AOL profit beats Wall Street expectations Wed Feb 1, 2012 7:32am EST (Reuters) - AOL Inc (AOL.N) posted a drop in fourth-quarter profit, but beat Wall Street forecasts as a rise in display advertising offset an ongoing decline at its Internet dial-up business. Earnings fell to $22.8 million, or 23 cents a share, from continuing operations from $66.2 million, or 60 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected AOL to post a profit of 16 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue dipped by 3 percent to $576.8 million. AOL, whose media assets include Huffington Post and TechCrunch, said total advertising revenue rose by 10 percent to $331.6 million. Overall display advertising -- representing big splashy ads that appear on Web pages and command higher rates -- rose 15 percent. Subscription revenue from AOL's dial-up Internet access unit declined by 18 percent. Reporting by Yinka Adegoke in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn