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Rightside Reports Second Quarter 2015 Financial Results

Kirkland, WA - Rightside Group, Ltd. (Nasdaq:NAME), a leading provider of domain name services that advance the way businesses and consumers define and present themselves online, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015.

"In the second quarter, we delivered record revenue and strong performance across our business," said Chief Executive Officer Taryn Naidu.

Naidu continued, "New gTLDs create compelling opportunities for online brands and are becoming an important tool for digital marketers. With a growing portfolio of more than three dozen new gTLDs now in general availability, Rightside is well positioned with versatile branding solutions for organizations and individuals in a wide range of important market segments. In the second quarter, we expanded our geographic footprint by successfully entering the Chinese market through distribution partners, and we made great progress penetrating existing markets with our premium priced domains. Last quarter we also launched .Video and .Sale, and last month's launch of .News was our most successful to date from both a cash revenue and unit registration perspective."

Second Quarter 2015 Financial Highlights

(Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are relative to the fiscal second quarter 2014.)

  • Registrar services revenue increased 10% to $43.3 million compared to $39.4 million.
  • Registry services revenue increased to $1.9 million compared to $216 thousand.
  • Aftermarket and other revenue was $7.5 million compared to $7.1 million.
  • Total revenue increased 12% to a record $52.2 million compared to $46.7 million.
  • Adjusted EBITDA was $0.8 million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of ($0.8 million).

Business Highlights

  • Rightside has signed registry operator agreements with ICANN for 39 gTLDs to date, adding three new gTLDs in Q2: .FAMILY, .STUDIO, and .LIVE. Rightside also has an interest in 16 additional gTLD applications that have yet to be awarded to their ultimate registry operator.
  • As of June 30, 2015, 35 of Rightside's owned and operated gTLDs were in "general availability"; generating $3.5 million in year to date GAAP revenue as of June 30, 2015 and over 330,000 registrations to date.
  • Rightside's retail registrar, Name.com, grew revenue more than 25% year over year with over half of that growth driven by higher margin new gTLDs.
  • With over 16 million total domains under management as of June 30, 2015, including over 2.7 million domain names registered through its retail outlets, Rightside remains one of the world's largest registrars.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

  • As of June 30, 2015, Rightside had cash and cash equivalents of $46.4 million, compared to $45.9 million as of March 31, 2015.
  • As of June 30, 2015, Rightside had $11.0 million of Letters of Credit outstanding under its $30 million revolving credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank, which was established on August 1, 2014 and matures in August 2017.
  • As of June 30, 2015, Rightside had fully drawn its $30 million term loan credit facility with certain funds managed by Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC, which was established on August 6, 2014 and matures in August 2019.

Business Outlook

For the full year ending December 31, 2015, Rightside reaffirms its guidance:

  • Total revenue of $210 million to $220 million, inclusive of $6 million to $9 million of GAAP revenue from the registry services business; and
  • Adjusted EBITDA to break-even as Rightside invests margin generated by the business back into driving market development efforts.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted for interest, income taxes, gain on sale of marketable securities, gain (loss) on other assets, net, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, as well as the financial impact of acquisition and realignment costs. Acquisition and realignment costs include legal, accounting and other professional fees directly attributable to acquisition activity as well as employee severance and other payments in connection with corporate realignment activities. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure and its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is GAAP net income (loss). A reconciliation of GAAP net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA can be found in the accompanying table. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for performance measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Rightside compensates for these limitations by relying primarily on its GAAP results and using Adjusted EBITDA only as a supplement.

About Rightside

Rightside™ inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company, with its affiliates, is a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry's most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, usage, and monetization of domain names. In addition to being a new gTLD registry operator, Rightside is home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom and Name.com. Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside has offices in North America, Europe and Australia. For more information please visit www.rightside.co.

Cautionary Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, among others, Rightside's expected total revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and registry services revenue. Statements containing words such as may, believe, anticipate, expect, intend, plan, project, and estimate or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Statements regarding Rightside's future performance are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, financial condition, operating performance and results of operations, including certain assumptions related thereto. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, among others: Rightside's ability to successfully operate new gTLD registries and provide back-end infrastructure services to new and existing registries; Rightside's ability to successfully market and sell its gTLDs; and the difficulty in predicting and developing consumer demand for new gTLDs. More information about potential risk factors that could affect Rightside's operating and financial results are contained in Rightside's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 12, 2015. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Rightside does not intend to revise or update the information set forth in this press release, except as required by law, and may not provide this type of information in the future.

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