Arizona Tribune - Collective Audience Temporarily Transitions to the Expert Market as it Completes Accounting for Transformative Acquisition of BeOp

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / January 16, 2025 / Collective Audience, Inc. (OTC PINK:CAUD), a leading innovator of audience-based performance advertising and media for the open web, reports that the public trading of its common stock has transitioned from the OTCQB to the Expert Market as the company works to complete its filing on Form 10-Q for the third quarter of 2024.

The filing delay is due to the U.S. GAAP accounting for the company's third quarter acquisition of France-based BeOp, as well as the company's recent change of independent auditors. Given the change in auditors and to help ensure a regular reporting cycle going forward, the auditors and the company's audit committee review has also included a thorough financial evaluation of the first and second quarter of 2024 which were reported post de-SPAC.

BeOp has been a transformative acquisition for the company, providing the advanced AdTech cloud platform technology that is now powering its AudienceCloud infrastructure for advertising on the Open Web.

BeOp's expert teams, based in France (Paris/Montpellier) and New York City, work with more than 90% of France's premium publishers. Media customers include more than 200 premium global publishers across the UK, North America and Australia, with more than 50 million unique visitors per month.

BeOp's customers include Range Rover, Tommy Hilfiger, Samsung, Addidas, Coca Cola, Forbes, Ford, Audi, Hyundai, Yoplait, L'Oréal, Club Med, the International Olympic Committee, and Paramount.

The company's delayed Q3 filing resulted in the operator of the OTCQB stock market, The OTC Markets Group, moving the trading of the company's common stock to its Expert Market Tier. The OTC Markets Group has extended to Collective Audience a grace period which will allow it to quickly return to the higher-tier OTCQB soon after the company becomes current in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company anticipates the Q3 filing to be ready for submission within the next seven days, dependent on the completion of the filing's review by the company's independent accounting firm.

"We very much appreciate the patience and support of our shareholders as we work through the complexities of this transformative acquisition and set a strong financial foundation going forward," stated Collective Audience CEO, Peter Bordes. "These efforts are very important, given the increasing momentum for growth we've gained from our new partnerships and acquisitions. We believe we have entered a pivotal stage in our growth trajectory, where we are able to benefit from the major changes underway in our industry and capitalize on new opportunities."

New regulatory changes, such as the FCC TCPA one-to-one consent rule related to lead generation and consumer privacy, are expected to uniquely benefit Collective Audience. The company's audience cloud capabilities enable brands to connect directly with consumers and route their data directly to the CRM or DMP (data management platform) of brands or publishers. These unique capabilities position Collective Audience to become the go-to provider of audience-based performance advertising and media platform for the open web.

As the company begins the new year, it is preparing to launch several new products, including a full programmatic layer integration enabling all trading desks to access AudienceDesk's direct publisher inventory. It is also preparing to launch a new VAST video advertising channel for interactive in-stream YouTube or video ad units that enable video ad experiences.

"We have received very positive preliminary data from the testing our new offerings with the FDA, with a 3x gain in the traditional performance and 80% completion rates with audience participants interacting with our video ads," noted Bordes. "We look forward to sharing more on these new next generation products over the coming weeks, with this part of a very robust product release roadmap that extends throughout the year."

"As our financial team and auditors work to finalize our Q3 10-Q, our operational teams remain focused on executing our corporate development roadmap and signing significant new business," added Bordes. "These activities also include the full integration and optimization of our new global operations, technologies, and products in preparation for our anticipated organic and acquisitive growth in 2025."

Outlook
Based upon Collective Audience's acquisitions in 2024 and the subsequent growth in client campaign bookings, the company reiterates its expectations to report a record full-year 2024 pro forma revenue and positive pro forma adjusted EBITDA.

The company also still expects to report record third quarter 2024 pro forma revenue of approximately $1.8 million, up 65% from the previous quarter. The growth will be driven primarily by the contribution of two transformative acquisitions, DSL Digital and BeOp, and their accelerating growth post-acquisition.

Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter is still expected to total a loss of approximately $92,000, an 88% improvement from the previous quarter.

The company also anticipates reporting further gains in revenue and adjusted EBITDA performance in the fourth quarter of 2024. These results would be in line with the company's outlook of $7.5 million in revenue and positive adjusted EBITDA on a pro forma basis which it provided earlier in 2024.

In addition to BeOp, in July Collective Audience acquired the marketing-as-a-service provider, DSL Digital. DSL brought to Collective Audience multi-million-dollar annual profitable revenues being generated by a global services team and proprietary Copycraft AI technology.

Collective Audience's positive expectations are supported by major new bookings with Fortune 1000 clients and major brands valued at more than $2.2 million in Q4 2024.

About Collective Audience
Collective Audience provides an innovative audience-based performance advertising and media platform for brands, agencies and publishers. The company has introduced a new open, interconnected, data driven, digital advertising and media ecosystem for the open web that eliminates many inefficiencies in the digital ad buyer and seller process for brands, agencies and publishers. It delivers long sought-after visibility, complementary technology, and unique audience data that drives focus on performance, brand reach, traffic and transactions.

For the AdTech providers and media buyers who come onto Collective Audience's platform, they will be able to leverage audience data as a new asset class, powered by AI as an intelligence layer to guide decision making.

To learn more, visit collectiveaudience.co.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook" and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding the company's future financial performance, as well as the company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the management of Collective Audience and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Collective Audience. Potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the company; the overall level of consumer demand for Collective Audience's or BeOp's products/services; general economic conditions and other factors affecting consumer confidence, preferences, and behavior; disruption and volatility in the global currency, capital, and credit markets; the financial strength of Collective Audience's and BeOp's customers; Collective Audience's and BeOp's ability to implement their business strategy; the ability to successfully integrate BeOp into Collective Audience's operations; changes in governmental regulation, Collective Audience's exposure to litigation claims and other loss contingencies; disruptions and other impacts to Collective Audience's business, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions and restrictive measures implemented in response; Collective Audience's ability to protect patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights; any breaches of, or interruptions in, Collective Audience's information systems; changes in tax laws and liabilities, legal, regulatory, political and economic risks. More information on potential factors that could affect Collective Audience's financial results is included from time to time in Collective Audience's public reports filed with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or Collective Audience's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Collective Audience presently knows, or that Collective Audience currently believes are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Collective Audience's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Nothing in this press release should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Collective Audience anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. However, while Collective Audience may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Collective Audience specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Collective Audience's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:
Peter Bordes, CEO
Collective Audience, Inc.
Email contact

Investor Contact:
Ron Both

CMA Investor & Media Relations
Tel (949) 432-7566
Email contact

SOURCE: Collective Audience

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B.Torres--AT