Skillsoft Corp. (SKIL.US) 2026财年第一季度业绩电话会
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会议摘要
Amidst macroeconomic uncertainty, Skillsoft reports growth in its Talent Development Solutions segment, strategic leadership changes, and improvements in adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. The company faces challenges in live learning revenue, particularly in the US public sector, but reaffirms its full fiscal year outlook with a focus on key growth areas.
会议速览
Skillsoft's First Quarter Fiscal 2026 Results and Executive DiscussionThe call discusses Skillsoft's financial results for the quarter ending April 30, 2025, including forward-looking statements about business outlook, financial performance, and market expectations. The speaker emphasizes the risks and uncertainties associated with these statements and refers listeners to the company's SEC filings for further information. Non-GAAP financial measures are used throughout the discussion, with a reconciliation provided in the earnings press release. Executive Chair and CEO, along with the CFO, are available for a Q&A session following the prepared remarks.
Skillsoft Announces New CFO John Frederick and Continued Transformation Progress Amidst Macroeconomic UncertaintySkillsoft introduces John Frederick as the new CFO and highlights the company's ongoing transformation plan and strategic focus despite experiencing lower discretionary spending and elongated decision-making by customers. The company also emphasizes growth within the TDS segment and the expansion of its leadership team with a new Chief Marketing Officer, Rayan Reese.
Skillsoft's Global Scale in Interactive Learning Experiences and Strategic Financial Outlook for Fiscal 2026Skillsoft highlights its global delivery of comprehensive, interactive learning experiences through AI-powered coaching, certification dashboards, scalable coaching programs, and partnerships for skill development. Despite macroeconomic challenges, the company maintains a strategic focus on key growth areas, expecting to return to top-line growth, deliver margin expansion, and generate positive free cash flow in fiscal 2026.
Skillsoft's CFO Discusses First Quarter Financial Results Highlighting Revenue Growth, Cost Reductions, and Free Cash Flow Improvements Amid Transformation JourneyThe CFO of Skillsoft provides a detailed review of the company's first-quarter financial results, noting a 1% year-over-year increase in Talent Development Solutions revenue, improved profitability, and positive free cash flow. Cost reduction initiatives led to decreases in various expenses, contributing to higher adjusted EBITDA margins. Despite GAAP net loss, adjusted net income showed significant improvement. Free cash flow saw a substantial increase, attributed partly to seasonal factors and timing of collections. The CFO reiterates full-year guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA, expressing confidence in achieving positive free cash flow for the fiscal year.
Question and Answer Session on June 10, 2025: Instructions for Participants and Engagement ProcessOn June 10, 2025, a Q&A session unfolds with detailed guidance for participants on how to join the question queue using their telephones, emphasizing the use of star keys for engagement and disengagement.
Reaffirming Annual Targets Amidst Market Uncertainty and Discretionary Spend ErosionDespite experiencing heightened macro uncertainty, a decline in discretionary spending, and elongated sales cycles, the company is maintaining its full-year targets. Confidence in achieving these goals stems from the growth in the TDS business segment and a positive second derivative observed in the latter half of the previous year for the GK segment. Additionally, a large deal pipeline and stabilizing live learning market contribute to the belief that, assuming the macro market stabilizes, the financial guidance can be met.
Strengthening Business Growth: Strategic Planning and Execution in 2025The focus shifts from stabilizing the business to enhancing growth, involving strategic direction, product plans, and improved go-to-market strategies. Positive customer feedback indicates a promising market direction, urging accelerated strategic capability development for sales and marketing.
Strategic Financial Management and Transformation Efforts in Mid-2025The company has successfully funded necessary transformations through resource reallocations, leading to decreased operating expenses. Focus shifts to investing in marketing products for growth, with expected multiyear benefits. Strong free cash flow in the recent quarter is attributed to excellent cash collections and strategic disbursement timing, although this performance may be challenging to repeat. Bookings significantly contributed to the robust Q1 results.
Analysis of Government Business Impact on Revenue and Resilience in the Coaching SectorThe speaker discusses the effect of government spending, particularly in the federal sector, on their business revenue, noting a decrease in discretionary spend impacting live learning. Despite this, there's resilience observed in the coaching business, with growth continuing despite pressures. The situation regarding workforce reduction in the government sector remains fluid and is being closely monitored.
John's Vision for CFO Role: Integration and Alignment in Business TransformationThe focus is on transforming the business through integration and alignment, with finance playing a pivotal role in every decision. The aim is to support company-wide efforts by connecting finance with market and product strategies.
Review of Q1 Performance and Outlook for Q2 Amidst Macro UncertaintiesDespite macroeconomic uncertainties, the business performed well in Q1 with areas for improvement being addressed. The top priority remains enhancing the go-to-market strategy, with notable investments expected to bear fruit in Q2, generating excitement among customers and recruiters.
要点回答
Q：What are the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in the earnings call?
A：The non-GAAP financial measures discussed in the call are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and their reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in today's commentary and defined in the company's earnings press release available on its website.
Q：Who is John Frederick and what are his new roles at the company?
A：John Frederick is the new CFO of the company. He previously served as the Chief Administrative Officer, led the finance team, and held executive positions at a company acquired by Cornerstone. His experience and growth-oriented mindset make him a natural choice for the CFO role.
Q：What is the company's progress against its transformation commitments?
A：The company is actively investing capital into its business, with reinvestment happening predominantly in the first half of the fiscal year. It expects to deliver positive free cash flow and top line growth for the full fiscal year, with most of this growth anticipated in the back half of the year.
Q：How is the company executing its go-to-market strategy?
A：The company is executing its go-to-market strategy by continuing to focus on global knowledge. For the first quarter, there was a decline in US public sector discretionary live learning spending, but an increase in large-scale non-US public sector deals, with investments in international growth and upskilling in various technology areas.
Q：What are the key examples of customer engagement and success mentioned?
A：A key example of customer engagement and success is a large European bank that has partnered with the company for a blended program leveraging its full range of digital learning capabilities. Another success story involves a leading financial services company undergoing a strategic evolution that has partnered with the company for a comprehensive skills development program.
Q：How is the product strategy evolving and what new offerings have been introduced?
A：The product strategy is expanding with new offerings like a robust AI capability that differentiates and engages learners, an AI-powered coach available in over 40 languages, a certification dashboard for tracking progress, and a coaching platform for scaling internal coaching programs. The company has also partnered with Uconnect to launch a class module and evolve with an end-to-end certification hub and skill tracking.
Q：How is the company managing the macroeconomic environment and what is their focus in growth areas?
A：The company is closely monitoring the macroeconomic environment and continuing to strategically focus resources on key growth areas despite seeing some elongation in decision-making and softening in discretionary spend.
Q：What were the financial performance and profitability results mentioned for the first quarter?
A：The financial performance and profitability results for the first quarter included revenue of $99 million for Talent Development Solutions (TDS), with an adjusted EBITDA of $22.1 million, or 17.8% of revenue. The company experienced a GAAP net loss of $38 million and an adjusted net income of $2.5 million for the first quarter.
Q：What was the impact of the public sector on global revenue and what are the expectations for future performance?
A：The public sector impacted global revenue negatively, with a decrease in revenue of approximately 15.7%, but the company remains on track with its transformation journey and is excited about the pipeline of opportunities, especially large global public sector deals.
Q：What factors should be considered for the forecasted free cash flow in the full fiscal year?
A：For the forecasted free cash flow in the full fiscal year, one should consider the seasonality of cash flow, where the first quarter is highest and the second quarter is lowest, and the timing of collections and disbursements which benefited the first quarter but is not expected to be repeated in the second quarter.
Q：What guidance is reiterated for the full fiscal year 2026?
A：The company is reiterating its previously communicated guidance ranges for fiscal 2026, which includes revenue in a range of $530 million to $545 million and adjusted EBITDA of $112 million to $118 million.
Q：What is the speaker's outlook on the company's guidance for the year?
A：The speaker has been focused on whether the company can hit the guidance for the year, particularly concerned about the guidance for the year when analyzing business segments, with a specific focus on TDS and the outlook for Gk.
Q：How did the company's TDS business perform in the early part of the year?
A：The TDS business grew for four consecutive quarters, which gave the speaker confidence in its performance. Additionally, the company experienced a positive trend in Gk performance, with the declines softening in the back half of the year and a resilience shown by the go-to-market team.
Q：How does the speaker describe the company's response to market uncertainty and the challenges faced in Q1?
A：The company's response to market uncertainty involved seeing improvements towards the end of Q1, with stabilization in the live learning market expected. The confidence in the Gk performance is attributed to working through the challenges faced in Q1 and the hope that the uncertainty becomes part of the new market normal, similar to how Covid was managed.
Q：What factors are contributing to the confidence in the company's Gk performance?
A：The confidence in the Gk performance is due to the resilience of the early strategy shifts, the resilience of the go-to-market team, and a strong deal pipeline, including recurring relationships that provide visibility. Assuming the market stabilizes, there is a reasonable thesis for Gk to resume its improvement, leading to the reaffirmation of P&L guidance.
Q：What are the expectations for the company's growth and strategy moving forward?
A：The company aims to deliver strong shares and plans to crank up the growth rate further as the year progresses. The strategies laid out are positive, and the company is excited about what it can achieve. The focus is now on translating customer feedback into go-to-market and product strategies, and on building out the strategic capabilities for sales coverage and the overall go-to-market approach.
Q：How is the company planning to invest in its growth and what is the expected timeline for these investments?
A：The company is investing in its go-to-market products in the first half of the year and is focusing on building strategic capabilities for selling, which will take longer but is being done in parallel with delivering this year's investments. The goal is to quickly move through the investment phase to have proper go-to-market coverage, tools, marketing, and market strategies in place for revenue growth.
Q：What is the impact of the resource reallocations last year on the company's expenses?
A：The resource reallocations from last year are fully implemented, and the company is seeing benefits in the form of lower year-over-year operating expenses. The first half of the year emphasizes investing in growth, and the back half should see the benefits from the investments made in growth.
Q：How should free cash flow performance be interpreted in the context of the company's collections and bookings?
A：The speaker indicates that the free cash flow for the quarter was strong, and while collections timing and bookings upside contributed to it, there was also more aggressive spend management. The company is focusing on getting through the investment phase quickly to have the necessary tools and coverage for market growth. The back half of the year is expected to reflect the impact of these investments as they begin to yield benefits.
Q：What is the impact of timing on cash disbursements?
A：Cash disbursements experienced timing impacts in the first week and second week of May, which had an effect on the timing of payments. Over the year, some of these impacts are expected to reverse in Q2. The company provided guidance indicating a range of 13 to 18 million for cash use in the balance of the year, and they anticipate using the collected cash to finance business operations.
Q：What were the main factors contributing to the strong Q1 performance?
A：The main catalyst for the strong Q1 performance was the bookings made during the seasonality peak.
Q：What caused the softness in government business and has it improved?
A：The softness in government business was attributed to a reduction in discretionary spending, particularly in the federal sector, with some relief seen in Europe. The exact contributors to the slower government spending are still being assessed, especially in light of recent workforce reductions which are fluid and impact the number of employees in the government. The company is closely monitoring these changes.
Q：How is the company handling the situation with executive orders and government spending?
A：The company is closely monitoring the effects of executive orders on revenue, which have not yet had a material impact. However, there is uncertainty due to government workforce reductions, which are still being assessed. The company is staying steady, not over-rotating, and watching the situation very closely, with revenue from executive orders yet to be determined.
Q：What is the company's approach to integrating finance within the organization?
A：The company is aiming to integrate finance into every decision made within the organization. The goal is to infuse finance into the company's operations in a manner that aligns with market and product objectives, acting as a supportive function to the teams involved in these areas.
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