ValueClick Sees Rising Revenues, Profits

Online ad technology company ValueClick reported rising revenues and profits in the second quarter on Tuesday. The company also raised its full-year guidance.

ValueClick took in $20.1 million in revenues in the quarter, a 42 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Net income was $1.3 million, or 2 cents a share, up from a net loss of $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2002. Both top-line and bottom-line results exceeded the company’s earlier guidance.

The company also raised its guidance for the year. It now expects revenues to come in at $85 million to $86 million and diluted net income of about 9 cents a share.

ValueClick’s positive results mirror those returned by competing online ad companies DoubleClick and aQuantive, both of which recently reported strong quarters on increased activity in the online ad space.

Thanks to an acquisition spree, ValueClick has built a full-service online ad business, including ad serving through its Mediaplex unit and affiliate marketing via Be Free. The units were acquired in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

ValueClick said it would fully integrate its latest acquisition, search provider Search123, into its media business. It expects the integration will be complete by the fourth quarter, increasing both volume and pricing on the third-tier paid search provider.

Search123 is a minor player in the paid search game, with an advertiser base of about 5,000 and distribution deals on meta-search sites like WWW.com and TurboFind.com. ValueClick said it had already improved on Search123’s technology platform since buying it in May.

Since it’s used stock to fund its many acquisitions, ValueClick still boasts a trove of cash. It ended the quarter with $227.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.