During the three months ended December 31, Jacksonville, Florida-based MPS reported a net loss of $15.9m compared to a net loss of $24m in 2002, on revenue that grew 4% to $283.9m. Revenue was boosted by growth in the company’s professional services unit, which grew 18% to $138.5m. IT services however, the second largest division, declined 3.1% to $130.7m. In the full year period, the IT services business declined 11% to $511.7m.
However the company claims to be experiencing stronger demand within Modis, where it saw a sequential increase in revenue during the fourth quarter driven by stronger demand in the UK market. Idea Integration however, Modis’ e-commerce services division, declined during the period due to the closure of a large project, but it expects this to be offset by an improvement in 2004.
The company as a whole trimmed its net loss to $1.23m from a loss of $566.3m in 2002, on revenue that fell 8.4% to $1.09bn. MPS sold its outplacement unit Manchester to Right Management Consultants in December for $8m in cash, and this helped it to improve its cash position, ending the year with $124.8m, up from $66.9m in 2002.
CEO Timothy Payne said that the company expects an improvement in the business climate in 2004: Demand is clearly improving faster in our professional businesses, and we anticipate that demand in our IT businesses will continue to improve…
We are encouraged by the increase in average daily revenue that we have experienced throughout January and we anticipate further growth in average daily revenue for the remainder of the first quarter of 2004.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
