PR and marketing software company Vocus said first quarter venue climbed 29% to $34.9M over 2011 on a large jump in new subscriptions, although net loss widened to $10.8M from $1.9M a year earlier.
The company said profit was hit by $4.8M in acquisition expenses – it bought email marketing provider iContact for $169M in cash and stock in February – including $2.9M in professional fees and $1.9M in severance costs.
“Q1 was a great quarter for Vocus highlighted by better-than-expected bookings, strong momentum for our marketing suite and social media product, and a strong start on our sales expansion plan,” said CEO Rick Rudman, who noted its social media campaign and monitoring product, introduced last year, could contribute as much as $15M to revenue in 2012.
Shares in Vocus, which raised its revenue projections for the year, were up as much as 10 percent to the $14 range in morning trading May 2, in contrast to a 40-percent plunge after the company announced the iContact deal in February and said 2012 revenues would be affected by several factors, including a large expansion of its sales force.
Rudman said the company hired 71 more sales reps (20 from iContact) to meet its expansion goal to have 450 reps by the end of the year, up from 270 in January.
Vocus added 1,196 net new subscription customers during Q1 (up 75%) with clients like Bose Corp., Mary Kay and Whirlpool, and ended the quarter with 13,103 subscribing customers.
The company, which implemented a price increase on April 2, raised its revenue forecast for the year to the range of $169.1 million to $170.3 million.