Victoria's Secret Reveals Preliminary Q1 Results, but Delays Full Report Following ‘Security Incident'
Victoria's Secret & Co. got its websites back up and running, but needs to huddle with tech support some more before reporting its official first-quarter results.
The lingerie giant's websites went dark for three days last week as it wrestled with a 'security incident involving information technology systems.'
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Victoria's Secret detected the problem on May 24 and said it 'immediately enacted its response protocols to attempt to contain and eradicate unauthorized network access, and third-party experts were engaged.'
Its corporate systems, including some functions in stores and e-commerce sites, were shut down on May 26. The e-commerce sites were back up on May 29, but the company is still working to restore full access to the corporate system.
The incident did not materially disrupt operations, according to the company.
While the tech trip up happened during the second quarter, Victoria's Secret postponed its first-quarter financial update, which was scheduled for Thursday.
'The restoration process has prevented employees from accessing certain systems and information needed to support the company's release of its financial results for the first quarter,' the firm said.
Earnings will be released at a later time, but the company gave investors a preview with preliminary results that were near or above the high-end of its previous guidance.
First-quarter sales came in at $1.35 billion, down from $1.36 billion a year ago, but ahead of the $1.3 billion to $1.33 billion the company forecast.
Adjusted operating income totaled $32 million, down from $40 million a year earlier, but ahead of the $10 million to $30 million forecast.
The question now is how much the incident will weigh on the second quarter.
'The company continues to assess the full scope and impact of the incident, under the oversight of the audit committee of the board of directors,' Victoria's Secret said. 'Although this incident has not caused a material disruption to its operations to date, the company has incurred — and may continue to incur — expenses and other financial impacts related to this incident, which could negatively impact its future financial results, including for the second quarter.'
It's been a complicated stretch for the Victoria's Secret board, which, in the midst of the website outage last week, also imposed a poison pill shareholder rights plan to prevent Australian entrepreneur Brett Blundy's BBRC International from buying the company without paying a control premium. BBRC has a 13 percent stake in Victoria's Secret.
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