Stock-based compensation and the cost of spinning off from Verizon Communications Inc. helped drive third-quarter profit down by more than half at Yellow Pages publisher Idearc Inc.

During the three months ended Sept. 30, the Dallas-based company made $117 million, or 80 cents per share, on revenue of $791 million – down sharply from the $245 million, or $1.68 a share, on revenue of $805 million that an independent Idearc would have made during the same period last year.

The company wasn't actually spun off from Verizon until Nov. 17, 2006.

CEO Katherine J. Harless, speaking on a conference call Thursday, asked investors to judge Idearc's performance not by falling profit but by its healthy cash flow, its reiteration of full-year guidance and its efforts to replace dwindling revenue from print products with growing revenue from the Internet.

"We are forging ahead with our multiplatform strategy and beginning to capture nontraditional revenues," she said. "We are ahead of all the other directory publishers when it comes to transforming from the print business to the Internet business."

Idearc executives noted two one-time expenses that increased the earnings dip: $14 million in separation costs and $4 million in stock compensation. The company also received a large debt load from Verizon after the spinoff.

Idearc's online revenue grew 15 percent over the year to $69 million. Print revenue fell only 3 percent, but they fell from such a high base that they more than offset Internet gains.

Indeed, Idearc's $721 million in print revenue represented a $22 million decline, far more than the $9 million gain from online enterprises such as the company's flagship Web site, Superpages .com.

Shares of Idearc, which employs about 1,700 people in the Dallas area, fell $1.76 to $25.22 in trading Thursday. They have fallen from around $37 in late July.

"I think the concern from investors is that you are seeing the transition of the business to electronic from print faster than expected," said Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Lehman Brothers.

Others worry that heavy competition online will keep Idearc from ever making the sort of margins on Internet business it has been able to generate with print products.