Strategic Review Expected to Produce Initial $20 Million in Annualized Cost Savings
RESTON, Va., May 8, 2019 - Comscore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting, and evaluating media across platforms, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.
First Quarter 2019 Financial Results
"As we sharpen our focus on the products our customers want, we will further strengthen our position in the marketplace. This will better enable us to expand our customer base, service our existing customers, and drive long-term value for our stockholders," said Dale Fuller, interim chief executive officer of Comscore.
"Over the past five weeks, we began a strategic review of the company, including all aspects of customer relationships, products, and organization structure," Fuller added. "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 $20 million, or 5% of our core operating costs, a portion of which will be realized beginning in the second quarter of 2019."
First Quarter Summary ResultsTotal revenue in the first quarter of 2019 was $102.3 million, down from $105.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
Ratings and Planning revenue increased to $70.6 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $69.6 million in the year-ago quarter. The increase was primarily driven by TV products due to increases in contract values from existing customers and expanded market reach, offset by lower revenue in syndicated digital products due to ongoing industry changes in ad buying and consolidation.
Analytics and Optimization revenue declined to $21.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $25.7 million in the year-ago quarter. As previously disclosed, the first quarter of 2018 included certain digital customer solution deliveries from prior-year sales. This, in combination with a decline in current deliveries of digital customer solutions, resulted in lower revenue for the 2019 quarter as compared to the year-ago period. This decrease was offset by increased volume in Activation products.
Movies Reporting and Analytics revenue was $10.3 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $10.6 million in the year-ago quarter. The decrease principally related to lower project-based revenue in the quarter.
Net loss for the first quarter of 2019 was $27.5 million, or $(0.46) per share, compared to a net loss of $51.5 million, or $(0.93) per share reported in the year-ago quarter. The improvement was driven primarily by a reduction of investigation and audit related costs, as well as continued cost discipline in selling and marketing and research and development.
For the first quarter of 2019, non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss was $2.5 million, compared to positive adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense; investigation, litigation and audit-related expense; restructuring (income) expense; change in fair value of financing derivatives; and other items as presented in the accompanying tables. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2019 was impacted by additional non-stock expense of $2.4 million related to the resignation of certain executives.
Balance Sheet and LiquidityAs of March 31, 2019, cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash were $42.8 million, including $6.1 million in restricted cash. Total debt principal, composed of senior secured convertible notes, was $204.0 million.
Conference Call Information for Today, Wednesday, May 8 at 5:00 p.m. ETManagement will provide commentary on the company's results in a conference call today at 5:00 p.m. ET. To access the call, dial +1 844-229-7593 (domestic) or +1 314-888-4258 (international) and reference conference ID # 2463568. Participants are advised to dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the call to register. Additionally, a live webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ir.comscore.com/events-presentations. Following the conference call, a replay will be available by dialing +1 855-859-2056 (domestic) or +1 404-537-3406 (international) with passcode #2463568. The replay will also be available via webcast at ir.comscore.com/events-presentations.
About ComscoreComscore (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms. With a data footprint that combines digital, linear TV, over-the-top and theatrical viewership intelligence with advanced audience insights, Comscore allows media buyers and sellers to quantify their multiscreen behavior and make business decisions with confidence. A proven leader in measuring digital and set-top box audiences and advertising at scale, Comscore is the industry's emerging, third-party source for reliable and comprehensive cross-platform measurement.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal and state securities laws, including, without limitation, Comscore's expectations, forecasts, plans and opinions regarding product focus, market positioning, customer acquisition, customer service, growth in stockholder value, organizational efficiency and resource alignment, and the timing and amount of cost savings from restructuring actions. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from expectations, including, but not limited to, Comscore's ability to achieve its expected strategic, financial and operational plans. For additional discussion of risk factors, please refer to Comscore's respective Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings that Comscore makes from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's website (www.sec.gov).
Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. Comscore does not intend or undertake, and expressly disclaims, any duty or obligation to publicly update any forward- looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial MeasuresTo provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we are disclosing herein non-GAAP net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures used by our management to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, as they permit our investors to view our core business performance using the same metrics that management uses to evaluate our performance. Nevertheless, our use of these non-GAAP financial measures has limitations as an analytical tool, and investors should not consider these measures in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Instead, you should consider these measures alongside GAAP-based financial performance measures, net income (loss), various cash flow metrics, and our other GAAP financial results.
MediaMarie ScoutasComscore, Inc. press@comscore.com
InvestorsJohn TinkerComscore, Inc.(212) 203-2129jtinker@comscore.com