Earnings Labs

Perion Network Ltd. (PERI)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Thu, May 10, 2018

$10.39

-0.52%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-11.22%

1 Week

+5.10%

1 Month

+35.71%

vs S&P

+33.18%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Perion First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. The press release detailing the financial results is available on the company's web site at perion.com. Before we begin, I'd like to read the following Safe Harbor statement. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those discussed under the heading Risk Factors and elsewhere in the company's Annual Report on Form 20-F that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements anticipated or implied by these forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. As in prior quarters, the results reported today will be analyzed both on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. While mentioning EBITDA, we will be referring to adjusted EBITDA. We have provided a detailed reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to their comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release, which is available on our web site, and has also been filed on Form 6-K. Hosting the call today are Doron Gerstel, Perion's Chief Executive Officer; Maoz Sigron, Perion's Chief Financial Officer; Mike Pallad, President of Undertone and Mike Glover, GM of Search division. I would now like to turn the call over to Doron Gerstel. Please go ahead, sir.

Doron Gerstel

Operator

Thank you and good morning. Today, our CFO, Maoz Sigron will discuss the first quarter results, then we will open the call up for your questions. Mike Pallad, President of our Undertone business, and Mike Glover, GM of our Search Division will join us for the Q&A session. We are here to share our Q1 performance results, but before we get into the details, which are very positive I'd like to start off by providing an update on our turnaround process. Our turnaround consisted of three initiatives; the first initiative was the imperative to significantly reduce costs. On this matter, we are ahead of schedule, and I would like to congratulate the team for working with the implementation of those measures. It has been a year, since we started this initiative, and the expected cost cutting amount in sales and marketing and G&A for 2018 compared to 2017 is more than $14 million. Let me hope, that we achieve these cost reduction without hindering our investment into technology. Technology is essential for our competitive advantage, and the mood we are building. This brings me to the second and third initiative, which are connected. Achieving [indiscernible] results and leveraging our technology assets. These efforts will further have to differentiate and enhance our offering. This quarter's results demonstrate the strength of both sides of our business. Our Search business is healthy and profitable. And our agreement with Bing guarantees revenue for years to come. We are currently evolving our search business from its dependency on a small number of large publishers, and extending it to a network of greater number of publishers. Our efforts on our technology in 2017 to rewrite our platform, cleanup technical depth, will allow us to efficiently onboard more publisher in 2018 and beyond. This is the move…

Maoz Sigron

Analyst

Thank you, Doron. In the first quarter of 2018, revenue for Perion totaled $60.9 million comprised of $29.3 million of Advertising revenues and $31.6 million of search and other revenues. Revenue was down 2% from $62 million in the first quarter last year. This decrease was due to search and other revenues declining 16%, offset by 20% increase in advertising revenue. The decline in search and other revenues is mainly due to proactive network cleanup that took place in 2017 and the expected natural churn of search legacy products. The 20% increase in advertising revenue is nearly due to the higher brand spend by existing customer, during the first quarter of 2018. Search and other revenues represents 62% of revenue for the first quarter of 2018, with advertising contributing 48%. This is compared to the first quarter of 2017, in which search contributed 60.6% and advertising contributed 39%. Customer acquisition costs and Media Buy in the first quarter of 2018 accounted for $31.9 million or 52% of revenue compared to $30.1 million or 48% of revenue in the first quarter of 2017. In Search, the increase as a percentage of revenue is finally due to churn of our legacy products, while in Advertising the increase is mainly attributed to product mix and due to the effect of the header bidding and Chrome ad blocker. We reported a net income of $0.1 million or zero cents per diluted share for the first quarter of 2018 compared to a net loss of $2.1 million or $0.03 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2018. Perion non-GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2018 was $3 million or $0.04 per share, compared to $2.8 million or $0.04 per share in the third quarter of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2018 was $4.3 million compared to $3.5 million in the first quarter of 2017. Cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter of 2018 was $14.6 million compared to $8.2 million for the first quarter last year. The increase in cash generated was primarily the result of better collection during the quarter, as well as improved profitability due to the cost reduction effort. As of March 31, 2018, we have cash, cash equivalents and short term deposits of $41.7 million compared to $37.5 million as of December 31, 2017. This concludes my financial overview for the first quarter of 2018. I will now turn the call back to Doron.

Doron Gerstel

Operator

Thank you, Maoz. In our press release today, we reiterated our full year guidance of adjusted EBITDA of $28 million to $32 million for 2018. Before I open the call for questions, I want to say that while we are pleased by our results and our team's performance, we are keeping our foot on the gas pedal. We work in a competitive, fast changing industry. We stay alert to these changes and are constantly adapting to meet them. We believe that undertone offers brand, the optimal fusion of creativity and technology. While creative drives engagement and our technology enables synchronized digital branding, the holy grail for brands that want to connect with the consumer and create meaningful experiences for them. We believe more and more brands will be seeking our consumer-based solution. In a world of commodified ad tech, we are a welcome alternative. The trends are in our favor and putting us on the path to long term growth. That's what we are here for. Thank you. Operator?

Operator

Operator