VoodooVox Inc. Receives Conditional Approval for CNSX Listing and Provides Corporate Update
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 12/11/12 -- VoodooVox Inc. ("VoodooVox" or the "Company"), (TSX:VVX) is pleased to announce that it has received conditional approval to list its common shares and previously listed debentures on the Canadian National Stock Exchange ("CNSX") and anticipates that trading on the CNSX will commence on December 13, 2012. The Company will stop trading on the TSX as previously announced.
CNSX is a cost effective, innovative stock exchange for trading the securities of public companies. CNSX's market model matches enhanced disclosure and streamlined issuer regulation with leading edge technology to meet the needs and characteristics of public companies such as VoodooVox, their investors and investment dealers. This model, combined with comprehensive regulatory oversight, provides an efficient new marketplace for VoodooVox that fosters integrity, transparency and liquidity for trading securities.
CNSX is recognized by the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") and is subject to OSC regulatory requirements.
Corporate Update: Retooling for high growth
VoodooVox changed its business model at the end of 2011 from a project-based solutions company to a managed service Mobile Advertising Network. The two acquisitions completed at the end of 2011 and the start of 2012 (UpSnap Services LLC and VoodooVox, Inc.), were part of this strategy. Through these acquisitions the Company acquired key assets needed to support the new business model, namely mobile advertising relationships and the analytics engine/database.
The previous business model entailed white labeling the Company's solutions to service providers in the mobile advertising eco-system; under this model revenues were project-based and recognized over a period of time. The Company sold its solutions to "Publishers" (e.g., carriers, national search engines) and "Advertising Aggregators" (e.g., Yellow Page publishers, online advertising aggregators). The ongoing projects and potential for incremental revenues were restricted by the ability of VoodooVox's customers to successfully commercialize and product manage the offering.
The Company determined that the lack of control under its former business model was not well suited to sustainable long-term growth.
It was observed, however, that the basis for success under the former business model was predominantly related to eco-system players' ability to connect an interested "ready to transact mobile consumer" with a "merchant advertiser"; accordingly there existed a strong unfulfilled need to provide an end-to-end solution.
The Company determined that it could fulfill this need by providing a managed service and, hence, VoodooVox's Mobile Advertising Network business model emerged.
VoodooVox's Mobile Advertising Network model allows (i) Publishers the ability to do what they do best which is to publish services and applications to mobile consumers, and (ii) Advertising Aggregators the ability to do what they do best which is to provide relevant ads, coupons and offers from merchants.
Based on this strategy, the Company moved its technology to a Cloud-based service with plug in APIs for its Publishers and Advertising Aggregator customers, thereby supporting the many-to-many connections needed between these two contingents.
The Company's new focus is to provide mobile advertising and analytics managed services via its Cloud-based platform.
It is to be noted that revenues from the prior "project-based" business model had been growing slowly due to the nature of the business model (long sales cycles, long implementation cycles, customers slow to enhance), whereas the Mobile Ad Network revenues have grown more rapidly, over 200% in 2012 versus 2011. A key component of the new business model is that it is no longer limited by the speed at which service providers can successfully deploy the solution.
VoodooVox has a comprehensive and fully operational Voice and Data Mobile Advertising Managed Services product with many Publishers and Advertising Aggregators that is intended to capitalize on the global industry shift from "interrupt driven mass market traditional advertising" to "digital mobile" advertising. Research indicates that the potential for growth in this space is significant:
-- Mobile Advertising grew 89% in 2011 and reached $1.4B in the U.S. alone. This year U.S. Mobile Advertising is expected to grow to $2.61B. Source: eMarketer -- Global Mobile Advertising spend is expected to achieve $20B by 2015. Source: Gartner -- "Mobile Advertising is the fastest growing advertising medium on the planet." Source: BIA Kelsey, 2012
In addition, VoodooVox applies Analytics to the mobile advertising process to better target the ads in order to optimize mobile advertising yield. The Company has offered this service to the market and the response has been very positive resulting in ten new contracts in 2012.
"The Company's retooling to a more flexible managed services business model is intended to allow it to capitalize on its expertise in mobile advertising and more directly expose it to this growing market," according to Michael Durance, CEO of VoodooVox. "Further, we are pleased with our recent series of funding, the significant decrease in our operational expenses, and the clarity that comes from our migration to the CNSX."
About VoodooVox Inc.
VoodooVox uses consumer analytics to provide smarter mobile advertising services via the cloud to publishers, advertisers and operators. VoodooVox, which represents the combined assets and knowledge base of three companies, namely Call Genie Inc., UpSnap Services, LLC and VoodooVox, now processes billions of advertising transactions for a marquee list of global clients and partners. Currently, VoodooVox solutions are deployed in 11 countries around the world. www.voodoovox.com.
The TSX Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.