Ebiquity Pretax Profit Slumps On Xtreme Acquisition Costs

23rd Jul 2010 08:18

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Media consultancy Ebiquity PLC (EBQ.LN) Friday reported a sharp fall in fiscal-year profit due to acquisition costs, and said it is poised to benefit from companies' increasing scrutiny of their own marketing efforts. Ebiquity, which provides analysis and consultancy services to companies, advertisers and public relations firms, said marketing executives are being asked to show that the money they spend delivers results and this should benefit sales of Ebiquity's products and services. The company added it is now more able to win business overseas following the April acquisition of Xtreme, an advertising monitoring business. Ebiquity reported a pretax profit of GBP100,000 for the year to April 30, compared with a profit of GBP1.17 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 15% to GBP21.2 million, aided by the acquisition of Xtreme and because higher revenue at Ebiquity's analytics unit offset weaker sales of its advertising monitoring products. Earnings were weighed on by the cost of layoffs, primarily senior management at Xtreme, and associated acquisition costs, Ebiquity said. Ebiquity's net debt at the end of the fiscal year was GBP2 million. -By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 23, 2010 03:18 ET (07:18 GMT)