Liberated Syndication Inc. (LSYN) research, news, and more from GeoInvesting

Company description

Tue, 28 May 2019 12:38:22 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc is engaged in providing podcast hosting services offering hosting and distribution tools which include storage, bandwidth, RSS creation, distribution, and statistics tracking. The producers can upload podcast episodes through libsyn interface or via FTP to manage to publish to online directories, web portals, content aggregators, app marketplaces, and social media platforms for download and streaming.

Research

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:40:03 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($4.30; $114.3M market cap), a world leading podcast hosting network company, announced an agreement to acquire AdvertiseCast, one of the largest independent and fastest-growing podcast advertising companies.

“I am thrilled to announce this acquisition. AdvertiseCast is a market leader in the podcast advertising space that will fit perfectly with our existing Libsyn 5 hosting platform. Since we began in 2004, our primary objective at Libsyn has been to enable independent podcasters by providing them with a strong set of tools to help them thrive,” said Libsyn President Laurie Sims. “AdvertiseCast expands our tool set to include a robust monetization solution that enables efficient host-read and programmatic advertising. We expect to generate meaningful revenue by offering the AdvertiseCast solution to Libsyn’s customers and leveraging the combined inventory to attract even more advertisers to the AdvertiseCast platform.”

“Since inception, AdvertiseCast revenue has grown rapidly, increasing 45% year over year in 2020 to approximately $12 million. AdvertiseCast has scaled profitably since inception with no outside investment.”

Terms of transaction:

“Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Libsyn will acquire all of the issued and outstanding membership interests of AdvertiseCast in consideration for a purchase price of up to $30 million, of which $18 million will be in cash, $10 million will be in newly issued Libsyn shares, and $2 million will be in the form of an earn-out, which is subject to the terms and conditions of the purchase agreement. Co-Founders Trevr Smithlin and Dave Hanley will remain with the company and enter into employment agreements as a condition to closing. The acquisition’s closing is subject to other customary closing conditions.

Libsyn is also pleased to announce it has received funding commitments of $25 million through a privately placed equity transaction (“PIPE”) in Libsyn.”

Research

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 05:00:00 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($4.75; $126.2M market cap), a world leading podcast hosting network company, announced the acquisition of Auxbus podcast creation platform.

“The web-based Auxbus is designed to save podcasters time, while producing professional-quality podcasts that are easy for even the most novice audio creators. Auxbus guides first-time podcasters through planning and creating their content. Auxbus holds proprietary, patent-pending technologies that automatically complete and distribute finished, polished podcasts in moments.”

Management comments:

“Podcasting has undergone dramatic acceleration of new-show formation over the last 12 months, as the creator economy matures and content creators seek durable means of connecting with their audiences. The addition of Auxbus is beneficial to Libsyn’s platform as a one-stop shop for podcasters from veteran professionals to first-timers seeking assistance and guidance on making their initial show a success.”

You can see our past coverage on LSYN here.

Research

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:55:11 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.80; $101.0M market cap), a world leading podcast hosting network company, saw two significant insider buys. Director Eric Shahinian of Camac Fund added 60,000 shares at an average price of $3.70 and CFO Richard Heyse added 20,000 shares at an average pierce of $3.75.

Research

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 15:59:45 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.77; $102.0M market cap) a world leading podcast hosting network announced Q3 2020 results:

Sales of $6.5 million vs $6.2 million in the prior year
Non-GAAP EPS of $0.02 vs $0.02

“Over the last several months, we have implemented a number of positive changes at Libsyn, strengthening the foundation of the company. During the quarter we were able to take advantage of our strong cash flow to reduce our shares outstanding. Libsyn is well positioned to leverage its excellent financial position, invest in the business and successfully support the execution of Libsyn’s growth strategy.”

Research

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 19:30:12 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.09; $90.5M market cap) a world leading podcast hosting network announced Q2 2020 results:

Sales of $6.3 million vs $5.7 million in the prior year
Non-GAAP EPS of $0.04 vs $0.02 in the prior year

“We were very pleased to report double-digit revenue growth and solid operating profitability in the second quarter of 2020, which is a testament to the brand recognition of our platform and growth throughout the podcasting market. The Company successfully implemented procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining the reliable service offerings and support our customers expect. Even with the overall decrease in audio consumption across the industry during the second quarter due to COVID-19, podcast downloads on the Libsyn platform continue to grow. There was also more content creation during the second quarter, with new signups and episode creation increasing.

Research

Mon, 18 May 2020 04:00:00 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.10; $90.7M market cap) a world leading podcast hosting network announced Q4 2019 results:

Q4 sales of 6.0 million vs $6.0 million in the prior year
Q4 EPS of $0.01 vs $0.06 in the prior year

“As we look ahead, we see a bright future for Libsyn. While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone around the globe, we have been very fortunate to see a continuation of 2019's growth with an increase in new podcast customer sign-ups in the first quarter, with April being our second-best month for sign-ups on record. Our customer churn has remained within the historical range and we are seeing an increase in episode creation by existing customers. We are focused on continuing to deliver high-quality services that enable podcasters to grow their brand during this difficult time. We expect to roll out our new Libsyn5 platform in the second half of 2020 and to accelerate the integration of advertising into our offerings to provide incremental value to our customers and drive revenue and profit growth for our shareholders.”

Research

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 14:44:55 GMT

There is yet again more Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.12; $91.3M market cap) news. To get caught up on the past coverage that detailed the SEC lawsuit against CEO Chris Spencer and CFO John Busshaus, and Busshaus’ resulting resignation, please go here.

Friday at the close, LSYN announced it has reached a settlement with Camac Partners which owns roughly 6.7% of the company. The agreement includes: the addition of new directors to Libsyn's Board of Directors, including Eric Shahinian and Brad Tirpak (a managing director at Palm Active Partners), and at least one new independent director; Camac is withdrawing its special meeting request, and is dismissing its pending litigation in Nevada.

"We are pleased to have reached a resolution that we believe is in the best interests of all Lisbyn shareholders," said Chris Spencer, Liberated Syndication CEO. "We look forward to adding new directors to our Board and believe the new independent voices will complement those of our existing directors. Libsyn is performing well, as evidenced by the strong third quarter podcasting subscription growth announced this week, and we believe the Company is well positioned to continue executing on our strategy and enhancing shareholder value."

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Libsyn that brings fresh perspectives to its Board and positions the Company for future value creation," said Mr. Shahinian, founder and managing member of Camac. "Libsyn is a wonderful business, and we believe this agreement will drive enhanced value for all shareholders, employees and customers."

Now that it seems that the Camac and management may be on the same page, we need to determine if they agree on the current growth track of the company as it seems the corporate governance issues are in the process of being fully resolved. The big elephant in the room is will Spencer stay with the company throughout the SEC fraud lawsuit against him as it relates to his former role as CEO of Fab Universal, a story we covered in which we discovered fraud. As we stated in a previous research note, we plan to continue our dialogue with the Camac.

Research

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:59:38 GMT

In the ongoing saga of Chris Spencer and John Busshaus being sued by the SEC for past transgressions involving the case of Fab Universal, an 8K issued yesterday by Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.00; $87.8M market cap) disclosed the resignation of Busshaus, the CFO of the company.

Substantiating the mention of LSYN in the same breath could be up for debate, being that it was just Spencer and Busshaus in focus, but we will obviously be waiting for further LSYN 8-K updates on sec.gov as we believe it’s likely that Spencer may succumb to the same fate. As of now, there have been no other lawsuits against other individuals...that we are aware of. Should Spencer leave, it may in part change of the tone of the special meeting of shareholders taking place on November 8, 2019, an event that was pushed by CAMAC Partners to discuss the direction of the company, and assumedly, the roles (or lack thereof) that certain executives should play going forward.

Many believe the departures of the executives would not be a bad thing, as shedding LSYN’s perceived past association with fraud could be the catharsis that the company needs to get laser-focused on their business, without the distractions.

Research

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 14:24:33 GMT

In case you missed yesterday’s update on developments surrounding two Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.12; $91.3M market cap) executives, CEO Chris Spencer and CFO John Busshaus, please go here. We talk about the lawsuit just filed by the SEC against these two individuals - a suit that was borne out of their past involvement with Fab Universal’s fraud in the US Markets back in 2013.

Today, the company announced that is continues to penetrate the podcast market with even more notable series in comedy, tech and business.

"We are excited about the continued potential for new podcasts and listeners," said Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations. "In Q3, we continue to see a tremendous eclectic mix of significant new shows. Podcast audience's tastes are very broad and there is a great opportunity for growth in all genres. We expect the ongoing diversity of podcast voices over various topics will fuel further growth in current and underserved markets."

Markedly missing from the release is any mention of the suit filed by the SEC against Spencer and Busshaus yesterday, nor is it mentioned on the company's governance section of its investor relations website, nor has there been an 8K or separate press release to that end.

This could be viewed as a de facto disassociation of LSYN from the lawsuit against singular individuals, since as we stated yesterday, the company was not mentioned in the suit in any capacity. In other words, it's business as usual at the company. For the sake of shareholders, that could be construed as good news.

Research

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:00:01 GMT

Two top executives of Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($2.48; $72.6M market cap), Chris Spencer and John Busshaus, are being sued by the SEC for past fraud associated with the well-known case of Fab Universal Corp (OOTC:FABU). We covered FABU ourselves and were integral in outing some circumstances that would eventually lead to the stock’s delisting. You can read about that here.

We wrote about Spencer turning the page into a true revenue-generating business in LSYN, a podcast service provider offering hosting and distribution tools. Their transition away from FABU and decision to remain in the public space was a bit of a surprise to us, but given the new data available with respect to the podcast direction they were taking intrigued us enough to put some stake in the future potential of LSYN, while remaining speculative, as you can read in our recent article. The meat of our speculation was rightfully related to perception risk, which seems to have come home to roost:

If anything, the perception risk is “the elephant in the room” that will follow LSYN as long as Spencer is an executive at the company. The “Spencer Caveat” is supported by a recent press release by Camac Partners, a private (activist) investment firm founded in 2011. Camac focuses on extremely mispriced assets in discrete pockets of opportunity. The reason for the release was forthright in its stated goal to remove Libsyn’s four existing directors and replace them, through election, with “five highly qualified, independent nominees”, as well as to “enact other needed governance improvements.”

While the stock fell on yesterday’s news, it has healthily rebounded off its intraday slide. We did not relinquish any of our long position, being careful to avoid prematurely reacting to the news and especially after reading the details of the suit, where it should be noted that the only defendants named were Spencer and Busshaus, with no mention of Liberated Syndication.

What good can come out of the suit, and what’s left to be worried about?

Activist CAMAC Partners, who owns 25% of LSYN, has been at the forefront of trying to ensure that shareholders of the company get a fair shake, specifically in their ongoing campaign to educate people on LSYN executives’ past dealings and curious stock awards contingent on company achievements. They seeked adjournment of a meeting of shareholders to discuss their concerns, despite LSYN’s entrenchment efforts to “improperly deny stockholders the right to influence the future of their company and protect their investment.”

After full support from shareholders for the special meeting, CAMAC was able to get LSYN to schedule the meeting for November 8, 2019 in Reno Nevada.

It is unknown to us if CAMAC was integral in getting the suit filed by the SEC, but it couldn’t have come at a better time for them since it’s obvious that the change in direction of the company envisioned by Camac is one that does not include current executives. It’s reasonable to believe that the upcoming meeting coupled with the suit could expedite the ousting of the execs, which could be good for the perception of the company’s future. We are in dialogue with CAMAC and plan to speak with them at greater lengths after some of the dust settles regarding these current developments.

Regardless of any impending decisions that might be reached as a result of this suit, some uncertainties could prevail as the ghost of Fab Universal continues to haunt Spencer. One might question that if FABU was dishonest with its own financials, what’s to say that history is not repeating itself with LSYN? Understanding that headwinds might exist in the short to mid term, we are still cautiously optimistic that any pullbacks could be buying opportunities. A pullback call to action in light of yesterday's trading session was a tough call for us, and something that we

We are still long LSYN as we believe that this could be a key step in shares reaching premium valuation that often accompany recurring revenue models. Shares are currently selling at a P/E of 19, Price/Sales of 3.8 and EV/Sales of 3.6.

Research

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:30:52 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($3.10; $90.7M market cap) provides domain name registration, podcasts and web hosting services in the United States and internationally. The company announced its Q2 2019 results:

Sales of $5.7 million vs $5.3 million in the prior year
EPS of $0.03 vs $0.03 in the prior year

“Continued growth in unique monthly audiences and notable new content at Libsyn, coupled with strong operating performance at Pair, drove Liberated Syndication’s robust second quarter financial results,” remarked Chris Spencer, Liberated Syndication CEO. “We have made great strides executing on our growth strategy, including launching a Spanish language podcast and further engaging with an ever-growing listener base. Our focus on offering our expanding customer base industry-leading services through Libsyn and Pair fuels our confidence in our ability to continue delivering in the second half of 2019 for our podcasters, our listeners, and our shareholders.”

We hoped revenue growth would be more substantial for the quarter, something we need to look into a little further. Still, it's nice to see that the company's earnings are growing much faster than revenue.

Research

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 15:31:47 GMT

Liberated Syndication Inc (OOTC:LSYN) ($2.98; $87.2M market cap) provides domain name registration, podcasts and web hosting services in the United States and internationally.

What was a lost cause in FABU, a defunct company with no stated operations, has now turned into a very interesting story in LSYN. Shareholders could be thrust into owning a legitimately profitable company in a burgeoning industry ripe for growth on many metrics.

It wouldn’t be too surprising if on August 24, 2016, when LSYN started trading on the OTC markets, the original bagholders of FABU stock ran for the hills when they saw a steep spike in price from their $0.02 holding to LSYN’s opening price of $0.24, an 1100% recoupment of their funds from near its lows. Given FABU’s past, we understand exactly why they would run.

Nonetheless, this new story has seemed to gain traction as the price of LSYN slowly crept up month after month, taking a brief respite in the latter half of 2018 before resuming its gains to new highs in May 2019.

We have taken a closer look into the company's future prospects, its valuation and potential financials going forward. LSYN now trades at $2.98. You can read our full article here.