ZDGE Zedge Inc

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

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

FOR THE QUARTERLY PERIOD ENDED OCTOBER 31, 2023

or

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

Commission File Number: 1-37782

ZEDGE, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

(330) 577-3424

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

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

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 and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted 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 and post such files). Yes ☒  No ☐ 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, 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 an emerging growth company, indicate 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 is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.): Yes ☐ No ☒

As of December 12, 2023, the registrant had the following shares outstanding:

ZEDGE, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

ZEDGE, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands, except par value data)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

ZEDGE, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(in thousands, except for per share data)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

ZEDGE, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

(in thousands)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

ZEDGE, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(in thousands)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

ZEDGE, INC.

NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following information should be read in conjunction with the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and the associated notes thereto of this Quarterly Report, and the audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto and our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2023 (the “Form 10-K”), as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

As used below, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “the Company,” “Zedge,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Zedge, Inc., a Delaware corporation and its subsidiaries, GuruShots Ltd., Zedge Europe AS and Zedge Lithuania UAB, collectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that contain the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” and similar words and phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) Economic, geopolitical and market conditions can adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, including our revenue growth and profitability, which in turn could adversely affect our stock price; (2) Our ability to successfully make acquisitions and/or successfully integrate acquisitions that we have made into Zedge without incurring unanticipated costs or without being subject to other integration issues that may disrupt our existing operations; (3) Delay or failure to realize the expected synergies and benefits of the GuruShots acquisition; (4) The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our employees, customers, partners, and the global financial markets; (5) Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the international community’s response; and (6) Recent attack by Hamas and other terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip and Israel’s war against them. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to Item 1A to Part I “Risk Factors” in the Form 10-K. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this report and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Investors should consult all of the information set forth in this report and the other information set forth from time to time in our reports filed with the SEC pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including the Form 10-K.

Geo-Political and Macroeconomic Conditions and the COVID-19 Pandemic

We are subject to risks and uncertainties caused by events with significant macroeconomic impacts, including but not limited to, rising interest rates, actions taken to counter inflation, reduced consumer confidence, supply side disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. The future and full impact that these factors may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations is unclear. The risks related to our business are further described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part II, Item 1A of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and those discussed under Item 1A to Part I “Risk Factors” in the Form 10-K.

Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

We are closely monitoring the current and potential impact on our business, our people, and our users/customers as Russia’s war with Ukraine evolves. We have taken steps to comply with applicable domestic and international regulatory restrictions on international trade and financial transactions. Revenues associated with our users/customers in Russia and Belarus are not material to our consolidated financial results, and we anticipate that blocking Russian and Belarus users/customers’ access to our mobile app and web platforms will not have a material impact on our business. Management and our Board of Directors are monitoring the regional and global ramifications of the continuing events.

Impact of Israel-Hamas War

Given our operations in Israel, the impact of economic, political, geopolitical, and military conditions in the region directly affects us, including conflicts involving missile strikes, infiltrations, and terrorism. Notably, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel, resulting in casualties and military engagement. In addition, Hezbollah, another terrorist organization based in Lebanon has been indiscriminately shelling Israel. The extent and duration of this conflict remain uncertain, potentially involving other groups. Israel’s response led to the mobilization of reservists, affecting our workforce. Prior to this, changes in Israel’s judicial system had already raised concerns about the business environment, compounded by recent events, potentially impacting foreign investment, currency fluctuations, credit ratings, interest rates, and security markets. Furthermore, regional political unrest and threats from extremist groups, notably Iran, pose additional risks. Management and our Board of Directors are closely monitoring the situation in Israel to address potential business disruptions and implications.

COVID-19 Update

Although the World Health Organization declared in early May of 2023 that COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency we continue to actively monitor the COVID-19 developments and potential impact on our employees, business and operations. The effects of COVID-19 did not have a material impact on our result of operations or financial condition for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2023. However, given the evolution of the COVID-19 situation, and the global responses to curb its spread, we are not able to estimate the effects COVID-19 may have on our future results of operations or financial condition.

Overview

Zedge, Inc. (“Zedge”) builds digital marketplaces and friendly competitive games around content that people use to express themselves. Our leading products include Zedge Ringtones and Wallpapers, a freemium digital content marketplace offering mobile phone wallpapers, video wallpapers, ringtones, and notification sounds as well as pAInt, a generative AI wallpaper maker, GuruShots, a skill-based photo challenge game, and Emojipedia, the #1 trusted source for ‘all things emoji’. Our vision is to enable and connect creators who enjoy friendly competitions with a community of prospective consumers in order to drive commerce.

We are part of the ‘Creator Economy,’ where over 1 billion people create and share their content across social platforms, mobile, and video games, and content marketplaces. According to Linktree, over 200 million identify as creators, people who use their influence, skill, and creativity to amass an audience and monetize it. Furthermore, TechCrunch reports that 12% of full-time creators earn more than $50,000 per year, while Influencer Hub reports 10% of influencers earn more than $100,000 per year. We view the Creator Economy as an opportunity for Zedge to expand its business, especially as we execute by connecting our gamers with our marketplace.

The Zedge Ringtones and Wallpapers app (which is named “Zedge Wallpapers” in the App Store), which we refer to as our “Zedge App,” offers a wide array of mobile personalization content including wallpapers, video wallpapers, ringtones, and notification sounds, and is available both in Google Play and the App Store. As of October 31, 2023, our Zedge App has been installed nearly 625 million times since inception and had 28.5 million monthly active users (“MAU”) as of October 31, 2023. MAU is a key performance indicator (“KPI”) that captures the number of unique users that used our Zedge App during the final 30 days of the relevant period. Our platform allows creators to upload content to our marketplace and avail it to our users either for free or for a price, via ‘Zedge Premium,’ the section of our marketplace where we offer premium content (i.e., for purchase). In turn, our users utilize the content to personalize their phones and express their individuality.

In fiscal 2023, we introduced pAInt, a generative AI wallpaper maker in the Zedge App. A generative AI wallpaper maker is an implementation of artificial intelligence software that can create images from text descriptions. To interface with a generative AI image maker, a user enters a text description of the image they want to create, and the software generates an image based on that description. In addition, we upgraded Zedge+, our paid subscription offering, by bundling together an ad-free experience with value adds making the offering more compelling.

In fiscal 2022, we introduced several new customer facing product features and social and community features, all meant to improve customer engagement, MAU, and revenue growth over the long term.

The Zedge Marketplace monetization stack consists of advertising revenue generated when users view advertisements when using the Zedge App (and the related functionality under the zedge.net website), the in-app (or web-based) sale of Zedge Credits, our virtual currency, that is used to purchase Zedge Premium content, and a paid-subscription offering that provides an ad-free experience to users that purchase a monthly or annual subscription. In April 2023, we introduced a subscription tier in the iOS version of the app. As of October 31, 2023, we had approximately 648,000 active subscribers.

In late 2021, we introduced ‘NFTs Made Easy’ to a limited number of Zedge Premium creators. All NFT Made Easy transactions are made using Zedge Credits.

We often refer to our freemium ringtones and wallpapers, our subscription offering, the functionality for creators to market their products and ancillary offering and features both in our Zedge App and website, as our Zedge Marketplace. 

In April 2022, we acquired GuruShots, a recognized category leader focused on gamifying the photography vertical. GuruShots offers a platform spanning iOS, Android, and the web that provides a fun, educational and structured way for amateur photographers to compete in a wide variety of contests showcasing their photos while gaining recognition with votes, badges, and awards. We estimate that the total addressable market of amateur photographers using their smartphones to take and publicly share artistic photos is 30-40 million people per month and that the market is still in its infancy. Every month, GuruShots stages more than 300 competitions that result in players uploading in excess of 750,000 photographs and casting close to 4 billion “perceived votes”, which are calculated by multiplying the number of votes that each player casts by a weighting factor based on various factors related to that user. To improve engagement, GuruShots has adopted a set of retention dynamics focused on individual, team and community dynamics that create a sense of belonging, inspiration, recognition, improvement, and competition.

Today, GuruShots utilizes a ‘Free-to-Play’ business model that leads to strong monetization with the purchase of resources that are used to give paying players an edge while still maintaining a fair and competitive experience for all participants.

As we look to the future, we are advancing several initiatives that we expect will drive user growth, increase engagement, drive in-app purchases, and advance our in-game economy. Some of these include:

We market GuruShots to prospective players, primarily via paid user acquisition channels, and utilize a host of creative formats including static and video ads in order to promote the game. Our marketing team invests material resources in analyzing all attributes of a campaign ranging from the creative assets, offer acquisition channel, and platform (i.e., iOS, Android, and web), just to name a few, with the goal of determining whether a specific campaign is likely to yield a profitable customer. When we unearth a successful combination of these variables we scale up until we experience diminishing returns. Ultimately, we believe that the efforts we are making to advance the product coupled with the investment in user acquisition can significantly increase GuruShots’ player base.

Beyond our commitment to growing both the Zedge App and GuruShots on a standalone basis, we believe that there are many potential synergies that we can capitalize on that exist between the two businesses. Specifically, we plan to enable the ability for GuruShots players to become Zedge Premium artists and sell their photos to our audience of 28+ million MAU as standard digital images or NFTs. In addition, we look to benefit from the experience that the GuruShots team possesses and test gamifying the Zedge App. We believe that successful gamification can contribute to increasing engagement, retention, and lifetime value, all critical KPIs for our business. Longer term, we believe that there are complementary content verticals that lend themselves to gamification. To this end we have been developing a new hybrid casual title, ‘AI Art Master,’ which enables players to create generative AI images and compete in themed based competitions with these images. Our new mobile game, AI Art Master, is presently in its soft-launch phase across the Philippines, Poland, India, Argentina and Chile. Based on analyzing user data and performing extensive user testing, we’re refining user experience and game mechanics to better convert installs into engaged players, enhance retention, and develop a robust in-game economy. As we iterate, we aim to extend the soft-launch to more countries, targeting a commercial launch in the first half of 2024.

In August 2021, we acquired the assets of Emojipedia Pty Ltd (“Emojipedia”), including Emojipedia.org the world’s leading authority dedicated to providing up-to-date and well-researched emoji definitions, information, and news as well as World Emoji Day and the annual World Emoji Awards. In October 2023, Emojipedia received approximately 41 million monthly page views and has approximately 9.7 million monthly active users as of October 31, 2023 of which approximately 52.7% are located in well-developed markets. It is the top resource for all things emoji, offering insights into data and cultural trends. As a member of the Unicode Consortium, the standards body responsible for approving new emojis, Emojipedia works alongside major emoji creators including Apple, Google, Meta, and X, formally known as Twitter.

We believe that Emojipedia provides growth potential to the Zedge App, and it was immediately accretive to earnings post acquisition in August 2021. In the past year, we have made many changes to Emojipedia including migrating to a new ad mediation platform, overhauling its backend, and redesigning the Emojipedia website. We will continue to enhance this offering and are exploring new features including a native mobile offering as well as additional monetization opportunities.

Critical Accounting Policies

Our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements included in the Form 10-K. The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses as well as the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Critical accounting policies are those that require application of management’s most subjective or complex judgments, often as a result of matters that are inherently uncertain and may change in subsequent periods. Our critical accounting policies include those related to revenue recognition, business combination, intangible assets and goodwill, capitalized software and technology development costs, and stock-based compensation. Management bases its estimates and judgments on historical experience and other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. For additional discussion of our critical accounting policies, see our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in the Form 10-K.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards Not Yet Adopted

Please refer to Note 1 to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 to Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Zedge App-MAU and ARPMAU

The presentation of our results of operations includes disclosure of two key performance indicators – Monthly Active Users (MAU) and Average Revenue Per Monthly Active User (ARPMAU) from our Zedge App. MAU is a key performance indicator that we define as the number of unique users that used our Zedge App during the previous 30-day period, which is important to understanding the size of our active user base for our Zedge App which is a main driver of our revenue. Changes and trends in MAU are useful for measuring the general health of our business, gauging both present and potential users/customers’ experience, assessing the efficacy of product improvements and marketing campaigns and overall user engagement.

ARPMAU is defined as (i) the total revenue derived from Zedge App in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAU in that same period. ARPMAU for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAU for each month during that period. ARPMAU is valuable because it provides insight into how well we monetize our users and, changes and trends in ARPMAU are indications of how effective our monetization investments are.

MAU decreased 10.7% in the three months ended October 31, 2023 when compared to the same period a year ago, primarily attributable to lackluster year-over-year growth in global new mobile phone sales resulting in a significant decline in organic new installs in the current period. Additionally, we have experienced a continuing shift in the regional customer make-up with MAU in emerging markets (particularly India) representing an increasing portion of our user base. As of October 31, 2023, users in emerging markets represented about 78.2% of our MAU, as compared to 77.6% from the same period a year ago. ARPMAU for the three months ended October 31, 2023 increased 16.9% when compared to the same period a year ago, primarily due to the increase in advertising rate from the same period a year ago which was negatively impacted by the geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions at that time.

The following tables present the MAU – Zedge App and ARPMAU – Zedge App for the three months ended October 31, 2023 as compared to the same period a year ago:

The following charts present the MAU – Zedge App and ARPMAU – Zedge App for the consecutive eight fiscal quarters ended October 31, 2023:

GuruShots-MAPs and ARPMAP

Monthly Active Payers (“MAPs”). We define a MAP as a unique active user on the GuruShots app or GuruShots.com in a month that completed at least one in-app purchase (“IAP”) during that time period. MAPs for a time period longer than one month are the average MAPs for each month during that period. We estimate the number of MAPs by aggregating certain data from third-party attribution platforms.

Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer (“ARPMAP”). We define ARPMAP as (i) the total revenue from IAPs derived from GuruShots and GuruShots.com in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAPs in that same period. ARPMAP for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAP for each month during that period. ARPMAP shows how efficiently we are monetizing each MAP.

MAP decreased 29.7% in the three months ended October 31, 2023 when compared to the same period a year ago, primarily attributable to Apple’s App Tracking Transparence (“ATT”) framework which impeded our ability to invest in paid user acquisition (“PUA”) campaigns profitably in terms of return on ad spend or (“ROAS”). As such, we continued to scale back our PUA spend for GuruShots in Q1 fiscal 2024 while continuously testing with new campaigns and creatives in order to unearth attractive ROAS scaling opportunities. ARPMAP increased 0.5% to $51.2 in the three months ended October 31, 2023 from $50.9 in the three months ended October 31, 2022.

The following table shows our MAP and ARPMAP for the three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022.

The following charts present the MAP and ARPMAP – GuruShots for the consecutive eight quarters ended October 31, 2023:

Our KPIs related to GuruShots are not based on any standardized industry methodology and are not necessarily calculated in the same manner that other companies or third parties may use to calculate these or similarly titled measures. The numbers that we use to calculate MAP and ARPMAP are derived from data that we generate internally. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable judgments and estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.

Results of Operations

Three months ended October 31, 2023 compared to three months ended October 31, 2022

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Revenues

The following table sets forth the composition of our revenues for the three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands):

Advertising revenue. Advertising revenue increased 10.0% in the three months ended October 31, 2023, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to higher eCPM which have recovered from the downturn in the global economic conditions in the a year ago period.

Paid subscription revenue. Subscription revenue increased 9.5% in the three months ended October 31, 2023, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to the new iOS subscription offering which has a higher subscription price than the Android offering. Additionally, we rolled out lifetime subscriptions for Android users in August 2023 and the initial results were quite encouraging, although there can be no assurance that the trend will continue. Both initiatives contributed to the increase in subscription billings to $1.1 million in the three months ended October 31, 2023 from $0.8 million in the three months ended October 31, 2022.

The following table summarizes subscription revenue for the three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022:

Subscription billings — We calculate subscription billings by adding the change in subscription deferred revenue between the start and end of the period to subscription revenue recognized in the same period.

The following table presents a reconciliation of subscription billings to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, for each of the periods indicated:

Digital goods and services. Digital goods and services revenue declined 29.0% to $0.9 million in three months ended October 31, 2023 from $1.3 million in the three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to the 29.7% decrease in GuruShots’ MAP for the corresponding periods.

Other Revenue. Other revenue consists primarily of Zedge Premium revenue. Gross transaction value (the total sales volume transacting through the platform), or “GTV,” increased 35% in the three months ended October 31, 2023 compared to the same periods a year ago. Net revenue increased 9.2%, primarily due to lower breakage which resulted in lower gross margin in the current period.

The following table summarizes Zedge Premium gross and net revenue for the three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022:

Direct cost of revenues. Direct cost of revenues consists primarily of content hosting and content delivery costs.

Direct cost of revenues decreased 23.1% in the three months ended October 31, 2023, compared to three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to the revamping of our backend infrastructure in both Zedge App and GuruShots as part of the cost reduction initiatives implemented during fiscal 2023.

As a percentage of revenue, direct cost of revenues in the three months ended October 31, 2023 was 6.9%, compared to 9.2% in the three months ended October 31, 2022.

Selling, general and administrative expense. Selling, general and administrative expense (“SG&A”) consists mainly of payroll and benefits, stock-based compensation expense (as discussed below), paid user acquisition expenses, third-party payment processing fee relate to in-app purchases, marketing, consulting, professional fees, software licensing (“SaaS”), recruiting fees, facilities and public company related expenses. 

SG&A expense decreased 5.6% in the three months ended October 31, 2023 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to lower net compensation costs, lower stock-based compensation as discussed below, and lower professional fees offset by net higher PUA expenses. We ramped up PUA for the Zedge App but scaled back PUA for GuruShots during the three months period ended October 31, 2023 when compared to the same period a year ago. We started investing in PUA during fiscal 2023 to counter the decline in organic installs of our Zedge App. We expect to increase our PUA spend in fiscal 2024 provided the ROAS remains compelling.

As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expense in the three months ended October 31, 2023 was 77.6% compared to 84.4% in the three months ended October 31, 2022.

Global headcount as of October 31, 2023 totaled 95 (including 29 at GuruShots) compared to 99 (including 34 at GuruShots) as of October 31, 2022 with the majority of our employees currently based in Lithuania and Israel.

SG&A expense also included stock-based compensation expense including equity grants to employees and consultants, as well as stock issuances to pay for board compensations and 401(k) matching contributions. The following table summarizes stock-based compensation expense for the three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022:

Stock-based compensation expenses decreased 13.9% in the three months ended October 31, 2023 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022. The decrease was primarily attributable to the lower compensation expense related to the DSU’s with both service and market conditions which are recognized based on the graded vesting method. Certain stock options, deferred stock unit and restricted stock grants are more fully described in Note 7 Stock-Based Compensation to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 to Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization consist mainly of amortization of intangible assets in connection with the GuruShots and Emojipedia acquisitions and capitalized software and technology development costs of our internal developers on various projects that we invested in specific to the various platforms on which we operate our service.

Depreciation and amortization expenses decreased 2.3% in three months ended October 31, 2023 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022.

Interest and other income, net. Net interest income in the three months ended October 31, 2023 increased to $131,000 in the three months ended October 31, 2023 from $35,000 in the three months ended October 31, 2022 due to higher interest rates earned on our cash balances. This $96,000 increase in net interest income was offset by a $50,000 impairment charge related to our investment in a privately held company of which the carrying value was reduced to $0 in the three months ended October 31, 2023.

Net loss resulting from foreign exchange transactions. Net loss resulting from foreign exchange transactions is comprised of gains and losses generated from movements in NOK and EUR relative to the U.S. Dollar, including gains or losses from our hedging activities.

In the three months ended October 31, 2023, we recognized a Mark to Market (“MTM”) losses of $208,000 from NOK and EUR hedging activities, compared to a MTM losses of $101,000 in the three months ended October 31, 2022 due primarily to the strengthening of the US dollar against NOK and EUR, as more fully described in Note 4, Derivative Instruments, to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 to Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Provision for (benefit from) income taxes. During Q1 fiscal 2024, we had pretax income of about $184,000 in respect of which we accrued $198,000 in income tax expense, an effective tax rate of 108% which is higher than the statutory rate primarily due to discrete tax items of $128,000 associated with the vesting of restricted stock and DSUs in the current period as more fully described in Note 7 Stock-Based Compensation to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 to Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. During Q1 fiscal 2023, we had pretax loss of about $242,000 in respect of which we accrued $73,000 in income tax benefit, an effective tax rate of 30% which is higher than the statutory rate primarily due to certain permanent differences related to the stock-based compensation expenses.

See Note 13, Income Taxes, to the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in Item 1 to Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Comparison of our Segment Results of Operations

The following table presents the results for our Zedge Marketplace and GuruShots segment income (loss) from operations for the Three months ended October 31, 2023 and 2022:

For the three months ended October 31, 2023, our income from operations related to the Zedge Marketplace increased 20.7% compared to the three months ended October 31, 2022, primarily due to higher advertising revenue offset by higher PUA expenses in Zedge App.

For the three months ended October 31, 2023, our loss from operations related to GuruShots was $1.3 million compared to $1.6 million for the three months ended October 31, 2022 after accounting for the $150,000 change in fair value of contingent consideration. GuruShots continued to underperform due primarily to declining MAPs, see KPIs discussion above.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

General