Expedia said yesterday that its sales in the fourth quarter of 2002 nearly doubled to $1.38 billion and its profit quadrupled to $21.4 million.

In 1996, it made a $280 million investment in Ducati Motor, the Italian motorcycle maker, whose profits have since more than quadrupled.

(Even with that write-off, the unit's profits before taxes doubled from 1999 to 2000, and quadrupled for the first quarter of this year.)

Its productivity, measured in units produced per employee, has increased by 50 percent since 1980, and its profits have quadrupled on tripled sales.

Pre-tax profits in the six months to the end of September almost quadrupled to £25.2m on flat sales of £2.8bn.

Shell said profits in its refined oil products segment quadrupled, to $77 million, thanks to lower costs.

At the cable division, profits nearly quadrupled, rising to $60 million from $16 million.

Since then, the profits of some of Fleet Street's established newspapers have nearly quadrupled because of drastically reduced costs.

Its profit nearly quadrupled last year, to $114 million, while revenue surged 30 percent, to $1.37 billion.

Computer issues plunged, despite a report from Apple that its fiscal first-quarter profits more than quadrupled.