AQuantive Revenues Up On Strong Organic Growth
Revenues were up across all business segments, with international markets growing in importance.
AQuantive reported strong results across all its business segments on Monday, with overall revenue up 42 percent and earnings per share up 64 percent over the year-ago quarter.
Brian McAndrews, president and CEO of aQuantive, attributed the growth to both new clients and new business with existing clients in the company’s digital marketing services, technology, and performance media segments.
During the first quarter, aQuantive brought in revenue of $92.2 million, compared to $65.0 million in the first quarter of 2005. AQuantive’s net income for the quarter reached $7.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted share. International accounts, particularly in Europe and Southeast Asia, accounted for 19 percent of revenues in the quarter, up 7 percentage points.
Avenue A | Razorfish, aQuantive’s digital marketing services (DMS) segment, recorded revenue of $55.2 million in the quarter, up from $39.1 million in the first quarter of 2005. Web development and media buying at Avenue A | Razorfish contributed to that growth, McAndrews said. Continuing a trend from last year, Web development in particular benefited from overall market growth due to more companies refreshing their internal and external sites after a period of pulling back on projects during the financial downturn.
“Companies are realizing their Web site is critical. We’ve said for a while now that the Web site is replacing the 30-second spot as a central expression of a brand,” he said.
The DMS segment’s revenue came mostly from financial services, pharmaceutical, and technology clients, followed by travel and entertainment and telecommunications clients.
Revenue for Atlas, aQuantive’s digital marketing technologies (DMT) segment, was $27.7 million in the first quarter of 2006, compared to $20.6 million in the year-ago quarter. DRIVEpm and MediaBrokers, which make up aQuantive’s digital performance media (DPM) segment, recorded revenue of $9.3 million in the quarter, from $5.3 million in the first quarter of 2005.
A follow-on stock offering brought in net proceeds of $172.7 million, which McAndrews said will be used in part for acquisitions, which the company is “actively evaluating.” The Wall Street Journal reported today that aQuantive and ValueClick were close to a merger last week. McAndrews began the conference call with investors Monday with an attempt to quell those rumors, saying, “No discussions are underway or being contemplated with ValueClick.”
