Category: A21 Group
a21, Inc. (OTCBB: ATWO) is considered by industry experts to rank among the top 10 largest stock photography companies in the world. a21 was formed as an investment company in 2000 which acquired the stock photography agency SuperStock in 2004 and moved into SuperStock's headquarters in Jacksonville Florida. In 2005 they acquired Ingram Publishing Ltd., a UK-based provider of subscription and Royalty-Free images and print price guides. The following year a21 acquired ArtSelect, an Iowa-based provider of online technology and fulfillment infrastructure for retailers in the custom framed Art and Wall Décor market. In late 2007 a21 announced plans to launch a new stock photography business named MediaMagnet intended to be “A vibrant community site for creative professionals.”
Key executives:
John Z. Ferguson - Chief Executive Officer
Thomas Costanza - Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Bruce D. Slywka - Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Editorials
Tough summer for stock stock
No, that’s not a typo in the head-line. Managers of the two publicly-traded companies in the stock photo business, Jupitermedia and A21, will not look back on the summer of ‘08 fondly, at least not with respect to their stock prices. Jupiter’s stock price closed at $1.17 on the Friday of Labor Day Weekend – a slide of 30% from a close of $1.71 the Monday after Memorial Day. Over that same period, A21 Inc. hovered at literal penny stock status having floated between $0.01 and $0.03.
News
A21’s ArtSelect launches PostersEtc.com targeting college students
a21, Inc. (OTCBB:ATWO), owner of the stock photo business Superstock and the framed art supplier ArtSelect, has launched a new poster site called PostersEtc.com iwith a focus on wall art intended to appeal to college students looking to decorate their dorms. “ArtSelect.com has been providing home decorators with high-quality custom-framed art prints and wall decor for over a decade now,” says Bruce Slywka, General Manager at ArtSelect. “Now, we are expanding our reach into this growing market by introducing a new site with a little more attitude.”
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a21 Announces 2nd quarter 2008 financials
a21, Inc. (OTCBB:ATWO), owner of the stock photo business Superstock and the framed art supplier ArtSelect,has announced the results for the second quarter of 2008.Revenue is reported at $5.2 million, down from $5.7 million year over year with cost of sales amounting to $2.2 million, (43% of revenues) up from $2.3 million (40% of revenue) in the previous year. The company is pointing to improvements in efficiency and cost control initiatives which have lead to a $900,000 reduction in selling, general, and administrative expenses from the previous year.
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a21 signs letter of intent giving Applejack Art Partners majority stake in business
a21, Inc. (OTCBB: ATWO) one of the largest stock licensing companies in the world has announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Applejack Art Partners, Inc. of Vermont. Under the terms of the LOI, Applejack would purchase all of a21’s outstanding notes (a principal amount of $18,000,000) and all of the shares of a21 common stock (approximately 41 million shares). a21 would then exchange approximately 110 million newly issued shares of its common stock with Applejack in satisfaction of approximately $13,000,000 of such notes. “We are pleased to make an investment in a21 and believe that our complementary product offerings should result in greater sales opportunities and efficiency for both companies” stated Jack Appelman, Chief Executive Officer of Applejack.
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A21 1st Quarter 2008 Results
A21, the owner of the stock photo business Superstock and the framed art supplier business, ArtSelect, announced another disappointing quarter this week, showing a widening net loss on decreasing revenue. A21 lost $1.4MM for the first three months of 2008 on revenue of $5.1MM. The company lost $1MM in the first quarter of 2007 on revenue of $6.1MM. In contrast with previous releases about its results, the company has not provided details for 1Q08 which would show how the images and the wall art divisions fared as unique business segments.
News
a21 launches Media Magnet micro-payment stock photography site
Jacksonville Florida based, a21, the parent company of SuperStock, and ArtSelect, has announced the launch of a new micro-payment/mid-stock site called Media Magnet. The new site features a mix of royalty-free content from both commercial image collections and user-generated micro-stock photography. The company states that MediaMagnet’s concept is simple: relevant, fresh content and a simplified search at affordable pricing.
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News Brief: A21/Superstock releases ’07 results
A21 Group, which owns the stock image licensing business, Superstock and the consumer wall-art business, ArtSelect, released its results for the full year ended 2007 showing improved operating performance in the face of flat revenue. Gross revenue remained relatively flat on an annualized basis for 2007, but gross and operating margins improved, thanks to restructuring initiatives taken in 2007. Despite these efforts, however, the company remains in the red, though losses have declined.
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Albert Pleus resigns from A21/Superstock board of directors
Co-founder and former CEO of A21/Superstock Albert Pleus has resigned from the company’s board of directors. The move follows a series of management and board shuffles over the past year. During that time, the company’s stock price has declined steadily from a peak of $0.80 per share in May of 2006 to yesterday’s close at $0.07 per share.
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A21 to moving ArtSelect offices to Jacksonville
In order to improve efficiency, A21 Superstock has announced it will consolidate its operations by closing the ArtSelect offices in Fairfield, Iowa and moving its administrative and business support departments to the Superstock’s head offices in Jacksonville, Florida. According to the company’s CFO, Tom Costanza, the merging of the offices should save $1MM per year.
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ArtSelect: from cubicle ennui to cubicle envy
ArtSelect, the A21 division that sells fine art to consumers and sister company to Superstock, hopes to expand the market for its product by offering it as a way to improve the view of cubicle-bound office workers. For many white-collar employees, the lowly cubicle epitomizes a dreary office existence and presents a small-space decorating problem. Now, in large part using imagery from Superstock, ArtSelect believes it has a solution that not only cheers up one's work space, but in so doing, also improves worker productivity.
Editorials
Editorial: The real villain is oversupply, not micro-stock
Certain friends who attended CEPIC conference in Florence earlier this month tell me the issue of micro-stock put a cloud over the whole affair. Of course, those comments did not come from my friends among micro-stock company personnel, whose outlooks remain decidedly sunny. I wonder, though, whether the old guard can fairly blame micro-stock for the commercial stock photo industry’s troubled outlook. Naturally, the micro-stock model can only have a detrimental effect on the traditional business, over-all. But what if micro-stock never happened? Would the industry truly be much better off? I doubt it.
News
A21 narrows loss in 1Q07
According to a press-release issued by the A21 Group on May 15, the company posted a loss of $962K in the first quarter of 2007, an improvement over the $2MM loss the company suffered in the same period a year earlier. Comparison of the quarterly numbers reveals that the newly acquired consumer product division (ArtSelect) carries a relatively high Cost of Goods Sold of 47% of divisional revenue compared to only 30% in the image licensing division. Nonetheless, the company’s Selling, General and Administrative expenses dropped dramatically as a percentage of overall revenue from 96% in 1Q06 (before the ArtSelect acquisition) to only 60% of revenue in 1Q07. This implies ArtSelect, apart from doubling the company’s revenue, is much cheaper to operate and has had a positive effect on profitability.
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A21/Superstock posts widening loss for 2006
The A21 Group’s 2006 results showed growing revenue due to acquisitions, but widening losses to go along with them. Revenue from the stock image licensing division of the company grew 25% from $9.6MM to $12MM from 2005 to 2006. Surprisingly, despite the company’s October ’05 acquisition of Ingram Publishing, its gross margin in the image licensing sector remained flat at about 68% year over year. Apparently, Ingram’s lower-priced CD and subscription product line had no impact on gross margins. The gross profit margin at the newly acquired consumer art business, ArtSelect, came in at only 55% giving the company a lower gross profit margin over-all of 62% in 2006 vs. 68% the previous year.
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Bruce Slywka named VP Sales & Marketing at A21
The A21 Group, owners of Superstock and ArtSelect, among other brands, have appointed Bruce Slywka to the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing, reporting directly to CEO John Ferguson. In this newly created position at A21, Slywka will lead the company’s worldwide sales and marketing efforts for both the stock photo licensing and online consumer art and framing divisions.
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a21’s ArtSelect launches online custom frame shop
a21’s Fairfield Iowa based, ArtSelect, has announced the launch of a new Custom Frame shop. ArtSelect is one of the leading purveyors of wall décor and fine art prints online with more than $12 million in revenue for 2005. The new online custom frame shop will allow consumers to quickly create custom pieces from the site's library of more than 50,000 images, 80 mats, and 150 frame styles.
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Ellen Boughn has left a21/SuperStock
As of December 31, Ellen Boughn will leave her post as VP, Content Strategy and Product Manager of Rights Managed Content at SuperStock, a job she started in March of this year. Ms. Boughn's departure is the most recent of a string of high-level employees to leave A21/SuperStock, including, among others, Haim Ariav, Chief Creative Officer of a21 and the President and Chief Creative Officer of SuperStock, in June, 2006, Tom Butta, the President of a21 and the Chief Executive Officer of SuperStock, also in June, and Candace Crough, VP of Sales, in October.
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A21 reports upbeat 3Q06
A21 Group, owner of Superstock and ArtSelect, has reported 3Q06 results showing significantly improved operating performance over the 2nd quarter. Year over year comparisons showed a dramatic increase in revenue of 190% from the 3rd quarter of 2005 to this most recent quarter. Those figures reflect, however, the added revenue from two acquisitions made earlier this year, those of Art Select, a consumer art and framing business and Ingram Publishing, a royalty-free image production company. Year-over-year, revenue showed organic growth for the third quarter of 10%.
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John Ferguson, former Getty executive, to become CEO at A21
The A21 Group, owners of Superstock and ArtSelect, announced today the appointment of John Z. Ferguson to the position of Chief Executive Officer of the company. Mr. Ferguson has also joined A21’s Board of Directors. At the same time, the company announced the appointment of interim president and Chief Operating Officer, Philip Garfinkle to the position of Executive Chairman. Mr. Ferguson served most recently as Senior Vice President of Sales – Americas at Getty Images, after having managed sales at Art.com Getty’s on-line art delivery subsidiary. He left Getty in October of 2005 after seven years with the company.
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A21 reports 2nd Quarter 2006 results
A21 Group, owner of Superstock and ArtSelect, reported an increase in net revenue of 94% from 2Q05 to 2Q06, rising from $2.3MM to $4.5MM. Of that 94% growth, 84% came from the acquisitions of ArtSelect and Ingram Publishing earlier this year, and 9% came from organic growth. We can extrapolate that ArtSelect and Ingram contributed $1.975MM of revenue, while real organic growth at Superstock was $209K. Over the same period, growth in expenses outpaced revenue growth, however, resulting in greater losses. The Cost of Revenue jumped 137% and Selling, General and Administrative expenses nearly doubled, causing the company’s gross loss to increase from $0.7MM in 2Q 05 to $1.7MM in 2Q 06 and its negative Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization to increase from a loss of $343K to a loss of $990K.
News
a21, Inc has terminated the employment of Thomas V. Butta
According to a Form 8-K filed by a21, Inc. the owner of SuperStock and ArtSelect, the employment of Tom Butta, the President of a21 and the Chief Executive Officer of SuperStock, was terminated on June 19th. a21 board member Philip N. Garfinkle has been appointed interim President and Chief Operating Officer at A21 and interim President and Chief Operating Officer of SuperStock. The report states "The Company and Mr. Butta are negotiating the terms of a termination agreement." Sources who wish to remain anonymous, say Mr. Butta's employment may have been terminated "for cause." This news follows the recent departure of Haim Ariav the former President and Chief Creative Officer of SuperStock.
