Direct Digital Holdings - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 revenue was $8.2M, down 63% year over year due to lingering sell-side disruption; buy-side grew 6% while sell-side fell 88%. Gross margin improved to 29% on mix shift to buy-side.
• Adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $3.0M; operating expenses were reduced by 19% ($1.5M) via cost actions implemented mid-2024.
• Management reiterated FY 2025 revenue guidance of $90–$110M, expecting a 2H 2025 inflection as direct DSP integrations (Colossus Connections) complete and alternative pathways ramp.
• Key call takeaways: direct DSP integrations targeted to impact Q3–Q4; buy-side expected around $40M with sell-side “north of that” to reach guidance; fixed cost reductions are sustained.
• Stock narrative catalysts: maintained guidance despite Q1 softness; visible sell-side recovery path via direct connections and new mid-tier DSPs; continued buy-side expansion in new verticals ($1.2M in Q1; $5–$10M incremental expected in 2025).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Buy-side revenue increased 6% year over year to $6.1M, supported by $1.2M from customers in new verticals.
• Gross margin expanded to 29% from 22% a year ago due to higher buy-side mix and cost actions.
• Operating expenses down 19% ($1.5M) year over year, reflecting fixed-cost reductions and reorganization; CFO emphasized these are ongoing fixed cost savings, not variable.
• CEO: “With our visibility today, we maintain our revenue guidance of $90 million to $110 million for full year 2025… We expect the second half of 2025 to deliver strong gains as we experience the full effect of new direct sell side partners coming online”.

What Went Wrong

• Consolidated revenue decreased 63% year over year to $8.2M; sell-side revenue declined 88% to $2.0M, primarily from reduced impression inventory tied to 2024 business disruption following a defamatory blog post.
• Net loss widened to $5.9M; adjusted EBITDA loss increased to $3.0M vs $1.7M in Q1 2024.
• Sequential sell-side revenue of $2.0M remained well below historical levels; Q4 was $2.7M aided by ~$0.7M of political spend, highlighting ongoing headwinds despite seasonal Q4 strength.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Direct Digital Holdings' first quarter 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer Bellido, IMS Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Direct Digital Holdings' first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. On today's call are Direct Digital Holdings' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Walker and Chief Financial Officer Diana Diaz. Information discussed today is qualified in its entirety with the Form 8-K and accompanying earnings release, which has been filed today by Direct Digital Holdings, which may be accessed at the SEC's website and the company's website. Today's call is also being webcast, and a replay will be posted to DRCT's Investor Relations website. Immediately following the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please note that the statements made during the call, including financial projections or other statements that are not historical in nature, may constitute forward-looking statements.

These statements are made on the basis of DRCT's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, which could cause DRCT's actual results to differ from its historical results and forecasts, including those risks set forth in DRCT's filings at the SEC, and you should refer to those for more information. This cautionary statement applies to all forward-looking statements made during this call. During this call, DRCT will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings release that DRCT filed in its Form 8-K today.

Now I'll hand over the conference call to Mark Walker, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mark.

Mark Walker (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Jen, and thank you to everyone joining our call this evening. I'll start by reviewing some of the highlights of our operations and financial results during the first quarter before turning the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Diana Diaz, for a more detailed look at our financial results. We'll conclude by opening the call for a brief Q&A. As we begin to move through 2025, our focus is on scaling our buy-side solution and rebuilding our sell-side business to drive consolidated revenue growth throughout the fiscal year. In the first quarter, we recognized consolidated revenue of $8.2 million, including $6.1 million in revenue from our buy-side segment, a 6% increase compared to buy-side revenue in the first quarter of 2024. The increase included growth from customers in new verticals of $1.2 million.

Sequentially, our first quarter sell-side revenue of $2 million was relatively consistent with fourth quarter sell-side revenue of $2.7 million, demonstrating an encouraging trend given that our fourth quarter is typically the strongest driven by increased activity around the holidays, and our fourth quarter 2024 included $700,000 of political spend. We are pleased with the performance of our sell-side segment in Q1 and continue to focus our efforts on scaling this segment to drive consolidated revenue growth. In the first quarter of 2025, we continue to see the impact of the disruption of our sell-side business during the previous year resulting from multiple short attacks. As many of you are already aware, a market-discredited blog post against our supply-side platform, Colossus SSP, in mid-May of 2024 caused an unexpected business disruption amongst our partners, advertisers, and clients.

As we continue to repair the business and reconstitute our relationships, volumes have not yet returned to pre-pause levels, and this caused a meaningful reduction in our 2024 revenues and also impacted the first quarter of 2025. We have been working diligently with our multinational, holding company agency partners, our Fortune 500 brand partners, and demand-side partners to resume or increase activity once direct connections are fully integrated in the second half of 2025, and we're pleased by their ongoing commitment to Direct Digital as we build our business back to previous levels. Our focus in 2025 is on driving growth and value for our shareholders. We've launched several initiatives to drive our progress, including revenue optimization efforts to diversify our revenue base and cost-saving initiatives to drive reductions in operating expenses and enhance operational efficiencies.

In the first quarter of 2025, we reduced operating expenses by nearly $1.5 million, or approximately 19% when compared to the first quarter of 2024. We continue to evaluate the optimal personnel and cost structure for our business. At the business unit level, the unification of our two buy-side platforms into Orange 142 has allowed us to better service small to mid-sized clients who represent a significant growth opportunity for our business. Small and mid-sized clients are increasingly shifting their advertising dollars to focus more on digital advertising. By intentionally focusing on this segment of the market, Direct Digital can provide the support these clients need to help navigate the complexities of digital advertising and optimize the return on ad spend in emerging technologies and high-growth channels, including AI, connected TV, retail media, and more.

As we mentioned last quarter, we brought on several clients across some of these new verticals, which are expected to generate additional incremental revenue in the range of $5 million-$10 million in 2025. We expect to see the impact of these new clients continuing into second quarter 2025 revenues. On the sell side, we launched Colossus Connection in the third quarter of 2024 to accelerate direct integration efforts with leading demand-side platforms. We established this offering to optimize supply path efficiency for our advertising clients through direct connections with top demand-side platforms, which ultimately provides advertisers with improved access to demand and cost savings, and we're seeing some encouraging early results. As we stated previously, we've already signed up two of the leading marketplace partners in this segment. We have also recently added several mid-tier DSP partners who are near completion with integrations.

We're also pursuing alternative bean intermediaries and pathways to send buyer spend to our publishers. We expect to see the impact of these new partners on our revenues once integration has been completed in the second half of 2025. In addition to our revenue diversification strategy, we've implemented cost-saving initiatives across our business with the goal of reducing some of our ongoing expenses and enhancing operational efficiencies. In the first quarter of 2025, we reduced total operating expenses by 19% compared to the prior year period. Diana will elaborate on this in her prepared remarks, but at a high level, we've taken a close look at our cost structure and expenses, and we're strategically reallocating capital to invest in the long-term growth of our business. From a liquidity perspective, we continue to selectively pursue strategic financing.

We're optimistic about our prospects for securing the necessary capital to support the growth of our business. We're encouraged by our progress in the quarter and excited about what's ahead for Direct Digital in 2025. We face significant challenges in 2024, and there is still a great deal of work to be done as we continue to recalibrate and rebuild our business. That being said, we believe that we are well-positioned with a revitalized model, prudent cost management strategies, and strong demand for our products and services. With our visibility today, we maintain our revenue guidance of $90 million-$110 million for full year 2025, supported by growth in both our buy-side and sell-side segments, and we look forward to driving enhanced value for our shareholders as we move through the balance of 2025.

As we mentioned in our 2024 year-end earnings call, in particular, we expect the second half of 2025 to deliver strong gains as we experience the full effect of new direct sell-side partners coming online. I will now hand things over to Diana Diaz, our Chief Financial Officer, who will walk through some of the financial highlights in further detail.

Diana Diaz (CFO)

Thank you, Mark, and good evening, everyone. I will now provide a review of our first quarter 2025 results. Consolidated revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was $8.2 million, a decrease of $14.1 million compared with revenue of $22.3 million in the first quarter of 2024. Sell-side revenue was $2 million in the first quarter compared with $16.5 million in the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in sell-side advertising revenue was primarily related to a decrease in impression inventory when compared to the first quarter of 2024. As Mark said, a market-discredited blog post against our supply-side platform, Colossus SSP, in mid-May 2024 caused an unexpected business disruption amongst our partners, advertisers, and clients.

As we continue to repair the business and reconstitute our relationships, volumes have not yet returned to pre-pause levels, and this caused a meaningful reduction in our fiscal year 2024 revenues and also impacted the first quarter of 2025. Buy-side revenue of $6.1 million increased approximately 6% compared with the first quarter of 2024, primarily driven by a $1.2 million increase in spending from customers in new verticals. Gross profit dollars decreased to $2.4 million in the first quarter compared with $5 million in the prior year period. Due to the shift in revenue mix that includes a larger portion of higher margin buy-side revenue, gross margin for the first quarter of 2025 increased to 29% compared with 22% in the first quarter of 2024.

Moving now to operating expenses, our first quarter 2025 operating expenses were $6.3 million, a decrease of 19% or $1.5 million compared with $7.8 million in the same period of 2024. This reduction in operating expenses was primarily related to lower payroll costs and staff reductions made effective July 1 of 2024 as part of our internal reorganization strategy and cost-saving measures to reduce certain ongoing costs. Total operating loss for the first quarter was $3.9 million compared to a loss of $2.8 million in the same period of last year. Net loss in the first quarter was $5.9 million, or a loss per share of $0.35, compared to a net loss of $3.8 million, or a loss of $0.22 per share in the first quarter of 2024.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was a loss of $3 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.7 million in the same period of 2024. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $1.8 million compared to $1.4 million as of December 31, 2024. Total cash plus our accounts receivable balance as of the quarter end was $6.2 million compared to $6.4 million at year-end 2024. We are actively advancing multiple funding and equity financing pathways with the goal that these efforts will restore Nasdaq compliance, strengthen the company's financial position, and support key growth initiatives. Based on our current visibility, we are maintaining our full year revenue guidance of $90 million-$110 million based on the expectation of consolidated revenue growth driven by enhanced buy-side activity and the ongoing recovery of our sell-side segment.

As Mark said, we expect the second half of the year to deliver strong gains as we experience the full effect of new direct sell-side partners coming online. Our guidance assumes that the U.S. economy does not have any major economic conditions to deteriorate or otherwise significantly reduce advertiser demand. We plan to offer annual guidance and update it throughout the year. I'd like to turn it back over to Mark for some closing comments.

Mark Walker (Founder, Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Diana, and thank you to everyone for joining. As always, we appreciate your interest in Direct Digital Holdings and are looking forward to answering your questions. Operator, please open the line.

Operator (participant)

At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. We ask that you please limit your questions to one question with one follow-up. We will pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Michael Opinsky with Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Michael Opinsky (Analyst)

Thank you, and thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering, in terms of the sell-side customer that you cut back last year, I was just wondering if you can give us a sense of maybe, in talking to that customer, what they might build back in terms of the business and maybe as a % of 2024 spending levels, if you have any insight there. Then, based on the revenue guide that you're giving for the full year, can you kind of give us a sense of what % of revenues will be derived from the buy-side versus the sell-side?

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Yes. Yeah. No, I appreciate the question, Michael. In regards to the customer from last year, what we are focusing on is all direct is to really go for a strategy of direct connections. What we believe in the most cost-efficient way for us to continue to grow the sell-side of our business is through direct relationships with different DSP partners that we actually have in the marketplace. What we have been working diligently on is making those direct connections with those partners. What we believe the overall impact of that direct connections will be in the strategy we have with Colossus Connections is really focused in on driving additional top-line revenue dollars, increasing our margin profile as it relates to the SSP business because it is direct instead of working through multiple intermediaries.

We also think that our clients and customers, we could see an increase in demand in the future state as it relates to the second half of the year. That is why we maintain a bullish outlook for Q3 and Q4, as we believe some of those direct relationships will be coming online. As it relates to your second question that you asked as it relates to the split between buy-side and sell-side, as you know, we've been working diligently on growing the buy-side of our business. We anticipate and what we have projected out is for that to be at the $40 million range, and for the sell-side of the business to be north of that number in order to close out the $90 million-$110 million range.

Michael Opinsky (Analyst)

Thank you for that, color. Just as a quick follow-up, in terms of your cost-pending initiatives, you mentioned about the payroll costs, and I would assume that most of that would be variable. Do you anticipate that, kind of give us a sense of maybe the extra efforts that I think you're continuing to look at cost efficiencies and so forth? Is there a dollar amount that you plan to save this year, and are those mostly coming from variable cost reductions, or can you just kind of give us some color on those efficiencies, and when do you expect that you will continue to see those realized?

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Yes. I'm going to turn that over to Diana to answer that question.

Diana Diaz (CFO)

Sure. Michael, we actually saw those cost reductions in the current quarter. Our operating expenses were down 19%, and those costs are fixed costs. There are staff that's on hand working every day, and we did cut our staff 20% back on July 1. We saw savings in the second half of last year, and we continue to see those into the first quarter, and those will be ongoing. Not variable.

Michael Opinsky (Analyst)

Gotcha. I appreciate that. That's all I have. Thank you very much, and good luck to you guys.

Operator (participant)

Thank you.

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Michael.

Operator (participant)

Again, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Kurnos with Benchmark. Please go ahead.

Daniel Kurnos (MD)

Yeah, great. Thanks. Just real quick, Mark, just how quickly are these integrations going to ramp with DSPs, and do you have any thoughts on sort of the broader marketplace given kind of the carnage in the Google space? Thanks.

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think with the cookie deprecation on-again, off-again relationship, I think for the foreseeable future, I do not think cookies are going to go anywhere. I do think alternative IDs are still going to have an impact in the marketplace, and I think we are already seeing other partners actually leveraging some of those third-party cookies that are actually out there. I think those are going to be a permanent part of the overall infrastructure. In regards to the breaking up of Google, if you will, between their ad tech business and all the rest of their businesses, I think we are in the wait-and-see mode on that. I think there are a lot of moving pieces as it relates to the judicial process that they are going through.

For us, we are treating it as business as usual, and we will wait until we see definitive action from the judicial on how we're going to respond and deal with that accordingly. In regards to the ramp-up of the integrations, each integration partner is different. Some move faster than others. Some have a little bit of legacy code that they're working through. Those are going to be variable in time. What we're anticipating is we'll see the impact of that come Q3 and Q4 of this year.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Jennifer Bellido (Head of Investor Relations)

Yeah. With that stated, we thank you for your continued support of Direct Digital Holdings, and that concludes our Q1 2025 call. Thank you very much, and we'll look forward to seeing you next quarter.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.