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Acxiom posts $10.6 million profit in first quarter Thursday, Jul 31, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Acxiom Corp. announced Wednesday a $10.6 million profit in its fiscal first quarter, the first full quarter under the leadership of CEO John Meyer. In the comparable quarter last year, Acxiom lost $13.7 million behind one-time charges of $20.6 million, most of which were related to the company's failed private equity buyout. One-time charges in the current quarter helped Acxiom's bottom line by $1.6 million. Revenues dipped slightly, from $334.7 million last year to $331.1 million in the most recent quarter. "Given the impact of the down economy on our clients, I feel like we've proven resilience retaining this revenue," Meyer said during a conference call with investors, noting that the company's mix of business has begun to evolve. During the quarter, Acxiom signed 29 new deals worth more than half a million dollars with clients and also signed a substantial amount of contract renewals despite the economy, demonstrating that the company's clients "understand the need to move forward with multi-dimensional marketing," Meyer said. One automotive client whose financials have been negatively impacted recently signed a three-year contract with Acxiom during the quarter, Meyer said. With a large clientele in the financial industry, analysts asked how struggles among banks haven't hit Acxiom harder. Acxiom deals in large part with the credit card departments of financial institutions, Meyer said. Some large credit card issuers are aggressively seeking to gain market share now as others pull back because of the economy, and they're using Acxiom to help them, he said. Meyer said the company is constantly looking for efficiencies, and that he is focused on reducing the sales staff to save money. "We should be doing more with fewer sales people," he said. Shares of Acxiom (NasdaqGS: ACXM) fell to $12.16 on Wednesday, down a quarter for a 2 percent decline. |
