Restructuring costs contributed to social media intelligence and news agency Storyful — part of the Irish arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — recording pretax losses of €6.78 million last year.
New accounts show that Storyful Ltd recorded the pretax losses as revenues fell 10 per cent, from €5.08 million to €4.57 million, in the 12 months to the end of June last year.
Directors said the revenues declined due to the geographical movement of some contracts to other group undertakings.
The directors stressed that not all of Storyful’s global revenues were included in the results, which related only to the Irish-based entity, Storyful Ltd.
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The directors said that Storyful continued to expand services for media, brands and social platforms and continued to invest in the product and technology departments last year.
The pretax losses of €6.78 million followed pretax losses of €8.97 million in the prior period.
The business last year recorded restructuring costs of €852,526, following restructuring costs of €333,398 in fiscal 2020.
Numbers employed at the business last year declined from 112 to 89, with staff costs falling from €8.36 million to €6.5 million.
Former RTÉ Prime Time presenter Mark Little set up the company in 2010, and Mr Little and the company’s investors sold it to News Corp for €18 million in December 2013.
News Corp ploughed another €6.99 million into the business last year.
The firm’s accumulated losses of €48.8 million were offset by a share premium account of €56 million and called up share capital of €389,075, resulting in shareholders’ funds of €7.6 million at the end of June 2021.
Directors’ pay last year increased from €684,321 to €640,471.
