Digital Media Solutions, Inc. (OTCMKTS: DMSL) (“DMS” or the “Company”), a leading provider of technology-enabled digital performance advertising solutions connecting consumers and advertisers, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023.
DMS serves approximately 350 scaled enterprise customers and over 4,400 SMBs across the P&C Insurance, Health Insurance, Ecommerce and Career and Education and Consumer Finance verticals with digital performance marketing solutions.
“Our Q4 results reflect improving conditions in the Property and Casualty vertical, which has faced macro headwinds for the past couple of years. We are cautiously optimistic that P&C has hit an inflection point in its recovery, which would help drive growth for DMS in 2024. We also leaned into our key demand- and supply-side partnerships – the bedrock of our business – and continued to execute on our operational initiatives as we work to build a more streamlined, efficient and vertically integrated company”, said Joe Marinucci, CEO of DMS.
“Throughout the quarter, we diligently focused on building a solid foundation that can support our efforts to return to growth as key segments like P&C recover. We are pleased to have exceeded our margin improvement in Q4 and our overall revenue growth over Q3. We remain steadfast in our commitment to managing operating expenses, which are a crucial financial performance lever that we can control”, added Vanessa Guzmán-Clark, CFO.
Full Year 2023 Performance:
(All comparisons are relative to the full year of 2022)
- Net revenue of $334.9 million, down 14.4%
- Gross profit margin of 24.7%, a decrease of 1.7 PPTS
- Variable Marketing Margin of 28.9%, a decrease of 3.8 PPTS
- Operating expenses totaled $176.9 million, an increase of $31.1 million
- Net loss of $122.7 million compared to net loss of $52.5 million
- Adjusted EBITDA of $9.9 million compared to $25.7 million
- EPS of $(31.96) compared to $(12.38)
- Ended the year with $19.0 million in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, and total debt of $289.1 million.
Full Year 2023 Segment Performance (including intercompany revenue):
(All comparisons are relative to the full year of 2022)
- Brand Direct Solutions generated revenue of $204.5 million, up 0.1%. Gross margin was 19.5%, down from 21.0%.
- Marketplace Solutions generated revenue of $149.8 million, down 30.8%. Gross margin was 24.4%, up from 24.1%.
- Technology Solutions generated revenue of $8.3 million, down 14.9%. Gross margin was 77.6%, down from 85.4%.
Recent Developments
On April 17, 2024, DMS secured commitments for $22 million in new financing from certain of its existing lenders.
The Company also announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a process to evaluate potential strategic alternatives to maximize value. As part of the process, the Board will consider a full range of strategic, operational and financial alternatives, including a potential sale of the Company. DMS has retained Houlihan Lokey as its financial advisor to assist with the strategic review process.
“We’ve built a robust fundamental business with blue-chip clients across the insurance, nonprofit and ecommerce industries”, Mr. Marinucci added. “While we are well-positioned to capitalize on new opportunities as certain of our markets rebound, we have determined that now is the right time to initiate a review of strategic alternatives to maximize value and ensure the Company is best positioned for long-term success”.
Mr. Marinucci concluded, “we are pleased to have the support of our lenders who have provided us additional financing and flexibility to support our operations as we work through this process”.
1 Variable Marketing Margin (VMM) and Adjusted EBITDA, as well as certain other measures in this release, are non-GAAP financial measures. See “Non-GAAP Measures” for how we define these measures and the financial tables that accompany this release for reconciliations of these measures to the closest comparable GAAP measures.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and are made in reliance upon the protections provided by such acts for forward-looking statements and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “assume,” “likely,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, our expectations with respect to DMS’s future performance and ability to implement our strategy, and are based on the beliefs and expectations of our management team from the information available at the time such statements are made. These forward-looking statements involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside our control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) financial and business performance, including our business metrics and potential liquidity; (2) changes in our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans, including related to the strategic review process (as mentioned above) and the potential sale of all or part of our business; (3) ability to attain the expected financial benefits from the ClickDealer transaction; (4) any impacts to the ClickDealer business from our acquisition thereof; (5) ability to successfully recover should DMS experience a disaster or other business continuity problem from a hurricane, flood, earthquake, terrorist attack, pandemic, security breach, cyber attack, data breach, power loss, telecommunications failure or other natural or man-made event; (6) ability to manage our international expansion as a result of the ClickDealer acquisition, including operations in the Ukraine; (7) the Company’s exposure to potential criminal sanctions or civil penalties for noncompliance with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable in the domestic and international jurisdictions in which it operates, including sanctions laws relating to countries such as Iran, Russia, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela, anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as well as import and export restrictions; (8) changes in client demand for our services and our ability to adapt to such changes; (9) the entry of new competitors in the market; (10) the ability to maintain and attract consumers and advertisers in the face of changing economic or competitive conditions; (11) the ability to maintain, grow and protect the data DMS obtains from consumers and advertisers, and to ensure compliance with data privacy regulations in newly entered markets; (12) the performance of DMS’s technology infrastructure; (13) ability to protect DMS’s intellectual property rights; (14) ability to successfully source, complete and integrate acquisitions; (15) ability to improve and maintain adequate internal controls over financial and management systems, and remediate material weaknesses therein, including relating to revenue and the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets; (16) the continuously evolving laws and regulations applicable to our business in the United States and around the world and our ability to maintain compliance therewith; (17) our substantial levels of indebtedness; (18) our ability to maintain adequate operational and financial resources or raise additional capital or generate sufficient cash flows, including our ability to service our debt obligations under our senior secured credit facility, entered into on May 25, 2021 (as amended from time to time, the “Credit Facility”); (19) our ability to comply with the covenants in our Credit Facility and our obligations to the holders of our Series A convertible redeemable Preferred Stock and Series B convertible redeemable Preferred Stock; (20) volatility in the trading price of our common stock and our public warrants and fluctuations in value of our private placement warrants and Preferred Warrants; and (21) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in DMS’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including those under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year 2023 (as may be amended) and in DMS’s subsequent filings with the SEC.
There may be additional risks that we consider immaterial or which are unknown, and it is not possible to predict or identify all such risks.
We caution that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. In addition, we caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. For the avoidance of doubt, there can be no assurance that the review process will result in any strategic alternative being consummated (including the sale of all or part of the Company), or any assurance as to the review process’s outcome, timing or ultimate potential value to our equityholders and other stakeholders. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date hereof, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, investments or similar transactions, including related to our strategic review process.
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