Daily Research News Online no. 8011 - Arbitron Cuts Forecast after Pulling Apollo Plug

Arbitron Cuts Forecast after Pulling Apollo Plug

February 26 2008

Arbitron has lowered its 2008 earnings outlook as a result of terminating its Project Apollo joint venture yesterday.

Apollo, a joint venture between Nielsen and Arbitron, was halted due to insufficient numbers of clients committing to payment for the results (www.mrweb.com/drno/news8005.htm ). In 2007, costs associated with Project Apollo totalled $6.9m. CEO Steve Morris said he is disappointed at the project's termination, but added that his firm will use the knowledge gained during the past two years to help customers improve the return on their media expenditure.

When asked about TRA plans for measuring and reporting 'True ROI Accountability' for advertising spend (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7941.htm ), Morris said that the firm's less expensive model doesn't have anywhere near the granularity of the Project Apollo approach.

On February 14, Arbitron issued full year 2008 revenue growth guidance of 8% to 10% and earnings per share guidance expectations between $1.42 and $1.56. As a result of the closure of Project Apollo, earnings per share for the full year 2008 are now expected to be between $1.30 and $1.44.

In mid-February, it was noted that the earnings per share excluded the impact of costs associated with shutting down or commercialising Project Apollo. The company noted that the outcome of the commercialisation decision would result in additional costs of between $4m and $10m, with the low end representing a shutdown of the panel and the high end representing full commercialisation.

Today, Arbitron says it continues to expect revenue for the full year 2008 to increase between 8% and 10% compared with last year's revenue from continuing operations (excluding 2007 revenue from Continental Research, which was sold to UK MR firm BDRC in January: www.mrweb.com/drno/news7926.htm.)

Arbitron is online at www.arbitron.com.