ACNielsen continues strong performance 27/10/00 Strong company performance up to the third quarter have just been reported by the ACNielsen Corporation. Each of the company's regional businesses is believed to have contributed solid local-currency results. Total earnings reached $24.5 million, compared with $23.4 million in the prior year. Within the 2000 results, the company has included a substantial pre-tax loss of over $5 million from the eRatings.com section. A greater pre-tax charge of $12.2 million from Operation Leading Edge, the company's plan to accelerate growth, has been excluded though. Accounts omitting both these functional areas show what is called the company’s core operating income. This rose 26% in local currency terms to a level of $44.5 million in 2000. All revenues combined as earned in local currency was up 7%. However, the company did experience some negative currency translations, especially involving the euro, the British pound and the Australian dollar. ACNielsen's chairman and chief executive officer Mr Trivisonno claims to be delighted at the ongoing success of the business. ‘Operations delivered another quarter of excellent growth in both revenue and earnings. Although weak foreign currencies continue to have a negative impact on our reported results, our operations around the world remain strong and growing." Performance also points to the fact that the company is on track to hit its predicted earnings. This means that it should achieve a predicted 10% core operating margin. The future should be rosier through the progress of its Leading Edge initiatives, bringing greater conversion of country-level information to a new harmonised regional system – a part of large scale redesign of corporate IT systems. More good things are also due from eRatings.com. It has already begun delivering online audience and advertising information across much of Europe - Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway and Sweden. The business is likely to continue to expand its markets (aiming for 30 or so countries by the end of next year) and sign more clients above its present level of 200.