Acquisition to Add Global B2B and DTC Customer Base, International Services Team, and Proprietary AI-Powered AdTech Tool Sets

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2024 / Collective Audience, Inc. (Nasdaq:CAUD), a leading innovator of audience-based performance advertising and media, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DSL Digital, a provider of Marketing-as-a-Service solutions powered by proprietary AI technology. For Collective Audience, the acquisition is expected to form the foundation of a new AudienceServices™ group.

Founded in 2019, DSL Digital has been providing digital performance advertising and marketing services to select global brands, including a market leader in enterprise application software and a Global 500 multinational professional services company. For these premier clients, the marketing services have included executing thousands of campaigns across hundreds of countries and involving multi-million dollar advertising spend.

DSL Digital utilizes a proprietary set of AI-powered performance advertising tools to simultaneously run hundreds of performance advertising campaigns to continually improve performance metrics and outperform industry benchmarks.

"This key acquisition will provide the proven foundational professional capabilities and technology for our new AudienceServices group offering, performance advertising strategy, campaign development, media buying, content marketing and SEO," stated Collective Audience CEO, Peter Bordes. "DSL Digital's extraordinarily talented team has developed some of the most unique AI-powered performance advertising tools in the industry, allowing it to deliver significantly higher campaign performance for its clients versus industry averages. We see these new tools and services as integral building blocks of our AudienceCloud™ infrastructure and ecosystem, and furthering our mission of solving the many challenges facing today's digital media and advertising industry."

Collective Audience plans to productize DSL Digital's tool sets and integrate them with the existing modules in the company's AudienceCloud™ platform. DSL Digital's 20-member team, based in the U.S., Canada and Europe, is expected to join Collective Audience upon completion of the acquisition and lead the integration.

"Collective Audience has a clear vision for revolutionizing the digital advertising and media industries, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to help realize this vision by integrating our expertise and tools into the Collective," stated DSL Digital founder and CEO, Gregg Greenberg. "To become part of something bigger that will push the edges of innovation is exciting to our team, and we expect the offerings of our new AudienceServices group will be extremely exciting for our clients and the industry as a whole."

DSL Digital's head of media, Eugene Smelyansky, who is expected to become the group media director of AudienceServices, commented: "We are looking forward to unleashing the full suite of Collective Audience's offerings to our existing clients, and working to build out B2B and DTC specific verticals for Collective Audience that will bring our performance marketing expertise to a larger base of brands and agencies."

Collective Audience anticipates the acquisition to generate significant revenue and positive EBITDA, and be consummated in an all-stock transaction according to the definitive acquisition agreement. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the current quarter. Additional details related to the transaction will be made available in a Form 8-K filed by Collective Audience and available at www.sec.gov.

About Collective Audience
Collective Audience provides an innovative audience-based performance advertising and media platform for brands, agencies and publishers. The company has introduced a new open, interconnected, data driven, digital advertising and media ecosystem that will uniquely eliminate many inefficiencies in the digital ad buyer and seller process for brands, agencies and publishers. It will deliver long sought-after visibility, complementary technology, and unique audience data that drives focus on performance, brand reach, traffic and transactions.

For the AdTech providers and media buyers who come onto Collective Audience's platform, they will be able to leverage audience data as a new asset class, powered by AI as an intelligence layer to guide decision making.

To learn more, visit collectiveaudience.co.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook" and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding the company's future financial performance, as well as the company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the management of Collective Audience and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Collective Audience. Potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the company; the overall level of consumer demand for Collective Audience's products/services; general economic conditions and other factors affecting consumer confidence, preferences, and behavior; disruption and volatility in the global currency, capital, and credit markets; the financial strength of Collective Audience's customers; Collective Audience's ability to implement its business strategy; changes in governmental regulation, Collective Audience's exposure to litigation claims and other loss contingencies; disruptions and other impacts to Collective Audience's business, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions and restrictive measures implemented in response; stability of Collective Audience's suppliers, as well as consumer demand for its products, in light of disease epidemics and health-related concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact that global climate change trends may have on Collective Audience and its suppliers and customers; Collective Audience's ability to protect patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights; any breaches of, or interruptions in, Collective Audience's information systems; changes in tax laws and liabilities, legal, regulatory, political and economic risks. More information on potential factors that could affect Collective Audience's financial results is included from time to time in Collective Audience's public reports filed with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or Collective Audience's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Collective Audience presently knows, or that Collective Audience currently believes are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Collective Audience's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Nothing in this press release should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Collective Audience anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. However, while Collective Audience may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Collective Audience specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Collective Audience's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:
Peter Bordes, CEO
Collective Audience, Inc.
Email contact

Investor Contact:
Ron Both or Grant Stude
CMA Investor Relations
Tel (949) 432-7566
Email contact

Media Contact:
Tim Randall
CMA Media Relations
Tel (949) 432-7572
Email contact

SOURCE: Collective Audience, Inc.