Proxy Battle and Other Factors to Impact Acxioms' Earnings

Acxiom® Corporation today quantified the expected cumulative financial impact of the successful completion of the proxy contest with ValueAct Capital, the anticipated completion of the Dutch Auction Self Tender, an $800 million credit facility, and other items reported on the first-quarter earnings conference call held July 26, 2006. The net impact of these items will reduce the midpoint of the original fiscal year 2007 Financial Road Map earnings target by approximately six to seven cents per fully diluted share. The six- to seven-cent reduction reflects the anticipated impact for fiscal 2007 of the following five items:

• 1. The fiscal 2007 Road Map targets, communicated during the fiscal 2006 year-end conference call on May 17, 2006, were based on 90 million weighted average shares outstanding. Subsequently, the company reported a net 2 million share increase related to greater-than-expected exercises of 2.5 million stock options, partially offset by share repurchases of 0.5 million shares. The net increase of approximately 2 million shares will increase the fiscal 2007 weighted average share count to approximately 91 million, a weighted average increase of approximately 1 million shares that is expected to result in a reduction of approximately one cent in fiscal 2007 EPS.

• The company incurred proxy contest expenses related to financial and non-financial advisory fees of approximately $1.2 million in addition to expenses previously reported. These fees were not anticipated in the earlier fiscal 2007 Road Map targets and are expected to reduce fiscal 2007 EPS by approximately one cent.
• The company expects to repurchase up to $300 million of its shares through the Dutch Auction Self Tender (DAST) scheduled to close on September 12, 2006. The impact on the weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding for fiscal 2007 is expected to be a reduction of approximately 6.0 to 6.5 million shares or an increase to fiscal 2007 EPS of approximately seven to eight cents.

• The company expects to incur incremental interest expense of approximately $14.3 million related to the incremental borrowings under the new credit facilities scheduled to close on September 15, 2006. These borrowings are to fund the DAST, restructure existing debt and be available for general corporate purposes. These costs are anticipated to result in an approximate 10-cent reduction in fiscal 2007 EPS.

• During the first-quarter earnings conference call, the company reported that its effective tax rate for fiscal year 2007 was expected to be 39 percent. Previously announced targets anticipated an effective tax rate of 38 percent. The one percentage point increase is expected to result in an approximate two-cent reduction in fiscal 2007 EPS.

“Since the fiscal 2006 year-end conference call, we have publicly provided a significant amount of information to investors, and management today is clarifying that information so that shareholders have a more complete view of Acxiom’s full-year earnings expectation for fiscal year 2007. While the amounts for the DAST and the credit facilities continue to be estimates, we do not expect the final amounts to differ materially from our current expectations,” said Frank Cotroneo, Acxiom’s Chief Financial Officer.