Phorm Posts $49.8m Loss

Behavioural ad technology company Phorm has posted an operating loss of $49.8m (2007: $32.8m) for the year ended 31 December 2008, and a further $19.7m for the first six months of 2009.

As a consequence, the company has reduced the scale of its US operations and core operations in the UK though headcount reductions, cuts in salaries, professional fees and other general admin costs. It says it has also adopted more efficient practices, particularly in terms of business development.

Last week, Phorm sold 19.4% of its shares to institutional investors, in order to raise around $25m, which it will use to continue the implementation of its service in the UK and Korean markets.

At the end of the year, the company had net assets of $22.4m, with cash and cash equivalents of $23.2m. The firm said that this, combined with the share offering, would enable it to move forward to commercial deployment in the UK and Korea, while providing funds to support its business development efforts with ISPs in other markets.

Phorm drew criticism in 2006 when it conducting secret trials of its Webwise software with telecoms giant BT. BT denied the trials breached privacy laws, claiming that users' personal data was anonymised.

Since then, the European Commission has launched legal action against the UK Government, over its alleged failure to force the firm to comply with EU data protection and privacy rules.

Phorm is still trialling the technology with BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, but has yet to formally launch.

Web site: www.phorm.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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