By Greg Hazley
PR software provider Cision said fourth quarter 2010 revenue fell 17.5% from 2009 to 268M Swedish kroner, or about $41.4M, on costs from the sell-off of its Monitor operations, as well as negative currency exchanges and organic growth.
Organic growth improved in the fourth quarter but remained negative at -1%, narrowing from -16% for the fourth quarter of ’09, but down 5% for the full year ’10. The company said U.S. operations showed positive organic growth of 2% for the fourth quarter.
CEO Hans Gieskes said the company is optimistic due to improved market conditions as well as “continued strengthening of the competitiveness of our company.”
The company, which has significantly revamped its operations since 2006, sees growth in its continued rollout of the CisionPoint software platform in Europe, while up-selling its U.S. customers and launching new features.
For the full year, revenue declined 30 percent from 2009 to 1.1B SEK as Cision continued to streamline its business and fend off the economic downturn. Profit swung positive for 2010 to 56M SEK from a 368M SEK loss in 2009, when the company took large charges for restructuring.
Cision implemented its restructuring effort in 2006 and said this week that the process was largely concluded at the end of 2010. It will no longer report restructuring charges but said it could occasionally report one-off costs.
Cision finished the year with 1,298 staffers, down from 1,629 in 2009 due mainly to the divestiture of its German unit and its 235 employees.
In North America, 2010 revenue slid 5.2 percent to 767M SEK, or about $118M as profit was hit by currency swings. The company outsourced its broadcast monitoring to Critical Mention in the second half of 2010 to reduce costs.
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