At the end of a brutally tough 2014 filled with layoffs and boardroom vitriol, fortune appears to have turned for multiscreen technology company Synacor.
Buffalo, N.Y.-based Synacor reported fourth quarter revenue of $30.9 million, a 5 percent year-over-year uptick and the second best revenue performance in the company's history. The revenue figure also exceeded guidance of around $27 million.
Synacor also announced its involvement in one of the pay-TV business' most innovative new ventures, Dish Network's Sling TV.
"I am pleased to announce today that Synacor's Cloud ID platform was chosen by Sling TV, a subsidiary of Dish, to authenticate and authorize Sling TV subscribers," Himesh Bhise, Synacor's CEO, told investors, according to a transcript provided by Seeking Alpha. "Cloud ID will provide access control, entitlement verification and fraud prevention. Sling TV is at the vanguard of delivering TV services to broadband connected devices and we are proud to be supporting them in this venture."
Bhise tied some of the revenue improvement to Synacor's movement away from desktop search.
"For the first time in company history, in the fourth quarter advertising revenue exceeded search revenue," he said. "Search revenue represented 36 percent and advertising 45 percent. A year ago in the fourth quarter of 2013, search was 50 percent of our revenue and advertising 32 percent."
With its stock price and bottom line in freefall in late September, Synacor trimmed 70 jobs, or around 20 percent of its workforce.
This followed a bitter boardroom struggle, with two dissident groups of shareholders trying to overthrow the company and have it sold off.
For more:
- visit this Synacor investor relations site
- read this Seeking Alpha transcript
- read this Multichannel News story
Related links:
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