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 , 2024
or
☐
Transition Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Commission
file number 001-40079
Rumble
Inc.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 85-1087461
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
444 Gulf of Mexico Dr Longboat Key , FL 34228
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s
telephone number, including area code: (941) 210-0196
Securities
registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange
on which registered
Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share RUM The Nasdaq Global Market
Warrants to purchase one share of Class A common stock RUMBW The Nasdaq Global Market
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.
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐ Emerging growth company ☒
Non-accelerated filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒
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 has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness
of its internal controls 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 Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The
aggregate market value of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, held by non-affiliates of the registrant, computed by reference
to the closing price as of June 30, 2024 was approximately $ 468.5 million.
As of March 20,
2025 , the registrant had issued and outstanding (i) 214,817,093 s hares of Class A
common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, ( ii) 123,690,477 shar es of Class C common stock,
par value $0.0001 per share, and (i ii) 95,791,120 s hares of Class D common stock, par value
$0.0001 per share.
Rumble
Inc.
Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the Year Ended December 31, 2024
Part
I
1
Item
1.
Business
1
Item
1A.
Risk Factors.
7
Item
1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments
35
Item
2.
Properties
37
Item
3.
Legal Proceedings
37
Item
4.
Mine Safety Disclosures
38
Part
II
39
Item
5.
Market for Registrant’s
Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
39
Item
6.
[Reserved]
40
Item
7.
Management’s Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
40
Item
7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative
Disclosures About Market Risk
52
Item
8.
Financial Statements and
Supplementary Data
53
Item
9.
Changes in and Disagreements
With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
54
Item
9A.
Controls and Procedures
54
Item
9B.
Other Information
55
Item
9C.
Disclosure Regarding Foreign
Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections
55
Part
III
56
Item
10.
Directors, Executive Officers
and Corporate Governance
56
Item
11.
Executive Compensation
61
Item
12.
Security Ownership of Certain
Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
67
Item
13.
Certain Relationships and
Related Transactions, and Director Independence
71
Item
14.
Principal Accountant Fees
and Services
72
Part
IV
74
Item
16.
Form 10-K Summary
77
Signatures
78
i
Cautionary
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This
Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Form 10-K”) contains forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, our plans,
strategies and prospects, both business and financial. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Although
we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable,
we cannot provide assurance that we will achieve or realize these plans, intentions or expectations. Forward-looking statements are inherently
subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Generally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning
possible or assumed future actions, business strategies, events or results of operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,”
“believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,”
“may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,”
“should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words
does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Investors should read statements that contain these words carefully because they
discuss future expectations, contain projects of future results of operations or financial condition; or state other “forward-looking”
information. Forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this Form 10-K and may involve significant
judgments and assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside our control. There
may be events in the future that management is not able to predict accurately or over which we have no control. We do not undertake any
obligation to update to otherwise correct any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances after the
date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events, inaccuracies that become apparent after the date hereof or
otherwise, except as may be required under applicable laws. The risk factors and cautionary language contained in this Form 10-K provide
examples of risks, uncertainties, and events that may cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations described in such
forward-looking statements, including among other things:
●
our ability to grow and
manage future growth profitably over time, maintain relationships with customers, compete within our industry and retain key employees;
●
the possibility that we
may be adversely impacted by economic, business, and/or competitive factors;
●
our limited operating history
makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects;
●
our recent and rapid growth
may not be indicative of future performance;
●
we may not continue to
grow or maintain our active user base, and may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability;
●
risks relating to our ability
to attract new advertisers, or the potential loss of existing advertisers or the reduction of or failure by existing advertisers
to maintain or increase their advertising budgets;
●
our cloud business may
not achieve success, and, as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected;
●
negative media campaigns
may adversely impact our financial performance, results of operations, and relationships with our business partners, including content
creators and advertisers;
●
spam activity, including
inauthentic and fraudulent user activity, if undetected, may contribute, from time to time, to some amount of overstatement
of our performance indicators;
●
we collect, store, and
process large amounts of user video content and personal information of our users and subscribers. If our security measures are breached,
our sites and applications may be perceived as not being secure, traffic and advertisers may curtail or stop viewing our content
or using our services, our business and operating results could be harmed, and we could face governmental investigations and legal
claims from users and subscribers;
ii
●
our recently implemented
Bitcoin treasury strategy exposes us to various risks associated with holding Bitcoin;
●
we may fail to comply with
applicable privacy laws, subjecting us to liability and damages;
●
our cloud services business
operates in a highly regulated environment, subject to a complex and rapidly evolving array of domestic and international laws, regulations,
and industry standards governing data privacy, cybersecurity, data localization, and cross-border data transfers;
●
we are subject to cybersecurity
risks and interruptions or failures in our information technology systems and as we grow and gain recognition, we will likely need
to expend additional resources to enhance our protection from such risks. Notwithstanding our efforts, a cyber incident could occur
and result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss;
●
we may be found to have
infringed on the intellectual property of others, which could expose us to substantial losses or restrict our operations;
●
we may face liability for
hosting a variety of tortious or unlawful materials uploaded by third parties, notwithstanding the liability protections of Section
230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“Section 230”);
●
we may face negative publicity
for removing, or declining to remove, certain content, regardless of whether such content violated any law;
●
paid endorsements by our
content creators may expose us to regulatory risk, liability, and compliance costs, and, as a result, may adversely affect our business,
financial condition and results of operations;
●
our traffic growth, engagement,
and monetization depend upon effective operation within and compatibility with operating systems, networks, devices, web browsers
and standards, including mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control;
●
our business depends on
continued and unimpeded access to our content and services on the internet. If we or those who engage with our content experience
disruptions in internet service, or if internet service providers are able to block, degrade or charge for access to our content
and services, we could incur additional expenses and the loss of traffic and advertisers;
●
we face significant market
competition, and if we are unable to compete effectively with our competitors for traffic and advertising spend, our business and
operating results could be harmed;
●
we
rely on data from third parties to calculate certain of our performance metrics. Real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm
our reputation and negatively affect our business;
●
changes to our existing
content and services could fail to attract traffic and advertisers or fail to generate revenue;
iii
●
we derive the majority
of our revenue from advertising. The failure to attract new advertisers, the loss of existing advertisers, or the reduction of or
failure by existing advertisers to maintain or increase their advertising budgets would adversely affect our business;
●
we depend on third-party
vendors, including internet service providers, advertising networks, and data centers, to provide core services;
●
hosting and delivery costs
may increase unexpectedly;
●
we have offered and intend
to continue to offer incentives, including economic incentives, to content creators to join our platform, and these arrangements
may involve fixed payment obligations that are not contingent on actual revenue or performance metrics generated by the applicable
content creator but rather are based on our modeled financial projections for that creator, which if not satisfied may adversely
impact our financial performance, results of operations and liquidity;
●
we may be unable to develop
or maintain effective internal controls;
●
we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations;
●
potential diversion of
management’s attention and consumption of resources as a result of acquisitions of other companies and success in integrating
and otherwise achieving the benefits of recent and potential acquisitions;
●
we may fail to maintain
adequate operational and financial resources or raise additional capital or generate sufficient cash flows;
●
changes in tax rates, changes
in tax treatment of companies engaged in e-commerce, the adoption of new tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities
may adversely impact our financial results;
●
compliance obligations
imposed by new privacy laws, laws regulating online video sharing platforms, other online platforms, and online speech in certain
jurisdictions in which we operate, or industry practices may adversely affect our business; and
●
other risks and uncertainties
indicated in this Form 10-K, including those under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” herein, and other filings that we have made
or will make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).
iv
Part
I
Item
1. Business
Overview
Unless
the section herein specifies otherwise, references to the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”
are to, (a) prior to the consummation of the business combination (the “Business Combination”) contemplated by that certain
business combination agreement, dated December 1, 2021 (as amended, the “Business Combination Agreement”), by and between
CF Acquisition Corp. VI, a Delaware corporation (“CF VI”), and Rumble Inc., a corporation formed under the laws of the Province
of Ontario, Canada (“Legacy Rumble”), either (i) CF VI or (ii) Legacy Rumble, as the context may require, and (b) following
the closing of the Business Combination, Rumble Inc., a Delaware corporation. Unless the section herein specifies otherwise, references
to “Rumble” are to (x) prior to the closing of the Business Combination, Legacy Rumble and (y) following the closing of the
Business Combination, Rumble Inc., a Delaware corporation. References to “ExchangeCo” are to 1000045728 Ontario Inc., a corporation
formed under the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Rumble, and references to “ExchangeCo
Shares” are to the exchangeable shares of ExchangeCo.
Our
Story
Rumble
was founded in 2013, when the concept of ‘preferencing’ on the internet was simple – it was big vs. small. At that
time, it was clear that the incumbent social video platforms were beginning to preference large creators, influencers, and brands, while
leaving the small creator behind and thus, creating a market opportunity. At that time, Rumble was founded based on the premise of providing
small creators with the tools and distribution that they needed to succeed.
Fast
forward to 2020, when a new, and much more nuanced world of ‘preferencing’ was evolving online, which included sophisticated
algorithms used by the incumbents for amplification and censorship. In contrast, Rumble never moved the goal posts on its content policies.
This consistency and transparency, along with tailwinds from the 2020 U.S. election season, led to dramatic growth in Rumble’s
user base from 1.2 million monthly active users (“MAUs”) in Q2 2020 to 21 million MAUs in Q4 2020.
Soon
after, the preferencing and censorship enforced by the incumbent platforms continued to expand into many other content areas, including
the crypto-finance community and pop culture. As a result, more creators and their audiences found a new home on Rumble. These have included
top creators, such as Dan Bongino, Russell Brand, Kim Iversen, Dave Rubin, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Kohrs, and Dana
White, just to name a few. As a result, our user base has more than tripled in four years, growing from 21 million MAUs (UA) in Q4 2020
to 68 million MAUs (GA4) in Q4 2024. We have also started to focus on monetizing our user base, with our Average Revenue Per User (“ARPU”)
increasing from $0.28 in Q4 2023 to $0.39 in Q4 2024. (For further discussion of our key performance indicators, including definitions
and explanations of the ways that management uses these metrics in managing the performance of the business, please refer to the section
titled “Key Business Metrics” under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations.”)
During
this period of accelerated growth, Rumble announced a business combination with CF VI, a special purpose acquisition company, on December
1, 2021. The Business Combination was successfully completed on September 16, 2022, and our Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per
share (“Class A Common Stock”) began trading on The Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol RUM. The
Business Combination and related PIPE investment provided Rumble with gross proceeds of approximately $400 million, before transaction
expenses. This capital infusion has helped Rumble compete with its big tech and other incumbent competitors. Ultimately, 99.9% of CF
VI shareholders elected not to redeem their shares, which we believe was a strong expression of support for Rumble’s mission, its
growth story and its future potential.
With
this capital in place, Rumble set out to execute on a growth strategy with the following four key tenets: 1) invest in content to grow
and diversify the content library and user base; 2) build Rumble Advertising Center, an in-house advertising marketplace and network;
3) create the infrastructure to support the Rumble video platform and future Rumble Cloud go-to-market needs; and 4) hire across the
organization to support domestic and future international growth.
1
In furtherance of Rumble’s
strategy, the Company recently closed a strategic investment from Tether Investments S.A. de C.V. (as successor in interest to Tether
Investments Limited) (“Tether”), the largest company in the digital assets industry and the most widely used dollar stablecoin
across the world with more than 400 million users. Pursuant to the transaction, which closed on February 7, 2025, Tether purchased 103,333,333
shares of Class A Common Stock at a price per share of $7.50, totaling $775 million in gross proceeds to Rumble. The Company will use
$250 million of the proceeds, after transaction expenses, to support growth initiatives. As part of the closing of the transaction, the
Company also completed its previously announced tender offer, pursuant to which the Company purchased 70,000,000 shares of Class A Common
Stock for $525 million, excluding fees and expenses related to the tender offer. Rumble’s existing Board of Directors (“Board”)
and governance structure, including Chris Pavlovski’s super-majority voting control, remains unchanged following the transaction.
Our
Portfolio
Rumble consists of two business units: Rumble Services
and Rumble Cloud.
1) Rumble
Services :
● Rumble
Video : a video sharing platform enabled by Rumble.com and its associated mobile and connected TV applications;
● Rumble
Streaming Marketplace: a multi-platform livestreaming and monetization service for creators enabled by Rumble Studio;
● Rumble
Advertising Center: an in-house advertising marketplace and network enabled by Rumble Advertising Center (“RAC”);
2) Rumble
Cloud :
● Rumble
Cloud: an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering consisting of a portfolio of compute, storage, security, and networking offerings.
Rumble
Services
Vision,
Products and Differentiation
Rumble
Services consists of three core businesses: Rumble Video, Rumble Streaming Marketplace and RAC. The collective vision of Rumble Services
is to provide creators with the best monetization toolkit on the internet. To fulfill this vision, our product roadmap is focused on
the progressive integration of these businesses and underlying products into to a single seamlessly integrated platform, which has the
potential to unlock a variety of differentiated feature sets to users, creators, advertisers, and publishers.
Rumble
Video is enabled primarily through our flagship product, Rumble.com, a free-to-use video sharing and livestreaming platform on which
users can watch, share, like, comment, and upload videos. Users can follow channels to stay in touch with creators and access video on-demand
(“VOD”) and live content streamed by creators. In addition, Rumble Video also offers two types of subscription services:
1) Rumble Premium – a “no ads” experience with access to certain exclusive content, and 2) Locals.com, where users
can access certain free content and purchase subscriptions to support creators and access exclusive content in creator communities. Both
platforms, Rumble.com and Locals.com, are available via desktop and mobile web, iOS and Android mobile applications (“apps”),
as well as connected TV apps including Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, LG, Samsung, and Android TV. In aggregate, Rumble Video provides
a platform for creators to benefit from our growing advertising business and revenue share model.
Rumble
Streaming Marketplace is enabled by Rumble Studio, a new, patent-pending application designed to enable a first-of-its-kind livestreaming
and monetization service for creators. Using Rumble Studio, creators can establish a variety of custom settings for their livestream,
set up, go-live and control their livestream across multiple social platforms, while also benefiting from a variety of custom and programmatic
monetization opportunities, including host-read ads and sponsorships. Rumble Studio is currently available via desktop and mobile web,
as well as iOS and Android mobile applications.
2
Rumble
Advertising Center is our proprietary advertising marketplace and network designed to facilitate transactions for advertisers seeking
to access Rumble.com traffic and also traffic from other publishers in the RAC network. Within the platform, RAC offers a unique set
of advertising opportunities for advertisers, including traditional display and pre-roll/mid-roll video advertising in addition to creator
sponsorships.
The
continued scale and integration of the Rumble Video, Rumble Studio, and RAC platforms will bring a truly differentiated offering to the
market, which is the key to fulfill the Company’s vision of providing the best monetization toolkit for creators on the internet.
How
We Generate Revenue
Our
portfolio of services enables a diversified set of revenue streams, which includes:
● Advertising:
○ Banner
/ Display Advertising: offered to advertisers via RAC across our network of publishers, including Rumble.com.
○ Video
Pre-Roll / Mid-Roll Advertising: offered to advertisers via RAC across our network of publishers, including Rumble.com, and also through
custom integrations into live broadcasts.
○ Creator
Sponsorships: offered to advertisers via RAC programmatically and through direct sales.
● Subscriptions,
Pay-Per-View and Tipping:
○ Rumble
Premium subscriptions from users seeking a “no ads” experience and/or premium Rumble content.
○ Locals.com
revenue generated from users that subscribe to content creators on Locals.com.
○ Badge
Subscriptions: revenue generated from badge subscriptions purchased by users on Rumble.com.
○ Pay-Per-View
and Tipping: revenue generated from pay-per-view videos offered by creators and tips given by users to creators during livestreams.
We
share revenue generated from advertising, subscriptions, pay-per-view and tipping with creators in a revenue-share model.
Sales
& Marketing
A
vast majority of the substantial user growth experienced by Rumble.com between 2020 and 2022 was organic, driven largely through user
and creator advocacy. As a result, very minimal marketing spend was deployed during that time. Throughout 2023 and 2024, while the organic
growth continued, the Company made several investments to bring in new content creators consistent with our goals during the de-SPAC,
which in turn attracted new audiences to the platform. Going forward, we will look to build our brand across multiple audiences, driving
user growth and video consumption through (1) selective content creator partnerships and advocacy, (2) continued strategies to earn unpaid
media coverage and recognition, and (3) increased marketing spend, primarily through digital paid media channels, particularly as advertising
revenues increase.
Our
advertising platform, RAC, is designed as a self-serve platform where advertisers can sign up, build a campaign and bid on traffic leveraging
various targeting tactics. As a result, paid marketing strategies will be employed as inventory is released into the network in an effort
to attract new advertisers into the system. In parallel to this and other growth strategies, we will make continued investment into direct
sales, account management and creator success teams to drive incremental business across display and video advertising, as well as sponsorships.
3
Lastly,
for creators, the Company made several direct investments into large creators in 2023. These investments helped attract high-profile
creators to the platform given that, at the time, our advertising revenues were minimal and creators’ earnings on the Rumble Video
platform were generally not competitive with the earnings potential offered by the incumbent platforms. With the Company now focused
more on growing the advertising business and driving revenue, creators are now better-positioned to earn money on Rumble, which we believe
will bring more content and creators to the platform, thereby yielding more engagement and ultimately driving more advertising revenue.
Competition
We
operate in a challenging and rapidly evolving environment. We compete with other online video distribution platforms, including
YouTube, and confront conduct by YouTube and Google that we believe is highly anti-competitive (see Part I, Item 2, “Legal Proceedings”
for further information). We also face significant challenges in obtaining advertising revenue because advertisers have numerous
options for allocating their advertising budgets. Rumble Video seeks to compete with other platforms by establishing and maintaining
trust with our users, creating an enjoyable viewing experience that welcomes a variety of video content. We seek to operate a neutral
video platform in order to meet the challenges presented by Big Tech.
Rumble
Cloud
Origin,
Vision, Products and Differentiation
Rumble
Cloud was launched in early 2024, and is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering designed to service a wide variety of businesses
from startups to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to enterprise clients.
Rumble
Cloud was built based on the following key premises: 1) it was existential for us to invest and build out the infrastructure to support
Rumble Video and insulate ourselves from arbitrarily enforced terms and conditions and unfavorable economics offered by the incumbent
cloud providers, and 2) given the significant amount of compute, storage and bandwidth requirements of Rumble Video, it was a natural
extension of the business to offer excess infrastructure capacity to the cloud market. Moreover, we saw an opportunity to capitalize
on a product-market fit by specifically addressing the chronic customer pain points in the cloud market, including censorship, trust
with data, vendor lock-in strategies, as well as unfair and unpredictable pricing.
Backed
by our mission to protect a free and open internet, the vision of Rumble Cloud is to empower businesses and allow them to take control
of their IT budgets by providing the most predictable and fair pricing model in the cloud market.
Rumble
Cloud launched and currently operates with the infrastructure and essential computing and storage necessary to run a wide array of workloads
and applications, including:
● Cloud
compute;
● Load
balancers;
● Object
storage;
● Kubernetes
orchestration;
● Block
storage; and
● Virtual
private cloud.
With
Rumble Video as the first anchor tenant of Rumble Cloud, we built our infrastructure from the ground up to run on the latest generation
equipment, including 4th generation AMD EPYC processors. In addition to NVMe SSDs, Rumble Cloud virtual machines run atop fully dedicated
vCPUs, ensuring fast and consistent performance.
How
We Generate Revenue
Rumble
Cloud launched and currently runs on a subscription model. Relative to the unpredictable and volatile consumption-based pricing models
that can cripple a business due to rampant hidden and unexpected costs, Rumble Cloud introduced the concept of a flexible Resource Tier
pricing model, which is designed to provide a transparent and predictable pricing model to its customers and offers unlimited usage within
a given pool of hardware resources for a fixed monthly price. With this model, customers will enjoy the freedom to grow and scale at
a pace that works best for their needs, without surprises on their monthly bill.
4
Sales
& Marketing
We
drive demand for Rumble Cloud using an account executive, account management and channel partner approach. Our direct sales team focuses
on identifying and closing business for the mid-market and enterprise sized clients within defined early adopter segments. Channel partners
include referral, reseller and managed service partners, who are well positioned to complement our sales efforts by expanding the mid-market
and enterprise opportunities.
The
front end of Rumble Cloud, rumble.cloud, is designed to support a self-serve customer acquisition model. Marketing efforts
will be focused on attracting leads and converting them through the marketing funnel via traditional paid, earned and owned media strategies.
Competition
We
operate in a challenging environment, with a majority of the cloud services market owned by the major cloud hyperscalers, Google Cloud,
Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. These companies have significantly greater resources than us and significant existing customer
bases that may be difficult for us to penetrate, especially given the potential for high switching costs in the cloud services market.
Given the market trends of rising multi-cloud strategies and continued complexity and unpredictability in cloud pricing, Rumble Cloud
arrives at an opportune time to enter the market and present a new way for businesses to save money and regain control of their IT budget.
Human
Capital
We
believe that our employees are our most significant resource. As of December 31, 2024, we had 135 full-time employees, of whom 32 were
based in Canada and 103 were based in the United States. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe
we have good relationships with our employees. Our human capital resources objectives include identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing,
and integrating our existing and additional employees. The principal purposes of our equity incentive programs are to attract, retain,
and motivate key employees and directors through the granting of share-based compensation awards.
Government
Regulation
We
are subject to domestic and foreign laws that affect companies conducting business on the internet generally, including laws relating
to the liability of providers of online services for their operations and the activities of their users.
Because
we host user-uploaded content, we may be subject to laws concerning such content. In the U.S., we rely, to a significant degree, on laws
that limit the liability of online providers for user-uploaded content, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA)
and Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230). Countries outside the U.S. generally do not provide as robust protections for online providers
and may instead regulate such entities to a higher degree. For example, in certain countries, online providers may be liable for hosting
certain types of content or may be required to remove such content within a short period of time upon notice. As we expand internationally,
we or our customers may also be subject to additional laws that regulate streaming services or online platforms.
Because
we receive, store and use a substantial amount of information received from or generated by our users, we are also impacted by laws and
regulations governing privacy and data security in the U.S. and worldwide. Examples of such regimes include Section 5 of the Federal
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 41 et. seq. ) (FTCA), the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and
the California Consumer Privacy Act (California Civil Code § 1798.100) (CCPA). These laws generally regulate the collection, storage,
transfer and use of personal information.
Because
our platform facilitates online payments, including subscription fees and tipping, we are subject to a variety of laws governing online
transactions, payment card transactions and the automatic renewal of online agreements. In the U.S., these matters are regulated by,
among other things, the federal Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA) and various state laws.
5
As
a U.S.-based company with Canadian operations, we are subject to a variety of Canadian laws governing our foreign operations, as well
as Canadian and U.S. laws that restrict trade and certain practices.
Intellectual
Property
Our
intellectual property includes trademarks, such as the trademark RUMBLE (registered in the United States, Canada, and the United
Kingdom), other pending international applications to register the trademark RUMBLE , and several pending U.S. trademark registration
applications, including applications for to federally register the trademarks RUMBLE CLOUD , RUMBLE STUDIO , RUMBLE ADVERTISING
CENTER, RUMBLE SPORTS, RUMBLE POLITICS, RUMBLE NEWS, RUMBLE ENTERTAINMENT, RUMBLE PREMIUM, RUMBLE SUBSCRIPTION, the RUMBLE logos ,
LOCALS, and the LOCALS logos; the domain names rumble.com , rumble.cloud, studio.rumble.com, and locals.com ;
copyrights in our source code, website, apps and creative assets; a pending patent application for technology related to Rumble Studio;
and trade secrets. In addition, our platforms are powered by a proprietary technology.
We
rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, a combination of work for hire, assignment, and confidentiality agreements with our employees,
consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as federal and state statutory and common law regarding trademark,
trade dress, domain name, copyright, and trade secrets to protect our assets, brands, proprietary technology, and other intellectual
property rights. We intend to continue to file additional applications to register or otherwise protect our intellectual property rights.
Acquisitions
In
October 2021, we bolstered our value proposition for content creators by acquiring Locals, a solution for (1) creators looking to monetize
their content through subscription, and (2) for users to gain access to premium content from their favorite content creators. The acquisition
was designed to accelerate our subscription revenue model and brought approximately 86,000 subscribers to our platform. Prior to our
acquisition of Locals, we did not offer a consumer-facing subscription service.
In
May 2023, we acquired Callin, a San Francisco-based podcasting and live-streaming platform founded by technology entrepreneur and investor
David Sacks. Callin’s technology laid the foundation for Rumble Studio, which was launched in Q1 2024.
In
October 2023, we acquired North River Project Inc., an entity created to develop what became RAC, an advertising technology solution,
specifically for Rumble. RAC includes an advertising marketplace and network between advertisers bidding and publishers selling display
and video advertisement as well as advertisers bidding on creator sponsorships. RAC continues to be enhanced and represents a significant
milestone in Rumble’s monetization efforts.
Terms
of Service
Our
content policies, which are available at rumble.com/s/terms , contain politically neutral terms that ensure a safe and respectful
exchange of views on the Rumble platform. Among other things, they prohibit content that infringes on the rights of third parties, violates
any law, is pornographic or obscene in nature, promotes or supports violence or unlawful acts (including content that promotes or supports
Antifa, the KKK, white supremacist groups, and entities designated by the U.S. or Canadian government as terrorist organizations), or
exploits minor children (including disclosing personally identifiable information about minor children).
Our
website address is included in this report for informational purposes only. Our website and the information contained therein or connected
thereto are not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and are not considered part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
6
Available
Information
All
periodic and current reports and other filings that we are required to file with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant Section 15(d) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), as amended, are available free of charge from the SEC’s website ( www.sec.gov ).
Such documents are available as soon as reasonably practicable after electronic filing of the material with the SEC. Copies of these
reports (excluding exhibits) may also be obtained free of charge, upon written request to: Rumble Inc., 444 Gulf of Mexico Dr, Longboat
Key, Florida 34228.
We
also post our Code of Ethics on our website. See Part III, Item 10 for more information regarding our Code of Ethics.
Item
1A. Risk Factors
Risks
and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements
contained in this Form 10-K and other public statements we make are described below. Investors in our securities should carefully consider
these risk factors, in addition to the risks and uncertainties discussed above under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements,” together with all of the other information included in this Form 10-K and in our other filings with the SEC. The occurrence
of one or more of the events or circumstances described in these risk factors, alone or in combination with other events or circumstances,
may have an adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. We may face additional risks and
uncertainties that are not presently known to us, or that we currently deem immaterial, which may also impair our business, cash flows,
financial condition and results of operations. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our condensed consolidated
financial statements, which are included in Part II of this Form 10-K.
Summary
of Risk Factors
The
following summarizes risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of
operations. You should read this summary together with the detailed description of each risk factor contained in this section. Such risks
and uncertainties include, but are not limited to:
● weakened
global economic conditions, including the effects of heightened inflation, may affect our
business and operating results;
● our
limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects;
● we
may not continue to grow or maintain our active user base, and may not be able to achieve
or maintain profitability;
● we
may fail to maintain adequate operational and financial resources;
● we
may be unsuccessful in attracting new users to our mobile and connected TV offerings;
● our
traffic growth, engagement, and monetization depend upon effective operation within and compatibility
with operating systems, networks, devices, web browsers and standards, including mobile operating
systems, networks, and standards that we do not control;
● our
business depends on continued and unimpeded access to our content and services on the internet.
If we or those who engage with our content experience disruptions in internet service, or
if internet service providers are able to block, degrade or charge for access to our content
and services, we could incur additional expenses and the loss of traffic and advertisers;
● we
face significant market competition, and if we are unable to compete effectively with our
competitors for traffic and advertising spend, our business and operating results could be
harmed;
● we
rely on data from third parties to calculate certain of our performance metrics. Real or
perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our
business;
● changes
to our existing content and services could fail to attract traffic and advertisers or fail
to generate revenue;
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● we
derive the majority of our revenue from advertising. The failure to attract new advertisers,
the loss of existing advertisers, or the reduction of or failure by existing advertisers
to maintain or increase their advertising budgets may adversely affect our business and operating
results;
● we
may not be able to maintain relationships with existing publishers through the Rumble Advertising
Center (RAC) and may fail to attract new publishers to our network;
● we
depend on third-party vendors, including internet service providers, advertising networks,
and data centers, to provide core services;
● new
technologies have been developed that are able to block certain online advertisements or
impair our ability to deliver advertising, which could harm our operating results;
● if
our users do not continue to contribute content or their contributions are not perceived
as valuable to other users, we may experience a decline in user growth, retention, and engagement
on Rumble, Locals or RAC, which could result in the loss of advertisers and revenue;
● we
have offered and intend to continue to offer incentives, including economic incentives, to
content creators to join our platform, and these arrangements may involve fixed payment obligations
that are not contingent on actual revenue or performance metrics generated by the applicable
content creator but rather are based on our modeled financial projections for that creator,
which if not satisfied may adversely impact our financial performance, results of operations
and liquidity;
● we
are subject to cybersecurity risks and interruptions or failures in our information technology
systems and as we grow and gain recognition, we will likely need to expend additional resources
to enhance our protection from such risks. Notwithstanding our efforts, a cyber incident
could occur and result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or
financial loss;
● spam
activity, including inauthentic and fraudulent user activity, if undetected, may contribute,
from time to time, to some amount of overstatement of our performance indicators and may
negatively impact our reputation;
● our
cloud services business may not achieve success, and, as a result, our business, financial
condition and results of operations could be adversely affected;
● negative
media campaigns may adversely impact our financial performance, results of operations, and
relationships with our business partners, including content creators and advertisers;
● our
management team has limited experience managing a public company;
● our
recently implemented Bitcoin treasury strategy exposes us to various risks associated with
holding Bitcoin;
● our
planned expansion into accepting certain stablecoins as a medium of exchange will expose
us to additional financial, regulatory, operational, and market risks that could adversely
affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;
● the
development and use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) may result in reputational
harm, liability, or other adverse consequences to our business operations;
● we
collect, store, and process large amounts of user video content and personal information
of our users and subscribers. If our security measures are breached, our sites and applications
may be perceived as not being secure, traffic and advertisers may curtail or stop viewing
our content or using our services, our business and operating results could be harmed, and
we could face legal claims from users and subscribers;
● we
may fail to comply with applicable privacy laws, subjecting us to liability and damages;
● our
cloud services business operates in a highly regulated environment, subject to a complex
and rapidly evolving array of domestic and international laws, regulations, and industry
standards governing data privacy, cybersecurity, data localization, and cross-border data
transfers;
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● noncompliance
with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and similar laws can subject us
to criminal or civil liability and harm our business, financial condition and results of
operations;
● we
may be found to have infringed on the intellectual property of others, which could expose
us to substantial losses or restrict our operations;
● we
may face liability for hosting a variety of tortious or unlawful materials uploaded by third
parties, notwithstanding the liability protections of Section 230;
● the
incentives that we offer to certain content creators may lead to liability based on the actions
of those creators;
● changes
in tax rates, changes in tax treatment of companies engaged in e-commerce, the adoption of
new U.S. or international tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities may
adversely impact our financial results;
● compliance
obligations imposed by new privacy laws, laws regulating online video sharing platforms,
other online platforms and online speech in certain jurisdictions in which we operate, or
industry practices may adversely affect our business and operating results;
● we
may become subject to newly enacted laws and regulations that restrict content on the internet;
● paid
endorsements by our content creators may expose us to regulatory risk, liability, and compliance
costs, and, as a result, may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results
of operations;
● we
may face negative publicity for removing, or declining to remove, certain content, regardless
of whether such content violated any law;
● our
Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) has control over key decision making as a result
of his control of a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock;
● our
CEO may be incentivized to focus on the short-term share price as a result of his interest
in shares placed in escrow and subject to forfeiture pursuant to the terms of the Business
Combination Agreement;
● we
have incurred and will incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as
a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition
and results of operations; and
● substantial
future sales of our Class A Common Stock by our current stockholders could cause the market
price of our Class A Common Stock to decline.
Risks
Relating to Our Business
Weakened
global economic conditions, including the effects of heightened inflation, may affect our business and operating results.
Our
overall performance depends in part on worldwide economic conditions. Global financial developments and downturns seemingly unrelated
to us or our industry may negatively affect us. The U.S. and other key international economies have been affected from time to time by
falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, reduced liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, weak economic
growth, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, bankruptcies, implemented or threatened tariffs, trade wars, inflation
and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy. Weak economic conditions or the perception thereof, or significant uncertainty regarding
the stability of financial markets related to stock market volatility, inflation, recession, changes in governmental fiscal, monetary
and tax policies, among others, could adversely impact our business and operating results.
High
inflation rates in the U.S. and globally may result in reduced consumer confidence and discretionary spending, decreased demand by advertisers
for our products and services, increases in our labor and other operating costs, constrained credit and liquidity, reduced government
spending and volatility in financial markets. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve has raised, may again raise, or
may delay lowering the target federal funds rate in response to concerns over inflation risk. Higher than typical interest rates impact
the cost of any borrowing that we may make from time to time and could impact our ability to access the capital markets. Higher than
typical interest rates, especially if coupled with reduced government spending and volatility in financial markets, may have the effect
of further increasing economic uncertainty and heightening these risks. In an inflationary environment, we may be unable to increase
our revenues at or above the rate at which our costs increase, which could negatively impact our operating margins and could have a material
adverse effect on our business and operating results. In such an environment, in which we also face significant competition from larger
and well-capitalized competitors, we may experience rising costs to secure the services of top content creators. We also may experience
lower-than-expected advertising sales, reduced demand for our cloud services offerings, and potential adverse impacts on our competitive
position if there is a decrease in consumer spending.
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Our
limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects.
We
have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our businesses and prospects or forecast our future results. We
are subject to the same risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets. Our financial results
in any given quarter can be influenced by numerous factors, many of which we are unable to predict or are outside of our control, including:
● our
ability to maintain and grow traffic, content uploads, and engagement;
● changes
made to other online video sharing platforms, short form video platforms, video streaming
services, or changes in the patterns of use of those channels by users;
● our
ability to attract and retain advertisers and content creators in a particular period;
● the
number of ads shown to our traffic;
● the
pricing of our advertising products;
● the
diversification and growth of revenue sources beyond current advertising products;
● the
development and introduction of new content, products, or services by us or our competitors;
● increases
in marketing, sales, and other operating expenses that we may incur to grow and expand our
operations and to remain competitive;
● our
reliance on key vendor relationships, including our relationship with Cosmic Inc. and Kosmik
Development Skopje doo (“Cosmic”) to provide content moderation, cybersecurity
support, and software development services, and dependence on a small number of customer
relationships;
● legislation
or judicial activity in Canada, the European Union, or other jurisdictions that forces us
to change our content moderation policies and practices, deactivate certain user accounts,
or make our platforms unavailable in those jurisdictions;
● the
relative interest shown by the public with respect to news and politics, including fluctuations
in such interest before, during and after the traditional U.S. election cycle;
● the
relative popularity with users of the sports leagues, media and political commentators, online
influencers and other personalities with which or with whom we have exclusive contractual
arrangements or are otherwise prominently featured on our platform;
● our
ability to maintain gross margins and operating margins; and
● system
failures or breaches of security or privacy.
We
may not continue to grow or maintain our active user base, may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability, and may not be able
to scale our systems, technology, or infrastructure effectively or grow our business at the same or similar rate as other comparable
companies.
The
growth of our user base, as measured by our current key performance metrics, including monthly active users (MAUs), may not be sustainable
and should not be considered indicative of future levels of active viewers and future performance. In addition, we may not realize sufficient
revenue to achieve or, if achieved, maintain profitability. As we grow our business, our revenue growth rates may slow or reverse in
future periods due to several reasons, which may include slowing demand for our services, increasing competition, a decrease in the growth
of our overall market, an inability to scale our systems, technology or infrastructure effectively, and the failure to capitalize on
growth opportunities or the maturation of our business. We may incur losses in the future for several reasons, including insufficient
growth in the level of engagement, a failure to retain our existing level of engagement, increasing competition, the failure to continue
to attract content creators with large followings, the payment of fixed payment obligations to content creators who join our platform
that turn out to be unprofitable over the term of the applicable contract as a result of actual performance that does not meet our original
modeled financial projections for that creator, the unavailability of certain popular content creators for extended periods of time due
to personal or other reasons, as well as other risks described in these “Risk Factors,” and we may encounter unforeseen expenses,
difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown factors. We expect to continue to make investments in the development and expansion
of our business, which may not result in increased or sufficient revenue or growth, including relative to other comparable companies,
as a result of which we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
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If
we fail to maintain adequate operational and financial resources, particularly if we continue to grow rapidly, we may be unable to execute
our business plan or maintain high levels of service and customer satisfaction.
We
have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, rapid growth, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands
on our management and our operational and financial resources. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we scale our
operational, financial, and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures, and expand internationally. As we continue
to grow, we face challenges of integrating, developing, training, and motivating a rapidly growing employee base in our various offices
in multiple jurisdictions and navigating a complex multinational regulatory landscape. If we fail to manage our anticipated growth and
change in a manner that preserves the functionality of our platforms and solutions, the quality of our products and services may suffer,
which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to attract customers.
To
manage growth in our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to grow and improve our operational, financial, and management
controls and our reporting systems and procedures. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management
resources to grow and change in these areas. Our expansion has placed, and our expected future growth will continue to place, a significant
strain on our management, customer experience, research and development, sales and marketing, administrative, financial, and other resources.
We
anticipate that significant additional investments will be required to scale our operations and increase productivity, to address the
needs of our customers, to further develop and enhance our products and services, including our cloud services business, to expand into
new geographic areas and to scale with our overall growth. If additional investments are required due to significant growth, this will
increase our cost base, which will make it more difficult for us to offset any future revenue shortfalls by reducing expenses in the
short term.
Users
are increasingly using mobile devices and connected TV apps to access content within digital media and adjacent businesses, and if we
are unsuccessful in attracting new users to our mobile and connected TV offerings and expanding the capabilities of our content and other
offerings with respect to our mobile and connected TV platforms, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our
future success depends in part on the continued growth in the use of our mobile apps and platforms by our users. The use of mobile technology
may not continue to grow at historical rates, users may not continue to use mobile technology to access digital media and adjacent businesses,
and monetization rates for content on mobile devices and connected TV apps may be lower than monetization rates on traditional desktop
platforms. Further, mobile devices may not be accepted as a viable long-term platform for several reasons, including actual or perceived
lack of security of information and possible disruptions of service or connectivity. In addition, traffic on our mobile platforms may
not continue to grow if we do not continue to innovate and introduce enhanced products on such platforms, or if users believe that our
competitors offer superior mobile products. The growth of traffic on our mobile products may also slow or decline if our mobile applications
are no longer compatible with operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows or the devices they support. If use of our mobile platforms
does not continue to grow, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our
traffic growth, engagement, and monetization depend upon effective operation within and compatibility with operating systems, networks,
devices, web browsers and standards, including mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control.
We
make our content available across a variety of operating systems and through websites. We are dependent on the compatibility of our content
with popular devices, streaming tools, desktop and mobile operating systems, connected TV systems, web browsers that we do not control,
such as Mac OS, Windows, Android, iOS, Chrome and Firefox, and mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store and the Google
Play Store. Any changes in such systems, devices or web browsers that degrade the functionality of our content or give preferential treatment
to competitive content could adversely affect usage of our content.
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A
significant portion of our traffic accesses our content and services through mobile devices and, as a result, our ability to grow traffic,
engagement and advertising revenue is increasingly dependent on our ability to generate revenue from content viewed and engaged with
on mobile devices. A key element of our strategy is focusing on mobile apps and connected TV apps, and we expect to continue to devote
significant resources to the creation and support of developing new and innovative mobile and connected TV products, services and apps.
We are dependent on the interoperability of our content and our apps with popular mobile operating systems, streaming tools, networks
and standards that we do not control, such as the Android and iOS operating systems. We also depend on the availability of the Rumble
app on mobile app stores, such as Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, and if our access to such stores is limited or terminated,
regardless of the legitimacy of the stated reasons, our ability to reach users through our mobile app will be negatively impacted. We
may not be successful in maintaining or developing relationships with key participants in the mobile and connected TV industries or in
developing content that operates effectively with these technologies, systems, tools, networks, or standards. Any changes in such systems,
or changes in our relationships with mobile operating system partners, handset and connected TV manufacturers, or mobile carriers, or
in their terms of service or policies that reduce or eliminate our ability to distribute and monetize our content, impair access to our
content by blocking access through mobile devices, make it hard to readily discover, install, update or access our content and apps on
mobile devices and connected TVs, limit the effectiveness of advertisements, give preferential treatment to competitive, or their own,
content or apps, limit our ability to measure the effectiveness of branded content, or charge fees related to the distribution of our
content or apps could adversely affect the consumption and monetization of our content on mobile devices. Additionally, our operating
expenses will increase if the number of platforms for which we develop our product expands. In the event that it is more difficult to
access our content or use our apps and services, particularly on mobile devices and connected TVs, or if our users choose not to access
our content or use our apps on their mobile devices and connected TVs or choose to use mobile products or connected TVs that do not offer
access to our content or our apps, or if the preferences of our traffic require us to increase the number of platforms on which our product
is made available to our traffic, our traffic growth, engagement, ad targeting and monetization could be harmed and our business and
operating results could be adversely affected.
Our
business depends on continued and unimpeded access to our content and services on the internet. If we or those who engage with our content
experience disruptions in internet service, or if internet service providers are able to block, degrade or charge for access to our content
and services, we could incur additional expenses and the loss of traffic and advertisers.
Our
products and services depend on the ability of users to access our content and services on the internet. Currently, this access is provided
by companies that have significant market power in the broadband and internet access marketplace, including incumbent telephone companies,
cable companies, mobile communications companies and government-owned service providers. Laws or regulations that adversely affect the
growth, popularity or use of the internet, including changes to laws or regulations impacting internet neutrality, could decrease the
demand for our products or offerings, increase our operating costs, require us to alter the manner in which we conduct our business and/or
otherwise adversely affect our business. We could experience discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede our growth,
cause us to incur additional expense or otherwise negatively affect our business. For example, paid prioritization could enable internet
service providers, or ISPs, to impose higher fees and otherwise adversely impact our business. Internationally, government regulation
concerning the internet, and in particular, network neutrality, may be developing or may not exist at all. Within such an environment,
without network neutrality regulations, we could experience discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede both our and
our customers’ domestic and international growth, increase our costs or adversely affect our business.
We
rely on data from third parties to calculate certain of our performance metrics. Real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm
our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We
track certain performance metrics, such as our MAUs, based on data from third parties. While these numbers are based on what we believe
to be reasonable calculations for the applicable periods of measurement, our third-party providers periodically encounter difficulties
in providing accurate data for such metrics as a result of a variety of factors, including human and software errors. We expect these
challenges may continue to occur, and potentially to increase as our engagement grows. There are also inherent challenges in measuring
usage across our large user base. For example, as further described in our “Key Business Metrics” section, there is a potential
for minor overlap in our usage data due to users who access Rumble’s content through the web, our mobile apps, and connected TVs
in a given measurement period.
Third
parties on which we rely for certain of our key metrics may make changes or improvements to their tools and methodologies. For example,
starting July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics (UA), Google’s analytics platform on which we historically relied for calculating MAUs
using company-set parameters, was phased out by Google and ceased processing data. At that time, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) succeeded UA
as Google’s next-generation analytics platform, which we used to determine MAUs since the third quarter of 2023 and which we expect
to continue to use to determine MAUs in future periods. Although Google has disclosed certain information regarding the transition to
GA4, Google does not currently make available sufficient information relating to its new GA4 algorithm for us to determine the full effect
of the switch from UA to GA4 on our reported MAUs. Because Google has publicly stated that metrics in UA may be more or less similar
to metrics in GA4, and that it is not unusual for there to be apparent discrepancies between the two systems, we are unable to determine
whether the transition from UA to GA4 has had a positive or negative effect, or the magnitude of such effect, if any, on our reported
MAUs. It is therefore possible that MAUs that we reported based on the UA methodology for periods prior to July 1, 2023, cannot be meaningfully
compared to MAUs based on the GA4 methodology in subsequent periods.
12
Changes
to these tools and methodologies could cause inconsistency between current data and previously reported data, which could raise questions
about the usefulness of our reported metrics or make it more difficult for investors to accurately assess our performance over time.
If our users, advertisers, partners and stockholders do not perceive our metrics to be accurate representations, or if we discover material
inaccuracies in our metrics, our reputation may be damaged, resulting in material harm to our business, results of operations, and financial
condition.
We
face significant competition, and if we are unable to compete effectively with our competitors for traffic and advertising spend, our
business and operating results could be harmed.
Competition
for traffic and engagement with our content, products and services is intense. We compete against companies that have greater financial
resources and larger user bases. As a result, our competitors may acquire and engage traffic and users at the expense of the growth or
engagement of our traffic and users, which would negatively affect our business. We believe that our ability to compete effectively for
traffic and users depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, including:
● the
popularity, usefulness and reliability of our content compared to that of our competitors;
● the
timing and market acceptance of our content;
● the
continued expansion and adoption of our content;
● our
ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new content and enhancements to existing
content;
● our
ability, and the ability of our competitors, to attract, develop and retain influencers and
creative talent;
● the
frequency, relative prominence and appeal of the advertising displayed by us or our competitors;
● public
perceptions about the predominance of certain political viewpoints on our platform, regardless
of whether those perceptions are accurate;
● changes
mandated by, or that we elect to make to address, legislation, regulatory constraints or
litigation, including settlements and consent decrees, some of which may have a disproportionate
impact on us;
● our
ability to attract, retain and motivate talented employees;
● the
costs of developing and procuring new content, relative to those of our competitors;
● acquisitions
or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors; and
● our
reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors.
We
also face significant competition for advertiser spend. In determining whether to buy advertising, our advertisers will consider the
demand for our content, demographics of our traffic, advertising rates, results observed by advertisers, and alternative advertising
options. The increasing number of digital media options available, through social networking tools and news aggregation websites, has
expanded consumer choice significantly, resulting in traffic fragmentation and increased competition for advertising. In addition, some
of the larger companies have substantially broader content, product or service offerings and leverage their relationships based on other
products or services to gain additional share of advertising budgets. We will need to continue to innovate and improve the monetization
capabilities of our websites and our mobile products in order to remain competitive. We believe that our ability to compete effectively
for advertiser spend depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, including:
● the
size and composition of our user base relative to those of our competitors;
● our
ad targeting capabilities, and those of our competitors;
● our
ability, and the ability of our competitors, to adapt our respective models to the increasing
power and significance of influencers to the advertising community;
● the
timing and market acceptance of our advertising content and advertising products, and those
of our competitors;
● our
marketing and selling efforts, and those of our competitors;
● public
perceptions about the predominance of certain political viewpoints on our platform, regardless
of whether those perceptions are accurate;
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● the
pricing for our advertising products and services relative to those of our competitors;
● the
return our advertisers receive from our advertising products and services, and those of our
competitors; and
● our
reputation and the strength of our brand relative to our competitors.
Our
cloud services business competes primarily with large, diversified technology companies that focus on large enterprise customers and
provide cloud computing as a component of the suite of services and products that they offer, as well as smaller, niche cloud service
providers. Many of our competitors and potential competitors, particularly the larger competitors, have substantial competitive advantages
compared to us, including greater name recognition and longer operating histories; greater resources, including larger sales and marketing
and customer support budgets; the ability to bundle products together; larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios; greater
resources to make acquisitions and greater resources for technical assistance and customer support. Competitors to our cloud services
business may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, and
customer requirements. An existing competitor or a potential competitor could introduce new technology that reduces demand for our products
and platform capabilities. In addition, some of our actual and potential competitors have been acquired by other larger enterprises and
have made or may make acquisitions or may enter into partnerships or other strategic relationships that may provide more comprehensive
offerings than they individually had offered or achieve greater economies of scale than we are able to achieve.
Changes
to our existing content and services could fail to attract traffic and advertisers or fail to generate revenue.
We
may introduce significant changes to our existing content. The success of our new content depends substantially on consumer tastes and
preferences that change in often unpredictable ways. If this new content fails to engage traffic and advertisers, we may fail to generate
sufficient revenue or operating profit to justify our investments, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
In addition, we may launch (and incur expenses in connection with) strategic initiatives from time to time, which do not directly generate
revenue but which we believe will enhance our attractiveness to traffic and advertisers. In the future, we may invest in new content,
products, services, and initiatives to generate revenue, but there is no guarantee these approaches will be successful or that the costs
associated with these efforts will not exceed the revenue generated. If our strategic initiatives do not enhance our ability to monetize
our existing content or enable us to develop new approaches to monetization, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue or recover
any associated development costs and our operating results could be adversely affected.
We
derive the majority of our revenue from advertising. The failure to attract new advertisers, the loss of existing advertisers, or the
reduction of or failure by existing advertisers to maintain or increase their advertising budgets may adversely affect our business and
operating results.
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, advertising revenue represents 66% and 74% of total revenue. In addition, a substantial portion
of our revenue is derived from one advertiser accounting for approximately 16% and 46% of our revenue for the years ended December 31,
2024 and 2023, respectively. As is common in our industry, our advertisers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us. In
addition, many of our advertisers purchase advertising services through one of several large advertising agency holding companies. Our
revenue could be harmed by the loss of, or a deterioration in our relationship with, any of our largest advertisers or with any advertising
agencies or the holding companies that control them. Advertising agencies and potential new advertisers may view our advertising products
and services as experimental and unproven, and we may need to devote additional time and resources to educate them about our products
and services. Advertisers may cease doing business with us, or they may reduce the prices they are willing to pay to advertise with us,
if we do not deliver ads in an effective manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate
a competitive return relative to alternatives, including online, mobile, and traditional advertising platforms. Advertisers may refuse
to advertise on our platform due to a perceived risk to their brand safety standards, especially given the concentration of news and
political content on our platform. We believe that our access to certain advertisers has been, and may continue to be, inhibited by the
apparent political bias of these companies, some of which we believe may exercise near monopolistic control over the advertising industry.
In response, we filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to withhold advertising revenue from Rumble and other digital media
platforms. Our actions to counter these efforts, whether through litigation or publicity campaigns, may not be successful. Any of the
foregoing developments may adversely affect our business and operating results.
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We
may not be able to maintain relationships with existing publishers through RAC and may fail to attract new publishers to our network.
Through
our RAC marketplace, we provide advertising inventory, including host-read advertisements, to third-party publisher websites in exchange
for a portion of the revenues generated by such advertisements. Our business and operating results may be adversely affected if we do
not deliver ads in an effective manner, if publishers do not believe that advertisements served through RAC generate a competitive return
relative to alternative advertising networks, if we are unable to deliver sufficient advertising inventory to publishers, or if our advertising
marketplace technology becomes outmoded or outdated. If our relationship with third-party publishers terminates for any reason, or if
the commercial terms of our relationships are changed or do not continue to be renewed on favorable terms, we would need to secure and
integrate new publishers, which could negatively impact our revenues and profitability.
We
depend on third-party vendors, including internet service providers and data centers, to provide core services.
Although
we are building our own technical infrastructure, we depend on third-party vendors, including internet service providers and data centers
to, among other things, provide customer support, develop software, host videos uploaded by our users, transcode videos (compressing
a video file and converting it into a standard format optimized for streaming), stream videos to viewers, support our cloud services
offerings, and process payments. These vendors provide certain critical services to our technical infrastructure that are time-consuming
and costly for us to develop independently. Outages in those services would materially affect our video services and our ability to provide
cloud services. Outages may expose us to having to offer credits to subscribers, loss of subscribers, and reputational damage. We are
unlikely to be able to fully offset these losses with any credits we might receive from our vendors.
Technologies
that enable blocking of certain online advertisements, or that otherwise impair our ability to deliver advertising, could harm our operating
results.
Newly
developed technologies could block or obscure the display of or targeting of our content. For example, in June 2020, Apple announced
plans to require applications using its mobile operating systems to obtain an end user’s permission to track them or access their
device’s advertising identifier for advertising and advertising measurement purposes, as well as other restrictions that could
adversely affect our ability to deliver advertising, which could harm our operating results. Additionally, some providers of consumer
mobile devices and web browsers have implemented, or announced plans to implement, means to make it easier for internet users to prevent
the placement of cookies or to block other tracking technologies, which could, if widely adopted, result in the use of third-party cookies
and other methods of online tracking becoming significantly less effective and have a significant impact on our ability to monetize our
user base.
Our
ability to generate revenue depends on the development and availability of tools to accurately measure the effectiveness of advertisements
on our platform.
Most
advertisers rely on tools that measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns or that verify viewability of their ads on a platform
in order to allocate their advertising spend among various formats and platforms. If we are unable to measure the effectiveness of advertising
on our platform or we are unable to convince advertisers that our platform should be part of a larger advertising budget, our ability
to increase the demand and pricing of our advertising products and maintain or scale our advertising revenue may be limited. Our tools
may be less developed than those of other platforms with which we compete for advertising spend, in particular relative to those platforms
that collect more personal information than we do. Therefore, our ability to develop and offer tools that accurately measure the effectiveness
of a campaign or verify ad viewability on our platform will be critical to our ability to attract new advertisers and retain, and increase
spend from, our existing advertisers.
Developing
and improving these tools may require significant time and resources and additional investment, and in some cases we rely on third parties
to provide data and the technology needed to provide certain measurement or verification data to our advertisers. If we cannot continue
to develop and improve our advertising tools in a timely and cost-effective fashion, or if such tools are unreliable, difficult to use,
or otherwise unsatisfactory to our advertisers, or if the measurement or verification results are inconsistent with our advertisers’
goals, our advertising revenue could be negatively impacted, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results.
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Our
cloud services business relies on a small number of key third-party service providers and a small number of customer relationships, the
disruption of which could harm our operating results.
As
we continue to expand our cloud services offerings, we have entered into agreements with certain third-party service providers. The success
of our future business activities in the cloud services space may depend upon such existing third-party providers, some of which may
compete with us in other lines of business. If our existing third-party service agreements terminate for any reason, or if the commercial
terms of such agreements are changed or do not continue to be renewed on favorable terms, we would need to enter into new third-party
service agreements, which could negatively impact our revenues, ability to attract future cloud services customers, public reputation,
and profitability.
In
addition, our initial cloud service offerings revolve around a small number of customer relationships. If we fail to deliver our product
to the desired specifications of these initial customers, or if these initial customers terminate their cloud services agreements for
any reason, future customers may doubt our ability to offer cloud services, which would negatively impact our revenues, public reputation,
and profitability.
The
loss of key personnel, or failure to attract and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, could harm our business.
Our
success depends upon our ability to attract and retain our senior officers and to attract and retain additional qualified personnel in
the future. The loss of services of members of our senior management team and the uncertain transition of new members of our senior management
team may strain our ability to execute our strategic initiatives, or make it more difficult to retain customers, attract or maintain
our capital support, or meet other needs of our business. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain qualified personnel, and
we may lose new employees to our competitors before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting them. If we fail to attract
new personnel or if we suffer increases in costs or business operations interruptions as a result of a labor dispute, or fail to retain
and motivate our current personnel, we might not be able to operate our business effectively or efficiently, serve our customers properly
or maintain the quality of our content and services. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies with respect to our employees.
If
our users do not continue to contribute content or their contributions are not perceived as valuable to other users, we may experience
a decline in user growth, retention, and engagement on Rumble, Locals or RAC, which could result in the loss of advertisers and revenue.
An
important aspect of our success is our ability to provide Rumble users with engaging content, which in part depends on the content contributed
by our users. If users, including influential users, do not continue to contribute engaging content to Rumble, our user growth, retention,
and engagement may decline. That, in turn, may impair our ability to maintain good relationships with our advertisers or to attract new
advertisers, which may seriously harm our business and operating results.
The
loss of a material portion of our existing content creators, or our failure to recruit new content creators, may materially harm our
business and results of operations.
We
rely on our existing content creators, and on the recruiting of new content creators. The loss of a material portion of our existing
content creators could result in material harm to our business and results of operations. In the recent past, our ability to recruit
and maintain content creators may have been in part due to trends in American politics, where certain commentators have sought a neutral
internet platform. A change in such trends, including possible changes to competing platforms’ moderation policies that make those
platforms more hospitable to a diverse range of viewpoints, could result in the loss of existing content creators or a failure to recruit
new content creators, which may materially harm our business and results of operations. Recently, one of our popular content creators,
Dan Bongino, accepted a position in the Trump Administration as Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and it is possible
that additional prominent content creators may pursue other career opportunities, in government, politics or otherwise that may interrupt
their activities on Rumble. Additionally, as we expand into international markets, we may fail to recruit new content creators in those
markets, limiting our appeal to international audiences.
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We
have offered and intend to continue to offer incentives, including economic incentives, to content creators to join our platform, and
these arrangements may involve fixed payment obligations that are not contingent on actual revenue or performance metrics generated by
the applicable content creator but rather are based on our modeled financial projections for that creator, which if not satisfied may
adversely impact our financial performance, results of operations and liquidity.
Our
user base and user engagement growth are directly driven by the content available on our platform. We have acquired and expect to continue
to acquire content by providing economic incentives, including minimum guaranteed earnings, to a limited number of content creators,
including sports leagues. These incentives have included and may continue to include equity grants and cash payments. This content acquisition
strategy is intended to allow us to enter key content verticals and secure top content creators in those verticals before we have full
monetization capabilities in place. Our present focus is to grow users and usage consumption and experiment with monetization levers,
which may not maximize profitability in the immediate term, but which we believe positions our business for the long term. As of December
31, 2024, we had entered into programming and content agreements with a minimum contractual cash commitment of $30 million. In addition
to the minimum contractual cash commitments, we have programming and content agreements that have variable cost arrangements. These future
costs are dependent upon many factors and are difficult to anticipate, however, these costs may be substantial. To the extent our revenue
and/or user growth assumptions associated with any particular creator do not meet our expectations, our financial performance, results
of operations and liquidity may be negatively impacted, since a failure to achieve these expectations is not expected to reduce our fixed
payment obligations to any such creator.
In
addition, when these programming and content agreements expire, content creators may choose to leave the Rumble video platform in favor
of competing platforms, especially if competing platforms offer superior monetization opportunities. Creators may choose to leave our
platform for other monetization-related reasons. For example, we currently do not apportion revenues related to Rumble Premium, our subscription
service that provides users ad-free access to our content, among content creators. The loss of a material portion of our existing content
creators could result in reductions to our user base and material harm to our business and results of operations.
We
have made, and may in the future make, acquisitions, and such acquisitions could disrupt our operations, and may have an adverse effect
on our operating results.
In
order to expand our business, we have made acquisitions and may continue making similar acquisitions and possibly larger acquisitions
as part of our growth strategy. The success of our future growth strategy will depend on our ability to identify, negotiate, complete
and integrate acquisitions and, if necessary, to obtain satisfactory debt or equity financing to fund those acquisitions. Acquisitions
are inherently risky, and any acquisitions we complete may not be successful. Our past acquisitions and any mergers and acquisitions
that we may undertake in the future involve numerous risks, including, but not limited to, the following:
● difficulties
in integrating and managing the operations, personnel, systems, technologies, and products
of the companies we acquire;
● diversion
of our management’s attention from normal daily operations of our business;
● our
inability to maintain the key business relationships and the reputations of the acquired
businesses;
● uncertainty
of entry into markets in which we have limited or no prior experience;
● costs
related to acquired operations and continuing support and development of acquired products;
● businesses
that we acquire may have greater-than-expected liabilities for which we become responsible;
● potential
impairment of goodwill and intangible assets related to the acquired businesses;
● adverse
tax consequences associated with acquisitions;
● changes
accounting for our acquisitions under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S.
GAAP”), including arrangements that we assume from an acquisition;
● potential
negative perceptions of our acquisitions by customers, financial markets or investors;
● failure
to obtain required approvals from governmental authorities under antitrust laws on a timely
basis, if at all, which could, among other things, delay or prevent us from completing a
transaction, or otherwise restrict our ability to realize the expected goals of an acquisition;
● potential
loss of key employees of the companies we acquire;
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● potential
security vulnerabilities in acquired products that expose us to additional security risks
or delay our ability to integrate the product into our service offerings;
● difficulties
in applying security standards for acquired technology consistent with our other services;
● ineffective
or inadequate controls, procedures and policies at the acquired company;
● inadequate
protection of acquired intellectual property rights; and
● potential
failure to achieve the expected benefits on a timely basis or at all.
Additionally,
acquisitions or asset purchases made entirely or partially for cash may reduce our cash reserves or require us to obtain financing. We
may seek to obtain additional cash to fund an acquisition by selling equity or debt securities. We may be unable to secure the equity
or debt funding necessary to finance future acquisitions on terms that are acceptable to us. If we finance acquisitions by issuing equity
or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders will experience ownership dilution. The occurrence of any of these risks could
have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows, particularly in the case of
a larger acquisition or substantially concurrent acquisitions.
We
are subject to cybersecurity risks and interruptions or failures in our information technology systems. Notwithstanding our efforts,
a cyber incident could occur and result in information theft, data corruption, operational disruption and/or financial loss.
We
rely on sophisticated information technology systems and infrastructure to support our business. At the same time, cyber incidents, including
deliberate attacks, are prevalent and have increased globally in recent years. It is possible that new, escalated or ongoing military
conflicts, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Hamas war, could result in increased cyber-attacks or cybersecurity incidents
by state actors or others. Our technologies, systems and networks and those of our vendors, suppliers and other business partners may
become the target of cyberattacks or information security breaches that could result in the unauthorized release, gathering, monitoring,
misuse, loss or destruction of proprietary and other information, or other disruption of business operations. In addition, certain cyber
incidents, such as surveillance or vulnerabilities in widely used open source software, may remain undetected for an extended period.
Our systems for protecting against cybersecurity risks may not be sufficient. Like most major online platforms, Rumble is routinely targeted
by cyberattacks that can result in interruptions to our services. We have observed an increase in such attacks as our reach expands and
we expect these attacks to continue in the future. As the sophistication of cyber incidents continues to evolve, we are and will likely
continue to be required to expend additional resources to continue to modify or enhance our protective measures or to investigate and
remediate any vulnerability to cyber incidents. Additionally, any of these systems may be susceptible to outages due to fire, floods,
power loss, telecommunications failures, usage errors by employees, computer viruses, cyber-attacks or other security breaches or similar
events. The failure of any of our information technology systems may cause disruptions in our operations, which could adversely affect
our revenues and profitability, and lead to claims related to the disruption of our services from users of the Rumble platform, advertisers,
and customers of our cloud services.
Spam
activity, including inauthentic and fraudulent user activity, if undetected, may contribute, from time to time, to some amount of overstatement
of our performance indicators and may negatively impact our reputation.
Like
other major online platforms, spam activity, including inauthentic and fraudulent user activity, if undetected, may contribute, from
time to time, to some amount of overstatement of our performance indicators, including reporting of MAUs by Google Analytics, our third-party
analytics provider. We also use paid advertising in order to attract users to our platform; however, we cannot be certain that all or
substantially all activity that results from such advertising is genuine. Real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our
reputation and negatively affect our business. We continually seek to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam-generated
users and eliminate them from the calculation of our MAUs; however, we will not succeed in identifying and removing all spam.
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Our
cloud services business may not achieve success, and, as a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could
be adversely affected.
Our
ongoing expansion into the cloud service business may not be successful and involves various risks relating to this business that may
negatively affect our operating results. In addition to other risks related to our cloud services business described in these “Risk
Factors,” such risks include risks related to:
● our
ability to derive an optimal pricing model that enables us to derive sufficient value from
our customers while attracting new customers and retaining existing customers;
● our
ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, particularly software and cloud
engineers and sales and customer experience personnel;
● the
possibility that we may be unable to maintain and improve our platform performance, especially
during peak usage times;
● the
possibility that service outages or disruptions negatively impact customer relationships,
leading to financial losses and reputational harm;
● the
possibility that we may underestimate or overestimate our data center capacity requirements
and our capital expenditures on data centers, servers and equipment;
● our
ability to obtain or retain standard industry security certifications for our platform and
products;
● our
exposure to possible liability, regulatory actions, and harm to our reputation if the security
of our cloud is breached, resulting in the exposure of our customers’ data, including
personal information, to cyber criminals and other nefarious actors;
● hosting
by our cloud customers of illegal content, such as pirated media, could result in negative
regulatory actions, including pursuant to the DMCA and the EU E-Commerce Directive, resulting
in monetary penalties and forced operational halts;
● the
possibility that we may be unable to maintain the compatibility of our platform with third-party
applications that our customers use in their businesses; and
● our
ability to respond to rapid technological changes with new solutions and services offerings.
The
occurrence of any of these factors, or our inability to successfully mitigate the results of the associated impact, could also damage
our reputation, negatively impact our relationship with our customers, and otherwise materially harm our business, results of operations,
and financial condition.
Risks
related to our e-commerce business may result in our broader business, financial condition and results of operations being adversely
affected.
Our
partnerships through which we sell Rumble-branded products through our online store involve various risks that may negatively affect
our operating results, including:
● expansion
into new brands, products, services, and technologies will subject us to additional reputational,
business, legal, regulatory and financial risks;
● inability
to build and maintain strong brands, including due to unfavorable customer feedback and negative
publicity;
● notwithstanding
agreements by our partners to assume liability for the Rumble-branded products they place
in our online store, we may be subject to product liability and similar claims and regulatory
actions if products sold through our store result in harm, personal injury, death, or environmental
or property damage;
● risks
related to additional tax liabilities and collection obligations;
● market
competition could adversely affect prices and demand for the Rumble-branded products we distribute;
● disruptions
in our supply chain and other factors affecting the availability and distribution of our
products could adversely impact our business; and
● risks
related to online transactions and payment methods.
The
occurrence of any of these factors, or our inability to successfully mitigate the results of the associated impact, could also damage
our reputation, negatively impact our relationships with our customers, and otherwise materially harm our business, results of operations,
and financial condition.
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Negative media campaigns may adversely impact
our financial performance, results of operations, and relationships with our business partners, including content creators and advertisers.
Our commitment to diversity
of opinion and refusal to censor otherwise allowable content on our platforms that does not violate our moderation policy has in the past
resulted and is likely to continue to result in malicious media campaigns and advertiser boycotts directed against us. For example, in
August 2024, we filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, as well as the advertising agency WPP and its subsidiary
GroupM. Our lawsuit alleges that an initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), created by the WFA, established
arbitrary and biased standards for the content on digital platforms where its members may want to advertise. GARM used those one-size-fits-all
biased standards to perpetrate an advertiser boycott against Rumble and other platforms that did not censor content that GARM disliked.
The suit also notes that GARM has vast reach since it counts the six largest ad agency holding companies among its members, including
defendant WPP. We subsequently amended our complaint to add Diageo plc as a defendant.
Media campaigns and advertising
boycotts against us may be intended to interfere with our relationships with streaming partners and advertisers, and these campaigns and
boycotts may intensify if political polarization increases in the United States and Canada.
We expect that the proliferation
of alternative media, including on our platform, will continue to be viewed as a growing competitive threat by established news organizations,
and may result in an escalation, both in frequency and intensity, of negative publicity campaigns against us and our creators. Such campaigns,
even if groundless in nature, may result in negative public perception and damage to relationships with our business partners, including
additional or more intense advertiser boycotts, which may negatively impact our operating results and future growth potential.
Our management team has limited experience
managing a public company, which exposes us to additional risks, including the risk that we cannot enhance, maintain, and adhere to our
internal controls and procedures.
Some members of our management
team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the increasingly
complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition to being a
public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the
continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from
our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could harm our business,
results of operations, and financial condition.
Additionally, as a public
company, we are subject to significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and
implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and
the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate
to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company, and we are still in the process of generating a mature system of internal controls
and integration across business systems. Inability to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures
may result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements and failure to meet our reporting obligations on a timely
basis, causing harm to our operating results.
Matters impacting our internal controls may cause us to be unable to
report our financial information on a timely basis and thereby subject us to adverse regulatory consequences, including sanctions by the
SEC or violations of applicable stock exchange listing rules, which may result in a breach of the covenants under existing or future financing
arrangements. There also could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability
of our financial statements. Confidence in the reliability of our financial statements also could suffer if we continue to report a material
weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. This could materially adversely affect us and lead to a decline in the market
price of our securities.
We have identified material weaknesses in
our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, we may
not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations.
Effective internal control
over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reasonable assurance regarding the preparation and fair presentation of published
consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. As described under Item 9A “Controls and Procedures” of this
Annual Report on Form 10-K, in connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2024 and for
the year then ended, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.
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A material weakness is a deficiency,
or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material
misstatement of a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We identified
material weaknesses in our internal control over our financial statement close process specifically related to an insufficient complement
of accounting and finance personnel with the necessary U.S. GAAP technical expertise to timely identify and account for complex or non-routine
transactions.
As of December 31, 2024, the
Company identified material weaknesses corresponding to the control activities component of internal control under the COSO Framework.
Specifically, we did not adequately design certain key controls at a sufficient level of precision, including account reconciliation,
to address relevant financial reporting risks including inadequate design of procedures to ensure completeness and accuracy of the accounting
for content creator agreements, and associated assets, liabilities and expenses. Deficiencies in control activities contributed to the
potential for there to have been material accounting errors in financial statement account balances and disclosures. While the above material
weaknesses did not result in a material misstatement of our previously issued financial statements, it could result in a misstatement
of our account balances or disclosures that would not be prevented or detected and would therefore result in a material misstatement of
our annual or interim financial statements.
We are working to remediate
the material weaknesses and are taking steps to strengthen our internal control over financial reporting through the continued hiring
of additional appropriately skilled finance and accounting personnel with the requisite technical knowledge and skills. With the additional
skilled personnel, we are taking appropriate and reasonable steps to remediate these material weaknesses through formalization of accounting
policies and controls around content creator agreements, and retention of external accounting advisors for complex accounting transactions.
We will not be able to fully remediate these control deficiencies until these steps have been completed and have been operating effectively
for a sufficient period of time. The hiring of additional finance and accounting personnel and the implementation of improvements to our
accounting and proprietary systems and controls may be costly and time consuming.
We cannot assure you that
the measures we have taken to date and those we expect to take in the future will be sufficient to remediate the material weaknesses we
identified or avoid the identification of additional material weaknesses in the future. If the steps we take do not remediate the material
weaknesses in a timely manner, there could continue to be a reasonable possibility that these material weaknesses or other control deficiencies
could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely
basis, which could in turn cause our stock price to decline significantly and make raising capital more difficult. If we fail to remediate
our material weaknesses, identify future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or fail to meet the demands
that will be placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, we may be unable to accurately report our
financial results or report them within the timeframes required by law or stock exchange regulations. Failure to comply with Section 404
of Sarbanes-Oxley could also potentially subject us to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. If additional
material weaknesses exist or are discovered in the future, and we are unable to remediate any such material weakness, our reputation,
results of operations and financial condition could suffer.
Our recently implemented Bitcoin treasury
strategy exposes us to various risks associated with holding Bitcoin.
We have invested and plan
to continue to invest a portion of our corporate treasury in Bitcoin as a reserve asset, exposing us to significant financial, operational,
and regulatory risks due to its characteristics that are specific to cryptocurrencies. The value of Bitcoin is highly volatile and subject
to rapid, material, and unpredictable fluctuations driven by market speculation, macroeconomic conditions, investor sentiment, and global
events. For example, historical price swings have seen Bitcoin decline by more than 50% in a matter of months, and there can be no assurance
that similar or greater declines will not occur in the future. Such volatility could result in material reductions in the value of our
Bitcoin holdings, adversely impacting our financial condition, liquidity, and reported earnings, particularly if we are required to recognize
impairment losses under applicable accounting standards.
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The regulatory environment
surrounding Bitcoin remains uncertain and varies widely across jurisdictions. In the United States, federal and state authorities have
issued evolving guidance on the classification, taxation, and permissible uses of cryptocurrencies, but comprehensive legislation and
regulation is still pending. Potential future legislative and regulatory changes or actions at the state, federal, or international level,
such as new trading compliance obligations, custody requirements, restrictions on ownership, trading, transfer, exchange, or use of Bitcoin
as a corporate asset, or the imposition of new taxes or reporting requirements, could limit our ability to hold, sell, or utilize our
Bitcoin effectively, and may adversely affect the value of Bitcoin. Unregulated trading platforms and intermediaries may not provide certain
important investor protections.
Our Bitcoin holdings are stored
in digital wallets on third-party exchanges, which are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats such as hacking, phishing, or loss of private
keys. Transactions in Bitcoin may be irreversible, and accordingly, losses due to fraudulent or accidental transactions may not be recoverable.
A security breach or operational failure, whether due to internal errors, errors of third-party custodians, or external attacks, could
result in the permanent loss or theft of our Bitcoin, for which there is no recourse or insurance comparable to traditional financial
assets. For example, high-profile cryptocurrency exchange hacks have resulted in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, and we cannot
guarantee that the safeguards that are available to us will prevent similar incidents. Bitcoin is not protected by either FDIC or SIPC
insurance. Additionally, reliance on third-party custodians introduces counterparty risk, as their insolvency or mismanagement could jeopardize
our access to these assets.
Market perception of our Bitcoin
strategy poses further risks. Investors, analysts, or customers may view our investment as speculative or misaligned with our core business,
potentially leading to stock price volatility or loss of confidence in our management’s financial strategy. Conversely, if Bitcoin’s
value declines significantly, we may face pressure to divest at a loss, incurring transaction costs and tax implications. The accounting
treatment of Bitcoin as an indefinite-lived intangible asset under U.S. GAAP requires us to assess for impairment periodically, which
could lead to earnings volatility and negatively affect our financial statements, even if we do not intend to sell.
Broader market or technological
developments, such as shifts in blockchain adoption, competition from other cryptocurrencies, or disruptions to the Bitcoin network, such
as forks, mining centralization, or energy regulation, could also diminish the value or utility of our holdings. Moreover, macroeconomic
factors, such as rising interest rates, inflation, or shifts in monetary policy, may reduce institutional interest in Bitcoin, further
depressing its value. These risks are heightened by ongoing debates over cryptocurrency regulation in the U.S. and globally, which remain
unresolved and could materially impact our investment.
Our decision to hold Bitcoin
involves speculative risks that differ significantly from traditional treasury assets like cash or government securities. There can be
no assurance that this strategy will achieve our objectives, including the objectives of preserving capital or enhancing returns, and
any adverse developments could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, and stock price.
Risks related to accepting stablecoin as
a payment method.
Our planned expansion into
accepting certain stablecoins as a medium of exchange will expose us to additional financial, regulatory, operational, and market risks
that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Although stablecoins are designed
to maintain a stable value while being pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the stability and reliability of stablecoins are
not guaranteed and depend on various factors beyond our control, including the financial health of the issuing entity, the adequacy and
liquidity of reserve assets, and the effectiveness of the underlying stabilization mechanisms. If a stablecoin that we accept experiences
a significant devaluation or “de-pegging” event, where its value deviates materially from its intended peg, we may incur losses
on payments already received, face disruptions in transaction processing, or lose customer confidence, all of which could negatively impact
our financial condition and reputation. Stablecoins are not subject to any deposit insurance protection scheme, and the presence of fiat
currency reserves is not a guarantee for redemption. There is a possibility that the assets held in reserves are not sufficient or may
not be available for redemption at times of extremely high demand. Volatility spikes in the cryptocurrency markets also might lead to
occasions where the price of a stablecoin deviates from the underlying fiat currency.
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Additionally, the regulatory
environment surrounding stablecoins remains uncertain and rapidly evolving. Legislatures and regulatory bodies, including foreign authorities,
continue to evaluate whether stablecoins constitute securities, commodities, or other regulated financial instruments. New laws, regulations,
or enforcement actions could impose significant compliance obligations on us, such as anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer
(KYC) requirements, restrict our ability to accept certain stablecoins altogether, result in unfavorable changes in use, transfer, and
redemption of stablecoins, or impose tax liabilities upon stablecoin holders. Noncompliance with such regulations, even unintentional,
could result in fines, penalties, legal proceedings, and reputational harm. Furthermore, if a stablecoin issuer on which we rely is deemed
non-compliant with applicable laws, it could disrupt our payment operations or expose us to liability as a downstream user.
Accepting stablecoins also
introduces operational and cybersecurity risks. The blockchain networks and digital wallets we use to process and store stablecoin transactions
may be vulnerable to hacking, phishing attacks, software bugs, and network failures. A security breach or technical failure could result
in the loss or theft of stablecoin funds, for which we may have limited recourse due to the decentralized and irreversible nature of blockchain
transactions. Moreover, reliance on third-party service providers, such as cryptocurrency exchanges or custodians, to facilitate stablecoin
transactions introduces counterparty risk. If these providers, or any stablecoin issuers, experience insolvency, operational disruptions,
or fraudulent activity, our ability to process payments or convert stablecoins to fiat currency could be impaired, potentially leading
to financial losses or liquidity constraints.
Additional risks relate to
the market acceptance of stablecoins. If customers or vendors lose confidence in stablecoins due to volatility, scandals, or legislative
or regulatory actions, demand for our stablecoin payment option could decline, forcing us to incur costs to adapt our payment infrastructure
or revert to traditional payment methods. Conversely, if we cease accepting stablecoins in response to these risks, we may alienate a
segment of our customer base that prefers cryptocurrency payments, potentially reducing our market competitiveness.
Fluctuations in the broader
cryptocurrency market could indirectly impact our stablecoin operations. A significant downturn in cryptocurrency prices or public sentiment
could trigger redemption pressures on stablecoin issuers, straining their reserves and increasing the likelihood of instability. Such
events could disrupt our payment processing capabilities and harm our financial position.
The development and use of AI may result
in reputational harm, liability, or other adverse consequences to our business operations.
We are evaluating AI technologies
for use in the operation of our business. There are significant risks involved in deploying AI and there can be no assurance that any
usage of AI will enhance our products or services or be beneficial to our business, including our profitability. AI technologies are complex
and rapidly evolving, and we face significant potential disruption from other companies as well as an evolving regulatory landscape. Any
integration of any AI technologies into our products or services may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, intellectual
property claims, litigation, confidentiality or security risks, ethical concerns, negative user perceptions as to automation and AI, or
other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results. As a result of the complexity and rapid
development of AI, it is also the subject of evolving review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and other foreign jurisdictions
are applying, or are considering applying, their platform moderation, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and data protection laws to
AI and/or are considering general legal frameworks on AI. We may not always be able to anticipate the appropriate response to these rapidly
evolving frameworks. We may also have to expend resources to adjust our product or service offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal
frameworks governing the use of AI are not consistent across jurisdictions. If we fail to adopt AI technologies effectively or experience
delays in integrating these technologies into our operations, we may face significant risks to our competitive position, financial performance,
and long-term growth prospects. Competitors who successfully leverage AI may gain advantages in operational efficiency, innovation, data
analysis, and customer personalization, potentially eroding our market share and reputation.
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Uncertainty around new and
emerging AI technologies, such as generative AI, may require additional investment in the development of appropriate protections and safeguards
for handling the use of data with AI technologies, which may be costly and could impact our expenses. AI technologies, including generative
AI, may create content that is factually inaccurate or flawed, or otherwise unlawful, harmful or policy-violating. Such content may expose
us to brand or reputational harm and/or legal liability. It is also uncertain how various laws related to online services, intermediary
liability, copyright and other issues will apply to content generated by AI. The use of certain AI technologies presents emerging ethical
and social issues, and if we offer solutions that draw scrutiny or controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on users or on
society as a whole, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and/or legal liability. As such, it is not possible
to predict all of the risks related to the use of AI, and developments in regulatory frameworks governing the use of AI and in related
stakeholder expectations may adversely affect our ability to develop and use AI or subject us to liability.
Risks Related to the Legal and Regulatory Environment in Which We
Operate
We collect, store, and process large amounts
of user video content and personal information of our users and subscribers. If our security measures are breached, our sites and applications
may be perceived as not being secure, traffic and advertisers may curtail or stop viewing our content or using our services, our business
and operating results could be harmed, and we could face legal claims from users and subscribers.
We collect, store, and process
large amounts of video content (including videos that are not intended for public consumption) and personal information of our users,
cloud customers, and subscribers. We also share such information, where appropriate, with third parties that help us operate our business.
Despite our efforts, we may fail to properly secure our systems and our user and subscriber data. This could be caused by technical issues
(bugs), obsolete technology, human error or internal or external malfeasance, undiscovered vulnerabilities, and could lead to unauthorized
disclosure of data, unauthorized changes or data losses. For example, we routinely receive reports from security researchers regarding
potential vulnerabilities in our applications. We also rely on open-source software for various functions, which may contain undiscovered
security flaws and create additional technical vulnerabilities. In addition, despite our ongoing and additional investments in cybersecurity,
such improvements and review may not identify abuses of our platforms and misuse of user data. The existence of such vulnerabilities,
if undetected or detected but not remediated, could result in unauthorized access to our systems or the data of our users.
A data breach could expose
us to regulatory actions and litigation. Depending on the circumstances, we may be required to disclose a suspected breach to regulators,
affected individuals, and the public. This could lead to regulatory actions, including the possibility of fines, class action or traditional
litigation by affected individuals, reputational harm, costly investigation and remedial efforts, the triggering of indemnification obligations
under data-protection agreements with subscribers, vendors, and partners, higher premiums for cybersecurity insurance and other insurance
policies, and the inability to obtain cybersecurity insurance or other forms of insurance. We do not presently have cybersecurity insurance
to compensate for any losses that may result from any breach of security, and given industry trends generally, we expect that any such
cybersecurity insurance coverage will be difficult to obtain in the future on acceptable terms. As a result, our results of operations
or financial condition may be materially adversely affected if we experience a cybersecurity-related loss.
We may fail to comply with applicable privacy
laws.
We are subject to data privacy
and security laws and regulations that apply to the collection, transmission, storage, use, processing, destruction, retention and security
of personal information, including additional laws or regulations relating to health information. Our current privacy policies and practices,
which are publicly available at rumble.com/s/privacy, are designed to comply with privacy and data protection laws in the United States
and Canada. These policies and practices inform users how we handle personal information and, as permitted by law, allow users to change
or delete the personal information in their user accounts. The legislative and regulatory landscape for privacy and data protection continues
to evolve in jurisdictions worldwide, and these laws may at times be conflicting. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and
applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices, and our efforts to comply with the evolving data protection rules may be
unsuccessful. We must devote significant resources to understanding and complying with this changing landscape. Failure to comply with
federal, state, provincial and international laws regarding privacy and security of personal information could expose us to penalties
under such laws, orders requiring that we change our practices, claims for damages or other liabilities, regulatory investigations and
enforcement action (including fines and criminal prosecution of employees), litigation, significant costs for remediation, and damage
to our reputation and loss of goodwill, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results
of operations and prospects. Even if we have not violated these laws, government investigations and private lawsuits into these issues
typically require the expenditure of significant resources and generate negative publicity, which could have a material adverse effect
on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, if we are unable to properly protect the privacy
and security of personal information, including protected health information, we could be found to have breached our contracts with certain
third parties.
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There are numerous U.S. and
Canadian federal, state, and provincial laws and regulations related to the privacy and security of personal information. Determining
whether protected information has been handled in compliance with applicable privacy standards and our contractual obligations can be
complex and may be subject to changing interpretation. If we fail to comply with applicable privacy laws, we could face civil and criminal
penalties. Failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure can also constitute unfair acts or practices
in or affecting commerce and be construed as a violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (the “FTCA”),
15 U.S.C. § 45(a). The Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable
and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and
the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. In addition, state attorneys general are authorized to bring
civil actions seeking either injunctions or damages in response to violations that threaten the privacy of state residents. We cannot
be sure how these regulations will be interpreted, enforced or applied to our operations. In addition to the risks associated with enforcement
activities and potential contractual liabilities, our ongoing efforts to comply with evolving laws and regulations at the federal and
state level may be costly and require ongoing modifications to our policies, procedures and systems.
Internationally, laws, regulations
and standards in many jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, transmission, storage, use, processing, destruction, retention and
security of personal information. For example, in the European Union, the collection, transmission, storage, use, processing, destruction,
retention and security of personal data is governed by the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in
addition to other applicable laws and regulations. The GDPR, together with national legislation, regulations and guidelines of the European
Union Member States governing the collection, transmission, storage, use, processing, destruction, retention and security of personal
data, impose strict obligations with respect to, and restrictions on, the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer
and processing of personal data. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European
Union that are not deemed to have protections for personal information, including the United States. The GDPR authorizes fines for certain
violations of up to 4% of the total global annual turnover of the preceding financial year or €20 million, whichever is greater.
Such fines are in addition to any civil litigation claims by data subjects. Separately, Brexit has led and could also lead to legislative
and regulatory changes and may increase our compliance costs and expose us to two parallel regulatory regimes, each of which authorizes
similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations. Other jurisdictions outside the European Union
are similarly introducing or enhancing privacy and data security laws, rules and regulations, which could increase our compliance costs
and the risks associated with noncompliance. We cannot guarantee that we are, or will be, in compliance with all applicable U.S., Canadian,
or other international regulations as they are enforced now or as they evolve.
Our cloud services business operates in
a highly regulated environment, subject to a complex and rapidly evolving array of domestic and international laws, regulations, and industry
standards governing data privacy, cybersecurity, data localization, and cross-border data transfers.
Compliance with regulatory
requirements of a rapidly evolving array of domestic and international laws that apply to our cloud services business poses significant
operational, financial, and reputational risks. For example, we are subject to the GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and
its successor, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). As we further expand internationally, we may become subject to similar laws in
foreign jurisdictions. These regulations impose strict obligations on the collection, storage, processing, and transfer of personal data,
with potential penalties for noncompliance, in addition to litigation costs and reputational harm.
Furthermore, certain countries,
enforce data localization laws requiring that data generated within their borders be stored on local servers, which may conflict with
our global operational model and necessitate costly infrastructure investments or limit our ability to serve customers efficiently. Recent
U.S. trade policies, such as the tariffs imposed on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico, could exacerbate these challenges by increasing
tensions over cross-border data flows or prompting retaliatory measures that further restrict data transfers. The invalidation of frameworks
like the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and ongoing uncertainty surrounding alternative mechanisms, such as standard contractual clauses, heighten
the risk that we may be unable to lawfully transfer data across jurisdictions, potentially disrupting service delivery or subjecting us
to regulatory enforcement actions.
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Our cloud services business
may also cater to customers in regulated industries, such as healthcare (subject to HIPAA), financial services (subject to PCI DSS and
SEC regulations), and government (subject to FedRAMP), each imposing additional compliance obligations. Failure to obtain or maintain
certifications, implement required security controls, or adequately audit our systems could result in loss of customer contracts, exclusion
from certain markets, or substantial penalties. Moreover, emerging regulations, such as the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act and
potential U.S. federal cybersecurity mandates, introduce further uncertainty, as their scope and enforcement remain unclear but could
require significant changes to our technology and operations.
Noncompliance, whether due
to inadvertent violations, evolving interpretations of existing laws, or breaches by third-party vendors we rely on, could lead to investigations,
fines, injunctions, or restrictions on our ability to operate in key markets. Even the perception of noncompliance could damage customer
trust and investor confidence, adversely affecting our stock price. The costs of compliance, including legal fees, system upgrades, and
ongoing audits, may increase over time and strain our financial resources, particularly if regulators impose conflicting requirements
across jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that our efforts to monitor and adapt to this dynamic regulatory landscape will be sufficient
to mitigate these risks, and any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results
of operations.
We operate across many domestic and international
jurisdictions which may subject us to cybersecurity, privacy, data security, data protection, and online content laws with uncertain interpretations.
International laws and regulations
relating to cybersecurity, privacy, data security, data protection, and online content often are more restrictive than those in the United
States. There is no harmonized approach to these laws and regulations globally. Consequently, as we expand internationally from Canada
and the United States, we increase our risk of noncompliance with applicable foreign data protection and online content laws, including
laws that expose us to civil or criminal penalties in certain jurisdictions for our content moderation decisions. We may need to change
and limit the way we use personal information in operating our business and may have difficulty maintaining a single operating model that
is compliant. In addition, various federal, state, provincial, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies, or self-regulatory organizations
may expand current laws or regulations, enact new laws or regulations or issue revised rules or guidance regarding cybersecurity, privacy,
data security, data protection and online content. Aspects of such laws can be unclear, resulting in further uncertainty and potentially
requiring us to modify our data practices and policies and to incur substantial additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply.
In addition, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that would make compliance challenging.
Noncompliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery,
anti-money laundering, and similar laws can subject us to criminal or civil liability and harm our business, financial condition and results
of operations.
We are subject to the U.S.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), U.S. domestic bribery laws, and other anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws in the countries
in which we operate. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies, their employees
and their third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to
recipients in the public or private sector. As we increase our international presence, we may engage with business partners and third-party
intermediaries to market our products and to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals, and may have direct or
indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can be held liable
for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners
and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities.
Detecting, investigating,
and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption laws, and responding to any action, can require a significant diversion
of time, resources, and attention from senior management and significant defense costs and other professional fees. In addition, noncompliance
with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or anti-money laundering laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, various
penalties or debarment from contracting with certain persons, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are
launched, or sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible proceeding, our business, financial condition and results
of operations could be harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s
attention and resources.
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Inadequate technical and legal intellectual
property protections could prevent us from defending or securing our proprietary technology and intellectual property.
Our success is dependent,
in part, upon protecting our proprietary information and technology. We may be unsuccessful in adequately protecting our intellectual
property. No assurance can be given that confidentiality, non-disclosure, or invention assignment agreements with employees, consultants,
or other parties will not be breached and will otherwise be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our platform or solutions,
or certain aspects of our platform or solutions, and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors
from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform or solutions. Additionally, certain
unauthorized use of our intellectual property may go undetected, or we may face legal or practical barriers to enforcing our legal rights
even where unauthorized use is detected.
Current law may not provide
for adequate protection of our platform or data. In addition, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability, and scope of protection
of proprietary rights in internet-related businesses are uncertain and evolving, and changes in these standards may adversely impact the
viability or value of our proprietary rights. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized use, copying, transfer, and disclosure
of our platform, or certain aspects of our platform, or our data may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions. Further,
the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement
of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. To the extent we expand our international activities, our
exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our data or certain aspects of our platform, or our data may increase. Competitors, foreign
governments, foreign government-backed actors, criminals, or other third parties may gain unauthorized access to our proprietary information
and technology. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our
technology and intellectual property.
To protect our intellectual
property rights, we will be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights, and we may or may not be able
to detect infringement by our customers or third parties. Litigation has been and may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual
property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming, and distracting to management and could
result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property
rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property
rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion
of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform or solutions, impair
the functionality of our platform or solutions, delay introductions of new features, integrations, and capabilities, result in our substituting
inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or solutions, or injure our reputation. In addition, we may be required to license
additional technology from third parties to develop and market new features, integrations, and capabilities, and we cannot be certain
that we could license that technology on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and our inability to license this technology could harm
our ability to compete.
We may be found to have infringed on the
intellectual property of others, which could expose us to substantial losses or restrict our operations.
Given the nature of our business
and as a publicly traded company, we have been, and expect to be, subject to legal claims that we have infringed the intellectual property
rights of others. To date, we have not fully evaluated the extent to which other parties may bring claims that our technology, including
our use of open source software, infringes on the intellectual property rights of others. The availability of damages and royalties and
the potential for injunctive relief have increased the costs associated with litigating and settling patent infringement claims. Any claims,
whether or not meritorious, could require us to spend significant time, money, and other resources in litigation, pay damages and royalties,
develop new intellectual property, modify, design around, or discontinue existing products, services, or features, or acquire licenses
to the intellectual property that is the subject of the infringement claims. These licenses, if required, may not be available on acceptable
terms or at all. As a result, intellectual property claims against us could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects,
financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
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We may face liability for hosting content
that allegedly infringes on third-party copyright and trademark rights.
If content providers do not
have sufficient rights to the video content or other material that they upload or make available to Rumble, or if such video content or
other material infringes or is alleged to infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, we could be subject to claims from
those third parties, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although our content policies
prohibit users from submitting infringing content to Rumble, and require users to indemnify Rumble for claims related to the violations
of the rights of third parties arising from the submission of content to Rumble (including with respect to infringements of intellectual
property rights), we do not verify that content providers own or have rights to all of the video content or other material that they upload
or make available. As a result, we may face potential liability for copyright or other intellectual property infringement, or other claims.
Litigation to defend these claims could be costly and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We can provide no assurance that we are adequately insured to cover claims related to user content or that our indemnification provisions
will be adequate to mitigate all liability that may be imposed on us as a result of claims related to user content.
We may face liability for hosting a variety
of tortious or unlawful materials uploaded by third parties, notwithstanding the liability protections of Section 230. In certain circumstances,
we may also voluntarily suspend access to our services indefinitely in certain jurisdictions in order to uphold our commitment to free
speech and diversity of opinion.
In the United States, Section
230 generally limits our liability for hosting tortious and otherwise illegal content. The immunities conferred by Section 230 could be
narrowed or eliminated through amendment, regulatory action or judicial interpretation. In 2018, Congress amended Section 230 to remove
immunities for content that promotes or facilitates sex trafficking and prostitution. In 2020, various members of Congress introduced
bills to further limit Section 230, and a petition was filed by a Department of Commerce entity with the Federal Communications Commission
to commence a rulemaking to further limit Section 230. Additionally, judicial decisions, including by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as
lower courts, may limit or alter the protections offered by Section 230.
Laws like Section 230 generally
do not exist outside of the United States, and some countries have enacted laws that require online content providers to remove certain
pieces of content within short time frames. If we fail to comply with such laws, we could be subject to prosecution or regulatory proceedings,
or we may choose voluntarily to suspend access to our services indefinitely in the applicable jurisdiction in order to uphold our commitment
to free speech and diversity of opinion, as we did in France beginning in November 2022 and in Brazil beginning in December 2023. These
and any similar future suspensions may limit our user and revenue growth, which in turn may adversely affect our business and operating
results. In addition, some countries may decide to ban our service based upon a single piece of content.
We may also face liability
when we remove content and accounts that we believe are violating our terms of service. While Rumble believes that Section 230 allows
us to restrict or remove certain categories of content, our protections may not always end a lawsuit at an early stage, potentially resulting
in costly and time-consuming litigation.
The incentives that we offer to certain
content creators may lead to liability based on the actions of those creators.
Our goal is to attract even
more top creators to our platform, further accelerating our platform’s growth, and we have offered and intend to continue to offer
incentives, including economic incentives, to content creators to join our platform, even while the content creators maintain sole editorial
control over the content they produce. These incentives have included and may continue to include equity grants or cash payments, including
arrangements under which we may agree to pay fixed compensation to a content creator (in certain cases, for multiple years) irrespective
of whether the actual revenue or user growth generated by the applicable content creator on our platform meets our original modeled financial
projections for that creator.
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While we believe that the
incentives we offer to certain content creators do not alter our liability protections under Section 230, it is possible that future judicial
interpretations of the statute will lead to liability for tortious or unlawful materials uploaded to Rumble by those content creators.
In addition, as part of the
incentives we offer to certain content creators, Rumble has the right to sell host-read advertisements. As part of these advertisements,
the content creator offers a paid endorsement of various products or services. Although we follow FTC guidelines regarding endorsements
and require our creators to do the same, we could face liability if creators fail to follow those guidelines or otherwise engage in misleading
or deceptive advertising.
User-generated content could affect the
quality of our services and deter current or potential users from using our platforms, and we may face negative publicity for removing,
or declining to remove, certain content, regardless of whether such content violated any law.
Individuals and groups may
upload controversial content to our platform that does not violate our terms of service. Removing or failing to remove such content may
result in negative publicity, which could harm our efforts to attract and retain users and subscribers. We have also faced criticism from
users and subscribers for removing content and terminating accounts in compliance with the DMCA. Further, we must continually manage and
monitor our content and detect content that violates our terms of service. This content moderation service is provided by Cosmic, a key
vendor, and we would experience a significant disruption if Cosmic were no longer able or willing to offer us that service. If a significant
amount of content that violates our terms of service were not detected and removed by us in a timely manner, or if a significant amount
of information was perceived by users or the media to violate our terms of service, whether or not such perceptions were accurate, our
brand, business and reputation could be harmed. This risk increases as the volume of content uploaded by users to Rumble continues to
grow.
In the event our content creators,
other users, advertisers, or other key business partners do not agree with our content moderation policies and procedures or their implementation,
such creators, other users, advertisers, and other key business partners could decrease their usage of Rumble (or cease using Rumble entirely),
which could have a material adverse effect on our business or our results of operations. Additionally, there is a risk that users will
upload content that predominantly represents certain political viewpoints, leading to public perceptions that Rumble endorses those viewpoints,
regardless of whether such perceptions are accurate. There can be no guarantee that current or future negative publicity, complaints,
allegations, political controversies, investigations or legal proceedings with respect to our content, even if baseless, will not generate
adverse publicity that could damage our reputation. Any damage to our reputation could harm our ability to attract and retain users and
subscribers.
Changes in tax rates, changes in tax treatment
of companies engaged in e-commerce, the adoption of new U.S. or international tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities
may adversely impact our financial results.
We are subject to taxes in
multiple jurisdictions. Our provision for income taxes is based on a jurisdictional mix of earnings, statutory tax rates and enacted tax
rules, including transfer pricing. There may also be tax costs associated with distributions between our subsidiaries. Due to economic
and political conditions, tax rates in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change. As a result, our future effective tax
rates could be affected by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of
deferred tax assets and liabilities, or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. These changes may adversely impact our effective
tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations.
We regularly assess the likelihood
of adverse outcomes resulting from examinations by the Internal Revenue Service and other domestic and foreign tax authorities to determine
the adequacy of our income tax and other tax reserves. If our reserves are not sufficient to cover these contingencies, such inadequacy
could materially adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, operating results, and cash flows. In addition, due to
the global nature of the internet, various states or foreign countries may attempt to impose additional or new regulation on our business
or levy additional or new taxes relating to our activities. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state and local levels are
currently reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in e-commerce. New or revised tax regulations or court decisions may
subject us or our customers to additional sales, income and other taxes. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our
business, financial condition, and operating results.
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We are currently under or
subject to examination for indirect taxes in various states, municipalities and foreign jurisdictions. Management currently believes we
have adequate reserves established for these matters. If a material indirect tax liability associated with prior periods were to be recorded,
for which there is not a reserve, it could materially affect our financial results for the period in which it is recorded.
Compliance obligations imposed by new privacy
laws, laws regulating online video-sharing and other platforms and online speech in certain jurisdictions in which we operate, or industry
practices may adversely affect our business and operating results.
New laws could restrict our
ability to conduct marketing by, for example, restricting the emailing or targeting users or use certain technologies like artificial
intelligence. Similarly, private-market participants may deploy technologies or require certain practices that limit our ability to obtain
or use certain information about our users and subscribers. For example, Google has indicated that it will ultimately phase out the use
of cookies to track users of its search services in future versions of its Chrome web browser, and Apple has updated its iOS mobile operating
system to require app developers to obtain opt-in consent before tracking users of its various services. If these types of changes are
implemented, our ability to determine how our users and subscribers use our video services and ability to use targeted advertising in
a cost-effective manner may be limited. New laws in Canada, along with laws under consideration in the European Union and other jurisdictions
in which we operate, may also require us to change our content moderation practices or privacy policies in ways that harm our business
or create the risk of fines or other penalties for noncompliance.
We may become subject to newly enacted laws
and regulations that restrict content on the internet.
The expansion of regulatory
and censorship regimes by governments around the world is likely to limit the freedom of speech and artistic expression on the internet,
which in turn may inhibit the growth of alternative and nontraditional platforms like Rumble relative to traditional media publishers
and established technology platforms that feature stricter content moderation. For example, Canada’s Bill C-11, also known as the
Online Streaming Act, grants Canadian regulatory authorities significantly increased regulatory powers over audiovisual content on the
internet. While we do not currently meet the regulatory criteria to comply with C-11, our commitment to a free and open internet may result
in governmental actions against our platform, costly and prolonged legal challenges, and the prohibition or suppression of our platform
in certain jurisdictions or our voluntary withdrawal from such jurisdictions.
The European Union (EU) has
recently intensified its efforts to regulate online speech, primarily through the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into effect in
2023. The DSA imposes strict requirements on digital services providers to combat “illegal” content, including “hate
speech” and “disinformation,” with significant fines for noncompliance. EU politicians have issued warnings to online
platforms over content accessible to EU users, such as Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump in August 2024. The DSA also requires
rapid content removal and potential platform bans.
Lawmakers in the United States
and in other countries may introduce new regulatory regimes that increase potential liability for content available on our platform. There
are a number of new laws and legislative proposals in the United States and globally aimed at limiting the scope of protections available
to online services and/or that further impose new obligations affecting our business, such as liability for copyright infringement, illegal
or harmful content, distributing targeted and other advertisements to teens, and other forms of unlawful content and/or online harm. These
legislative and/or regulatory requirements may increase our costs of operations, our liability for content posted by users on our platform,
our litigation costs, and/or may expose us to regulatory sanctions such as fines or penalties. If these or other additional statutory
or regulatory changes reduce liability protections for content published on our platform, we may be required to make significant changes
to our business model, including increasing our content moderation operations and building in additional product features or tools that
may not be favorable to our business. Any such changes to our business model may lead to new or heightened payment obligations or compliance
costs. Several U.S. states have also enacted legislation that regulates online content. Our business, financial performance and results
of operations could be negatively affected by the impact of these laws and the costs of complying with these laws, which are currently
the subject of various legal challenges.
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In addition, there are pending
cases before the judiciary that may result in changes to the protections afforded to internet platforms that, depending on the outcomes,
could greatly limit the scope of the current protections. If these proposed or similar laws are passed or upheld, if similar future legislation
or governmental action is proposed or taken, and if existing protections are limited or removed, changes will be required that could impose
additional costs of operation, subject us to additional liability or cause users to abandon our service, any of which could adversely
affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We could also face fines,
orders restricting or blocking our services in particular geographies, or other government-imposed sanctions as a result of content hosted
on our services. For example, laws and regulations in Germany and India provide for the imposition of fines for failure to comply with
certain content removal, law enforcement cooperation, and disclosure obligations. Numerous countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific,
and Latin America are considering, or have implemented, legislation imposing penalties, including fines, service throttling, access blocking,
or advertising bans, for failure to remove certain types of content or to follow certain processes. Such content-related legislation also
has required us in the past, and may require us in the future, to change our products or business practices. Our responses to content-related
legislation may increase our costs or may otherwise adversely impact our operations or our ability to provide services in certain jurisdictions.
Regulatory or legislative actions affecting the manner in which we display content to our users or obtain consent for various practices
could require product changes in the user interface that could adversely affect user growth and engagement.
We are involved in litigation that is unpredictable
and may have an adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
We are, and from time to time
may become, involved in various legal proceedings arising in the normal course of our business activities, such as copyright infringement
and tort claims arising from user-uploaded content, patent and trademark infringement claims, breach of contract claims, putative class
actions based upon consumer protection or privacy laws and other matters. We cannot predict the outcome of any lawsuit, claim, investigation
or proceeding with certainty, or whether any such matter will have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, liquidity,
or results of operations. We refer to the disclosure in “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” for a description of recent and ongoing
litigation, which disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
Paid endorsements by our content creators
may expose us to regulatory risk, liability, and compliance costs, and, as a result, may adversely affect our business, financial condition
and results of operations.
Our content creators may engage
in paid promotions of products and services in regulated industries, such as alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, cannabidiols (CBD),
and online gambling, including sports wagering and online casino games. In some cases, we may receive a percentage of the revenue generated
by such paid promotions. While these promotions are not endorsements by Rumble of the underlying products or services by Rumble and we
require content creators to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, we may be found liable pursuant to existing or newly created
rules and regulations by international, federal, and state regulatory authorities, such as the FTC. We may also expend significant resources
on compliance with such regulations. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively affected by the impact
of these regulations. In addition, such paid promotions may alienate segments of our audience, which could cause our traffic and user
engagement to fall and reduce our attractiveness to other advertisers.
Some of our shareholders, including content
creators to whom we have issued equity, may face legal scrutiny and reputational harm. To the extent these shareholders experience
such negative effects and are perceived as being closely associated with Rumble, our business, reputation, financial conditions, results
of operations and stock price could be materially adversely affected.
Our shareholders include prominent
voices and businesses in alternative media, politics, banking, capital markets, cryptocurrencies and digital assets, as well as sports
leagues, online influencers and other personalities. Some of these shareholders, including content creators to whom we have issued equity,
may be viewed as controversial by certain media outlets or governments in certain jurisdictions, which may lead to new or enhanced legal
or regulatory scrutiny of such individuals and their businesses by federal, state or foreign governments. For example, as we further expand
internationally, it is possible that foreign governments may use investigations or the threat of legal action against certain of our shareholders
in an effort to undermine our business, our ability to secure advertisers and cloud revenue, and the overall attractiveness of our platform
to content creators and audiences. Some of our shareholders may also face negative publicity, reputational harm, legal or regulatory scrutiny
or other adverse consequences due to alleged improper conduct that is unrelated to the Rumble platform or the content that we host. To
the extent prominent Rumble shareholders experience such reputational harm or other negative effects, Rumble could be perceived as closely
associated with such shareholders, and/or such shareholders could seek to divest their equity in Rumble for reasons unrelated to Rumble’s
business, and in turn our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations and stock price could be materially adversely
affected.
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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
We are an “emerging growth company”
within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) and as such we have relied on, and we expect to continue
to rely on, certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies. Our reliance on these exemptions could
make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with that of other public companies.
We are an “emerging
growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS
Act”), and as such we have relied on, and we expect to continue to rely on, certain exemptions from various reporting requirements
that are applicable to other public companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor internal controls
attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). Further, the JOBS
Act exempts emerging growth companies from the requirement to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private
companies are required to comply with the same standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company may elect to opt out of the extended transition
period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition
period, which may make the comparison of our financial statements with those of other public companies difficult or impossible because
of the potential differences in accounting standards.
As a result of our emerging
growth company status and our reliance on certain reporting exemptions, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they
may deem important, and investors may find our securities less attractive. This could result in a less active trading market for our common
stock, and the price of our common stock may be more volatile.
Our Charter authorizes our Board to issue
preferred stock, which may delay, defer or prevent a tender offer or a takeover attempt.
The provision of our Amended
and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Charter”) that authorizes our Board to issue preferred stock from time to
time based on terms approved by the Board may delay, defer or prevent a tender offer or takeover attempt that stockholders might consider
to be in their best interest.
Our Charter contains forum limitations for
certain disputes between us and our stockholders that could limit the ability of stockholders to bring claims against us or our directors,
officers and employees.
Our Charter provides that,
unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Delaware Court of Chancery (the “Court of Chancery”)
is the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative lawsuit brought on our behalf, (ii) any lawsuit against our current or former directors,
officers, employees or stockholders asserting a breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any such person to us or our stockholders, (iii) any
lawsuit asserting a claim arising under any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our Charter or bylaws (each, as in effect
from time to time), or (iv) any lawsuit governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the State of Delaware. These provisions do not apply
to claims arising under the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or other federal securities laws for which there is exclusive federal or
concurrent federal and state jurisdiction. Our Charter also provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative
forum, the federal district courts of the United States are the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting
a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.
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Although we believe these
exclusive forum provisions benefit our company by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities
laws in the types of lawsuits to which each applies, the exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a
claim in a judicial forum that the stockholder finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers or stockholders,
which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Further, in the event a court finds either exclusive forum provision contained
in our Charter to be unenforceable or inapplicable 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.
Our CEO has control over key decision making
as a result of his control of a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
As the beneficial owner of
all of the Class D Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of Rumble (the “Class D Common Stock”), our CEO Chris Pavlovski
is able to exercise voting rights with respect to approximately 83% of the voting power of Rumble’s outstanding capital stock. This
concentrated control will limit or preclude our public stockholders’ ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable
future. Further, our Charter does not include a sunset provision for the high vote feature of the Class D Common Stock, meaning this feature
will persist indefinitely (unless amended or until all of the shares of Class D Common Stock have been redeemed by Rumble in connection
with future transfers (other than “permitted transfers”) of shares of Class A Common Stock or ExchangeCo Shares by Mr. Pavlovski).
As a result, Mr. Pavlovski may control or effectively control the voting of Rumble, even if he holds only a small economic interest in
the company. Consequently, in the event Mr. Pavlovski liquidates a significant portion of his economic interest in Rumble, Mr. Pavlovski
may no longer be incentivized (or incentivized to the same extent) to exercise his voting control, including in connection with the types
of decisions further described below, in a manner that will maximize the economic value of Rumble.
Because of the voting ratio
between the Class D Common Stock on the one hand, and the Class A Common Stock and Class C Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share of
Rumble (the “Class C Common Stock”), on the other hand, Mr. Pavlovski has the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted
to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors, amendments to our organizational documents, and any merger, consolidation,
or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. The Charter provides that Rumble may not issue any shares of Class D Common Stock,
so all of the Class D Common Stock are held by Mr. Pavlovski and/or his transferees. In this regard, no shares of Class D Common Stock
may be transferred by Mr. Pavlovski unless the transfer is made to a qualified transferee as described in the Charter. As a result, only
Mr. Pavlovski has the right to vote and control the Class D Common Stock, meaning that Mr. Pavlovski is not entitled to transfer voting
control of Rumble to another person or entity not controlled by Mr. Pavlovski through the transfer of Class D Common Stock.
This concentrated control
could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of Rumble’s assets
that our other stockholders support, or, conversely, this concentrated control could result in the consummation of such a transaction
that our other stockholders do not support. This concentrated control could also discourage a potential investor from acquiring our publicly
traded Class A Common Stock, which will have limited voting power relative to the Class D Common Stock that is held by Mr. Pavlovski,
and might harm the trading price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, Mr. Pavlovski has the ability to control the management and
our major strategic investments as a result of his position as our CEO and his ability to control the election of our directors. As a
board member and officer, Mr. Pavlovski owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably
believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Pavlovski is entitled
to vote his shares in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
Our CEO may be incentivized to focus on
the short-term share price as a result of his interest in shares placed in escrow and subject to forfeiture pursuant to the terms of the
Business Combination Agreement.
Mr. Pavlovski, the CEO and
controlling shareholder of Rumble, holds shares placed in escrow and subject to forfeiture pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination
Agreement. Such shares will vest in the event certain share price thresholds are satisfied, but if such price thresholds are not satisfied
in the applicable time periods, such shares will be forfeited and cancelled. Accordingly, Mr. Pavlovski may be incentivized to focus on
short-term results which may have a positive effect on Rumble’s share price at the expense of the long-term success of the Company.
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Substantial future sales of our Class A
Common Stock by our current stockholders could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to decline.
Substantially all of our issued
and outstanding shares are freely transferable and/or registered for resale on registration statements filed with the SEC. Recently, our
registration rights agreement with Tether required us to register all shares held by Tether under the Securities Act. The registration
rights for Tether and our other significant shareholders allow such shareholders to sell their shares without compliance with the volume
and manner of sale limitations under Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act and will facilitate the resale of such securities into
the public market. The market value of our common stock could decline as a result of sales by Tether or our other significant stockholders
having registration rights from time to time. In particular, sales of a substantial number of our shares of Class A Common Stock in the
public market or the perception that such sales will occur could adversely affect the market price for our Class A Common Stock and make
it more difficult for our public stockholders to sell their shares of Class A Common Stock at such times and at such prices that they
deem desirable.
Our stock price may be volatile, and purchasers
of our common stock could incur substantial losses.
Our stock price is likely
to be volatile. The stock market in general, as well as the market for technology companies in particular, have both experienced extreme
volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. The market price for our common stock may
be influenced by many broad market and industry factors. These broad market and industry factors may seriously harm the market price of
our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In addition, the market price for our common stock may be subject to price
movements that may not comport with macro, industry or company-specific fundamentals, including, without limitation, the sentiment of
retail investors (including as may be expressed on financial trading and other online forums), the direct access by retail investors to
broadly available trading platforms, the amount and status of short interest in our securities, access to margin debt, trading in options
and other derivatives on our common stock and any related hedging and other trading factors. In the past, following periods of volatility
in the market, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against companies. Such litigation could result in substantial
costs and diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial
condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
We have and will continue to incur significant
expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results
of operations.
We face significant increases
in insurance, legal, compliance, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that we did not incur as
a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including the requirements of Section 404, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented
by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations promulgated and to be
promulgated thereunder, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC and the securities exchanges, impose additional reporting
and other obligations on public companies.
Compliance with public company
requirements has increased, and is expected to continue to increase, our costs and has made, and is expected to continue to make, certain
activities more time-consuming. Several of those requirements require us to carry out activities that we have not done previously. In
addition, we incurred and will continue to incur additional expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements. Furthermore, if any issues
in complying with those requirements are identified, we could incur additional costs to rectify those issues, and the existence of those
issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of us. Furthermore, if we are unable to satisfy our obligations as
a public company, our securities could be subject to delisting, and we could face fines, sanctions and other regulatory actions and potentially
civil litigation.
The additional reporting and
other obligations imposed by various rules and regulations applicable to public companies will increase legal and financial compliance
costs and the costs of related legal, accounting and administrative activities. These increased costs require us to divert a significant
amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. Advocacy efforts by stockholders
and third-parties may also prompt additional changes in governance and reporting requirements, which could further increase costs.
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There can be no assurance that we will be
able to comply with the continued listing standards of Nasdaq.
If Nasdaq delists our shares
from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards and we are not able to list such securities on another national
securities exchange, our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, Rumble and its stockholders
could face significant material adverse consequences including a limited availability of market quotations for our securities, reduced
liquidity for our securities, a determination that our Class A Common Stock is a “penny stock,” which will require brokers
trading the Class A Common Stock to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary
trading market, a limited amount of news and analyst coverage, and a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional
financing in the future.
If securities or industry analysts cease
publishing research or reports about Rumble, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities
adversely, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.
The trading market for our
securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about Rumble, our business,
market or competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover Rumble change their recommendation regarding our shares of common stock adversely,
or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our shares of common stock would likely decline.
Some analysts who covered Rumble have ceased coverage of our securities in the past, and if additional analysts were to cease such coverage
or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose additional visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our
share price or the trading volume of our securities to decline.
Pursuant to the JOBS Act, our independent
registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant
to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for so long as we are an “emerging growth company”.
Pursuant to the JOBS Act,
our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial
reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We could
be an “emerging growth company” until the earlier of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross
revenues of $1.235 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following February 23, 2026, the fifth anniversary of CF VI’s
initial public offering; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three
years; and (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC.
We do not expect to declare any cash dividends
for the foreseeable future.
We do not anticipate declaring
any cash dividends to holders of our common stock for the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of their
shares after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
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Item 1C. Cybersecurity
Risk Management and Strategy
The success of our business
operations depends on the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability, of confidential and sensitive information. Such information
includes personal information that we collect and process on our own and using systems and platforms provided by our vendors and other
third parties on which we rely. Consequently, we maintain a data protection program, which includes physical, technical, and administrative
safeguards, designed to identify, prevent, and mitigate the risks posed by cybersecurity threats, and to identify, analyze, address, mitigate
and remediate any cybersecurity incidents that may happen in an efficient and timely manner. As part of our program:
● We have implemented and maintain our policies, procedures and processes (PPP) related to the functioning of information technology
within the company. The PPP are custom-tailored for the specific needs of the company – such as the nature and scale of the personal
information that we collect and process – and incorporate controls and frameworks set forth by organizations such as the National
Institute of Standards and Technology and the International Organization for Standardization. Our internal Risk Management Committee,
described below, reviews our PPP at least annually to assure continuing relevance and effectiveness.
● We maintain a dedicated, fully staffed and qualified Information Security team that reports to the office of the Chief Technology
Officer (CTO) and is currently led by the Director of Information Security (InfoSec). Combined, these individuals have more than 50 years
of experience related to corporate information security governance, data and network security, data governance, risk management, and overall
secure practices involved with InfoSec.
● We have implemented a risk management process and formed a Risk Management Committee, which consists of members of our management
team, including members with technical expertise, to identify, evaluate and categorize any potential InfoSec risks.
● We perform vulnerability testing and penetration testing at routine intervals to assure that our InfoSec posture remains vigilant.
● We utilize and maintain third-party security vendors, as necessary, to provide assistance with a variety of security efforts.
● We are reviewing our security training protocols to ensure all employees received annual security training for all employees. This
security training will be focused on overall InfoSec, privacy best practices, and review of company policies.
● We have formed and maintain a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC)/Network Operations Center (NOC) that continually monitors our
key systems and logs.
● We have an incident response and escalation process that is designed to detect cyber incidents and react in an appropriate manner
to reduce any related damage.
● We conduct tabletop exercises related to business continuity planning and disaster recovery, as well as incident responses for our
SOC/NOC Operations team
● Our Board is regularly updated regarding the current state of InfoSec, its future roadmap, and any significant or material cybersecurity
incidents.
Cybersecurity Governance
Our Board actively oversees
our risk management activities and considers various risk topics throughout the year, including cybersecurity and information security
risk management and controls. As part of its oversight function, the Board oversees the Company’s risk assessment and risk management
policies, including related to cybersecurity and the data protection program, and performs an annual review and assessment of the primary
operational and regulatory risks facing the Company, their relative magnitude and management’s plan for mitigating these risks.
As appropriate, our CTO and
Director of InfoSec report to the Board on a broad range of topics, including any significant cybersecurity risks, the status of ongoing
projects, future roadmap planning, updates to the company’s PPP, and other relevant updates to our InfoSec operations and stance.
In addition, our Incident Response process is designed to ensure that the Board receives timely notifications and reports, particularly
with respect to any material cybersecurity incident , so that they are aware of any material incident and can provide oversight and direction
as part of the response and remediation process.
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Our senior management is responsible
for assessing and managing the Company’s various exposures to risk, including those related to cybersecurity, on a day-to-day basis,
including the identification of risks through an enterprise risk management framework and the creation of appropriate risk management
programs and policies to address such risks. Our Risk Management Committee is responsible for assessing and categorizing any significant
identifiable risks and presenting them to senior management in a timely manner along with recommendations on how to manage these identified
risks. All potential risks are identified, quantified, and categorized in such a manner that they can be ranked and presented to senior
management for appropriate disposition (such as avoidance, acceptance, mitigation, etc.). Our CTO and Director of InfoSec have the primary
responsibility for managing our cybersecurity program and efforts. We perform internal audits of our internal information technology controls
and implementation, and we carry out a tabletop exercise at least once each year to determine our ability to respond to cybersecurity
incidents in an effective and efficient manner.
Our information technology
team have decades of operational experience both in private as well as classified government settings, advanced degrees in the information
technology field from accredited universities, certifications within their areas of expertise (e.g., Certified Information Systems Security
Professional (CISSP), Operating Systems Certifications, Network Engineering certifications, etc.).
Item 2. Properties
We are headquartered in Longboat
Key, Florida, and maintain offices in both the United States and Canada. Some of our employees work remotely. All of our facilities are
leased. We believe that our current facilities are adequate to meet our current needs. We intend to procure additional space in the future
as we continue to add employees and expand geographically. We also believe that, if we require additional space, we will be able to lease
additional facilities on commercially reasonable terms.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
We are, and from time to time
may become, involved in various legal proceedings arising in the normal course of our business activities, such as copyright infringement
and tort claims arising from user-uploaded content, patent infringement claims, breach of contract claims, government demands, putative
class actions based upon consumer protection or privacy laws and other matters. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may
be subject to insurance coverage.
In January 2021, we filed
an antitrust lawsuit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Google unlawfully
gives an advantage to its YouTube platform over Rumble in search engine results and in the mobile phone market. In June 2021, Google filed
a partial motion to dismiss the lawsuit and a motion to strike; in July 2022, the court denied Google’s motion. Discovery has concluded,
and the court heard argument on Google’s motion for summary judgment in February 2025. Trial was scheduled for May 2025, but has
been moved to July 7, 2025.
In addition, in May 2024,
we filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California related to Google’s
monopolization of the online advertising market. This lawsuit is separate and distinct from the self-preferencing lawsuit filed in January
2021. In August 2024, we filed an amended complaint, and in September 2024, Google filed a motion to dismiss. In December 2024, the U.S.
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) transferred the case to the existing proceeding, In re: Google Digital Advertising
Antitrust Litigation (JPML No. 3010). After common questions of facts are resolved in the Multidistrict Litigation proceeding, its
case would be transferred back to the Northern District of California for trial. A second amended compliant will be filed during the week
of March 24, 2025.
In January 2022, we received
notification of a lawsuit filed by Kosmayer Investment Inc. (“KII”) against Rumble and Mr. Pavlovski in the Ontario Superior
Court of Justice, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation in connection with KII’s decision to redeem its shares of Rumble in August
2020. KII is seeking rescission of such redemption such that, following such rescission, KII would own 20% of the issued and outstanding
shares of Rumble or, in the alternative, damages for the lost value of the redeemed shares, which KII has alleged to be worth $419.0 million
(based on the value ascribed to the shares of Rumble in the Business Combination), together with other damages including punitive damages
and costs. The case is currently in discovery. Although we believe that the allegations are meritless and intend to vigorously defend
against them, the result or impact of such claims is uncertain, and could result in, among other things, damages, and/or awards of attorneys’
fees or expenses. Mediation is scheduled for April 14, 2025.
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Along with co-plaintiff Eugene
Volokh, in December 2022, we filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to block the enforcement
of New York State’s Social Media Law. In February 2023, the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, halting enforcement
of the law. The New York Attorney General appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; that appeal remains
pending.
In November 2023, we filed
a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin, co-founders
of an organization that targets news outlets and platforms that do not adhere to their political worldview. The lawsuit seeks actual,
presumed, and punitive damages against Jammi and Atkin for their defamatory statements about Rumble, in addition to all costs and fees
associated with the case. We have also asked the court to prohibit the defendants from repeating their false statements. In May 2024,
the defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The court held a hearing on that motion on November 7, 2024. Both
parties filed motions for summary judgment. The defendants filed a notice to withdraw their consent to a joint motion to extend the case
deadlines by six months and also withdrew their motion to dismiss. Rumble subsequently filed a motion to deny defendants’ motion
for summary judgment.
In August 2024, we filed an
antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers, WPP plc,
and GroupM Worldwide LLC alleging a conspiracy to withhold advertising revenue from Rumble and other digital media platforms. The lawsuit
seeks a declaration that the defendants’ conduct is illegal, a permanent injunction against the conduct, damages, interest, and
legal fees, among other relief. In September 2024, we filed an amended complaint, which added Diageo plc as a defendant. The defendants’
filed a motion to dismiss on February 21, 2025. Rumble’s answer is due on April 15, 2025.
In October 2024, plaintiff
David Stebbins filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware naming Rumble Inc. and an unaffiliated entity doing
business as “The Specter Report” as defendants. Mr. Stebbins, who is not represented by counsel, alleges six counts of copyright
infringement and one count of slander and seeks injunctive relief and $900,000 in damages from Rumble. We have not yet been formally served
with the lawsuit and believe that the allegations are meritless.
In November 2024, we filed
a lawsuit against the California Attorney General and Secretary of State in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
to enjoin the enforcement of AB 2655, a recently enacted state law regulating online platforms. The law would require online platforms
to receive reports about posts related to elections, public officials, and candidates for office that are deemed “materially deceptive,”
then remove or label the content. Our lawsuit was consolidated with similar lawsuits filed by other affected online platforms and content
creators, and the state of California has agreed to enjoin the enforcement of the law during the initial phases of the litigation. The
plaintiffs’ summary judgment motions were filed on March 7, 2025.
In February 2025, Rumble filed
a complaint and a request for a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of
Florida against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes related to content blocking orders issued by him against Rumble. The
court denied, without prejudice, Rumble’s motion for a TRO on the grounds that the matter was not ripe for judicial review. The
court noted that Justice Moraes’s pronouncements and directives had not been properly served on Rumble, that Rumble was not obligated
to comply with such pronouncements and directives, and that no U.S. entity was required to enforce them.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not Applicable.
38
Part
II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common
Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our Class A Common Stock and
Warrants are listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbols “RUM” and “RUMBW”, respectively.
Holders of Record
As of March 20, 2025, there were (i) 170 shareholders of record of
our Class A Common Stock, (ii) 9 shareholders of record of our Class C Common Stock, (iii) one shareholder of record of our Class D Common
Stock and (iv) 14 holders of record of our warrants to purchase our Common Stock. The number of holders of record does not include a substantially
greater number of “street name” holders or beneficial holders, whose shares and/or warrants are held of record by banks, brokers
and other financial institutions.
Dividend Policy
We do not anticipate declaring
or paying any cash dividends on our Class A Common Stock in the foreseeable future. It is presently intended that we will retain our earnings
for use in business operations and, accordingly, it is not anticipated that our board of directors will declare dividends in the foreseeable
future.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities; Use
of Proceeds from Registered Offerings; Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer or Affiliated Purchaser
Not applicable
Stock Performance Graph
The following information
in this Item 5 is not deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to Regulation
14A or 14C under the Exchange Act or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and will not be deemed to be incorporated by
reference into any filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except to the extent the Company specifically incorporates it
by reference into such a filing.
The SEC requires the Company
to include a line graph presentation comparing cumulative five-year common stock returns, or in the case of Rumble, the date of the consummation
of the Business Combination, with a broad-based stock index and either a nationally recognized industry index or an index of peer companies
selected by the Company. The Company has chosen to use the Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) 500 Index as the broad-based
index. The S&P 500 Index was chosen as the Company does not believe any other published industry or line-of-business index adequately
represents the current operations of the Company. The graph assumes a beginning investment of $100 on September 16, 2022, the date of
the consummation of the Business Combination, and that all dividends are reinvested. We have never declared or paid cash dividends on
our common stock nor do we anticipate paying any such cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
39
Item 6. [Reserved]
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis
of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” should be read in conjunction with the “Business”
section and Rumble Inc.’s (“Rumble” or the “Company”) consolidated financial statements as of and for the
years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 (“consolidated financial statements”) and other information included elsewhere in this
Annual Report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ
materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to those differences include, but are not limited
to, those identified below and those discussed in the sections titled “1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report and those discussed in our other filings with the SEC. Additionally,
our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in any future period. Amounts are presented
in U.S. dollars.
Overview
We are a high growth, video
sharing and cloud services provider platform designed to help content creators manage, distribute, and monetize their content by connecting
them with brands, publishers, and directly to their subscribers and followers. Our registered office is 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat
Key, Florida, 34228. Our shares of Class A common stock and warrants are traded on The Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) under
the symbols “RUM” and “RUMBW”, respectively.
Significant Events and Transactions
On December 20, 2024, the
Company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement for a strategic investment of $775 million from Tether, the largest
company in the digital assets industry and the most widely used dollar stablecoin across the world with more than 400 million users. As
part of the transaction, which closed on February 7, 2025, Tether purchased 103,333,333 shares of Class A Common Stock at a price per
share of $7.50, totaling $775 million in gross proceeds to Rumble. As part of the closing of the transaction, the Company completed a
tender offer to purchase 70,000,000 shares of its Class A Common Stock at a price of $7.50 per share (the “Tender Offer”),
for a total of $525 million, excluding fees and expenses related to the Tender Offer. The Company will use $250 million of the proceeds,
less transaction expenses, to support growth initiatives.
40
Refer to Note 11, Derivative
Liability, to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report.
Revenues
We generate revenues primarily
from Audience Monetization and Other Initiatives.
Audience Monetization includes
advertising fees on the Rumble platform; subscription fees earned primarily from consumer product offerings such as Rumble Premium; Locals
and badges; revenues generated from content that is licensed by third-parties; pay-per-view; and fees from tipping and platform hosting
fees. Advertising fees are generated by delivering digital video and display advertisements as well as cost-per-message-read advertisements.
Digital video and display advertisements are placed on Rumble websites or mobile applications. Customers pay for advertisements either
directly or through relationships with advertising agencies or resellers, based on the number of impressions delivered or the number of
actions, such as clicks, or purchases taken, by our users.
Other Initiatives includes
digital advertisements that are placed on Rumble’s network of third-party publisher websites or mobile applications; and cloud.
Cloud includes consumption-based fees, subscriptions for infrastructure and professional services.
Refer to Note 2, Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies, to the consolidated financial statements.
Expenses
Expenses primarily include
cost of services, general and administrative, research and development, sales and marketing, acquisition-related transaction costs, amortization
and depreciation, and changes in fair value of contingent consideration. The most significant component of our expenses on an ongoing
basis are programming and content.
We expect to continue to invest
substantial resources to support our growth and anticipate that each of the following categories of expenses will increase in absolute
dollar amounts for the foreseeable future.
Cost of Services (Exclusive of Amortization
and Depreciation)
Cost of services consists
of costs related to obtaining, supporting and hosting the Company’s product offerings. These costs primarily include:
● Programming and content costs related to compensation to content providers, including share-based compensation,
from whom video and other content are licensed. These costs are paid to these providers based on revenues generated, or in fixed amounts.
In certain circumstances, we incur additional costs related to incentivizing top content creators to promote and join our platform; and
● Other cost of services such as third-party service provider costs, including data center and networking,
as well as payment processing fees and costs paid to publishers.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative
expenses consist primarily of payroll and related expenses, which include bonuses and share-based compensation for our executives and
certain other employees. General and administrative expenses also include legal and professional fees, business insurance costs, operating
lease costs and other costs. As a public company, we expect to continue to incur material costs related to compliance with applicable
laws and regulations, including audit and accounting fees, legal, insurance, investor relations and other costs.
41
Research and Development Expenses
Research and development expenses
consist primarily of payroll and related expenses, which include bonuses and share-based compensation for our employees on our engineering
and development teams. Research and development expenses also include consultant fees related to our development activities to originate,
develop and enhance our platforms.
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Sales and marketing expenses
consist primarily of payroll and related expenses, which include bonuses and share-based compensation for our employees associated with
our sales and marketing functions. Sales and marketing expenses also include consultant fees and direct marketing costs related to the
promotion of our platforms and solutions. We expect our sales and marketing expenses to increase over time as we promote our platform
and brand, increase marketing activities, and grow domestic and international operations.
Acquisition-Related Transaction Costs
Acquisition-related transaction
costs consist of transaction expenses related to acquisitions.
Amortization and Depreciation
Amortization and depreciation
represent the recognition of costs of assets used in operations, including property and equipment and intangible assets, over their estimated
service lives.
Change in Fair Value of Contingent Consideration
Certain contingent consideration
associated with the Callin acquisition does not meet the criteria for equity classification, and must be recorded as a liability in accordance
with guidance contained in ASC 815-40, Derivatives and Hedging Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (“ASC 815-40”).
Because the contingent consideration meets the definition of a liability under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”),
it is measured at fair value at inception and at each reporting date in accordance with the guidance in ASC 820, Fair Value Measurement
(“ASC 820”), with any subsequent changes in fair value recognized in the consolidated statement of operations in the applicable
period of change.
Non-Operating Income and Other Items
Interest Income
Interest income consists of
interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities We invest in highly liquid securities such as money market funds,
treasury bills and term deposits.
Other Expense
Other expense consists of
miscellaneous income earned outside of normal company revenue as well as foreign exchange gains and losses related to gains and losses
on transactions denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
Change in Fair Value of Warrant Liability
We account for our outstanding
warrants in accordance with ASC 815-40, under which the warrants issued in connection with Business Combination do not meet the criteria
for equity classification, and must be recorded as liabilities. As these warrants meet the definition of a liability under ASC 815, they
are measured at fair value at inception and at each reporting date in accordance with the guidance in ASC 820, with any subsequent changes
in fair value recognized in the consolidated statement of operations in the applicable period of change.
42
Change in Fair Value of Derivative
The forward purchase contracts
in connection with the Tether transaction do not meet the criteria for equity classification, and must be recorded as a liability in accordance
with guidance contained in ASC 815-40, Derivatives and Hedging Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (“ASC 815-40”).
Because the derivative meets the definition of a liability under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”), it is
measured at fair value at inception and at each reporting date in accordance with the guidance in ASC 820, Fair Value Measurement (“ASC
820”), with any subsequent changes in fair value recognized in the consolidated statement of operations in the applicable period
of change.
Income Tax Benefit (Expense)
Income tax benefit (expense)
consists of the estimated federal, state, and foreign income taxes incurred in the U.S. and other jurisdictions in which we operate.
Key Business Metrics
To analyze our business performance,
determine financial forecasts and help develop long-term strategic plans, we review the key business metrics described below.
Monthly Active Users (“MAUs”)
We
use MAUs as a measure of audience engagement to help us understand the volume of users engaged with our content on a monthly basis. MAUs
represent the total web, mobile app, and connected TV users of Rumble for each month, which allows us to measure our total user base
calculated from data provided by Google, a third-party analytics provider. Google defines “active users” as the “[n]umber
of distinct users who visited your website or application.” 1 We have used the Google
analytics systems since we first began publicly reporting MAU statistics, and the resulting data have not been independently verified.
As
of July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics (“UA”), Google’s analytics platform on which we historically relied for calculating
MAUs using company-set parameters, was phased out by Google and ceased processing data. At that time, Google Analytics 4 (“GA4”)
succeeded UA as Google’s next-generation analytics platform, which has been used to determine MAUs since the third quarter of 2023
and which we expect to continue to use to determine MAUs in future periods. Although Google has disclosed certain information regarding
the transition to GA4, 2 Google does not currently make available sufficient information
relating to its new GA4 algorithm for us to determine the full effect of the switch from UA to GA4 on our reported MAUs. Because Google
has publicly stated that metrics in UA “may be more or less similar” to metrics in GA4, and that “[i]t is not unusual
for there to be apparent discrepancies” between the two systems, 3 we are unable
to determine whether the transition from UA to GA4 has had a positive or negative effect, or the magnitude of such effect, if any, on
our reported MAUs. It is therefore possible that MAUs that we reported based on the UA methodology (“MAUs (UA)”) for periods
prior to July 1, 2023, cannot be meaningfully compared to MAUs based on the GA4 methodology (“MAUs (GA4)”) in subsequent
periods.
MAUs
(GA4) represent the total web, mobile app, and connected TV users of Rumble for each month, 4 which
allows us to measure our total user base calculated from data provided by Google. 5 Connected
TV users were not counted within MAUs within MAUs (UA) for periods prior to July 1, 2023, and we believe the number of such users was
immaterial in those prior periods. We also believe that fewer than 1 million MAUs in the current period are from connected TV, making
them similarly immaterial. Google’s parameters for measuring “active users” appear to exclude many, but not all, users
who access content on Rumble through “embedded” videos on domains other than rumble.com, and we are unable to determine the
exact number of users who access “embedded” content within our total number of MAUs. In addition, MAUs (GA4) may rely on
statistical sampling and may be based on estimates of data that Google is missing “due to factors such as cookie consent.” 6
1 Google, “[UA → GA4]
Comparing Metrics: Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/11986666#zippy=%2Cin-this-article
(last accessed Mar. 12, 2025) [hereinafter: “Google, Comparing Metrics.”] (providing the technical criteria Google uses to
calculate active users).
2 Id .
3 Id .
4 During the measurement period, Rumble was available on
the following connected TV systems: Roku, Android TV, Amazon Fire, LG, and Samsung TVs.
5 Google provides additional information on its definition
of an “active user,” see Google, Comparing Metrics.
6
According to the GA4 dashboard, “[a]s of August 26, 2023, Analytics is estimating data that’s missing due to factors such as cookie consent.”
43
As with our earlier MAU reporting,
there is a potential for minor overlap in the resulting data due to users who access Rumble’s content through the web, our mobile
apps, and connected TVs in a given measurement period; however, given that we believe this minor overlap to be immaterial, we do not separately
track or report “unique users” as distinct from MAUs. Our reported MAUs have not historically included users of Locals, however,
starting in mid-May 2024, Locals users began using Rumble’s single sign-on technology to access their account, which we expect will
reduce the number of Locals users not included in our Rumble MAU reporting. We also do not separately report the number of users who register
for accounts in any given period, which is different from MAUs.
Like many other major online
platforms, we rely on significant paid advertising in order to attract users to our platform; however, we cannot be certain that all or
substantially all activity that results from such advertising is genuine. Spam activity, including inauthentic and fraudulent user activity,
if undetected, may contribute to some amount of overstatement of our performance indicators, including reporting of MAUs by Google. We
continually seek to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam-generated users, and we eliminate material activity that
is substantially likely to be spam from the calculation of our MAUs. We will not, however, succeed in identifying and removing all spam.
MAUs (GA4) were 68 million
on average in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 1% from the third quarter of 2024. The increase in MAUs was primarily driven
by increased interest in politics during the final stretch of the U.S. presidential election campaign, offset in part by reduced MAU
activity during the December holiday season.
Average Revenue Per User (“ARPU”)
We use ARPU as a measure of
our ability to monetize our user base. Quarterly ARPU is calculated as quarterly Audience Monetization revenue divided by MAUs for the
relevant quarter (as reported by Google Analytics). ARPU does not include Other Initiatives revenue.
44
ARPU
was $0.39 in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 18% from the third quarter of 2024. The increase from the third quarter is attributable
to higher advertising revenue and subscription revenue.
We
regularly review, have adjusted in the past, and may in the future adjust our processes for calculating our key business metrics to improve
their accuracy, including through the application of new data or technologies or product changes that may allow us to identify previously
undetected spam activity. As a result of such adjustments, our key business metrics may not be comparable period-over-period.
Results
of Operations
The
following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 and the dollar
and percentage change between the two periods:
For the year ended December 31,
2024
2023
Variance
($)
Variance
(%)
Revenues
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
$ 14,524,739
18 %
Expenses
Cost of services (content, hosting and other)
$ 138,472,266
$ 146,156,734
$ (7,684,468 )
(5 )%
General and administrative
36,646,307
37,125,296
(478,989 )
(1 )%
Research and development
18,923,319
15,721,663
3,201,656
20 %
Sales and marketing
17,330,925
13,427,021
3,903,904
29 %
Acquisition-related transaction costs
-
1,151,318
(1,151,318 )
(100 )%
Amortization and depreciation
13,614,587
4,850,812
8,763,775
181 %
Changes in fair value of contingent consideration
1,354,357
(1,922,381 )
3,276,738
(170 )%
Total expenses
226,341,761
216,510,463
9,831,298
5 %
Loss from operations
(130,853,571 )
(135,547,012 )
4,693,441
(3 )%
Interest income
8,083,903
13,594,463
(5,510,560 )
(41 )%
Other expense
(207,431 )
(125,511 )
(81,920 )
65 %
Change in fair value of warrant liability
(32,694,697 )
2,365,895
(35,060,592 )
(1,482 )%
Change in fair value of derivative
(184,699,998 )
-
(184,699,998 )
*NM
Loss before income taxes
(340,371,794 )
(119,712,165 )
(220,659,629 )
184 %
Income tax benefit
2,009,015
3,291,703
(1,282,688 )
(39 )%
Net loss
$ (338,362,779 )
$ (116,420,462 )
$ (221,942,317 )
191 %
* NM-
Percentage change not meaningful.
45
Revenues
Revenues
increased by $14.5 million to $95.5 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, of which
$10.3 million was attributable to an increase in Audience Monetization revenues and $4.2 million was attributable to higher Other Initiatives.
The increase in Audience Monetization revenues was mainly due to higher revenue from subscriptions, tipping fees, licensing, platform
hosting and advertising. The increase in Other Initiative revenue was mostly due to more advertising inventory being monetized by our
publisher network and an increase in cloud services offered.
Cost
of Services
Cost
of services decreased by $7.7 million to $138.5 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.
The decrease was primarily due to a reduction in programming and content costs of $9.5 million, offset by an increase of $1.8 million
in other cost of services including payment processing fees and costs paid to publishers.
General
and Administrative Expenses
General
and administrative expenses decreased by $0.5 million to $36.6 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended
December 31, 2023. The decrease was mainly driven by a reduction in administrative expenses of $2.8 million and share-based compensation
of $1.1 million, offset by an increase in payroll and related expenses of $3.4 million. The decrease of $2.8 million in administrative
expenses was primarily due to lower expenses related to public company-related costs, legal, insurance, and other administrative services.
The decrease in share-based compensation was related to the recognition of contingent shares issued in connection with the Callin acquisition
that was accounted for as a post-combination expense as well as the expense of previously and newly granted restricted stock units and
stock options for certain employees and executives.
Research
and Development Expenses
Research
and development expenses increased by $3.2 million to $18.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December
31, 2023. The increase was due to an increase of $2.7 million in payroll and related expenses, and an increase of $0.5 million in other
expenses .
Sales
and Marketing Expenses
Sales
and marketing expenses increased by $3.9 million to $17.3 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December
31, 2023. The increase was due to an increase of $2.7 million in payroll and related expenses, $0.4 million in consulting services, and
$0.8 million in other marketing and public relations activities.
Acquisition-Related
Transaction Costs
Acquisition-related
transaction costs decreased by $1.2 million to $nil in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.
Acquisition-related transaction costs for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of transaction costs incurred related to acquisitions
completed in 2023.
Amortization
and Depreciation
Amortization
and depreciation increased by $8.8 million to $13.6 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31,
2023. The increase was due to an increase of $2.0 million from depreciation on our property and equipment as we continue to build out
our infrastructure, as well as an increase in amortization from intangible assets of $6.8 million.
46
Change
in Fair Value of Contingent Consideration
Change
in fair value of contingent consideration increased by $3.3 million to $1.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the
year ended December 31, 2023. The contingent consideration liability arose in connection with the Callin acquisition and the fair value
of this contingent consideration was measured using the fair value of the expected number of shares to be issued and the Company’s
share price at closing. The change in fair value of contingent consideration was directly attributable to changes in the Company’s
share price since the closing and the probability of contingencies being met.
Interest
Income
Interest
income decreased by $5.5 million to $8.1 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. The
decrease was due to our reduced investment in money market funds, treasury bills, and term deposits.
Other
Expense
Other expense increased by an immaterial amount in the year ended December
31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. The increase was primarily due to lower foreign currency rate fluctuation as we
maintained the majority of our cash balance in U.S. dollars, which is our functional currency, as of December 31, 2024.
Change
in Fair Value of Warrant Liability
Change
in fair value of warrant liability decreased by $35.1 million resulting in a loss of $32.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2024.
The warrant liability arose in connection with the warrants offered as part of the Business Combination. As these warrants meet the classification
of a financial liability in accordance with ASC 815-40, the related warrant liability is measured at its fair value, determined in accordance
with ASC 820, at each reporting period. The fair value of this warrant liability was measured using the fair value of the Company’s
warrants listed on the Nasdaq. The decrease in the change in fair value of warrant liability was directly attributable to changes in
the trading price of Rumble’s warrants.
Change
in Fair Value of Derivative
Change in fair value of derivative
decreased by $184.7 million resulting in a loss of $184.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2024. The derivative arose in connection
with the forward purchase contracts related to the Tether transaction. As the forward purchase contracts meet the classification of a
financial liability in accordance with ASC 815-40, the related derivative is measured at its fair value, determined in accordance with
ASC 820, at each reporting period. The fair value of this forward purchase contracts were measured using a Monte Carlo simulation methodology
that includes simulating the stock price using a risk-neutral Geometric Brownian Motion-based pricing model. The decrease relates to the
revaluation of the forward purchase contracts in connection with the Tether transaction.
Income
Tax Benefit
Income
tax benefit decreased by $1.3 million to $2.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.
Liquidity
and Capital Resources
Our
principal sources of liquidity are cash generated from operating activities and funds previously raised. The primary short-term requirements
for liquidity and capital are to fund general working capital and capital expenditures.
47
As
of December 31, 2024, our cash and cash equivalents balance was $114.0 million. Cash and cash equivalents consist of cash on deposit
with banks and amounts held in money market funds, treasury bills, and term deposits.
As
we have consistently stated, we are using a substantial portion of funds to acquire content by providing economic incentives to a small
number of content creators, including sports leagues. As of December 31, 2024, we had entered into programming and content agreements
with a minimum contractual cash commitment of $30 million. A significant amount of these minimum contractual cash commitments will be
paid over 12 to 24 months, commencing in 2025.
The
following table presents a summary of the consolidated statement of cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023:
Year ended December 31,
Net cash provided by (used in):
2024
2023
Variance
($)
Operating activities
$ (87,010,475 )
$ (92,911,313 )
$ 5,900,838
Investing activities
(15,644,135 )
(23,771,314 )
8,127,179
Financing activities
(1,665,148 )
(2,147,994 )
482,846
Operating
Activities
Net cash used in operating
activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 primarily consisted of net loss adjusted for certain non-cash items, including a $218.7
million loss on the change in fair value of warrants, contingent consideration and derivative, $21.5 million change in share-based compensation,
$13.6 million change in amortization and depreciation, $1.0 million changes in non-cash lease expenses, as well as changes in operating
assets and liabilities. The decrease in net cash used in operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the
year ended December 31, 2023 was mostly due to changes in net loss adjusted for certain non-cash items, offset by changes in operating
assets and liabilities.
Investing
Activities
Net cash used in investing
activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 consisted of $7.2 million in purchases of property, equipment, and intangible assets,
$9.6 million in cash paid in connection with the acquisitions of Callin and North River, and $1.1 million in the sale of marketable securities.
The decrease in net cash used in investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31,
2023 was mainly driven by decreases in purchases of property and equipment and marketable securities, which were partially offset by
a rise in spending on intangible assets. Additionally, the reduction in net cash used was due to cash payments made to non-accredited
investors related to the Callin acquisition during the year ended December 31, 2024 as well as cash acquired in connection with the Callin
acquisition during the year ended December 31, 2023.
Financing
Activities
Net
cash used in financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 consisted of $2.0 million in taxes paid from the net share settlement
of share-based compensation and $0.4 million in share issuance costs, offset by $0.7 million from proceeds related to stock options exercised.
The decrease in net cash used in financing activities was due to a decrease in taxes paid from the net share settlement of share-based
compensation as well as an increase in proceeds from stock options exercised in the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to net cash
used in the year ended December 31, 2023. The reduction in net cash used was offset by an increase in share issuance costs.
48
Summary
of Quarterly Results
Information
for the most recent quarters presented are as follows:
Dec 31, 2024
Sep 30, 2024
Jun 30, 2024
Mar 31, 2024
Total revenue
$ 30,228,287
$ 25,056,904
$ 22,469,543
$ 17,733,456
Net loss
$ (236,752,626 )
$ (31,539,413 )
$ (26,780,700 )
$ (43,290,040 )
Dec 31, 2023
Sep 30, 2023
Jun 30, 2023
Mar 31, 2023
Total revenue
$ 20,391,872
$ 17,982,150
$ 24,974,054
$ 17,615,375
Net loss
$ (29,277,227 )
$ (29,021,042 )
$ (29,454,080 )
$ (28,668,113 )
Non-GAAP
Financial Measures
To
supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain non-GAAP financial
measures, as described below, to understand and evaluate our core operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures, which may
be different than similarly titled measures used by other companies, are presented to enhance investors’ overall understanding
of our financial performance and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented
in accordance with GAAP. We use the non-GAAP financial measure of: Adjusted EBITDA, which is defined as net income (loss) excluding interest
income (expense), net, other income (expense), net; provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation
expense, acquisition-related expense, change in fair value of warrants, change in fair value of contingent consideration, and change
in the fair value of derivative. The Company’s management believes that it is important to consider Adjusted EBITDA, in addition
to net income (loss), as it helps identify trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the gains and losses
that are included in net income (loss) but excluded from Adjusted EBITDA.
Adjusted
EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. There
are a number of limitations related to the use of Adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), the nearest GAAP equivalent. As a result
of these limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss)
and our other financial results presented in accordance with GAAP. The following table presents a reconciliation of net income (loss),
the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA:
49
Reconciliation
of Adjusted EBITDA
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Net loss
$ (338,362,779 )
$ (116,420,462 )
Adjustments:
Amortization and depreciation
13,614,587
4,850,812
Share-based compensation expense
23,814,763
16,134,714
Interest income
(8,083,903 )
(13,594,463 )
Other expense
207,431
125,511
Income tax benefit
(2,009,015 )
(3,291,703 )
Change in fair value of warrants liability
32,694,697
(2,365,895 )
Change in fair value of contingent consideration
1,354,357
(1,922,381 )
Change in fair value of derivative
184,699,998
-
Acquisition-related transaction costs
-
1,151,318
Adjusted EBITDA
$ (92,069,864 )
$ (115,332,549 )
Critical
Accounting Policies and Estimates
We
prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of
America (“US GAAP”). The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions
that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses and related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates
on a continuous basis. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable
under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by our management. To the extent that there
are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of
operations and cash flows will be affected.
We
believe the following key accounting policies require significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated
financial statements. Critical accounting policies and estimates are those that we consider the most important to the portrayal of our
financial condition and results of operations because they require our most difficult, subjective or complex judgments, often as a result
of the need to make estimates about the effects of matters that are inherently uncertain. Accordingly, we believe that these are the
most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our financial condition and results of operations.
For
further information on the summary of significant accounting policies and the effect on our consolidated financial statements, see Note
2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, to the consolidated financial statements.
Acquisitions
(Business Combination vs Asset Acquisition)
The
Company evaluates whether acquired net assets should be accounted for as a business combination or an asset acquisition by first applying
a screen test to determine whether substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable
asset or group of similar identifiable assets. If so, the transaction is accounted for as an asset acquisition. If not, the Company applies
its judgment to determine whether the acquired net assets meet the definition of a business by considering if the set includes an acquired
input, process, and the ability to create outputs.
50
Valuation
of Intangible Assets
The
Company acquired intangible assets in connection with the acquisitions of Callin and North River. A valuation was performed to determine
the estimated fair value of identifiable intangible assets related to the acquisition. Judgment is required to estimate the fair value
of these identifiable intangible assets. We may use quoted market prices, prices for similar assets, present value techniques, and other
valuation techniques such as the depreciated replacement cost and relief from royalty methods to prepare these estimates. We may need
to make estimates of future cash flows and discount rates as well as other assumptions in order to implement these valuation techniques.
Due to the degree of judgment involved in our estimation techniques, our estimate may result in a significant difference in the estimation
of fair value.
Share-based
Compensation
The
Company issues equity awards such as stock options and restricted stock units to certain of its employees, directors, officers and consultants.
We account for equity awards by recognizing the fair value of share-based compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the service
period of the award.
For
equity awards with a service condition, the fair value is estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option pricing model which
takes into account the following inputs: stock price, expected term, volatility, and risk-free interest rate.
For
equity awards with a market condition, the fair value is estimated on the grant date using a Monte Carlo simulation methodology that
includes simulating the stock price using a risk-neutral Geometric Brownian Motion-based pricing model. Changes in the estimated inputs
or using other option valuation methods may result in materially different option values and share-based compensation expense.
For
equity awards with a performance condition, the Company assesses the likelihood of the performance condition underlying an award being
met and recognizes a share-based compensation expense associated with that award only if it is probable the performance condition will
be met. Where the performance condition underlying an award is a change in control, the Company considers the performance condition to
be probable only when it occurs.
Income
Taxes
The
Company is subject to income taxes in the United States and other foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining
our provision for income taxes and income tax assets and liabilities, including evaluating uncertainties in the application of accounting
principles and complex tax laws.
Uncertain
tax positions are accounted for using a comprehensive model for the manner in which a company should recognize, measure, present and
disclose in its financial statements all material uncertain income tax positions. The Company reviews its nexus in various tax jurisdictions
and the Company’s tax positions related to all open tax years for events that could change the status of its tax liability, if
any, or require an additional liability to be recorded. Such events may be the resolution of issues raised by a taxing authority, expiration
of the statute of limitations for a prior open tax year or new transactions for which a tax position may be deemed to be uncertain. Those
positions, for which management’s assessment is that there is more than a 50 percent probability of sustaining the position
upon challenge by a taxing authority based upon its technical merits, are subjected to the measurement criteria.
Trade
and Barter Transactions
The
Company engages in trade and barter transactions whereby the Company and its counterparty exchange media campaigns or other promotional
services. The Company reviews each transaction to ensure the advertising it receives has economic substance and records revenue in an
amount equal to the fair value of the products and services received unless this is not reasonable to estimate, in which case the consideration
is measured based on the standalone selling price of the advertising inventory promised or delivered to the customer. Trade and barter
revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is fulfilled and follows the same pattern of recognition as the Company’s
normal advertising revenue. Trade and barter expense is recorded when goods or services are consumed. The trade and barter expense is
recorded in sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statement of operations.
51
Arrangement
to Sell Shares to Tether (Unit of Account)
The Company applied judgement in determining whether the support agreements
and agreement to sell shares to Tether were a single unit or multiple units of account. Given that the agreements were entered into contemporaneously
and in contemplation of one another, the closing of the support agreements was contingent on the close of the sale of shares to Tether,
and the agreements relate to the same underlying risk (the price risk of the Company’s shares), the Company determined that the
overall arrangement was one unit of account. As a result, the arrangement is accounted for as a derivative, initially and subsequently
measured at fair value with changes through net loss. See Note 17 for information regarding the estimation of the fair value of the derivative.
New
Accounting Pronouncements
See
Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, to our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2024
and 2023.
JOBS
Act Accounting Election
We
are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised
accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We intend to elect to adopt new or revised accounting
standards under private company adoption timelines. Accordingly, the timing of our adoption of new or revised accounting standards will
not be the same as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies or that have opted out of using such extended transition
period and our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of public companies that comply with such new or
revised accounting standards.
Item
7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We
are exposed to certain market risks as part of our ongoing business operations.
Credit
Risk
We
are exposed to credit risk on our cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, and accounts receivable. We place cash, cash equivalents,
and marketable securities with financial institutions with high credit standing, and we place excess cash in marketable investment grade
debt securities. We are exposed to credit risk on our accounts receivable in the event of default by a customer. We bill our customers
under customary payment terms and review customers for their creditworthiness. The term between invoicing and payment due date is not
significant. A meaningful portion of our revenue is attributable to service agreements with one customer. For the years ended December
31, 2024 and 2023, one customer accounted for $14.9 million and $37.0 million or 16% and 46% of our revenue, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, no single customer represented 10% or more
of total accounts receivable. As of December 31, 2023, one customer accounted for 35% of accounts receivable.
Interest
Rate Risk
We
are exposed to interest rate risk on our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. As of December 31, 2024, we had cash, cash
equivalents and marketable securities of $114.0 million, consisting of investments in money market funds, treasury bills, and term
deposits for which the fair market value would be affected by changes in the general level of interest rates. However, due to the short-term
maturities and the low-risk profile of our investments, an immediate 10% change in interest rates would not have a material effect on
the fair market value of our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
52
Item
8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (Moss Adams LLP, Seattle, Washington, PCAOB ID: 659)
F-2
Consolidated Statements of Operations
F-3
Consolidated Balance Sheets
F-4
Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ (Deficit) Equity
F-5
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
F-6
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
F-7
1.
Overview and Basis of Presentation
F-7
2.
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
F-8
3.
Acquisitions
F-19
4.
Revenue from Contracts with Customers
F-23
5.
Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Marketable Securities
F-23
6.
Property and Equipment
F-24
7.
Right-of-Use Assets and Lease Liabilities
F-24
8.
Intangible Assets
F-25
9.
Goodwill
F-26
10.
Income Taxes
F-26
11.
Derivative Liability
F-28
12.
Other Liability
F-29
13.
Shareholders’ (Deficit) Equity
F-29
14.
Share-Based Compensation Expense
F-32
15.
Loss per Share
F-36
16.
Commitments and Contingencies
F-36
17.
Fair Value Measurements
F-37
18.
Credit and Concentration Risks
F-38
19.
Related Party Transactions
F-38
20.
Segment Information
F-39
21.
Subsequent Events
F-40
53
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
Contents
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (Moss Adams LLP, PCAOB ID: 659 ) F-2
Consolidated Statements of Operations F- 3
Consolidated Balance Sheets F-4
Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ (Deficit) Equity F-5
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows F-6
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements F-7 -F- 40
F- 1
Report
of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of
Rumble Inc.
Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements
We
have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Rumble Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2024 and
2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, shareholders’ (deficit) equity, and cash flows for the years then ended,
and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated
financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of the Company as of December 31,
2024 and 2023, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These
consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion
on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company
in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission
and the PCAOB.
We
conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.
The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part
of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing
an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our
audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether
due to error or fraud, and performing procedures to respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence
regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles
used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements.
We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ Moss Adams LLP
Seattle, Washington
March 25, 2025
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2023.
F- 2
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Statements of Operations
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For the year ended December 31,
2024
2023
Revenues
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
Expenses
Cost of services (content, hosting and other)
$ 138,472,266
$ 146,156,734
General and administrative
36,646,307
37,125,296
Research and development
18,923,319
15,721,663
Sales and marketing
17,330,925
13,427,021
Acquisition-related transaction costs
-
1,151,318
Amortization and depreciation
13,614,587
4,850,812
Changes in fair value of contingent consideration
1,354,357
( 1,922,381 )
Total expenses
226,341,761
216,510,463
Loss from operations
( 130,853,571 )
( 135,547,012 )
Interest income
8,083,903
13,594,463
Other expense
( 207,431 )
( 125,511 )
Changes in fair value of warrant liability
( 32,694,697 )
2,365,895
Changes in fair value of derivative
( 184,699,998 )
-
Loss before income taxes
( 340,371,794 )
( 119,712,165 )
Income tax benefit
2,009,015
3,291,703
Net loss
$ ( 338,362,779 )
$ ( 116,420,462 )
Loss per share – basic and diluted
$ ( 1.66 )
$ ( 0.58 )
Weighted-average number of common shares used in computing net loss per
share - basic and diluted
204,100,835
201,442,321
Share-based compensation expense included in expenses:
Cost of services (content, hosting, and other)
$ 9,030,594
$ 3,994,180
General and administrative
11,788,130
10,686,099
Research and development
2,014,168
1,016,627
Sales and marketing
981,871
437,808
Total share-based compensation expense
23,814,763
16,134,714
The accompanying notes are an integral part of
these consolidated financial statements.
F- 3
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Balance Sheets
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
December 31,
2024
2023
Assets
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents
$ 114,018,900
$ 218,338,658
Marketable securities
-
1,135,200
Accounts receivable, net
9,778,941
5,440,447
Prepaid expenses and other
12,329,789
13,090,072
136,127,630
238,004,377
Other non-current assets
402,475
1,626,802
Property and equipment, net
17,068,076
19,689,987
Right-of-use assets, net
1,753,100
2,473,903
Intangible assets, net
29,306,135
23,262,428
Goodwill
10,655,391
10,655,391
$ 195,312,807
$ 295,712,888
Liabilities and Shareholders' (Deficit) Equity
Current liabilities
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities
$ 18,223,372
$ 24,713,203
Deferred revenue
12,812,984
7,003,891
Lease liabilities
1,000,643
975,844
Contingent consideration
-
863,643
Derivative liability
184,699,998
-
216,736,997
33,556,581
Lease liabilities, net of current portion
799,910
1,630,837
Contingent consideration, net of current portion
-
705,717
Warrant liability
40,391,302
7,696,605
Other liability
500,000
500,000
258,428,209
44,089,740
Commitments and contingencies (Note 16)
Shareholders' (deficit) equity
Preferred shares ($ 0.0001 par value per share, 20,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued or outstanding)
-
-
Common shares ($ 0.0001 par value per share, 700,000,000 Class A shares authorized, 118,808,857 and 114,926,700 shares issued and outstanding, as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively; 170,000,000 Class C (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share) authorized, 165,153,621 and 165,353,621 shares issued and outstanding, as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively; 110,000,000 Class D authorized, 105,782,403 and 105,782,403 shares issued and outstanding, as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively)
768,892
768,523
Accumulated deficit
( 483,565,942 )
( 145,203,163 )
Additional paid-in capital
419,681,648
396,057,788
( 63,115,402 )
251,623,148
$ 195,312,807
$ 295,712,888
The accompanying notes are an integral part of
these consolidated financial statements.
F- 4
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Statements of Shareholders' (Deficit) Equity
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For the year ended December 31, 2024
Number
of Common Stock
Class
A
Class
C (and
corresponding
ExchangeCo
Share)
Class
D
Class
A
Class C
Class
D
Additional
Paid-in Capital
Accumulated
Deficit
Total
Balance December 31, 2023
114,926,700
165,353,621
105,782,403
$ 741,410
$ 16,535
$ 10,578
$ 396,057,788
$ ( 145,203,163 )
$ 251,623,148
Issuance
of Class A Common Stock in exchange for Class C Common Stock (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
200,000
( 200,000 )
-
20
( 20 )
-
-
-
-
Issuance of Class A Common
Stock in connection with Callin acquisition
836,292
-
-
84
-
-
2,656,429
-
2,656,513
Issuance of Class A Common
Stock upon exercise of stock options and warrants as well as vesting of restricted stock units
2,845,865
-
-
285
-
-
662,918
-
663,203
Net share settlement on restricted
stock units
-
-
-
-
-
-
( 1,963,132 )
-
( 1,963,132 )
Share-based compensation
-
-
-
-
-
-
22,267,645
-
22,267,645
Loss
for the year
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
( 338,362,779 )
( 338,362,779 )
Balance
December 31, 2024
118,808,857
165,153,621
105,782,403
$ 741,799
$ 16,515
$ 10,578
$ 419,681,648
$ ( 483,565,942 )
$ ( 63,115,402 )
For
the year ended December 31, 2023
Number
of Common Stock
Class
A
Class
C (and
corresponding
ExchangeCo
Share)
Class
D
Class
A
Class
C
Class
D
Additional
Paid-in Capital
Accumulated
Deficit
Total
Balance December 31, 2022
111,467,763
167,662,214
105,782,403
$ 741,013
$ 16,766
$ 10,578
$ 367,649,123
$ ( 28,782,701 )
$ 339,634,779
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in
connection with Callin acquisition
981,243
-
-
149
-
-
14,664,682
-
14,664,831
Issuance costs in connection with
Callin acquisition
-
-
-
-
-
-
( 40,478 )
-
( 40,478 )
Holdback of Class A Common Stock for
the repayment of domain name loan in connection with the acquisition of Locals Technology Inc.
( 26,731 )
-
-
( 3 )
-
-
( 391,232 )
-
( 391,235 )
Issuance of Class A Common Stock upon
vesting of restricted stock units
551,522
-
-
55
-
-
-
-
55
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in
exchange for Class C Common Stock (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
2,308,593
( 2,308,593 )
-
231
( 231 )
-
-
-
-
Net share settlement on restricted
stock units
( 355,690 )
-
-
( 35 )
-
-
( 2,107,536 )
-
( 2,107,571 )
Share-based compensation
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,283,229
-
16,283,229
Loss for the
year
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
( 116,420,462 )
( 116,420,462 )
Balance December
31, 2023
114,926,700
165,353,621
105,782,403
$ 741,410
$ 16,535
$ 10,578
$ 396,057,788
$ ( 145,203,163 )
$ 251,623,148
The accompanying notes are an integral part of
these consolidated financial statements.
F- 5
Rumble
Inc.
Consolidated
Statements of Cash Flows
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For the year ended December 31,
2024
2023
Cash flows provided by (used in)
Operating activities
Net loss for the year
$ ( 338,362,779 )
$ ( 116,420,462 )
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:
Amortization and depreciation
13,614,587
4,850,812
Share-based compensation
21,530,677
16,283,229
Non-cash interest expense
-
58,815
Net trade and barter revenue and expense
118,873
-
Non-cash lease expense
997,541
788,799
Change in fair value of warrants
32,694,697
( 2,365,895 )
Change in fair value of contingent consideration
1,354,357
( 1,922,381 )
Change in fair value of derivative
184,699,998
-
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable
( 4,338,494 )
( 674,981 )
Prepaid expenses and other
2,321,553
( 4,990,778 )
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities
( 4,268,101 )
9,612,728
Deferred revenue
5,690,220
5,963,272
Deferred tax liability
( 2,009,015 )
( 3,323,744 )
Operating lease liabilities
( 1,054,589 )
( 770,727 )
Net cash used in operating activities
( 87,010,475 )
( 92,911,313 )
Investing
activities
Purchase of property and equipment
( 2,674,114 )
( 14,572,933 )
Purchase of intangible assets
( 4,493,422 )
( 2,915,085 )
Purchase of marketable securities
-
( 1,135,200 )
Sale and maturities of marketable securities
1,135,200
1,100,000
Cash acquired in connection with Callin acquisition
-
1,000,989
Cash paid to non-accredited investors in connection with Callin acquisition
( 2,488,931 )
-
Cash paid in connection with North River acquisition
( 7,122,868 )
( 7,249,085 )
Net cash used in investing activities
( 15,644,135 )
( 23,771,314 )
Financing
activities
Taxes paid from net share settlement for share-based compensation
( 1,963,132 )
( 2,107,516 )
Proceeds from exercise of stock options
663,204
-
Share issuance costs
( 365,220 )
( 40,478 )
Net cash used in financing activities
( 1,665,148 )
( 2,147,994 )
Decrease in cash and cash equivalents during the period
( 104,319,758 )
( 118,830,621 )
Cash and cash equivalents,
beginning of year
218,338,658
337,169,279
Cash and cash equivalents,
end of year
$ 114,018,900
$ 218,338,658
Supplemental cash flow information:
Cash paid for income taxes
$ 71,864
$ 31,974
Cash paid for interest
288
4,212
Cash paid for lease liabilities
1,242,376
770,727
Non-cash investing and financing activities:
Non-cash
consideration related to the acquisition of Callin (Note 3)
-
18,226,572
Class A Common Stock issued to settle contingent consideration liability
1,404,753
-
Deferred issuance costs included in accounts payable and accrued liabilities
880,000
-
Property and equipment in accounts payable and accrued liabilities
46,210
123,946
Recognition of operating right-of-use assets in exchange of operating lease liabilities, net of derecognition of terminated leases
276,738
1,906,248
Settlement
of loan receivable in exchange for Class A Common Stock
-
391,235
Share-based compensation capitalized related to intangible assets
736,966
-
The accompanying notes are an integral part of
these consolidated financial statements.
F- 6
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
1. Overview
and Basis of Presentation
Nature
of Operations
Rumble
Inc. ("Rumble” or the "Company”) is a high growth, video sharing platform and cloud services provider designed
to help content creators manage, distribute, and monetize their content by connecting them with brands, publishers, and directly to their
subscribers and followers. The Company’s registered office is located at 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, Florida, 34228.
The Company’s shares of Class A common stock and warrants are traded on The Nasdaq Global Market ("Nasdaq”) under the
symbol "RUM” and "RUMBW”, respectively.
Basis
of Presentation
The
accompanying consolidated financial statements (the “financial statements”) are prepared in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and include the results of the Company and its wholly-owned
subsidiaries. Any reference in these notes to applicable guidance is meant to refer to the authoritative guidance found in the Accounting
Standards Codification (“ASC”) and Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”). All intercompany balances and transactions
have been eliminated upon consolidation. These financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, which is the functional currency of
the Company.
Basis
of Consolidation
These
consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and all subsidiaries. Subsidiaries are entities in which the Company
has a controlling voting interest or is the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity. Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from
the date control is transferred to the Company and are de-consolidated from the date control ceases. The consolidated financial statements
include all the assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and cash flows of the Company and its subsidiaries after eliminating intercompany
balances and transactions.
Use
of Estimates
The
preparation of these financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make certain estimates, judgments, and
assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities, as of
the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. On an ongoing
basis, the Company evaluates the estimates used, which include but are not limited to the: allowance for credit losses; valuation of
share-based compensation awards; estimates in the determination of the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in connection
with acquisitions; fair value of financial instruments including warrant liability, contingent consideration, and derivative; discount
rate in determining lease liabilities; valuation of long-lived assets and their associated useful lives, valuation of goodwill; and the
realization of tax assets, estimates of tax liabilities, and valuation of deferred taxes; and estimates in the determination of the fair
value of non-cash consideration earned in trade and barter transactions. These estimates, judgments, and assumptions are reviewed periodically
and the impact of any revisions are reflected in the financial statements in the period in which such revisions are made. Actual results
could differ materially from those estimates, judgments, or assumptions, and such differences could be material to the Company’s
consolidated financial position and results of operations.
F- 7
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2. Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies
Foreign
Currency
The
functional currencies of the Company and its foreign subsidiaries are the U.S. dollar. Transactions denominated in currencies other than
the U.S. dollar are remeasured using end-of-period exchange rates or exchange rates prevailing at the date of the transaction, and the
resulting gains or losses are recognized as a component of other income (expense).
Fair
Value Measurements
The
fair value of a financial instrument is the amount at which the instrument could be exchanged in an orderly transaction between market
participants. Fair value measurement is based on a hierarchy of observable or unobservable inputs. The standard describes three levels
of inputs that may be used to measure fair value.
Level
1 - Inputs
to the valuation methodology are quoted prices available in active markets for identical
investments as of the reporting date;
Level
2 - Inputs
to the valuation methodology other than quoted prices in active markets, which are either
directly or indirectly observable as of the reporting date, and the fair value can be determined
through the use of models or other valuation methodologies; and
Level
3 - Inputs
to the valuation methodology are unobservable inputs in situations where there is little
or no market activity of the asset and liability and the reporting entity makes estimates
and assumptions relating to the pricing of the asset or liability, including assumptions
regarding risk. This includes certain cash flow pricing models, discounted cash flow methodologies
and similar techniques that use significant unobservable inputs.
In
instances where the determination of the fair value measurement is based on inputs from different levels of the fair value hierarchy,
the level in the fair value hierarchy within which the entire fair value measurement falls is based on the lowest level input that is
significant to the fair value measurement in its entirety. The Company’s assessment of the significance of a particular input to
the fair value measurement in its entirety requires judgment and considers factors specific to the asset or liability.
The
Company may measure eligible assets and liabilities at fair value, with changes in value recognized in profit and loss. Fair value treatment
may be elected either upon initial recognition of an eligible asset or liability or, for an existing asset or liability, if an event
triggers a new basis of accounting.
The
Company evaluates the estimated fair value of financial instruments using available market information and management’s estimates.
The use of different market assumptions and/or estimation methodologies could have a significant impact on the estimated fair value amounts.
Our financial instruments include cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, accounts receivable, accounts payable and accrued
liabilities, lease liabilities, warrant liability, contingent consideration, derivative liability, and other liabilities, approximate
fair value.
Concentration
Risk
A
meaningful portion of the Company’s revenue (and a substantial portion of the Company’s net cash from operations that it
can freely access) is attributable to service agreements with several customers. See Note 18 for further details.
F- 8
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2. Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Revenue
Recognition
The
Company derives revenues primarily from:
● Audience
Monetization; and
● Other
Initiatives
Revenues
are recognized when the control of promised services is transferred to a customer, in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company
expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Sales tax and other similar taxes are excluded from revenues.
In
order to recognize revenue, the Company applies the following five (5) steps:
1. Identify
the contract with a customer
2. Identify
the performance obligation(s)
3. Determine
the transaction price
4. Allocate
the transaction price to the performance obligation(s)
5. Recognize
revenue when/as performance obligation(s) are satisfied
Audience
Monetization
Audience Monetization includes advertising fees on the Rumble platform;
subscription fees earned primarily from consumer product offerings such as Rumble Premium, Locals and badges; revenues generated from
content that is licensed by third-parties; pay-per-view; and fees from tipping and platform hosting fees.
The
Company generates advertising fees by delivering digital video and display advertisements as well as cost-per-message-read advertisements.
Digital video and display advertisements are placed on Rumble websites and its associated mobile or connected TV applications. Customers
pay for advertisements either directly or through their relationships with advertising agencies or resellers, based on the number of
impressions delivered or the number of actions such as clicks or purchases taken, by our users. For cost-per-message-read advertising,
customers pay to have their products or services promoted by a content creator.
The
Company recognizes revenue from video and display advertisements when a user engages with the advertisement, such as an impression, click,
or purchase. For cost-per-message-read advertising, advertising revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is fulfilled, usually
when the message is read or when a user makes a purchase. In general, advertising fees are reported on a gross basis because the Company
controls the advertising inventory before it is transferred to the customer. Control is evidenced by the Company’s sole ability
to monetize the advertising inventory before it is transferred to the customer.
Revenue
from subscription services related to consumer product offerings, including Rumble Premium, Locals, and badges, is recognized over the
contract duration on a straight-line basis.
F- 9
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2. Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Revenue
Recognition (Continued)
Under
bulk license agreements, the Company’s obligations include hosting the content libraries for access and searching by the customer,
updating the libraries with new content provided by the content owner, and making videos selected by the customer available for download,
throughout the term of the contract. These services are billed based on the access to the content regardless of the number of videos
downloaded. All of these services are highly interdependent as the customer’s ability to derive its intended benefit from the contract
depends on the entity transferring both the access to the content library over time and making the videos available as and when required
by the customer for download. These services, therefore, constitute a single performance obligation comprised of a series of distinct
services transferred to the customer in a similar manner throughout the contract term. The predominant item in the single performance
obligation is a license providing a right to access the content library throughout the license period. For these arrangements, the Company
recognizes the total fixed fees under the contract as revenue ratably over the term of the contract as the performance obligation is
satisfied, as this best depicts the pattern of control transfer.
For
license agreements related to the Rumble Player, the Company’s obligations include providing access to the current version the
Rumble Player throughout the term of the contract. As part of this arrangement, the customer is required to use the most current version
of the player and therefore, the utility of the player to the customer is significantly affected by Rumble’s ongoing activities
to maintain and support the player. Revenue is therefore recognized ratably over the term of the contract.
The
Company generates revenue through the licensing of content to third-party platforms. The consideration received is variable in nature
as it is dependent on the level of traffic and number of impressions generated on the third-party platforms. For these arrangements,
revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is satisfied over the period the license is provided to the third-party provider.
The usage-based royalty exemption has been taken by the Company for these arrangements.
Fees
from tipping features are recognized at a point in time when a user tips on the platform.
Revenues
related to platform hosting are recognized over time as the Company provides access to the platform and varies based on the subscription
fees generated by the content creator. The Company allocates variable fees earned from these arrangements to those distinct performance
obligations where pricing practices are consistent with the allocation objective.
Other
Initiatives
Other
Initiatives includes digital advertisements that are placed on Rumble’s network of third-party publisher websites or mobile applications
and cloud. Cloud includes consumption-based fees, subscriptions for infrastructure and professional services.
The Company facilitates the placement
of the customer’s digital video and display advertisements on third-party publisher websites or mobile applications. Customers pay
for advertisements either directly or through relationships with advertising agencies or resellers, based on the number of impressions
delivered or the number of actions such as clicks or purchases taken, by our users. The Company recognizes revenue when a user engages
with the advertisement, such as an impression, click, or purchase.
Cloud
services are generally provided on either a consumption or subscription basis. Revenues related to cloud services provided on a consumption
basis are recognized when the customer utilizes the services, based on the quantity of services consumed at the amount for which we have
the right to invoice for services performed. Revenues related to cloud services provided on a subscription basis are recognized ratably
over the contract term as the customer receives and consumes the benefits of the cloud services.
F- 10
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2. Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Revenue
Recognition (Continued)
Principal
vs Agent
In
our arrangements, we evaluate whether we are the principal (i.e., report revenues on a gross basis) or agent (i.e., report revenues on
a net basis).
The Company controls the advertising
inventory (including for digital advertisements that are placed with third-party publishers) before it is transferred to the customer
and therefore is the principal in the transaction. Control is evidenced by the Company’s ability to monetize the advertising inventory
before it is transferred to the customer.
The Company is also acting as the principal
in licensing and subscription transactions, as it has control over both the content that is monetized as well as the platform over which
the content is displayed. Further, the Company manages the monetization of content and is the only party to the contract with its customers.
As
it relates to revenues earned from platform hosting, we present revenue on a net basis as the Company is acting as the agent providing
a platform for content creators to post content and interact with end users.
Practical
Expedients and Exemptions
The
Company does not disclose the transaction price allocated to unsatisfied performance obligations for contracts with an original expected
length of one year or less and for contracts for which revenue is recognized at the amount to which the Company has the right to invoice
for services performed.
Trade
and Barter Transactions
The
Company engages in trade and barter transactions whereby the Company and its counterparty exchange media campaigns or other promotional
services. The Company reviews each transaction to ensure the advertising it receives has economic substance and records revenue in an
amount equal to the fair value of the products and services received unless this is not reasonable to estimate, in which case the consideration
is measured based on the standalone selling price of the advertising inventory promised or delivered to the customer. Trade and barter
revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is fulfilled and follows the same pattern of recognition as the Company’s
normal advertising revenue. Trade and barter expense is recorded when goods or services are consumed. Trade and barter revenue was $ 2,881,398 and
$ nil for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Trade and barter expenses were $ 3,000,000 and $ nil for
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The trade and barter expense is recorded in sales and marketing expense in
the consolidated statement of operations.
F- 11
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2. Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Deferred
Revenue
The
Company records amounts that have been invoiced to its clients in either deferred revenue or revenue depending on whether the revenue
recognition criteria described above have been met. Deferred revenue includes payments received in advance of performance under the contract.
Costs
of Services (Exclusive of Amortization and Depreciation)
Costs
of services primarily consist of costs related to obtaining, supporting and hosting the Company’s product offerings. These costs
primarily include:
● Programming
and content costs related to payments to content providers from whom videos and other content
are licensed. These costs are typically paid to these providers based on revenues generated.
In certain circumstances we incur additional costs related to incentivizing top content creators
to promote and join our platform. Where that is the case, the Company recognizes the associated
cost on a straight-line basis over the contractual term to which it relates.
● Other
costs of services include third-party service provider costs such as data center and networking,
staffing costs directly related to professional services fees, and costs paid to publishers.
Advertising
Expenses
Advertising
costs are expensed as incurred and are included in sales and marketing expense on the consolidated statements of operations. The Company
incurred advertising expenses of $ 5,311,094 and $ 4,550,742 during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
Share-Based
Compensation
The
Company issues equity awards such as stock options and restricted stock units to certain of its employees, advisory board members, directors,
officers and consultants. For awards with a market condition, the market condition is taken into consideration in the fair value-based
measure, whereas service and performance conditions are taken into consideration in determining the share-based compensation expense.
For
equity awards granted to employees that have only a service condition, the Company recognizes the share-based compensation expense on
a straight-line basis over the requisite service period. The vesting period for the equity awards granted is determined by the board
of directors of the company and the typical vesting period for equity awards with service conditions is three to four years. The requisite
service period for Rumble’s equity awards subject only to service conditions is coterminous with the vesting period specific to
those equity awards.
For
equity awards with either a market condition or a performance condition, the Company determines the fair value of each tranche of the
award, and then recognizes the share-based compensation expense associated with each tranche of the award over the requisite service
period for that tranche. For equity awards with a performance condition, the Company assesses the likelihood of the performance condition
underlying an award being met and recognizes a share-based compensation expense associated with that award only if it is probable that
the performance condition will be met.
Forfeitures
are accounted for when they occur.
F- 12
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Income
Taxes
The
Company recognizes deferred tax liabilities and assets for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in
the financial statements or tax returns. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined on the basis of the difference
between the tax bases of assets and liabilities and their respective financial reporting amounts (“temporary differences”)
at enacted tax rates in effect for the years in which the temporary differences are expected to reverse. A valuation allowance is established
for deferred tax assets for which realization is uncertain.
Uncertain
tax positions are accounted for using a comprehensive model for the manner in which a company should recognize, measure, present and
disclose in its financial statements all material uncertain tax positions that the company has taken or expects to take on a tax return.
This applies to income taxes and is not intended to be applied by analogy to other taxes, such as sales taxes, value-add taxes, or property
taxes. The Company reviews its nexus in various tax jurisdictions and the Company’s tax positions related to all open tax years
for events that could change the status of its tax liability, if any, or require an additional liability to be recorded. Such events
may be the resolution of issues raised by a taxing authority, expiration of the statute of limitations for a prior open tax year or new
transactions for which a tax position may be deemed to be uncertain. Those positions, for which management’s assessment is that
there is more than a 50 percent probability of sustaining the position upon challenge by a taxing authority based upon its technical
merits, are subjected to the measurement criteria.
The
Company records the largest amount of tax benefit that is greater than 50 percent likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement
with a taxing authority having full knowledge of all relevant information. Any liabilities for which the Company expects to make cash
payments within the next twelve months are classified as “short term”.
Loss
per Share
The
Company calculates basic and diluted net loss per common share by dividing the net loss by the number of weighted average common shares
outstanding during the period. The Company has excluded other potentially dilutive shares, which include warrants to purchase common
shares and outstanding stock options, from the number of common shares outstanding as their inclusion in the computation for all periods
would be anti-dilutive due to net losses incurred.
Cash,
Cash Equivalents, and Marketable Securities
Cash
and cash equivalents primarily consist of cash on deposit with banks and amounts held in treasury bills and money market funds. Cash
equivalents are carried at amortized cost, which approximates their fair market value.
The
Company considers all marketable securities with original maturities of three months or less from the date of purchase to be cash equivalents
and those with original maturities of greater than three months as marketable securities on our consolidated balance sheets. Management
determines the appropriate classification of investments at the time of purchase.
Marketable
securities are being accounted for as held-to-maturity investments and are carried at amortized cost with any gains and losses being
recognized in interest income on the consolidated statements of operations. As of December 31, 2023, the marketable securities have maturity
dates of twelve months or less and their amortized cost approximates fair value.
F- 13
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Accounts
Receivable and Allowance for Current Expected Credit Losses
Accounts
receivable includes current outstanding invoices billed to customers due under customary trade terms. The term between invoicing and
when payment is due is not significant. The accounts receivable balance as of January 1, 2023 was $ 4,748,189 .
The
Company maintains an allowance for current expected credit losses for accounts receivable, which is recorded as an offset to accounts
receivable and changes are classified in general and administrative expense in the consolidated statements of operations. Collectability
is assessed by reviewing accounts receivable on a collective basis where similar characteristics exist and on an individual basis when
specific customers are identified with known disputes or collectability issues. In determining the amount of the allowance for credit
losses, the Company considers historical collectability based on past due status, customer-specific information, market conditions, and
reasonable and supportable forecasts of future economic conditions to inform adjustments to historical loss data.
Volatility
in market conditions and evolving credit trends are difficult to predict and may cause variability and volatility that may have a material
impact on the allowance for credit losses in future periods. The allowance for credit losses was $ 117,069 and $ nil as of December 31,
2024 and 2023, respectively.
Property
and Equipment
Property
and equipment are stated at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is computed on a straight-line basis over the estimated
useful lives of the assets, which is generally as follows:
Useful Lives
Computer hardware 3 - 5 years
Furniture and fixtures 3 - 5 years
Leasehold improvements Lesser of useful life or term of lease
Expenditures
for maintenance and repairs are expensed as incurred.
Right-of-Use
Assets and Lease Liabilities
Right-of-use
assets represent the right to use an underlying asset for the lease term, and lease liabilities represent the obligation to make lease
payments arising from the lease.
Most of our leases contain lease and non-lease components. Non-lease
components include fixed payments for maintenance, utilities, and real estate taxes. The Company combines fixed lease and non-lease components
and account for them as a single lease component. Our lease agreements may contain variable costs such as contingent rent escalations,
common area maintenance, insurance, real estate taxes, or other costs. Such variable lease costs are expensed as incurred on the consolidated
statements of operations.
Right-of-use
assets and lease liabilities are recognized on the consolidated balance sheets at the commencement date based on the present value of
lease payments over the lease term.
Our
lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise such options. When
determining the probability of exercising such options, we consider contract-based, asset-based, and market-based factors. We do not
assume renewals in our determination of the lease term unless the renewals are deemed to be reasonably assured.
F- 14
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Right-of-Use
Assets and Lease Liabilities (Continued)
As
most of our leases do not provide an implicit rate, the incremental borrowing rate is used based on the information available at the
commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments. The Company determines the incremental borrowing rate as the interest
rate the Company would pay to borrow over a similar term the funds necessary to obtain an asset of a similar value to the right-of-use
asset in a similar economic environment.
Operating
lease costs are recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease terms.
The
Company has elected the practical expedient to not recognize right-of-use assets and lease liabilities for short-term leases, which are
those leases with a term of twelve months or less at the commencement date.
Intangible
Assets
Intangible
assets with finite lives consist of intellectual property, internal-use software, technology, brand, domain names, and an assembled workforce.
Intangible assets acquired through business combination are recorded at their respective estimated fair values upon acquisition close.
Other intangible assets acquired through asset acquisition are measured following a cost accumulation and allocation model under which
the cost of the acquisition is allocated on a relative fair value basis to the net assets acquired.
Intangible
assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives, ranging from two to fifteen years .
Internal
Use Software and Website Development Costs
The
Company capitalizes certain costs incurred in developing software programs or websites to be used solely to meet internal needs and cloud-based
applications used to deliver our services. The Company capitalizes these costs once the preliminary project stage is complete, and it
is probable that the project will be completed and the software will be used to perform the intended function. Capitalized internal use
software costs are included in intangible assets, net on the consolidated balance sheets. The estimated useful life of costs capitalized
is evaluated for each specific project and is up to five years . Amortization of internal software development costs is included in amortization
and depreciation expenses in the consolidated statement of operations.
Costs
related to the preliminary project stage, post-implementation, training and maintenance are expensed as incurred.
Impairment
of Long-Lived Assets and Finite Lived Intangible Assets
The
Company reviews long-lived assets and finite lived intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate
that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. In order to determine if assets have been impaired, assets are grouped and
tested at the lowest level for which identifiable independent cash flows are available (“Asset Group”). When indicators of
potential impairment are present, the Company prepares a projected undiscounted cash flow analysis for the respective asset or asset
group. If the sum of the undiscounted cash flow is less than the carrying value of the asset or Asset Group, an impairment loss is recognized
equal to the excess of the carrying value over the fair value, if any. The Company did not identify any indicators of impairment during
the periods presented.
F- 15
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Goodwill
Goodwill
represents the excess of the purchase price of an acquired business over the fair value of the net tangible and identifiable intangible
assets acquired. The carrying amount of goodwill is reviewed for impairment at least annually, or whenever events or changes in circumstances
indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. For its annual goodwill impairment test in all periods to date, the Company
has determined it has one reporting unit and the fair value of its reporting unit has been determined by the Company’s enterprise
value. The Company performs its annual goodwill impairment test during the fourth fiscal quarter.
For
its annual impairment test performed on October 1, 2024, the Company completed an assessment and determined that there was no impairment
of goodwill.
Derivative
Liability
The Company evaluates financial instruments, including forward purchase
or sale contracts over its own equity (“forward purchase contracts”), to determine the appropriate classification as financial
liabilities, derivatives, or equity. Forward purchase contracts that meet the definition of mandatorily redeemable financial instruments
or that obligate the Company to repurchase its own shares at a fixed or determinable price are classified as liabilities.
Forward purchase contracts classified
as liabilities are initially recognized at fair value on the consolidated balance sheet, and subsequently remeasured at fair value each
reporting period, with changes in fair value recognized in interest income (expense) on the consolidated statements of operations.
Forward purchase contracts that do not meet the criteria to be classified
as liabilities or equity are accounted for as derivatives. Derivatives are recognized initially and subsequently at fair value, with changes
recognized in changes in fair value of derivative on the consolidated statements of operations.
Warrant
Liability
The Company accounts for warrants by
first assessing whether the warrants meet all of the requirements for equity classification, including whether the warrants are indexed
to the Company’s own shares of common stock and whether the warrant holders could potentially require “net cash settlement”
in a circumstance outside of the Company’s control, among other conditions for equity classification. This assessment, which requires
the use of professional judgment, is conducted at the time of issuance of the warrants and as of each subsequent quarterly period end
date while the warrants are outstanding. For issued or modified warrants that do not meet all the criteria for equity classification,
such warrants are required to be as a liability initially at their fair value on the date of issuance, and subsequently remeasured to
fair value on each balance sheet date thereafter. Changes in the estimated fair value of liability-classified warrants are recognized
on the consolidated statements of operations in the period of change.
The
Company accounts for all its warrants as a liability as the warrants do not meet the criteria for equity classification.
F- 16
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Business
Combinations
The
Company evaluates whether acquired net assets should be accounted for as a business combination or an asset acquisition by first applying
a screen test to determine whether substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable
asset or group of similar identifiable assets. If so, the transaction is accounted for as an asset acquisition. If not, the Company applies
its judgement to determine whether the acquired net assets meets the definition of a business by considering if the set includes an acquired
input, process, and the ability to create outputs.
The
Company accounts for business combinations using the acquisition method when it has obtained control. The Company measures goodwill as
the fair value of the consideration transferred including the fair value of any non-controlling interest recognized, less the net recognized
amount of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed, all measured at their fair value as of the acquisition date. Transaction
costs, other than those associated with the issuance of debt or equity securities, that the Company incurs in connection with a business
combination are expensed as incurred.
Any
contingent consideration is measured at fair value at the acquisition date. Contingent consideration that does not meet all the criteria
for equity classification is initially recorded at its fair value at the acquisition date, and subsequently remeasured to fair value
on each balance sheet date thereafter. Changes in the estimated fair value of liability-classified contingent consideration are recognized
in the consolidated statements of operations in the period of change.
When
the initial accounting for a business combination has not been finalized by the end of the reporting period in which the transaction
occurs, the Company reports provisional amounts. Provisional amounts are adjusted during the measurement period, which does not exceed
one year from the acquisition date. These adjustments, or recognition of additional assets or liabilities, reflect new information obtained
about facts and circumstances that existed at the acquisition date that, if known, would have affected the amounts recognized at that
date .
Asset
Acquisitions
The
Company accounts for asset acquisitions by allocating the consideration to the acquired assets and liabilities on a relative fair value
basis. Working capital items are recognized at their stated amounts.
The
Company has elected an accounting policy to recognize any contingent consideration obligation in an asset acquisition when the contingency
is resolved, and the consideration becomes payable. The contingent consideration will be included in the cost allocated to the acquired
assets if and when the contingency is resolved.
F- 17
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
2 . Summary
of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
New
Standards or Amendments Adopted
Accounting
Standards Update 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures . The purpose of this ASU
is to improve reportable segment disclosure requirements, primarily through enhanced disclosures about significant segment expenses.
In addition, the amendments enhance interim disclosure requirements, clarify circumstances in which an entity can disclose multiple segment
measures of profit or loss, provide new segment disclosure requirements for entities with a single reportable segment, and contain other
disclosure requirements.
The
new standard requires an enhanced disclosure of significant segment expenses on an annual and interim basis. Upon adoption, the guidance
was applied retroactively to all prior periods presented in the financial statements. See Note 20 for further details.
New
Standards or Amendments Not Yet Effective
The
following amendments to existing standards have been issued up to and including the date of issuance of these financial statements, however
are not yet effective for the Company:
●
Accounting Standards Update 2023-08, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Crypto Assets (Subtopic 350-60): Accounting for and Disclosure of Crypto Assets. The amendments in this update require in-scope crypto assets (including the Company's Bitcoin holdings) to be measured at fair value in the statement of financial position, with gains and losses from changes in the fair value of such crypto assets recognized in net income for each reporting period. The update also requires certain interim and annual disclosures for crypto assets within the scope of the standard. This ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted.
● Accounting
Standards Update 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures. The amendments in this update require
that public business entities on an annual basis (1) disclose specific categories in the rate reconciliation and (2) provide additional
information for reconciling items that meet a quantitative threshold (if the effect of those reconciling items is equal to or greater
than 5 percent of the amount computed by multiplying pretax income or loss by the applicable statutory income tax rate). This ASU is
effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, with early adoption permitted.
● Accounting
Standards Update 2024-03, Income statement – Reporting Comprehensive Income – Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic
220-40): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expense. The amendments in this update requires public business entities to disclose,
on an annual and interim basis, disaggregated information about certain income statement expense line items in the notes to the financial
statements. Public business entities are required to apply the guidance prospectively and may elect to apply it retrospectively. This
ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2026 and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December
15, 2027.
The
Company is still evaluating the impact of implementing the above improvements to its consolidated financial statements.
F- 18
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
3. Acquisitions
Acquisition
of Callin Corp.
On
May 15, 2023 (the "Acquisition Date”), the Company acquired 100 % of the outstanding equity of Callin Corp. ("Callin”),
a podcasting and live streaming platform. Callin creates a seamless experience for its users to create, discover, and consume live and
recorded content. The Company has determined that Callin meets the definition of a business and has accounted for the acquisition as
a business combination. The fair value of the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed by the Company in connection with the
acquisition is as follows:
Total
consideration
$ 18,226,572
Net
assets acquired:
Cash
$ 1,000,989
Accounts receivable
10,939
Prepaid expenses
200,651
Property and equipment
37,841
Software and technology
9,352,000
Accounts payable, accruals,
and other liabilities
( 1,137,814 )
Deferred
tax liability
( 1,230,526 )
Total
net assets acquired
$ 8,234,080
Goodwill
$ 9,992,492
The
fair value of the consideration consists of the following:
Fair
Value
Shares issued
$ 6,055,409
Shares to be issued
3,747,209
Replacement awards
15,578
Contingent consideration
(liability) – retention payments
3,491,741
Contingent consideration
(equity) – milestone 1
2,490,152
Contingent consideration
(equity) – milestone 2
2,356,483
Contingent
consideration payable
70,000
Total
consideration
$ 18,226,572
F- 19
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
3. Acquisitions
(Continued)
Acquisition
of Callin Corp. (Continued)
Under
the terms of the acquisition agreement, the Company is required to issue upfront share consideration of 981,243 shares of Class A Common
Stock to the preferred shareholders and SAFE note holders of Callin. The fair value of the Company’s Class A Common Stock on the
Acquisition Date was $ 9.99 per share. In addition, the Company issued rights to four payments each consisting of 375,000 contingently
issuable shares of Class A Common Stock to the common shareholders, series FF preferred shareholders, option holders and continuing employees
of Callin contingent on the following conditions being met:
● Retention
payment 1: Services are provided by a selling shareholder for 12 months;
● Retention
payment 2: Services are provided by a selling shareholder for 24 months;
● Milestone
payment 1: Within 12 months, certain feature development and technical performance criteria are achieved, and the acquired technology
is integrated into the Company’s existing software and
● Milestone
payment 2: Within 24 months, certain feature development and technical performance criteria are achieved.
In
assessing what is part of the business combination, the Company has determined that because the two retention payments are contingent
on a selling shareholder providing services post-combination, the portion of those tranches earned by the party providing services should
be reflected in the Company’s financial statements as post-combination expense. In addition, where future services are required
by employees in order to earn rights to the contingent consideration, such rights are being accounted for either entirely as post-combination
expense or as replacement awards where the rights replace unvested options or restricted series FF preferred shares that were originally
granted by Callin. Rights to contingent consideration held by non-accredited investors will be settled in cash at $ 8.92 per share. For
the remainder, the four tranches of contingently issuable shares have been accounted for as contingent consideration.
The
following table shows the breakdown of the contingently issuable shares:
Number of Shares
Contingent consideration
903,689
Share-based compensation (Note 14)
596,311
Total contingently issuable shares
1,500,000
During
the year ended December 31, 2024, certain of the contingently issuable shares were issued. Refer to Note 14 for the share-based compensation
and below for the impact on contingent consideration.
The
fair value of the contingent consideration has been estimated as follows:
Retention
payments 1 and 2
At
the Acquisition Date, the Company determined that retention payments 1 and 2 are one unit of account requiring the Company to issue a
variable number of shares that is not indexed to the Company’s stock. As a result, the consideration that is contingent on one
of the selling shareholder’s providing services has been classified as a liability. The contingent consideration is classified
Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy. The key inputs into the fair value determination are the probability of achieving the milestones,
which impacts the expected number of shares to be issued, and the share price on the Acquisition Date. At the Acquisition Date, management
estimated the number of shares to be issued is 349,523 .
On
May 15, 2024, retention payment 1 was met resulting in the issuance of 192,885 shares of Class A Common Stock and a cash payment of $ 137,997 .
Retention payment 2 was reclassified to equity because the number of shares to be issued if the contingency is met is now fixed. As a
result, the Company recognized $ 1,334,516 in equity.
As
of December 31, 2024, it was determined that retention payment 2 was not met, resulting in forfeitures of the rights to contingent consideration.
F- 20
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
3. Acquisitions
(Continued)
Acquisition
of Callin Corp. (Continued)
The
Company has recognized a change in fair value for the retention payment 1 and 2 contingent consideration of $ 1,354,357 and $ 1,922,381
due to the change in the Company’s stock price and the probability of each contingency being met for the years ended December 31,
2024 and 2023, respectively.
Milestone
payments 1 and 2
The
Company has determined that milestone payments 1 and 2 are separate units of account because a fixed number of shares will be issued
if each contingency is met, and meeting one contingency is not dependent on the other. The key inputs into the fair value determination
are the probability of each contingency being met, and the share price on the Acquisition Date. As of December 31, 2024, milestone payments
1 and 2 were met resulting in the issuance of 507,636 shares of Class A Common Stock and a cash payment of $ 149,605 .
During
the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company adjusted certain provisional amounts recognized at the acquisition date related to the
finalization of the valuation report and the income tax provision in the fourth quarter of 2023. An adjustment was made to increase upfront
share consideration by $ 143,716 as well as an increase to intangible assets and deferred tax liability of $ 1,594,000 and $ 398,654 , respectively.
The corresponding adjustment was reflected in goodwill.
The
acquired goodwill relates to Callin’s workforce and synergies that are expected to be realized upon the integration of Callin’s
technology with the Rumble platform. Such synergies will include the ability to leverage the creator relationships that Rumble has secured
to date and will allow for a greater ability to establish brand recognition and monetization of the Callin platform in the future. The
goodwill is not expected to be deductible for tax purposes.
Acquisition-related
transaction costs incurred by the Company for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $ 835,035 .
The
acquired business contributed revenues of $ nil and net loss of $ 1,269,185 post acquisition for the period ended December 31, 2023.
F- 21
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
3. Acquisitions
(Continued)
Acquisition
of North River Project Inc.
On October 3, 2023, the Company acquired 100 % of the outstanding
equity of North River Project Inc. ("North River”), for $ 10,000,000 Canadian Dollars ($ 7,293,000 US Dollars) in cash
upfront and future contingent cash payments of up to $ 10,000,000 Canadian Dollars. The Company has determined that North River does
not meet the definition of a business and has accounted for the acquisition as an asset acquisition. The contingent consideration contains
two payments, each consisting of $ 5,000,000 Canadian Dollars upon the completion of feature development and integration of the acquired
technology into the Company’s existing software within a 5-year period. The Company has elected to account for the contingent consideration
at the point in time in which the payments have been met. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the contingent milestones were achieved
and consequently the Company made a total cash payment of $ 10,000,000 Canadian Dollars ($ 7,122,868 US Dollars) to the former
North River equity holders. The Company acquired North River for the purpose of acquiring certain developed software, developed technology,
and an assembled workforce.
The
Company allocated the upfront consideration to the acquired assets based on their relative fair value on the date of acquisition as follows:
Fair Value
Software and technology
$ 9,000,740
Assembled workforce
366,188
Net working capital
( 14,808 )
Deferred tax liability
( 2,059,120 )
Total consideration
$ 7,293,000
The
Company allocated both contingent payments to the acquired assets based on their relative fair value on the date the milestone was met
as follows:
Fair Value
Software and technology
$ 8,771,849
Assembled workforce
360,034
Deferred tax liability
( 2,009,015 )
Total consideration
$ 7,122,868
The
additions were allocated to the cost basis of the acquired assets and the Company recognized a cumulative catch up on the amortization
expense in the amount of $ 1,921,750 during the year ended December 31, 2024.
The
acquired software and technology was assigned a useful life of 5 years and the assembled workforce was assigned a useful life of 2 years.
The assets are recorded in intangible assets, net on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.
F- 22
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
4. Revenue
from Contracts with Customers
The
following table presents revenues disaggregated by type:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Audience Monetization
$ 83,458,309
$ 73,138,933
Other Initiatives
12,029,881
7,824,518
Total revenues
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
The
Company recognizes revenue either at a point in time or over time, depending upon the characteristics of the contract.
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Point in time
$ 36,318,995
$ 21,741,274
Over time
59,169,195
59,222,177
Total revenues
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
Deferred
Revenue
Deferred
revenue recorded at December 31, 2024 is expected to be fully recognized by December 31, 2025. The deferred revenue balance as of December
31, 2024 was $ 12,812,984 . The deferred revenue balance as of December 31, 2023 was $ 7,003,891 , of which $ 6,716,383 was recognized as
revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024. The deferred revenue balance as of January 1, 2023 was $ 1,040,619 , of which $ 881,596 was
recognized as revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023.
5 . Cash,
Cash Equivalents, and Marketable Securities
Cash
and cash equivalents consist of the following:
As of December 31,
Contracted 2024 2023
Maturity Balance Balance
Cash Demand $ 7,344,275 $ 11,632,839
Treasury bills, money market funds, and term deposits Demand 106,674,625 206,705,819
$ 114,018,900 $ 218,338,658
Marketable
securities consist of term deposits of $ nil and $ 1,135,200 as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The Company did not have any
long-term investments as of December 31, 2024 or 2023.
As
of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company entered into a guarantee/ standby letter of credit in the amount of $ 1,362,500 which will
be used towards the issuance of credit for running the day-to-day business operations.
F- 23
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
6. Property
and Equipment
As of December 31,
2024
2023
Computer hardware
$ 24,577,345
$ 21,969,345
Furniture and fixtures
123,417
121,077
Leasehold improvements
1,942,799
1,911,901
26,643,561
24,002,323
Accumulated depreciation
( 9,575,485 )
( 4,312,336 )
Net carrying value
$ 17,068,076
$ 19,689,987
Depreciation
expense on property and equipment for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 was $ 5,296,024 and $ 3,267,920 , respectively.
7. Right-of-Use
Assets and Lease Liabilities
The
Company leases several facilities and data centers under non-cancelable operating leases. These leases have original lease periods expiring
between 2025 and 2027. The lease agreements generally do not contain any material residual value guarantees or material restrictive covenants.
As of December 31,
2024
2023
Accumulated
Accumulated
Cost
Amortization
Cost
Amortization
Right-of-use assets
$ 4,109,922
$ ( 2,356,822 )
$ 3,833,184
$ ( 1,359,281 )
Net carrying value
$ 1,753,100
$ 2,473,903
Operating
lease costs for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 were $ 1,175,186 and $ 848,849 , respectively. These costs are included in general
and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations.
Supplemental
balance sheet information related to the operating lease liabilities is as follows:
As of December 31,
2024 2023
Weighted-average remaining lease term 1.85 years 2.65 years
Weighted-average incremental borrowing rate 7.26 % 7.52 %
The
following shows the future minimum lease payments for the remaining years under the lease arrangement as of December 31, 2024:
2025
$ 1,053,920
2026
745,342
2027
62,456
1,861,718
Less: imputed interest*
( 61,165 )
1,800,553
Current portion
$ 1,000,643
Long-term portion
$ 799,910
* Imputed
interest represents the difference between undiscounted cash flows and cash flows
F- 24
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
8. Intangible
Assets
As of December 31,
2024
Weighted- Average Remaining Useful Lives
(in years)
Gross Carrying Value Accumulated Amortization Net
Carrying
Value
Intellectual property 4.17 $ 461,663 $ ( 179,563 ) $ 282,100
Domain name 11.42 500,448 ( 120,089 ) 380,359
Brand 6.83 1,284,000 ( 408,769 ) 875,231
Software and technology 3.72 30,314,958 ( 8,063,413 ) 22,251,545
Internal software development 3.50 6,586,351 ( 1,341,784 ) 5,244,567
Assembled workforce 0.75 726,222 ( 453,889 ) 272,333
$ 39,873,642 $ ( 10,567,507 ) $ 29,306,135
As of December 31,
2023
Weighted- Average Remaining Useful Lives
(in years) Gross
Carrying
Value Accumulated Amortization Net
Carrying
Value
Intellectual property 4.74 $ 461,663 $ ( 101,023 ) $ 360,640
Domain name 12.42 500,448 ( 86,019 ) 414,429
Brand 7.83 1,284,000 ( 280,369 ) 1,003,631
Software and technology 4.68 20,894,389 ( 1,618,906 ) 19,275,483
Internal software development 4.18 2,004,684 ( 116,854 ) 1,887,830
Assembled workforce 1.75 366,188 ( 45,773 ) 320,415
$ 25,511,372 $ ( 2,248,944 ) $ 23,262,428
Amortization
expense related to intangible assets for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 was $ 8,318,563 and $ 1,582,889 .
For
intangible assets held as of December 31, 2024, future amortization expense is as follows:
2025
$ 8,276,864
2026
7,714,467
2027
7,082,342
2028
5,414,354
2029
371,335
Thereafter
446,773
$ 29,306,135
F- 25
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
9. Goodwill
Goodwill
represents the excess of the purchase price over the estimated fair value of the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired
in business combinations. There were no changes in the carrying amount of goodwill. Goodwill was $ 10,655,391 as of December 31,
2024 and 2023.
There
was no impairment of goodwill for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023.
10. Income
Taxes
The Company is subject to income tax in the U.S., and Canada through
its wholly owned subsidiary, Rumble Canada Inc. Rumble Inc.'s federal statutory tax rate is 21.00 % for the years ended December 31, 2024
and 2023.
The
difference between the tax calculated on income before income tax according to the statutory tax rate and the amount of the income tax
included in the income tax expense was reconciled as follows:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Loss before income taxes
$ ( 340,371,794 )
$ ( 119,712,165 )
Statutory income tax rate
21 %
21 %
Income tax recovery at statutory income tax rate
( 71,478,077 )
( 25,139,555 )
Non-deductible expenses and permanent adjustments
( 1,333,920 )
420,174
Share-based compensation
1,988,839
-
Change in the fair value of warrant liability
8,137,724
( 943,421 )
Change in the fair value of derivatives
44,143,300
Difference in jurisdictional tax rates
( 11,087,797 )
( 4,891,708 )
Tax rate differences and tax rate changes
( 1,244,376 )
-
Other
852,706
194,426
Change in valuation allowance
28,012,586
27,068,381
$ ( 2,009,015 )
$ ( 3,291,703 )
Income tax benefit consists of the following:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Income tax benefit:
Domestic – U.S.
$ ( 2,009,015 )
$ ( 3,291,703 )
Foreign - Canada
-
-
$ ( 2,009,015 )
$ ( 3,291,703 )
F- 26
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
10. Income
Taxes (Continued)
Deferred
Tax Assets (Liabilities)
As of December 31,
2024
2023
Deferred income tax assets:
Loss carryforwards
$ 65,814,397
$ 45,792,765
Intangible assets
2,777,120
-
Share-based compensation
5,646,180
3,627,277
R&D and other cost pool carryforwards
-
2,229,569
Other
81,932
129,636
Gross deferred income tax assets
74,319,629
51,779,247
Valuation allowance
( 71,361,750 )
( 45,273,417 )
Total deferred income tax assets, net of valuation allowance
2,957,879
6,505,830
Deferred income tax liabilities:
Tangible assets
( 2,957,879 )
( 3,208,381 )
Intangible assets
-
( 3,297,449 )
Total deferred income tax liabilities
( 2,957,879 )
( 6,505,830 )
Net deferred income tax assets and liabilities
$ -
$ -
The
Company has assessed the realizability of the net deferred tax assets by considering the relevant positive and negative evidence available
to determine whether it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will be realized. In making such
a determination, the Company considered all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable
temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax planning strategies, and recent results of operations. A significant piece
of objective negative evidence evaluated was the cumulative tax loss incurred by the Company over the three-year period ended December
31, 2024. Such objective evidence limits the ability to consider other subjective evidence, such as projections for future growth. After
consideration of all these factors, the Company has recorded a full valuation allowance against the net deferred tax assets.
Deferred
income taxes have not been recorded on the basis differences for investments in consolidated subsidiaries as these basis differences
are indefinitely reinvested or will reverse in a non-taxable manner. Quantification of the deferred income tax liability, if any, associated
with indefinitely reinvested basis differences is not practicable.
As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company has U.S. federal and
state net loss carryforwards of $ 104,527,154 and $ 78,563,194 , respectively, as well as Canadian federal and provincial non-capital loss
carryforwards of $ 154,084,556 and $ 107,580,614 , respectively. The U.S. federal losses can be carried forward indefinitely, generally,
the state losses can be carried forward 20 years. The Canadian non-capital loss carryforwards expire between 2039 and 2044.
2039
$ 78,821
2041
4,223,836
2042
19,313,785
2043
77,202,600
2044
53,265,514
Indefinite
104,527,154
F- 27
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
10. Income
Taxes (Continued)
Utilization
of net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to limitations in the event of a change in ownership as defined under U.S. IRC Section
382, and similar state provisions. An "ownership change" is generally defined as a cumulative change in the ownership interest
of significant stockholders of more than 50 percentage points over a three-year period. The Company experienced ownership change during
2021. Such ownership change could result in a limitation of the Company's ability to reduce future income by net operating loss carryforwards.
A formal Section 382 study has not been prepared, so the exact effects of the ownership change are not known at this time.
The
Company operates in a number of tax jurisdictions and is subject to examination of its income tax returns by tax authorities in those
jurisdictions who may challenge any item on these returns. Because the tax matters challenged by tax authorities are typically complex,
the ultimate outcome of these challenges is uncertain. The Company recognizes the effects of uncertain tax positions in the consolidated
financial statements after determining that it is more-likely-than-not the uncertain tax positions will be sustained. As of December
31, 2024, the Company has not recorded any uncertain tax positions, as well as any accrued interest and penalties on the consolidated
balance sheet. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company did not record any interest and penalties in the consolidated statement
of operations.
11. Derivative
Liability
On
December 20, 2024, the Company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement (the “Transaction Agreement”) for
a strategic investment of $ 775 million (the “Transaction”) from Tether Investments Limited (n/k/a Tether Investments S.A.
de C.V.) (“Tether”) in exchange for 103,333,333 shares of Class A Common Stock. The Class A Common Stock has a par value
of $ 0.0001 per share. The purchase price of the Class A Common Stock in the Transaction was $ 7.50 per share.
The Transaction Agreement requires the
Company to commence a tender offer to purchase up to 70,000,000 shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock using proceeds from
the Transaction, which the Company did subsequent to year end. See Note 21 for further details.
As contemplated by the Transaction Agreement,
the Company executed support agreements with certain members of key management to provide a backstop to the anticipated tender offer and
ensure 70,000,000 shares would be tendered and available for repurchase when the Transaction closes.
Under the Transaction Agreement, there
is the possibility that the Company issues either 103,333,333 shares of Class A Common Stock in one or two closings, or issues 66,666,667
shares of Class A Common Stock in one closing if the tender offer is not successfully consummated by April 30, 2025.
The Company is accounting for the Transaction and support agreement
as one unit of account which meets the definition of a derivative. As a result, the Company initially recorded a gain upon recognition
of a derivative asset of $ 9,200,000 and subsequently recorded the derivative at fair value resulting in a liability of $ 184,699,998 at
December 31, 2024 and a change in fair value of the derivative of $ 184,699,998 during the year ended December 31, 2024. See Note 17 for
further details.
As of December 31, 2024, the Transaction
had not been funded. The Transaction was completed on February 7, 2025. See Note 21 for further details.
F- 28
Rumble
Inc.
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
12. Other
Liability
The
Company has received certain amounts from a third party to assist with certain operating expenditures of the Company. These amounts are
to be repaid upon settlement of those expenditures, are non-interest bearing, and have been treated as a long-term liability. An amount
of $ 500,000 related to these expenses was recorded in other liability as of December 31, 2024 and 2023.
13. Shareholders’
(Deficit) Equity
The
Company is authorized to issue 1,000,000,000 shares, consisting of:
(i) 700,000,000
shares of Class A Common Stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share;
(ii) 170,000,000
shares of Class C Common Stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share;
(iii) 110,000,000
shares of Class D Common Stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share; and
(iv) 20,000,000
shares of preferred stock with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share.
The
following shares of common stock are issued and outstanding at:
As of December 31,
2024
2023
Number
Amount
Number
Amount
Class A Common Stock
118,808,857
$ 741,799
114,926,700
$ 741,410
Class C Common Stock (and its corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
165,153,621
16,515
165,353,621
16,535
Class D Common Stock
105,782,403
10,578
105,782,403
10,578
Balance
389,744,881
$ 768,892
386,062,724
$ 768,523
Class
A Common Stock
Authorized
The
Company is authorized to issue 700,000,000 shares with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share.
Issued
and outstanding
The
holders of shares of Class A Common Stock are entitled to one vote for each share of Class A Common Stock held at any meeting of shareholders
of the Company. The holders of Class A Common Stock are entitled to receive dividends and other distributions declared or paid by the
Company. The holders of Class A Common Stock are entitled to receive the remaining property of the Company upon liquidation, dissolution,
or winding-up, whether voluntary or involuntary, and any other distribution of assets of the Company among its shareholders for the purpose
of winding-up of its affairs subject to the rights of the preferred shares.
F- 29
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
13. Shareholders’ (Deficit) Equity (Continued)
Class A Common Stock (Continued)
Number of
Class A
Common
Stock
Balance December 31, 2023
114,926,700
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in connection with Callin acquisition
836,292
Issuance of Class A Common Stock upon exercise of stock options and warrants, as well as vesting of restricted stock units, net of share settlement
2,845,865
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in exchange for Class C Common Shares (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
200,000
Balance December 31, 2024
118,808,857
Former holders of the Legacy Rumble’s
common shares are eligible to receive up to an aggregate of 105,000,000 additional shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock,
of which 76,412,604 shares are currently held in escrow and 28,587,396 shares will become issuable under options when the contingency
is met. Similarly, the Sponsor’s common shares are eligible to receive up to an aggregate of 1,963,750 additional shares of the
Company’s Class A Common Stock and will be issued when the contingency is met. The holders are eligible to the shares if the closing
price of the Company’s Class A Common Stock is greater than or equal to $ 15.00 and $ 17.50 , respectively (with 50 % released at each
target, or if the latter target is reached first, 100 %) for a period of 20 trading days during any 30 trading-day period. The term will
expire September 16, 2027 . If there is a change in control prior to September 16, 2027 resulting in a per share price equal to or in excess
of the $ 15.00 and $ 17.50 share price milestones not previously met, then the Company shall issue the earnout shares to the holders.
Number of
Class A
Common
Stock
Balance December 31, 2022
111,467,763
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in connection with Callin acquisition
981,243
Issuance of Class A Common Stock upon vesting of stock awards, net of share settlement
195,832
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in exchange for Class C Common Shares (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
2,308,593
Holdback of Class A Common Stock for the repayment of domain name loan in connection with the acquisition of Locals Technology Inc.
( 26,731 )
Balance December 31, 2023
114,926,700
Class C Common Stock (and corresponding
ExchangeCo Share)
Authorized
The Company is authorized to issue
170,000,000 shares with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share.
Issued and outstanding
The holders of shares of Class C Common
Stock are entitled to one vote for each share of Class C Common Stock held at any meeting of shareholders of the Company. The holders
of Class C Common Stock are not entitled to receive dividends and other distributions declared or paid by the Company. The holders of
shares of Class C Common Stock are not entitled to receive the remaining property of Company upon liquidation, dissolution, or winding-up,
whether voluntary or involuntary, and any other distribution of assets of the Company among its shareholders for the purpose of winding-up
of its affairs subject to the rights of the preferred shares and Class A Common Stock.
F- 30
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
13. Shareholders’ (Deficit) Equity (Continued)
Class C Common Stock (and corresponding
ExchangeCo Share) (Continued)
The Company’s indirect, wholly
owned Canadian subsidiary 1000045728 Ontario Inc. ("ExchangeCo”) has 165,153,621 exchangeable shares ("ExchangeCo Shares”)
outstanding at December 31, 2024 that are exchangeable at any time by the holder on a one-to-one basis into Class A Common Stock. The
ExchangeCo Shares are entitled to any dividends that are declared on Class A Common Stock and participate in liquidation on the same basis
as the holders of Class A Common Stock. Each ExchangeCo Share is issued "in tandem” with one share of Class C Common Stock.
At the time an ExchangeCo Share is exchanged by the holder, the Company will issue one share of Class A Common Stock and the ExchangeCo
Share and corresponding Class C Common Stock are cancelled. The ExchangeCo Share and the related share of Class C Common Stock cannot
be separated. The Company views each ExchangeCo Share and its corresponding share of Class C Common Stock as one unit of account that
is economically similar to a share of Class A Common Stock.
Number of
Class C
Common Stock
(and corresponding
ExchangeCo Share)
Balance December 31, 2023
165,353,621
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in exchange for Class C Common Stock (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
( 200,000 )
Balance December 31, 2024
165,153,621
Number of
Class C
Common Stock
(and corresponding
ExchangeCo Share)
Balance December 31, 2022
167,662,214
Issuance of Class A Common Stock in exchange for Class C Common Stock (and corresponding ExchangeCo Share)
( 2,308,593 )
Balance December 31, 2023
165,353,621
Class D Common Stock
Authorized
The Company is authorized to issue
110,000,000 shares with a par value of $ 0.0001 per share.
Issued and outstanding
The holders of shares of Class D Common
Stock are entitled to 11.2663 votes for each share of Class D Common Stock held at any meeting of shareholders of the Company. The holders
of shares of Class D Common Stock are not entitled to receive dividends and other distributions declared or paid by the Company. The holders
of shares of Class D Common Stock are not entitled to receive the remaining property of Company upon liquidation, dissolution, or winding-up,
whether voluntary or involuntary, and any other distribution of assets of the Company among its shareholders for the purpose of winding-up
of its affairs subject to the rights of the preferred shares and Class A Common Stock.
The number of Class D Common Stock
was 105,782,403 as of December 31, 2024 and 2023. There were no changes in Class D Common Stock during the years ended December 31, 2024
and 2023.
F- 31
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
14. Share-Based Compensation Expense
The Company’s stock award plans
consist of:
Rumble Inc. Amended and Restated
Stock Option Plan
The Company maintains a long-term incentive
plan, the Rumble Inc. Amended and Restated Stock Option Plan (the “Stock Option Plan”). The Stock Option Plan continues to
govern the terms and conditions of the outstanding awards previously granted under the Stock Option Plan, and all options to purchase
Rumble Class A common shares or Rumble Class B common shares which were converted into options to purchase shares of Class A Common Stock
in connection with the Business Combination.
As of December 31, 2024, there
were 58,165,382 shares of Class A Common Stock reserved for future issuance under the Stock Option Plan
Rumble Inc. 2022 Stock Incentive
Plan
The Rumble Inc. 2022 Stock Incentive
Plan (the "Stock Incentive Plan”) was approved by the board of directors and the stockholders of the Company, and became effective
on September 16, 2022. The Company initially reserved 27,121,733 shares of Common Stock for issuance under the Stock Incentive Plan, subject
to a ten-year evergreen feature.
As of December 31, 2024, there
were 35,459,606 shares of Class A Common Stock reserved for future issuance under the Stock Incentive Plan.
Rumble Inc. 2024 Employee Stock
Purchase Plan
The Rumble Inc. 2024 Employee Stock
Purchase Plan (the "Employee Stock Purchase Plan”) was approved by the board of directors and the stockholders of the Company,
and became effective on March 26, 2024. The Company initially reserved 1,500,000 shares of Common Stock for issuance under the Employee
Stock Purchase Plan.
As of December 31, 2024, there
were 1,500,000 shares of Class A Common Stock reserved for future issuance under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Share-based compensation expenses are
summarized as follows:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Restricted stock units
$ 16,902,835
$ 8,463,373
Stock options
6,076,216
5,193,301
Rights to contingent consideration
835,712
2,478,040
$ 23,814,763
$ 16,134,714
Restricted Stock Units
The fair value of the restricted stock
units with market conditions was determined using a Monte Carlo simulation methodology that included simulating the stock price using
a risk-neutral Geometric Brownian Motion-based pricing model. The following table reflects the assumptions made:
F- 32
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
14. Share-Based Compensation Expense (Continued)
Restricted Stock Units
(Continued)
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
Share price
$ 5.95 -$ 7.24
Risk-free interest rate
4.08 %- 5.03 %
Volatility
65 %
Expected life
1 - 2 years
Dividend rate
0.00 %
The following table reflects the continuity
of unvested restricted stock units (“RSUs”) transactions:
Service Conditions
Number
Weighted
Average
Grant Date
Fair Value
Outstanding, December 31, 2023
1,631,338
$ 10.55
Granted
2,217,930
7.03
Vested
( 1,482,328 )
9.10
Forfeited/ Cancelled
( 140,165 )
6.79
Outstanding, December 31, 2024
2,226,775
$ 8.24
Market Conditions
Number
Weighted
Average
Grant Date
Fair Value
Outstanding, December 31, 2023
-
$
-
Granted
676,243
2.48
Vested
-
-
Forfeited/ Cancelled
-
-
Outstanding, December 31, 2024
676,243
$
2.48
As of December 31, 2024, the Company
has RSUs outstanding that have market based vesting conditions if the closing price of the Company’s Class A Common Stock is greater
than or equal to a specified price for a period of 20 trading days during any 30 trading-day period.
The following table reflects additional
information related to RSUs activity:
As of December 31,
2024
Service Conditions Market Conditions
Unrecognized compensation cost $ 10,761,780 $ 1,168,832
Weighted average service period for unrecognized compensation cost 1.20 years 1.00 years
Grant date fair value of RSUs $ 18,351,768 $ 1,676,276
F- 33
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
14. Share-Based Compensation Expense (Continued)
Stock Options
The fair value of the stock options
was determined using either a Black-Scholes option pricing model or a Monte Carlo simulation methodology that included simulating the
stock price using a risk-neutral Geometric Brownian Motion-based pricing model. The following table reflects the assumptions made:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Share price
$ 5.61 -$ 7.13
$ 2.68 -$ 9.23
Exercise price
$ 5.61 -$ 7.13
$ 4.63 -$ 10.36
Risk-free interest rate
3.81 %- 4.35 %
3.42 %- 4.94 %
Volatility
62 %- 64 %
88 %- 97 %
Expected life
5 - 6 years
4 - 10 years
Dividend rate
0.00 %
0.00 %
The following table reflects
the continuity of stock option transactions:
Service Conditions
Number Weighted Average
Exercise Price Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term (in years)
Outstanding, December 31, 2023 65,004,839 $ 0.58
Granted 4,546,270 6.39
Exercised ( 1,696,138 ) 0.36
Forfeited/ Cancelled ( 5,569,399 ) 5.07
Outstanding, December 31, 2024 62,285,572 $ 0.80 14.91
Vested and exercisable, December 31, 2024 57,475,446 $ 0.28 15.39
Performance Conditions
Number Weighted Average
Exercise Price Weighted Average
Remaining Contract
Term (in years)
Outstanding, December 31, 2023 358,249 $ 9.42
Granted 580,139 7.13
Forfeited ( 358,249 ) 9.42
Outstanding, December 31, 2024 580,139 $ 7.13 9.91
Vested and exercisable, December 31, 2024 -
$ -
-
The aggregate intrinsic value of stock
options is calculated as the difference between the exercise price of the stock options and the fair value of the Company’s Class
A Common Stock for those stock options that had exercise prices lower than the fair value of the Company’s Class A Common Stock.
As of December 31, 2024, the aggregate intrinsic value of options outstanding was $ 763,899,856 and the aggregate intrinsic value of the
options vested and exercisable was $ 731,532,991 .
F- 34
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
14. Share-Based Compensation Expense (Continued)
Stock Options (Continued)
The following table reflects additional
information related to options activity:
As of December 31,
2024
Service Conditions Performance Conditions
Unrecognized compensation cost $ 18,925,713 $ 2,453,988
Weighted average service period for unrecognized compensation cost 2.43 years -
Grant date fair value of options $ 0.52 $ 4.23
As of December 31, 2024, the Company
has determined that it is not probable that the conditions related to the performance-based stock options will be met, and therefore,
the Company has not recognized the related expense in the consolidated statement of operations.
Rights to Contingent Consideration
In connection
with the acquisition of Callin as described in Note 3, the Company was required to replace unvested options, unvested series FF preferred
shares, and restricted common stock held by continuing employees of Callin with a right to receive contingent consideration. If the underlying
contingencies are met, the obligation will be satisfied by the issuance of shares of Class A Common Stock. In addition, as described in
Note 3, two of the contingent consideration tranches are dependent on one selling shareholder providing services to the Company.
Where rights
to receive contingent consideration were issued to replace unvested awards of the acquired company, the Company has allocated an amount
to consideration based on the fair value of the original award at the acquisition date. The amount allocated is based on the period of
time vested as of the acquisition date in relation to the greater of the vesting period of the original award and the total service requirement
as per the below. The difference between the fair value of the new award on the acquisition date and the amount allocated to consideration
is post-combination expense, as laid out below:
Fair value
Allocated to consideration
$ 15,578
Allocated to post-combination services
5,941,563
Total fair value of rights
$ 5,957,141
Share-based compensation expense related
to the rights to contingent consideration of $ 835,712 and $ 2,478,040 was recognized in the consolidated statement of operations during
the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
As discussed in Note 3, certain milestones
were met during the year ended December 31, 2024. As a result, 145,049 shares of Class A Common Stock were issued and $ 2,284,085 of cash
was paid to settle the rights to contingent consideration. Additionally, retention payment 2 was not met resulting in a reversal of $ 1,105,393
in share-based compensation expense.
As of December 31, 2024, there were
no unrecognized compensation cost related to rights with a service only condition.
F- 35
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
15. Loss per Share
As noted in Note 13, when taken together,
an ExchangeCo Share and a share of Class C Common Stock are economically similar to a share of Class A Common Stock. As a result, the
Company computed basic loss per share by dividing net loss attributable to the Company by the weighted-average number of Class A and ExchangeCo
Shares issued and outstanding, excluding those held in escrow as these are contingently issuable shares and have been excluded from the
calculation during the year ended December 31, 2024, and 2023. Shares of Class D Common Stock do not share in earnings and not participating
securities (i.e., non-economic shares) and therefore, have been excluded from the calculation of weighted-average number of shares outstanding.
Diluted loss per share is computed
giving effect to all potentially dilutive shares. Diluted loss per share for all periods presented is the same as basic loss per share
as the inclusion of potentially issuable shares would be antidilutive.
16. Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments
The Company has non-cancelable contractual
commitments of approximately $ 37 million as of December 31, 2024, which are primarily related to programming and content, leases, and
other service arrangements. The majority of commitments will be paid over two years commencing in 2025.
Legal Proceedings
In the normal course of business, to
facilitate transactions in services and products, the Company indemnifies certain parties. The Company has agreed to hold certain parties
harmless against losses arising from a breach of representations or covenants, or out of intellectual property infringement or other claims
made against certain parties. Several of these agreements limit the time within which an indemnification claim can be made and the amount
of the claim. In addition, the Company has entered into indemnification agreements with its officers and directors, and its bylaws contain
similar indemnification obligations to its agents.
Furthermore, many of the Company’s
agreements with its customers and partners require the Company to indemnify them for certain intellectual property infringement claims
against them, which would increase costs as a result of defending such claims, and may require that we pay significant damages if there
were an adverse ruling in any such claims. Customers and partners may discontinue the use of the Company’s services and technologies
as a result of injunctions or otherwise, which could result in loss of revenues and adversely impact the business.
It is not possible to make a reasonable
estimate of the maximum potential amount under these indemnification agreements due to the unique facts and circumstances involved in
each particular agreement. As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, there were no material indemnification claims that were probable or reasonably
possible.
As of December 31, 2024, Rumble was
defending a lawsuit against the Company and one of its shareholders seeking a variety of relief including rescission of a share redemption
sale agreement with the Company or damages alleged to be worth $ 419.0 million.
The Company is defending the claims
and considers that the likelihood that it will be required to make a payment to plaintiffs to be remote.
F- 36
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
17. Fair Value Measurements
The following table summarizes the liabilities
measured at fair value on a recurring basis:
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 3
Warrant Liability
Marketable Securities
Derivative Liability
Contingent Consideration
December 31, 2023
$ 7,696,605
$ 1,135,200
$ -
$ 1,569,360
Settlement by issuance of shares
-
-
-
( 1,404,753 )
Reclassification to equity
-
-
-
( 1,334,516 )
Reclassification to accounts payable and accrued liabilities
-
-
-
( 184,448 )
Sales and maturities of marketable securities
-
( 1,135,200 )
-
-
Recognition of a derivative asset
-
-
( 9,200,000 )
-
Change in fair value
32,694,697
-
193,899,998
1,354,357
December 31, 2024
$ 40,391,302
$ -
$ 184,699,998
$ -
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Warrant Liability
Marketable Securities
Contingent Consideration
December 31, 2022
$ 10,062,500
$ 1,100,000
$ -
Recognized in the Callin acquisition
-
-
3,491,741
Change in fair value
( 2,365,895 )
35,200
( 1,922,381 )
December 31, 2023
$ 7,696,605
$ 1,135,200
$ 1,569,360
Warrant
liability
Warrant liability
consists of warrants issued by the Company in public offerings, private placements, and forward purchase contracts. As of December 31,
2024 and 2023, the number of warrants outstanding was 8,046,076 and 8,050,000 , respectively, with a weighted-average exercise price of
$ 11.50 . The warrants are exercisable and will expire on September 16, 2027, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. All warrants are
publicly traded.
Derivative liability
The derivative liability relates to the net new shares from the Tether
transaction. Refer to Note 11. The derivative has been valued using the Monte Carlo simulation methodology that included simulating the
stock price using a risk-neutral Geometric Brownian Motion-based pricing model. The key inputs used in the model include:
Valuation Date
December 20,
2024
December 31,
2024
Number of shares
33,333,333
33,333,333
Expected term (months)
1.25
1.00
Risk-free interest rate
4.36 %
4.35 %
Expected volatility
104 %
238 %
Contingent consideration
The contingent consideration liability
arose in May 2023 from the Callin acquisition. Refer to Note 3. The increase in fair value during the year is attributable to changes
in the Company’s stock price and the increased probability of each contingency being met. On May 15, 2024, the contingent consideration
liability was derecognized. One of the contingent payments was settled through the issuance of shares and the remaining contingent payment
was reclassified to equity and accounts payable.
F- 37
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
(Expressed in
U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
18. Credit and Concentration Risks
Credit risk is the risk that one party
to a financial instrument will cause a financial loss for the other party by failing to discharge an obligation. The Company is exposed
to credit risk resulting from the possibility that a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument defaults on their financial obligations
or if there is a concentration of transactions carried out with the same counterparty. Financial instruments that potentially subject
the Company to concentrations of credit risk include cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and accounts receivable.
The Company’s cash, cash equivalents,
and marketable securities are held in reputable banks in its country of domicile and management believes the risk of loss to be remote.
We maintain cash balances that exceed the insured limits by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Canada Deposit Insurance
Corporation.
The Company is exposed to credit risk
in the event of default by its customers. Accounts receivables are recorded at the invoiced amount, do not bear interest, and do not
require collateral. For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, one customer accounted for $ 14,927,000 and $ 36,973,000 or 16 % and
46 % of revenue, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, no single customer represented 10% or more of total accounts receivable. As of
December 31, 2023, one customer accounted for 35 % of accounts receivable.
19. Related Party Transactions
The Company’s related parties
include directors, shareholders and key management.
Compensation to related parties
totaled $ 14,063,586 and $ 13,008,425 for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Of the total compensation, the
Company paid share-based compensation to key management amounting to $ 9,837,559 and $ 8,046,363 for the years ended December
31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, accounts receivable from key management personnel were $ 727,903 and
$ nil , respectively.
The Company has a vendor relationship
with Cosmic Inc. and Kosmik Development Skopje doo (“Cosmic”) to provide content moderation and software development services.
Cosmic is controlled by Mr. Pavlovski and Mr. Milnes, each of whom holds a significant number of Rumble shares. The Company incurred related
party expenses for these services of $ 3,382,267 and $ 2,849,600 during the year ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Accounts
payable and accrued liabilities for personnel services was $ 249,545 and $ 276,018 as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
As discussed in Note 11, on December 20, 2024 the Company entered into
support agreements with related parties to ensure that 70,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock would be tendered and available for purchase
if there were insufficient shares tendered by the public to satisfy the tender requirements in the Tether Agreement.
There were no other related party transactions
during these periods.
F- 38
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial
Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
20. Segment and Geographic Information
The Company operates as one operating segment. The Company’s
chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) is its chief executive officer, who reviews financial information presented on a consolidated
basis to make decisions regarding how to allocate resources and assess performance. The CODM assesses performance and decides how to allocate
resources based on net loss and is reported on the consolidated statements of operations as consolidated net loss. The CODM does not evaluate
operating segments using asset information.
The following presents selected
financial information with respect to the Company’s single operating segment:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
Revenues
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
Expenses
Programming and content
$ 120,071,966
$ 129,520,159
Other cost of services
18,400,300
16,636,575
General and administrative
36,646,307
37,125,296
Research and development
18,923,319
15,721,663
Sales and marketing
17,330,925
13,427,021
Acquisition-related transaction costs
-
1,151,318
Amortization and depreciation
13,614,587
4,850,812
Changes in fair value of contingent consideration
1,354,357
( 1,922,381 )
Total expenses
226,341,761
216,510,463
Loss from operations
( 130,853,571 )
( 135,547,012 )
Interest income
8,083,903
13,594,463
Other expense
( 207,431 )
( 125,511 )
Changes in fair value of warrant liability
( 32,694,697 )
2,365,895
Changes in fair value of derivative
( 184,699,998 )
-
Loss before income taxes
( 340,371,794 )
( 119,712,165 )
Income tax benefit
2,009,015
3,291,703
Net loss
$ ( 338,362,779 )
$ ( 116,420,462 )
F- 39
Rumble Inc.
Notes to the Consolidated Financial
Statements
(Expressed
in U.S. Dollars)
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
20. Segment and Geographic Information (Continued)
The following presents revenue
by geographic region:
For the year ended
December 31,
2024
2023
United States
$ 89,094,815
$ 74,439,470
Canada
1,928,280
1,042,983
Other
4,465,095
5,480,998
$ 95,488,190
$ 80,963,451
The Company tracks assets by physical
location. Long-lived assets consists of property and equipment, net, and are shown below:
As of December 31,
2024
2023
United States
$ 16,837,694
$ 19,334,231
Canada
230,382
355,756
$ 17,068,076
$ 19,689,987
21. Subsequent Events
As previously announced in November 2024,
the Company’s Board of Directors has approved a corporate treasury diversification strategy of allocating a portion of the Company’s
cash reserves to Bitcoin. This move emphasizes Rumble's belief in Bitcoin as a valuable tool for strategic planning and is designed to
accelerate the Company's expansion into cryptocurrency. Rumble's Bitcoin allocation strategy will include purchases, at the discretion
of the company, of up to $ 20 million. Subsequent to year end, the Company has purchased approximately $ 17 million in Bitcoin.
On January 3, 2025, as required by the Tether Arrangement discussed in Note 11, the Company commenced a self-tender
offer to purchase up to 70,000,000 of its issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock.
On February 7, 2025, the Company closed
its strategic investment with from Tether by issuing 103,333,333 shares of Class A Common Stock at a price of $ 7.50 per share to Tether
for $ 775 million in gross proceeds, and on the same date, repurchasing 70,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock under the self-tender,
totaling $ 525 million, excluding fees and expenses related to the tender, resulting in a net new issuance of 33,333,333 shares of Class
A Common Stock. Of the 70,000,000 shares of Class A Common Stock repurchased, 69,938,983 were tendered by related parties with whom the
Company had executed support agreements. To satisfy the conditions under the support agreements, 20,783,200 vested stock options were
exercised for $ 1,395,932 and 41,463,151 shares of Class C Common Stock (and its corresponding ExchangeCo Share) were exchanged for Class
A Common Stock.
In accordance with ASC 855, the
Company’s management reviewed all material events through March 25, 2025, and there were no material subsequent events other than
those disclosed above.
F- 40
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting
and Financial Disclosure
None.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management is responsible
for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) under the
Exchange Act). Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of
financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles.
Because of its inherent limitations,
our internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness
to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of
compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Accordingly, even effective internal control over financial reporting can
only provide reasonable assurance of achieving their control objectives.
Management assessed the effectiveness
of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria established in the SEC guidance on conducting such
assessments as of the end of the period covered by this report. Management conducted the assessment based on certain criteria established
in the Internal Control Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission in
2013. Based on such an evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our internal control over
financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2024 due to the material weaknesses described below.
Material Weakness
A material weakness is a deficiency,
or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material
misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected in a timely manner.
The Company did not sufficiently maintain the risk assessment and control
activities components of the COSO framework primarily relating to (i) identifying and analyzing risks, including identifying and assessing
changes in the business that could impact the system of internal controls and (ii) sufficiency of selecting and developing control activities
that contribute to the mitigation of risks to the achievement of objectives to acceptable levels. This led to material weaknesses whereby,
we did not adequately design certain key controls at a sufficient level of precision, including account reconciliation, to address relevant
financial reporting risks including inadequate design of procedures to ensure completeness and accuracy of the accounting for content
creator agreements, and associated assets, liabilities and expenses.
Deficiencies in control activities contributed to the potential for
there to have been material accounting errors in financial statement account balances and disclosures. While the above material weaknesses
did not result in a material misstatement of our previously issued financial statements, it could result in a misstatement of our account
balances or disclosures that would not be prevented or detected and would therefore result in a material misstatement of our annual or
interim financial statements.
See Risk Factors – We have identified material weaknesses in
our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, we may
not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations.
Remediation Activities
We and our Board of Directors
are committed to maintaining a strong internal control environment. Management, with the oversight of the audit committee of our Board
of Directors have evaluated the material weaknesses and have implemented a remediation plan to address the material weaknesses and enhance
our control environment. We are taking steps to strengthen our internal control over financial reporting through the continued hiring
of additional appropriately skilled finance and accounting personnel with the requisite technical knowledge and skills. With the additional
skilled personnel, we are taking appropriate and reasonable steps to remediate these material weaknesses through formalization of accounting
policies and controls around content creator agreements, and retention of external accounting advisors for complex accounting transactions.
We will not be able to fully remediate material weaknesses until these steps have been completed and have been operating effectively for
a sufficient period of time.
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Management will continue
to review and make necessary changes to the overall design of our internal control environment, as well as policies and procedures to
improve the overall effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. The material weaknesses will not be considered remediated,
however, until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these
controls are operating effectively.
Item 9B. Other Information
Trading Arrangements
During the quarter ended December
31, 2024, our directors and officers (as defined in Rule 16a-1(f) under the Exchange Act) adopted , terminated , or modified the contracts,
instructions or written plans for the purchase or sale of Rumble securities set forth in the table below:
Type of Trading Arrangement
Name and Position
Action
Action Date
Rule 10b5-1 (1)
Non-Rule 10b5-1 (2)
Maximum
Number of Shares
of Class A
Common Stock to
be Sold
Expiration Date
Ryan Milnes,
Director
Adoption
November 19, 2024
X
1,200,000
September 1, 2025
(1) Contract, instruction or written plan intended to satisfy
the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1(c) under the Exchange Act.
(2) “Non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” as defined
in Item 408(c) of Regulation S-K under the Exchange Act.
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions
that Prevent Inspections
Not applicable.
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Part
III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
Family Relationships
There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive
officers.
Controlled Company
For purposes of the Nasdaq Listing Rules, we
are a “controlled company.” Under the Nasdaq rules, controlled companies are companies of which more than 50% of the
voting power for the election of directors is held by an individual, a group, or another company. Chris Pavlovski owns approximately
83% of the outstanding voting power, on a fully diluted basis, for the election of directors. As a “controlled company,”
we are exempt from the requirement that a majority of the Board of Directors be independent.
Director Independence
Our common stock is listed on Nasdaq. As required
under Nasdaq listing standards (other than with respect to a “controlled company,” which our company is), a majority of the
members of a listed company’s board of directors must qualify as “independent,” as affirmatively determined by the board
of directors. In addition, the Nasdaq listing standards require that, subject to specified exceptions, each member of a listed company’s
audit, compensation, and nominating and corporate governance committees be “independent.” Our Board of Directors consults
with our counsel to ensure that the Board of Directors’ determinations are consistent with relevant securities and other laws and
regulations regarding the definition of “independent,” including those set forth in pertinent listing standards of Nasdaq,
as in effect from time to time.
The Board of Directors has reviewed the independence
of each director. Based on information provided by each director concerning her or his background, employment and affiliations, the Board
of Directors affirmatively determined that none of the directors has any relationships that would interfere with the exercise of independent
judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director and that each of the directors, other than Mr. Pavlovski and Mr. Milnes,
is “independent” as that term is defined under the Nasdaq listing standards.
Board of Directors Leadership Structure
Our Bylaws and Corporate Governance Guidelines
provide our Board of Directors with flexibility to combine or separate the positions of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive
Officer in accordance with its determination that utilizing one or the other structure would be in the best interests of our Company.
Mr. Pavlovski currently serves in a combined role of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer.
Our Board of Directors exercises its judgment
in combining or separating the roles of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer as it deems appropriate in light
of prevailing circumstances. The Board of Directors will continue to exercise its judgment on an ongoing basis to determine the optimal
leadership structure that the Board of Directors believes will provide effective leadership, oversight and direction, while optimizing
the functioning of both the Board of Directors and management and facilitating effective communication between the two. The Board of Directors
has concluded that the current structure provides a well-functioning and effective balance between strong Company leadership and appropriate
safeguards and oversight by independent directors. Our Corporate Governance Guidelines provide that an independent “lead director”
will be elected from among the independent directors when the Chairperson of the Board is not an independent director to preside over
executive sessions among non-management directors which are to be held at least annually. Our Board of Directors has elected Robert Arsov
as the independent “lead director.”
Role of the Board of Directors in Risk Oversight
One of the key functions of the Board of Directors
is the informed oversight of our risk management process. The Board of Directors does not have a standing risk management committee, but
rather administers this oversight function directly through the Board of Directors as a whole, as well as through various standing committees
of the Board of Directors that address risks inherent in their respective areas of oversight. In particular, the Board of Directors is
responsible for reviewing the major risks facing our company and the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors (the “ Audit
Committee ”) has the responsibility to review and discuss with management and the independent auditor any significant risks
or exposures and our company’s policies and processes with respect to risk assessment and risk management. The Audit Committee also
monitors compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors (the “ Compensation
Committee ”) also assesses and monitors whether our compensation plans, policies and programs comply with applicable legal
and regulatory requirements.
Meetings of The Board of Directors and Its Committees
The Board of Directors met twenty-one times, the
Audit Committee met ten times, the Compensation Committee met five times, and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee met three
times during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. Each director attended 75% or more of the aggregate number of meetings of the
Board of Directors and of the committees on which he or she served held during the year ended December 31, 2024.
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We expect our directors and nominees for director
to attend the Annual Meeting.
Information Regarding Committees of the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors has established standing
committees in connection with the discharge of its responsibilities. These committees include an Audit Committee, a Compensation Committee
and a Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Pursuant to our Bylaws, the Board of Directors may establish such other committees
as may be permitted by law. The following table provides current membership information for each of these Board of Directors committees:
Name
Audit
Compensation
Nominating
and
Corporate
Governance
Chris Pavlovski
Nancy Armstrong
X
X
Paul Cappuccio
X
X*
Robert Arsov
X
X*
Ryan Milnes
Katie Biber
X
X
Jerry Naumoff
X
Total meetings in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
10
5
3
X
Committee Member
*
Committee Chair
Below is a description of the Audit Committee,
Compensation Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors. Each of the committees operates pursuant
to a written charter and each committee reviews and assesses the adequacy of its charter and submits its charter to the Board of Directors
for approval. The written charters of the committees are available at the investors section of our website at investors.rumble.com.
Audit Committee
The members of our Audit Committee consist of
Katie Biber, Jerry Naumoff and Paul Cappuccio. Under the Nasdaq Listing Rules, we are required to have at least three (3) members
on the audit committee. The Nasdaq Listing Rules and Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act require that the audit committee of a listed
company be composed solely of independent directors, and each committee member qualifies as an independent director under applicable rules.
Katie Biber, Jerry Naumoff and Paul Cappuccio are each financially literate, and Jerry Naumoff and Paul Cappuccio each qualify as an “audit
committee financial expert” as defined in applicable SEC rules.
The functions of this committee include:
● sole responsibility for the
appointment, evaluation, compensation, retention and, if appropriate, replacement of the independent auditor;
● assessment of the independence
of the independent auditor;
● evaluation of the qualifications
and performance of the independent auditor, including the lead audit partner;
57
●
oversight of the work of the independent auditor, including resolution of disagreements between management and the independent auditor regarding financial reporting;
●
review and approval of all related-party transactions required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K under the Securities Act for potential conflict of interest situations
●
oversight of the integrity of financial statements and other financial disclosures and management’s design and maintenance of the company’s internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures;
●
preparing annually an audit committee report for inclusion where necessary in the proxy statement relating to the annual general meeting of stockholders and/or annual report of the Company;
●
reviewing with the independent auditor the responsibilities, budget, staffing, effectiveness and performance of the internal audit function, and reviewing and assessing the annual internal audit plan, if any, the process used to developed the plan, and the status of activities, significant findings, recommendations and management’s response; and
●
risk management, oversight of legal and regulatory compliance, establishment and oversight of whistleblower procedures.
Compensation Committee
The members of our Compensation Committee consist
of Paul Cappuccio, Nancy Armstrong and Robert Arsov. Paul Cappuccio serves as the chairman of the committee. Under the Nasdaq Listing
Rules, we are required to have at least two members on the compensation committee. The Nasdaq Listing Rules require that the compensation
committee of a listed company (other than that of a “controlled company,” which our company is) be composed solely of independent
directors, and each of Paul Cappuccio, Nancy Armstrong and Robert Arsov qualify as independent directors under applicable rules.
The functions of the committee include:
●
establishment and review the objectives of the management compensation programs and basic compensation policies;
●
evaluation of the performance of the executive officers against corporate goals and objectives and determination and approval of the compensation (including any awards under any equity-based compensation or non-equity-based incentive compensation plan and any material perquisites) for the executive officers;
●
a periodic assessment of CEO performance;
●
review of the compensation of other employees as the committee determines to be appropriate;
●
review of management compensation programs, including any management incentive compensation plans as well as plans and policies pertaining to perquisites, to determine whether they are appropriate;
●
review, approval and recommendation to the Board of Directors with respect to the adoption or modification of any equity-based compensation plan;
●
administration of equity-based compensation plans for our employees, consultants and contractors as provided by the terms of such plans, including authorizing all awards made pursuant to such plans;
●
succession planning for key executives;
58
●
review of the manner in which any risks arising out of the Company’s compensation policies and practices are monitored;
●
review the form and amount of non-employee director compensation; and
●
oversight and monitoring of other compensation-related policies and practices of the Company.
Compensation Consultants
During the fiscal year ended December 31,
2024, the Compensation Committee retained Mercer as its compensation consultant. The Compensation Committee requested that Mercer:
●
provide market information, analysis, and other advice relating to executive compensation on an ongoing basis;
●
advise on the updates to the Company’s peer group and provide support and analysis regarding executive and director compensation;
●
support with the annual CEO evaluation process;
●
complete a Board of Directors compensation assessment and recommendations;
●
advise on the executive succession planning process;
●
evaluate the efficacy of our existing compensation strategy and practices in supporting and reinforcing our long-term strategic goals; and
●
assist in refining our compensation strategy and in implementing our executive compensation program to execute that strategy.
As part of its engagement, Mercer was requested
by the Compensation Committee to develop and continually update a comparative group of peer companies and to perform analyses of competitive
performance and compensation levels and design for that group. At the request of the Compensation Committee, Mercer also engaged in discussions
with members of the Compensation Committee and senior management to learn more about our business operations and strategy, key performance
metrics and strategic goals, as well as the labor markets in which we compete. Following an active dialogue with Mercer, the Compensation
Committee considered Mercer’s input as part of its decision-making process.
The Compensation Committee has evaluated its relationship
with Mercer to ensure that it believes that such firm is independent from management. This review process included a review of the services
that Mercer provided, the quality of those services and the fees associated with the services provided during the fiscal year ended December 31,
2024. Based on this review, as well as consideration of the factors affecting independence set forth in Exchange Act Rule 10C-1(b)(4),
Rule 5605(d)(3)(D) of the Nasdaq listing standards, and such other factors as were deemed relevant under the circumstances,
the Compensation Committee has determined that no conflict of interest was raised as a result of the work performed by Mercer.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider
Participation
None of our executive officers currently serve,
or has served during the last completed fiscal year, on the compensation committee or board of directors of any other entity that has
one or more executive officers that has served or currently serves as a member of our Board of Directors or the Compensation Committee.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
The members of our nominating
committee consist of Robert Arsov, Nancy Armstrong and Katie Biber. Robert Arsov serves as the chairman of the committee. The Nasdaq
Listing Rules require that the nominating committee of a listed company (other than that of a “controlled company,”
which our company is) be composed solely of independent directors, and each of Robert Arsov, Nancy Armstrong and Katie Biber qualify
as independent directors under applicable rules.
59
The functions of this committee include:
●
development and recommendation to the Board of Directors for approval of the criteria for board membership, including as to director independence and diversity;
●
identification, screening and review of individuals qualified to become members of the Board of Directors in a manner consistent with the criteria;
●
development and assessment of policies and procedures with respect to the consideration of director nominees submitted by stockholders;
●
review of the size, composition and organization of the Board of Directors and its committees;
●
assisting the Board of Directors in determining whether individual directors have material relationships with the Company that may interfere with their independence;
●
CEO succession planning;
●
coordination and oversight of the annual evaluation of the Board of Directors, its committees, individual directors and management in the governance of the Company;
●
development, review and assessment of the adequacy of our corporate governance principles and guidelines;
●
reviewing and discussing as appropriate with management the Company’s disclosures relating to director independence, governance and director nomination matters and, based on such review and discussion, determining whether to recommend to the Board of Directors that such disclosures be disclosed in the Company’s annual report or annual proxy statement, as applicable;
●
review of stockholder proposals properly submitted for action at the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders and recommending responses thereto; and
●
review of our overall corporate governance practices, including stock ownership guidelines, compulsory retirement age and term limits for directors.
The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
will consider director candidates recommended by stockholders, so long as the recommendations comply with our Certificate of Incorporation
and Bylaws and all applicable laws, rules and regulations. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee does not intend to alter
the manner in which it evaluates candidates based on whether the candidate was recommended by a stockholder. Stockholders who wish to
recommend individuals for consideration by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee to become nominees for election to the Board
of Directors may do so by providing timely notice in writing to our Corporate Secretary at c/o Rumble Inc., 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive,
Longboat Key, FL 34228. To be timely for our 2026 annual meeting of stockholders, our Corporate Secretary must receive the notice
no earlier than February 14, 2026 and not later than the close of business on March 16, 2026. Submissions must include the specific
information required in Section 2.12 of our Bylaws. For additional information about our director nomination requirements, please
see our Bylaws.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct
and Ethics, applicable to all of our employees, executive officers and directors. Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is
available at the investors section of our website at investors.rumble.com . Any amendments to the Code of Conduct, or any
waivers of its requirements, will be disclosed on our website to the extent required by applicable rules and exchange
requirements.
60
Corporate Governance Guidelines
Our Board of Directors has adopted Corporate Governance
Guidelines to assure that the Board of Directors will have the necessary authority and practices in place to review and evaluate our business
operations as needed and to make decisions that are independent of our management. The guidelines are also intended to align the interests
of directors and management with those of our stockholders. The Corporate Governance Guidelines set forth the practices the Board of Directors
intends to follow with respect to, among other things, director qualifications, board meetings and involvement of senior management, Chief
Executive Officer performance evaluation and succession planning, and board committees. The Corporate Governance Guidelines are available
on our investor relations website at investors.rumble.com .
Insider Trading Policy
Our Board of Directors has adopted an insider
trading policy that applies to our employees, directors, and certain consultants. This policy prohibits, among other things, trading of
the company securities during specified blackout periods and engaging in short sales of company securities.
Hedging, Pledging and Other Special Transactions
Pursuant to our insider trading policy, we discourage
our employees, directors and officers from engaging in certain transactions, including the placing of standing or limit orders on company
securities as well as engaging in transactions in put options, call options or similar derivative securities that are traded on an exchange
or in any other organized market. If a person subject to the policy determines that he or she must engage in such a transaction, the transaction
must comply with our pre-clearance and blackout processes. Our directors, officers and other employees are generally not prohibited from
engaging in hedging or pledging transactions involving company securities.
Stockholder Communications with the Board of Directors
Our stockholders wishing to communicate with the
Board of Directors or an individual director may send a written communication to the Board of Directors or such director addressed to
c/o Rumble Inc., 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, FL 34228, Attn: Corporate Secretary. The Secretary will review each communication.
The Secretary will forward such communication to the Board of Directors or to any individual director to whom the communication is addressed
unless the communication contains advertisements or solicitations or is unduly hostile, threatening or similarly inappropriate, in which
case the Secretary will discard the communication or inform the proper authorities, as may be appropriate.
Item 11. Executive Compensation
Emerging Growth Company Status
We are an “emerging growth company,”
as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (“ JOBS ”) Act. As an emerging growth company, we are exempt
from certain requirements related to executive compensation, including the requirements to hold a nonbinding advisory stockholder vote
on named executive officer compensation, to provide information relating to the ratio of the annual total compe
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