Versant Q1 Profit Tumbles 22% on Lower Linear, Ad Revenues and Higher Standalone Company Costs

• Wall Street was expecting revenue of $1.62 billion on earnings of $2.16 per share, per Yahoo Finance.

• Versant sold SportsEngine to PlayMetrics for an undisclosed amount after a strategic review. It also acquired the AI-powered financial insights platform StockStory. 

• Shares of the company jumped 11% following the results

Versant profits tumbled 22.1% to $286 million and revenue declined 1.1% to $1.7 billion in the company’s first quarter as growth in the company’s platforms business was offset by declines in advertising and linear distribution.

Linear distribution revenue fell 7.3% to $$1.01 billion, primarily due to subscriber declines that were partially offset by contractual rate increases, while ad revenue declined 5.2% to $368 million due to ratings declines at its networks.

Meanwhile, platforms revenue was boosted 9.5% by higher revenue from Fandango movie ticket purchases, video-on-demand transactions and Fandango1, and higher bookings, payments and subscription revenue at GolfNow. In addition to Fandango and GolfNow, the segment includes Rotten Tomatoes, GolfPass, SportsEngine and CNBC’s subscription based-offerings.

Content licensing and other revenue was also a bright spot, jumping 113.5% to $121 million, which was driven by a large agreement for “Keeping up with the Kardashians” and other titles that were recognized during the quarter.

In addition to lower revenue, profits were weighed down by higher public company costs and interest expense following the separation from Comcast, which was partially offset by lower taxes due to a decrease in pre-tax income.

The latest quarterly results come Versant after said it would sell SportsEngine to PlayMetrics for an undisclosed amount following a strategic review of the asset.

It also acquired the the AI-powered financial insights platform StockStory in April, which will strengthen CNBC’s ability to provide real-time, data-driven insights to investors. 

More to come…