One-Off Costs Sap Profit as comScore Revenue Leaps

Online measurement specialist comScore has recorded 'record quarterly revenue' - up 52% on the previous year to $51.2m - while reporting a net loss of $494k compared with net income of $1.6m, resulting from acquisition and severance costs.

For the full year, comScore posted a 37% rise in revenue to $175m, compared with $127.7m in the prior year, and a loss of $1.6m compared with net income of $4m in 2009.

'We believe that 2010 was a transformative year for comScore,' says President and CEO, Dr Magid Abraham. 'We have substantially broadened our offerings to incorporate solutions in site analytics, advertising analytics, advanced mobile solutions and cross-media measurement, and our acquisitions of ARS Group, Nexius Xplore, and Nedstat NV are important enablers for these initiatives.'

For the full year 2011, comScore expects revenue to grow approximately 34% to 36% over full year 2010. The firm also anticipates that revenues in the second half of 2011 will begin to benefit from incremental sales generated by new product offerings in the site analytics, mobile analytics and cross-media measurement areas, while the full incremental revenue benefit of those sales should materialize in 2012.

'We expect our investments in acquisition integration and in the development and launch of these new offerings will burden our margins in the first half of the year, but should help expand our margins in the second half,' Abraham added.

The company forecasts first-quarter 2011 sales of up to $52.9m, and a first-quarter loss before income taxes of $4.3m to $4.8m.

Web site: www.comscore.com .