The Wall Street Journal

ComScore taps Bryan Wiener CEO as it looks to move beyond accounting issues

Bloomberg
ComScore’s goal is to create excitement and provide the marketplace with a third-party referee that can help brands measure media performance across digital and traditional platforms, Wiener told the Wall Street Journal.

ComScore Inc. has tapped board member and digital agency veteran Bryan Wiener as its new chief executive, as the media-measurement company tries to move past years of accounting irregularities.

Wiener is currently executive chairman of Dentsu Inc.-owned ad and media agency 360i, and he has been on comScore’s board since October 2017. ComScore   has been without a CEO since November, when co-founder Gian Fulgoni retired from the position.

Wiener will be charged with turning the business around following a string of accounting crises and losses. ComScore recently released its first annual report in three years, after an internal investigation uncovered improper accounting practices. The Wall Street Journal in August 2015 first called attention to comScore’s practice of recording “nonmonetary revenue,” which came from data-swapping deals with other companies.

In a March regulatory filing, the company reported that it incurred net losses of $281.4 million in 2017, $117.2 million in 2016 and $78.2 million in 2015, in addition to disclosing restated results for 2014 and 2013 that also amounted to losses. The SEC is investigating allegations regarding “revenue recognition, internal controls, non-GAAP disclosures and whistleblower retaliation,” according to the filing. “We are cooperating fully with the SEC,” comScore said in the filing.

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