Daily Research News Online no. 23226 - Matta to Leave comScore

Matta to Leave comScore

September 13 2016

comScore has announced in an SEC filing that former CEO Serge Matta will be leaving the business early next month.

Matta (pictured) was named CEO in 2014, after fourteen years with the company. During this time, he oversaw the custom media solutions group, headed the telecoms and financial service practices, and played a role in driving acquisitions and customer partnerships. Last month, he was replaced by co-founder Gian Fulgoni following a sixth-month internal accounting investigation which has left the company in danger of being delisted from the NASDAQ for failing to file key financial and company details on time. Matta will leave the business on October 10th.

Shares in the company plunged 35% to $26.52 in March, after it disclosed that its Audit Committee had not finalized an ongoing review of 'certain potential accounting matters'. Then in June, shares fell more than 30% to $21.74, after the company missed its deadline for issuing an update on the investigation - they have since recovered to around $30, but the report is still not published. In a regulatory filing, comScore said that its investigation is 'substantially complete', and that its audit committee has identified 'certain areas of potential concern'. In July, The Wall Street Journal suggested that these areas of concern may relate to the firm's practice of reporting 'non-monetary' revenue resulting from data-sharing agreements with other companies - and their impact on multi-million-dollar stock grants given to senior comScore execs last year.

Separately, William Katz has notified the company that he intends to resign from its Board of Directors on September 30th. According to the SEC filing, Katz has recently accepted new employment which requires him to resign from directorships that may result in a conflict of interest with his new employer.

Web site: www.comscore.com .