With a new financing agreement in place, there may be light at the end of the tunnel for comScore.
Since accounting issues were found nearly two years ago, comScore has been stalled by a time-consuming re-audit of its books. It has since gone through two CEOs and was delisted by the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value, which got seats on comScore’s board in settling a lawsuit last year, agreed to provide comScore with $85 million in cash and $65 million in outstanding stock in exchange for $150 million in convertible notes. comScore is also granting Starboard an option to acquire up to $50 million in additional convertible notes.
comScore — which had just completed the acquisition of Rentrak as part of a plan to challenge Nielsen in the media measurement business when its finances were turned upside down — said that following its agreement with Starboard, it will focus during 2018 on growth products and delivering crossplatform measurement, while improving profitability. With financial plans in place, comScore might be able to focus on business, said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, calling it a “helpful milestone.”
“What’s going to be much more helpful is if they actually get the financial statements out by the end of March, as indicated in the release,” Wieser added.
