Synchronoss Technologies Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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March 12, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. Welcome to Synchronoss Technologies' 4th Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us today are Synchronoss Technologies' President and CEO, Jeff Miller and CFO, Lou Ferraro. Following their remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Then before we conclude, I'll provide the necessary cautions regarding the forward looking statements made by management during this call.

Operator

I would like to remind everyone that this call will be recorded and made available for replay via a link in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at synchronous.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Synchronoss' CEO, Jeff Miller. Sir, please proceed.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. After the market closed, we issued a press release announcing our results for the Q4 full year ended December 31, 2023. A copy of the press release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. 2023 was a transformative year at Synchronoss, one defined by consistent execution and the successful completion of our strategic shift to becoming a premier global personal cloud solutions provider. We took our first major steps on this journey in early 2022 when we divested certain digital assets to IQMetrics, setting the stage for a broader strategic reform.

Speaker 1

We thoroughly explored all options to increase shareholder value and focused our actions around unlocking the potential of our high margin personal cloud business. This process ultimately culminated in the divestiture of our non core messaging and NetworkX businesses to Lumen Group in Q4 2023 to achieve our strategic shift to a dedicated global cloud solutions provider. Additionally, over the last 2 years, we've implemented the necessary cost control measures and streamlined our operations to enhance efficiency and improve our financial profile, which led to the positive net cash flow of $2,700,000 in fiscal 2023. Since the divestiture, we further refined our remaining cost in cloud's operations by reducing our annual costs by an additional $15,000,000 for fiscal 2024 to strengthen our ongoing and go forward financial performance. Now with the start of 2024, we stand as a pure play global cloud solutions company, one with a clear strategic focus, a simplified financial model and a more profitable and aligned operation.

Speaker 1

Our Q4 financial results underscore Synchronoss' strong financial foundation as a cloud solutions company, highlighted by a significant 127% year over year increase in adjusted EBITDA to $10,000,000 This performance contributed to a full year adjusted EBITDA of $31,400,000 surpassing the upper end of our guidance. These results were achieved during a period of strategic realignment, which included one time costs for the sale of messaging and NetworkX businesses. Additionally, we delivered Q4 revenue of $41,400,000 leading to full year revenue of $164,200,000 which also exceeded our previously communicated guidance. Our Q4 results clearly benefited from the heightened performance of our simplified business model and it hints at the new baseline for sustained growth and increased profitability that we expect for the company in 2024 and beyond. As we embrace our cloud focus this year, we will maintain our 3 main strategic priorities.

Speaker 1

Again, these priorities are to 1, protect and grow our cloud subscriber base number 2, expand our global customer base and the 3, deliver new anchor features. Our track record for protecting and growing our subscriber base remains strong and consistent. And in Q4, we saw subscriber growth of 9% year over year. We continue to see encouraging subscriber trends at our longtime customers of Verizon and AT and T. And with the recent addition of SoftBank subscribers, which exceeds over 100,000,000 subscribers across its brands, further extends our long subscriber growth runway that's well ahead of us.

Speaker 1

In the second half of twenty twenty three, we extended our agreement with Verizon through 2,030. We exercised an extension of our partnership with AT and T and launched SoftBank's Anshin Data Box powered by Synchronoss Personal Cloud. We now have more than 75% of our total revenue under contracts with at least 4 year terms to support our growth expectations. With regard to expanding our global customer base, we reached an important milestone in the launch of Synchronoss Personal Cloud with SoftBank during the Q4. With its 100,000,000 plus subscriber base across its brands including SoftBank Mobile, Y Mobile and LINE, SoftBank is expected to provide significant additional revenue for Synchronoss in the coming years.

Speaker 1

The launch of SoftBank's Anchen Data Box has garnered strong early traction among subscribers, a testament to the offerings alignment with the local needs of the Japanese market and the relevance that our secure AI enhanced solution for backup and restoring digital content on mobile devices exists. Anshin, meaning peace of mind in Japanese perfectly reflects the product secure handling of photos, videos and files, which is resonating well with customers. This early success is further supported by SoftBank's commitment to our cloud partnership, as shown by their effective sales and marketing strategies, leveraging their extensive network of 3,000 stores across Japan. Successful partnerships with our Tier 1 customers providing important proof points of the value of the Synchronoss cloud provides to service providers and as a result allows us to continue to pursue new customers. We entered 2024 with a strong pipeline of sales and business opportunities on a global basis.

Speaker 1

In fact, we recently returned from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the attendance and the buzz of activity was remarkable and quite encouraging. Our discussions with customers and prospects were rich as we exchanged ideas about the future of AI and mobile communications and shared Synchronoss' latest innovations. It's clear from our discussions that global service providers are urgently seeking avenues for revenue growth, churn reduction and differentiations from their competitors. These key customer priorities and industry dynamics complement the value proposition delivered by our Synchronoss cloud solutions as demonstrated by our current customers. Our pursuit of excellence in cloud technologies will be a key factor in our success in the coming years.

Speaker 1

As we strive to deliver key anchor features to our customers, we made important updates to this technology in Q4. Central to these updates is the introduction of enhanced plans within the Synchronoss Personal Cloud Platform. This flexible enhancement allows telecom operators and mobile service providers to offer a tiered service model, enabling subscribers to choose from basic, value added and premium service options. These enhanced plans are designed to empower service providers to tailor their offerings more closely to their subscriber needs, facilitating new avenues for monetization, subscriber engagement and customer retention. At Mobile World Congress, we display these enhanced plans alongside other significant innovations.

Speaker 1

Among them, the further developed Genius feature stands out. Now including advanced computer vision and AI capabilities for enriching photos with unique effects and filters. The integration demonstrates our platform's versatility in enhancing subscriber engagement and personalizing the cloud experience. We also streamlined the onboarding process aiming to boost subscriber adoption by simplifying the initial setup, thereby ensuring users that they can quickly and securely add their digital content. These refinements collectively signify a leap forward in our mission to provide comprehensive, secure and personalized cloud solutions.

Speaker 1

Finally, in Q4, we welcome Kevin Rendino, a 180 degree capital partners to our Board of Directors in December. Kevin brings a wealth of financial knowledge to our leadership team that will be instrumental as we shape the future of Synchronoss. So entering 2024, we are positioned for sustained growth as a dedicated cloud company. As we continue to focus on supplying industry leading technology and value add to our global customer base, we are confident that our simplified financial model will unlock shareholder value this year and beyond. With that, I will turn the call over to Lou,

Speaker 2

who will provide detailed overview of our financial performance and share our outlook for 2024. Lou? Thanks, Jeff. Our successful transaction with the Lumin Group has not only unlocked the superior financial profile of cloud, but as we spoke about on our last call, it facilitated a meaningful improvement to our capital structure as we used a portion of the upfront consideration to pay down approximately $10,000,000 of our preferred stock. This reduces our annualized dividend obligation by an estimated $1,400,000 We have several other payment expirations and financial catalysts on the horizon in 2024 that will further improve our balance sheet.

Speaker 2

With that, let's begin with some of our key performance indicators, which serve as the leading success metrics for our business. First, consistent with the guidance we've provided during our Q3 earnings, we achieved year over year cloud subscriber growth of approximately 9% in Q4. The results in the quarter reflect our growing base of subscribers and the elongated smartphone upgraded cycle, which now exceeds 3.5 years. We anticipate subscriber growth to be in the high single to low double digits in 2024. Cloud revenue of $41,000,000 was up 3% on a year over year basis.

Speaker 2

Cloud revenue represented over 99% of our total revenue in the Q4 of 2023 and is forecasted to comprise 100 percent of revenue in 2024. Quarterly recurring revenue was 88% of total revenue, which was consistent with the 89.5 percent of total revenue in Q3 2023 and 81.1% in the Q4 of last year. With cloud now comprising 100 percent of total revenue going forward, we anticipate that recurring revenue will approach 90% of total revenue on a consistent and long term basis. Turning now to our financial results for the Q4 and full year ended December 31, 2023. Total revenue in the Q4 was $41,400,000 which was consistent with $41,300,000 in the prior year period.

Speaker 2

The revenue performance was a result of the expected impact from divestiture of the messaging and network X businesses during the Q4 as well as the expected moderation in subscriber growth. Looking at the full year, total revenue decreased 5.5 percent to 164,200,000 from $173,800,000 in the prior year. The change in revenue primarily resulted from 2 factors. The runoff of deferred revenue recognized in the first half of twenty twenty two of approximately $8,500,000 and the sale and product sunsetting of the non strategic DXP and activation assets in 2022. Gross profit in the 4th quarter increased 2.5 percent to $26,500,000 63.9 percent of total revenue from $25,800,000 or 62.5 percent of total revenue in the prior year period.

Speaker 2

Gross margins increased as a result of lower cost of revenues associated with a higher concentration of cloud revenue to total revenue. This effect was partially offset by restructuring costs as well as increased depreciation and amortization associated with the capitalized software development. For the full year, gross profit decreased 7.6 percent to $105,800,000 64.4 percent of total revenue from $114,500,000 or 65.9 percent of total revenue in 2022. The decrease was due to deferred revenue runoff in the first half of the year, a legacy cloud product sunsetting in 2022 and the divestiture previously noted. An upturn in gross profit and margins was observed in the latter half of twenty twenty three, driven by a growing share of cloud revenue indicating an improving trend in gross margin and profit performance following the strategic shift away from messaging and NetworkX.

Speaker 2

4th quarter income from operations was $200,000 a significant improvement from a loss of $5,800,000 in the prior year period. This change was largely due to a $7,900,000 reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses, which followed the cost rationalization efforts after the divestiture. This effect was partially offset by $3,600,000 in restructuring charges related to that divestiture. For the full year, loss from operations was $10,600,000 compared to income from operations of a positive $300,000 in 2022. The increase in operating loss was primarily the result of the changes in revenue, increased R and D spend from higher employee costs, a lease impairment charge and non recurring professional expenses associated with the divestiture in the 4th quarter.

Speaker 2

Cost savings initiatives executed throughout 2023 provided a partial offset. Net loss in Q4 was $35,000,000 or $3.56 per share compared to a net loss of $15,900,000 or $1.66 per share in Q4 2022. Net loss from continuing operations improved to $11,800,000 or $1.46 per share from $16,200,000 or $1.92 per share in the prior year period. Net loss from discontinued operations was $20,600,000 or $2.10 per share compared to net income of $2,500,000 or $0.26 per share in the prior year period. The increase in net loss was primarily due to the loss on sale of discontinued operations.

Speaker 2

For the full year, net loss was $64,500,000 or $6.62 per share compared to $17,500,000 or $1.81 per share in 2022. Net loss from continuing operations was $4.52 per share compared to $1.71 per share in the prior year. Net loss from discontinued operations was $0.02 per share compared to $0.10 per share in the prior year. The increase in net loss was primarily due to the lower revenue, changes in non cash foreign exchange and the aforementioned impairment and the loss from the sale of messaging and NetworkX. In Q4, adjusted EBITDA increased 127 percent to $10,000,000 24.1 percent of total revenue from $4,400,000 or 10.7 percent of total revenue in the prior year period.

Speaker 2

For the full year, adjusted EBITDA increased 13.5 percent to $31,400,000 19.1 percent of total revenue from 27,700,000 dollars or 15.9 percent of total revenue in the prior year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA margin resulted from the favorable revenue mix to higher margin cloud, especially in the latter half of the year. Moving to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents increased $2,700,000 to $24,600,000 at December 31, 2023 compared to $21,900,000 at December 31, 2022. Cash also increased $7,000,000 sequentially from $17,600,000 at September 30, 2023.

Speaker 2

In Q4 2023, free cash flow was negative $5,900,000 and adjusted free cash flow was a negative $100,000 For the full year, free cash flow improved to a negative $2,600,000 from $3,800,000 in 2022 and adjusted free cash flow improved to a positive $13,200,000 from $6,100,000 in 2022. In Q1, we have now made our final payment to the SEC related to the financial restatement that the company completed in 2018. As these costs go away, cash flow will naturally improve by $4,800,000 in 2024. As a reminder, we still have about $28,000,000 of federal tax refund claims that are included in our prepaid assets on the balance sheet. As expected, we didn't receive any additional tax refunds during the period and the rest of the refunds are still being audited.

Speaker 2

We are cooperating with the IRS, responding to their debtor requests on time and the audit is currently ongoing. We anticipate the tax refund to be received in the middle of 2024. Once we receive the refund, we plan to use those funds to further pay down our preferred shares. Let me now turn to guidance. Entering 24, we anticipate the continuation of positive trends experienced with our customers throughout 2023.

Speaker 2

The recent addition of SoftBank alongside the expiration of certain payment obligation and the removal of other general costs in Q1 combined with the superior revenue cash generation capabilities of the standalone cloud business add to our expectation for net cash flow to be at least $10,000,000

Speaker 3

for 2024.

Speaker 2

We expect cloud subscriber growth to be in the high single digit to low double digit range throughout 2024. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, we expect GAAP revenue to range between $170,000,000 175,000,000 dollars consistent with our previously communicated range of 5% to 8% growth. We anticipate adjusted EBITDA will range between 42,000,000 dollars 45,000,000 in 2024, again consistent with our previously communicated margin range. I will now turn the call back over to the operator for Q and A. Thank you all very much for joining us.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll open the line for questions. The company requests that each participant limit their comments to one question and one follow-up. Our first question comes from Mike Latimore with Northland Capital Markets. You may proceed.

Speaker 4

Yes, thanks a lot. Congrats on the big year here. You talked about Stock Bank being, I guess, ahead of expectations. Can you put a little more color on that? I guess this is a new launch.

Speaker 4

So how is the attachment rate rate here relative to other new launches you've had or any other color on kind of the quantification of the successor?

Speaker 1

Yes. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for joining us. And we are pleased at the launch of SoftBank right out of the gates. And it is a little bit of a different launch dynamic, in fact, than we have with what we've seen more traditionally with Verizon and with AT and T.

Speaker 1

If I just reflect quickly on those, most of our activations have come through the digital onboarding of the setup flow for consumers in our U. S.-based customers. Having said that, in the case of SoftBank, and maybe one of the reasons why they're out of the gates a little more rapidly than we anticipated was that they've really employed a retail first strategy. So they're leveraging their 3,000 points of presence, their sales organization to add on sales and introduce this value added service of Anja Databox directly to their consumers, whether or not they are upgrading a device and not just in the digital onboarding flow. So quantifying that, you will not see that reflected in our Q4 subscriber growth numbers, because they just launched in November and they're in some trial periods.

Speaker 1

But we are in a situation where you'll start to see the impact of that numerically in our Q1 subscriber growth numbers.

Speaker 4

Got it. Great. And then, I know obviously most of the growth this year will come from current customers or softening just launched. What about just the pipeline for new customers? I guess you talked about just coming back from Mobile World Congress, but how does the pipeline for new customers look?

Speaker 1

We have modest expectations on revenue contribution in 20 24 from any new customers, but we do anticipate that we will bring on some new clients during the course of 2024. Our conversations at Mobile World Congress from clients from Asia to Europe, of course, and even North America, we're encouraging that they're seeing the need for finding new ways to drive incremental revenue. And therefore, what I would anticipate is that we might secure a contract or 2 in a fortunate circumstance throughout 2024. We would announce those and expect that the revenue contributions would likely make a larger contribution to 2025.

Speaker 4

Great. And then just last on the enhanced service plans. Can you talk a little bit about how you see the average ARPU on those kind of on those plans and also the potential relative to the potential subscriber out there?

Speaker 1

Yes. Well, one of the things that's key is that not every one of our clients has a single way that they would like to deploy and leverage the platform. And the reason we introduced the enhanced plans is all about flexibility. So that if they want to tier their service offering, not only their price plans, which many of our customers do between 500 gigabytes and 600 gigabytes, 2 terabyte offerings and in some cases unlimited offerings, they now have the ability to differentiate the services that they make available on each of those tiers. And as a result, that allows them to further monetize capabilities like artificial intelligence if they so choose to employ it that way or just provide more value at those higher tiers to differentiate it for different subscriber populations.

Speaker 4

Great, great. Sounds good. Thanks very much.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jon Hickman with Ladenburg Thalmann. You may proceed.

Speaker 3

Hi. So are you going to as the quarters go by in 2024, when you do your comparisons with 2023, will that reflect the elimination of the NetworkX and the other revenues?

Speaker 2

Yes, John. On a go forward basis, we're going to continue to do what we did this quarter is we'll reflect our cloud for cloud performance on a quarter by quarter and on a sequential basis.

Speaker 3

Yes. Okay. But then so I'll be able to see what happened in Q1 of 2023 as if NetworkX was gone?

Speaker 2

That's correct.

Speaker 3

Okay. So the $161,000,000 in change that you reported for the year, we'll just have to wait to see how that is reflected on a quarterly basis throughout the year as those quarters become available?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we reported for the year 164.2 which was primarily cloud, but we will make sure that we provide next quarter a comparison of cloud only to cloud only so that that comparison is very easily and visibly seen.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thank you. That was a little confusing when I looked at your numbers and my totals and your totals. So thanks. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1

Thanks, John.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to Mr. Miller for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Yes, great. Thank you very much. Before I conclude, I'd like to just express my appreciation to the entire Synchronoss team. It is your consistent contributions, your commitment to customers and spirit of innovation, which have positioned Synchronoss in where we are today for the best financial performance that we've seen in many years. To our shareholders, we appreciate your continued support and we've undergone some pretty significant changes over the last several years and we have now emerged more focused than ever and we remain dedicated delivering long term value to Thank you, operator, and back to you to conclude.

Operator

Before we conclude today's call, I would like to provide Synchronoss' Safe Harbor statement that includes important cautions regarding forward looking statements made during this call. During this call, management discuss certain factors that are likely to influence the company's business going forward. Any factors that are discussed today that are not historical, particularly comments regarding our prospects and market opportunities should be considered forward looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These forward looking statements include comments about the company's plans and expectations of future performance. Forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially.

Operator

All listeners are encouraged to review the company's SEC filings, including its most recent 10 ks and 10 Q for a description of these risks. Statements made during this call are made as of today, and the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any of such forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in expectations or otherwise. Please note also that throughout today's call, management discussed certain non GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA. Although the non GAAP measures are derived from GAAP numbers, adjusted EBITDA does not necessarily equate to cash generated by operations as it does not account for such items as deferred revenue or the capitalization of software development. Today's earnings release describes the differences between the company's non GAAP and GAAP reporting and presents a reconciliation for the periods reported in the release.

Operator

Thank you for joining us today for Synchronoss Technologies Q4 and full year 2023 earnings conference call. You may now disconnect.

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Key Takeaways

  • 2023 was a year of strategic transformation as Synchronoss divested non-core messaging and NetworkX businesses, implemented cost controls and emerged as a pure-play global cloud solutions provider with positive net cash flow of $2.7 million.
  • Q4 revenue of $41.4 million and full-year revenue of $164.2 million both exceeded guidance, while adjusted EBITDA jumped 127% year-over-year to $10 million in Q4 and reached $31.4 million for the year.
  • The company delivered 9% year-over-year subscriber growth in Q4, extended its Verizon agreement through 2030, renewed with AT&T, and launched SoftBank’s Anshin Data Box, tapping into over 100 million new subscribers.
  • Product innovation in Q4 included tiered “enhanced plans” for basic, value-added and premium cloud services, AI-powered “Genius” photo features and streamlined onboarding to drive monetization and adoption.
  • For 2024, Synchronoss expects GAAP revenue of $170–175 million, adjusted EBITDA of $42–45 million, subscriber growth in the high single to low double digits and at least $10 million in net cash flow.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Synchronoss Technologies Q4 2023
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