Liberty Broadband Corporation (LBRDK) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Welcome to GCI Liberty 2026 First Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference will be recorded May 7. I would now like to turn the call over to Hooper Stevens, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today for GCI Liberty's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. As you know, this call may include certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in the most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed by GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in GCI Liberty or Liberty Broadband's expectations with regard to any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for GCI Liberty, including adjusted OIBDA, adjusted OIBDA margin and free cash flow. Information regarding the required definitions along with the comparable GAAP metrics and reconciliations for GCI Liberty can be found in the earnings press release issued today, which is available on GCI Liberty's IR website. Speaking on today's call will be Ron Duncan, the CEO of GCI Liberty, and Brian Wendling, GCI Liberty's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer. Also during Q&A, we will take questions related to Liberty Broadband should they arise, and we have additional members of GCI and Liberty Broadband management available to answer questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron Duncan.

Thank you, and good morning. We had an incredibly productive start to the year and delivered solid first quarter results. We continue to execute on our mission of delivering quality connectivity to all Alaskans. At GCI, we recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Quintillion for consideration of $310 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments, reimbursement of up to $50 million for capital expenditures incurred by Quintillion prior to closing and potential earn-out payments. We are incredibly excited to marry two of Alaska's best networks. This transaction will bring together complementary subsea and terrestrial fiber routes, our extensive rural microwave network, deep operational expertise and long-term investment under one operating model. It will enhance the scale, resilience and reach of GCI's statewide network to benefit all Alaskans. We expect the transaction to be accretive to free cash flow in the first year after closing. We announced yesterday that GCI Liberty has invested approximately $107 million to acquire Searchlight Capital Partners equity interest in Liberty Latin America. We are also in discussions with Dr. John Malone, Chairman of the Board of GCI Liberty and Director Emeritus of Liberty Latin America and certain affiliates to acquire additional shares in Liberty Latin America. We are pleased to begin GCI Liberty's next chapter of growth with this opportunistic investment in Liberty Latin America and are keenly interested in acquiring a more significant equity and voting stake in the company from Dr. Malone and others. Balan Nair and his team have done an impressive job of developing LLA into a leading integrated connectivity provider across Latin America and the Caribbean, and we look forward to participating in the growth potential that lies ahead. As part of this evolution, we intend to change our name from GCI Liberty to Liberty Capital Corporation in the coming weeks with no change to our ticker. We are changing our name to reflect our expanded focus at the parent level as we start making investments outside of our core Alaska operating subsidiary. Our Alaska operations will continue under the GCI name and brand. These first steps of strategic change at GCI Liberty represent our focus on augmenting the ways we create value for our shareholders and our progression as Liberty Capital. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Turning now to our operating highlights. We grew consumer wireless subscribers 2% year-over-year, ending the quarter with 200,000 consumer wireless lines. We had a total of 207,700 wireless lines at quarter end, including 7,700 business lines. We added 1,000 consumer wireless lines during the quarter, including 500 postpaid lines, largely from our GCI+ wireless free for a year promotion. On the data side, we saw a 3% decline year-over-year, ending the quarter with 150,500 data subscribers. We lost 700 data subscribers during the quarter due to continued competitive pressure from wireless substitution and limited competition from Starlink. Encouragingly, we note the pace of our broadband losses is decreasing, indicating a stabilizing broadband base. We believe the stabilization is due to the success of our new GCI+ promotional offer and the improvements we are making to speed and reliability throughout our network. As we look forward, we expect the business to remain stable. At GCI, our operating priorities are: first, to invest in our network infrastructure, including closing our acquisition of Quintillion; second, to complete our build-out commitments under the Alaska plan; third, to drive value and the benefits of convergence for our customers; and finally, to bridge the digital divide through our rural expansion. Starting with network infrastructure. Our planned acquisition of Quintillion creates value for both the Alaska community and our shareholders and is expected to be accretive to free cash flow within the first year of closing. The transaction will bring together complementary fiber routes, and we expect to enhance network resilience, routing diversity and overall reliability through a more robust architecture comprised of multiple rings and sub-rings. This expanded fiber footprint positions us to compete more effectively against LEO satellite broadband alternatives, bringing a more competitive connectivity environment to Alaska. Importantly, this transaction also strengthens critical communications infrastructure that supports Alaska's communities, government operations and national security priorities. Next, on driving convergence and maximizing value and quality for our consumers. We remain encouraged by our promotional offers in the market, which provide value for our consumers. Last year, we concluded our unlimited test drive promotion. The retention of up sales from that promotion was exceptionally high in the low 90% range. This quarter, we launched free for a year wireless promotion that continues to support our consumer postpaid wireless growth and drives convergence. Our converged customer base continues to grow. More than 40% of our broadband customers have one or more wireless lines and more than 60% of our postpaid wireless lines are sold as part of a package. Lastly, on bridging the digital divide in Alaska through rural expansion and completing our commitments on the Alaska plant. We are nearing completion of our build-out for the Alaska plan, increasing wireless speeds across the communities we serve. We will continue to focus on providing 5G wireless service to all covered Alaskans over the coming years. We still expect CapEx, including Quintillion to peak this year and to step down over the coming years as it returns to our historical range of 15% to 20% of revenue. The planned Quintillion acquisition should support substantial cash generation as we look ahead. In summary, we are encouraged by our steady financial and operational performance this quarter. At GCI Liberty, we remain focused on our continued evolution as Liberty Capital as we look to create value for our shareholders from our existing business and new investments. With that, I'll turn it to Brian to discuss the financials in more detail.

Thanks, Ron, and good morning, everyone. At the end of the first quarter, GCI Liberty had consolidated cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $448 million, including $131 million of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at GCI. Total principal amount of debt at GCI Liberty was approximately $1 billion. At quarter end, GCI Liberty's consolidated net leverage was 1.6x, which incorporates cash at the parent level, including proceeds from last quarter's rights offering as well as GCI's nonvoting preferred stock. Subsequent to the end of the first quarter, GCI completed the acquisition of a 6% equity interest in Liberty Latin America from Searchlight for $107 million. GCI will also provide $160 million unsecured loan to Quintillion pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. Pro forma for these 2 transactions, GCI Liberty's consolidated net leverage would have been 2.3x. At quarter end, GCI's net leverage as defined in its credit agreement was 2.3x. Additionally, GCI's credit facility had $377 million of undrawn capacity net of letters of credit. Pro forma for the $160 million loan that GCI will provide to Quintillion, GCI's leverage would have been approximately 2.7x. Now turning to GCI's operating results for the first quarter. For the first quarter, GCI generated total revenue of $256 million, representing a 4% decrease year-over-year and adjusted OIBDA of $93 million, an 18% decrease year-over-year. There were approximately $13 million of items impacting year-over-year comparability, most of which are nonrecurring in nature. These include about a $4 million benefit we recognized during the first quarter of 2025 related to the successful appeal of rates for services provided to certain health care customers in prior years. Additionally, we are lapping a roughly $2 million net benefit to OIBDA last quarter related to the fiber break on the Quintillion network that GCI uses capacity, which has since been repaired. We're also making incremental investments into operating business more efficiently, representing an increase of approximately $4 million in operating expenses. And lastly, during the first quarter of this year, we have $3 million of public company costs, which were not in the prior year numbers. We do expect these public company costs to continue. Looking at the segment detail, the consumer revenue declined 5% during the first quarter, with the majority of the decline driven by the shutdown of the video business as well as data subscriber losses, slightly offset by growth in wireless. As a reminder, GCI exited the video business during the third quarter of last year. Consumer gross margin increased to 72.2% for the quarter, driven by a decline in consumer direct costs resulting from decreases in video programming costs. Business revenue declined 3% for the first quarter. As mentioned above, the first quarter of '25 benefited from approximately $4 million of out-of-period revenue, excluding or out of period -- more like recovered revenue. Excluding this impact, revenue would have been flat. Business gross margin decreased to 77.3% for the first quarter, primarily driven by higher distribution costs related to restored service on the Quintillion fiber network. As we've previously mentioned, this network was out of service during the first quarter of 2025. Capital expenditures net of grant proceeds totaled $55 million during the first quarter. We expect 2026 CapEx of approximately $290 million, which includes $20 million that was carried over from 2025 due to normal course timing shifts. And as Ron mentioned, we do expect 2026 to represent our peak year of CapEx spend. GCI generated $99 million of free cash flow for the trailing 12 months through the end of the first quarter, down around 13% year-over-year. This was largely driven by an increase in capital expenditures net of grant proceeds. The CapEx increase in 2026 when coupled with ordinary course working capital swings will drive proportionately lower free cash flow on a year-over-year basis. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Ron.

Thank you. And operator, we can open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from David Joyce with Seaport Research Partners.

A few questions, please. First, I'll ask on the operational side. With the business wireless losses, what were the drivers of that?

The Business wireless is kind of a small part of the business, and I think there's ordinary churn going on in there. We've been gradually descending in Business wireless, partly as people transition business accounts more to the consumer side. I don't think the magnitude of those losses is material to the overall situation of the company.

Understood. And then secondly, on the Liberty Latin America investment, should we think of that as a tax-advantaged cash flow play since they announced that they're distributing a 9% preferred later this summer, thereby you could use some of your tax attributes with those cash flows to fund your own preferred and CapEx? Or is there some other kind of strategic thrust there?

We think there's a more strategic thrust there. We are pleased with their restructuring and we'll be happy to receive the benefits of the preferred there. And you're correct, those would be sheltered. But we've been looking at Liberty Latin America for a while before they had decided on their recapitalization plan with the preferred. We believe it's an undervalued entity and has many characteristics that are similar to what we face in the Alaskan market. It's got a great asset footprint in a market that is generally under-invested in, although they have some specific end markets that have more competition than we do. We think they're on the verge of a substantial inflection in free cash flow, and we think looking at the overall situation there that they are materially undervalued. We saw this as an opportunity to get in at that undervaluation and build a bigger position over time. So we're happy to have the benefit of the preferred, but not -- that's not the principal reason for undertaking the transaction.

All right. And the final question is on Quintillion. What were your payments to them last year? And have there been other fiber breaks in the past like you experienced last year? And who are your -- who would the remaining customers be?

Okay. Let's take those one at a time. I don't think we have broken out the total Quintillion payments. Have we, Pete?

We have not.

Okay. We are more than half of Quintillion's total revenues, and that's a big piece of what drives the transaction. We generally don't compete with them on a customer basis. They're more in the wholesale business, and we buy services from them, that we then remarket to our business, and rural health care customers in the marketplace. But we're not -- give me the last piece of that question again, too, please, David?

Yes. Just wondering who the customer base is aside from yourself?

The customer base would be people who -- other people who provide services largely to the schools and the health care providers that would include ACS and some of the smaller local telephone companies throughout the state.

Our next question is from Jim Harris with Bistlet Management.

Liberty Broadband question. Outside of the purchases that they're making of Charter stock from Liberty every month, why wouldn't Liberty Broadband be encouraging Charter to reduce their debt in absolute terms since their business is shrinking, it's making it more risky and reducing the debt would increase the value per share. Just wondering why Liberty isn't pushing that absolute debt reduction as to their current plan to sort of slow leverage?

This is Martin Patterson speaking for Liberty Broadband. So you'll note that pro forma for the Cox transaction, there will be a reduction in net leverage. We remain very supportive of the capital allocation policy at the company and do see them lowering their leverage at the close of the Cox transaction, which will be the close of the Liberty Broadband transaction.

Thank you, Jim. Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's call. We will speak to you soon. And again, thanks. Take care.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time, and thank you for your participation.