inc., the Web company that bought the Huffington Post in March, said first-quarter profit fell 86 percent as declining subscription sales overshadowed the first gain in display advertising in more than three years.

Net income dropped to $4.7 million, or 4 cents a share, from $34.7 million, or 32 cents, a year earlier. Sales slid 17 percent to $551.4 million, New York-based AOL said today in a statement, topping the $533.4 million average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.