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VNU First Quarter Results
VNU's sales for the three months ended March 31st rose to Euros 890 million compared to Euros 791 million in the first quarter of 2005. Operating income fell from Euros 58 million to Euros 25 million.
The company narrowed its net loss from €48 million in the first quarter of 2005 to €3 million in the first quarter of 2006. The results appear in VNU's GAAP financial statement, released yesterday.
By operating segment, the Marketing Information division accounted for a 52% share of revenues at €466 million, followed by Media and Measurement Information with a 30% share of sales at €264 million. Business Information accounted for the remaining share with €161 million.
During the three months ended March 31, VNU completed several acquisitions for aggregate consideration of approximately € 39 million. The most significant acquisitions were the purchase of an additional 31.9% ownership in BuzzMetrics Inc., formerly Trendum in January, bringing VNU's total interest to 50.1% and the purchase of a 100% ownership interest in Beverage Data Networks in February, consolidated from the date of acquisition. BuzzMetrics performs tracking and analysis of online consumer-generated media, and BDN is a supplier of wholesaler sales data to the wines and spirits industry.
In November 2005, VNU announced its intention to expand current cost-saving programmes to all areas of the company worldwide, including some restructuring. The programme, Project Forward, is designed to make fundamental changes in operations and permanently reduce costs by streamlining corporate functions, centralizing information technology and purchasing, and expanding the outsourcing of certain operational and production processes. As several initiatives are complex, they will take multiple years to implement. VNU incurred €1 million in consulting fees for Project Forward during the three months ended March 31.
The company is online at www.vnu.com .
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