The Active Network last week during its second-quarter
earnings call cited Computer Associates as the first "cross-sold"
client of both its attendee registration technology and its StarCite strategic
meetings management tech. But it also pointed to longer lead times related to
StarCite sales efforts as one factor in its decision to lower the top end of
its full-year 2012 revenue guidance.
Active dropped its estimate of 2012 revenue to a range of
$425 million to $430 million from previous guidance of $425 million to $435
million. CFO Scott Mendel during the call cited two factors for the move:
"a slight downturn in online advertising," and sales efforts related to StarCite, which Active acquired on Dec. 30.
"We're very excited about the StarCite acquisition,
it's doing very well, but we're seeing a little bit longer initial lead time on
sales efforts and cross-selling efforts related to StarCite," Mendel said.
Active president Matt Landa added that the StarCite
integration "is going very well." In addition to Computer Associates,
he said, "We actually have a robust pipeline now of real marquee clients
that we're talking to get that process rolling."
A key driver of the acquisition, according to Active
executives, was the opportunity for technological synergy between the marketing
events for which Active had developed technology and the corporate internal
events targeted by StarCite.
From a technological standpoint, Landa said, "We're
looking forward to getting the bulk of all the integration done by the first
quarter of next year, but we're seeing some of the integration rolling out in
2012, with some things that are pretty neat products that allow us to address
the combined market of what we call the attendee management market and the
strategic meetings management market as one application."
Active posted second-quarter revenue of $121.6 million, up
from $99 million a year earlier, and a net loss of about $2.3 million, down
from a $1.1 million profit in the second quarter of 2011. Second-quarter
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization totaled $20.2
million, down marginally year over year. After its quarterly earnings were
announced, Active's stock price on Friday fell by more than 15 percent.