ComScore, which provides multi-platform measurement analytics for advertising, saw its second quarter revenues rise 14% from a year ago and announced a new acquisition.
The company earned $80 million in revenue during the quarter, and reported a net loss of $3.2 million, which it said were related to a expected costs of a tentative settlement for a privacy class-action lawsuit.
That lawsuit is one of the largest of its kind, reportedly involving tens of millions of users. It is likely to be a major guidepost in shaping the collection and sale of data from consumers. ComScore’s tracking software was bundled with other apps that were downloaded by users, and a class action lawsuit was filed accusing the company of violating federal electronic privacy laws over the breadth of data collected and its sale to third parties.
ComScore has agreed to a tentative settlement with a reported sum of $14 million.
In conjunction with its results, ComScore said that it has acquired Mdotlabs, which uses cyber-security-based technology to detect fraudulent or non-human traffic generation techniques like bots and click farms that interfere with accurate digital measurement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The outstanding team of engineers and data scientists at MdotLabs has been at the forefront of developing the highly sophisticated techniques for identifying and rooting out the waste associated with non-human traffic, which can often run in excess of 50% on a given campaign,” said Serge Marra, president and CEO of ComScore. “We believe that the combination of Mdot’s technology with our existing NHT detection methods will deliver a significant advancement in addressing this important issue, providing even greater transparency and more accurate metrics around campaign performance.”
Matta noted in regards to ComScore’s earnings for the quarter that the company continues to focus on its relationships with Yahoo and Google for providing digital, mobile and video analytics for advertisers, and that ComScore sees itself as well-positioned to capitalize on “dynamic market trends around the mobile and multi-platform consumer, ubiquitous video and advertising automation.”
ComScore also appointed a new CFO this week, Mel Wesley, who will be taking the position at the end of August. Wesley was most recently CFO of Mandiant, which provided endpoint security solutions and security management until its acquisition by FireEye in late 2013.
