Filed
by Onstream Media Corporation
pursuant
to Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933
and
deemed filed pursuant to Rule 14a-12
under
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Subject
Company: Narrowstep, Inc.
Commission
File No.: 333-108632
This
filing consists of the textual representation of a webcast conference call
held
on August 14, 2008 at which management of Onstream Media Corporation
(“Onstream”) presented prepared remarks about its results for the three and nine
months ended June 30, 2008, which remarks also included information regarding
Onstream’s proposed acquisition of Narrowstep, Inc. (“Narrowstep”) pursuant to
the Agreement and Plan of Merger entered into on May 29, 2008 and amended on
August 13, 2008 (the “Merger Agreement”), by and among Onstream, Narrowstep and
W. Austin Lewis IV, as stockholder representative (for the Narrowstep
stockholders),.
Cautionary
Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements
Certain
statements in this document and elsewhere by Onstream Media are "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act
of 1995. Such information includes, without limitation, the business outlook,
assessment of market conditions, anticipated financial and operating results,
strategies, future plans, contingencies and contemplated transactions of the
company. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors which may cause or contribute to actual results of company operations,
or the performance or achievements of the company or industry results, to differ
materially from those expressed, or implied by the forward-looking statements.
In addition to any such risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed
elsewhere herein, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause or
contribute to actual results differing materially from those expressed or
implied for the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to
fluctuations in demand; changes to economic growth in the U.S. economy;
government policies and regulations, including, but not limited to those
affecting the Internet. Onstream Media undertakes no obligation to publicly
update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Actual results, performance or achievements could
differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements
as a
result of certain factors, including those set forth in Onstream Media
Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission
.
Additional
Information and Where to Find It
Onstream
intends to file with the SEC a Registration Statement on Form S-4, which will
include a joint proxy statement/prospectus of Onstream and Narrowstep and other
relevant materials in connection with the proposed transaction. THE JOINT PROXY
STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS WILL BE MAILED TO THE STOCKHOLDERS OF ONSTREAM AND
NARROWSTEP. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF ONSTREAM AND NARROWSTEP ARE URGED
TO READ THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND THE OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS
WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION
ABOUT
ONSTREAM, NARROWSTEP AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The joint proxy
statement/prospectus and other relevant materials (when they become available),
and any other documents filed by Onstream or Narrowstep with the SEC, may be
obtained free of charge at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Investors
and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the
SEC
by Narrowstep at narrowstep.com or by contacting Narrowstep Investor Relations
via telephone at (609) 945-1772. In addition, investors and security holders
may
obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Onstream at
www.onstreammedia.com or by contacting Onstream’s Investor Relations via
telephone at 646-536-7331. Investors and security holders are urged to read
the
joint proxy statement/prospectus and the other relevant materials when they
become available before making any voting or investment decision with respect
to
the proposed transaction.
Narrowstep
and its respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be
participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Narrowstep
and Onstream in favor of the proposed transaction. Information about the
directors and executive officers of Narrowstep and their respective interests
in
the proposed transaction will be available in the joint proxy
statement/prospectus.
Onstream
and its respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be
participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Onstream
and Narrowstep in favor of the proposed transaction. Information about the
directors and executive officers of Onstream and their respective interests
in
the proposed transaction will be available in the joint proxy
statement/prospectus.
*
* *
SLIDE
1 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
OPERATOR:
Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Onstream Media fiscal 2008
third-quarter financial (INAUDIBLE)
OPERATOR:
All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode and the floor will be open
for
your questions and comments following the presentation. If you should require
assistance throughout the conference, please press star zero.
At
this
time it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to you host, Brett Maas. Sir,
the
floor is yours.
BRETT
MAAS (Hayden Communications): Good afternoon and welcome to the Onstream Media
conference call. I’d like to point out that during the course of the conference
call there may be statements made relating to future results of the company
that
are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Actual results, performance, or achievements could differ
materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements and as
a
result of certain factors including those set forth in the company’s filings
with the Securities & Exchange Commission. It should also be noted the
webcast of today’s conference call may be found on the Internet by visiting the
Onstream Media corporate website at
www.onstreammedia.com
and
selecting Company at the top of the Web page and then clicking on Press
Releases. At the web page you will find a link to the new release we issued
to
announce the Company’s fiscal 2008 third quarter financial results and webcast.
And archived version of the webcast will shortly be accessible from the press
releases page and will be available for at least 12 months pursuant to SEC
guidelines.
Finally,
those interested in reviewing our recently filed 10-KSB, which contains all
of
the financial information being discussed today, you can find this document
also
via our corporate website by selecting Company, and under that heading Investor
Relations, and then clicking on SEC filings where all of our recent SEC filings
can be found as well as via the EDGAR database directly at www.sec.gov and
then
search for the company filings.
SLIDE
2 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
In
addition, Onstream intends to file with the SEC a registration statement on
Form
S4 which will include a joint proxy statement prospectus of Onstream and
Narrowstep and other relevant materials in conjunction with the proposed
transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the
document filed with the SEC by Onstream at www.onstreammedia.com or by
contacting myself at Hayden Communications via telephone at 646-536-7331.
Investors and security holders are urged to read the joint proxy statement,
prospectus, and the other relevant materials when they become available before
making any voting or investment decision with respect to the proposed
transaction. Please refer to the slide for additional information.
At
this
time I’d like to introduce Randy Selman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Onstream Media. Randy, the floor is yours.
RANDY
SELMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, ONSTREAM MEDIA: Good afternoon and thank you for
joining us. Today we will review our results for the third quarter fiscal 2008,
the period ended June 30, 2008. We’ll also update our overall strategic progress
and the outlook for the fourth quarter.
With
me
today is our Chief Financial Officer, Robert Tomlinson.
SLIDE
3 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
At
the
end of our last fiscal year we announced expectations of 40 percent top-line
growth for the current fiscal year. This guidance included the new contribution
of Infinite Conferencing, which we acquired in April last year. Through nine
months in the fiscal year it is obvious we will exceed this guidance and 2008
will be a record year for Onstream. We now have thousands of customers,
including more than half of the Fortune 1000, to whom we can cross sell
additional services and technologies. We are well positioned for continued
success in 2009 and beyond and management is increasingly confident in our
competitive position.
Year-to-date
our sales are up 65.0 percent, including the effects of the Infinite
Conferencing merger. Beginning in this quarter, our financial comparisons
include prior year revenues from the Infinite acquisition, as it was acquired
on
April 27 last year. This explains why our consolidated growth rate has appeared
to have slowed compared to the second quarter when the prior year second quarter
included no contribution from Infinite. However, when looking at the comparisons
in this third quarter fiscal 2008, the third fiscal quarter last year included
approximately two months of Infinite. Organically we grew our sales
approximately nine percent in the third quarter and have posted 16.7 percent
organic growth year-to-date. We had anticipated our organic growth to accelerate
during the third quarter as expected some of our catalysts which we have been
talking about for some time to start generating revenue. I’ll discuss the
catalysts later in the call. However, we continue to post revenue growth
expanding our customer base and setting the stage for long-term
profitability.
During
the quarter we also announced the acquisition of Narrowstep, which we believe
is
one of, if not the final, components needed for our Digital Media Services
Platform. I’ll discuss the rational for this merger later in the conference call
and explain our overall business strategy and how the combination of all the
technologies further differentiates us within the industry.
Next
let
me turn this over to Robert for the review of the financials.
Robert.
SLIDE
4 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
ROBERT
TOMLINSON, CFO, ONSTREAM MEDIA: Thank you, Randy. Good afternoon. As you can
see
on this slide, our consolidated operating revenue was approximately $4.5 million
for the three months ended June 30, 2008, an increase of approximately $707,000,
or 18.7 percent, from the corresponding quarter in the prior fiscal year. The
increase was primarily due to increased revenues of the Web Communications
Services Group. To break this down, the Web Communications Services Group
revenues were approximately $3.4 million for the third quarter, an increase
of
approximately $578,000, or 20.3 percent, from the corresponding prior fiscal
year quarter. This increase was primarily due to the inclusion of approximately
$1.8 million of audio and web conferencing revenues from Infinite in this year’s
third quarter compared to approximately $1.3 million in the prior year third
quarter, which as Randy mentioned included only two months of Infinite’s
operations.
In
addition, we also experienced an increase in Webcasting division sales of
approximately $92,000, or 6.2 percent, over the corresponding prior fiscal
year
quarter arising from increased production services sales and the continuation
of
the past growth in our revenues from audio only events, primarily via a single
reseller of our financial webcasts.
Our
Digital Media Services Group produced approximately $1.1 million in revenue
in
this quarter, up approximately $129,000, or 14 percent, compared to the prior
year third fiscal quarter. The majority of the growth came from a 70.4 percent
increase in our DMSP and hosting division. We have continued to grow this
division, albeit from modest beginnings, and have more than 275 DMSP customers
as of the current date, up from approximately 171 customers at the end of the
March. Randy will elaborate on this division of our business in a few
minutes.
SLIDE
5 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
As
you
can see from this slide, our total year to date revenue has increased by
approximately $5.2 million, or 64.9 percent, to approximately $13.2 million
compared to approximately $8 million last year. Our webcasting revenues are
up
25.3 percent year-to-date, reaching almost $4.5 million compared to
approximately $3.6 million last year. Our Digital Media Services group has
experienced 7.4 percent growth year to date, reaching over $3.2 million in
revenues from approximately $3 million last year. Although the group’s revenues
only increased by approximately $223,000, the DMSP and hosting division included
in that group actually had a revenue increase of approximately $576,000,
representing a 113.3 percent increase.
SLIDE
6 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
This
slide shows the highlights of our third quarter financial results. As you can
see, our gross margin percentage was 65.6 percent compound to 67.6 percent
in
the third fiscal quarter last year. The slight decrease in gross margin was
primarily due to the cost of bandwidth and other services to maintain redundant
overlapping technical operation centers during our transition to a larger and
more cost effective location.
Beginning
last quarter and continuing into this quarter we increased our research and
development spending in several areas. Specifically this related to investments
in our DMSP and Web Communications groups, and this was spending was designed
to
augment our existing service offerings and accelerate the development of
customer requested additional services. Although some of these labor costs
were
capitalizable under current accounting standards, not all of them are. And
thus
in the short-term this increased R&D investment has impacted our operating
results. However, we believe the majority of the investment will be complete
by
the quarter ended March 31, 2009.
We
are
confident these activities will expand our leadership position from a technical
standpoint and further differentiate Onstream in the marketplace. And Randy
will
speak more about this topic later in the call.
The
net
loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 was approximately $1.7 million, a
four
cent loss per share, which includes approximately $1.6 million of non-cash
expenses. Therefore, the cash used in operations before changes in working
capital was only $82,000 as compared to $142,000 for the comparable prior year
period.
SLIDE
7 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Year-to-date
our gross margin has improved to 67.6 percent as compared to 63.9 percent for
the comparable prior year period. This increase was primarily due to 80 percent
gross margin percentage on Infinite’s audio and web conferencing revenues. Our
net loss year-to-date was approximately $5.3 million, which has decreased by
approximately $7.7 million, or 59.4 percent, compared to the approximately
$13
million loss for the first nine months of fiscal 2007. This year-to-date net
loss of $5.3 million includes approximately $5 million in non-cash
expenses.
SLIDE
8 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
This
slide provides more detail on our operating cash flow. With the virtual
elimination of interest expense in the current fiscal year thus far, there
are
only two remaining categories of non-cash expenses of significance affecting
the
company’s operating statement. Depreciation and amortization and consultant and
employee compensation paid in shares and options. As you can see, we
significantly reduced our non-cash expenses on a year-to-date basis compared
to
the prior year period. However, we continued to see increased depreciation
and
amortization expense compared to corresponding prior year periods primarily
as a
result of the amortization of the tangible and intangible assets acquired in
connection with the Infinite conferencing transaction which was closed at April
2007.
Compensation
is paid in shares and options by the company to consultants as well as
employees. However, the company currently anticipates that consulting agreements
with an equity component will be entered into on a very limited basis if at
all
in the future. The non-cash expense of approximately $230,000 related to such
items for consultants in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 represents an
approximately $25,000 reduction from the second quarter of fiscal 2008.
Furthermore, these non-cash professional fee expenses should continue to
decrease during the remainder of fiscal year 2008 as existing agreements
continue to expire.
We
also
reduced our cash used in operations significantly from approximately $1.6
million for the first nine months of the prior fiscal year to only approximately
$252,000 for the nine months ended June 30, 2008, both numbers before working
capital changes.
SLIDE
9 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Turning
to the balance sheet, we had approximately $875,000 in cash as of the end of
the
third fiscal quarter. The company’s stockholders equity was approximately $29.3
million as of June 30, 2008. We have received approximately $2 million in
financing proceeds during the fiscal year thus far, secured by software and
equipment as well as our accounts receivable. Although there is not currently
additional borrowing capacity available under these arrangements, we believe
that we could obtain additional financing based on approximately $350,000
secured by accounts receivable in excess of the amount required to support
the
existing facility, plus approximately $700,000 secured by software and equipment
purchased and paid for us during the past year, which is not included in the
software and equipment identified as collateral for the currently outstanding
debt.
Therefore,
in light of our reduced burn rate, we believe that we have sufficient resources
to fund our continued operations. I would now like to turn it back over to
Randy.
SELMAN:
Thank you, Robert, for the overview of our fiscal 2008 third quarter operating
results and financial position.
SLIDE
10 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
During
the third quarter we produced approximately 1,900 webcasts compared to
approximately 1,300 webcasts in the prior year third quarter. Year-to-date,
Webcasting revenues increased 25.3 percent and we’ve produced approximately
5,100 webcasts versus approximately 3,200 webcasts for the corresponding prior
fiscal year period. Our customer base continues expand, including many Fortune
1000 corporations and a wide range of entertainment organizations and government
agencies. Our focus remains on increasing the average revenue per client by
offering new services and increasing the number of video webcasts we
produce.
SLIDE
11 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
In
January we introduced iEncode, a full featured turnkey stand-alone webcasting
solution. To date we have delivered this product to key test customers and
are
making some adjustments to the user interface based on their feedback. We have
shipped units to several resellers and will soon launch joint sales and
marketing programs with them. In addition, we’ve begun negotiations with a key
hardware manufacturer to joint market a combined product. The iEncode version
of
Visual Webcaster is designed to operate inside a corporate LAN environment
with
both unicast, the ability to reach remote Internet viewers, and multicast,
internal behind the corporate firewall capabilities. iEncode enables our clients
to instantly webcast to a virtually unlimited number of viewers through Onstream
Media’s partnership with Akamai, utilizing their Content Delivery Network. The
iEncode appliance is also fully compatible with Onstream Media’s Digital Media
Services Platform for archiving, intelligent indexing, and retrieval. As I’ve
discussed previously, there are several revenue streams built into iEncode’s
business model. We generate revenue from the sale of the appliance hardware
with
expected margins of 65 to 80 percent depending on whether it’s sold direct or
through distribution. We will also generate high margin recurring revenue from
either a per webcast platform fee or a committed monthly recurring fee for
unlimited usage with a very minimum corresponding cost.
Finally,
we will include a DMSP account which provides the iEncode user the bandwidth
and
storage of the webcasts with 70 percent or better margins. We continue to expect
that each iEncode user will utilize on average approximately $25,000 per year
in
webcast usage. The appliance contains almost all of the required infrastructure
and is client administered so there is very little or no corresponding costs
associated with scaling the product.
SLIDE
12 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Our
DMSP
segment continues to grow. We had 185 clients, including 14 major clients,
as of
May 15, 2008, and we expanded this to 240 clients as of June 30, including
22
major accounts generating more than $150,000 per month in overall revenues.
As
of today the number of DMSP clients is over 275 and growing. This is in part
due
to referrals from Akamai, but our marketing initiatives are also generating
leads. Right now we have several hundred leads we are processing. High profile
accounts using the DMSP include Bonnier, Televisa, Studio Dell, Dell Green
PC,
and the Masters Championship with IBM.
Speaking
of Akamai, we recently announced several public sector wins as a result of
our
expanded Akamai relationship, which now includes a government business referral
program in addition to the enterprise referral program benefiting our DMSP
growth. In addition, we have renegotiated our contract with Akamai and as a
result have reduced our cost of bandwidth by 40 percent.
SLIDE
13 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
In
addition to the new government lead referral program, we have been working
closely with Akamai on the Quest Networx contract, which we won a stake in
last
year. As you may recall, this was a 10-year $48 billion contract and is the
largest communication services contract in the world. Because of the scale
of
this contract, progress has been slow. It is now our understanding that although
it has taken more than a year since the contract was signed that the government
has just begun to place initial orders under the contract. We have received
several of our fee requests and have processed them with expectations of order
flow to begin before the end of our fiscal year.
Let
me
add that we are not the only company who is frustrated with the slow pace of
this contract. Many other companies spend substantial dollars on their proposals
for this contract and they've also waited more than a year to see initial
revenue. These companies have told us that they too are disappointed in the
slow
process. However, it’s simply the nature of a very large government contract.
But as we said, we hope to see the benefit of this contract in the fourth
quarter.
During
the quarter we also announced a strategic partnership with Proforma, a leading
provider of graphic communications solutions. Proforma will significantly
increase our feet on the street, adding a network of more than 650 independently
owned and operated offices who will now offer a private label version of
Onstream’s Infinite Conferencing audio and web conferencing services as well as
our webcasting and webinar services to their customer base. Proforma members
service over 50,000 medium to large businesses. We’ve already begun product
training to Proforma’s members through the use of webinars and web conferences
and we’re hopeful this will assist them in presenting Onstream service
offerings. We recently presented at their annual conference, presenting to
approximately a third of their franchisees.
SLIDE
14 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
I
think
it’s important for us to take a step back and look at the company we have built.
Much of our progress is not yet reflected in our financial results, but this
industry is changing rapidly and we’ve created an organization that is ideally
suited in this emerging market. This slide shows how big we’ve become and it
speaks to the growth occurring in the industry. Despite the scale and growth
we’ve seen, the overall growth in the digital media sector has been slower than
analysts and management expected. However, the analysts continue to discuss
and
report on an expected migration of dollars being spent in the broadcasting
media
which are expected to shift towards Internet-based video services. There are
a
number of reasons for this.
First,
the technology related to Internet-based video services has improved
significantly in recent years. We now have the capability to produce high
definition quality video with all the same feature sets of satellite or
broadcast transmission at favorable prices compared to the traditional
offerings. Internet-based video services have also become more accepted in
the
industry. Finally, the convergence of television and web-based delivery of
content is driving this transition. Look at the Olympics. With the 12-hour
time
difference, many of the more prominent events, like that great American swimming
comeback in the 400 meter relay, were broadcast very late at night East Coast
time. The next day millions went online to view this great race in its entirety.
Internet-based video services accelerate the transition of content from live
broadcasts to the Internet. Our customer Televisa is a pioneer in this space.
By
managing all of their video content using Internet-based tools, they can quickly
port popular videos to their website. They also use us to process user generated
video, augmenting their web-based content and driving higher hit rates and
more
customer loyalty. In fact, we have processed and delivered more than a quarter
of a billion videos for Televisa. This is the wave of the future and Onstream
is
at the forefront of this.
We
believe the accelerating shift to Internet-based video services will soon result
in a significant improvement in the overall sector’s revenues. Our strong
competitive position, including our large established customer base and the
powerful comprehensive offering we’re creating, puts Onstream in a particularly
strong competitive position as this market matures. As Robert mentioned, we’ve
increased R&D investment to remain both competitive and relevant with the
changing requirements of this emerging market. This increased R&D investment
has in the short term impacted our operating results, but has improved our
competitive position and set the stage for us to benefit from this ongoing
shift. When the shift really accelerates it will be increasingly important
to
have an established proven platform to meet this demand. This shift will focus
the primary source of the company’s revenue growth from the webcasting and
conferencing divisions to the digital media services division.
SLIDE
15 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Looking
at the DMSP slide you can see that our development team has been busy creating
what we believe is the complete solution for virtually any type or size customer
to participate and use Internet video services to promote their products and
services to targeted audiences via the web. We have created a diversified
offering giving customers at every step of the continuum an entry point that
meets their current requirements and allows them to grow without having to
migrate to different platforms as their needs change. Smaller customers can
easily start with our Store and Stream account. For as little $100 per month
they can store, stream, add metadata, and publish virtually every type of
digital media file, both live and on demand. The system supports live
broadcasting and popular formats such as Flash, Windows, and QuickTime. For
the
more advanced user such as publishers, broadcasters and other more sophisticated
content developers, we will soon release Streaming Publisher. Streaming
Publisher provides additional features such as automated transcoding of video
files to Windows, Real, Flash, QuickTime at any speed. A complete report
generating portal for comprehensive statistical information about the video
assets stored in DMSP, permissioning to enable only authorized personnel to
access certain content, player picker which allows a client to select from
a set
of available player templates, with basic customization as to colors and logos.
RSS feeds to identify and alert that new content has been added and secure
streaming to protect the streams from unauthorized access.
Our
DMSP
Professional provides not only additional features intended for companies
wishing to process their content for better Internet exposure, but also a
complete line of professional services that provide everything from customized
players, physical media, processing, user generated video integration using
our
patent pending technology, and monetization functions such as pay per view
and
ad insertion integrating with major ad servers. A client can start out simply
putting video files into their DMSP accounts and publishing them to the web
to
provide a video experience on their website. As they grow, they can implement
a
more sophisticated player technology that enables them to provide videos in
more
formats, manage larger collections of videos, provide a user friendly online
video selection capability, and have all the tools required to make a
comprehensive video user experience on their website.
More
advanced clients can make use of the automated metatagging and video search
optimization that will make a video more findable by the major search engines,
a
technology that we believe will enable us to offer our clients a more effective
way to generate leads and draw clients to their websites.
The
fourth box in the slide is the reason we’re acquiring Narrowstep. The first
three boxes are all the tools that are required for anyone to upload, store,
stream, process, monetize and deliver video on the web. Narrowstep’s telvOS
technology takes the platform to the next level. Integrating telvOS into the
DMSP will not only provide the TV on the Web experience with all the quality,
channels, and superb user experience, but also enables us to offer Web on the
TV. Advertising insertion, pay per view, high definition quality, play list
generator, digital rights management, advanced content management are all part
of the Narrowstep telvOS technology. When the integration of telvOS and DMSP
is
completed, Onstream will have a single platform that will enable any creator
of
content to not only stream it on the web but make it also available to the
next
generation of set-top boxes in the home. Imagine publishing a video about
virtually any topic and the entire population can view it either on their home
TV equipped with an Internet based set-top box or via the Web in a TV-like
broadcast. When the shift in broadcast advertising accelerates into high gear,
the combined platform, DMSP and telvOS, will have the complete
solution.
SLIDE
16 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Now
I
want to share the overall business strategy for this entire program as we now
believe we are positioned to accomplish our vision in this market. By the end
of
the second fiscal quarter ending March 2009 we will complete the essential
components of the DMSP and have the telvOS integrated and upgraded as well.
We
already have had success in developing a client base for the DMSP that includes
all of the categories on this slide such as publishers like Bonnier and F and
W,
broadcasters such as Televisa, PBS and CPAN, many colleges and universities,
consumer products companies such as Dell, and many other enterprises and
government agencies. In fact, we have over 200,000 video assets in our DMSP
library. With the integration of the telvOS (ph) and DMSP technologies we can
deliver all this content to set-top boxes. We can also establish Internet TV
on
any site and offer all the available content.
Simply
providing the content is not the entire solution. In fact, several companies
claim they can provide some or all of this capability. The differentiator comes
from the content processing done by the DMSP. Professional services such as
logging, indexing, metatagging, optimization, and classification. We can take
a
piece of video content and extract all the necessary information about the
video
to classify it, determine its quality, identify its content matter, optimize
it,
and create an alert that the video is available. What that means is we can
set
up a channel based system on virtually every consumer interest subject from
sports to medicine to science and hobbies that subject matter experts can
administer and offer to virtually anyone on the web or home TV.
Our
next
steps are to continue to develop the technology to interface with the set-top
boxes and expand our relationships with the manufacturers who are excited about
the platform and the content it contains. And the content creators that will
be
excited by the distribution both the Internet television and the set-top box
companies will be able to provide. Finally, the business model is still the
same
for the DMSP. The content developers will subscribe to the DMSP, incur
transaction fees, bandwidth, storage charges, and the set-top box companies
can
realize revenues from subscriptions and most of all advertising, which we will
also participate in.
Just
as
the music and publishing industries have been disintermediated, we believe
so
will the $150 billion television industry. Onstream and our clients will be
able
to capitalize on this shift. The possibilities are endless.
SLIDE
17 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
Although
not as accelerated as we would like to see, we are pleased with our overall
accomplishments during the first nine months of fiscal 2008, and as a result
we
are increasing guidance estimates to 45 percent growth rate over the prior
year.
This would indicate total revenue of approximately $17.5 million for fiscal
2008. As I previously stated in our current projections and guidance for the
balance of the year, does not include our key catalysts for growth including
Qwest, our Auction Video initiatives, and sales of iEncode, although we believe
at this point in our fourth quarter they will no longer result in any meaningful
revenue contribution for the remainder of fiscal 2008. However, we are still
anticipating a significant effect on our 2009 revenues from these
opportunities.
Although
we experienced a small cash loss for the June ending quarter, primarily due
to
increased R&D expenditures, we will closely monitor these costs which are
related to our DMSP and Web Communications segments and will strive to minimize
the impact these additional expenditures will have on our operating results
in
the near term, and as a result we anticipate a minimal if any burn rate in
the
fourth quarter.
With
that
being said, on behalf of our dedicated employees, management team, and board
of
directors, I’d like to thank each of you for taking the time to be with us
today.
SLIDE
18 OF INTERNET PRESENTATION
And
with
the help of our operator we will now open it up for questions.
OPERATOR:
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you do have a question,
please press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. Questions will
be
taken in the order they were received. If you are using a speakerphone, we
ask
that while posing your question you pick up your handset to provide favorable
sound quality. If at any time your question has been answered, you may remove
yourself from the queue by pressing pound. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if
you
do have a question or a comment, please press star one on your telephone keypad
at this time. Please hold while we poll for questions.
Our
first
question is coming from Allan Menzer, from Alcarr Associates. Please pose your
question.
ALLAN
MENZER, ALCARR ASSOCIATES: Hi, Randy.
SELMAN:
Hi, Allan. How are you?
MENZER:
OK. I guess – and not to be facetious, the best part of the quarter is
we’re still trading and still in business given where the stock is trading. And
I know as we’ve discussed a number of times you don't control that. But to some
extent the investors, you know, are attracted to, you know, what senior
management has to say when they're out there. And it just seems with the
pressure on the stock - and this is through a third party, I grant you. But
I
heard from a broker recently that there’s been a large shareholder putting
pressure on the stock. A – could you comment on that. And it seems to be on
an ongoing basis. So I don't know who it is, the folks you're talking to, but
they're not doing anything for the stock.
Number
two, given the performance of the stock – and I speak for a lot of
stockholders, clients of mine and so forth, that I think the company should
take
another look at the salary structure of senior management, much less giving
the
senior managers an increase going forward. And maybe you should take a step
back
as you have courageously done, if you will, sometime back and take a –
think about taking a 25 percent decrease until the company’s stock performance,
you know, warrants an increase in senior management salaries.
SELMAN:
Well, I appreciate the comments. Let’s start with part one. It is an unfortunate
circumstance that the stock price isn’t reflecting the gains of the company. The
stock price was significantly higher when the company had less capabilities,
had
less revenues, had less clients, et cetera. So it’s not really tracking with the
performance of the company. That being said, there’s obviously all types of
situations that occur in the marketplace. We can certainly look at the sector
overall and see that many of the companies in the current sector have seen
very
substantial reductions in their current valuations, their stock prices in many
cases have dropped 50, 60 even 80 percent. Even Akamai, our flagship company,
is
about a third of where it used to be.
So
obviously, you know, that’s one issue. So the industry as a whole is not being
recognized by the investment community for the potential that it has. And as
I
stated in my speech, I believe that it’s very clear there’s going to be a big
shift, there’s going to be revenue flow in. And these are the types of
investments people should be looking very carefully at. And hopefully soon
we’ll
be able to convey that message to the right ears and see increased
buying.
Second.
There are problems with investors all the time in stock. Some people get
discouraged, some people, you know, can’t wait so long. Some people have other
reasons that they have to sell shares. I'm not going to speculate today on
all
of the problems that are affecting our stock or whether one or two or three
individuals have been leaning on the stock or selling the stock. Obviously
stock
is being sold and not enough is being bought. And we’re seeing a downward trend.
Although we’re showing, you know, improved performance, you know, every quarter
over quarter and the company is growing and making the right technology
acquisitions and building value.
I
believe
your comments on the – on the management salaries is a valid comment and we
believe that, you know, if there – becomes a time when this company cannot,
you know, pay the current salaries of the company, if the cash flow requires
us
to go to the market or do anything that we don't expect is going to be just
showing signs of improvement, we’ll consider that. We’ve done it several times
in the past. We’ve gone without salaries in the past. And we’ll do what’s
necessary to keep the company afloat and maintain the value that we
can.
I'm
going
to, you know, tell you that the summertime is a bad time for tech stocks. It’s
been a rule of thumb. I don't know why that is. Companies don't change – we
haven't seen, you know, significant seasonal changes, although once in a while
we get a couple of holidays in the same quarter, which could affect our results.
But for the most part the summertime doesn’t really affect it. We showed decent
revenue growth. The primary issue, you know, even in the slowing economy we’re
not really seeing that effect. The primary issue is simply right now a stock
problem with the stock price, not a corporate problem.
We
really
believe as I told you in this call that we’re onto something very big here and
we expect that there’s going to be great results coming down the pipe. As those
revenue dollars shift from the television broadcast industry to the Internet,
we’re going to be positioned to take advantage of a very substantial part of it.
And this segment is not very big and it’s about to see according to some
estimates $80 to 100 billion of revenues coming in, because it’s more effective
to advertise in an Internet-based video than television, according to several
analysts.
MENZER:
Randy, I think now it’s a critical time. I think we’re facing probably four and
a half months from now, given where the stock is, a reverse split again. And
a
lot of people that have been around since the last one won’t be around for the
next one. So as far as it being critical, I think it – today that it’s
critical. So …
SELMAN:
Again, the issue you're bringing up – and, you know, like I said, we’ll
take a look at it. But the issue you're bringing up is a matter of cash flow.
The company can afford to pay its management. We’ll retain that management. If
the company can’t afford to pay that management, we won’t retain that
management. We need this management. We need this management to stay in place
and fulfill the requirements that we just outlined in this conference call.
And
to extent that we can’t pay competitive salaries, we’re not going to be able to
maintain them. And I think that would be a bigger burden for the shareholders
than to simply see a little cash flow cut that could possibly be offered that
we
don't really need, because we have sufficient capital on hand and we’re
virtually breakeven on cash flow. To the extent that changes, believe me, the
management will step up like we always have.
MENZER:
That’s not an issue. It’s all a matter of management’s credibility given the
fact that we’ve had a poor stock price since November before we went under a
dollar. And now as I said we’re four and a half months potentially from a
reverse split. Also, you know, it doesn't seem that management stepped up to
the
plate and purchased at these prices any stock. The last purchases, albeit
paltry, were last I think January when the stock was around the same levels
and
it was, I don't know, 15,000 or 20,000 shares purchased. So that also would
give, you know, investors, you know, a little room to say, hey, management
believes in the company, they're purchasing at these low levels, maybe we should
go out and do it. But I don't see any of that.
SELMAN:
Well, you know, that’s not true. To be honest with you, the management team in
this company, you know, although we – we’re not wealthy individuals like many of
you are and don't have the wherewithal to buy stock in the tens of thousands
of
dollars on a as needed basis, we are, you know, pretty heavily leveraged in
our
own personal lives. I can certainly attest to that and prove that to anyone
wants to see the proof. The problem is, again, it’s not the cash flow, so we
could save 20, 50, 100 thousand dollars. Management is stepping up. We’re doing
everything we can. We’re working as hard as we can.. I’ve been on the road, I’ve
met more than 500 institutions over the past year and a half. And I can, you
know, say that I believe that once these catalysts hit, once this product
platform is finished, we’re going to see the investment, it’s going to come back
in. And I believe we’re going to be able to accomplish that before the end of
the year.
OPERATOR:
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Gary Purcell of Basic Investors.
Please pose your question.
GARY
PURCELL, BASIC INVESTORS: Hey, Randy. How you doing?
SELMAN:
I'm good, Gary. How are you?
PURCELL:
OK. I beg to differ with, you know, the other comments that came in. As long
as
the company is fundamentally sound, increasing business, making acquisitions,
doing all the right things – you know, I personally am very heavily involved in
the stock. It hurts that the stock is down at these levels. But I also look
at
it as an unbelievable opportunity. You know, a stock performs, the market takes
it up. If there are a couple of crazy, you know, shareholders that buy and
sell
and buy and sell, it’s not a trading stock. It’s a stock that you accumulate.
And in the future if you're in the right area, the wave of the future, OK,
this
company will be like unbelievable. And, you know, I’ve been picking up the stock
at these levels. You know, my clients are all like – they're very, very
disappointed on how the stock is – has been performing. But as far as
they're concerned, I mean, I’ve been picking up the stock every day. I think
it’s like – if this stock was $3.88, you know what I mean, and you're 10 times
better than the company’s ever been, OK. You know, it goes in cycles. You know?
It just goes in cycles. But I believe, you know, you just concentrate on
building your business and the stock will take care of itself. You know, at
this
point – you know, that’s my personal feeling.
SELMAN:
I
appreciate your comments. And I understand. I mean, we’re all very frustrated. I
mean, I understand, you know, we get paid salaries that cover our expenses
and
enable us to live, you know, in South Florida, which is where we chose to put
the company because of the available talent from companies that used to, you
know, be in the area, technology companies like IBM and others. And we were
able
to draw from those talent pools. Now we have, you know, offices around the
country, we have facilities in Colorado with one of the most talented
engineering staffs. And the issue, you know, that you're bringing up is the
same
issue for us. The fact that the stock price is down, every single one of our
options, et cetera, are also underwater. This is not a management team that
has
millions and millions of shares sitting in the bank. We’re a management team
that is dependent on the stock price just as much as our shareholders to see
benefits. This is not going to mean anything, you know, (INAUDIBLE) your career
if that stock price isn’t very substantially higher when it’s time to
leave.
PURCELL:
OK. How significant is Akamai? Like, in other words, now you have two small
government contracts that are going to equal a million and a half. How many
other government contracts are out there for the potential of you, you know,
picking up a tremendous amount of business?
SELMAN:
Well, the fact that these types of government agencies that are approaching
us,
the whole point and what’s happening is the government is realizing it needs to
have better communications with the – with its constituents. And so therefore
they're using webcasting and digital media services to get the messages out
to
that – to the citizens. So every state is a potential client and every
municipality is a potential client. And all the government agencies. And we
expect that as this Qwest project finally starts to turn that we start to see
government agencies. There’s 100 – I believe it’s 173 agencies in 191 countries
that are all potential clients for us, and there’s been allocated funds. This is
so frustrating to be here a year and a half later after we worked very hard
on
that proposal, won the proposal, won the bid, and part of a team of major
corporations, and have yet to see revenues from the largest communications
deal
in the history of the United States. It’s very, very, you know, frustrating at
every point.
So
we’re
doing what we can. We’re working with Akamai, we’re working with Qwest, we’re
working with other members of the team in order to accelerate this to eventually
get that revenue stream started, because I believe it will be very meaningful
to
Onstream.
PURCELL:
And when should this Narrowstep be completed?
SELMAN:
We’re intending to file the S-4 here within the next few days. Once the S-4 is
approved by the SEC, we’ll file the proxy to the shareholders. The typical vote
probably will take 30 to 60 days. So probably October timeframe we should be
all
set to close and go.
PURCELL:
OK.
SELMAN:
Meanwhile, just let me let you know that we’re already all over Narrowstep.
We’ve got – we had Narrowstep hire one of our top guys in Europe who’s running
our London office now and is already concluding some nice transactions over
there we’ll be announcing. We’re integrating the product already, the engineers
in both Poland and in our Colorado Springs facility have been designing and
researching the integration, and several of the components are already started.
So we’re very excited about this integration. When it’s done this platform will
do it all and I think it’s perfectly positioned for what’s about to
come.
PURCELL:
OK, thank you, Randy.
SELMAN:
Thank you, Gary
OPERATOR:
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, the floor is open for questions. If you do
have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad at this
time.
SELMAN:
While we’re waiting for questions to come in from the listening audience, I
received a question from one of our Internet listeners. Based on your guidance
of minimal if any burn in the Q4, should we then expect the company to be cash
flow positive in Q1. The reason right now we’re not cash flow positive, even a
few dollars, is we’re managing cash right now to effect the highest level of
engineering that we could possibly sustain right now to complete these products.
We’ve got a second version of iEncode which is going to incorporate users’ input
from the first levels. So that’s got to get completed quickly so we can get that
box out. We have the Streaming Publisher product which we’re going to be
introducing here shortly. We’ve got various features on Publisher Pro which is
all that video search engine optimization and automated metatagging technology,
which is the primary differentiator. That’s got to get finished. And several
other smaller projects for some clients.
With
all
that work going on we had to concentrate on getting those products completed
and
we’ve expanded the expenses for those products. As a result, we are trying to
manage the cash to try to stay close to breakeven - we had an $82,000 loss
for
the quarter, which we could have easily cut down on a couple of people or cut
down a couple of projects and turned that positive. But understand, if we do
that we’re not going to get the project – products finished in time. We’ve got
to maintain competitive advantage, we’ve got stay ahead of our competition. In
one case we have to catch up with a very highly funded competitor that has
a
portion of our system and has won some business. But with our overall product
strategy we think we could certainly beat that competitor within a very short
time with the products that we’re developing.
And
so,
you know, in answering the question about positive cash flow, we believe that,
you know, we’re going to have contribution from our Narrowstep deal, although
currently Narrowstep is burning some cash. The combination at the time within
a
short period of time we should be able to turn it around. We have the capital
coming in from the acquisition to cover that short-term burn rate. And then
as
soon as that’s completed we should be able to turn cash flow positive and remain
that way. We’re seeing wonderful changes in our – excuse me – wonderful
additions in our conferencing division. Some major resellers and such have
joined us, and that will contribute to revenues. Webcasting is growing. The
DMSP
I think has done very well. And we’re going to be expanding the marketing as
soon as we have additional cash to do so. So I think, you know, all in all
I
think things are, you know, are picking up and then we’re on the right
track.
OPERATOR:
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Fred Milligan, of Sanders Morris
and
Harris. Please pose your question.
FRED
MILLIGAN, SANDER MORRIS & HARRIS: Hi, Randy.
SELMAN:
Hi, Fred. How are you?
MILLIGAN:
Good, good. Hey, what’s the organic growth for the year? You're talking about 45
percent increase in revenues. What’s the organic growth?
SELMAN:
I
think we mentioned it. Let me get it real quick here.
TOMLINSON:
Sixteen-point-seven percent year-to-date organic growth.
MILLIGAN:
And that’s what you'd expect for the year, something around that 16 percent
level?
SELMAN:
We may see more organic growth in the fourth quarter since all of the growth
in
the fourth quarter is going to be attributed to (INAUDIBLE)
MILLIGAN:
So let’s say that the growth is 17 percent. Arbitrarily, OK? For the year. Now,
would that be the basis for next year. In other words, the 17 percent organic
growth will continue?
SELMAN:
(INAUDIBLE)
MILLIGAN:
(INAUDIBLE) and whatever else you might develop?
SELMAN:
No, not at all. We anticipate substantially higher growth rates next year.
Let
me explain some of the factors on the organic growth. Number one, the DMSP
platform itself for the Store and Stream with a couple of other nice features
and some other capabilities. Now DMSP with Streaming Publisher moves to the
next
level and can certainly increase the client base. On that basic platform we’re
able to put about 250 some odd clients that are strictly Store and Stream
clients - the rest of them are our major clients that use other services and
professional services that are on the Platform as well. But as we complete
these
additional product offerings, we’ll be able to certainly accelerate the growth
of the number of users as well as the cost that we can charge each one of these
users. And that alone, although it showed I believe over 100 percent growth
this
year and over a $600,000, it’s going to start to expand much more
rapidly.
As
far as
the catalyst revenues, we anticipate substantial organic growth from our iEncode
device, which we will have fully functional and shipping in the first quarter.
We expect certainly to see revenues coming out of this Qwest deal. I think
that
we’ve waited long enough and it’s time for them to start spending some of that
money. And not to mention there’s some very big, you know, other things. We’ve
mentioned our eBay hosting agreement. We think there will be revenues very
soon
in that area. We expect …
MILLIGAN:
Excuse me. Very soon. What does that mean?
SELMAN:
Maybe as soon as – maybe as soon as the first quarter. We’re looking at working
with them on some other projects. So I'm not going to discuss that at this
point
in time. But let’s just say that we’re progressing in that relationship. We also
anticipate very soon maybe getting our patent granted, which should also afford
us additional opportunities to generate revenues from licensing fees. There’s a
lot of things that are going to contribute to revenue growth next year. Not
to
mention once the telvOS platform is integrated there’s a pretty substantial
number of clients that will come over and be included in our revenues, not
to
mention the current run rate that they're at now. So, no, I think that we will
see substantially higher than 17 percent organic growth as well as acquired
growth for the coming year.
I'm
not
going to give a guidance number yet for 2009, but we will be ready to give
one
next quarter.
MILLIGAN:
If it’s better than 30 percent I’d give everybody a raise.
SELMAN:
I
feel that those numbers that we’ve discussed from last year are doable next
year. We should be able to see substantial growth. I'm not going to give you
definitive numbers, but I think it should be better than what you just
said.
MILLIGAN:
Better than 30 percent.
SELMAN:
I
honestly believe we should be able to do that, yes.
MILLIGAN:
Still give everybody a raise.
SELMAN:
Thank you, Fred. Although Allan may not agree.
OPERATOR:
There appear to be – there appear to be no further questions at this
time.
SELMAN:
OK. We appreciate everyone for – everyone for joining us today. And we look
forward to announcing our end of year results sometime in the December
timeframe. And this concludes our conference call. Thank you all.
Bye-bye.
OPERATOR:
Thank you. This does conclude today’s teleconference. We thank you for
participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful
day.
*
* *
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