Those results came as the parent company continued to recover from problems in its financial services business. The company lost $31 million, compared to earnings of $294 million in last year's corresponding period. First-quarter revenue was $3.13 billion, down from $3.32 billion.
CEO James Smith said the decline in financial services sales stem from the year ago problems with the company since they reflect the impact of subscription revenue from a period of poor performance. Smith said the numbers should improve because the company was "winning our share" of deals instead of losing them all. The impact of the improved contact wins should show up later in 2013. "We expect performance in the second half of the year to be better than in the first half," he said. Those problems in the financial services sector led to the departure of Smith's predecessor, Thomas Glocer, early in 2012.
The Tax & Accounting business quarter was another in a string of strong reports. Operating earnings hit $69 million, up from $63 million in last year's corresponding period. Revenue rose to $317 million, up from $299 million a year earlier. Executives did not cite specific products for the Tax & Accounting performance but singled out corporate tax whose sales included a10-percent rise in organic revenue.