Acquisitions helped boost Melbourne IT's net profit for the six months to June 30 to $7.81 million, from $6.52 million in the previous corresponding period.
"We have delivered another pleasing result in the first half of 2008 and expect to outperform our first half result at the full year," Melbourne IT chief executive Theo Hnarakis said.
He said the group result was "great", considering that the higher value of the Australian dollar had affected group revenue by around $4 million.
Three of the company's divisions - Business and Consumer, Digital Brand Services, and Corporate and Government - performed "very well".
The Reseller division, and the smallest division, For The Record, both suffered revenue declines as a result of the strong Australian dollar.
In the first half, Melbourne IT acquired VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services (DBMS) and established a search engine marketing joint venture with Fairfax Digital, called Advantate.
Hnarakis said that Melbourne IT expected in the second half that the contribution from DBMS would be offset by amortisation and integration costs and interest on debt, resulting in a negligible contribution to net profit.
Advantate was expected to lose another $1 million - of which Melbourne IT's share would be $500,000 - in the second half as it built its customer base and momentum.
Hnarakis said he expressed confidence that during 2009 DBMS and Advantate would become positive contributors to Melbourne IT's bottom line.
He said the number of domain names under management had increased 18 per cent from 5.1 million at this time last year to 6 million, but the company was focusing more upon IT services and becoming less reliant on domain name revenue.
Total revenue grew by 12 per cent to $86.7 million.
The company declared an interim dividend of seven cents a share, compared to six cents in the prior corresponding period.
