ComScore to Restate Results Over 'Nonmonetary' Revenue
September 15 2016 - 8:50PM
Dow Jones News
Internet analytics company comScore Inc. said it had improperly
accounted for some revenue and will restate its financial results
for the past three years, according to a securities filing late on
Thursday.
The announcement came after an investigation by the audit
committee of comScore's board which blamed "errors in judgment" for
the problems and said it "cannot support" the company's accounting
for so-called nonmonetary transactions, the filing said.
The company said it would restate financial results for 2013,
2014 and 2015. ComScore hasn't submitted its annual securities
filing for 2015 or its quarterly security filings for the first
half of 2016, and said it can't predict when its restated financial
statements will be completed.
A year ago, The Wall Street Journal called attention to
comScore's practice of reporting nonmonetary revenue, which came
with no cash attached and whose value was based on fair-value
estimates. On Feb. 19, the company said it had received a message
about its accounting and would be commencing an investigation.
ComScore measures audiences across the internet, TV and film and
has tried to position itself as a competitor to Nielsen. In
January, it merged with TV-measurement rival Rentrak. Advertising
giant WPP holds a roughly 20% stake in the combined company.
The board investigation concluded that revenue and expenses for
the nonmonetary agreements, which involved swapping data with other
companies, shouldn't have been recognized, according to the
securities filing.
ComScore said its 2015 revenue was $339.9 million—$29 million
less than the figure it had previously reported. The nonmonetary
transactions didn't have a major effect on the company's profits
because it reported expenses related to them. Revenue has been the
most important metric for analysts and investors in comScore, which
hasn't reported an annual profit in recent years.
The audit committee also "concluded that these transactions have
been recorded in error" in comScore's accounting practices and
blamed "internal control deficiencies." Additional, potentially
material, accounting adjustments may be necessary if these
deficiencies extended to transactions beyond the scope of the
investigation, the filing said.
Nonmonetary revenue helped boost comScore's share price at a
point last year, allowing its top management to reap millions in
performance-based stock grants. The company's stock price just
barely cleared the bar for these grants to vest.
The release of the audit committee's findings comes a week after
comScore announced the resignation of former chief executive Serge
Matta and former chief financial officer Melvin Wesley. The two
were demoted last month and replaced by other company
executives.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 15, 2016 20:35 ET (00:35 GMT)
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