The Arena Group Holdings (NYSE American: AREN) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today. Welcome to the Arena Group's Second Quarter twenty twenty six Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Morgan Fitzgerald, Investor Relations and Social Media. Ms. Fitzgerald, you may begin the conference.

0:18 Thank you. Hosting the call today are Paul Edmonson, Chief Executive Officer and Jeffrey Waite, Principal Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to note that some of the comments made during this call may include forward looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward looking statements. Forward looking statements relate to the future events or future performance and include without limitation statements concerning the company's business strategy, future revenues and income from continuing operations, anticipated yield growth and monetization improvements, cost reductions, debt refinancing efforts, market growth, capital requirements, product introductions and technological capabilities, expansion plans, our stock price relative to our peers and our share repurchase program as disclosed in our annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended 12/31/2025 filed with the SEC on March sixteen, twenty twenty six, the twenty twenty five Form 10 ks and in our other SEC filings and publicly available documents.

1:17 The company cautions investors that any forward looking statements made in this call or that the company may make orally or in writing from time to time are based on the beliefs of assumptions made by and information currently available to the company. Such statements are based on assumptions and the actual outcome will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends and uncertainties and factors that are beyond the company's control or ability to predict.

1:41 Accordingly investors should use caution in relying on forward looking statements, which are based only on known results and trends at the time they are made to anticipate future results or trends. Certain risks are discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation except as required by law to update or revise any financial projections or forward looking statements whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, reference will be made to the non GAAP financial measure adjusted EBITDA. Information regarding reconciliation of this non GAAP measure to the closest GAAP measure can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon and can also be found on the Investor Relations page of our website at investors.thearenagroup.net. With that, I'll turn the call over to CEO, Paul Edmonson. Paul, the call is yours.

2:27 Thank you for joining us today to discuss our Q2 twenty twenty six results. We have several major announcements this quarter. So, I'll get right to them. First, we refinanced our corporate debt. Jeff will provide more details in a moment. Second, we've closed our acquisition of Infosentience, a generative AI company. Third, we've officially launched Cutter Studios, which I'll share more about shortly. These moves align with and support our new corporate identity. As announced in our press release this afternoon, we are rebranding to Pareteum AI, All In. The second quarter was a period of bold transformation for our company.

3:16 And with a rapidly evolving digital media landscape, we channeled our energy into the strategic initiatives we've been discussing over the past several quarters. Initiatives designed to diversify our business, expand our technology capabilities, and open new avenues for growth. We've been witnessing an unprecedented structural shift in digital media, which is reflected in our results from q two. For years, publishers relied heavily on traditional search search traffic until LLM stepped in almost overnight to capture and consume those audiences directly. We saw the shift as an opening, a chance to rethink our relationship with creators and audiences and to lead with bold, creative strategies.

4:04 Our new name, Pareteum AI, reflects that spirit of innovation and creativity. This is much more than a rebrand. It marks our expansion into an AI technology company designed to power the future of media entrepreneurs, built to empower creators, publishers, and brands to perform at the speed and scale of AI. By replacing legacy structures with a centralized AI optimized infrastructure, we're putting the tools, data, and reach they cannot build alone directly into their hands, enabling them to scale their business like never before. As I mentioned earlier, we've closed the acquisition of InfoSentience, an industry leader in automated, data driven natural language generation that creates AI content at scale for multiple major publishers.

4:58 InfoSentience specializes in structured, data driven content generation using a deterministic template based engine that provides zero air reliability. Rather than replacing editorial judgment, the Hallucination Free platform automates highly repetitive content around structured data, statistics, financial information, sporting events, bringing content creators to spend more time on differentiated journalism and expand coverage into areas that were once out of reach. We've also officially launched Cutter Studios, our proprietary AI driven video and article production and distribution platform. Cutter Studios turns video first content into viral assets and accompanying articles at scale.

5:49 We aim to service content creators with on brand, AI generated, derivative content that expands their reach and earning power. With the Pareteum AI rebrand underway, the InfoSenhance tech stack operating profitably, Cutter Studios Live and our balance sheet strengthened, we are building the next generation of brands, data and commerce. With that, I'll hand it over to Jeff to share our financial results. Thanks, Paul. In Q2 twenty twenty six, revenue was $22,200,000 compared to $45,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty five. Loss from continuing operations was $200,000 in Q2 twenty twenty six compared to income from continuing operations of $12,400,000 in Q2 twenty twenty five.

6:41 We reported a net loss of $200,000 in Q2 twenty twenty six compared to net income of $108,600,000 in the same period a year ago, which included gain from discontinued operations of $96,200,000 Adjusted EBITDA was $4,400,000 in Q2 twenty twenty six versus $18,600,000 in Q2 twenty twenty five. As noted earlier, adjusted EBITDA is a non GAAP measure. A reconciliation of this non GAAP measure to the closest GAAP measure can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon and can also be found on our Investor Relations website at investors.varenagroup.net. Despite these challenges, we sustained a cash balance of $11,200,000 and generated over $2,000,000 in cash flow from operating activities in the first half of twenty twenty six.

7:39 This reflects the underlying durability of our variable cost structure, a structural advantage made possible by our entrepreneurial publishing model, which continues to provide resilience as we navigate the evolving media landscape. Our financial performance reflects a challenging traffic environment as we have faced continued headwinds, underscoring our need to evolve the business through technology to better serve market needs. As we enter the historically stronger second half of the year, we remain focused on leveraging AI and automation to improve monetization and accelerate the growth of non traffic dependent revenue streams. In parallel, we have successfully finalized the refinance of our debt facility.

8:27 Following a rigorous evaluation of refinancing alternatives, including deep engagement with multiple banking institutions, we made the clear strategic decision to reject proposals that would have triggered unnecessary dilution and eroded shareholder value. We successfully extended the maturity of our debt facility by three years with our existing lending partner at the same interest rate. The new facility was purpose built around our operating model with terms calibrated to our current business profile and the continued evolution toward Pareteum AI.

9:03 This removes a significant near term refinancing risk, avoids shareholder dilution and gives us additional financial flexibility to execute our strategic priorities. As we continue through the year, paying down debt remains a top priority for our long term success. Our performance in the first half of the year demonstrates that our baseline operations comfortably support our current debt service. Looking ahead, we aim to unlock additional cash flow with these new technological initiatives that can be used to continue reducing our leverage. Moving forward, our shift to Pareteum AI strengthens our operational commitment to an asset light business model. By using automated workflows in AI production, we can quickly expand into new markets and grow B2B sales without adding heavy overhead.

9:57 This allows us to control content production costs and drive stronger profitability as we scale. This ongoing corporate evolution is directly accelerated by our acquisition of InfoSentience. Funded entirely with cash on hand at an attractive multiple, the transaction strengthens our internal workflows and unlocks a new high margin line of business through platform partnerships. Now, I will turn the call back over to Paul to outline our strategy for the remainder of 2026. Thank you, Jeff. We're energized by our execution this past quarter and the runway ahead of us for the rest of the year. I want to emphasize a critical point as we enter this new era. While we are supercharging with AI, our people remain at the absolute core of our business.

10:47 This technology is designed to elevate our partners and teams, not replace them. Our mission is to empower creators and entrepreneurs by blending the massive authority of our brands with the technology we've built. This corporate evolution was underway long before the name change. We have firmly transitioned past traditional publishing. Another clear example of our asset light IP monetization strategy in action, we continue to expand our commerce and licensing footprint. Two weeks ago, we launched the Travel Adventure Networks online travel agency alongside our first ever branded resort under the Adventure Sports Network banner, in partnership with Identity Group.

11:34 Our licensing pipeline is accelerating, and our roadmap with Identity already includes plans to enter into premium hotels across major collegiate and professional sports destinations in the near future. We are energized by the initiatives we put in place, and as we look toward the second half of the year, by shifting from a traditional publisher to a technology company that empowers creators across text, video, and commerce,

12:02 we believe we have an excellent opportunity to build new digital assets. With the foundation for the Pareteum AI infrastructure set, a solidified capital structure, InfoSentience on board and Cutter Studios Live, we're positioned to drive growth. As we move through our traditionally strongest quarters with momentum, we look forward to updating you as we continue to scale this business. Thank you for your time today. And now back to the operator to begin the Q and A session.

12:37 Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions.

13:06 Our first question is from Luke Fingersen with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Hey guys, Luke Fingersen on for Ryan Myers here. Last quarter, said monetization had returned to normal levels by late March, traffic volatility had subsided, and you expected materially better performance throughout the remainder of the year. Q2 revenue and EBITDA still came in well below where we expected.

13:34 Just kind of wondering what drove that disconnect. Thanks for the question, Luke. So, though we thought traffic had stabilized in the first quarter, we did experience continued headwinds into the second quarter that kind of held back our performance in the second quarter. We do still feel that given the second half of the year has seasonally and historically performed better for us, that there will be some additional improvements as we go into the third and fourth quarter. But moreover, we're really excited about building our new revenue streams and our AI enabled technologies on top of what we have additionally with the advertising business.

14:15 Gotcha. And then so as you reposition the company around AI, how should we think about the tangible financial impact from Infosynthience and Cutter Studios? Is the opportunity primarily cost savings and better monetization within the existing media portfolio? Or do you expect these capabilities to develop meaningful standalone revenue streams?

14:39 So, do expect that there's a couple of things for both that probably are worth digging into a little bit here. First, with InfoSentience, the great thing about that is we acquired a great business that has existing partnerships and business to business contracts, which we can maintain. We expect that to be immediately accretive to cash flow and to profit. And we expect to also be able to expand that technology into our content business to help drive our article volume in the second half of the year to grow our content revenues and our advertising revenues. Cutter Studio will be deployed in a similar manner, where we will be able to use that to help drive content revenues as well in the second half of the year and at a lower cost. So we believe both of them drive both top line and Cutter will also provide some savings compared to ramping up content that way with the traditional model.

15:36 Got you. Well, thank you so much for taking my questions. Our next question is from John Sitchthorn with Dielectric Capital. Please proceed with your question.

15:55 Yeah, hey guys. A couple of questions. First, there was an interesting article in Bloomberg today about both The UK antitrust regulators coming after Google as well as Cloudflare talking about how they could no longer really scrape for search and scrape for training because it was destroying the creator market. Do you think that's going to have an effect at some point where maybe Google has to start playing fair again? Or is that not in your assumptions at all? And kind of what are the assumptions for this seasonality on your core business, not your new businesses, for the back half of the year?

16:44 Hey, John, this is Paul. Thanks for the question. I'll take the first part, then I'll hand over to Jeff for the second part. So, you know, Google is still a major traffic provider for all of us, for all publishers, still provides over 40% of traffic. And it goes across news, Discover, search, and that's still a really meaningful part of our business.

17:07 I think as all publishers have seen meaningful disruption with, I'll say broadly LLMs, but the box in your search results that everybody can type in and get an answer right there and doesn't have to go to another website. People are going after it in lots of different ways. You've seen some of the lawsuits, some of the things that you guys you just described there. Our view isn't to block bots today. It's to continue to keep that traffic coming in. And when you talk about our AI strategy, it's actually to expand our content into niches that were more difficult to cover in a traditional manner. And so when you think about Cutter Studios, Cutter Studios is really a product that's designed for video first publishers.

17:57 A lot of that content doesn't reach audiences through the traditional web or through syndication and things like that. So that gives us a lever to work with a new kind of creator and open up distribution and traffic and also to fill a need for Google in different ways too because, you know, their audience is shifting and they're trying to figure out how to best serve and retain them as well. So we see a lot of our efforts actually as synergistic with it, and also being able to go as the world has continued to get more refined and more personalized and all those types of things, the one thing that we continue to know is that content and consumption that readers, anybody who's consuming media today, if you can deliver them content that they find interesting and of quality and really speaks to them personally, they want to consume it. There really seems to be no end to that diet.

18:59 On the back half of the core business here, I'll hand it over to Jeff. Yes. So, we think about monetization and traffic levels heading into the back half of the year, we do expect some improvements in both. And that's not because we think necessarily a change in referral patterns is going to impact our business significantly. But more there are things than just the ad business and then in general, media calendar, especially around the sports business, that are more favorable in the back half of the year, for example, when the NFL season starts. And we also have our Encore, which is our first party data initiative, which we're using to drive monetization as well. So, I do think we have some real improvements that we can deliver in the back half of the year in both traffic and

19:43 monetization, not because anything's changing structurally from what we've seen in a few recent quarters, but just because that's the new cycle we operate in and as well as the advertising market. Great. And so just trying to understand this new Cutter Studios and or Paradigm, however we're supposed to talk about the new business. Can you give us any clue, anecdote,

20:12 what kind of scale we're talking about or what the unit economics are? Can you give us an example? I've got a YouTuber, he's doing $1,000,000 a year. We're able to take that content and turn it into $2,000,000 for us. Anything just as an example so we kind understand what the economics are around what you're building. Yeah. Hey, John, it's Paul again. Thanks again for that question. So Cutter Studios is really designed for a video first publisher. And when we talk about video first, we're we're actually talking about long form video, something, you know, at least five minutes up to, you know, call it an hour, hour and a half. The sweet spot is really sort of in that twenty to forty minute range. What it does is it takes a video, it identifies the viral moments, cuts it into short form videos, does a lot of does all the production work for you around the video, and then can create derivative works in the voice of the author. So you start talking about five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten potential articles per video, and it really offers distribution.

21:14 This product and this distribution, it does go to Google, but it goes through all of our syndication partners as well. So, it goes to Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, all the places, and it provides them content that they wouldn't otherwise get. So, our expectation and rough math is that it's going to perform at about a third the efficacy of a traditionally handwritten article. We're obviously tuning that, and the scale there and the friction of it is we're really looking at this as a way to build a hand curated list of folks, the folks that we're bringing in to use Cutter Studios, we're reaching out to them individually. We've got a target of about 1,000 different creators.

22:00 And what we've really noticed is as the consumption of news has changed, and as folks are scrolling and getting a wide source of news content, we looked at this as a way to also acquire short form digital media content as well. So when it comes into Cutter Studios, a long form article gets chopped up. It gets turned into short form videos and articles and our products. It goes out to all of our syndication, including Google and Google News and Google Search. But some of that residual content that we have in terms of the viral short form is we can start to develop products in and around that short form video that gives people that curated, hand picked people that are in here for a trusted source for news. And that's really our long term goal with the product.

22:48 So in the very short term, we think of it about a third, but in terms of the audience. But the interesting thing is the monetization rates are just as good as a traditional article, perhaps even better. And you've launched this already. This is generating revenue today? Yeah, we're running it internally on our own properties. And we have a pipeline, growing pipeline of creators that we'll be bringing to here shortly. And think of this as a ramp up over the next quarter. Switching back to the InfoSentience. InfoSentience is actually running today with B2B partners profitably. Like we said, we acquired that business at an attractive multiple is I think the language we used.

23:35 Business will get scaled out pretty quickly across our properties as well. And it can cover everything like, you know, it's really for structured data in a format that allows like box scores or financial information, things like that.