Heavy loss

Walt Disney Co._s Go.com, the company that combines Infoseek Corp. with Disney_s other Internet assets, lost $1.06 billion in fiscal 1999, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The loss, which included $956 million in depreciation and amortization expenses, widened from a loss of $991 million a year earlier. Revenue for the year ended Sept. 30 rose 8 percent to $348 million from $323 million. Go.com was formed last month after Disney bought the rest of Infoseek that it didn_t already own and combined it with its online assets such as ABCNews.com and the Go Network. Disney has been spending heavily to expand the Internet businesses and attract customers and advertisers, and the spending won_t let up anytime soon, Go.com President Steve Wadsworth said this week at the PaineWebber Media Conference. The Internet businesses are "still in investment mode," Wadsworth said. Disney last month issued a stock to track the performance of Go.com in an effort to highlight the value of its Internet properties and attract executives. The shares have declined about 28 percent since mid-November.Wadsworth also said Go.com is having conversations with unnamed Internet access providers with an eye toward securing distribution to high-speed broadband users.Wadsworth also said he doesn_t want Go.com to take on the same kind of "portal" model of companies such as Yahoo! Inc., which "try to be all things to all people." "Chasing everyone else in the portal game won't win it for us," he said.