Acxiom’s Earnings Slip on Acquisition Charges

Global information and technology company Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ: ACXM) late Wednesday announced earnings for their first fiscal quarter of 2008, marked by a drop in earnings due to “unusual expense items.” Acxiom offers debt recovery and skip tracing services to the ARM industry through its AcxiomInsight division.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2007 – the first quarter in Acxiom’s fiscal year 2008 – the company said that it had income from operations of $4.1 million, an 88.6 percent decrease from the $36.3 million reported in the same period last year. Revenues were flat, coming in at $338.2 million, an increase of 0.4 percent over $336.7 million for the comparable prior-year period.

Acxiom said that the drop in earnings was due to unusual expense items incurred in the period totaling $20.6 million. The bulk of the expenses -- $15.1 million -- were attributed to a previously announced transaction in which Acxiom will be acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital.

Charles D. Morgan, Acxiom's company leader and chairman of the board commented, "We remain focused on operating results while we advance the acquisition process with Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital. We continue to believe that successfully completing this deal is in the best interests of Acxiom and its constituents."

The company’s Information Products Division, the unit that includes Insight and other risk management products, reported revenue in the quarter of $96.7 million, a 2 percent increase over the same quarter last year.

The AcxiomInsight division was created when Acxiom acquired skip tracing and data provider InsightAmerica in 2005.