comScore Committee Conducting ‘Long-Term Strategic Review’
comScore, which has been trying to put its financial house in order since accounting issues cropped up, said it has formed a special committed to do a long-term strategic review of the company.
The review process is being driven by Starboard Value LP, which owns 4.9% of comScore stock.
Related: ComScore Stock Plunges 30% as Accounting Woes Continue
comScore also said it has delayed reporting its financial results and plans to settle lawsuits against it for $27.2 million in cash, which would come from the company’s insurers, and $82.8 million in stock.
The media measurement company has not released financial statement since its accounting issues emerged. That has resulted in the comScore’s shares being delisted from public exchanges. The company said Monday its efforts to restate its earnings for 2015, 2106 and 2017 in March 2018 at the earliest. The company noted that it is also working on preparing its financial statements from 2017.
Earlier this year, the company said that the cost of the investigation and redoing its financial statements was about $30 million.
Related: comScore Considers Stock — and Strategy
“We regret the need to extend further the date for filing our restated financials and we share the frustration of our stockholders,” said CEO Gian Fulgoni. “However, to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the past four years of financial information we will be reporting and to ensure that we are also able to include audited financial statements for 2017, the Board has determined that additional time is needed. In the meantime, I firmly believe in comScore's future based on the compelling opportunities we see for organic growth within our existing and new products.
The financial irregularities came to light after comScore acquired Rentrak, a move that some saw as having the potential to make the new combined company a challenger to Nielsen, which dominates the media measurement industry.
Read more at broadcastingcable.com.
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Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.