Comscore Starts Review Following First Quarter Decline

Comscore has commenced a strategic review which aims for an initial $20m in cost savings, following a 3.4% fall in first quarter revenue to $102.3m; and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $2.5m, compared with a gain of $3.6m in the prior year period.

Overall for the group, net loss was $27.5m, compared with a net loss of $51.5m in Q1 2018. This improvement was partly driven by a reduction of costs relating to the investigation and audit of accounting irregularities at the firm in 2016. Adjusted EBITDA was impacted by additional non-stock expense of $2.4m related to the resignation of certain executives. Last month, CEO Bryan Wiener and President Sarah Hofstetter announced they would be leaving the company due to 'irreconcilable differences over how to execute the company's strategy'.

Dale Fuller (pictured), interim CEO, comments: 'Over the past five weeks, we began a strategic review of the company, including all aspects of customer relationships, products, and organization structure. While the strategic review is still in process, we have identified and implemented actions this week that we believe will result in a better customer experience, improved organizational efficiency, and resources that are better aligned with business needs. We expect these actions to decrease our annualized costs and cash outflow by approximately $20m, or 5% of our core operating costs, a portion of which will be realized beginning in the second quarter of 2019'.

During the first quarter, revenue in the Ratings and Planning segment increased to $70.6m from $69.6m in the prior year period - primarily driven by TV products due to increases in contract values from existing customers, offset by lower revenue in syndicated digital products. In the Analytics and Optimization division, revenue fell to $21.5m from $25.7m, with a decline in 'digital customer solution deliveries' offset by increased volume in Activation products. For the Movies Reporting and Analytics arm, revenue was $10.3m compared to $10.6m in the year-ago quarter, due Comscore says principally to lower project-based revenue in the quarter.

Web site: www.comscore.com .