Operator
ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by my name is abby and i will be your conference operator today at this time i would like to welcome everyone to the live one incorporated third quarter fiscal 2025 financial results and business update webcast all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise after the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session if you would like to ask a question during that time simply press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad if you would like to withdraw your question press star one a second time thank you and i would now like to turn the conference over to aaron sullivan chief financial officer mr sullivan you may begin thank you
good morning and welcome to live one's business update and financial results conference call for for the company's third quarter ended December 31, 2024. Presenting on today's call with me is Rob Ellen, CEO and chairman of LiveOne. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking and are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve various risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future performance of the company included expected future financial results and expected future growth in the business. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed on this call for a variety of reasons. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those described on its annual report on Form 10 for the year ended March 31, 2024, and subsequent SEC filings. You'll find reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures discussed today in the company's earnings release, which is posted on its Investor Relations website. The company encourages you to periodically visit the Investor Relations website for important content. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, contains time-sensitive information and reflects management's view as of the date of this call, February 14, 2025. Except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information after the date of the call i'd like to highlight to investors that this call is being recorded the company is making it available to investors and media via webcast and a replay will be available on its website in the investor relations section shortly following the conclusion of the call additionally it is the property of the company and any redistribution transmission or rebroadcast of this call or the webcast in any form without the company's express written consent is strictly prohibitive now i would like to turn the call over to live one ceo rob allen thank you aaron good morning everyone and thank you everyone for joining this has been an extraordinarily challenging
and exciting order for the company thanks to the unwavering dedication and relentless drive of the live one team we've achieved record revenues of 95 million in the first nine months and $29 million plus for the quarter, underscoring our ability to navigate an extraordinary challenge and turn it into the biggest opportunity in the history of the company. Our audio business, Slacker Radio and Podcast One, I'm pleased to report, broke $90 million in revenues for the first time in the history of the company, accompanied by $14.1 million of adjusted EBITDA for the nine months. This outstanding performance demonstrates our ability to pivot, survive, and thrive. We've made significant strides to diversify the business and diversify our partnerships, especially in the B2B partnerships with five deals signed in the last 90 days, adding over $44 million in revenues, including $25 million with the Fortune 500 Media Conglomerate and $16.5 million with Amazon. We expect to close at least two more partnerships by year-end. Our pipeline is robust with over 70 B2B partnerships in various stages of development with billion to trillion-dollar companies. Now for the challenge and the opportunity of a lifetime. Our partnership with Tesla changed dramatically from being a white-label partner in Tesla cars with a guaranteed $3 a month from Tesla as long as the customer, that car owner, signed up and paid $9.99 for connectivity. We have now renewed our contract for the 12th straight year with Tesla, providing for the first time ever beachfront property with our logo, with our branding right in the front of every single Tesla car. And the amazing part, this is in perpetuity. With the help and support of Tesla and using AI marketing and multiple strategies the company has used over the years to convert all of the car owners into true subscribers, both free and paid. For the first time ever, we will have data and information of each of our subscribers. This is a multi-billion dollar opportunity. For anyone that's been an investor or part of my companies over the years, we shoot for the move. This is now that unique moonshot you have that you're going to struggle and take some hits in revenues for a period of time. But as you look at the future of this, all you have to believe is that you can get over $3 a month. So you have this beachfront real estate, and now the rents have been going up for 12 years, but we weren't able to raise our rents at all. These numbers have exceeded any expectations of management, analysts, and most of all, Tesla themselves. Since December, we've signed over a staggering 800,000 plus new users. That's 40% of the entire pool of the 2 million Tesla cars in North America. This collaboration is nothing short of transformative. We believe the partnership provides a proof of concept that can help us with the success of signing those B2B partners. Imagine partners with 10 million to a billion plus eyeballs. I've been talking about a flywheel for the last seven years. And as you see a sign, those massive B2B deals, this proof. Now think about whether a Facebook, an Amazon, a Walmart, a Microsoft, an Amex, anyone with 10 million to a billion eyeballs, if we can convert 40%, even if we can convert 1% or 2% of those users, we have a multi-billion dollar opportunity. As we move forward, we're pivoting our business model, leveraging our partnerships, and delivering our music platform to large user bases and B2B deals. In addition to our continued growth, I'm pleased to reiterate that LiveOne has committed $12 million to the stock buyback program. We currently have $6.2 million remaining on that buyback program and shows the confidence we will continue to buy and show our confidence in the future of our company and provide that proof of concept that the company and the management are backing and believers in our company. We are committed to continue our growth, both in terms of revenue and market presence. Our cash position increased by $4 million, almost $11 million, after paying off $3 million to East West Bank and acquiring 900,000 shares of our subsidiary, Podcast One. I couldn't be more excited about where podcasting is going. The presidency was one with the help of podcasting. Fox just bought Red podcast network for over 15 times revenues. Conan O'Brien's network sold for over 15 times revenues to Cirrus. You're seeing deals, the Kelsey brothers, selling for $150 million. Smartless for $125. We have one of the biggest networks in podcasting. I'm excited to share that Podcast One's subsidiary has achieved record revenues and traffic for the quarter. We've expanded our network to become the eighth largest in the industry. have secured a major partnership with Amazon, a three-year deal worth $16.5 million, and have just guided to $51 million in revenues and, for the first time, positive EBITDA for the year. Positive EBITDA for the year means the fourth quarter has to be substantial EBITDA, and we fully expect that that number is going to continue going forward for the year. These achievements demonstrate our commitment to delivering high-quality content, innovative solutions to our audience, advertising partners. We're excited about the future of Live One and Podcast One, and we look forward to continued growth. To further accelerate growth, we are working with multiple bankers, including JP Morgan, to explore all M&A opportunities that can enhance our business and unlock additional values. These steps aligns our strategic goals of expanding our market presence and strengthening our office. I want to thank our employees, our partners, our shareholders for our continued trust and support, and I look forward to the following point. Thank you, everyone, and I'll open it up to Q&A.
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question press star one a second time if you're called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question again it is star one if you would like to ask a question and your first question comes from the line of brian kinslinger with alliance global partners Your line is open.
Great. Thanks so much. So on your website, you offer Slack or Radio for $333 per month today. I look, it's $39.99 for the year. Is this the ARPU we suggest we think about going forward? It's the most, it's the question I get most from an investor is they want to try to understand what the ARPU looks like going forward. it?
Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think that dynamic is challenging to answer exactly. But we did say recently we'll be raising our prices. As this change with Tesla has happened, what we found is we found a lot of people want to buy a year-long subscription, which is exceptional for us. What we found is that pricing, unless there's an opportunity to raised prices substantially. As you're aware and have seen with Spotify, they've raised their prices substantially. They just announced another price increase. So I think this is the opportunity now that the company is collecting real data, actually has an understanding of not just having a VIN number of a car, but actually having Brian Kinslinger and Rob Ellen and the names and data and emails and credit cards and so on. This would be the time that we're really going to find out you know how far we can expand those but if you look at the industry we're the top 10 in the industry yeah we're the lowest by far in terms of pricing i think it's a huge opportunity to increase our prices over the next 12 months okay and if i were to buy a tesla today do i get free service to attract me for some period of time i'm just curious how a new tesla plays out now Yeah, it's a great question. You have the opportunity, right? And remember, this all just happened as of December 4th. On December 4th, we renewed our contract, changed dynamically, right? That contract can be guaranteed $3 a month, right? Now we have the opportunity to upsell that customer with the help of Tesla, okay? You have the opportunity of getting a subscription that is monthly or for a year, or you have the opportunity now, as of 30 days ago, to be able to turn that service back on. You look in your car, every single Tesla car on the left-hand side, you'll see our logo for the first time ever. You click on that button, and if you choose it, you can either choose ad-supported, or you can have subscription with no ads.
Right, so I get that. I'm curious, for example, I buy my car, I have free Sirius radio for a month, and then it goes away, but I have the opposite. Do I get, is it going to start playing day one, and then you have to have so much time to select ad-supported or buy? That's what I'm curious about.
Yeah, great question. We have not yet, as of 30 days ago, we launched the free ad-supported. And to our shock and excitement, right, as we said yesterday, we've signed over 450,000 free ad-supported subscribers. And what we decided to do that is that we've had such success for 12 years with Tesla in the usage, right, the time people spent, right? We didn't want to take the risk that they switched and didn't sign up for subscription because it's a little clunky and a little complicated. Well, you have to do it. You have to hit a barcode, right? You've got to sign up. You've got to put your information in. You've got to put a credit card in. Well, this gave them an easy way that we get them back into the funnel. We get those consumers back in the funnel. We give them. And when you turn on the music, you'll get your five favorite songs you've listened to, whether you've been a subscriber for a year or for 12 years, right? You'll get your five favorite songs. And then our DJs and DJs will invite you to a special offer to sign up for subscription. I can't answer yet. We're learning every day and, you know, figuring out daily what that next offering is going to be. And some will be free for all forever. Some will be discounted offers and we'll come up with strategies and and and what works the best. Right. We're learning on the job here. But I mean, the fact that we've signed this many subscribers is just it's so substantial. You know, you've you've rarely ever seen a model where you can sign 40 percent of the total allocated pool of cars. We signed $800 out of $2 million, and even the more amazing part is they're using it for an average of like 36 minutes, three times the debt. It shows proof of how much people love our service, how loyal they are to our service, and I think that's going to continue. It'll be a telltale sign that I can't imagine we're not going to deliver way more than $3 a month, whether it's ad-supported or it's subscribers down the line.
Okay, last question I've got related to Podcast One. You've added a number of new shows and new talent. We've talked about this for quarters. Your costs are going up twice as fast as revenue over the last 12 to 18 months. I would have expected eventually the gross margin would stabilize and start to increase as shows added six to nine months ago start to drive revenue to offset that new content. Maybe talk about what's delaying the revenue streams and given these dynamics, has anything at all changed on your onboarding strategy? strategy?
Not at all. I mean, what you have right now is, you know, when you're signing these deals, there's some upfront money, right? The industry, right, whether you like it or not, advertisers pay in 90 to 120 days. It takes time to onboard them. And some of these, you're writing checks up front, and the people aren't even moving over to our network for four or five months because they're on the contract with who were there before. It's also a challenging environment, right? You know, you've got to be aggressive right now, and you've got to get people into the funnel and sign them right and once you sign them right you're going to start to see all those brand new revenue streams that you and i brian have been talking about that eventually change those margins dynamically right so right now if you look at audio boom public company you're going to see worse their margins are even lower than us right so it's right now it's a land grab right and you've got to grab those great talents right you're going to grab as many of them as you can that you believe fit into the dynamics of your network and that'll change them just to follow up on that how do you think about that how do you think the time when it takes to start to see the trend reverse i mean you've seen your margins get cut significantly what when do we get back to 10 are we over a year out are we 18 months just maybe talk about that i think it i think it's happening right now i've i've been talking about for the last two quarters you know brian you and I've watched in so many industries, right? You have the first wave, right? You watch $17 billion of acquisition and some of the wildest deals. Wondery was across the street from yourself for $350 million, right? They were doing the same revenues we're doing today, right? I'm sorry, they were doing the same revenues we were doing when I bought the company, right? So they sold for like 30 times revenues. You watched Amazon, Apple, you watch Amazon, Apple, Sirius, Spotify, iHeart by everybody out there right and then there was left with little networks the smaller networks are out there right and the radio companies who are obviously struggling terribly with their own issue right and now you're starting to see that second round of acquisitions when you see conan o'brien sell for 15 times revenues 15 times revenues and then you see red sell for around the same right you're starting to see where some of it's desperation some it's perspiration some It's just reality of how big podcasting has become, right? Trump has said he won the election off of podcasting. He just announced a head of media for podcasting, right, that the world is changing there. And what Rupert Murdoch amazingly, you know, probably out of some desperation as well, realized yesterday, he's got to go back and buy podcasts because he's losing all his talent, all the talents moving away from radio and television. So as the big guys start to roll those back up, right, where we sit in the world, right, we sit in the world of under $5 million podcasts, right? Maybe we'll get to a $10 million one. We sit in sort of that micro-cap land of the best podcasters who are true podcasters. I think the model is going to change again dynamically as these acquisitions happen, the roll-up will happen, and then the pricing will come back, you know, in a way better form in the next six to nine months. Thanks so much, Rob. Thanks, Brian.
Operator
Excuse me. Your next question comes from the line of Sean McGon with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.
Morning, Rob. Morning, Aaron.
Good, Sean. How are you doing?
Good. A couple of questions back on the Tesla situation. So with the ad-supported subscribers, are you yet monetizing any of that advertising? Are you up and running with that?
We are just touching. This all just happened, right? December 4th, we launched the paid service. You know, shock and awe, we signed an amazing amount of subscribers, right? We then said, we've got to take a little bit of risk here, which will definitely put some of the paid subscribers because if we can get it free day one, you may not sign for this. We knew we'd take a little bit of risk in it. I couldn't believe in my wildest dreams, Sean, that we would sign, you know, 450,000 and be adding still today. We're still adding like five to 8,000 a day of ad supported subscribers. So we signed this partnership with DAX, the biggest programmatic advertising company, right? In the world, right? We signed a deal. I think we announced it 30 days ago. We're just in the beginning of it. And advertising takes 90 to 120 days minimum to really kick in. But if you listen today, if you have a Tesla car, you'll start to see ads hitting, okay? There's still some technology things that are just coming into play, right? And I'm hoping that Tesla is going to relaunch and re-alert, right, when they upgrade this software the next time. They're going to tell all these car owners again that they have an opportunity, right, for paid and free. As they do that, right, we'll be building more and more of that traffic and audience and understanding of that traffic and audience and usage to be able to lock in those advertisers. And I fully expect in six to nine months, I can't imagine we're not going to be $3 a month on the ad supported. And I can't imagine we won't be way higher than $3 a month on the paid side. And then Spotify just came out and they were asked just recently, why do they have an ad supported? right and their answer was because 60 percent of those within a 24-month period convert to long-term subscribers right i'm not expecting 60 percent but but if we could have 20 20 30 percent of them convert to long-term subscribers right we're going to be building back that base strongly right we're going to building back that guaranteed revenues and then our advertising is really going to start to take off and hopefully explodes into until the you know second third fourth quarter of year okay i believe it or not what i was kind of getting out with the question is this might sound a little surprising is why isn't the gross margin actually lower because aren't you paying the record labels for the music that these listeners are listening to and not really getting revenue for it like how how are those costs recorded and why isn't that actually more out of whack yeah i mean to be honest with you not you're not even seeing that yet right that just started we're 30 days into that right so yes there is there is some element right every day you add another ad supported until you drive those revenues you're absolutely going to have some cost right it's not a giant cost but you can have some cost before that advertising comes in and pays for it but you're not really seeing that yet okay so you wouldn't expect to see that margin
pressure in that interim period like i i was bracing myself for actually a worse gross margin performance in slacker because you're paying out the record companies but not getting the revenue yet for these new subscribers so is that are you just not paying very much to the record labels at this time no it's not that i remember the ad supported the ad supported only launched 30 days ago so you only have 30 days of it right so okay in the quarter yeah all right yeah so you're not really you're not really getting that you know in last quarter okay um last question is how close are we to seeing revenue from sources other than slack run podcast you know you talked a lot about
that and i know you made a lot of progress so press releases about coffee but like how close are we to that being needle moving you know i don't i don't know about needle moving but exciting right you know publishing our publishing business you know grew you know another 100 or so right We just got a number one song with Scissor that would be a big payday for us. You don't have to get to giant revenues to have huge value. Publishing, they sell for, as you know. You know better than anybody. You guys own part of Renaissance, right? These are 12 to 25 times EBITDA numbers. So we see really exciting stuff happening with our publishing business. It's with SplitMine and Drumify. Our product business, we just launched our coffee. coffee as a couple of days ago. We sold out in the first day. I would say this is our year to have some transformative moves. Do I think it's going to be dynamic? Is it going to take our revenues? Is it going to take it up $10 million, $20 million? No. But is it going to be on a trajectory, right? And we have those kind of abilities over the next two to three years? Absolutely. Great. Thank you. And then on our television side, yeah, we didn't talk about this on the call but we sold our second show we sold varnum town to to a major streaming platform so that's three that are sold now and those three that are sold i mean if you really hit those a television show and you know just you know just going back you know my career i had the movie 300 and spider with chronic chronicles right and just the royalty fees on those those with tens and tens of millions of dollars are just pure profit with no risk right we have no risk in these deals If they hit us television shows, they're going to be extraordinary, you know, bottom line increases for us.
Yeah, I can't wait to see bottom two. I can't wait. It'll be good. All right. Thank you, man. Me too.
Operator
And as a reminder, it is star one if you would like to ask a question. And with no further questions at this time, I will turn the call back to Mr. Robert Ellen for closing remarks.
So thank you, everyone. Thank you for joining. Again, this is a transformative time for the company, a complicated time, but an exciting time. And as I've said probably a few times on this call, I mean, I never in my wildest dreams. Aaron never in his wildest dreams. No one in our management team, all of our slacker radio guys have been doing this for the better part. Some of them have been here as much as two decades have been at the company and have seen some amazing B2B partnerships, but nobody's ever seen 40% conversion. This is a telltale sign of how much our product is like, right? There's a reason that we've been award-winning. We're going to struggle a little bit. We're going to fight through this. We survived COVID, lost all of our live business, came out bigger and stronger than ever. We're going to do the same thing here. And yeah, I can confidently tell you that if you're looking out 12 months, this is the first time the company has had an opportunity to be a multi-billion dollar company over the next two to three years. And yeah, these B2B deals, we have 70 of them in the pipeline. We're landing them. They're starting to come in. We've announced five of them so far. You keep playing these B2B deals. And, you know, every one of my companies from Digital Turbine to Majesco to Transic, every one of them were built on the backs of B2B deals. And I say this totally humbly. I've never had a stock didn't go to $25 or better. A few have gone to $100 or better. We never know when they really take off when lightning strikes. But this is a different market out there. This is a different world out there. We got a lot of work to do. but I can tell you confidently this is the first time that I see a multi-billion dollar company over the next 24 to 36 months. If we stay focused, we keep executing, we fight through the difficult times, and I just want to thank everyone for joining, and thanks for staying with us, and we'll continue to fight here, and you'll see us in the market buying back stock very shortly. Thank you.
Operator
And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may
