Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC) today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020. All figures are in U.S. dollars.

“The fourth quarter was a solid finish to a very good year for Tucows,” said Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucows Inc. “Revenue and gross margin from our Domains and Ting Internet businesses, excluding the impact of large bulk domains sales from our Domains Portfolio in prior year periods, increased 6% and 13% year over year, respectively, for the fourth quarter, and for all of 2020 were up 5% and 13%.”

“Our Domains business continued to benefit from the elevated but decelerating transaction levels, resulting from the pandemic impact, which on top of the underlying consistency of this business and our focus on the quality of our customer base, resulted in the highest annual gross profit for this business in our 21-year history.”

“In Mobile, the fourth quarter — our first full quarter under our new MSE model — is off to a good start, setting the stage as we look forward to increasing that revenue in the future as DISH adds customers under the Ting Mobile brand and we migrate DISH’s Boost customers to the MSE platform.”

“And In our Ting Internet business, we achieved our second consecutive quarter of capital expenditures above $10 million — just shy of our third quarter record — and by far our best quarter ever for new serviceable addresses. The quarter capped off a year in which we grew serviceable addresses by 53% year-over-year, total subscribers by 51%, contributing to year-over-year growth in revenue and gross margin of 67% and 52%, respectively. All of this sets us up very well for continued growth in all of these key metrics as we accelerate our capital expenditure spending in 2021.”

Financial Results

Net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $70.8 million, a decrease of 18% from $85.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2019. The majority of the decrease was the result of the absence of Ting Mobile MVNO revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 following the Company’s sale of its Ting Mobile customer relationships to DISH and the related earn out being recognized as Other Income. The decrease was also due in part to a $1.5 million bulk sale in the Domains Portfolio business in the fourth quarter of 2019 that was not repeated in the fourth quarter of 2020 as the Company exited its Domains Portfolio business at the end of 2019. Excluding the Mobile Services business, as well as the impact of the bulk Domains sale in the third quarter of 2019, net revenue for the combined Domains and Ting Internet businesses for the fourth quarter of 2020 increased 6% from the fourth quarter of 2019.

Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $17.4 million, a decrease of 33% from $26.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2019. The decrease in gross profit is attributable to the same factors as the decrease in revenue. Excluding the Mobile Services business, as well as the impact of the bulk Domains sale in the fourth quarter of 2019, gross margin for the combined Domains and Ting Internet businesses for the fourth quarter of 2020 increased 13% from the fourth quarter of 2019.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $2.1 million, or $0.19 per share, a decrease of 64% from $5.8 million, or $0.55 per share for the fourth quarter of 2019.

Adjusted EBITDA¹ for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $12.8 million, a decrease of 20% compared with $16.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2019. Excluding the impact of an outsized Portfolio bulk domain name sale in the fourth quarter of 2019, Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2020 decreased 12% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020 were $8.3 million compared with $10.2 million at the end of the third quarter of 2020 and $20.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.

Tucows Announces $40 Million Stock Buyback Program

Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ: TCX, TSX: TC) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program to repurchase, from time to time, up to $40 million of its common stock in the open market.

The new $40 million buyback program will commence February 10, 2021 and will terminate on or before February 9, 2022. Purchases for the new buyback program will be made exclusively through the facilities of the Nasdaq Capital Market. The previously announced $40 million buyback program for the period February 13, 2020 to February 12, 2021 has been terminated.

All shares purchased by Tucows under the stock buyback program will be retired and returned to treasury.

The timing and exact number of common shares purchased will be at Tucows’ discretion and will depend on available cash and market conditions. Tucows may suspend or discontinue the repurchases at any time, including in the event Tucows would be deemed to be making an acquisition of its own shares under Rule 13e-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Subject to applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules, all purchases will occur through the open market and may be in large block purchases. Tucows does not intend to purchase its shares from its management team or other insiders.

The purchase will be funded from available working capital and existing credit facilities. As of February 8, 2021, Tucows had 10,615,725 common shares outstanding.