BERLIN (AP) -- Adidas AG said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 62 percent on lower purchasing costs due to its acquisition of Reebok in 2006, but results from the German maker of athletic apparel and sporting goods fell below analyst expectations.

Sales at the company's TaylorMade-adidas Golf, which makes golf clubs and equipment, fell to $1.2 million from about $1.5 million in 2006, a result hampered by the divestiture of its Greg Norman Collection apparel business. On a like-for-like basis, TaylorMade-adidas Golf sales increased 9 percent, and, going forward, currency-neutral TaylorMade-adidas Golf sales are forecasted to grow at a mid-single-digit rate.

The company earned $31.9 million in the October-December period, but the result was lower than the $38 million that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast.

Sales rose to $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter compared with nearly $3.4 billion in the final three months of 2006.

For the year, the company earned $837.9 million, up 14 percent from 2006, but also below the $843.9 million that analysts had forecast. Sales for the year rose slightly to $15.6 billion from 15 billion in 2006.

Adidas foresees net income growth of about 15 percent in 2008.

''We will continue to grow both our top and bottom line in 2008,'' Chief Executive Herbert Hainer said in a statement.

By unit, the company said its Adidas brand set the pace for growth in 2007, with sales reaching $10.8 billion compared with in 2006. Sales at its Reebok unit slipped slightly to $3.5 billion last year from nearly $4 billion in 2006.

Adidas acquired Canton, Mass.-based Reebok in 2006 in a $3.8 billion deal that helped Adidas make more inroads into the U.S. market and better compete with rivals Nike Inc. and Puma AG.

Adidas said Reebok's chief marketing officer, Uli Becker, will be the company's new CEO, replacing Paul Harrington, who is stepping down. Harrington has been with Reebok for nearly 12 years, including the last two years as CEO.

The company reported that its order backlog for the Adidas brand hit 17 percent, its highest level in nearly a decade, but order backlogs for Reebok slid 8 percent, a decline blamed on reduced orders from mall-based retailers in the U.S. and Canada.

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