SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API), a company specializing in real-time engagement technology with a market capitalization of $475 million, announced today that its senior management team has voluntarily entered into a lock-up agreement, effective immediately, that prohibits the sale of company shares held by them until December 31, 2025. This move is intended to demonstrate their belief in the long-term value of the company, which has seen its stock surge 96% year-to-date according to InvestingPro data.
The lock-up includes all executive officers of Agora: Mr. Bin (Tony) Zhao, founder, chairman, and CEO; Mr. Sheng (Shawn) Zhong, CTO and Chief Scientist; Mr. Jingbo Wang, CFO; and Mr. Robbin Liu, Vice President. They have agreed not to sell any directly or indirectly beneficially owned shares of Agora, with the exception of Mr. Zhong, who plans to sell up to 0.4 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), equivalent to 1.6 million class A ordinary shares, for personal financial reasons before the year's end. The company maintains a strong financial position with a healthy current ratio of 6.15.
Agora, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, operates as a pioneer and global leader in the Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) sector. The company provides developers with APIs to embed various real-time interaction capabilities into their applications, including voice, video, live streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence. With last twelve months revenue of $135 million, the company appears undervalued according to InvestingPro Fair Value analysis.
Under the Agora brand, the company conducts its international operations, while its China-based activities are under the Shengwang brand, headquartered in Shanghai. Shengwang is recognized as a leading provider of Real-Time Engagement PaaS in the Chinese market.
The commitment by Agora's executives to the lock-up period is a significant gesture of confidence in the company's future prospects. This information is based on a press release statement from Agora, Inc.
In other recent news, Agora Inc. reported a decrease in total revenues for Q3 2024, marking a 7.7% quarter-over-quarter and 9.8% year-over-year drop. However, excluding low-margin products, revenues saw a 2.3% increase quarter-over-quarter. The company's specific revenues rose by 2.6% year-over-year, reaching $15.7 million, driven by business expansion in live shopping and other areas. Despite a net loss of RMB 24.2 million for the quarter, Agora improved its gross margin to 66.7%.
The company has also completed 57% of a $200 million share repurchase program. Looking ahead, Agora anticipates Q4 revenues to be between $34-36 million and is on track to achieve GAAP breakeven by 2025. The company plans to focus on growth in international markets and sectors like IoT and digital transformation.
In addition, Agora launched a conversational AI SDK in partnership with OpenAI and sponsored the TEN project to facilitate AI agent development. This is part of the company's ongoing efforts to position itself in the generative AI era.
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