AOL Q2: Revenues Down To $531M, Lowest Decline In 7 Years; Traffic, Ad Revenues Up

AOL (owner of TechCrunch) continues to stem its declines, although it is still declining. In Q2 results reported just now, the company noted revenues of $531 million. That’s a two percent decline on the same period last year, but it is still the lowest decline it’s had in seven years. Diluted earnings per share were $10.17, while net income was $970.8 million, compared to a net loss of $11.8 million in the same quarter last year.

Traffic is also up by four percent on last year to 112 million unique visitors, with the Huffington Post continuing to drive those numbers.

The results beat numbers from analysts who were expecting $519.36 million in revenues; and EPS of 10 cents.

With a $1.056 billion patent sale to Microsoft closing in June, along with a $400 million tender offer to return the proceeds to shareholders, AOL has been riding a good wave in the markets, with its shares creeping up in the last three months. The company currently says it has $1.5 billion of cash (as of June 30, 2012).

At the end of June, the company also underwent yet another reorganization into three divisions of membership, brands and ad units to better focus its efforts in content and advertising businesses.

Some other key figures:

– Global advertising revenue. This is a key area for the company, and it is up by 6%, its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Within that, AOL saw 2% year-over-year global display revenue growth; and 9% year-over-year growth in combined AOL Properties Display and Third Party Network revenue. That totaled $251.3 million for the quarter.

However, you shouldn’t let that mask the fact that advertising on AOL properties was still basically flat on last year at $226.4 million.

Third Party Network revenue, the newest area for AOL, is also growing the best for now: 19% up on last year, its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. International display, another relatively small part of AOL’s business, also went up by 21% on the year.

– Subscriptions. These revenues, which are largely based around the pass of people who still continue to pay AOL for dial-up services, continue to decline — all the more reason ads are so important. They were down by 13 percent to $175.5 million — although they are still making up one-third of revenues.

– Local, namely Patch. This seems to be turning, too: AOL noted that it grew traffic and engagement at double digit rates year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, while revenue grew over 100% year-over-year in Q2 2012.

A snapshot of how ads and other revenue generators did from AOL’s earnings statement:

There will be an analyst call at 8am Eastern time, and we’ll update with more detail from that.