UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from __________ to __________

Commission file number 001-12471

THE ARENA GROUP HOLDINGS, INC.

(formerly known as theMaven, Inc.)

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(212) 321-5002

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If emerging growth company, indicated by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ or No ☒

As of June 30, 2023, which was the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter for fiscal 2023, the aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates was $57,218,045. This calculation is based upon the closing price of the common stock of $4.58 per share on that date, as reported by the NYSE American.

As of March 28, 2024, the Registrant had 29,770,553 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, or Proxy Statement, to be filed within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, are incorporated by reference in Part III. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Annual Report, the Proxy Statement shall not be deemed to be filed as part hereof.

Form 10-K

Table of Contents

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements and information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and include, without limitation, statements concerning our business strategy, future revenues, market growth, capital requirements, product introductions, the timing, outcome or financial impacts of the planned Business Combination (as defined below) and related transactions, and expansion plans and the adequacy of our funding. Other statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are not historical facts are also forward-looking statements. We have tried, wherever possible, to identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” and other comparable terminology.

Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, for example, statements about:

We caution investors that any forward-looking statements presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or that we may make orally or in writing from time to time, are based on the beliefs of, assumptions made by, and information currently available to, us. Such statements are based on assumptions, and the actual outcome will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties, and factors that are beyond our control or ability to predict. Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance, and some will inevitably prove to be incorrect. As a result, our actual future results can be expected to differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material. Accordingly, investors should use caution in relying on forward-looking statements, which are based only on known results and trends at the time they are made, to anticipate future results or trends.

Certain risks are discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and also from time to time in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or “Commission”).

This Annual Report on Form 10-K and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Part I

Item 1. Business

The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. (the “Company,” “Arena Group,” “we,” “our,” or “us”), is a media company that leverages technology to build deep content verticals powered by anchor brands and a best-in-class digital media platform (the “Platform”) empowering publishers who impact, inform, educate, and entertain. Our strategy is to focus on key subject matter verticals where audiences are passionate about a topic category (e.g., sports and finance) where we can leverage the strength of our core brands to grow our audience and increase monetization both within our core brands as well as for our media publisher partners (each, a “Publisher Partner”). Our focus is on leveraging our Platform and brands in targeted verticals to maximize audience reach, enhance engagement, and optimize monetization of digital publishing assets for the benefit of our users, our advertiser clients, and our greater than 40 owned and operated properties as well as properties we run on behalf of independent Publisher Partners. We own and operate TheStreet, The Spun, Parade, and Men’s Journal and power more than 320 independent Publisher Partners, including the many sports team sites that comprise FanNation.

Each Publisher Partner joins the Platform by invitation only with the objective of improving our position in key verticals while optimizing the performance of the Publisher Partner. Publisher Partners incur the costs in content creation on their respective channels and receive a share of the revenue associated with their content. Because of the state-of-the-art technology and large scale of the Platform and our expertise in search engine optimization, social media, ad monetization and subscription marketing, Publisher Partners continually benefit from our ongoing technological advances and audience development expertise. Additionally, we believe the lead brands within our verticals, create a halo benefit for all Publisher Partners while each of them adds to the breadth and quality of content.

The Platform

We developed the Platform, a proprietary online publishing platform that provides our owned and operated media businesses, Publisher Partners (who are third parties producing and publishing content on their own domains), and individual creators contributing content to our owned and operated sites (“Expert Contributors”), the ability to produce and manage editorially focused content through tools and services provided by us. We have also developed proprietary advertising technology, techniques and relationships that allow us, our Publisher Partners, and our Expert Contributors to monetize editorially focused online content through various display and video advertisements and tools and services for driving a subscription or membership based business and other monetization services (the “Monetization Solutions” and, together with the Platform, the “Platform Services”). Our Platform offers audiences bespoke content with optimized design and page construction.

The Platform comprises state-of-the-art publishing tools, video platforms, social distribution channels, newsletter technology, machine learning content recommendations, notifications, and other technology that deliver a complete set of features to drive a digital media business in an entirely cloud-based suite of services. Our software engineering and product development teams are experienced at delivering these services at scale. We continue to develop the Platform software by combining proprietary code with components from the open-source community, plus select commercial services as well as identifying, acquiring, and integrating other platform technologies where we see unique long-term benefits to us.

The Platform Services include:

Our Publisher Partners use the Platform Services to produce, manage, host and monetize their content in accordance with the terms and conditions of partner agreements between each of our Publisher Partners and us (the “Partner Agreements”). Our Publisher Partners incur the costs with respect to creating their content; thus, not requiring capital investment by us. Pursuant to the Partner Agreements, we and our Publisher Partners split revenue generated from the Platform Services used in connection with the Publisher Partner’s content based on certain criteria. Criteria include whether the revenue was from direct or programmatic advertising sales, was generated by our Publisher Partner or us, was generated in connection with a subscription or a membership, was generated from syndicating or third party licensing, or whether the revenue was derived from affiliate links.

Subject to the terms and conditions of each Partner Agreement and in exchange for the Platform Services, our Publisher Partners grant us, for so long as our Publisher Partner’s assets are hosted on the Platform, (i) the right to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, publicly display, distribute, transmit, modify, adapt and create derivative works of the content provided by the Publisher Partner to provide, maintain and improve the Platform Services; (ii) use, publicly display, distribute and transmit the name, logo, and trademarks of the Publisher Partner to identify them as users of the Platform Services; (iii) exclusive control of ads.txt with respect to our Publisher Partner’s domains; and (iv) the exclusive right to include our Publisher Partner’s website domains and related URLs in a consolidated listing assembled by third party measurement companies such as comScore, Nielsen or other similar measuring services selected by us. As such, the Platform serves as the primary digital media and social platform with respect to each of our Publisher Partners’ website domains during the applicable term of each Partner Agreement.

Our Brands and Growth Strategy

Our business model is to grow our Platform audience while striving to diversify revenue and drive gross margin through traditional media brands as well as new digital-first brands. We believe our vertical model allows us and our Publisher Partners to leverage audience growth, technological efficiencies and cost savings across all of our brands. Our vertical model consists of (i) acquiring or partnering with powerful brands that can offer our audience custom content and domain authority, (ii) forming key strategic partnerships with like-minded partners of high-quality content, (iii) partnering with entrepreneurial publishers to drive local content at variable cost tied to performance, and (iv) growing our Publisher Partners on our network to expand our content offerings and add scale to the ecosystem.

Our growth strategy is to continue adding new Publisher Partners in key verticals that management believes will expand the scale of unique users interacting on the Platform. In each vertical, we seek to build around leading brands, such as FanNation, Athlon Sports or The Spun (for sports), TheStreet (for finance) and Parade and Men’s Journal (for lifestyle), surround them with subcategory specialists, and further enhance coverage with individual Expert Contributors. The primary means of expansion is adding independent Publisher Partners or acquiring publishers that have premium branded content and can broaden the reach and impact of the Platform. Specifically, our growth initiatives include: (i) increasing syndication of the content on our Platform through the re-publishing the content on third party websites, (ii) offering of podcasts and e-commerce through our Platform, (iii) acquiring or developing new verticals for our users, and (iv) continuing to identify and partner with new Publisher Partners.

Sports Vertical

In 2019, we launched our sports vertical by entering into a Licensing Agreement (as described below) with Authentic Brands Group (“ABG”), pursuant to which we were granted the exclusive right and license in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand to operate the Sports Illustrated print and digital media business under the Sports Illustrated brand. While continuing to evolve and expand the sports business and leverage the Sports Illustrated brand, in October 2020 we launched FanNation, a curated collection of independent sports journalists, each focused on a single professional or leading collegiate sports team. FanNation and other sports Publisher Partners helped to more than triple pageviews in our sports vertical from 2020 to 2023. In 2023 our sports Publisher Partners represented more than double the traffic of Sports Illustrated internet domains. Also driving the expansion in the sports vertical was the addition of The Spun and Athlon Sports.

The Spun founded in September 2012, and acquired by us in June 2021, is an online independent sports publication that brings readers the most interesting athletic stories of the day. The Spun focuses on the social media aspect of the industry. Athlon Sports was acquired by us as part of the Parade acquisition in April 2022. It had been a print-only property publishing newsstand magazines covering the various drafts and both professional and collegiate sports. We leveraged its expertise and appeal on-line as part of our sports vertical and today it is a significant part of our digital sports presence.

As further described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, in connection with our failure to make a quarterly payment due ABG pursuant to the Licensing Agreement for the Sports Illustrated media business, of approximately $3,750,000, on January 18, 2024, ABG notified the Company of its intention to terminate our Licensing Agreement, effective immediately, for the Sports Illustrated media business, dated June 14, 2019, by and between us and ABG (as amended to date, the “Licensing Agreement”). Upon such termination, a fee of $45.0 million became immediately due and payable by us to ABG pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Licensing Agreement. In addition, upon termination of the Licensing Agreement, all outstanding and unvested warrants to purchase shares of our common stock issued to ABG in connection with the Licensing Agreement became immediately vested and exercisable. On March 18, 2024, ABG announced it had reached an agreement in principle with a third party that will become the new operator of the Sports Illustrated media business. We are engaging in continuing discussions with ABG and the third party regarding the timing and terms of the transition of the Sports Illustrated component of the business to the aforementioned third party. We will continue to operate our sports vertical led by FanNation, The Spun, Athlon Sports, and the other sports Publisher Partners.

TheStreet

TheStreet is a leading financial news and information provider to investors and institutions worldwide and produces business news and market analysis for individual investors. TheStreet has a strong editorial tradition, a subscription platform, and valuable membership base to us, and benefits from our mobile-friendly Content Management System, social, video, and monetization technology.

Parade

We acquired Parade, a premium-branded company in April 2022 which helped to expand our digital audience reach. Parade has become the anchor of our new lifestyle vertical, and Athlon Sports, one of Parade’s premium-brands, has expanded our sports vertical. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we discontinued the Parade print business, including the print operations of Parade, and the Relish and Spry Living print products that were acquired as part of the Parade acquisition. See Note 3, Discontinued Operations in our accompanying consolidated financial statements for additional information.

Men’s Journal

We acquired the digital assets of Men’s Journal from Weider Publications, a subsidiary of A360 Media, LLC in December 2022 to supplement our growing lifestyle vertical. This suite of digital assets provides our audience with access to premium active lifestyle brands including Men’s Journal, Men’s Fitness, Surfer, Powder, Bike, SKATEboarding, Snowboarder and NewSchoolers.

HubPages

HubPages enhances the user’s experience by including content from individual creators to the HubPages network of premium content channels that are owned and operated by Arena. These channels, such as PetHelpful, dengarden and Fashionista, act as an open community for writers, explorers, knowledge seekers, and conversation starters to connect in an interactive and informative online space.

Corporate History

We were originally incorporated in Delaware as Integrated Surgical Systems, Inc. (“Integrated”) in 1990. On October 11, 2016, Integrated and TheMaven Network, Inc. (“Maven Network”) entered into a share exchange agreement (the “Share Exchange Agreement”), whereby the stockholders of Maven Network agreed to exchange all of the then-issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Maven Network for shares of common stock of Integrated. On November 4, 2016, the parties consummated a re-capitalization pursuant to the Share Exchange Agreement and, as a result, Maven Network became a wholly owned subsidiary of Integrated. Integrated changed its name to theMaven, Inc. on December 2, 2016.

On September 20, 2021, we re-branded to “The Arena Group.” Effective on February 8, 2022, we changed our legal name to The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. in conjunction with filing a Certificate of Amendment and Certificate of Corrections with the State of Delaware. On February 9, 2022, our common stock began trading on the NYSE American under the trading symbol “AREN”.

Intellectual Property

We use proprietary technology to operate our business, and our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our technology and intellectual property. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as contractual restrictions, to establish and protect our intellectual property. We maintain a policy requiring our employees, contractors, consultants and other third parties to enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements to control access to our proprietary information. These laws, procedures and restrictions provide only limited protection and any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed or misappropriated. Further, the laws of certain countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States and, therefore, in certain jurisdictions, we may be unable to protect our proprietary technology.

As of December 31, 2023, we had seven issued patents in the United States, all expiring by 2033.

As of December 31, 2023, we also owned approximately 1,300 U.S. copyright registrations and had unregistered copyrights in our software documentation, software code, marketing materials, and website content that we developed, and owned over 1,600 registered domain names. As of December 31, 2023, we also owned approximately 160 U.S. trademark registrations, 29 pending U.S. trademark applications, and 89 issued foreign trademark registrations and 16 pending foreign trademark applications in over 30 countries, and a number of unregistered marks that we use in the United States and other countries to promote our brands.

Our registered trademarks are all subject to maintenance or renewal at various times through 2033.

We will continue to file updated trademark applications in the United States and abroad to reflect our branding evolution and to continue strengthening our trademark portfolio as financial resources permit. From time to time, we also expect to file additional patents and copyrights.

Our Publisher Partners and Licensing

In connection with our Partner Agreements and any other applicable agreements between us and our Publisher Partners, (i) we and our affiliates own and retain (a) all right, title, and interest in and to the Platform, other Monetization Solutions and data collected by us, and (b) we and our licensors’ trademarks and branding and all software and technology we use to provide and operate the Platform and Monetization Solutions, and (ii) each Publisher Partner owns and retains (a) all right, title, and interest in and to the Publisher Partner’s assets, content, and data collected by Publisher Partner and (b) each Publisher Partner’s trademarks and branding.

Human Capital Resources

Our total number of employees as of December 31, 2023 was 448, of which 441 were full-time employees and seven were part-time employees. As of December 31, 2023 approximately 18% of our workforce, or 82 employees, is represented by a union named The NewsGuild of New York, CWA Local 31003 (the “Guild”) pursuant to a binding Memorandum of Agreement executed by and between the Guild and The Arena Media Brands, LLC (“Arena Media”) on December 31, 2021 (the “MOA”), which covers Sports Illustrated editorial staff. The MOA addresses the terms of employment for covered employees and non-employees regarding, among other things, wages, raises, bonuses, severances, benefits, discipline and the like. We incorporated the terms of the MOA into our fiscal 2023 employment practices.

In January 2024, we announced a reduction to our workforce of approximately one-third of our employees in order to reduce costs and achieve profitability. This included all 82 employees represented by the Guild.

Corporate Culture

We like to say that The Arena Group is where the action is - where passion drives each of us. The things we love are what keep us coming back to read, watch and experience the best in sports, finance, and entertainment – brought to you by the iconic brands you admire most. We are building out the pathways to passion – your ticket to continuous excitement.

We are working to build and sustain a company culture that enables our employees to show up as their best, whole selves; to communicate, collaborate, and innovate with their colleagues, no matter where they are located; and to learn, grow, and belong.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We believe that a workforce rich in diversity of thought, background, and experience helps us build a company and community where we can all succeed. In December 2022, we launched our first company-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) Council – comprised of 18 employees with a variety of identities and backgrounds that also represented as wide a selection as possible across brands, functions, and tenures at Arena, and most importantly, represented a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion at our company. In 2023, the Council met monthly to share employee experiences, identify opportunities to improve our culture, and advise senior leadership on how to direct an annual DEI budget. As a result of feedback from the Council, a sample of outcomes include attendance at multiple conferences led by diverse journalism organizations, hosted panels internally ranging from celebration of identities to supporting mental health, and the creation of the framework for our 2024 monthly DEI learning and discovery series.

Seasonality

We experience seasonality as a result of advertising seasonality, sports seasons and major sporting events. Advertising typically peaks in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year as advertisers tend to concentrate their budgets during the holiday season. This trend is magnified by professional sports and college football seasons, which account for a significant portion of our advertising revenue during that period of the year. Other sporting events such as the Super Bowl, the Winter and Summer Olympics, soccer’s World Cup, and major golf, tennis and cycling events create increased traffic at the time of these respective events.

Competition

Currently, we believe that there are many competitors delivering media content in the verticals that we serve on the web and on mobile devices and an even broader array of general media companies and major media brands that compete for the attention of users overall and the advertisers who desire to reach them. We have developed a playbook that leverages our Platform to optimize the performance of both our owned and operated and our Publisher Partners’ properties. The playbook is a set of processes, procedures and tactics that help improve the consumer experience, develop a greater organic audience reach, apply data management and artificial intelligence tools, optimize monetization and leverage content through syndication and improve distribution. The iconic brands leading each of our verticals, such as Athlon Sports, FanNation, The Spun, TheStreet and Men’s Journal, leverage this playbook to deliver a highly engaging and effective experience for our users, advertisers and subscribers.

The Internet allows theoretically unlimited market access for niche or general media companies resulting in a large number and variety of participants competing directly for audiences, ad spend and membership revenues. The general business of online media, combined with some level or method of leveraging community attracts many potential entrants, and in the future, there may be strong competitors that will compete with us in general or in selected markets. These and other companies may be better financed and be able to develop their markets more quickly and penetrate those markets more effectively. The following is a list of possible competitors and their respective categories:

In addition, we view Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Ziff Davis as peer companies for purposes of performance comparisons even though we do not consider them direct competitors.

We believe that our technology, our substantial scale in traffic, the ease of use of our Platform, our well-known lead media brands, and the continuing development and evolution of our Platform and an acquisition program provides us with a basis to compete effectively for market share in terms of ad spend and membership revenue.

Government Regulations

Our operations are subject to many United States federal and state laws and regulations that involve data privacy, data protection, rights of publicity, content regulation, intellectual property, or other subjects. The application and interpretation of these laws and regulations often are uncertain and the impact of regulatory changes cannot be predicted with certainty.

Several government authorities, both in the United States and abroad are increasing their focus on privacy issues and the use of personal information. All U.S. states have enacted some form of data security legislation and there are several federal laws governing data privacy. A growing number of U.S. states have enacted laws regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), which was amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) which went into effect January 1, 2020. As more states consider or enact laws about information security, companies may be required to adopt written information security policies consistent with state laws.

At the U.S. federal the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and state attorneys general have oversight of business operations concerning the use of personal information and breaches of the privacy laws and may examine privacy policies to ensure that a company discloses all material practices and fully complies with representations in the policies regarding the use of personal information and the failure to do so could give rise to penalties under state or federal unfair competition or consumer protection laws.

We review our privacy policies and overall operations on a regular basis to ensure compliance with applicable United States federal and state laws, and to the extent applicable, any foreign laws. We launched a CCPA compliance program in January 2020, and have expedited it to cover CPRA as well. On an annual basis we review the program and adjust our privacy notice and compliance program practices to account for our evolving practices and the CCPA/CPRA regulations, which were first promulgated in July 2020 and continue to be subject to ongoing rulemaking. There are conflicting interpretations of adopted law in the digital media industry, and given the lack of guidance to date on many of these issues, our compliance posture on some issues might not be accepted by the State of California.

In addition to the laws of the United States, we may be subject to foreign laws regulating web sites and online services that in some jurisdictions are stricter than the laws in the United States. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) includes operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of residents of the European Union (“EU”). Some EU countries are considering or have passed legislation implementing additional data protection requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services. The GDPR also includes certain requirements regarding notification of data processing obligations or security incidents to appropriate data protection authorities. How the GDPR will be fully applied to online services, including cookies and digital advertising, is still being determined through ongoing rulemaking and evolving interpretation by applicable authorities. On June 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”), declared the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield framework (“Privacy Shield”) to be invalid. As a result, Privacy Shield is no longer a valid mechanism for transferring personal data from the European Economic Area to the United States. We are addressing this issue, for instance, by including standard contractual clauses as part of our Data Processing Agreements; however, it is uncertain whether the standard contractual clauses will also be invalidated by the European courts or legislature. GDPR also convers a private right of action to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities to seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for damages for violations of the GDPR. GDPR imposes substantial fines for breaches and violations (up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of our consolidated annual worldwide gross revenue).

Social networking websites are also under increasing scrutiny. Legislation has been introduced on the state and federal level that could regulate social networking websites. Any such regulation would likely be an impediment to our business.

The FTC regularly considers issues relating to online behavioral advertising (a/k/a interest-based advertising), which is a significant revenue source for us, and Congress and state legislatures are frequently asked to regulate this type of advertising, including requiring consumers to provide express consent for tracking purposes, so that advertisers may know their interests and are, therefore, able to serve them more relevant, targeted ads. Targeted ads generate higher per impression fees than non-targeted ads. New laws, or new interpretations of existing laws, could potentially place restrictions on our ability to utilize our database and other marketing data (e.g., from third parties) on our own behalf and on behalf of our advertising clients, which may adversely affect our business.

Legislation concerning the above-described online activities could affect our ability to make our websites available in certain countries as future legislation is made effective. It is possible that state and foreign governments might also attempt to regulate our transmissions of content on our website or prosecute us for violations of their laws. United States law offers limited safe harbors and immunities to publishers for certain liability arising out of user-posted content, but other countries do not. Further, legislative proposals in the United States and internationally could impose new obligations in areas affecting our business, such as liability for copyright infringement by third parties and liability for defamation or other claims arising out of user-posted content. Our business could be negatively impacted if applicable laws subject us to greater regulation or risk of liability.

Our business could also be adversely affected if regulatory enforcement authorities, such as the California Attorney General or EU/EEA data protection authorities, take issue with any of our approaches to compliance, or if new laws, regulations or decisions regarding the collection, storage, transmission, use or disclosure of personal information are implemented in such ways that impose new or additional technological requirements on us, limit our ability to collect, transmit, store and use or disclose the information, or if government authorities or private parties challenge our data privacy or security practices that result in liability to, or restrictions on us, or we experience a significant data or information breach which would require public disclosure under existing notification laws and for which we may be liable for damages or penalties.

Furthermore, governments of applicable jurisdictions might attempt to regulate our transmissions or levy sales or other taxes relating to our activities even though we do not have a physical presence or operate in those jurisdictions. As our platforms, products and advertising activities are available over the Internet anywhere in the world, multiple jurisdictions may claim that we are required to qualify to do business as a foreign corporation in each of those jurisdictions and pay various taxes in those jurisdictions. We address state and local jurisdictions where we believe we have nexus, however, there can be no assurance that we have complied with all jurisdictions that may assert that we owe taxes.

Currently, we carry cybersecurity and business interruption coverage to mitigate certain potential losses, but this insurance is limited in amount and may not be sufficient in type or amount to cover us against claims related to a cybersecurity breach and related business and system disruptions. We cannot be certain that such potential losses will not exceed our policy limits, insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. In addition, we may be subject to changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements.

Available Information

We file our annual, periodic and current reports, and other required information, electronically with the SEC. The SEC maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information that we file with the SEC electronically. We also make available on our website at www.thearenagroup.net, free of charge, copies of these reports and other information as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.

We use our website, blog, press releases, public conference calls and public webcasts as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The information disclosed by the foregoing channels could be deemed to be material information. As such, we encourage investors, the media, and others to follow the channels listed above and to review the information disclosed through such channels. The contents of the websites referred to above are not incorporated into this filing.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Listed below is a summary of the principal risks that could adversely affect our business, operations and financial results. There are numerous factors that affect our business, operations and financial results, many of which are beyond our control. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our business operations. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, or our ability to pay our debts and other liabilities could suffer. As a result, the trading price and liquidity of our securities could decline, perhaps significantly, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks discussed below also include forward-looking statements and our actual results may differ substantially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. See the section entitled “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” All dollar figures are presented in thousands unless otherwise stated.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS

If we fail to retain current users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with the Platform, our business would be seriously harmed.

The success of our business and our ability to attract and retain advertisers heavily depends on the size of our user base and the level of engagement of our users. Several factors could negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including if:

Our license agreement to operate the Sports Illustrated media business was terminated by the licensor, which may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

In connection with our failure to make a quarterly payment due to ABG pursuant to the Licensing Agreement of approximately $3,750,000, on January 18, 2024, ABG notified us of the termination of the Licensing Agreement, effective immediately, in accordance with its rights under the Licensing Agreement. Upon such termination, a fee of $45.0 million became immediately due and payable by us to ABG pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Licensing Agreement. In addition, upon termination of the Licensing Agreement, all outstanding and unvested warrants to purchase shares of Arena common stock issued to ABG in connection with the Licensing Agreement became immediately vested and exercisable.

On March 18, 2024, ABG announced it had reached an agreement in principle with a third party to become the new operator of the Sports Illustrated media business. We are engaging in discussions with ABG and the third party regarding the timing and terms of the transition of the Sports Illustrated media business to the aforementioned third party.

The loss of the rights to operate the Sports Illustrated media business, in addition to termination payments that are due following termination of the Licensing Agreement, could harm our competitiveness in our industry, damage any goodwill we may have generated, and otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Any subsequent rebranding efforts we may undertake may require significant resources and expenses and may affect our ability to attract and retain customers, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, liquidity and prospects.

We defaulted on certain covenants included in our debt agreements that could result in the acceleration of the related debt or the exercise of other remedies.

On December 29, 2023, we failed to make the interest payment due pursuant to the Third A&R NPA (as defined in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Capital Resources – Senior Secured Notes”) in the amount of approximately $2.8 million, resulting in an event of default under the Arena Notes (as described below) (the “Arena Notes Default”). On January 5, 2024, we entered into a forbearance agreement (the “Forbearance Agreement”) with Renew Group Private Limited (“Renew”), the lender under the Third A&R NPA, pursuant to which Renew agreed to a forbearance period through March 29, 2024, while reserving its rights and remedies. The forbearance period is subject to us retaining a chief restructuring officer acceptable to Renew. Also on January 5, 2024, the Company’s board of directors finalized an engagement with FTI Consulting Inc. (“FTI”), a global business advisory firm, to assist the Company with its turnaround plans and forge an expedited path to sustainable positive cash flow and earnings to create shareholder value (the “FTI Engagement”). As part of the FTI Engagement, Jason Frankl, a senior managing director of FTI, was appointed as the Company’s Chief Business Transformation Officer. Jason Frankl is a chief restructuring officer acceptable to Renew. On March 27, 2024, the forbearance period was extended through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024; (b) the occurrence of the closing of the Business Combination and (c) the termination of the Business Combination prior to closing. The outstanding principal on the Arena Notes was approximately $110.7 million as of December 31, 2023.

The Arena Notes Default, as well as the Company’s failure to make a quarterly payment due to ABG pursuant to the Licensing Agreement, resulted in an Event of Default under its credit and security agreement dated February 2020 (as amended, the “Arena Credit Agreement”) with SLR Digital Finance LLC (“SLR”). On March 13, 2024 the Company entered into a loan agreement (the “Arena Loan Agreement”), by and between the Company and Simplify Inventions, LLC (“Simplify” and in reference to the loan agreement, the “Simplify Loan”), which provides for up to $25 million of borrowings to be used for working capital and general corporate purposes. Upon the closing, the Company borrowed approximately $7.7 million, of which approximately $3.4 million was used to repay the outstanding loan balance, accrued interest, certain fees and contingency reserves under its Arena Credit Agreement. The indirect owner of Renew also has an indirect non-controlling interest in Simplify.

Borrowings under the Arena Loan Agreement are secured by substantially all of our assets. Upon the termination of the forbearance period under the Forbearance Agreement, Renew can declare all outstanding borrowings under the Arena Notes, together with accrued and unpaid interest and fees, to be immediately due and payable. In addition, Simplify could declare all outstanding borrowings under the Arena Loan Agreement together with accrued and unpaid interest and fees, to be immediately due and payable and, subject to the terms of the intercreditor agreement between Renew and Simplify, foreclose on our assets. Any of these actions would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations and could lead to selling assets, cutting costs, reducing cash requirements, filing bankruptcy or ceasing operations.

The market in which we participate is intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.

The digital media industry is fragmented and highly competitive. There are many players in the digital media market, many with greater name recognition and financial resources, which may give them a competitive advantage. The general business of online media, combined with some level or method of leveraging community attracts many potential entrants, and in the future, there may be strong competitors that will compete with us in general or in selected markets. These and other companies may be better financed and be able to develop their markets more quickly and penetrate those markets more effectively. We expect competition to intensify in the future. All of this could adversely affect our revenues and operating results.

The sales and payment cycle for online advertising is long, and such sales may not occur when anticipated or at all, all of which could adversely affect our business.

The decision process is typically lengthy for brand advertisers and sponsors to commit to online campaigns and subject to delays which may be beyond our control. In addition, some advertisers and sponsors take months after the campaign runs to pay, and some may not pay at all, or require partial “make-goods” based on performance. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

We are dependent on the continued services and on the performance of key third party content contributors, the loss of which could adversely affect our business.

We rely on content contributed by third party providers to attract users that drive advertising and subscription revenue. The loss of the services of any of such key contributors could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Competition for such contributors is intense, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully attract, assimilate, or retain them which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Our revenues could decrease if the Platform does not continue to operate as intended.

The Platform performs complex functions and is vulnerable to undetected errors or unforeseen defects that could result in a failure to operate or inefficiency. The occurrence of errors and defects could result in loss of or delay in revenue, loss of market share, increased development costs, diversion of development resources and injury to our reputation or damage to our efforts to expand brand awareness.

The growing percentage of users whose computers, tablets, or phones do not support identification through third party cookies, mobile identifiers, or other tracking technologies could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial conditions.

We rely heavily on our ability to collect and disclose data and metrics in order to attract new advertisers and retain existing advertisers. Any restriction, whether by law, regulation, policy, or other reason, on our ability to collect and disclose data that our advertisers find useful would impede our ability to attract and retain advertisers.

We use “cookies,” or small text files placed on user devices when an Internet browser is used, as well as mobile device identifiers, to connect users’ computers anonymously to information that we gather, enabling the Platform to demonstrate to advertisers its efficacy. More and more devices have offered functionalities that block such anonymized identifiers and some prominent technology companies have announced intentions to discontinue the use of cookies entirely. Although we believe the Platform is well-positioned to continue to provide key data insights to advertisers without cookies, actions by advertisers to buy advertising based on alternative identifiers could lead to changes in purchase behavior of such advertisers, thereby possibly impacting our operations, and our financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our Publisher Partners may engage in intentional or negligent misconduct or other improper activities on the Platform or otherwise misuse the Platform, which may damage our brand image, our business and our results of operations.

The Platform provides our owned and operated media businesses, Publisher Partners, and individual creators contributing content the ability to produce and manage editorially focused content through tools and services provided by us. We might not be able to monitor or edit a significant portion of the content, such as advertising content, that appears on the Platform. If misconduct and misuse of the Platform for inappropriate or illegal purposes occurs, user experience on the Platform may suffer, and claims may be brought against us. Our business and public perception of our brands may be materially and adversely affected if we face any related lawsuits or other liabilities.

The Platform and our technology systems contain open-source software, which may pose particular risk to our proprietary software, features and functionalities in a manner that negatively affect our business.

We use open-source software in the Platform and our technology systems and will continue to use open-source software in the future. We have set up an internal system to monitor the open-source software we use in our operation and its functionality, and to manage the risk it poses to our business. We may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open-source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated services unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This could require significant additional technology and development resources, and we may not be able to complete such re-engineering successfully.

ECONOMIC AND OPERATIONAL RISKS

We may have difficulty managing our growth.

We have added, and expect to continue to add, Publisher Partner and end-user support capabilities, continue software development activities, and expand our administrative capabilities. In the past two years, we have entered into multiple strategic transactions which have significantly expanded our business and placed significant strain on our resources. To manage any further growth, we will be required to improve existing, and implement new, operational and financial systems and properly manage our employee base. If we are unable to manage growth effectively, our business could be harmed.

The strategic relationships that we may be able to develop and on which we may come to rely may not be successful.

We will seek to develop strategic relationships with advertising, media, technology, and other companies to enhance our market penetration, business development, and advertising sales revenues. There can be no assurance that these relationships will develop and mature, or that potential competitors will not develop more substantial relationships with the same or more attractive partners. Our inability to successfully implement our strategy of building valuable strategic relationships could harm our business.

A significant portion of our revenues is derived from a single customer. If we were to lose this customer, our revenues could decrease significantly.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, approximately 10% of our revenue was derived from sales to a single customer. The loss of this customer, or a significant reduction in sales to such customer, could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure may adversely affect our business and operating results.

Our growth will depend in part on the ability of our users, customers, and Publisher Partners to access the Platform at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. We may experience performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of users accessing the Platform software simultaneously, denial of service attacks, or other security related incidents. If the Platform software is unavailable or if our users are unable to access it within a reasonable amount of time or at all, our business would be negatively affected.

Moreover, the Partner Agreements with our Publisher Partners include service level standards that obligate us to provide credits or termination rights in the event of a significant disruption of the Platform, which may adversely affect our business and operating results.

We operate our exclusive coalition of professional-managed online media channels on third party cloud platforms and data center hosting facilities.

We rely on software and services licensed from, and cloud platforms provided by, third parties to offer our digital media services. Any errors or defects in third party software or cloud platforms could result in errors in, or a failure of, our digital media services, which could harm our reputation, our business and force us to seek more expensive alternatives. Failure of these third party systems could cause us to render credits or pay penalties or cause our Publisher Partners to terminate their contractual arrangements with us.

We are subject to certain standard terms and conditions with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, companies which have broad discretion to change their terms of service and other policies with respect to us, and those changes may be unfavorable to us.

Real or perceived errors, failures, or “bugs” in the Platform could adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.

Because the Platform is complex, undetected errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may occur despite prior testing, especially when updates are deployed. Real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in our software could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of the Platform, loss of competitive position, or claims by our Publisher Partners or our users for losses sustained by them.

Malware, viruses, hacking attacks, and improper or illegal use of the Platform could harm our business and results of operations.

Malware, viruses, and hacking attacks have become more prevalent in our industry and have occurred on our systems and may occur in the future. Any security breach caused by hacking, which involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems, or to cause intentional malfunctions or loss or corruption of data, software, hardware, or other computer equipment, and the inadvertent transmission of computer viruses could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business could suffer.

Our success significantly depends on our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third party non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements and other methods to protect our proprietary technology. Our business, profitability and growth prospects could be adversely affected if we fail to receive adequate protection of our proprietary rights.

We could be required to cease certain activities or incur substantial costs due to claims of infringement of another party’s intellectual property rights.

Some of our competitors and other third parties may own technology patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and website content which they may use to assert claims against us. We cannot assure you that we will not become subject to claims that we have misappropriated or misused other parties’ intellectual property rights. Any claim or litigation alleging that we have infringed or otherwise violated intellectual property or other rights of third parties, with or without merit, whether or not settled out of court or determined in our favor, could be time-consuming and costly to address and resolve, and could divert the time and attention of our management and technical personnel.

If we are required to make substantial payments, cease using the challenged intellectual property, obtain a license or redesign existing technology due to any intellectual property infringement claims against us, such payments or actions could have a material adverse effect upon our business and financial results.

We are subject to many laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that are constantly evolving and involve matters central to our business.

We are subject or will be subject in the future to myriad constantly evolving laws, statutes and regulations in the United States as well as in other countries where we may do business. These include, among others, privacy, data protection, and personal information, rights of publicity, content, intellectual property, advertising, marketing, distribution, data security, data retention and deletion, personal information, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, telecommunications, employee classification, product liability, taxation, economic or other trade prohibitions or sanctions, securities law compliance, and online payment services, and the related compliance costs. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could adversely affect our business and cause significant penalties to be imposed on us.

In particular, the growth and development of Internet content, commerce and communities may prompt more stringent consumer protection, privacy, and data protection laws, both in the United States and abroad, as well as new laws governing their taxation. Compliance with any newly adopted laws may prove difficult and costly for us.

Our services involve the storage and transmission of digital information; therefore, cybersecurity incidents, including those caused by unintentional errors and those intentionally caused by third parties, may expose us to a risk of loss, unauthorized disclosure or other misuse of this information, litigation liability, regulatory exposure, reputational harm and increased security costs.

We and our third party service providers experience attempted cyber-attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis, one of which infiltrated our systems and accessed a limited amount of our non-financial and encrypted data. We expect to incur significant, increasing costs in ongoing efforts to detect and prevent cybersecurity-related incidents. We cannot ensure that our efforts to prevent cyber security incidents will succeed. While we purchase liability coverage for certain of these types of matters, a significant cybersecurity incident could subject us to reputational harm, loss of revenue, financial liability and other damage that may exceed our insurance coverage and preclude us from obtaining adequate insurance levels in the future.

Existing or future strategic alliances, long-term investments and acquisitions may have a material and adverse effect on our business, reputation, and results of operations.

We may enter strategic business relationships with third parties to further our business purpose from time to time. These alliances could subject us to risks, including risks associated with sharing proprietary information, non-performance by the third party and increased expenses in establishing new strategic alliances, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business. We may have limited ability to monitor or control the actions of these third parties and, to the extent any of these strategic third parties suffer negative publicity or harm to their reputation from events relating to their business, we may also suffer negative publicity or harm to our reputation by virtue of our association.

Future acquisitions and the subsequent integration of new assets and businesses into our own will require significant attention from our management and could result in a diversion of resources from our existing business, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business operations. Acquisitions may not achieve our goals and could be viewed negatively by users, business partners or investors, use substantial amounts of cash, cause potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities, require significant goodwill impairment charges or amortization expenses for other intangible assets and expose us to unknown liabilities of the acquired business. Moreover, the costs of identifying and consummating acquisitions may be significant. In addition to, in some cases, having to obtain shareholders’ approval, we may also have to obtain approvals and licenses from relevant authorities for the acquisitions, which could result in increased delay and costs.

Our products may require availability of components or known technology from third parties and their non-availability can impede our growth.

We license/buy certain technology integral to our products from third parties, including open-source and commercially available software. Our inability to acquire and maintain any third party product licenses or integrate the related third party products into our products in compliance with license arrangements, could result in delays in product development until equivalent products can be identified, licensed and integrated. We also expect to require new licenses in the future as our business grows and technology evolves. We cannot provide assurance that these licenses will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.

Our business is subject to the risk of catastrophic events such as pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire, and power outages, and to interruption by man-made acts, such as war and terrorism.

Our business is vulnerable to damage or interruption from pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire, power outages, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins, and similar events. A significant natural disaster could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition, and our insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for losses that may occur. Furthermore, acts of terrorism, which may be targeted at metropolitan areas that have higher population density than rural areas, could cause disruptions in our or our Publisher Partners’ businesses or the U.S. economy as a whole. Our technology infrastructure may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins, denial-of-service attacks, and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems, which could lead to interruptions, delays and loss of critical data. We may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in some circumstances. As we rely heavily on our computer and communications systems and the Internet to conduct our business and provide high-quality user and customer service, these disruptions could negatively impact our ability to run our business and either directly or indirectly disrupt our Publisher Partners’ businesses, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Compliance with the reporting obligations under the United States securities laws and Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley requires expenditure of capital and other resources and may divert management’s attention. If we fail to comply with these reporting obligations or to maintain adequate internal controls our operations, and investors’ confidence in us, could be materially and adversely affected.

As a public company, we are required to comply with the periodic reporting obligations of the Exchange Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and other applicable securities rules and regulations, including the preparation of annual reports, quarterly reports, and current reports. Complying with these rules and regulations have caused us and will continue to cause us to incur additional legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly. Further, by complying with public disclosure requirements, our business and financial condition are more visible, which may result in increased threatened or actual litigation.

In preparing our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which were remediated in 2023 with the implementation of additional controls and procedures. However, we may in the future discover material weaknesses in other areas of our internal control over financial reporting that require remediation.

Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations, cause us to lose investor confidence, prevent us from obtaining capital on favorable terms or at all, and subject us to sanctions or investigations by the SEC, the NYSE American or other regulatory authorities.

If we fail to timely meet our reporting obligations under the Exchange Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and other applicable securities rules and regulations in their entirety, we could be subject to penalties under federal securities laws and regulations of the NYSE American and face lawsuits, and we will not be able to obtain independent accountant certifications required for public companies under Sarbanes-Oxley.

Unfavorable economic and market conditions could adversely affect our business, reputation, and results of operations.

Our services, products, properties, and our ability to access the capital markets on terms acceptable or at all may be adversely impacted by uncertain economic conditions, including but not limited to, regional conflicts, pandemics, adverse changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, tax laws or tax rates, inflation, economic downturns, recessions, contraction in the availability of credit, and the effects of government initiatives to manage economic conditions.

Our ongoing cash management strategy is to maintain diversity in our deposit accounts across financial institutions to manage risks from potential instability in the banking system, but deposits in these institutions may exceed the amount of insurance provided on such deposits and there can be no assurance that this strategy will be successful.

We cannot predict how future economic conditions will affect our users and Publisher Partners and any negative impact on our users or Publisher Partners may also have an adverse impact on our own results of operations or financial condition.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR INDEBTEDNESS, FINANCIAL CONDITION, AND INTERNAL CONTROL

As the general economic and market conditions present uncertainty as to our ability to secure additional capital, there can be no assurances that we will be able to secure additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, as and when necessary to continue to conduct operations.

Our future liquidity and capital requirements will depend upon numerous factors, including the success of the Platform, our offerings, competing technological developments, and general economic and market conditions, which have presented substantial uncertainty in recent months. We may need to raise funds through public or private financings, strategic relationships, or other arrangements. There can be no assurance that such funding will be available on terms acceptable to us, or at all. Furthermore, any equity financing will be dilutive to existing stockholders, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants that may limit our operating flexibility with respect to certain business matters. Strategic arrangements may require us to relinquish our rights or grant licenses to some or substantial parts of our intellectual property. If funds are raised through the issuance of equity securities, the percentage ownership of our stockholders will be reduced, stockholders may experience additional dilution in net book value per share, and such equity securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of the holders of our existing capital stock. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may not be able to continue operating, develop or enhance products, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We have a history of losses.

In the year ended December 31, 2023, we had net loss of approximately $193.8 million compared to approximately $135.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. Our accumulated deficit as of December 31, 2023 was approximately $373.1 million. In fiscal 2023, we had net loss of approximately $55.6 million compared to approximately $70.9 million in fiscal 2022. Our accumulated deficit as of December 31, 2022 was approximately $378.7 million. We may continue to incur losses in the future if we do not achieve sufficient revenue or adequately reduce costs to achieve and maintain profitability. There is no assurance that our operations will generate sufficient cash flows to support our continued operations in the future without needing to seek additional capital funding or borrowings. We can provide no assurance that if we need to seek such additional outside capital that it will be available on favorable terms or at all. Any failure to achieve and maintain profitability could have a materially adverse effect on our ability to implement our business plan, our results and operations, and our financial condition.

Our financial conditions raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a “going concern” through one year from the date of the financial statements contained herein if the Business Combination is not consummated and we are unable to refinance or modify the terms of the Third A&R NPA and the underlying debt with Renew.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, Arena incurred a net loss of $55.6 million. For year ended December 31, 2023 and year ended December 31, 2022, our cash on hand of $9.3 million and $13.9 million and a working capital deficit of $63.3 million and $137.7 million, respectively. Arena’s net loss and working capital deficit have been evaluated by management to determine if the significance of those conditions or events would limit its ability to meet its obligations when due.

As a result, management determined there is substantial doubt about Arena’s ability to continue as a going concern for a one-year period following the financial statement issuance date, unless (i) Arena closes the transactions contemplated by the business combination agreement by and among the Company, Simplify, Bridge Media Networks, LLC (“Bridge Media”), New Arena Holdco, Inc (“New Arena”) and the other parties dated November 5, 2023, as amended on December 1, 2023 (the “Business Combination”) and (ii) Arena is able to refinance or modify the terms of the Third A&R NPA and the underlying debt with Renew, which is subject to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024, (b) the closing of the Business Combination, and (c) the termination of the Business Combination, and establishes debt payments that are serviceable by the Company’s cash flow. If we are unable to raise additional capital, we may be required to take additional measures to conserve liquidity, which could include, but not necessarily be limited to, curtailing operations, suspending the pursuit of a potential transaction and reducing overhead expenses. We cannot provide any assurance that financing sources will be available to us on commercially acceptable terms or if at all, that our plans to consummate the Business Combination will be successful or the Company will be able to refinance or modify the terms of the Third A&R NPA and the underlying debt with Renew. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

Our results of operations may fluctuate significantly and may not meet our expectations or those of securities analysts and investors.

We operate in an evolving industry, and as a result, our business has evolved over time such that our operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects. Our results of operations have fluctuated in the past, and future results of operations are likely to fluctuate as well. Although we have experienced substantial revenue growth, we may not be able to sustain this growth rate or current revenue levels or achieve profitability. In addition, because our business is evolving, our historical results of operations may be of limited utility in assessing our future prospects. We expect to face challenges, risks, and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly developing industries, including those relating to:

Any one or more of the factors above may result in significant fluctuations in our results of operations. You should not rely on our past results as an indicator of our future performance.

Because many of our expenses are based upon forecast demand and may be difficult to reduce in the short term, volatility in quarterly revenue could cause significant variations in quarterly results of operations. We may not forecast our revenue or expenses accurately, which may cause our results of operations to diverge from our estimates or the expectations of securities analysts, and investors. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations for these or any other reasons, the trading price of our common stock could fall, and we could face costly litigation, including securities class action lawsuits.

Any future litigation against us could be costly and time-consuming to defend.

We have in the past and may in the future become subject to legal proceedings and claims or regulatory inquiries or proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business, such as claims brought by our customers and partners in connection with commercial disputes, employment claims made by our current or former employees, or claims for reimbursement following misappropriation of customer data.

For example, we could face claims relating to information published or made available on the Platform. In particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims related to defamation, intellectual property rights and rights of publicity and privacy. We might not be able to monitor or edit a significant portion of the content that appears on the Platform. This risk is enhanced in certain jurisdictions outside the United States where our protection from liability for third party actions may be unclear and where we may be less protected under local laws than we are in the United States. We could also face fines or orders restricting or blocking our services in particular geographies as a result of content hosted on our services. If any of these events occur, our business could be seriously harmed.

Our employees are highly experienced, having worked in our industry for many years and prior employers may try to assert that our employees are breaching restrictive covenants and other limitations imposed by past employment arrangements. We believe that all of our employees are free to work for us in their various capacities and have not breached past employment arrangements. Notwithstanding our care in our employment practices, a prior employer may assert a claim against us. Such claims can be costly to contest, disruptive to our work environment, and may be detrimental to our operations and financial results.

Moreover, insurance may not cover any such claims that rise in the ordinary course of business, may not provide sufficient payments to cover all the costs to resolve one or more such claims, and may not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs, thereby reducing our results of operations and leading analysts or potential investors to reduce their expectations of our performance, which could reduce the trading price of our common stock. Litigation may result in substantial costs and may divert management’s attention and resources, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards may be limited.

As of December 31, 2023, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, due to prior period losses of $193.8 million, and certain NOLs could expire before we generate sufficient taxable income to make use of our NOLs. Subject to certain limitations, NOLs can be used to offset taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, may limit certain NOLs we may use in any year for U.S. federal income tax purposes in the event of certain changes in ownership of our Company. If an “ownership change” occurs, Section 382 would impose an annual limit on certain pre-ownership NOLs and other tax attributes we can use to reduce our taxable income, potentially increasing and accelerating our liability for income taxes, and also potentially causing those tax attributes to expire unused. In addition, our ability to use our net operating losses is dependent on our ability to generate taxable income, and certain net operating losses could expire before we generate sufficient taxable income to make use of our net operating losses.

RISKS RELATED TO GOVERNANCE AND COMMON STOCK

We are dependent on the continued services and on the performance of our key executive officers, management team, and other key personnel, the loss of which could adversely affect our business.

We are dependent on the continued services and on the performance of our key executive officers, management team, and other key personnel. We also depend on our ability to identify, attract, hire, train, retain, and motivate other highly skilled technical, managerial, sales, operational, business development, and customer service personnel. Competition for such personnel is intense, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully attract, assimilate, or retain sufficiently qualified personnel. The loss or limitation of the services of any of our executive officers, members of our management team, or other key personnel or the inability to attract and retain additional qualified key personnel, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

The elimination of monetary liability against our directors, officers, and employees under Delaware law and the existence of indemnification rights for our obligations to our directors, officers, and employees may result in substantial expenditures by us and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers, and employees.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended (our “Certificate of Incorporation”), and our Second Amended and Restated Bylaws (our “Bylaws”) contain provisions permitting us to eliminate the personal liability of our directors and officers to us and our stockholders for damages for the breach of a fiduciary duty as a director or officer to the extent provided by Delaware law. We may also have contractual indemnification obligations under any future employment agreements with our officers. The foregoing indemnification obligations could result in us incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against directors and officers, which we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and the resulting costs may also discourage us from bringing a lawsuit against directors and officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties, and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our stockholders against our directors and officers even through such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders.

Because we are a “smaller reporting company,” we will not be required to comply with certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other public companies, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

Following the consummation of the Business Combination, we will be a “smaller reporting company,” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. As a smaller reporting company, we are eligible for exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not smaller reporting companies, including, but not limited to reduced disclosure obligations, including with respect to executive compensation, in our periodic reports, proxy statements, and registration statements. We will continue to be a smaller reporting company if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million as of the prior June 30, or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million as of the prior June 30. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions.

Provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws and Delaware law may discourage a takeover attempt even if a takeover might be beneficial to our stockholders and limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers and employees.

Provisions contained in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us. Provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws impose various procedural and other requirements, which could make it more difficult for stockholders to affect certain corporate actions. For example, our Certificate of Incorporation authorizes our Board to determine the rights, preferences, privileges, and restrictions of unissued series of our Preferred Stock without any vote or action by our stockholders. Thus, our Board can authorize and issue shares of our Preferred Stock with voting or conversion rights that could dilute the voting power of holders of other series of our capital stock. These rights may have the effect of delaying or deterring a change of control of us. Additionally, our Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws establish limitations on the removal of directors and include advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our Board and for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings.

In addition, our Certificate of Incorporation provides that a state or federal court located within the state of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our Certificate of Incorporation, or our Bylaws; any action to interpret, apply, enforce, or determine the validity of our Certificate of Incorporation or our Bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), which prohibits an “interested stockholder” owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which such stockholder acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. These provisions could limit the price that certain investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock.

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our Certificate of Incorporation provides that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. In addition, Section 145 of the DGCL or our Certificate of Incorporation provides that:

The trading price of the shares of our common stock has been and may continue to be volatile and could subject us to litigation.

Stocks of companies in the media and technology industries have historically experienced high levels of volatility. The trading price of our common stock has fluctuated substantially and may continue to do so. These fluctuations could cause you to incur substantial losses, including all of your investment in our common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our common stock, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operational or financial performance, include, among others, the following:

In addition, if the market for stock of media and technology companies or the stock market, in general, experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, results of operations, or financial condition. The trading price of our common stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies in the media and technology industries even if these events do not directly affect us. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. If litigation is instituted against us, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert management’s attention and resources, and adversely affect our business.

Our Board is authorized to issue additional shares of our common stock that would dilute existing stockholders and sales, distribution or issuance of substantial amounts of our common stock could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

Our Board has the authority to issue any or all authorized but unissued shares of our common stock at any price and, with regard to our preferred stock, at any price and with any attributes our Board considers appropriate, absent stockholder approval. The issuance of additional shares of our common stock in the future will reduce the proportionate ownership and voting power of current stockholders and may negatively impact the market price of our common stock. Moreover, the sale or distribution of a substantial number of shares of our common stock, particularly sales by us or our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders, or the perception that these sales or distributions might occur in large quantities, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. In addition, shares subject to outstanding warrants as well as the shares of common stock subject to outstanding options and restricted stock unit awards under our equity incentive plans, and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans, will become eligible for sale in the public market upon issuance, subject to compliance with applicable securities laws. Further, we also may issue our capital stock or securities convertible into our capital stock, from time to time in connection with financing, an acquisition, investments, or otherwise. Any of the aforementioned activity, could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of common stock to decline.

We may issue additional securities with rights superior to those of our common stock, which could materially limit the ownership rights of our stockholders.

We may offer additional debt or equity securities in private or public offerings in order to raise working capital or to refinance our debt. Our Board has the right to determine the terms and rights of any debt securities and preferred stock without obtaining the approval of our stockholders. It is possible that any debt securities or preferred stock that we sell would have terms and rights superior to those of our common stock and may be convertible into shares of our common stock. Any sale of securities could adversely affect the interests or voting rights of the holders of our common stock, result in substantial dilution to existing stockholders, or adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Cyber-attacks and other security threats and disruptions could have a material adverse effect on our business.

As a tech-powered media company, we face cybersecurity threats, such as ransomware and denial-of-service, and attacks on technical infrastructure. Our customers and suppliers face similar cybersecurity threats, and a cybersecurity incident impacting us or any of these entities could materially adversely affect our operations, performance and results of operations.

The sophistication of threats continues to evolve and grow, including the risk associated with the use of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, for nefarious purposes. In addition to cybersecurity threats, we face threats to the security of our systems and employees from terrorist acts, sabotage or other disruptions, any of which could adversely affect our business. The improper conduct of our employees or others working on behalf of us who have access to confidential or sensitive information could also adversely affect our business and reputation. Our customers (including sites that we operate for our customers) and suppliers experience similar security threats.

If we are unable to protect sensitive information, including complying with evolving information security, data protection and privacy regulations, our customers or governmental authorities could investigate the adequacy of our threat mitigation and detection processes and procedures; and could bring actions against us for noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations. Moreover, depending on the severity of an incident, our customers’ data, our employees’ data, our intellectual property (including trade secrets and research, development and engineering know-how), and other third party data (such as suppliers) could be compromised, which could adversely affect our business. Products and services we provide to customers also carry cybersecurity risks, including risks that they could be breached or fail to detect, prevent or combat attacks, which could result in losses to our customers and claims against us, and could harm our relationships with our customers and financial results.

Given the persistence, sophistication, volume and novelty of threats we face, we may not be successful in preventing or mitigating an attack that could have a material adverse effect on us and the costs related to cyber or other security threats or disruptions may not be fully insured or indemnified by other means.

Our suppliers face similar security threats and an incident at one of these entities could adversely impact our business. These entities are typically outside our control and may have access to our information with varying levels of security and cybersecurity resources, expertise, safeguards and capabilities. Adversaries actively seek to exploit security and cybersecurity weaknesses in our supply chain. Breaches in our supply chain could in the future compromise our data and adversely affect customer deliverables. We also must rely on our supply chain for adequately detecting and reporting cyber incidents, which could affect our ability to report or respond to cybersecurity incidents effectively or in a timely manner. Failures by our suppliers could result in damages to you and have an adverse effect on our business and operations.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

Not Applicable.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity

As a tech-powered media company, we face cybersecurity threats, such as ransomware and denial-of-service, and attacks on technical infrastructure. Our customers and suppliers face similar cybersecurity threats, and a cybersecurity incident impacting us or any of these entities could materially adversely affect our operations, performance and results of operations.

We maintain a cyber risk management program designed to identify, assess, manage, mitigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats. This program addresses cybersecurity risks to the corporate information technology (“IT”) environment including systems, hardware, software, data, people, and processes.

The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors oversees management’s processes for identifying and mitigating risks, including cybersecurity risks. Our VP of Information Security regularly briefs senior leadership on our cybersecurity and information security posture including on the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents, and senior leadership will then brief the Audit Committee. In the event of an incident, we intend to follow our incident response playbook, which outlines our planned response from incident detection to mitigation, recovery and notification, including notifying functional areas (e.g. legal), as well as senior leadership and the Board, as appropriate.

Our security team is responsible for our overall information security strategy, including policy, security engineering, operations and cyber threat detection and response. Our security team has extensive experience selecting, deploying, and overseeing cybersecurity technologies, initiatives, and processes. Employees outside of our security team also have a role in our cybersecurity defenses, and they are given training which we believe improves our cybersecurity.

Third parties also play a role in our cybersecurity risk management strategy. We engage third parties to conduct risk assessments and evaluations of our security controls. Such risk assessment and evaluations identify, quantify, and categorize any cyber risks. In addition, we, along with third party cyber risk management specialists, develops a risk mitigation plan to address such risks, and where necessary, remediate potential vulnerabilities identified through the assessment and evaluation process. Third party cybersecurity risk management engagement also includes activities such as penetration testing, independent audits or consulting on best practices to address new challenges. We include security and privacy addendums to our contracts where applicable. We have also commenced third party risk management assessments to help manage the risks associated with reliance on vendors, critical service providers, and other third-parties that may lead to a service disruption or an adverse cybersecurity incident.

Our VP of Information Security and cybersecurity stakeholders regularly brief the senior leadership team on cyber vulnerabilities identified through the risk management process, the effectiveness of our cyber risk management program, the emerging threat landscape, and new cyber risks on at least an annual basis. This includes updates on our processes to prevent, detect, and mitigate cybersecurity incidents.

Notwithstanding the approach we take to cybersecurity, we may not be successful in preventing or mitigating a cybersecurity incident that could have a material adverse effect on us. While we maintain cybersecurity insurance, the costs related to cybersecurity threats or disruptions may not be fully insured. We have not identified any risks from known cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any prior cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our operations, business strategy, regulatory compliance, results of operations, or financial condition. The Company proactively seeks to detect and investigate unauthorized attempts and attacks against Company IT assets, data, and services, and to prevent their occurrence and recurrence where practicable through changes or updates to internal processes and tools and changes or updates to Company service delivery; however, potential vulnerabilities to known or unknown threats will still remain. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors” for a discussion of cybersecurity risks.

Item 2. Properties

As of December 31, 2023, we had two leases in California. In Santa Monica, California we have a leased space which we sublet that terminates in November 2024. In Carlsbad, California we have a lease for office space that is partially sublet. We do not occupy the balance of the space. The Carlsbad lease terminates in March 2025. As we operate our business principally in a virtual environment, these two leased spaces are not utilized in our operations. To the extent we need to lease physical properties in the future, we believe we would be able to find suitable properties at market rates.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we may be subject to claims and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. Except as described in Note 27, Commitments and Contingencies to our accompanying consolidated financial statements under Item 8 of this Annual Report, as of the date of this Annual Report, we are not currently subject to any pending or threatened legal proceedings that we believe would reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

On January 30, 2024, our former President of Media filed an action against us and Manoj Bhargava, alleging claims for breach of contract, failure to pay wages and defamation, among other things, in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, and seeking damages in an unspecified amount. We believe that we have strong defenses to these claims and intend to vigorously defend ourselves and the allegations made in this lawsuit.

On March 21, 2024, our former CEO and Chairman of the Board filed an action against us, members of the Board of directors and Simplify, alleging claims for retaliation, breach of contract, wrongful termination and age discrimination, among other things, in the Superior Court of the State of California seeking damages in an amount of $20 million. We believe that we have strong defenses to these claims and intend to vigorously defend ourselves and the allegations made in this lawsuit.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosure

Not applicable.

Part II.

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

Our common stock began trading on the NYSE American on February 9, 2022 under the symbol “AREN.” Before then, from September 21, 2021 until February 8, 2022, our common stock was quoted on the OTCM’s OTCQX trading under the symbol “MVEN.”

Holders

As of March 28, 2024, there were approximately 162 holders of record of our common stock. Since many of our shares of common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders.

Dividends

We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock, and our present policy is to retain any future earnings to support our operations and finance the growth and development of our business. We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. Any future determination related to our dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our Board.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Use of Proceeds

None.

Item 6. [Reserved]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes to those statements that are included elsewhere in this Annual Report. Our discussion includes forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, such as our plans, objectives, expectations, and intentions. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors. We use words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “continuing,” “ongoing,” “expect,” “believe,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. All dollar figures are presented in thousands unless otherwise stated.

Overview

For an overview of the Company, see the information above presented under the section labeled “Item 1. Business,” which is in “Part I” of this Annual Report.

Key Operating Metrics

Our key operating metrics are:

We monitor and review our key operating metrics as we believe that these metrics are relevant for our industry and specifically to us and to understanding our business. Moreover, they form the basis for trends informing certain predictions related to our financial condition. Our key operating metrics focus primarily on our digital advertising revenue, which has experienced significant growth in recent periods as indicated in the Results of Operations section below. Management monitors and reviews these metrics because such metrics are readily measurable in real time and can provide valuable insight into the performance of and trends related to our digital advertising revenue and our overall business. We consider only those key operating metrics described here to be material to our financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

For pricing indicators, we focus on RPM as it is the pricing metric most closely aligned with monthly average pageviews. RPM is an indicator of yield and pricing driven by both advertising density and demand from our advertisers.

Monthly average pageviews are measured across all properties hosted on the Platform and provide us with insight into volume, engagement and effective page management and are therefore our primary measure of traffic. We utilize a third party source, Google Analytics, to confirm this traffic data.

As described above, these key operating metrics are critical for management as they provide insights into our digital advertising revenue generation and overall business performance. This information also provides feedback on the content on our website and its ability to attract and engage users, which allows us to make strategic business decisions designed to drive more users to read or view more of our content and generate higher advertising revenue across all properties hosted on the Platform.

For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 our RPM was $23.95 and $18.17, respectively. The 32% increase in RPM reflects a significant increase in video advertising as a percentage of total digital advertising as digital video advertising is sold at a significantly higher price than digital display advertising. For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 our monthly average pageviews were 464,261,595 and 489,659,595, respectively. The 5% decrease in monthly average pageviews reflects algorithmic changes at Google, Facebook and other platforms which subdued user click-throughs to the original content.

Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions

Uncertainty in the global economy presents significant risks to our business. Increases in inflation, rising interest rates, instability in the global banking system, geopolitical factors, including the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel and the responses thereto, and the remaining effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may have an adverse effect on our business. While we are closely monitoring the impact of the current macroeconomic conditions on all aspects of our business, the ultimate extent of the impact on our business remains highly uncertain and will depend on future developments and factors that continue to evolve. Most of these developments and factors are outside of our control and could exist for an extended period of time. As a result, we are subject to continuing risks and uncertainties. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, see the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part 1, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash and Working Capital Facility

As of December 31, 2023, our principal sources of liquidity consisted of cash of $9,284 and accounts receivable, net of our advances under the Arena Credit Agreement of $25,202. As of December 31, 2023, the outstanding balance of the Arena Credit Agreement was $19,609. On March 13, 2024 the Arena Credit Agreement was refinanced with the Simplify Loan. As of the issuance date of our accompanying consolidated financial statements our cash balance is $4,151 and the balance outstanding under the Simplify Loan is $7,748, with the additional availability of $17,252.

Our accompanying consolidated financial statements have been presented on the basis that we are a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. We had revenues of $244,203 during fiscal 2023 and have experienced recurring net losses from operations and negative operating cash flows. Consequently, we were dependent upon continued access to funding and capital resources from both new investors and related parties. If continued funding and capital resources are unavailable at reasonable terms, we may not be able to implement our growth plan and plan of operations. These financings may include terms that may be highly dilutive to existing stockholders.

We continue to be focused on growing our existing operations and seeking accretive and complementary strategic acquisitions as part of our growth strategy. We believe, that with additional sources of liquidity and the ability to raise additional capital or incur additional indebtedness to supplement our internal projections, we will be able to execute our growth plan and finance our working capital requirements both in the short-term and long-term.

Going Concern

Management performed an annual reporting period going concern assessment. We are required to assess our ability to continue as a going concern. Our accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the liquidation of liabilities in the normal course of business. Our accompanying consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might be necessary if we are unable to continue as a going concern.

Most recently, for the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred a net loss from continuing operations of $55,582, had cash on hand of $9,284 and a working capital deficit of $145,622. Our net loss from continuing operations and working capital deficit have been evaluated by management to determine if the significance of those conditions or events would limit our ability to meet our obligations when due. Also, since our 2023 Notes, Senior Secured Notes, Delayed Draw Term Notes and 2022 Bridge Notes (as further described below) (collectively “our current debt”) are subject to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024, (b) the closing of the Business Combination, and (c) the termination of the Business Combination (see Note 28, Subsequent Events, in our accompanying consolidated financial statements), unless we are able to refinance or modify the terms of our current debt we run the risk that our debt could be called, therefore, we may not be able to meet our obligations when due.

In our evaluation, management determined there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for a one-year period following the financial statement issuance date, unless we are able to refinance or modify our current debt.

We plan to refinance or modify the maturities of our current debt and complete the Business Combination to alleviate the conditions that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, however, there can be no assurance that we will be able to refinance or modify our current debt and complete the Business Combination.

Debt Financings and Obligations

Net proceeds from our debt financings consisted of the following:

Arena Credit Agreement. We were party to a financing and security agreement with SLR (the “Arena Credit Agreement”), as amended on December 15, 2022 and August 31, 2023, pursuant to which SLR extended a $40,000 line of credit for working capital purposes secured by a first lien on all our cash and accounts receivable and a second lien on all other assets. Borrowings under the facility bore interest at the prime rate plus 4% per annum of the amount advanced and had a maturity date of December 31, 2025. The aggregate principal amount outstanding, plus accrued and unpaid interest as of December 31, 2023 was $19,609. On March 13, 2024, the Arena Credit Agreement was refinanced by the Simplify Loan, which bears interest at 10% per annum of the amount advanced and has a maturity date of March 13, 2026.

2023 Notes. Pursuant to the Third A&R NPA (as defined below), on August 31, 2023, we issued $5,000 aggregate principal amount of notes with additional borrowings of $1,000 on September 29, 2023 and $2,000 on November 23, 2023 (the “2023 Notes”). On December 1, 2023, Renew, an affiliated entity of Simplify, in its capacity as agent for the purchasers and as purchaser, purchased the 2023 Notes from BRF Finance Co., LLC (“BRF Finance”), an affiliated entity of B. Riley Financial, Inc. (“B. Riley”). Borrowings under the 2023 Notes bore interest at 10% per annum. On December 29, 2023, we failed to make the interest payment due on the 2023 Notes resulting in an event of default with subsequent agreement to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024; (b) the occurrence of the closing of the Business Combination and (c) the termination of the Business Combination prior to closing (further details are provided under the heading Arena Loan Agreement in Note 28, Subsequent Events in our accompanying consolidated financial statements). The balance outstanding under our 2023 Notes as of December 31, 2023 was $8,000.

Bridge Notes. Pursuant to the Third A&R NPA (as defined below), on December 15, 2022, we issued $36,000 aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes (the “Bridge Notes”). On December 1, 2023, Renew, an affiliated entity of Simplify, in its capacity as agent for the purchasers and as purchaser, purchased the Bridge Notes from BRF Finance. We received net proceeds of $34,728, after the payment of $1,000 to B. Riley for an advisory fee and $272 for other legal costs, from the issuance of the Bridge Notes. Interest on the Bridge Notes was payable in cash at a rate of 10% per annum as amended on August 31, 2023, from 12% per annum quarterly, with an increase in the interest rate by 1.5% per annum on March 1, 2023, May 1, 2023 and July 1, 2023. On December 29, 2023, we failed to make the interest payment due on the Bridge Notes resulting in an event of default with subsequent agreement to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024; (b) the occurrence of the closing of the Business Combination and (c) the termination of the Business Combination prior to closing (further details are provided under the heading Arena Loan Agreement in Note 28, Subsequent Events in our accompanying consolidated financial statements). The Bridge Notes are subject to certain mandatory prepayment requirements, including, but not limited to, a requirement that we apply the net proceeds from certain debt incurrences or equity offerings to repay the Bridge Notes. We may elect to prepay the Bridge Notes, at any time, at our option at 100% of the principal amount. The Bridge Notes are secured by liens on the same collateral that secures indebtedness under our outstanding Senior Secured Notes (as defined below) and are guaranteed by our subsidiaries that guarantee the Third A&R NPA. The Note Purchase Agreement contains covenants and events of default substantially similar to those contained in the note purchase agreement that governed the Third A&R NPA. The proceeds received were used for the acquisition of Men’s Journal and to repay $5,928 of our existing Delayed Draw Term Notes (as defined below). The balance outstanding under our Bridge Notes as of December 31, 2023 was $36,000.

Senior Secured Notes. We are party to a third amended and restated note purchase agreement (the “Third A&R NPA”), with Renew, an affiliated entity of Simplify, where we issued senior secured notes (the “Senior Secured Notes”). On December 1, 2023, Renew purchased the Senior Secured Notes from BRF Finance. The Senior Secured Notes bear interest at a rate of 10% per annum. Interest payments are payable at Renew’s discretion either in cash quarterly in arrears on the last day of each quarter or by adding the interest to the outstanding principal amount. On December 29, 2023, we failed to make the interest payment due on the Senior Secured Notes resulting in an event of default with subsequent agreement to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024; (b) the occurrence of the closing of the Business Combination and (c) the termination of the Business Combination prior to closing (further details are provided under the heading Arena Loan Agreement in Note 28, Subsequent Events in our accompanying consolidated financial statements). The balance outstanding under our Senior Secured Notes as of December 31, 2023 was $62,691, which included outstanding principal of $48,791 and payment of in-kind interest of $13,900 that we were permitted to add to the aggregate outstanding principal balance.

Delayed Draw Term Notes. Pursuant to the Third A&R NPA, we agreed to issue delayed draw term notes (the “Delayed Draw Term Notes”). On December 1, 2023, Renew, an affiliated entity of Simplify, in its capacity as agent for the purchasers and as purchaser, purchased the Delayed Draw Term Notes from BRF Finance. The Delayed Draw Term Notes bear interest at a rate of 10% per annum. Interest payments are payable, at Renew’s discretion, either in cash quarterly in arrears on the last day of each fiscal quarter or in kind in arrears on the last day of each fiscal quarter. On December 29, 2023, we failed to make the interest payment due on the Delayed Draw Term Notes resulting in an event of default with subsequent agreement to a forbearance period through the earlier of the following: (a) April 30, 2024; (b) the occurrence of the closing of the Business Combination and (c) the termination of the Business Combination prior to closing (further details are provided under the heading Arena Loan Agreement in Note 28, Subsequent Events in our accompanying consolidated financial statements). We paid $5,928 in principal on December 31, 2022. The Delayed Draw Term Notes have a maturity date of December 31, 2026. The balance outstanding under the Delayed Draw Term Notes as of December 31, 2023 was $4,000.

Acquisition

On January 11, 2023, we entered into an asset purchase agreement with Teneology, Inc., pursuant to which we acquired certain assets (consisting of the RoadFood media business, including digital and television assets; the Moveable Feast media business, including digital and television assets; the Fexy-branded content studio business; and the MonkeySee YouTube Channel media business, collectively “Fexy Studios”), for a purchase price of $3,307. The purchase price consisted of the following: (1) $500 cash paid at closing; (2) $75 cash payments due in three equal installments of $25 on March 1, 2023 (paid), April 1, 2023 (paid) and May 1, 2023 (paid); (3) $200 deferred cash payment due on the first anniversary of the closing date, subject to certain indemnity provisions; and (4) the issuance of 274,692 shares of our common stock, subject to certain lock-up provisions, on the closing date with a fair value of $2,000 (fair value was determined based on an independent appraisal); and which is subject to a put option under certain conditions. The number of shares of the Company’s common stock issued was determined based on a $2,225 value using the common stock trading price on the day immediately preceding the January 11, 2023 closing date (on the closing date the common stock trading price was $7.94 per share).

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

None.

Material Contractual Obligations

We have material contractual obligations that arise in the normal course of business primarily consisting of employment contracts, consulting agreements, leases, liquidated damages, debt and related interest payments. Purchase obligations consist of contracts primarily related to merchandise, equipment, and third party services, the majority of which are due in the next 12 months. See Note 7, Leases, Note 15, Liquidated Damages Payable, Note 18, Bridge Notes, and Note 19, Long-term Debt, in our accompanying consolidated financial statements for amounts outstanding as of December 31, 2023, related to leases, liquidated damages, bridge financing and long-term debt.

During 2022, we assumed the lease from Men’s Journal for office space in Carlsbad, California, that expires in March 2025, and as of December 31, 2023 we remain responsible for $1,439 over the remaining lease term. The lease provides for fixed payments of $89 for three months, $92 for twelve months and $94 for twelve months, with an estimate of common expenses per month of $25 through the end of the lease term. Pursuant to two subleases entered into during 2023, the sublessees will pay us an aggregate of $312, net of security deposits, through March 2025.

We also subleased our office space in Santa Monica, California in November 2021 and remain responsible to the original lessor for $373 through October 2024. Pursuant to the sublease, the sublessee will pay us an aggregate of $225 through October 2024.

During 2021, we entered into a termination agreement of our sublease agreement for a property located in New York, New York and remain responsible for $4,000 in cash payments to the sublandlord through October 2024.

Working Capital Deficit

We have financed our working capital requirements since inception through issuances of equity securities and various debt financings. Our working capital deficit as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 was as follows:

As of December 31, 2023, we had a working capital deficit of $145,622, as compared to $137,669 as of December 31, 2022, consisting of $90,399 in total current assets and $236,021 in total current liabilities. As of December 31, 2022, our working capital deficit consisted of $78,695 in total current assets and $216,364 in total current liabilities.

Our cash flows during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 consisted of the following:

For the year ended December 31, 2023, net cash used in operating activities was $24,772, consisting primarily of $239,737 of cash paid to employees, Publisher Partners, Expert Contributors, suppliers, and vendors, and for revenue share arrangements and professional services, and $12,101 of cash paid for interest, offset by $227,066 of cash received from customers. For the year ended December 31, 2022, net cash used in operating activities was $11,304, consisting primarily of $219,282 of cash paid to employees, Publisher Partners, Expert Contributors, suppliers, and vendors, and for revenue share arrangements, advance of royalty fees and professional services, and $9,528 of cash paid for interest, offset by $219,407 of cash received from customers.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, net cash used in investing activities was $3,212, consisting primarily of $3,773 for capitalized costs for our Platform and $500 for the acquisition of a business, offset by $1,061 from sale of assets. For the year ended December 31, 2022, net cash used in investing activities was $38,590, consisting primarily of $35,331 for the acquisition of a business, $5,179 for capitalized costs for our Platform, and $530 for property and equipment, offset by $2,450 from the sale of an equity investment.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, net cash provided by financing activities was $22,895, consisting primarily of $11,333 (excluding accrued offering costs of $167) in net proceeds from the public offering of common stock, $5,517 from borrowings under our Arena Credit Agreement, $7,543 (excluding debt issuance costs of $457) in net proceeds from issuance of our 2023 Notes; offset by $1,423 tax payments relating to the withholding of shares of common stock for certain employees, and $75 payment of deferred cash payments for an acquisition. For the year ended December 31, 2022, net cash provided by financing activities was $54,416, consisting primarily of $30,490 (net of issuance costs paid of $1,568) in net proceeds from a public offering of common stock, $28,800 (net of issuance costs paid of $1,272 and payments of $5,928) in proceeds from long term-debt, $2,104 from advancements of our Arena Credit Agreement, and $95 from exercises of common stock options, offset by $4,468 for tax payments relating to the withholding of shares of common stock for certain employees, $2,152 related to payments of restricted stock liabilities, and $453 related to deferred cash payments for an acquisition.

Results of Operations

Comparison of Fiscal 2023 to Fiscal 2022

For the year ended December 31, 2023, the loss from operations improved $20,081 to $35,802 as compared to $55,883 during the year ended December 31, 2022 due to a $23,268 increase in revenue, with a $6,130 decrease in operating expenses. For the year ended December 31, 2023, the net loss was $55,582, a decrease of $15,276 as compared to a net loss of $70,858 for the year ended December 31, 2022 as the improvement in the loss from operations was partially offset by an increase in interest expense of $6,537 included in other expenses.

Revenue

The following table sets forth revenue, cost of revenue, and gross profit from continuing operations:

For the year ended December 31, 2023 we had gross profit of $101,963, as compared to $88,012 for the year ended December 31, 2022, an increase of $13,951. Gross profit percentage for the year ended December 31, 2023 was 41.8%, as compared to 39.8% for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The improvement in gross profit percentage was driven by an increase in total revenue of $23,268, or 10.5%, primarily as a result of increased digital advertising due to improved programmatic video inventory monetization. This increase is partially offset by an increase in cost of revenue of $9,317, or 7%, resulting from higher publisher partner revenue share along with increased technology, Platform and software licensing costs.

The following table sets forth revenue from continuing operations by category:

For the year ended December 31, 2023, total revenue increased $23,268 to $244,203 from $220,935 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The primary sources of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 were as follows: (i) digital advertising of $135,376, (ii) digital subscriptions of $12,764, (iii) licensing and syndication revenue and other digital revenue of $23,866, (iv) print advertising of $9,881 and (v) print subscriptions of $62,316

The primary driver of the increase in our total revenue is derived from digital advertising revenue which benefited from a 32% rise in RPMs due to the higher mix of higher priced digital video advertising in the year ended December 31, 2023 versus the prior year. Other digital revenue, which was mostly e-commerce revenue, increased by $4,218 to $5,384. These improvements were partially offset by a decrease in digital subscriptions of $8,392, resulting in a $22,194, or 14.8%, increase in total digital revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the prior year period. In addition, total print revenue increased by $1,074 as print advertising decreased by $333 and print subscriptions grew by $1,407.

Cost of Revenue

The following table sets forth cost of revenue from continuing operations by category:

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we recognized cost of revenue of $142,240, as compared to $132,923 for the year ended December 31, 2022, representing an increase of $9,317. Cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 was impacted by increases in (i) Publisher Partner revenue share payments of $7,066, (ii) technology, Platform and software licensing fees of $2,696, (iii) content and editorial expenses of $3,581, and (iv) printing, distribution and fulfillment costs of $556; partially offset by a decrease in stock-based compensation of $3,673.

Operating Expenses

Selling and Marketing

The following table sets forth selling and marketing expenses from continuing operations by category: