(Updated - May 11, 2020 5:35 PM EDT)

(Update corrects EPS for adjusted figure)

Veritone One (NASDAQ: VERI) reported Q1 EPS of ($0.25), $0.04 better than the analyst estimate of ($0.29). Revenue for the quarter came in at $11.9 million versus the consensus estimate of $12.61 million.

First Quarter 2020 Financial Highlights:

• Net revenues were $11.9 million, a decrease of 4.4% compared with $12.4 million in Q4 of 2019 and a decrease of 1.8% compared with $12.1 million in Q1 of 2019.
• aiWARE SaaS net revenues increased to a record $3.1 million, up 8% sequentially and 13% year-over-year.
• Advertising net revenues were $6.0 million, reflecting the impact of COVID-19, compared with a record $6.5 million in Q4 of 2019 and $5.7 million in Q1 of 2019
• Loss before income taxes improved $1.9 million, and non-GAAP net loss improved $1.4 million, compared with Q4 of 2019.

“I am proud of the resilience and flexibility that the Veritone team has shown while facing the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Chad Steelberg, Chairman and CEO of Veritone. “We are grateful that we have been able to keep our teams together, maintain salaries and avoid employee layoffs, and since our shift to work from home, our focus and energy have only increased. Our business units have done a great job of maintaining operations in this environment while driving customer engagement and product development levels to all-time highs. The upgrades we have made to aiWARE, together with the early and decisive actions we took to manage our costs and liquidity during this difficult time, have enabled us to ensure business continuity, exceed our expectations for cash burn improvement, and, importantly, continue to pursue our core mission of making AI technology available to transform the activities of organizations of all sizes and industries.”

Chad Steelberg continued, “We have seen a decade’s worth of digital transformation in the last two months, as businesses increasingly move to the cloud and AI, recognizing the necessity for change in a changing world. As a result, we expect to see increased strong engagement on our powerful and unique platform.”

Ryan Steelberg, President of Veritone added, “While we experienced significant revenue disruption in our aiWARE content licensing and Advertising businesses starting in March, our differentiated technology and customer and market diversity are enabling us to weather the storm effectively. In addition, our SaaS business grew revenues both sequentially and year-over-year, buffering the impact on our overall top line.”

GUIDANCE:

Veritone One sees Q2 2020 revenue of $11.8-12.2 million, versus the consensus of $13.23 million.

Veritone continues to see the cancellations and delays of sporting events, and slowness in film and television production, impacting its content licensing business, as well as some delays in certain expected SaaS revenues due to the economic shutdown. The Company expects these impacts to be offset by a rebound in its Advertising businesses, due primarily to new client wins and growth in its VeriAds business. As a result, for the second quarter ending June 30, 2020, the Company expects total net revenues to be in the range of $11.8 million to $12.2 million, and non-GAAP net loss to be in the range of $6.5 million to $6.1 million.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Veritone One (VERI) click here.