Valassis‘ full-year 2009 revenues dropped 5.8% to $2.2 billion from $2.4 billion the prior year. Fourth-quarter 2009 revenue decreased 3.4% year-over-year to $605 million from $626.3 million.
The company’s net earnings for the full year were $66.8 million, compared to a full-year 2008 net loss of $209.7 million. For the fourth quarter, net earnings were $24 million, up from a loss of $222 million during 2008’s fourth quarter. During Q4 2008, the company saw a $245.7 million non-cash impairment charge.
Three of the four company business segments saw revenue drops of less than 10%. For full-year 2009, shared mail revenue was $1.3 billion, down 6.7% from 2008. For Q4 2009, the segment’s revenue dropped 0.6% to $335.1 million from $337.1 million.
Revenue for neighborhood targeted products, including newspaper inserts, dropped 5.2% for the entire year to $444.7 million. Revenue dropped 8.3% for the fourth quarter to $141.1 million from $153.8 million.
For free-standing inserts, 2009 revenue dropped 2.4% from full-year 2008 to $361.4 million. Fourth-quarter revenue for the segment was $83.2 million, down 9.1% from Q4 2008’s $91.5 million.
However, revenue for the company’s international, digital media and services segment increased 3.9% year-over-year for Q4 to $45.6 million from $43.9 million. However, for the full year, the segment’s revenue was down 7.4% to $159 million.
The earnings report failed to meet Wall Street expectations, according to Reuters, sending shares down 10%.
Last month, Valassis agreed to settle its pending lawsuits against News Corp.-owned News America Marketing. NAM agreed to pay Valassis $500 million as part of the agreement.
Valassis will also bring management of its Valassis Lists products, including its 151 million-universe mailing list, in house this year. ALC will continue to manage the list until March 5.
