Data provider Acxiom Corp. lost $3 million in its first quarter that ended June 30, compared with a loss of $1.3 million in the same period last year, the Conway-based firm said Thursday.
The loss came to 4 cents a share for the quarter, down from a loss of 2 cents a share in the fiscal first quarter last year.
Acxiom shares rose 55 cents to close Thursday at $43.35 in trading on the Nasdaq exchange. Acxiom released the quarterly report after the market closed.
The report is likely to be the last for Acxiom because the company anticipates the sale of its Acxiom Marketing Solutions division to New York-based Interpublic Group will close before another earnings report is released.
"It's highly likely that [the Interpublic sale] will close ahead of our next earnings call," Warren Jenson, Acxiom's chief financial officer, said in a conference call Thursday.
Jenson expects the vote of Acxiom and Interpublic shareholders to be held in mid-September and the transaction to close early in Acxiom's fiscal third quarter, which ends on Dec. 31.
Acxiom's first quarter was "another strong performance for both [Acxiom Marketing Solutions] and LiveRamp," Scott Howe, Acxiom's chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to finalizing the [Interpublic] transaction."
Howe said the the sale of Acxiom Marketing Solutions "represents a big win for all constituencies," including clients, employees and shareholders.
The feedback Acxiom has gotten on the sale has been "universally positive," Howe said.
In July, Acxiom agreed to sell its Acxiom Marketing Solutions business to Interpublic for $2.3 billion in cash. That division of Acxiom will become part of Interpublic. LiveRamp, Acxiom's remaining business, will become a stand-alone company based in California.
Acxiom and Interpublic have assured Acxiom's employees that they will remain with Interpublic.
Jerry Jones, general counsel for Acxiom, said in July that Acxiom Marketing Solutions will operate "much in the same way it has operated."
"The people in Conway are going to be on the Conway campus," Jones said.
Acxiom Marketing Solutions, which specializes in crunching data on 2 billion consumers, employs 2,100 people worldwide, including 1,500 in central Arkansas.
Jones also said he doesn't anticipate much change in the size of the LiveRamp employee population in central Arkansas. Though LiveRamp will be based in San Francisco, Jones said he will be among its workforce remaining in Arkansas.
"I don't think there will be much significant change in terms of the number of people that work for those two businesses that were combined but now are separate," Jones said. "The total population of employees will be approximately the same."
Business on 08/10/2018