Adobe Reports Record Revenue in Q3 Fiscal 2023

Improving trend in Q3 with a strong performance in Global Online Learning; North American Courseware and Global Assessment in line with expectations; and International further impacted by COVID-19 *At the nine months, Group sales declined by 14% largely reflecting the continuing impact of COVID-19 and test centre and school closures in Global Assessment and International, and expected declines in North American Courseware. *Global Online Learning sales grew 14% due to 41% enrolment growth in Virtual Schools for the academic year 2020/2021 and strong sales growth in Online Program Management (OPM) driven by undergraduate and international performance, partially offset by discontinued programs. *Global Assessment sales declined 19% due to the impact of test centre closures in Professional Certification (Pearson VUE), cancellation of spring testing in US Student Assessment and school closures impacting Clinical Assessment. *North American Courseware declined 14% with a stronger adoption performance in the Fall in US Higher Education Courseware and good growth in digital and subscription take up leading to the faster decline of higher priced package and print sales. *International declined 24% due to the impact of COVID-19 and as the associated economic effects intensified in several key markets, predominantly affecting public and private spending on courseware and assessments. *Pearson retains a strong balance sheet and significant financial headroom.

A summary of results for the second quarter ended July 30, 2022 as compared to the second quarter ended July 31, 2021: *Net sales of $805 million, down 7% as compared to last year on a reported basis and down 4% on a constant currency basis. *Gross profit rate of 57.9%, down approximately 730 basis points as compared to last year. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by higher product costs, which contributed 750 basis points, and the adverse impact of exchange rates, which accounted for 30 basis points. These impacts where partially offset by higher AUR at Abercrombie. *Operating expense, excluding other operating income, net, was up 4% compared to last year. The increase was driven primarily by inflation and higher digital fulfillment expenses partially offset by lower incentive-based compensation. Operating expense as a percentage of sales increased to 58.0% from 52.1% last year. *Operating loss of $2 million and $0 million on a reported and adjusted non-GAAP basis, respectively, as compared to operating income of $115 million and $116 million last year, on a reported and adjusted non-GAAP basis, respectively.

The Daily Iowan, a student newspaper at the University of Iowa, has acquired two community papers, the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun and Solon Economist, from Woodward Communications, effective with their Feb. 8 editions, the Iowan announced. The terms were not disclosed. The Daily Iowan is part of the non-profit corporation Student Publications, Inc.