Advanced Marketing Services will not be able to file its amended quarterly reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the middle of June, the company disclosed in a filing with the SEC last week. In April, AMS's new nonexecutive chairman Bob Bartlett said he hoped that the company would be able to file its long-delayed quarterly reports and year-end filing for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, by mid-June. As a result of its inability to complete the restatement of those documents, AMS's 10-K filing for fiscal 2004 will also be delayed. AMS said it didn't know when the filings will be completed.
In its most recent filing, AMS said it is restating earnings for the seven-year period that ended in fiscal 2003, and that net income from fiscal 1997 through 2003 would be reduced by a total of $10 million, a higher number than earlier reported. Previously, AMS estimated that earnings would be reduced by $3 million to $9 million for the fiscal years 1999 through 2003. The restatement is tied to AMS's co-op program, which overcharged publishers for advertising.
Chuck Williams, director of investor relations for AMS, said the extra two years and higher restatement charge is the result "of going back and back until we got to the genesis of the problem." He said he did not expect that results for any other years would be restated.
