GAAP cash from operations during the quarter was $70 million and free cash flow was $32 million. Compared to the prior year, free cash flow was lower partially due to the timing of reserve account deposits and the decline in net income offset by the timing of working capital requirements.
The Company repurchased $39 million worth of its shares and returned $9 million in dividends to its common shareholders.
Adoption of New Lease Accounting Standard
The company adopted the new lease accounting standard, ASC 842, effective January 1, 2019 using a modified retrospective approach, which requires the Company to recognize and measure leases at the beginning of the earliest period presented. Beginning with the quarter ending March 31, 2019, the Company’s financial information will reflect adoption of the standard with prior periods adjusted accordingly. Certain reclassified historical financial information on a basis consistent with the new standard can be found within the Financial Reporting section of the Company's Investor Relations web site, or at www.investorrelations.pitneybowes.com/financial-information This reclassified historical information does not take into account any other reclassifications that may be made to historical financial information to conform to the current year presentation.
First Quarter 2019 Business Segment Reporting
The business reporting groups reflect how the Company manages these groups and the clients served in each market.
The Commerce Services group includes the Global Ecommerce and Presort Services segments. Global Ecommerce facilitates global cross-border ecommerce transactions and domestic retail and ecommerce shipping solutions, including fulfillment and returns. Presort Services provides sortation services to qualify large volumes of First Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Bound and Packet Mail (Standard Flats and Bound Printed Matter) for postal workshare discounts.
The SMB Solutions group offers mailing and shipping solutions, financing, services, supplies and other applications for small and medium businesses to help simplify and save on the sending, tracking and receiving of letters, parcels and flats. This group includes the North America Mailing and International Mailing segments.
Software Solutions provide customer engagement, customer information, location intelligence software and data.
The results for each segment within the group may not equal the subtotals for the group due to rounding.
Commerce Services |
|||||||||||||
($ millions) | First Quarter | ||||||||||||
Revenue | 2019 | 2018 |
Y/Y
Reported |
Y/Y
Ex Currency |
|||||||||
Global Ecommerce | $266 | $247 | 8% | 9% | |||||||||
Presort Services | 135 | 134 | 0% | 0% | |||||||||
Commerce Services | $401 | $381 | 5% | 6% | |||||||||
EBITDA | |||||||||||||
Global Ecommerce | $2 | $7 | (72%) | ||||||||||
Presort Services | 22 | 33 | (34%) | ||||||||||
Commerce Services | $24 | $40 | (40%) | ||||||||||
EBIT | |||||||||||||
Global Ecommerce | ($15) | ($8) | (89%) | ||||||||||
Presort Services | 15 | 27 | (44%) | ||||||||||
Commerce Services | $0 | $19 | (98%) | ||||||||||