Catena Media, an affiliate powerhouse, has released its year-end report for January to December 2024. Despite a considerable drop in income, the corporation is convinced that its business plan will pay off shortly.
Catena Media stated that it will approach 2025 as a “more focused organization”.
Optimization Measures Stabilized EBITDA in Q4
Catena Media generated EUR 10.2 million ($10.5 million) in revenue from continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 2024. This represents a 30% decrease from EUR 14.5 million ($14.9 million) in 2023, highlighting Catena Media’s ongoing financial challenges.
The reduction might be attributable to subpar performance in North America, where revenue from continuing operations fell 28% to EUR 8.9 million ($9.2 million). Despite this, it nevertheless accounted for around 87% of total group income from continuing operations.
These results were caused by a 19% decline in new deposit clients (NDCs) to 25,806 in total.
Meanwhile, Adjusted EBITDA rose 2% to EUR 1.5 million ($1.55 million), representing a 15% margin. EBITDA from ongoing operations climbed by 62% to EUR 0.8 million ($0.8 million), representing a 7% margin.
Meanwhile, Catena reported a EUR 0.02 loss ($0.021) per share, a major improvement than the 0.47 loss posted in Q4 2023. However, the company’s cash position dropped dramatically to EUR 8.5 million ($8.8 million) on December 31.
Catena Media reported that its operational earnings was reduced by a non-cash impairment charge of EUR 1.2 million ($1.24 million) for its AI content development platform.
The firm signed an M&A agreement for the platform and will stop it, recouping EUR 0.7 million ($0.7 million) of its initial investment.
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The FY 2024 Results Were Not What Catena hoped for
In the meantime, Catena Media reported FY 2024 revenue of EUR 49.6 million ($51.2 million), a 35% decrease. This drop was commensurate with the contraction of business in North America, which accounts for about 88% of total group sales.
For context, the business reported EUR 43.9 million ($45.3 million) in revenue from the area.
The NDC count for 2024 has dropped by 30% to 128,700
Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations fell 79% to EUR 5.4 million ($5.6 million), with a margin of 11%. The firm also recorded an EBITDA loss of EUR 0.3 million ($0.3 million), corresponding to a margin of -1 percent.
The firm had a loss per share of EUR 0.63 ($0.65).
Other notable developments and priorities
On October 22, Catena Media announced additional efforts to simplify its pipeline and save millions of euros in expenditures.
On the same day, the firm disclosed a non-cash impairment charge of EUR 40 million due to a writedown in the book value of certain sports and casino assets.
Catena Media’s board of directors saw significant changes between November 20 and December 4, with new members joining and some leaving.
On December 19, Catena Media began the hunt for an independent external auditor for fiscal year 2025.
Regarding the company’s priorities, Catena Media stated that its resources have been pushed thin and that more rationalization is required. To that goal, the corporation appointed important personnel, including directors of SEO, data, and engineering. In contrast, the corporation lowered its entire staff by more than 10%.
CEO Stan said that the optimization will take time
Catena Media said that it will approach 2025 as a “more focused organization.” Despite admitting that FY 2024 was disappointing, the corporation believes that their optimization plan would eventually pay off.
These thoughts were shared by CEO Manuel Stan, who stated that Q4 was the second straight quarter in which simplifying initiatives resulted in increased profitability. However, he noted that the organization must continue to implement its plan in order to attain greater profitability.
It is clear that our initiatives in search engine optimisation (SEO), product development and geographic expansion will take additional time to translate into revenue gains. While this is unsatisfactory in the short term, I believe we now have the right focus areas and organisational structure in place to create a sustainable business with solid long-term growth prospects.
Manuel Stan, CEO, Catena Media
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