ComScore Appoints 360i Chairman Bryan Wiener as CEO - WSJ
ComScore Inc. SCOR 8.78% 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.
Mr. 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.
In his new role, Mr. 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.
“The worst is behind us,” Mr. Wiener said in an interview. “The last two years were a very difficult time. It was hard to innovate at the speed we wanted to innovate with that cloud over our head.”
Now, 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, he said. Mr. Wiener’s plan is to streamline operations that are too complex and inefficient, focus on building products that support cross-platform measurement and sell comScore to the industry in a more compelling way.
“It’s a comeback story,” he said.
ComScore is one of only a few large companies that measure media consumption. Nielsen, the largest player in the industry, has a stronghold on national TV viewing, with its metrics serving as the currency in transactions between ad buyers and sellers. ComScore tracks local TV, digital publishing and digital ads, as well as film performance. Ad holding company giant WPP has about a 20% stake in comScore.
Mr. Wiener first joined comScore’s board as part of a settlement with activist investor Starboard Value LP last year. The fund agreed to drop a lawsuit against comScore demanding it hold an annual meeting, in exchange for several new independent directors joining the board.
Former GroupM executive Rob Norman is also joining comScore’s board, the company revealed last week.
Mr. Wiener will be comScore’s third CEO in less than two years. Mr. Fulgoni, before announcing his retirement last year, had succeeded Serge Matta, who stepped down in August 2016 amid the accounting crisis.
Mr. Wiener is known for building businesses through his strategy and operational vision. He and 360i CEO Sarah Hofstetter worked together to build the digital agency into an integrated marketing shop, ultimately absorbing sister media agency Vizeum. At the Dentsu level, Mr. Wiener spearheaded the acquisition of digital shop Firstborn. Separately, he orchestrated the sale of Expion, a company with a Dentsu investment, to Sysomos.
“My main skill set is growing businesses and positioning them in markets that are ever-changing,” Mr. Wiener said. “If you build a high-growth, profitable business that’s different in the market, shareholders are going to be rewarded. That’s what the board hired me to do.”
Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com and Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com
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