PR and marketing software providers Vocus and Cision saw third quarter gains while noting weakness and slower growth in North America and PR.
Vocus reported third quarter revenues rose 57 percent to $45.2M as the PR and marketing software provider chalked up a net loss of $3.8M for the quarter. [Vocus, which does not break out acquisition-related gains, paid $169M in Q2 for email marketing company iContact.]
CEO Rick Rudman said Vocus’ marketing suite and iContact acquisition showed momentum for the quarter, but its large market PR customers and France operation came in below expectations. “We saw some overall weakness in bookings in these areas, and we made some operational improvements that we believe will lead to improving performance going forward,” he said.
Vocus said it added 1,015 net new annual subscription customers during Q3, as well as an additional 63 sales reps for a total of 474. It ended the quarter with 15,131 annual subscription customers.
Looking ahead, Rudman said Vocus will focus on marketing automation, social CRM (customer interactions, contacts), and mobile marketing in 2013.
Cision Sees Growth in Q3 Slowdown
Cision, which is reworking its U.S. operations after the third quarter sale of its print monitoring business to BurrellesLuce for $2M, said Q3 organic growth rose two percent to SEK 240M as North America growth slowed over the first quarters.
CEO Hans Gieskes said the company is “significantly transforming” its U.S. business, centered on the CisionPoint PR software service, this year after overhauls in Europe over the past two years.
“This activity will impact our business in the short term as we execute, but from experience we know improvements will come, with increased gross margin, a reduction in production related head count and direct costs,” he said.
Net profit for the quarter rose 9.5% to 23M SEK.
North American revenue rose organically by 4% but the company warned its “healthy rate” of growth will be more difficult to repeat amid the divestment of its print monitoring unit, which came weeks after a multimillion-dollar settlement with Dow Jones after a copyright infringement claim. The sale, to be completed in Q4, will shed 150 staffers at Cision.
Through the first three quarters, Cision revenue is up five percent to 745M SEK compared with 2011.
Cision has nearly 13,000 customers.