Neustar Reports Results for First Quarter 2014
Neustar, announced recently results for the quarter ended March 31,2014 and affirmed its revenue and adjusted net income guidance for 2014.
You can read the press release after the jump :
“Neustar, Inc. (NYSE: NSR), a trusted, neutral provider of real-time information services and analytics, today announced results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, and affirmed its revenue and adjusted net income guidance for 2014.
Results for First Quarter 2014 Compared to First Quarter 2013
Revenue increased 6% to $229.9 million
Revenue from Marketing Services increased 21% to $32.9 million
Revenue from Security Services increased 11% to $30.1 million
Net income decreased 6% to $31.7 million
Net income per share was flat at $0.50
Non-GAAP Results for First Quarter 2014 Compared to First Quarter 2013
Adjusted net income decreased 3% to $52.4 million
Adjusted net income per share increased 5% to $0.84
“Our first quarter results demonstrate that we are delivering on our strategic initiative to become a leader in information services and analytics,” said Lisa Hook, Neustar’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our targeted investments are paying off and we are seeing strong and growing market demand for our IS&A offerings. We are competing vigorously in the LNPA vendor selection process, and will continue to advocate strongly that we are the logical choice to remain as administrator, which we believe is beneficial to the industry and consumers alike.”
Paul Lalljie, Neustar’s Chief Financial Officer, added, “During the first quarter, we delivered 16% revenue growth in our Marketing and Security Services. We closed on the acquisition of .CO earlier this week, bolstering our position as a key player in the expanding gTLD market. We remain confident in our full-year forecast driven by our first quarter results and leading indicators, and as a result we are affirming our guidance for the year.”
Discussion of First Quarter Results
Revenue totaled $229.9 million, a 6% increase from $216.4 million in 2013. Marketing Services revenue of $32.9 million grew 21% driven by higher demand for our workflow solutions. Security Services revenue of $30.1 million grew 11% driven by increased demand for our DDoS protection services. NPAC Services revenue of $118.8 million grew 6% driven by an increase in the fixed fee established under our contracts to provide local number portability services. Data Services revenue of $48.1 million declined 5% due to lower revenue in caller identification services.
Operating expense totaled $174.6 million, a 20% increase from $145.6 million in the first quarter of 2013. This $29.0 million increase was primarily driven by $6.2 million in advertising and professional fees associated with the NPAC vendor selection process and $5.0 million in costs for restructuring initiatives designed to improve efficiencies. In addition, personnel and personnel-related costs increased $6.8 million and depreciation and amortization expense increased $3.0 million.
As of March 31, 2014, cash and cash equivalents totaled $386.5 million, compared to $223.3 million as of December 31, 2013. During the quarter, the company borrowed $175 million under its revolving credit facility. At the end of the quarter, the company’s outstanding debt under its term facilities and 4.5% senior notes was $789.3 million. During the first quarter, the company purchased approximately 1.2 million shares at an average price of $34.85 per share, for approximately $41.9 million.
Business Outlook for 2014
The company affirmed its guidance for revenue and adjusted net income provided on January 29, 2014:
Revenue to range from $945 million to $970 million, or growth of 5% to 8%
Adjusted net income to range from $233 million to $243 million, or flat to growth of 4%
Adjusted earnings per share to range from $3.64 to $3.80, or growth of 3% to 8%”
New Chinese “mobile” top-level domain now available to all website owners and operators
Afilias announced today the general availability of its first Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) at the top level : .移动 (.MOBILE in Chinese).
You can read the press release after the jump:
Global registry services provider and dotMobi registry operator Afilias today announced the general availability of its first Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) at the top level: .移动 (.MOBILE in Chinese).
Transliterated as “Yí Dòng,” .移动 is a domain name just like .MOBI, which also indicates a website works on a mobile device. But the .移动 domain is part of a new generation of top-level domains (TLDs) that are written in native languages rather than traditional ASCII scripts like the .INFO or .MOBI TLDs.
A Chinese complement to the .MOBI domain, .移动 is designed to let Chinese-speakers — wherever in the world they’re located — know that a website was designed to work on a mobile device like a tablet, iPhone or Android™ device.
“With more than one billion mobile phone users in China plus millions more Chinese speakers around the world, the ability to effectively reach the Chinese-language community is more important than ever,” said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and CMO, Afilias. “By using a globally operative .移动 address, businesses and individuals can expand their appeal to this audience by reaching them in their native language, regardless of country, operator or device.”
.移动 domains can be registered for up to 10 years at a time. Many registrars offer website building, email and other services along with .移动 domains to make your online presence work exactly as you envision it!
The .移动 general availability period officially opens at 16:00:00 UTC on April 17, 2014. You can find a registrar for your .移动 domain at http://afilias.info/new-tlds/mobileregistrars.
About Afilias
Afilias is the world’s second largest domain registry, with more than 20 million names under management. Afilias powers a greater variety of top-level domains than any other provider, and will soon support hundreds of new TLDs now preparing for launch. Afilias’ specialized technology makes Internet addresses more accessible and useful through a wide range of applications, including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS and mobile Web services like goMobi® and DeviceAtlas®. For more information on Afilias services, visit www.afilias.info.
Six Other new gTLDs Entered General Availability
Six other new gTLDs entered general availability today. Five of the six new gTLDs come from Uniregistry.com and the sixth one comes from Bill Doshier .
Uniregistry’s five new gTLDs are : .Link, .Photo, .Pics, .Gift and .Guitars. The sixth new gTLD is .Buzz.
Organizations, individuals and businesses that are interested in registering a new gTLD can register a domain name on a first-come ,first served non-restricted basis.
Momentum New gTLD Conference In Hong Kong In May
New gTLDs are inspiring a wide range of developments in domain names, and conferences is one of them. One conference coming up in May is the Asia Pac Digital Marketing and gTLD Strategy Congress, to be held from 14 to 15 May in Hong Kong aimed at applicants in the first round of new gTLD applications, and any organisation considering applying in future rounds.
The conference, organised by the Momentum Event Group, is being held at the Regus office space on the 35th floor of the Hong Kong Central Plaza, and is being timed to take place in conjunction with the International Trademark Associations’ (INTA) 136 Annual Conference at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) starting on 10 May.
With ICANN suggesting that round two applications could commence as early as northern autumn 2015, the event will blend sessions for attorneys and corporate representatives who are just becoming aware of the gTLD programme, the opportunities that it offers their organisations and who need education, guidance and support as they navigate the complex application and approval process; as well as sessions for international brand managers and marketing specialists keen to learn how they can use a gTLD to their marketing or financial advantage.
This event is being held in partnership with DotAsia and is supported by The Internet Society of Hong Kong, The Brand Registry Group, The Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre, The Licensing Executives Society, The Intellectual Property Department of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong International Arbitration Center and “The Internet of Names” event and features confirmed participation from:
- Edmon Chung, CEO, Registry Asia
- Roland LaPlante, CMO, Afilias
- Frank Schilling, Founder & Managing Director, Uniregistry
- Yue Sing Malcolm Chiu, CIO, QNet, dotQuest
- Jacob Williams, General Manager, Domain Services, Interlink Co., LTD Interlink Co., Ltd. .Kyoto, .Moe
- Ching Chiao, CEO, Brandma
- Karen Law, Legal Counsel, Alibaba
- Peter Cheung, Director, Intellectual Property Department, and Registrar of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- Dennis Cai, Assistant Secretary-General, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
- Jeffrey Sass, CMO, .CLUB Domains, LLC
- Kristine Dorrain, Director of Internet and IP Service, NAF
- Arto Isokoski, CEO & co-founder at TLD Registry LTD, Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网)
- Edward Rubin, Chairman, ADNDRC
- Hirokatsu Ohigashi, Strategic Monkey, Inc.
- Daniel Negari, Founder, .xyz
- Yoav Keren, Brandshield
Building on the successes of the New York and London Digital Marketing and gTLD Strategy Congresses, this unique Hong Kong event is, the organisers say, perfectly timed to appeal to brand holders and leading international branding, IP and trademark attorneys – who will be keenly aware of the first round gTLD launches taking place in 2013-2014 – as well as leading Asian and other international brands, organisations and investors who missed their first round opportunity and will be looking to make their application as soon as they are able.
More information is available from the conference website at www.momentumevents.asia.
KSRegistry Once Again .VG Registry Operator
The German KSRegistry has announced it once again become the registry operator for .vg, the ccTLD the Virgin Islands.
In the news release below, KSRegistry notes that due to difficulties with the former .VG zone manager, the IANA performed a re-delegation which brought back the .VG zone under the control and the responsibility of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Virgin Islands (TRC) on 11 April, 2014. However, the .VG zone will remain frozen until 15 April.
KSregistry becomes registry provider for .VG
The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Virgin Islands (TRC) has sourced out the operation of .VG, the ccTLD of Virgin Islands. The former technical backend provider, KSregistry GmbH, resumes the operation of .VG in future. IANA performed a re-delegation which brought back the .VG zone under the control and the responsibility of the TRC on April 11, 2014. However, the .VG zone will remain frozen until April 15, 2014, 10:00 UTC.
While the .VG zone is frozen, no registrations, modifications, transfers, deletions or renewals can be made. From April 15, 2014, 10:00 UTC to May 11, 2014, 23:59 UTC the .VG TLD will be reopened for KSregistry accredited registrars. It will then be possible to update, renew or delete domain names. Starting May 12, 2014, 10:00 UTC KSregistry will also allow the registration of new domain names.
Please be aware that since Meridian has to this time not provided the zone file to either KSregistry or the Sponsoring organization, domain actions which have been processed since March 8, 2013 through the Meridian system will not be reflected in the new .VG zone. In order to become an accredited KSregistry .VG registrar please contact us at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
. We will provide you the RRA for signature.
The KSregistry GmbH, a fully-owned subsidiary of the international domain registrar Key-Systems GmbH, provides a customized registry operation and comprehensive tools to facilitate registrations at registry, registrar and reseller levels. Due to the modular character of KSregistry’s services, the customer-specific solution can be expanded and modified according to changing needs at all times. KSregistry is based on a TIER III architecture which guarantees maximum security for all services. By using the data center of SKYWAY, a 100 per cent Key-Systems subsidiary, fast reaction times and full process control are secured.
