In the fourth quarter the company and the IRS agreed on the tax treatment of a number of issues and agreed to revised tax calculations, as part of the negotiations to settle the company’s 2005 to 2008 IRS examination. As a result, the company will recognize an income tax benefit of at least $30 million in the fourth quarter, with approximately $5 million recorded in discontinued operations. The impact of this agreement with the IRS is not included in the company’s earnings guidance for the year.
Based on the company’s free cash flow to-date and expectations for the fourth quarter, the company is increasing its free cash flow guidance for the year by $100 million. It now expects to generate free cash flow for 2011 in the range of $850 million to $950 million.
Management of Pitney Bowes will discuss the company’s results in a broadcast over the Internet today at 5:00 p.m. EST. Instructions for listening to the earnings results via the Web are available on the Investor Relations page of the company’s web site at www.pb.com/investorrelations.
Pitney Bowes is a $5.4 billion global leader whose products, services and solutions deliver value within the mailstream and beyond. For more information visit www.pitneybowes.com.
The company's financial results are reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). However, earnings per share, income from continuing operations, and cash from operations are adjusted to exclude the impact of special items such as restructuring charges, tax adjustments, accounting adjustments and write downs of assets. Although these charges represent actual expenses to the company, the company’s management believes these charges may mask the periodic income and financial and operating trends associated with our business. In addition, such items are inconsistent in amount and frequency and as such, the adjustments allow an investor greater insight into the current underlying operating trends of the business. The use of free cash flow has limitations. GAAP cash from operations has the advantage of including all cash available to the company after actual expenditures for all purposes. The company’s management believes that free cash flow permits an investor insight into the amount of cash that management could have available for other discretionary uses. It adjusts GAAP cash from operations for long-term commitments such as capital expenditures, as well as special items like cash used for restructuring charges, unusual tax payments and contributions to its pension funds. These items use cash that is not otherwise available to the company and are important expenditures. As a result, the company’s management compensates for these limitations by using a combination of GAAP cash from operations and free cash flow in doing its planning.
EBIT is determined by deducting from segment revenue the related costs and expenses attributable to the segment. EBIT excludes interest, taxes, general corporate expenses, restructuring charges, asset impairments, and goodwill charges which are generally managed across the entire company on a consolidated basis. EBIT is useful to management in demonstrating the operational profitability of the segments and is also used for purposes of measuring the performance of our management team. In addition, to better understand trends in its business, the company’s management believes that it is helpful to adjust revenue to exclude the impact of changes in the translation of foreign currencies into U.S. dollars. Financial results on a constant currency basis exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates since the prior period under comparison and are calculated using the average of the rates in effect during that period. Constant currency measures are intended to help investors better understand the underlying operational performance of the business excluding the impacts of shifts in currency exchange rates over the intervening period.
Pitney Bowes has provided a quantitative reconciliation to GAAP in supplemental schedules. This information may also be found at the company's web site www.pb.com/investorrelations in the Investor Relations section.
This document contains “forward-looking statements” about our
expected or potential future business and financial performance. For us
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements
about possible transformation initiatives; restructuring charges; our
future revenue and earnings guidance; and other statements about future
events or conditions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of
future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks
and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the uncertain
economic environment, fluctuations in customer demand; mail volumes; foreign
currency exchange rates; the outcome of litigation; timely development,
market acceptance and regulatory approvals, if needed, of new products;
management of credit risk; management of outsourcing arrangements;
income tax or other regulatory levies; changes in postal regulations;
and the financial health of national posts; and other factors beyond our
control as more fully outlined in the company's 2010 Form 10-K Annual
Report and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Pitney Bowes assumes no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new
information, events or developments.
