Playtika Holding Corp.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Platica fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Taley, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the fourth quarter 2023 earnings call for Platica Holding Corp. Joining me on the call today are Robert Anticall, co-founder and CEO of Platica, and Craig Abrams, Platica's President and Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the company's anticipated future revenue and operating performance. These statements and other comments are not a guarantee of future performance, but rather are subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. These forward-looking statements apply as of today, and you should not rely on them as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to update these statements after this call. We have posted an accompanying slide deck to our investor relations website, which contains information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures, and we will also post our prepared remarks immediately following the call. For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the FCC. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Robert.

Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. I would like to begin by expressing my pride in how our employees and businesses have performed over the past year. While the year had many unexpected challenges for us to navigate as a company, it was a year of successful acquisition of two studios, increasing efficiency, continuous growth into direct-to-consumer platforms, and increasing focus to our largest and growing franchise as we shifted more of our U.S. spending to our category's leading games. I'm pleased to announce that despite revenue headwinds, we outperform our guidance on revenues and credits adjusted EBITDA. Our agility in adapting and optimizing operations in this challenging market has not only enabled us to navigate obstacles, but also to surpass our expectations. In the face of these headwinds, 23 was the year of efficiency for Playtica. This transformation has empowered us to move faster and to make quicker decisions, which I believe will allow us to revamp our business and to get back to sustainable growth. Our commitment to efficiency is not just about doing more with less. It is about empowering our people to sharpen our competitive edge. This approach was critical as the mobile gaming industry continues to navigate challenges due in part to privacy updates affecting the marketing and monetization of games. I want to emphasize that despite the revenue headwinds we faced, there were bright spots throughout the quarter. Our casual games grew 2% Q over Q, and 5.5% year over year, led by growth in June journey, which grew 1.8% Q over Q, and 33.3% year over year. This success shows the strength and critical importance of our portfolio strategy, enabling us to navigate market challenges and capitalize on the opportunity for growth. As we look forward to the future, we have now positioned ourselves for critical phase of the reinvestment. We are setting in motion our new capital allocation framework, which includes initiation of dividends and intention to deploy between $600 million to $1.2 billion in M&A over the next three years. Our recent acquisition, Animal and Coins and Governor of Poker, have demonstrated consistent month-over-month growth, reinforcing our belief in growing our game portfolio through M&A. I believe mobile gaming is a pivotal point, with several trends pushing the need for consolidations. Our track record speaks for itself, with previous acquisitions driving growth and profitability since I co-founded the company over 13 years ago. In the evolving landscape of mobile gaming, I believe our commitment to M&A will retain the company to growth. Finally, I would address an important decision regarding our strategic alternative process. Our current global landscape is unpredictable. especially due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. These conflicts have introduced a level of uncertainty that has impacted the process, and the board has decided to pause the evaluation of strategic alternatives.