CREX

Good morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Creative Realities' 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. This call will be recorded, and a copy will be available on the company's website at cri.com following its completion. Creative Realities has prepared remarks summarizing the interim results for the quarter, along with additional industry and company updates. Joining the call today is Rick Mills, Chief Executive Officer, Tamra Koshewa, Chief Financial Officer, and George Sautter, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Corporate Development. Mrs. Koshewa, you may proceed.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our earnings call for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that remarks today will include forward-looking statements. The words anticipated, will, believes, expects, intends, plans, estimates, projects, should, may, propose, and similar expressions or the negative versions of such words or expressions as they relate to us, our management, or operations, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. Factors that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in our Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. We believe the use of certain non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted EBITDA and several other important key performance indicators, represent meaningful ways to track our performance. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our public filings and in our earnings release that was issued this morning. It is now my pleasure to introduce Rick Mills, CEO of Creative Realities.

Thanks, Tamra. Good morning, everybody. We appreciate you joining today's call. I'll start by giving some highlights of our quarterly financials and some, you know, other recent developments. Tamra will go over the results in greater detail, but we posted revenue of $16.3 million in Q1 versus $9.7 million in the prior year period, including $7.9 million from our CDM acquisition. Our revenue in Q1 was negatively affected by approximately $4 million in revenue. This was due to the extreme cold weather across the Southeast U.S., well, typically it slows down all new construction, and more specifically, in North Carolina in February, due to a major snowstorm that paralyzed most of the state. Our first quarter gross profit was $5.6 million as compared to $4.5 million in fiscal 2025.

Our consolidated gross margin was 34.2% versus 45.7% in the prior year period. The gross profit and gross margin were affected by a one-time event as we terminated a CDM legacy subcontractor, which reduced gross margin by approximately a $500,000. The approximate $4 million of revenue, it's not lost, it's just delayed. February and March new location openings were pushed out until April and May. We had 500 locations we were installing for a lottery customer that were going to be installed in Q1. This revenue shifted from Q1 into Q2, some of the locations will shift from Q2 to Q3. We expect our second quarter results to improve compared to the first quarter, with the remainder of 2026 showing growth acceleration and margin expansion.

As of March 31st, we had an annual recurring revenue run rate, or ARR as we call it, of $20.1 million, with an additional $4 million of ARR contracted and in place already. That ARR will start at year-end. Net loss attributed to common shareholders was $7.9 million for the three months ended March 31st, compared to net income of $3.4 million for the three months ended March 31st, 2026. Adjusted EBITDA was -$0.5 million for the first quarter of 2026 versus a positive $0.5 million last year. While the first quarter had some weather challenges, as we discussed, we also completed the consolidation and reorganization of the entire CRI and CDM combined workforce, including all sales, operational, and support functions. To all the folks at newly combined CRI, I just wanna say job well done.

Wow, it was a lot of tough work. The final integration challenge in the migration of the legacy is the migration of the legacy CDM financial accounting systems onto our NetSuite ERP platform. That will be completed at the end of Q2. I suspect my CFO, Tamra, is losing a little bit of sleep. There will be some late nights ahead. However, I've seen her in action. I've seen the plan. We have done this multiple times before, and I have absolute confidence this will happen on time and the results will be first rate. Let me again state with a very bullish attitude, we remain on track for our best year ever with the company revenue exceeding $100 million and adjusted EBITDA margins reaching the high teens in the coming quarters.

We remain on track to realize the pre-merger combination cost savings of at least $10 million on an annualized basis by the end of 2026. Not all of that will show up this year as we are still in process of executing on those cost synergies. In March, we had achieved over 60% of the goal, and each month we achieve one more step in that journey. As a reminder, once all synergies are realized, adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to be above 20% and free cash flow generation will allow us to pay down debt and delever the balance sheet as we have done every time we completed an acquisition. I'll come back in a minute or so when Tamra's done to talk about some customer updates and a significant new retail media network.

I'll turn it over to Tamra to share some additional comments on our financials.

Thanks, Rick. An overview of our financial results for the first quarter of 2026 was provided in our earnings release and our Form 10-Q, which included the condensed consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2026, the statement of operations and cash flows for the three months ended March 31, and a detailed reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, as well as the preceding four quarters. Rick reviewed our operating results briefly, let me provide more context related to our performance and our outlook. In terms of the income statement, first quarter revenue rose to $16.3 million versus $9.7 million in the same period in 2025, with approximately $7.9 million or 48% coming from CDM. Revenue from our legacy CRI business decreased approximately 15% year-over-year.

While there were new installs in the quarter, there was a decrease in our SaaS from expiration of certain customer contracts in 2025. As Rick mentioned, several large planned installations were delayed in the quarter due to snowstorms and other poor weather conditions across much of North America. We expect to catch up on these installs in the second and third quarters, driving a healthy uptick in business both sequentially and year-over-year. Hardware revenue in the first quarter rose to $4.6 million versus $3.4 million in the prior year period, reflecting both new deployments and the inclusion of CDM. Service revenues increased 86% to $11.8 million from $6.3 million in fiscal 2025, reflecting the CDM acquisition, offset partially by expired customer contracts.

Consolidated gross profit was $5.6 million for the fiscal 2026 first quarter versus $4.5 million in the prior year period. Consolidated gross margin was 34.2% versus 45.7% in the fiscal 2025 first quarter. Gross margin on hardware revenue was 14% in Q1 of fiscal 2026 as compared to 32.1% in the prior year period due to an unusually higher mix of QSR deployments and certain one-time costs of approximately a $500,000 associated with transitioning away from an outsourced CDM installer. Gross margin on service amounted to 42% versus 53% in the fiscal 2025 first quarter, driven by the expiration of certain customer contracts in 2025. We anticipate an increase in margins going forward due to revenue growth, synergy realization, and improved operating cost leverage across the company.

Sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter rose to $2.9 million versus $1.2 million in the prior year period, while general and administrative expenses increased to $8.9 million versus $3.9 million in fiscal 2025, primarily reflecting the acquisition of CDM, which contributed approximately $3.8 million of G&A expense. However, as Rick indicated, we remain on track to achieving the $10 million of synergies previously announced for fiscal 2026. We also continue to invest in our media business and other technology initiatives meant to drive increased growth across the company. We posted an operating loss of approximately $6.2 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to an operating loss of $700,000 in fiscal 2025, reflecting the items I just discussed.

CRI reported a net loss of $7.5 million and a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $7.9 million or $0.74 per diluted common share in the quarter ended March 31 versus net income of $3.4 million or $0.32 per diluted common share in the prior year period. As a reminder, the fiscal 2025 first quarter included a $4.8 million gain on the settlement of our prior contingent liability with the former stockholders of Reflect Systems, Inc. Adjusted EBITDA was -$500,000 in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to $500,000 income in the prior year period. We anticipate EBITDA and cash flow to improve for the remainder of fiscal 2026, given the forecasted business growth and cost initiatives previously discussed.

When appropriate, we intend to use the cash generation to delever our balance sheet and strengthen our financial flexibility as we've done in the past. This remains a key long-term priority for the company. In terms of the balance sheet, as of March 31, 2026, the company had cash on hand of approximately $2.3 million versus $1.6 million at the start of 2026. Our debt stood at $47.5 million at the end of the first quarter as compared to $44 million at the beginning of the fiscal year. We had approximately $13 million remaining in available liquidity under our revolving credit facility as of March 31, 2026. As I just mentioned, we remain dedicated to using cash generation when possible to lower our debt and migrate to an optimized capital structure in support of financial flexibility.

However, we will also continue to invest in the business to drive growth and improve technology applications across the organization. I will turn it back to Rick for additional comments around customer-specific activities.

Thanks, Tamra. Let's talk about some customer updates. I'd like to announce that we are the official digital signage provider for the Tennessee Titans in the new Nissan Stadium, which is under construction in Nashville, Tennessee. We talked about this previously, this is an $8.5 million deal. It includes thousands of displays and a full IPTV solution throughout the entire venue. Most of this revenue will be recognized in 2026. I think the official stadium opening's in February, we expect a little bit to trail into January, February, you know, punch list as the stadium gets open. We'd like to announce Dairy Queen in North America, not only the U.S., also Canada. This is the QSR that we did not have the contract signed when we reported our Q4 results.

We acquired this business as a result of a very exhausting, tough RFP process, which ultimately culminated in us being awarded the business. We were actually awarded and given the verbal award the same month as our closing of the CDM acquisition. Here's what makes this unique. The prior provider of Dairy Queen was Cineplex Digital Media, or CDM. We expect to expand the annual revenue, probably gonna grow between $1 million-$2 million a year, on an annual basis, mostly primarily driven by our drive-thru product. As of today, there's 4,700, approximately, locations across the U.S. and Canada. As we've evaluated, only two have digital drive-thrus. The demand for that product is pretty significant inside this account. Another customer, I guess third, if you will.

April 13th, we announced a project to expand and modernize the AMC Theatres in-lobby media footprint across 285 locations nationwide. I want to give a little additional color on that event or that announcement. This is a partnership between CRI and National CineMedia. National CineMedia is the leading cinema advertising platform in the U.S. This new initiative will turn the lobby at the participating theaters into a network of digital displays that will deliver the high-impact video, brand storytelling, and interactive experiences. These upgrades create a premium video platform that expands opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences both in the auditorium and throughout the entire theater location. We will install this network, it's approximately 1,200 screens and large format LEDs throughout the rest of 2026. This media network utilizes our CMS platform, including our Reflect CMS and our AdLogic ad tech solution.

Expected revenue of this is $6 million-$7 million. We expect to realize most, if not all, this year. Think of the growth of this network to other cinema theater chains or locations such as Cinemark and some of the other competitors in is what we expect will ultimately happen. Next customer. I want to talk about 7 Brew. This account continues to grow. My last conversation with our account team indicated that in discussion with the customer, 7 Brew, they are on track to open 750 new locations this year. Each location's about $8,000 to us when it gets first opened. It is the ongoing SaaS that keeps growing with each new location. Finally, I want to talk about a retail media network.

We are in the final contracting stages of a significant retail media network deployment. I can't yet discuss specifics. What I can tell you is this would result in a substantial sales of additional hardware, SaaS, and ad tech revenue. As we understand it today, this would be the largest retail media networks deployed in 2026, measured by the number of screens across the U.S. Think of it, in this year alone, it would be about 10,000 screens, plus an additional 20,000 data-gathering devices. By year-end, we would be monitoring about 30,000 devices. By mid-2027, it would be in excess or approximately 60,000 devices. This solidifies CRI as the leading retail media network provider in North America, and there's certainly more to come about this announcement as we finalize the contracts over the next three, four weeks.

I hope everyone can grasp the significant change in CRI as an operating entity. Let's review then. Number one, our position in the marketplace. I think it's very clear we are now clearly one of the leaders, if not the leader in the U.S. Number two, the revenue growth. Rapid expansion of revenue. We expect it to rapidly expand throughout the balance of this year. Number three, the management team. I wanna repeat that, the management team. I talked a lot about it on our last call, but it is a first-class management team in place running the business. Number four, operational excellence. We continue to excel in deployment when weather doesn't get in our way. Last but not least, the financial discipline and commitment to de-lever the balance sheet. We are very focused on that.

Our pipeline remains robust. We expect to continue to land many new opportunities. We're in excellent position to post higher growth and improved operating results going forward. Again, we remain on track for our best year ever. With that, we'll now move to the Q&A portion of the call. Operator, I'll turn it back to you.

If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one one on your touchtone phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our first question comes from Jason Kreyer with Craig-Hallum.

Wonderful. Thank you for taking my questions. Lots of good content in there. Rick, maybe we'll start on stadiums. You talked about the win with the Tennessee Titans, so congratulations on that.

We've seen you have success in multiple leagues, right? You've already had success in basketball and hockey and others. It seems like when you've landed one, you do a really good job of finding two or three or five other teams in that league that need help, need a refresh. Maybe talk about the opportunity in football and your ability to expand beyond now kinda landing a deal with the Titans. Thanks.

Sure. Thanks, Jason. You know, we were really pleased to land this stadium. It's the second stadium where our software solutions that we deploy are controlling all of the screens. Of course, our first one in the NFL was Dallas Cowboys, where we continue to manage 3,300 screens throughout the building. We're excited to have the Titans. Cracking the NFL is a big deal. We are in pursuit of multiple other NFL teams for either, A, upgrades of the entire stadium refresh, or where we're seeing quicker penetration is taking over the menu board operations within those stadiums. It continues to grow. I think we talked the last conference call that that business unit, our IPTV group, would probably double this year, that currently appears to be on track.

Great. I'll shift to the RMN opportunity that you'd highlighted at the end there. Maybe just a couple quick, you know, quick questions if you can expand on that. You know, is this a customer that you're already familiar with, that you've worked with in the past? Is the process still competitive at this point? If you get that win, when would you expect that to start to kick off?

Okay. The Number one, the process is no longer competitive. We have received a verbal award. We are committed. We probably have certainly north of 10 people, almost full-time, working on preparing for this project. We anticipate deploying in June, or potentially shipping product in June and deploying in July. This is coming fast and furious. We actually did a total store takeover because this project started with somebody else in the industry as a competitor who fell down. They came to us, we actually did a complete total store takeover, I believe it was Wednesday of this week. That was a success, and we expect to take over the remaining test stores, in the month of June and begin full rollout in July.

You know, I mean, this seems like this could be a kind of a transformational deal for CRI. Can you talk about maybe first additional costs that you may have to take on to onboard a deal like that? Then with that, you know, what does this mean in terms of onboarding or in terms of reference ability, putting CRI on the map and really scaling up your retail media business?

Well, we think it's huge. I mean, the reference ability of this is second to none. It would be considered let's be clear, Jason, we gotta go execute, right? I gotta go get it done. Let's assume we're successful, and I think we will be, and we go get it done. This will be considered the top-shelf first-class retail media network with full closed loop attribution at the cash register for this retailer. Nobody else has done that in the U.S., and here we are at the forefront of getting that done.

Good luck as you close out negotiations there. Thanks for the time, Rick.

Yep. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners.

Great. Thanks so much. Congrats on all the great business development. In terms of the retail media network follow-up, maybe you can size what a TCV looks like for 60,000 devices, of which it sounds like 10,000 are screens. What may be a ballpark, what a recurring revenue opportunity looks like for something that large?

Great question. You know, in terms of it, put it in size, this year we think it's 10,000 screens and about 20,000 data gathering analytic devices will be deployed, right, to map out the shopper journey as they, as they manage through a retail environment. All totaled, by mid-2027, the customer expects it to be about 60,000 devices, which is roughly 25,000 screens, and then 35,000 data gathering devices. In terms of range of magnitude of ongoing SaaS, we would expect that to be in the $6 million-$8 million range. Still being a little bit adjusted and negotiated as we finalize the contract, but we expect it will add $6 million-$8 million, we believe, when it is fully deployed.

Great.

Yep.

Sounds great. In terms of Dairy Queen, what was the current revenue contribution as it related to CDM? Maybe, you know, that'll help us size the actual contract value on top of that.

I'm converting from Canadian, Brian, forgive me if I'm a little bit off. Before it was about $2 million-$2.5 million a year. That was a combination of SaaS and then indoor deployments because CDM was doing the indoor menu boards. As it now has expanded and includes the drive-thru, we expect that CAD 2 million-CAD 2.5 million. Tamra, I believe that number was about right, correct?

That's in U.S., though.

Yeah, in U.S., right.

Yeah.

But it's, it was historically $2 million-$2.5 million. We now expect it to be somewhere in the $4 million-$5 million. That growth rate, Brian, is driven predominantly, well, some additional SaaS, but mostly just the actual pure hardware of drive-thru going in. Obviously the benefit, every time a drive-thru goes in, it's somewhere between three and seven screens get added to the SaaS pool for every drive-thru. The difference of three to seven, it just depends, is it a single drive-thru or a double?

Great. Last question from me on the drive-thru business. When you think about North America, what percentage of QSR has drive-thru digital now? Are we halfway through that?

No.

In the market? Are we not?

That's a great question. Again, this is maybe a little bit dated material because I haven't looked at it in the last six months or so. There's approximately 220,000, 210,000 QSRs that with drive-thru in the U.S. We believe the penetration today is less than 40%. We believe they're 60% of the market. When you look at it, the two people that are the most dominant is McDonald's and Taco Bell, who fully rolled out digital. They actually make up the largest component of the installed base of the, you know, 40% that's out there installed.

Got it. All right. Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Sure. Thanks.

I'm showing no further phone questions at this time. Do we have any questions over the web?

Yes. Thank you. Rick, we have a question from Kevin Sheldon via email as to whether for customers with a franchisee system or a coalition approach to retail media networks, Creative Realities or the customer continues to follow up with those franchisees or other prospects that did not opt in for a program when initially presented with an opportunity to do so.

Great, great question, George and Kevin. Thank you for that. The answer is yes. We typically When we first engage with a customer, of course, there's pent-up demand, and there's a strong upfront rollout process as we fulfill the demand. Once that demand kind of calms down a little bit, yeah, we meet with the franchisor. We go over the list of who are the franchisees that have multiple locations that did not opt in or has not installed digital. Typically, it's joint work between us and the franchisor to have discussions, meet with that franchisee, and ultimately get them to opt into the program. Installing digital in the drive-thru specifically or indoor, it improves throughput, it improves profitability, and improved profitability at the franchisee benefits not only the franchisee but the franchisor.

It's really a joint effort. Yes, we do that.

Great. Thanks, Rick. There are no other questions via email.

Okay. Well, first, you know, finally, I wanna, you know, conclude the call. I wanna thank all our shareholders, clients, partners, and employees. Again, this was a real interesting quarter for our company as we combined 250 people into one organization and did the reorganization. Again, I just wanna say, you know, a shout-out to all the CRI employees for all the hard work. This has fundamentally changed our company, and we expect to do nothing but continue to grow from here forward. Thanks for joining the call. We look forward to speaking to you with again next quarter.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Creative Realities 2025 fourth quarter earnings conference call. This call will be recorded and a copy will be available on the company's website at cri.com following its completion. Creative Realities has prepared remarks summarizing the interim results for the quarter, along with additional industry and company updates. Joining the call today is Rick Mills, Chief Executive Officer, Tamra Koshewa, Chief Financial Officer, and George Sautter, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Corporate Development, Mrs. Koshewa, you may proceed.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our earnings call for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2025. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that remarks today will include forward-looking statements. The words anticipated, will, believes, expects, intends, plans, estimates, projects, should, may, propose, and similar expressions, or the negative versions of such words or expressions as they relate to us or our management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. Factors that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in our Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. We believe the use of certain non-GAAP measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA and several important KPIs, represent meaningful ways to track our performance. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our public filings and in our earnings release that was issued this morning. It is now my pleasure to introduce Rick Mills, CEO of Creative Realities.

Thanks, Tamra. Good morning, everybody. We appreciate everyone joining today's call. I'd like to start by giving some highlights of our Q4 financials and other recent developments, including our integration of the CDM business which we acquired in November. Given the sizable nature of this transaction and the transformative impact it brings to CRI, it should come as no surprise that it took longer than normal to close our books for the fourth quarter. First, I'd like to take a moment to introduce our new CFO, Tamra Koshewa. Tamra joined our team on December 1st. I know the date because it happens to be my birthday. Tamra, welcome aboard. She brings tremendous experience to the organization, 30 years of executing financial strategies across diverse industries, including Manufacturing, Technology, and Services.

Her expertise and leadership credentials include a strong dedication to achieving a high level of performance and orchestrating operational turnarounds. We believe Tamra is uniquely qualified to take on the challenges of integrating CDM into CRI, finding synergies across the enterprise, ensuring margin expansion, and ultimately delevering the balance sheet, while this should improve returns for our shareholders. She brings tremendous energy. She is driving organizational change. She is implementing value-enhancing process improvements and is working to increase our cash flow. She's off to a great start, and Tamra, we're excited to have you on board. More recently, we've also added a couple other key executives. On March 30th, we added Jackie Walker as our Chief Experience Officer.

Jackie is a veteran digital transformation leader with more than 15 years experience designing, operating, and scaling enterprise digital platforms, really at the intersection of customer experience, product vision, and commercial outcomes. She brings a combination of technical execution and business acumen, having authored the digital menu board and drive-through strategies for seven of the top 10 restaurant brands and two of the largest in-store retail media networks in the U.S. Her appointment marks an important shift for CRI as the company continues its transition into a software-first platform powered by data analytics and artificial intelligence. Jackie will be instrumental for our next era of growth. She possesses a unique ability to bridge the gap between complex engineering and the strategic needs of the world's largest brands, and we're very pleased to have her here as well.

Yet Jackie's addition with the prior addition of Dan McAllister as our CRO, this rounds out our management team with industry-leading veterans who have track records of accomplishment at a pivotal time in our history as we relaunch ourselves as a much bigger, more technology-focused, service-oriented leader in the digital signage space. We believe we now have the talent at the top to accelerate growth, enhance our margin, and deliver improved bottom-line results going forward. A couple other facts of the business. This past February, we completed the repurchase of all of Slipstream's 1.7 million outstanding warrants for $200,000. The repurchase of these warrants provides greater visibility for the future and our total shares outstanding, which we believe benefits the company as well as our shareholders, alleviating potential overhang on the stock. We want to thank Slipstream for their support in finalizing this transaction.

Now, let's review a few details of our current results. Tamra will go over the financials in greater detail, but some of the highlights, we posted revenue of $23.9 million in Q4 versus $11 million in the prior year period, including $13.6 million of that revenue from CDM. Our fourth quarter gross profit was $11.5 million as compared to $4.9 million in fiscal 2024, and our consolidated gross margin was 47.9% versus 44.2% in the prior year period. This reflects both improved mix and the positive impact from CDM joining the company. In addition, as of December 31st, 2025, we had an Annual Recurring Revenue run rate, or ARR, of $20.1 million versus $12.3 million at the end of the third quarter.

In addition, we have $4.1 million of SaaS under contract that will come online through the balance of this year and be added to the January 2027 SaaS total. Adjusted EBITDA was $5.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 versus $0.5 million last year and $0.8 million in the third quarter. Just as a reminder to everybody, we closed the transaction on November 7th, so our Q4 includes two months of the CDM performance, not the full quarter. We anticipate both Adjusted EBITDA and our ARR will increase going forward due to the synergies and additional opportunities in our pipeline. We have substantially integrated CDM operations into CRI, and we are making significant progress towards our integration goals this year. As you may recall, acquiring CDM more than doubled the size of our company and significantly increased our market penetration in Canada.

CDM serves thousands of quick-serve restaurants, financial institutions, and retail establishments across North America, and the acquisition strengthened our ability to address the growth in retail media networks, literally coast to coast, all throughout North America. In addition, we now own Canada's largest mall retail media network. This Digital Out-of-Home, or DOOH, if you will, media network, has over 750 screens with exclusive representation and revenue sharing across 95 shopping destinations. These locations include 76 of the 100 most productive Canadian shopping centers and nine of the 10 busiest malls in Canada, serving approximately 750 million shopper visits annually. As previously announced, we expect synergies of at least $10 million U.S. across North America on an annualized basis by the end of this year, reflecting the operating efficiencies, margin enhancement opportunities, and the cross-pollination of our CMS and AdTech platforms.

At present, we are currently north of 60% of the goal, and we continue to anticipate total company revenue to exceed $100 million in 2026, with Adjusted EBITDA margin percentage in the mid-teens. Once all synergies are realized, Adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to be above 20%, and free cash flow generation should be significant, allowing us to pay down debt and de-lever the balance sheet once again, as we have done in the past after acquisitions. With all our advancements, unique applications, strong customer relationships, and proprietary technology, we've built a strong foundation for a bright future at CRI. We expect revenue to accelerate, our backlog to grow, and margins to improve as the year plays out, putting us on track for a record performance in fiscal 2026.

I'll come back in a minute to talk about specific product and customer trends, but will now turn it over to Tamra to share some additional comments on our financials.

Thanks, Rick. I'm really excited to be part of the team during such an exciting time in our company's growth trajectory. An overview of our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 was provided in our earnings release and will be provided in our Form 10-K, which includes the condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2025, the statement of operations and cash flows for the three and 12 months ended December 31, 2025, and a detailed reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, as well as the preceding four quarters. While Rick reviewed our operating results briefly, let me provide more context related to our performance and outlook.

In terms of the income statement, fourth quarter revenue more than doubled year-over-year to $23.9 million, as compared to $11 million in the same period in fiscal 2024, with approximately $13.6 million from CDM. Revenue from our legacy CRI business decreased approximately 6% year-over-year, primarily as a result of project timing and decreased staff. Hardware revenue rose to $6.6 million versus $3.9 million in the prior year period, while service revenue increased to $17.3 million from $7.2 million in fiscal 2024, largely reflecting the CDM acquisition as well as deployment timing. Consolidated gross profit was $11.5 million for the fiscal 2025 fourth quarter versus $4.9 million in the prior year period, and consolidated gross margin was 47.9% versus 44.2% in the fiscal 2024 fourth quarter.

Gross margin on hardware revenue was 28% in Q4 of fiscal 2025 as compared to 26.3% in the prior year period, while gross margin on service amounted to 55.7% versus 53.9% in the fiscal 2024 fourth quarter, primarily due to improved mix of services profit as a result of the CDM acquisition. Sales and Marketing expenses in the fourth quarter rose to $2 million versus $1.4 million in the prior year period, while General and Administrative expenses increased to $8.9 million versus $4.2 million in fiscal 2024, again reflecting the acquisition of CDM, which contributed approximately $3.2 million in expense. Approximately $1.2 million of G&A costs were one-time in nature, including legal, accounting, and consulting fees, as well as closing costs related to the transaction. As Rick indicated, we are well on our way to achieving the $10 million of synergies previously announced for fiscal 2026.

Although, we are also investing in the Canadian media business and other technology initiatives meant to drive increased growth across the enterprise. The company posted operating income of approximately a $0.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to an operating loss of approximately $700,000 in fiscal 2024. CRI reported a net loss of $1.9 million, or $0.19 per diluted share in the quarter ended December 31, 2025, versus a net loss of $2.8 million or $0.27 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $5.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 as compared to a half a million dollars in the prior year period.

We anticipate Adjusted EBITDA and cash flow to improve going forward as synergies are realized and, at the appropriate time, intend to reduce debt to decrease interest expense and strengthen our financial flexibility as the Company has done in the past. In terms of the Balance Sheet, as of December 31, 2025, the Company had cash on hand of approximately $1.6 million versus $1 million at the start of 2025. As mentioned on prior earnings calls, we keep a minimum amount of cash in the bank as the Company has set up a sweep instrument to apply funds against our Revolving Debt Facility to better manage interest expense. Our Gross and Net Debt stood at approximately $43.3 million and $41.7 million, respectively, at the end of the fourth quarter as compared to $13 million and $12 million, respectively, at the start of 2025.

The increase of our indebtedness is largely a result of financing the acquisition of CDM, as previously discussed. As a reminder, we financed the transaction through a combination of debt and preferred equity, including a three-year $36 million senior syndicated term loan and $30 million of convertible preferred equity with a $3 conversion price provided by affiliates of North Run Capital. Going forward, as I just mentioned, we remain dedicated to using cash generation when possible to lower our debt and migrate to an optimized capital structure in support of financial flexibility. However, in the near term, we are investing in the business to drive growth and improve technology applications across the organization. I will now turn it back to Rick for additional comments on the Senior Executive Additions to the Management team, reorganization of our Sales team, some customer activities, and the CDM integration.

Thanks, Tamra. I've already discussed Tamra's background and unique fit for our business earlier on the call, but I do want to spend a few more moments to introduce Dan McAllister as our CRO and Jackie Walker as our Chief Experience Officer. Dan has been a Chief Revenue Officer at a SaaS company before. He has a history of accelerating go-to-market strategy and reengineering the revenue systems for sustainable growth. His proven track record in aligning sales, marketing, and customer service teams, along with enforcing team structure and process discipline, all lead to revenue growth. His sales organization here has been structured into vertical teams, each led by a senior executive and focused on a vertical market. By the way, this is a team of 42 folks. That's really a Sales team that has effectively tripled in size.

These vertical teams fall into the following markets, Sports and Entertainment, also known as IPTV, QSR and Fast Casual Restaurants, Retail and Financial, Retail Media Networks, including AdTech, Lottery, and finally, Malls and Real Estate, known internally as MRE. We are now better focused and prepared to go after new customers across the board. More recently, Jackie Walker has joined as our new Chief Experience Officer. She will serve as the internal and external authority on how digital and physical environments converge. She brings and will leverage an outsider's perspective to really disrupt the legacy thinking, overseeing the strategic what and why of our software evolution, while scaling our consulting practice into a high-growth, high-margin engine of the business. Jackie, welcome aboard. Now, there's a lot of activity and news to discuss across our various business vertical markets. Let's start with the IPTV division.

We have been awarded a new stadium project, which will be completed in the second half of this year. This is a new stadium build from the ground up. This is an $8 million project involving thousands of displays and IPTV throughout the entire venue. In addition, we are in the process of refreshing the entire IPTV system for a Major League Baseball team and several other stadium projects. This division, which is headed by Lee Summers, is expected to double revenue this year to over $17 million. Our QSR and fast casual restaurant division is managed by Natalee Minds, a 15-year veteran of CRI. Our next-gen modular Drive-Thru digital menu board system, which we introduced in January of this year, is continuing to increase revenue in this division.

This Drive-Thru, as we call it, Version 2.0, is engineered to help operators streamline installation, simplify maintenance, and scale the drive-through environment over time. This new system allows brands to expand from single digital screen setups to multi-screen configurations without replacing the entire structure. We're currently deploying this product for multiple customers and typically are installing 10 new locations on a weekly basis, or over 500 a year. The Retail, Financial, Retail Media Network, and AdTech team, headed up by Jessica Creces, has been extremely busy since the acquisition. We had a nice jumpstart on the year by renewing the SaaS contracts of two of the top 10 largest financial institutions in North America. Congrats to the team for getting that done. Our AdTech solutions are now in test by a number of large customers who are evaluating the monetization capabilities of their installed signage network.

We would expect to see three or four deployments in the second half of this year. Today, we're also announcing a $6 million media network project that CRI is deploying across the lobbies of AMC Theatres in the U.S. Our partner, National CineMedia, or NCM, is the leading cinema platform in the U.S. and the media representative for this new innovative network. We will install this network of 1,200+ screens and large format LEDs through the rest of 2026. By the way, this media network utilizes the Reflect CMS and our AdLogic AdTech software solutions. One other customer-specific update I'd like to mention, North Carolina Lottery. The previously announced 10-year, $54 million contract is in the process of deployment, excuse me, and has been migrated to the ReflectView CMS platform.

The deployment of all 1,550+ locations is expected to be completed in Q2, with a few remaining locations in Q3. Finally, let's talk about the start of 2026. We had a significant revenue impact in Q1 from the disruptive weather across the Midwest and Southeast. As many of you know, a major cold wave gripped much of North America from mid-January through mid-February, bringing incredibly low temperatures, snow, sleet, freezing rain to the eastern 2/3 of the country. In addition, a very rare storm brought historic snowfalls to the Carolinas, specifically North Carolina. This caused $4 million or more of revenue to push to Q2. I want to remind everybody, this is not lost revenue, however, just delayed. Construction on many of our customers' new QSR facilities was frankly suspended for 30-45 days as the weather passed through.

As a result, the February and March new location openings for these QSR customers were delayed until April, May, some in June, including the installation of 500 locations for our lottery customer. This will shift revenue from Q1 into Q2 and maybe even some into Q3. Excuse me again. With that said, I want to be very clear. We continue to be bullish on our revenue and stand behind our earlier statements that our revenue in 2026 will exceed $100 million, and our Adjusted EBITDA will reach a run rate of 20% by year-end. Our pipeline remains robust. We expect to continue to land many new opportunities. We're in excellent position to post higher growth and improve operating results going forward, and we remain on track for our best year ever. With that, we'll now move to the Q&A portion of the call. Operator, please go ahead.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our first question comes from the line of Jason Kreyer with Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open.

Wonderful. Thank you, gentlemen. Rick, can you just talk maybe about scale gains, how that's changed the go-to-market over the last several months since the acquisition, or just maybe the tone of customer conversations and how that's changed?

Great question, Jason. The tone of conversations is totally different. Number one, most customers would recognize, particularly in some of our verticals, QSR specifically, we're absolutely at the top of the food chain, and so we are now in conversations that we would have never been in before. That's number one. Number two, those conversations are very serious because they understand we are now a true leader in the QSR and drive-through space and approach us with a very different message than we've experienced in the past.

Great, good to hear. Thank you. Rick, we've talked for the last few quarters about deals that are kind of sitting at the one-yard line, or I think you've even talked about the one-inch line. Just any updates on that? I'm also curious how you see the pipeline building with your AdTech capabilities. I know the last several wins that we've discussed have been more slanted to the QSR side. I'm curious how deal flow or how that pipeline looks on deals that have advertising embedded in them.

Deal flow continues to be strong. Let's go back to the one-inch line comment. First thing I'd tell you is, obviously, we pulled one across the one-inch line with an $8 million stadium project. Finally got that done. Number two, we announced on a prior call, a large QSR had gone through an entire RFP, over 4,000 locations in North America, and they had selected us, and we've been negotiating the contract, and we finally expect to actually sign that contract here in the next couple of weeks. It's been a long time coming, but the contract is getting ready to get executed. That will result in additional Drive-Thru, etc., moving along. Retail media networks, primarily, we've had a couple C-store customers, one specific large C-store customer that has been in test for probably five, six months at least now, and is now moving to deployment.

Number one. Number two, we are in conversations with three or four other customers who are interested in retail media network. One is a large grocer, one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S., so we're in significant conversations. Another significant C-store chain. Again, I would say two or three, what you would call traditional retailers tend to be more in luxury beauty area, but we are having substantive conversations with a number of them. Last but not least, I'd also add our sales force has literally tripled in size. We have 40+ folks who are on the sales team who are out talking to customers every day. The number of folks we are actively engaged with has certainly increased significantly. Part of that's due to our new position and stature in the industry as one of the big guys.

Number two, it's just also the fact that I've now got 40+ experienced folks out beating the streets, contacting customers every day across North America. A combination of all those things is really coming into play, and we feel very bullish about the next 12-18 months.

That was a solid recap there, Rick. Thank you for that. Last one for me, just want to touch on the lottery sector. I think the last time we talked, you've got the big deployment happening right now in North Carolina, but I thought there was some potential momentum with other RFPs that were coming to market. If you could just give us a recap of what you think that RFP landscape looks like today?

That's a solid question, Jason. Unfortunately, I don't have a solid answer other than we expect in 2026, seven to eight large RFPs coming out. We have yet to see that happen. We have one that we are actively participating in. We have a couple large West Coast opportunities that were in discussion, but I would not call them active RFPs. Again, well-positioned, and we are certainly talking to everybody, every lottery that's interested. The one thing I would tell you about the lottery market and what we've done with our current lottery customer is we are showing significant lift, and so we have results of that to show other lottery customers, potential customers, that we can achieve substantial lift, which results in significantly increased lottery ticket sales.

Okay. I lied about the last question. Just curious on that point, your ability to take that lottery, go into C-stores, and almost create kind of a cross-sell opportunity. Just curious if the rollout of lottery kind of helps build out a greater rollout of C-stores. You kind of see a network effect there.

Still unproven yet. Today, when we've rolled out lottery, that's been dedicated to lottery. We have not done a mix of in-store promotion type stuff and then layered in lottery, like a 50/50 mix. Have not done that. It has today been 100% lottery. We are talking to some of our C-store customers who have networks already deployed about improving their schedule and adding lottery on those screens to just increase lift, but no results yet to even talk about.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Yep, thanks.

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is now open.

Great. Thanks so much. Solid fourth quarter results. Prior to the announced partnership, had AMC been a customer of Creative or even CDM? If so, how much revenue did AMC generate last year? The second part of that question is, I'm not sure I heard, what was the installation revenue on this contract versus the potential recurring revenue based on your AdTech and media solution?

Great question, Brian. How are you, sir?

Great, thanks.

Good, couple things. Yes, AMC has been a long-time customer of CDM's. Today, I would tell you it's a seven-figure customer in terms of deploying our software, managing all of the screens throughout every AMC Theatre in the U.S. today, number one. Number two, they are actually not a hardware customer. They have always procured hardware internally. They are a software and content customer. When the opportunity came to build out a network, it seemed to make sense that CRI was already deployed throughout their locations. We were doing a great job, so it was a natural fit for us. In terms of the hardware and installation revenue on this particular network, I'm assuming it's going to be in the typical 70/30 range of hardware and installation. However, that's out of the $6 million bucket. There's ongoing.

It is our software AdTech that will be running it, our CMS, our AdTech, and there is a revenue share for the next five years on those screens.

Great. That's helpful and a great deal. This week, I think it was, and I could be wrong, 7-Eleven announced a store restructuring where it's going to close something like 600 stores, don't quote me, I'm sure you know better, and open something like almost 300 stores over the course of maybe two years. Again, I'm not sure I got the timeframe right. Is there any impact on your business from the store closings? I know you've been a preferred vendor there. Is there going to be a new RFP or is that under your existing contract? Just maybe talk about 7-Eleven and what's going on there?

No. Great question. Number one, if there is an effect on CRI, it would be de minimis or minimal. The closing of the 600 stores, if those stores had digital, which we don't know, they may have us uninstall digital and reinstall it in some other stores. In the 300 new locations, those typically are going to be full-sized 7-Eleven that are typically going to include at least one, if not two, food concepts. Yes, we would do a number of screens through that. Number three, our contract with 7-Eleven is in the process of renewal. It has not been signed, but we're at the end game for another three-year renewal with 7-Eleven. We do not anticipate any change in that customer. They just continue to grow.

Great. You mentioned, and it was helpful, that the first quarter was impacted by weather. Clearly, that's going to be the worst quarter of the four. Is there any other thoughts on which are the strongest, maybe the second or the third quarter, based on known installs at places like AMC in North Carolina?

I would tell you Q3 is setting up to be a significant quarter because, with stadium install, a bunch of hardware will ship in Q3. A bunch of drive-throughs will all go in in Q3 because that's kind of the end of the construction timeframe across the eastern half of the U.S., so they want to get those restaurants open September, October timeframe, right before it gets into bad weather. Generally speaking, that's what we expect to be significant. We have this QSR customer that has not rolled out drive-through. We're going to sign the new contract. We do expect Drive-Thru expansion out of their 4,000 locations across North America.

The other thing that I will add is that Q4 has the largest percentage of our media revenue with the CDM acquisition, so that automatically will increase the value in Q4. So we do expect Q4 to be the largest quarter of revenue.

Great call-out. [crosstalk] I forgot that little portion about a bunch of media revenue in Q4. Thank you, Tamra.

Already adding value. Last question from me. Remind us the expectations for interest expense and how much is a cash obligation this year?

That's a great question. George or Tamra, any input on what that would look like?

I think, again, it's going to depend on, obviously, the debt levels of the revolver. Generally, you're going to have the term loan that's going to drive the lion's share of the interest expense that we would expect to see. That generally is somewhere between a half a million and three-quarters of a million dollars a quarter.

Okay. Thank you.

Hey, Brian, I am happy to go through that. I think we have a little one-on-one time scheduled.

Perfect.

Happy to articulate that in detail on that call.

Great. Thank you, guys.

Yep, thanks.

Our next question comes from the line of Jon Hickman with Ladenburg Thalmann. Your line is now open.

Hey, Jon.

Hello?

Yeah.

Hi. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, I can hear you just fine, Jon.

Okay. Most of my questions have been asked and answered. I wanted to drill down a little bit on this restaurant chain that you landed last year, and then there were some issues with installation because of the size of the screens and stuff. Where are you with those guys? Did you do business with them in the fourth quarter? What's going on?

No.

Can you elaborate?

The answer is there was some SaaS revenue because we had some of their locations on our SaaS platforms, okay?

Okay.

They have halted all hardware procurement and installs till the new contract was executed. The new contract, we all had, including the customer and ourselves, we had internal dates. We were going to get it done by March 15th. Well, here we are April 14th, and we still don't have it signed. We do expect it.

Right.

Signed in the next couple of weeks.

Why did there have to be a new contract? You said this was a brand-new win last year.

Yeah. They did an RFP. It was a brand-new win. It's a contract that we had to write, create from the ground up.

Oh, okay. You won the RFP, okay.

Yeah.

There's a lot of franchisees in this particular customer.

Yeah.

Has that been an issue?

Again, it has not been an issue as we've started to deploy the SaaS across the franchisees. Now, the franchisees are responsible for hardware updates, and should they desire to upgrade to a Digital Drive-Thru, they would be responsible for that. Now, Jon, I can tell you, we attended the franchisee show in January. The verbal indication we received from the folks who came by our booth, I was there, talked to our people, indicated significant interest. I've talked to two or three franchisees that owned 30-50 locations each that indicated they wanted to pull the trigger and put Digital Drive-Thru in all locations. Now, Jon, as you know, we have to take that with a little bit of grain of salt, because now when it's time to start to write the check, who knows?

We do expect to see some growth in Q3, because even if they turned it on today, we wouldn't be installing Drive-Thru in the next 60 days. It would be Q3 or Q4 revenue that would get an impact once we sign this contract. Right, Tamra?

Yes.

I mean, that's realistically the impact.

Yes.

Okay, maybe like the math and stuff, but out of the total addressable market here, not including the AdTech side, what do you think? Do you have any estimate at all of your market share right now?

Boy, really hard number to pin down. I would tell you in North America today, we are not 2%. If we were 1%, I would be surprised.

Okay.

At $100 million. George, any input? I've got George sitting here, who is certainly the math guy on all those things. George, any comments?

Jon, just to clarify, are we talking about market share or market penetration?

Well, maybe, when we talk later today, we can talk about both of those. Just let me ask a different question.

Now that you are combined with CDM and you say that you can get into just a different level of contracts and opportunities, have you changed your competitor outlook or the individuals or the entities you're competing with? Are they different now?

No. We have always competed against the same three or four or five competitors. Only, some were larger than us. Today, they're not larger than us. We occupy a different, unique position, and some of them, I am significantly larger than they are. I represent a real strategic advantage for the end-user customer to align with CRI as a supplier.

Okay. That makes sense. Well, I'll talk to you later then. Thank you.

Great. Thanks, Jon. Good to catch up.

Sure. Okay. Bye.

Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Sheldon, Private Investor. Your line is now open.

Kevin, how are you?

Kevin, please check your mute button. All right. I'm currently showing no further questions from the phone lines. Mr. Sautter, are there any email questions?

No, there are not. Thank you.

Alrighty. I would like to turn the call back over to Rick Mills for any closing remarks.

Okay. Let me conclude the call, number one, by thanking all our shareholders, clients, partners, and specifically the CRI and CDM employees for their continuing efforts, commitment and support. We continue to work to transform CRI into the leading brand in digital signage solution. For many of you who've been on these calls for the last couple of years, you've seen us really execute in the market and continue to grow. Thanks for joining the call. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.