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ZD · Ziff Davis, Inc.

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$55.38 -0.53 (-0.95%) At close · Aug 14
Market Cap
$1.85B
Shares
34.29M
All earnings calls

Earnings call · FY2025 Q4

Ziff Davis, Inc. Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call

Ziff Davis, Inc. Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call

Concluded Feb 24, 2026 Audio replay
Feb 24, 2026 42:57 26 turns
Period
FY2025 Q4
Runtime
42:57
Sources
5 artifacts

Executive readout · one minute

What matters this quarter

Ziff Davis grew full-year 2025 revenues 3.5% to $1.45 billion and generated almost $290 million in free cash flow, but Q4 revenues fell 1.5% and Adjusted EBITDA declined 5%, driven by an 18% drop in the Tech & Shopping segment, and formal guidance was deferred pending an ongoing strategic review.

Tech & Shopping search/affiliate headwinds 42 2026 outlook and deferred guidance 23 Health & Wellness and GLP-1 17 Free cash flow and capital return 15 Strategic review and M&A 15 Gaming & Entertainment growth 14

Management tone

Positive

Net tone +15 · moderate hedging

Grounding quotes
  • “we're glad to have produced a year of growth, however modest”
  • “we expect Tech & Shopping revenues to continue the trend of double-digit revenue decline in the first half of 2026”
  • “we have decided to defer issuing formal guidance at this time”
  • “While there are certainly challenges that we're facing, we've demonstrated resilience and have a solid track record in business transformation”

Forward guidance

1 guided metrics

Management's latest ranges and targets are included below.

Research coverage

5 live sources

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Revenue · derived Q4 $519.94M +25.9% YoY
Net income · derived Q4 $370,000 -99.4% YoY

Research materials

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Key takeaways

What improved, and what deserves a closer read.

Constructive signals

  • Full-year 2025 revenues grew 3.5% to $1.45 billion with almost $290 million in free cash flow.
  • $174 million deployed in share repurchases in 2025 (~60% of free cash flow).
  • Health & Wellness posted record revenue and Adjusted EBITDA with Q4 revenue growth of 8.6%.
  • Connectivity had a record Q4 with revenues up 11%, and 2026 outlook is for continued double-digit revenue growth.
  • Cybersecurity & Martech grew 2.7% in Q4, driven by consumer VPN, cloud backup, and the VIPRE integrated e-mail security launch.
  • Q4 operating cash flow increased 20.8% to $191.1 million and free cash flow rose 20.4% to $157.8 million.

Risks & pressure points

  • Q4 2025 revenues fell 1.5% to $406.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA declined to $163.2 million from $171.8 million.
  • Tech & Shopping segment revenues declined 18% in Q4, driven by lower web search referral traffic to affiliate commerce.
  • Q4 net income collapsed to $0.4 million (EPS $0.01) from $64.1 million, including a $58.0 million loss on sale of business and $19.7 million loss on equity method investment.
  • Full-year 2025 net income fell to $47.4 million from $63.0 million, and included a $17.6 million goodwill impairment.
  • Management deferred issuing formal 2026 guidance and expects Tech & Shopping revenues down mid-single digits for the year with double-digit declines in 1H 2026.
  • Active strategic review and ongoing litigation create uncertainty around timing of AI content licensing revenue and potential transactions.

Key moments

Jump directly to management's words in the synchronized transcript.

“While we expect Tech & Shopping revenues to continue the trend of double-digit revenue decline in the first half of 2026, we are forecasting improvements in the second half of the year via a combination of favorable year-over-year comps and benefits from increased off-platform engagement and growth in our licensing activities. For the year, we are expecting Tech & Shopping to be down mid-single digits in revenue.” Vivek Shah, CEO
“We deployed $174 million, about 60% of our free cash flow in share repurchases throughout the year as we continue to view our own stock as a highly attractive investment.” Vivek Shah, CEO

Guidance from the call

Stated verbally and extracted from the transcript.

Metric Guided
Adjusted EBITDA margins for the Company
fiscal year 2026
34%

Quarter detail

How the reported period landed and where the business moved.

Capital returned

Buybacks · derived
$60.57M
Full-screen source Call document