2nd May 2008 11:27 am

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008.

“In the first quarter, comScore achieved the highest revenue level in the company’s history,” said Magid Abraham, comScore’s chief executive officer and president.

“As we continued to pursue our strategic priorities of increasing value for our customers and shareholders, we generated 41 percent revenue growth over the first quarter of 2007, while our deferred
revenue balance increased 46 percent over the balance at the end of the first quarter of 2007.

These excellent revenue results were achieved while we simultaneously increased our pre-tax net income by 165 percent, our net income by 64 percent and our Adjusted EBITDA by 104 percent.”

“We continued to make gains in penetrating our existing customer base both in the U.S. and internationally, while adding a net 53 new customers in the first quarter. Despite recent indications of a slowing U.S. economy, our confidence in the strength of our business and client demand for our products and services remains unchanged. The quality of our client relationships is reflected in our revenue growth amongst existing customers of 38 percent and a subscription renewal rate that was 93 percent this quarter,” continued Abraham.

“At the same time, we have been taking steps to further develop our new product pipeline and lay the foundation for future growth. During the first quarter, we launched Ad Metrix-Advertiser View, a powerful tool for agencies and publishers designed to support their media buying and selling activities and supply their competitive intelligence needs.

In April, we launched the second generation of our media planning product, Plan Metrix, and increased the frequency of reporting from a semi-annual to a monthly cycle.”
comScore reported revenue of $26.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, an increase of 41 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007 and an increase of four percent over the fourth quarter of 2007. This revenue performance exceeded the range of the company’s guidance of approximately $25.9 million to $26.2 million for first quarter 2008.

First quarter 2008 GAAP income before income taxes was $4.2 million, up 165 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007. Net income was $2.5 million, up 64 percent compared to the same period in 2007. The tax rate included in net income is a normalized effective tax rate of 39.9 percent, inclusive of an effective cash tax rate of 1.5 percent as the company
continues to utilize net operating loss carryforwards to reduce cash taxes.

By comparison, the first quarter 2007 net income includes an effective tax rate of 2.9 percent.

comScore reports net income and earnings per share (EPS) on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. In addition, comScore reports adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow as non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of comScore’s GAAP results to these non-GAAP measures is included in the financial tables accompanying this release.

–   GAAP EPS for the first quarter of 2008 was $0.08 per share on approximately 30.0 million fully diluted shares.

–   Adjusted EBITDA was $5.6 million, an increase of 104 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2007, and includes approximately $600,000 in incremental public company costs in the first quarter of 2008 that were not applicable to the company in the first quarter of 2007.  This performance exceeded the range of the company’s previous guidance for adjusted EBITDA for first quarter 2008 of $5.1 million to $5.4 million.

–   comScore’s Adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 21 percent, an increase of more than six percentage points as compared to the first quarter of 2007 despite the effects of an approximately two percentage point reduction attributable to $600,000 in incremental costs incurred in the first quarter of 2008 due to comScore’s public reporting and compliance obligations, which costs were not applicable to the company in the first quarter of 2007.

–   Non-GAAP adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2008 was $5.3 million, an increase of 174 percent when compared to $1.9 million in the first quarter of 2007.  Non-GAAP EPS was $0.18 per share.  This exceeded the ranges of the company’s guidance for non-GAAP adjusted net income and non-GAAP EPS for first quarter 2008 of $4.4 million to $4.7 million and $0.14 to $0.17 per share, respectively.

comScore is forecasting full-year 2008 revenue of approximately $113.0 million to $113.6 million; up 30 percent over actual full-year 2007 revenue results. This represents an increase over the company’s previous full-year 2008 revenue guidance of $112.2 million to $113.2 million.

For the full-year 2008, comScore is projecting GAAP net income of $10.3 million to $11.5 million. A normalized estimated effective tax rate of approximately 41 percent, inclusive of an estimated cash tax rate of approximately 4.9 percent, is assumed to be applied against full-year earnings before taxes.

Our projection also assumes that recent general declines in interest rates will result in interest income for 2008 that is approximately $900,000 lower than initially anticipated. Given these assumptions, the company is projecting GAAP EPS for the full-year 2008 of $0.34 to $0.38 per share.

The company is projecting Adjusted EBITDA for the full-year 2008 in the range of $26.0 million to $26.5 million, an increase of 45 percent to 48 percent as compared to full-year 2007. This compares to the company’s previous full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance of $25.4 million to $26.4 million.

The adjusted EBITDA margin for the full-year 2008 is projected to be between 23 percent and 24 percent, an increase of two to three percentage points compared to full-year 2007 despite a reduction of approximately one percentage point attributable to incremental costs incurred in the first half of 2008 due to comScore’s public reporting and compliance obligations, which costs were not applicable to the company in the first half of 2007.

comScore is also forecasting non-GAAP adjusted net income of approximately $22.8 million to $23.7 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.75 to $0.80 per share for full-year 2008.

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