Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp: Form 10-K for the period ended Jun 30, 2024

Filed with the SEC on Sep 20, 2024 and accepted by EDGAR at Sep 19, 2024, 21:35 ET.

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Business

As filed, 47,417 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

Alliance is a leading global wholesaler/retailer of entertainment products consisting of music, movies, gaming, collectables, and a key player in the entertainment industry. Alliance boasts of a diverse portfolio of owned retail brands, including Critics’ Choice, Collectors’ Choice, Movies Unlimited, DeepDiscount, popmarket, blowitoutahere, Fulfillment Express, importCDs, GamerCandy, WowHD, and others. As a leading global wholesaler, direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) distributor, and e-commerce provider, Alliance operates as the vital link between renowned suppliers of music labels, home video studios, video game publishers, and collectables of entertainment content, such as Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Home Video, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Microsoft, Nintendo, Take Two, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and others.

This pivotal role extends to connecting these suppliers with domestic and international top-tier retail partners. Notable partners encompass giants like Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Wayfair, Costco, Dell, Verizon, Kohl’s, Target, Shopify, and others. Employing an established multi-channel strategy, Alliance distributes physical media, entertainment products, hardware, and accessories across various platforms. Currently, the company sells its products, permitted for export, to more than 70 countries worldwide.

Alliance provides state-of-the-art warehousing and distribution technologies, operating systems, and services that seamlessly enable entertainment product transactions to better serve customers directly or through our distribution affiliates. These technology-led platforms with access to the Company’s in stock inventory of over 325,000 SKU products, consisting of vinyl records, video games, compact discs, DVD, Blu-Rays, toys, and collectables, combined with Alliance’s sales and distribution network, create a modern entertainment physical product marketplace that provides the discerning customer with enhanced options on efficient consumer-friendly platforms inventory. Alliance is the retailers’ back office for in-store and e-commerce solutions. All electronic data interchange (“EDI”) and logistics are operational and ready for existing retail channels to add new products.

Alliance was founded in 1990 (previously named CD Listening Bar, Inc.). Through a series of acquisitions and organic growth, Alliance has expanded and strengthened its global footprint and product breadth, and greatly increased its service capabilities. Since its inception, Alliance has made ten accretive business acquisitions, including Phantom Sound and Vision, MSI Music, Infinity Resources, Alliance, ANconnect, Mecca Electronics, Distribution Solutions, Mill Creek, COKeM, and Think3Fold. Management believes that Alliance’s ability to successfully integrate acquisitions is underpinned by its highly efficient operating systems and experienced leadership team.

Alliance believes the three pillars of its business; Service, Selection, and Technology create a powerful competitive advantage that will protect the Company’s market leadership and propel its future growth into the evolving physical entertainment product segments.

The Business Combination Agreement

On February 10, 2023, Adara, Alliance and Merger Sub consummated the closing of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination Agreement, a business combination of Legacy Alliance and Alliance was affected by the merger of Merger Sub with and into Alliance (the “Merger”), with Alliance surviving the Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliance. Following the consummation of the Merger on the closing of the Business Combination, Alliance changed its name from Alliance Acquisition Corp. to Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation.

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, Alliance issued (i) 47,500,000 shares of Class A common stock of Alliance to holders of common stock of Legacy Alliance and (ii) 60,000,000 contingent shares of Class E common stock of Alliance to the Legacy Alliance stockholders were placed in an escrow account to be released to such Legacy Alliance stockholders and converted into Class A common stock upon the contingent occurrence of certain triggering events.

Alliance’s Business

With more than thirty years of distribution experience, Alliance serves customers of every size, providing a suite of services to resellers and retailers worldwide. We believe that our efficient processing and essential seller tools noticeably reduce the costs associated with administrating multiple vendor relationships and streamline the overall purchasing experience. Alliance believes that it is a single source for all customer entertainment product needs. As a solutions-based operation, Alliance seeks to drive sales for their suppliers with broad product selection and cost-efficient processing.

Alliance’s distribution business is built around three areas, where our marketplace value is created: Service, Selection and Technology.

Service

Alliance provides efficient, Omni-Channel expansion solutions for retailers, including:

E-Commerce and Direct to Consumer (DTC)

Alliance provides leading product and e-commerce distribution and inventory solutions. Alliance provides a full, enterprise-level infrastructure and whitelists dropships orders directly to consumers on behalf of its omni customers. The entire ordering, confirmation and invoicing process is automated. The functionality allows customers to focus on sales while Alliance performs all stocking, warehousing, and shipping functions.

Vendor Managed Inventory

Alliance is a leader in vendor managed inventory (VMI) solutions providing solutions tailored to customers to support their inventory needs. These value-add services provide a highly technical, critical business function for our partners using traiting of locations and min/max system of supply.

Subsidiary Brands — We operate under the following subsidiaries which focus on the following product brand areas:

Alliance — was a competitor to CD Listening Bar when CD Listening Bar acquired Alliance in 2013. Alliance primarily serviced Barnes &Noble and Best Buy, and hundreds of independent retailers. This reverse merger by which CD Listening Bar merged into Alliance made Alliance the largest music and video distributor in the world.

COKeM — Alliance acquired COKeM International Ltd. in September 2020. COKeM is one of the leading and innovative distribution service companies in the video game and accessory industries. COKeM continues to expand its capabilities, providing full-service distribution and fulfillment for a wide array of industries and across many product categories. Alliance acquired Mecca Electronics in 2018 and, in 2021, Mecca Electronics was merged into COKeM.

AMPED Distribution — is a division of Alliance that consists of over 90 small music labels where AMPED is the exclusive supplier of physical media to retailers in the United States.

Distribution Solutions — is the largest aggregator and distributor of independent film labels in North America. Alliance acquired Distribution Solutions in 2018 and has over 50 movie studios that are exclusively distributed to over 30,000 retail stores through Distribution Solutions.

DirectToU — division consists of Alliances owned retail brands using the dba’s of ImportCDs, Deep Discount, Collectors Choice Music, Collectors Choice, Vinyl, Blow It Out of Here, Wow, Pop Market, Collectors Choice Video, and Movies Unlimited. Most of these brands were purchased from Infinity Resources in 2010.

Mill Creek Entertainment — is the home entertainment industry’s leading independent studio for Blu-ray, DVD, and digital distribution. With direct sales pipelines to all primary retail and online partners, Mill Creek Entertainment licenses, produces, markets, and distributes a dynamic array of film and television content to over 30,000 retail stores and thousands of websites reaching millions of customers across North America. Mill Creek Entertainment’s expansive library includes Oscar®-winning theatrical feature films, Emmy®-winning classic and contemporary TV series, original documentary productions and pop-culture favorites that enlighten, educate, and entertain.

NCircle Entertainment — Founded in 2006, NCircle Entertainment is one of the largest independent distributors of quality children and family entertainment content. NCircle is committed to providing quality children’s entertainment that builds a solid foundation of early learning skills upon which future educational success can be built. NCircle’s award winning brands engage your child in the learning process, using the interdisciplinary STEM approach, teaching reading readiness, science concepts, problem solving tactics, social skills, and environmental awareness, while entertaining them with song, dance and laughter. NCircle’s library includes many of the most loved and best-selling children’s brands including Gigantosaurus, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Llama, The Octonauts, Sonic Boom, The Snowman and many more.

Selection:

Product Categories — Alliance consolidates and distributes a portfolio of entertainment products with over 325,000 SKUs in stock in core media and entertainment product areas in five primary categories:

Gaming Products: For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, gaming represented 31% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis. Leading products distributed are: Nintendo, Microsoft, Arcade1Up, and third party video game publishers. For the year ended June 30, 2023, gaming represented approximately 34% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis.
Vinyl Records: For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, vinyl represented 30% of all Company revenues on a consolidated basis. For the year ended June 30, 2023, vinyl represented approximately 28% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis.
Digital Video Discs (DVD)/Blu-Ray/UltraHD: Sales for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, represented 19% of Alliance’s consolidated revenue. For the year ended June 30, 2023, DVD, Blu-Ray and UltraHD represented approximately 16% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis.
Compact Discs: CDs for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, represent 12% of Alliance’s consolidated revenue. For the year ended June 30, 2023, CDs represented approximately 11% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis.
Collectables and Consumer Products: Sales in Collectables and Consumer Products represented 4% of the Company consolidated revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, and approximately 7% of Alliance revenues on a consolidated basis for the year ended June 30, 2023.

Technology:

Alliance’s technology platforms combine customer-friendly applications and efficient operating systems with access to the Company’s global content inventory across all current market segments. These platforms offer the Alliance marketplace stakeholders feature-rich tools and services for all aspects of consumer engagement, transaction processing and business development.

Alliance continues to invest in automated handling equipment in our Shepherdsville, KY warehouse resulting in reduced shipping times, streamlined order processing, and improved warehouse efficiency. In April 2024, we implemented a new piece of automation equipment from OPEX Sure Sort X® for the sortation of non-standard size products. Since most of these products were being manually sorted, the increased sortation capacity reduces labor cost and minimizes the potential for product damage. In December 2022, we implemented a state-of-the art AutoStore Automated Storage & Retrieval System (ASRS). This system significantly improved Alliance’s warehouse operations, allowing the Company to achieve increased levels of speed, reliability, capacity, and precision, resulting in significant cost savings.

The Company’s platforms enable stakeholders to search and purchase personalized product selections efficiently. Through a modern and intuitive user interface, customers access Alliance’s global inventory as well as integrated marketing tools, conversational commerce, Fintech solutions, self-service purchasing and 24/7 support. Current features of Alliance’s customer engaging technology features include seamless connectivity across desk-top, notebook and mobile devices.

Alliance’s newer platforms also incorporate tools and services that increase revenue and profitability when compared to legacy distribution systems. In addition to robust search, selection and purchase transaction tools and service support, the Company’s platforms currently incorporate a Fintech platform with an extensive selection of payment options. Further, Alliance’s technology offers a multi-channel marketing platform supporting retailer marketplace participants’ growth and business development with fully integrated product marketing and CRM tools. Management believes the result is a more comprehensive, engaging, and cost-effective transaction process designed to make all stakeholders more productive and competitive.

Industry Background

The industries in which the Company distributes product are:

Packaged Goods consisting of licensed physical media and entertainment content;
Gaming Consoles and Accessories; and
Licensed Toys and Collectables.

Distributors of physical media are navigating changes in market demand, an evolving omni-channel retail market, and supplier consolidation efforts. While many consumers are transitioning to digital media consumption, such as streaming music and video services, there remains a growing market driven by the collectability of physical media including Vinyl Records, specialty SteelBooks DVD’s, Box Sets of CD’s, and Pop Culture Collectables. This shift in demand, combined with the evolving retail and supplier landscape, may prompt the consolidation of distribution networks. This presents a unique opportunity for distributors that can cater to the evolving preferences and values of the retailers they distribute to and suppliers they procure from.

While overall demand for physical media has declined, niche markets for music and movie enthusiasts are growing. This trend is evidenced by the rising popularity of K-pop in the form of CDs and vinyl records, special edition collections SteelBook DVDs, and 4K UHD Blu-ray movies, especially among distributors with exclusive content. Nostalgia-driven purchases often appeal to collectors because of their intrinsic value. For example, vinyl record buyers appreciate the artwork and superior warn sounding audio quality compared to streaming services. Additionally, limited editions, box sets, and exclusive releases attract a significant market segment for similar reasons. Furthermore, as major retail chains reduce the shelf space dedicated to physical media, distributors with direct-to-consumer channels can leverage their capabilities and perform fulfillment service for retail dotcoms. This allows retailers to expand their product offering without the added expense of incremental warehouse space and inventory carrying costs.

Suppliers also benefit from this evolving landscape. By partnering with distributors who focus on mass and niche markets, suppliers can ensure their products reach a wide and diverse set of consumers and a streamlined distribution network. Additionally, suppliers with exclusive releases and limited editions have an opportunity to leverage their unique content with premium pricing. Collaboration with distributors on marketing and promotional efforts can further enhance visibility and sales, creating a mutually beneficial relationship in a competitive marketplace.

The market for physical media is becoming increasingly competitive as companies compete for a shrinking customer base. Distributors must differentiate themselves by offering unique products, exclusive content, and superior customer service. To be successful, we must correctly anticipate the types of entertainment, products and play patterns which will capture consumers’ interests and imagination, and quickly develop and introduce innovative products and engaging entertainment which can compete successfully for consumers’ limited time, attention, and spending. Specialized distributors often have an advantage in this regard, as they can be more agile and responsive compared to larger more diverse distributors. Additionally, partnerships with artists and content creators to secure exclusive releases can provide a unique competitive edge. As the market evolves, distributors that can innovate and meet the demands of niche audiences will likely thrive. Alliance has the advantage of bundling all of its different entertainment products they distribute to create unique exclusive SKU’s that omni retailers can offer.

Market Opportunity

The Company has identified three primary market areas where it currently conducts business and plans to grow its business:

Content Media

As technology and social trends evolve, film and music market studios are overhauling their business models to take advantage of changing consumer behavior and expanding media platforms. A large opportunity exists for Alliance to license video movies from movie studios that want to exit from home video. With Alliance distributing these exclusive video movies for studios using the company’s technology, process, and relationships to efficiently manage supply chain logistics in bulk to major retailers and direct to consumers. Consumers continue to trend towards vinyl records due to the desire to own the physical product, the sound quality, and the intrinsic value of the album artwork. Despite the rise of digital distribution models, many consumers still prefer to buy physical versions of games because of the ability to share and display like hardcover book collections.

Fulfillment.

The global e-commerce fulfillment services market is expected to experience substantial growth due to the proliferation of the e-commerce industry, particularly in emerging markets, leading to an unprecedented rise in online buyers. This growth is anticipated to be driven by established brands in North America, such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. In addition, retailers and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on their core competencies to sustain intense competition, leading them to outsource fulfillment activities to third-party vendors.

Our Competitive Strengths

Alliance is one of the largest physical media and entertainment product distributors in the world and a leader in fulfillment and e-commerce distribution solutions. Its existing product and service offering has positioned the Company to capitalize on shifts towards e-commerce and Omni-Channel strategies, especially as retailers and manufacturers greatly increase their reliance on their direct-to-consumer fulfillment and distribution partners.

We believe that our key strengths position us to deliver on our strategy to grow profitably, optimize our core physical media and entertainment product distributors’ fulfillment and e-commerce distribution solutions, and expand and invest in higher-margin advanced technology solutions and high-value services.

The Company believes the following strengths are key to its ability to grow and maintain its position as a market leader:

Proven Management Experience and Equity Rollover. With over 30 years of operations and experience, Alliance management has extensive knowledge and is rolling over all their equity in the Business Combination in preparation to lead the Company towards future growth.
Significant barriers to entry and market leadership. Alliance is a leader in fulfillment and e-commerce distribution with over 325,000 SKUs in stock. The Company’s market leadership is further protected by a three-pronged moat of services, selection, and technology. The Company’s platforms create efficiencies, which benefit its partners in the physical media and entertainment marketplace. As a result, both suppliers and retailer customers rely on the Company’s platforms to fuel transaction volume.
Organic Growth Opportunities. Alliance will seek to grow revenue and expand margins through the expansion of partnerships with vendors and customers and investment in existing facilities.
Proven track record of building scale through significant acquisitions. Since its inception, Alliance has successfully acquired and integrated ten businesses that have greatly expanded the vendors and customers we are supporting. This M&A activity has built scale and added capabilities to the Company’s platforms. Further, Alliance has demonstrated an ability to integrate those companies into its existing platforms to fundamentally improve the acquired businesses. Alliance management believes significant consolidation opportunities remain to drive future growth by acquiring complementary businesses and competitors.
Modern technology distribution platform and interface. The Company’s technology platform increases transaction efficiency, provides great mobile accessibility, and incorporates modern marketing and Fintech tools.

Strategy for Future Growth

Alliance will continue to capitalize on its services, selection, and scalable distribution network technology to propel its future growth both organically and through acquisitions. With a public listing, we have access to additional capital to finance future growth.

Our strategy will include:

Execute Acquisition Strategy. Alliance has a proven track record of successfully acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses. With additional capital, Alliance will be able to execute its acquisition strategy more effectively.
Increase Market Share. Expanding its existing product and service offerings and executing its acquisition strategy will drive Alliance’s efforts toward increasing market share. The Company has historically built scale and added capabilities through acquisitions. It has demonstrated an ability to execute accretive and synergistic acquisitions as well as integrate and fundamentally improve the acquired businesses. Alliance expects to continue pursuing strategic opportunities that strengthen its platforms, expand the breadth and depth of its content, and enhance its distribution infrastructure. Alliance will continue to actively monitor and evaluate these and future opportunities in its acquisition pipeline in both the near and mid-term.
Enhance Direct to Consumer (DTC) Relationships and Capabilities. Alliance’s DTC services are in greater demand as consumer preferences shift and stress retailers’ e-commerce and DTC capabilities. Enhancing DTC relationships will grow existing revenue lines and improving capabilities will generate a more attractive overall service offering.
Expand into New Consumer Products. Leveraging existing relationships, Alliance can expand into new consumer product segments, growing its product offering and providing more to its existing customer base while attracting new customers in the process.
Continuing Technological Advancement. Alliance will further invest in automating facilities and upgrading proprietary software.

Suppliers

Alliance distributes and markets over 400,000 products worldwide from more than 600 of the industry’s premier physical media entertainment products suppliers. The Company maintains approximately 325,000 SKUs of unique items in its inventory.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024, five suppliers made up approximately 58% of product receipt value, and 17 suppliers made up 80% of product receipt value. By comparison, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, five suppliers made up approximately 49% of the product receipt value, and 23 suppliers made up 80% of the product receipt value. One supplier comprised of approximately 21% of Alliance’s total product receipt value for the year ended June 30, 2024, versus 15% in 2023.

Alliance has written supply agreements with many of its suppliers. These agreements usually provide for nonexclusive distribution rights and often include territorial restrictions that limit the countries and, in some cases, certain channels in which it may distribute the products. Some of Alliance’s agreements with suppliers may contain limitations of liability with respect to our suppliers’ obligations and warranties. Historically, warranty expenses have not been material.

The agreements also are generally short-term, subject to annual renewal, and in some cases contain provisions permitting termination by either party without cause upon relatively short notice. Certain supply agreements either require (at our option) or allow for the repurchase of inventory upon termination of the agreement. In cases in which suppliers are not obligated to accept inventory returns upon termination, some suppliers will nevertheless elect to repurchase the inventory while other suppliers will assist with either liquidation or resale of the inventory.

Customers

Alliance conducts business with most of the leading retailers of entertainment products and services around the world. Alliance serves a customer base that is divided into categories including retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, independent dealers, product category specialists and other distributors. Management believes that many of its customers are heavily dependent on Alliance as a partner with the necessary systems, capital, inventory availability, and distribution and facilities in place to provide fulfillment and other services. Alliance tries to reduce our exposure to the impact of business fluctuations by maintaining a balance in the customer categories we serve. Alliance has over 4,000 customers shipping to over 35,000 storefronts and distributes to over 2,500 independent music and video retailers.

In most cases Alliance conducts business with our customers under our general terms and conditions, without minimum purchase requirements. It also has resale contracts with some of its reseller customers that are terminable at will after a reasonable notice period and have no minimum purchase requirements. Alliance typically ships products on the same day it receives and accepts customers’ purchase orders. Unless otherwise requested, substantially all of Alliance’s products are delivered by common freight carriers. Backlog is usually not material to its business because orders are generally filled shortly after acceptance.

Alliance has specific agreements in place with certain suppliers and resellers in which it provides supply chain management services such as order management, technical support, call center services, forward and reverse logistics management, and procurement management services. These agreements generally may be terminated by either party without cause following reasonable notice. None of the Company’s customer contracts exceed a one-year term, with most contracts having auto-renewal clauses.

For the year ended June 30, 2024, Alliance’s top five customers represented approximately 47% of its consolidated revenue. Alliance’s top customer represented 18% of its consolidated net sales. By comparison, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, the top five customers generated approximately 50% of consolidated revenue with one customer representing almost 23%.

Our Business is Affected by Seasonality

Alliance experiences some seasonal fluctuation in demand in our business due to changes in consumer behavior and schedules of new releases. In addition, the Company typically experiences an increase in demand in the October-to-December period, driven primarily by pre-holiday stocking levels in the retail channel for its North American business.

How We Manage Our Inventory

Alliance strives to maintain enough product inventories to achieve optimum order fill rates. Alliance’s business, like that of other distributors, is subject to the risk that our inventory’s value will be adversely impacted by suppliers’ price reductions or by technological changes affecting the usefulness or desirability of the products comprising the inventory. It is the policy of many suppliers to offer distributors limited protection from the loss in inventory value due to technological change or a supplier’s price reductions. When protection is offered, the distributor may be restricted to a designated period of time in which products may be returned for credit or exchanged for other products or during which price protection credits may be claimed. Alliance continually takes various actions, including monitoring inventory levels and controlling the timing of purchases, to maximize its protection under supplier programs and reduce inventory risk. However, no assurance can be given that current protective terms and conditions will continue or that they will adequately protect Alliance against declines in inventory value, or that they will not be revised in such a manner as to adversely impact Alliance’s ability to obtain price protection. Alliance is subject to the risk that inventory values may decline, and supplier agreements may not adequately cover the decline in values. Alliance manages these risks through pricing and continual monitoring of existing inventory levels relative to customer demand, reflecting its forecasts of future demand and market conditions. On an ongoing basis, Alliance reduces inventory values for excess and obsolescence to assist in the liquidation of impacted inventories. Music CD’s and Video Movies are 100% returnable back to Alliance’s suppliers. Products that have exclusive distributions for AMPED and Distribution Solutions are not owned by Alliance and are treated as consignments for ownership and title.

Inventory levels may vary from period to period, due, in part, to differences in actual demand from that forecasted when orders were placed, the addition of new suppliers or new product lines with current suppliers, expansion into new product areas and strategic purchases of inventory. In addition, payment terms with inventory suppliers may vary from time to time and could result in fewer inventories being financed by suppliers and a greater amount of inventory being financed by our own capital. Our payment patterns can be influenced by incentives, such as early pay discounts offered by suppliers.

Sales and Marketing

Alliance’s product management and marketing groups help create demand for Alliance’s suppliers’ products and services, enable the launch of new products, and facilitate customer contact. Our marketing programs are tailored to meet specific supplier and customer needs. These needs are met through a wide offering of services by our in-house marketing organization, including advertising, market research, online marketing, retail programs, sales promotions, training, and solutions marketing. In addition, Alliance creates and utilizes specialized channel marketing communities to deliver focused resources and business building support to solution providers.

For its Direct-to-Consumer division, the Company deploys performance marketing strategies through digital and offline channels to drive additional traffic and transactions from high-intent prospective customers. To increase the efficiency of its performance marketing initiatives, the Company utilizes a Customer Relationship management platform, which provides further opportunities to personalize marketing campaigns and target advertising to specific market segments. Alliance complements its brand and performance marketing with nurture initiatives through email and outbound communications to ensure the Company retains high-value customers, increases brand loyalty, and drives recurring transactions.

The Company’s marketing strategy includes brand performance, and viral marketing. Brand marketing, which may also include the Company’s presence on social media platforms, increases awareness among potential customers, helping them understand the benefits of using Alliance’s platforms. In addition to brand, and performance marketing, Alliance engages in traditional public relations and communications activities, such as trade show participation, to strengthen its brand and enable it to be less reliant on performance marketing, reducing the Company’s customer acquisition costs. The Company’s communications team works across press and policy channels to share timely and important news about the Company. They also oversee the execution of a consumer, product, corporate, and policy communications plan that supports Alliance’s brand strategy.

Competition

Alliance faces competition from a variety of competitors, including some of our own suppliers that sell directly to certain segments of the market, wholesale distributors, retailers, and internet-based businesses. We are a leading company in the sale and marketing of physical media entertainment products, including vinyl, gaming, DVDs, CD’s and consumer products and toys offerings, and operate in the competitive e-commerce business environment. We compete with several smaller physical media companies in our product categories, as well as with many larger e-commerce companies in the United States and internationally. In addition, we compete with entertainment companies that digitally download and stream their products. Competition is based primarily on meeting consumer product preferences and on the quality and play value of our physical media products and experiences. To a lesser extent, competition is also based on product pricing.

Many of the major entertainment and gaming companies are part of large, diversified companies with a variety of other operations. Some of these competitors have substantially greater marketing and financial resources than we do and may be able to compete aggressively on pricing in order to increase entertainment revenues and streaming placement. In addition, the resources of the major entertainment producers may give them an advantage in acquiring other businesses or assets, including media content, that we might also be interested in acquiring. The competition we face may cause us to lose market share, achieve lower prices for our products or pay more for third party content, any of which could harm our business.

The changing trends in consumer preferences with respect to entertainment and barriers to entry as well as the emergence of new technologies and different mediums for viewing content, such as the growing number of streaming platform options, continually creates new opportunities for existing competitors and start-ups to develop products and offerings that compete with our entertainment and e-commerce offerings. In the future, the Company may face increased competition through the emergence of new competitors or business models. Some of Alliance’s competitors may have access to significant financial resources, greater name recognition and well-established client bases in their target customer segments, differentiated business models, technology and other capabilities, or a differentiated geographic coverage, which may make it more difficult for Alliance to attract new customers.

The market for physical media is becoming increasingly competitive as companies compete for a shrinking customer base. Distributors must differentiate themselves by offering unique products, exclusive content, and superior customer service. The ability to quickly adapt to market trends and consumer preferences is crucial. Specialized distributors often have an advantage in this regard, as they can be more agile and responsive compared to larger more diverse distributors. Additionally, partnerships with artists and content creators to secure exclusive releases can provide a unique competitive edge. As the market evolves, distributors that can innovate and meet the demands of niche audiences will likely thrive.

Intellectual Property

Alliance’s intellectual property is an important component of its business. The Company relies on a combination of domain names, trademarks, copyright, know-how and trade secrets, as well as contractual provisions and restrictions, to protect its intellectual property. As of June 30, 2024, Alliance has no active patents or patent applications, but intends to pursue patent protection to the extent it believes it would be beneficial and cost effective.

As of June 30, 2024, the Company owned 22 U.S. registered or pending trademarks and one registered or pending trademark in another jurisdiction. Alliance also owns 128 domain names including www.deepdiscount.com (http://www.deepdiscount.com), www.aent.com (http://www.aent.com), www.cokem.com (http://www.cokem.com), www.importcds.com (http://www.importcds.com), www.ds.aent.com (http://www.ds.aent.com), and www.AMPEDdistribution.com (http://www.AMPEDdistribution.com).

The Company relies on trade secrets and confidential information to develop and maintain its competitive advantage. Alliance seeks to protect its trade secrets and confidential information through a variety of methods, including confidentiality agreements with employees, third parties, and others who may have access to the Company’s proprietary information. Alliance also requires key employees to sign invention assignment agreements with respect to inventions arising from their employment and restrict unauthorized access to the Company’s proprietary technology.

Notwithstanding the Company’s efforts to protect its intellectual property, there can be no assurance the measures taken will be effective or that its intellectual property will provide any competitive advantage. Alliance can provide no assurance that any patents will be issued from its pending applications or any future applications or that any issued patents will adequately protect its proprietary technology. The Company’s intellectual property rights may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. Furthermore, the laws of certain countries do not protect intellectual property and proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States and, as a result, Alliance may be unable to protect its intellectual property and other proprietary rights in certain jurisdictions. In addition, while the Company has confidence in the measures it takes to protect and preserve its trade secrets, it cannot guarantee these measures will not be circumvented, or that all applicable parties have executed confidentiality or invention assignment agreements. In addition, such agreements can be breached, and may not have adequate remedies should any such breach occur. Accordingly, Alliance’s trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors.

Human Capital Resources

As of June 30, 2024, Alliance had approximately 657 employees on its payroll and approximately 226 workers hired through staffing agencies throughout the U.S. and internationally. As of June 30, 2023, Alliance had approximately 761 employees on its payroll and approximately 266 workers hired through staffing agencies throughout the U.S. and internationally. Staffing agencies are used to flex labor capacity to ensure the labor supply and demand are in balance. None of Alliance’s employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement and Alliance believes it has a good relationship with its employees and staffing agencies.

Employees & Demographics. With respect to global demographics on June 30, 2024, approximately 50% of the Company’s payroll employees are female and 50% are male.

Talent & Turnover. With a focus on talent acquisition, the leadership team seeks out the most qualified candidates for open roles and endeavors to keep them at Alliance. Alliance has a robust program for seeking out those candidates, which ranges from sourcing through talent applications, reviewing direct applicants and using internal referrals to fill roles. Additionally, Alliance strives to promote internally when possible. Alliance’s program resulted in an annualized turnover rate of about 14% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024.

Compensation Practice & Pay Equality. As Alliance evolves and expands operations, Human Resources, in partnership with the leadership team, will continue to evaluate the existing workforce to ensure that best practices are maintained across the entire team without risk of inequality. Pay structures for hourly employees are reviewed annually and for all other employees, compensation is benchmarked according to the position when a vacancy becomes available. This ensures best practices in a competitive market and, as part of that review, compensation will be realigned where appropriate for existing employees and new hires.

Regulatory Compliance

The Company’s overall business approach and strategy includes rigorous attention to regulatory compliance, as its operations are subject to regulations in the following principal areas, across a wide variety of jurisdictions. Alliance’s business is subject to a wide array of laws, regulations, and standards in each domestic and foreign jurisdiction where we operate. Alliance has a buying office in the UK and operates under the name Fulfillment Express. Fulfillment Express sources music from the UK music suppliers that is then transferred (exported from the United Kingdom) to Kentucky where that music product is prepared to sell in the US market. Fulfillment Express makes no sales of any kind, for it is a buying office.

The regulatory environment in each market is often complex, evolving and can be subject to significant change. Some relevant laws and regulations are inconsistent, ambiguous and could be interpreted by regulators and courts in ways that could adversely affect the Company’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. Moreover, certain laws and regulations have not historically been applied to an innovative hospitality provider such as Alliance, which often makes their application to its business uncertain. For additional information regarding the laws and regulations that affect the Company’s business, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

Privacy and Data Protection Regulation

In processing purchase transactions and information about customers, the Company receives and stores a large volume of personally identifiable data. The collection, storage, processing, transfer, use, disclosure and protection of this information are increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous jurisdictions around the world, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and variations and implementations of that regulation in the member states of the European Union, as well as privacy and data protection laws and regulations in various U.S. states and other jurisdictions, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act), the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), and the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data Protection Act.

Alliance incorporates a variety of technical and organizational security measures and other procedures and protocols to protect data within the Company’s platforms and business services, including personally identifiable data pertaining to guests and employees. Alliance is engaged in an ongoing process of evaluating and considering additional steps to maintain compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, GDPR, PIPEDA, the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the UK Data Protection Act.

Employment Laws

The Company is also subject to laws governing its relationship with employees, including laws governing wages and hours, benefits, immigration and workplace safety and health.

Other Regulation

Alliance’s business is subject to various other laws and regulations involving matters such as income tax and other taxes, consumer protection, online messaging, advertising, and marketing, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other laws governing bribery and other corrupt business activities, and regulations aimed at preventing money laundering or prohibiting business activities with specified countries or persons. As the Company expands into additional markets, it will be subject to additional laws and regulations.

Periodic Reporting and Financial Information

Our Class A common stock and warrants are registered under the Exchange Act, and as a smaller reporting company, we have specific reporting obligations. We file annual, quarterly, and current reports with the SEC, which include audited financial statements prepared by our independent registered public accountants. These reports and other important information are available on our website at www.aent.com (http://www.aent.com) under the Investor Relations section, free of charge, as soon as they are filed with the SEC. Please note that information on our website is not incorporated by reference into this report.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “ emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) of 2026, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.235 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our shares of Class A common stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” will have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.

Additionally, we currently qualify as a “smaller reporting company” under SEC regulations. This status allows us to benefit from certain reduced disclosure obligations, such as the option to provide only two years of audited financial statements. We will continue to be classified as a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal

Risk factors

As filed, 135,722 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this annual report before making a decision to invest in our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risk Factor Summary

The following is a summary of the principal risks that could materially adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition, and/or operating results. It is important that investors and stakeholders read this summary together with the more detailed description of each risk contained below:

If Alliance fails to respond to or capitalize on the rapid technological development in the music, video, gaming, and entertainment industry, including changes in entertainment delivery formats, its business could be harmed.
If Alliance does not successfully optimize and operate its fulfillment network, its business could be harmed.
Disruptions in Alliance’s supply chain have increased product expenditures and could result in an adverse impact on results of operations.
Inflation could cause Alliance’s product costs and operating and administrative expenses to grow more rapidly than net sales, which could result in lower gross margins and lower net earnings.
Weakness in the economy, market trends and other conditions affecting the profitability and financial stability of Alliance’s customers could negatively impact Alliance’s sales growth and results of operations.
Our expansion places a strain on our management, operational, financial, and other resources.
Our expansion into new products, services, technologies, and geographic regions subjects us to additional business, legal, financial, and competitive risks;
Our business will suffer if we are not successful in developing and expanding our partner brands across our consumer base.
Consumer interests change rapidly and acceptance of products and entertainment offerings are influenced by outside factors;
If we are unable to navigate through global supply chain challenges, our business may be harmed;
If we are unable to adapt our business to the continued shift to ecommerce, our business may be harmed;
Our business, including our costs and supply chain, is subject to risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and logistics, and the loss of any of our key suppliers or service providers could negatively impact our business;
We face significant inventory risk;
We rely on third-party suppliers, labels, studios, publishers, suppliers, retail and ecommerce partners and other vendors, and they may not continue to produce products or provide services that are consistent with our standards or applicable regulatory requirements, which could harm our brand, cause consumer dissatisfaction, and require us to find alternative suppliers of our products or services;
Alliance’s existing and any future indebtedness could adversely affect its ability to operate its business;
Covenants and events of default under Alliance’s Credit Facility could limit our ability to undertake certain types of transactions and adversely affect our liquidity;
Our indebtedness may limit our availability of cash, cause us to divert cash to fund debt service payments or make it more difficult to take certain other actions;
If we were unable to obtain or service our other external financings, or if the restrictions imposed by such financing were too burdensome, our business would be harmed;
Alliance has engaged in transactions with related parties, and such transactions present possible conflicts of interest that could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations;
Alliance has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting. While we have developed and implemented a remediation plan to address these material weaknesses, the remediation measures have not yet proven effective;
Alliance’s management has limited experience in operating a public company;
We might not be able to obtain or maintain the listing of our Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market;

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

If we fail to respond to or capitalize on the rapid technological development in the music, video, gaming, and entertainment industry, including changes in entertainment delivery formats, our business could be harmed.

The music, video, gaming, and entertainment industry continues to experience frequent change driven by technological development, including developments with respect to the formats through which music, films, television programming, games, and other content are delivered to consumers. With rapid technological changes and dramatically expanded digital content offerings, the scale and scope of these changes have accelerated in recent years. For example, consumers are increasingly accessing television, film, and other episodic content on streaming and digital content networks, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+ and Apple TV+. Additionally, consumers access music content through Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Spotify, and other providers. Video game services can be accessed through Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Now, GeForce, Steam, Stadia, xCloud, Shadow, Luna, and Switch Online.

Some entertainment offerings have gone direct to streaming channels and have not produced a physical content format. Direct release to streaming channels is likely to continue. Technological as well as other changes caused by the pandemic have caused significant disruption to the retail distribution of music and entertainment offerings and have caused and could in the future cause a negative impact on sales of our products and other forms of monetization of content. We may lose opportunities to capitalize on changing market dynamics, technological innovations, or consumer tastes if we do not adapt our content offerings or distribution capabilities in a timely manner. The overall effect that technological development and new digital distribution platforms have on the revenue and profits we derive from our entertainment content, including from merchandise sales derived from such content, and the additional costs associated with changing markets, media platforms and technologies, is unpredictable. If we fail to accurately assess and effectively respond to changes in technology and consumer behavior in the entertainment industry, our business may be harmed.

If we do not successfully optimize and operate our fulfillment network, our business could be harmed.

If we do not adequately predict customer demand or otherwise optimize and operate our fulfillment network successfully, it could result in excess or insufficient fulfillment, or result in increased costs, impairment charges, or both, and harm our business in other ways. As we continue to add fulfillment or add new businesses with different requirements, our fulfillment networks become increasingly complex and operating them becomes more challenging. There can be no assurance that we will be able to operate our networks effectively. In addition, a failure to optimize inventory in our fulfillment network could result in lost sales from under inventory positions or extra costs of holding excess inventory or write-downs on inventory. Due to tight labor markets, we may be unable to staff our fulfillment network and customer service centers adequately or must increase wages to attract more employees.

We rely on several shipping companies to deliver inventory to us and complete orders to our customers. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable terms with these companies or they experience performance problems or other difficulties, it could negatively impact our operating results and customer experience. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship completed orders to customers also may be negatively affected by inclement weather, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, labor disputes, acts of war or terrorism, acts of God, and similar factors.

Under some of our commercial agreements, we maintain the inventory of other companies, thereby increasing the complexity of tracking inventory and operating our fulfillment network. Our failure to properly handle such inventory or the inability of these other companies to accurately forecast product demand would result in unexpected costs and other harm to our business and reputation.

We face competition. If we are unable to compete effectively with existing or new competitors, our revenues, market share and profitability could decline.

Our businesses are rapidly evolving and competitive, and we have many competitors in different industries, including physical, e-commerce, and omni-channel retail, e-commerce services, digital content and electronic devices, web and infrastructure computing services, and transportation and logistics services, and across geographies, including cross-border competition. Some of our current and potential competitors have greater resources, longer histories, more customers, and/or greater brand recognition. They may also secure better terms from vendors, adopt more aggressive pricing, and devote more resources to technology, infrastructure, fulfillment, and marketing.

The music, video, gaming, and entertainment industry is highly competitive. We compete in the U.S. and internationally with a wide array of large and small distributors, and sellers of vinyl records, CD’s, DVD’s, video games and other entertainment and consumer products. In addition, we compete with companies who are focused on building their brands across multiple product and consumer categories, including through entertainment offerings. Across our business, we face competitors who are constantly monitoring and attempting to anticipate consumer tastes and trends, seeking which will appeal to consumers, and introducing new products that compete with our products for consumer acceptance and purchase.

Competition is likely to continue intensifying, including with the development of new business models and the entry of new and well-funded competitors, as our competitors enter into business combinations or alliances, and established companies in other market segments expand to become competitive with our business. In addition, new and enhanced technologies, including search, digital content, and electronic devices, are likely to continue to increase our competition. The Internet facilitates competitive entry and comparison shopping, and increased competition may reduce our sales and profits.

Disruptions in Alliance’s supply chain have increased product expenditures and could result in an adverse impact on results of operations.

The occurrence of one or more natural or human induced disasters, including pandemic diseases or viral contagions such as the COVID-19 pandemic; geopolitical events, such as war, civil unrest attacks in a country in which Alliance’s suppliers are located; and the imposition of measures that create barriers to or increase the costs associated with international trade could result in disruption of Alliance’s logistics or supply chain network. For example, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the operations of Alliance and its suppliers and customers. Customer demand for certain products has also fluctuated during the pandemic which challenged Alliance’s ability to anticipate and/or procure product to maintain inventory levels to meet that demand. Additionally supply chain disruptions can be the result of the bankruptcy or failure of trucking and other logistics businesses. Labor shortages can also cause supply chain disruptions.

These factors have resulted in higher product inventory cost positions in certain products as well as delays in delivering those products to Alliance’s distribution centers, branches or customers, and similar results may occur in the future. Even when Alliance is able to find alternate sources for certain products, they may cost more or require Alliance to incur higher transportation costs, which could adversely impact Alliance’s profitability and financial condition. Any of these circumstances could impair Alliance’s ability to meet customer demand for products and result in lost sales, increased supply chain costs, penalties, or damage to Alliance’s reputation. Any such increased product costs from supplier disruption could adversely impact the results of operations and financial performance.

Inflation may continue to cause Alliance’s product costs and operating and administrative expenses to grow more rapidly than net sales, which could result in lower gross margins and lower net earnings.

Market variables, such as inflation of product costs from suppliers, labor rates and fuel, freight and energy costs, have and may continue to increase potentially causing Alliance to be unable to efficiently manage its product costs and operating and administrative expenses in a way that would enable it to leverage its revenue growth into higher net earnings. In addition, Alliance’s inability to pass on such increases in product costs to customers in a timely manner, or at all, could cause Alliance’s operating and administrative expenses to grow, which could result in lower gross profit margins and lower net earnings.

Weakness in the economy, market trends and other conditions affecting the profitability and financial stability of Alliance’s customers could negatively impact Alliance’s sales growth and results of operations.

Economic, political and industry trends affect Alliance’s business environments. Unfavorable conditions in the economy in the United States and abroad may negatively affect the growth of our business and have affected our results of operations. For example, macroeconomic events, including inflation, interest rates, geopolitical issues, and uncertainty regarding the U.S. elections in the Fall of 2024 have led to economic uncertainty globally. Alliance serves several industries and markets in which the demand for its products and services is sensitive to the production activity, capital spending and demand for products and services of Alliance’s customers. Many of these customers operate in markets that are subject to cyclical fluctuations resulting from market uncertainty, trade and tariff policies, costs of goods sold, currency exchange rates, central bank interest rate fluctuations, economic downturns, recessions, foreign competition, offshoring of production, oil and natural gas prices, geopolitical developments, labor shortages, inflation, natural or human induced disasters, extreme weather, outbreaks of pandemic disease such as the COVID 19 pandemic, inflation, deflation, and a variety of other factors beyond Alliance’s control. Any of these factors could cause customers to idle or close stores, delay purchases, reduce wholesale purchasing levels, or experience reductions in the demand for their own retail and wholesale products or services.

Any of these events could also reduce the volume of products and services these customers purchase from Alliance or impair the ability of Alliance’s customers to make full and timely payments and could cause increased pressure on Alliance’s selling prices and terms of sale.

If we incurred any significant impairment charges, our net earnings would be reduced.

Declines in the profitability of acquired brands or our decision to reduce our focus or exit these brands may impact our ability to recover the carrying value of the related assets and could result in an impairment charge. Similarly, declines in our profitability may impact on the fair value of our reporting unit, which could result in a write-down of our goodwill and consequently harm our net earnings.

Risks Related to Expansion of our Business

Our expansion places a strain on our management, operational, financial, and other resources.

We are rapidly and significantly expanding operations, including increasing our product and service offerings and scaling our infrastructure to support our retail and services businesses. This expansion increases the complexity of our business and places strain on our management, personnel, operations, systems, technical performance, financial resources, and internal financial control and reporting functions. We may not be able to manage growth effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively affect our operating results.

We may not realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions or investments in our acquisitions or joint ventures, or those benefits may be delayed or reduced in their realization.

Acquisitions and investments have been a component of our growth and the development of our business, such as our acquisition of COKeM in September 2020. Acquisitions can broaden and diversify our brand holdings and product offerings and allow us to build additional capabilities and competencies of the company.

We cannot be certain that the products and offerings of companies we may acquire, or acquire an interest in, will achieve or maintain popularity with consumers in the future or that any such acquired companies or investments will allow us to market our products more effectively, develop our competencies or grow our business. In some cases, we expect that the integration of the companies that we may acquire into our operations will create production, marketing and other operating, revenue or cost synergies which will produce greater revenue growth and profitability and, where applicable, cost savings, operating efficiencies, and other advantages. However, we cannot be certain that these synergies, efficiencies, and cost savings will be realized. Even if achieved, these benefits may be delayed or reduced in their realization. In other cases, we may acquire or invest in companies that we believe have strong and creative management, in which case we may plan to operate them more autonomously rather than fully integrating them into our operations. We cannot be certain that the key talented individuals at these companies will continue to work for us after the acquisition or that they will develop popular and profitable products, entertainment, or services in the future. We cannot guarantee that any acquisition or investment we may make will be successful or beneficial, and acquisitions can consume significant amounts of management attention and other resources, which may negatively impact other aspects of our business.

Our expansion into new products, services, technologies, and geographic regions subjects us to additional business, legal, financial, and competitive risks.

We may have limited or no experience in our newer market segments, and our customers may not adopt our offerings. These offerings may present new and difficult technology challenges, and we may be subject to claims if customers of these offerings experience service disruptions or failures or other quality issues. In addition, profitability, if any, in our newer activities may be lower than in our older activities, and we may not be successful enough in these newer activities to recoup our investments in them. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively affect our operating results.

We may experience significant fluctuations in our operating results and growth rate.

We may not be able to accurately forecast our growth rate. We base our expense levels and investment plans on sales estimates. A significant portion of our expenses and investments is fixed, and we may not be able to adjust our spending quickly enough if our sales are less than expected.

Our revenue growth may not be sustainable, and our percentage growth rates may decrease. Our revenue and operating profit growth depends on the continued growth of demand for the products and services offered by us or our customers, and our business is affected by general economic and business conditions worldwide. A softening of demand, whether caused by changes in customer preferences or a weakening of the U.S. or global economies, may result in decreased revenue or growth.

Our sales and operating results will also fluctuate for many other reasons, including due to risks described elsewhere in this section and the following:

our ability to retain and increase sales to existing customers, attract new customers, and satisfy our customers’ demands;
our ability to retain and expand our network of customers;
our ability to offer products on favorable terms, manage inventory, and fulfill orders;
the introduction of competitive stores, websites, products, services, price decreases, or improvements;
changes in usage or adoption rates of the Internet, e-commerce, electronic devices, and web services, including outside the U.S.;
timing, effectiveness, and costs of expansion and upgrades of our systems and infrastructure;
the success of our geographic, service, and product line expansions;
the extent to which we finance, and the terms of any such financing for, our current operations and future growth;
the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, which may include significant monetary damages or injunctive relief and could have a material adverse impact on our operating results;
variations in the mix of products and services we sell;
variations in our level of merchandise and vendor returns;
the extent to which we offer free shipping, continue to reduce prices worldwide, and provide additional benefits to our customers;
factors affecting our reputation or brand image;
the extent to which we invest in technology and content, fulfillment, and other expense categories;
increases in the prices of fuel and gasoline, as well as increases in the prices of other energy products and commodities like paper and packing supplies;
the extent to which our equity-method investees record significant operating and non-operating items;
the extent to which operators of the networks between our customers and our stores successfully charge fees to grant our customers unimpaired and unconstrained access to our online services;
our ability to collect amounts owed to us when they become due;
the extent to which use of our services is affected by spyware, viruses, phishing and other spam emails, denial of service attacks, data theft, computer intrusions, outages, and similar events;
terrorist attacks and armed hostilities;
supply chain issues either in chip shortages; and
long lead time in the manufacturing vinyl LP’s.

Our international operations expose us to a number of risks.

Our international activities are insignificant to our revenues and profits, and we plan to further expand internationally. In certain international market segments, we have relatively little operating experience and may not benefit from any first-to-market advantages or otherwise succeed. It is costly to establish, develop, and maintain international operations, and promote our brand internationally. Our international operations may not be profitable on a sustained basis.

In addition to risks described elsewhere in this section, our international sales and operations are subject to a number of risks, including:

local economic and political conditions;
government regulation and compliance requirements (such as regulation of our product and service offerings and of competition), restrictive governmental actions (such as trade protection measures, including export duties and quotas and custom duties and tariffs), nationalization, and restrictions on foreign ownership;
restrictions on sales or distribution of certain products or services and uncertainty regarding liability for products, services, and content, including uncertainty as a result of less Internet- friendly legal systems, local laws, lack of legal precedent, and varying rules, regulations, and practices regarding the physical and digital distribution of media products and enforcement of intellectual property rights;
business licensing or certification requirements, such as for imports, exports, web services, and electronic devices;
limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds and foreign currency exchange restrictions;
limited fulfillment and technology infrastructure;
shorter payable and longer receivable cycles and the resultant negative impact on cash flow;
laws and regulations regarding consumer and data protection, privacy, network security, encryption, payments, and restrictions on pricing or discounts;
lower levels of consumer spending and fewer opportunities for growth compared to the U.S.;
lower levels of credit card usage and increased payment risk;
difficulty in staffing, developing, and managing foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences.
different employee/employer relationships and the existence of works councils and labor unions;
compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other applicable U.S. and foreign laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials and other third parties;
laws and policies of the U.S. and other jurisdictions affecting trade, foreign investment, loans, and taxes; and
geopolitical events, including war and terrorism.

As international physical, e-commerce, and other services grow, competition will intensify, including through adoption of evolving business models. Local companies may have a substantial competitive advantage because of their greater understanding of, and focus on, the local customer, as well as their more established local brand names. We may not be able to hire, train, retain, and manage required personnel, which may limit our international growth.

Our business will suffer if we are not successful in developing and expanding our partner brands across our consumer base.

Our strategy is to focus and expand larger global brands with an emphasis on developing and expanding those of our key partner brands, which we view as having the largest global potential across our customer base. As we concentrate our efforts on more brands, we believe we can gain additional leverage and enhance the consumer experience. This focus means that our success depends disproportionately on our and our new partners’ ability to successfully develop these new brands across our consumer base and to maintain and extend the reach and relevance of these brands to global consumers in a wide array of markets. This strategy has required us to acquire, build, invest in and develop our competencies in music, movies, gaming, consumer products and entertainment products. Acquiring, developing, investing in, and growing these competencies has required significant effort, time and money, with no assurance of success. The success of our brand blueprint strategy also requires significant alignment and integration among our business segments. If we are unable to successfully develop, maintain and expand key partner brands across our brand blueprint, our business performance will suffer.

Risks Related to Shifts in Consumer Demand

Consumer interests change rapidly, and acceptance of products and entertainment offerings are influenced by outside factors.

The interests of families, individuals, fans, and audiences evolve extremely quickly and can change dramatically from year to year and by geography. To be successful, we must correctly anticipate the types of entertainment, products and play patterns which will capture consumers’ interests and imagination, and quickly develop and introduce innovative products and engaging entertainment which can compete successfully for consumers’ limited time, attention, and spending. This challenge is more difficult with the ever-increasing utilization of technology, social media, and digital media in entertainment offerings, and the increasing breadth of entertainment available to consumers. Evolving consumer tastes and shifting interests, coupled with an ever-changing and expanding pipeline of entertainment and consumer properties and products that compete for consumer interest and acceptance, create an environment in which some products and entertainment offerings can fail to achieve consumer acceptance, and other products and entertainment offerings can be popular during a certain period of time but then be rapidly replaced. As a result, our products and entertainment offerings can have short consumer life cycles.

Consumer acceptance of our or our partners’ entertainment offerings is also affected by outside factors, such as critical reviews, promotions, the quality and acceptance of films and television programs, music, video games, and content released into the marketplace at or near the same time, the availability of alternative forms of entertainment and leisure time activities, general economic conditions and public tastes generally, all of which could change rapidly and most of which are beyond our control. There can be no assurance that television programs and films, video games, video movies we distribute will obtain favorable reviews or ratings, that films, video games, video movies we distribute will be popular with consumers and perform well in our distribution channels.

If we devote time and resources to distributing and marketing products or entertainment that consumers do not accept or do not find interesting enough to buy in sufficient quantities to be profitable to us, our revenues and profits may decline, and our business performance may be harmed. Similarly, if our product offerings and entertainment fail to correctly anticipate consumer interests, our revenues and earnings will be reduced.

An inability to develop, introduce and ship planned products, product lines and new brands in a timely and cost-effective manner may damage our business.

In acquiring new products, product lines and new brands we have anticipated dates for the associated product and brand introductions. When we state that we will introduce, or anticipate introducing, a particular product, product line or brand at a certain time in the future those expectations are based on completing the associated development, implementation, and marketing work in accordance with our currently anticipated development schedule. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to source and ship new or continuing products in a timely manner and on a cost-effective basis to meet constantly changing consumer demands.

The risk is also exacerbated by the increasing sophistication of many of the products we are distributing, providing greater innovation and product differentiation. Unforeseen delays or difficulties in the development process, significant increases in the planned cost of development, or changes in anticipated consumer demand for our products and new brands may cause the introduction date for products to be later than anticipated, may reduce or eliminate the profitability of such products or, in some situations, may cause a product or new brand introduction to be discontinued.

Risks Related to Our Supply Chain and Sales Channels

If we are unable to navigate through global supply chain challenges, our business may be harmed.

Beginning in 2021, and continuing through 2022, we faced global supply chain challenges with the production and delivery of some products being delayed due to logistics, including labor, trucking and container shortages, port congestion and other shipping disruptions. We have in the past experienced increases in material costs and shortages for some of our products or any periodic and unpredictable manufacturing shut-downs, for example due to COVID-19. While we have taken actions to lessen the impact of these supply chain challenges, such as by alternative ports and air freight, such actions resulted in higher costs and there can be no assurance that the actions taken will continue to be effective. We have also increased prices in some cases to help offset increased costs. We can provide no assurance that we will be able to avoid supply chain challenges in the future, or if we face such challenges, that we will be able to increase prices in the future. We also cannot be assured that price increases we have already taken will offset the entirety of additional costs we have incurred and may incur in the future to mitigate the supply chain disruption. Further, if we are unable to negotiate favorable carrier agreements, deliver products on time or otherwise satisfy demand for our products, our business may be harmed.

If we are unable to adapt our business to the continued shift to ecommerce, our business may be harmed.

In fiscal year 2024, ecommerce sales represented approximately 24% of our top four customers overall sales as consumers increasingly purchased our products online as compared to through in-store shopping due to the continued transition to ecommerce accelerated by the shutdown and limited access to retail stores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecommerce sales have resulted in retailers holding less inventory, which has caused us to adjust our supply chain. This supply chain is further strained by customers desiring faster delivery at reduced costs. Additionally, if our technology and systems used to support ecommerce order processing are not effective, our ability to deliver products on time on a cost-effective basis may be adversely affected. Failure to continue to adapt our systems and supply chain and successfully fulfill ecommerce sales could harm our business.

The concentration of our retail customer base and continued shift to ecommerce sales means that economic difficulties or changes in the purchasing or promotional policies or patterns of our major customers could have a significant impact on us.

For the year ended June 30, 2024, our top five customers generated approximately 47% of net sales and our top customer accounted for approximately 18% (Including all channels, market segments and lines of business) of our total net sales and purchased a mix of products comprised of approximately 67% music, 4% games, 24% movies, and 5% Consumer Products. For the year ended June 30, 2023, our top customer accounted for 23% of our total net sales including all channels, market segments and lines of business. Due to our customer concentration, if our top customer was to experience difficulties in fulfilling their obligations to us, cease doing business with us, significantly reduce the amount of their purchases from us, favor competitors or new entrants, change their purchasing patterns, impose unexpected fees on us, alter the manner in which they promote our products or the resources they devote to promoting and selling our products, or return substantial amounts of our products, our business may be harmed.

Our customers do not make binding long-term commitments to us regarding purchase volumes and make all purchases by delivering purchase orders. Any customer could reduce its overall purchase of our products and reduce the number and variety of our products that it carries, and the shelf space allotted for our products. In addition, increased concentration among our customers could negatively impact our ability to negotiate higher sales prices for our products and could result in lower gross margins than would otherwise be obtained if there were less consolidation among our customers. Furthermore, the failure or lack of success of a significant retail customer could negatively impact our revenues and profitability.

Our business, including our costs and supply chain, is subject to risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and logistics, and the loss of any of our key suppliers or service providers could negatively impact our business.

All the products we offer are manufactured by third-party labels, studios, publishers, and suppliers, and as a result we may be subject to price fluctuations or demand disruptions. Our operating results would be negatively impacted by increases in the costs of the products we offer, and we have no guarantees that costs will not rise. In addition, as we expand into new categories and product types, we expect that we may not have strong purchasing power in these new areas, which could lead to higher costs than we have historically seen in our current categories. We may not be able to pass increased costs on to consumers, which could adversely affect our operating results. Moreover, in the event of a significant disruption in the supply of the materials used in the manufacture of the products we offer, we and the vendors that we work with might not be able to locate alternative suppliers of materials of comparable quality at an acceptable price.

In addition, products, and merchandise we receive from manufacturers and suppliers may not be of sufficient quality or free from damage, or such products may be damaged during shipping, while stored in our warehouse fulfillment centers or with third-party ecommerce or retail customers or when returned by consumers. We may incur additional expenses, and our reputation could be harmed if consumers and potential consumers believe that our products do not meet their expectations, are not properly labeled or are damaged.

We purchase significant amounts from a limited number of suppliers with limited supply capabilities. There can be no assurance that our current suppliers will be able to accommodate our anticipated growth or continue to supply current quantities at preferential prices. An inability of our existing suppliers to provide products in a timely or cost-effective manner could impair our growth and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We generally do not maintain long-term supply contracts with any of our suppliers and any of our suppliers could discontinue selling to us at any time. The loss of any of our other significant suppliers, or the discontinuance of any preferential pricing or exclusive incentives they currently offer to us could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We continually seek to expand our base of product suppliers, especially as we identify new markets. We also require our new and existing suppliers to meet our ethical and business partner standards. Suppliers may also have to meet governmental and industry standards and any relevant standards required by our consumers, which may require additional investment and time on behalf of suppliers and us. If any of our key suppliers becomes insolvent, ceases, or significantly reduces its operations or experiences financial distress, or if any environmental, economic or other outside factors impact their operations. If we are unable to identify or enter distribution relationships with new suppliers or to replace the loss of any of our existing suppliers, we may experience a competitive disadvantage, our business may be disrupted and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

Our principal suppliers currently provide us with certain incentives such as extended payment terms, volume purchasing, trade discounts, cooperative advertising, and market development funds. A reduction or discontinuance of these incentives would increase our costs and could reduce our ability to achieve or maintain profitability. Similarly, if one or more of our suppliers were to offer these incentives, including preferential pricing, to our competitors, our competitive advantage would be reduced, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We face significant inventory risk.

In addition to risks described elsewhere relating to fulfillment network and inventory optimization by us and third parties, we are exposed to significant inventory risks that may adversely affect our operating results as a result of seasonality, new product launches, rapid changes in product cycles and pricing, defective merchandise, changes in consumer demand and consumer spending patterns, changes in consumer tastes with respect to our products, spoilage, and other factors. We endeavor to accurately predict these trends and avoid overstocking or understocking products we manufacture and/or sell. Demand for products, however, can change significantly between the time inventory or components are ordered and the date of sale. In addition, when we begin selling or manufacturing a new product, it may be difficult to establish vendor relationships, determine appropriate product or component selection, and accurately forecast demand. The acquisition of certain types of inventory or components requires significant lead-time and prepayment, and they may not be returnable. We carry a broad selection and significant inventory levels of certain products, and at times we are unable to sell products in sufficient quantities or to meet demand during the relevant selling seasons. If our inventory forecasting and production planning processes result in higher inventory levels exceeding the levels demanded by customers or should our customers decrease their orders with us, our operating results could be adversely affected due to costs of carrying the inventory and additional inventory write-downs for excess and obsolete inventory. Any one of the inventory risk factors set forth above may adversely affect our operating results.

If our third-party suppliers’ labels, studios, and publishers do not comply with applicable laws and regulations, our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be harmed.

Our reputation and our consumers’ willingness to purchase our products depend in part on our suppliers’ labels, studios, publishers, and other suppliers, and retail partners’ compliance with ethical employment practices, such as with respect to child labor, wages and benefits, forced labor, discrimination, safe and healthy working conditions, and with all legal and regulatory requirements relating to the conduct of their businesses. We do not exercise control over our suppliers, manufacturers, and retail partners and cannot guarantee their compliance with ethical and lawful business practices. If our suppliers, manufacturers, or retail partners fail to comply with applicable laws, regulations, safety codes, employment practices, human rights standards, quality standards, environmental standards, production practices, or other obligations, norms, or ethical standards, our reputation and brand image could be harmed, and we could be exposed to litigation, investigations, enforcement actions, monetary liability, and additional costs that would harm our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in our shipping arrangements or any interruptions in shipping could adversely affect our operating results.

We primarily rely on the major suppliers for our shipping requirements. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these suppliers or if one of the two experiences performance problems or other difficulties, it could negatively impact our operating results and our consumer or retail partner experience. Shipping vendors may also impose shipping surcharges from time to time. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship products to consumers and retailers may be negatively affected by inclement weather, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, labor disputes, acts of war or terrorism, trade embargoes, customs and tax requirements and similar factors. For example, strikes at major international shipping ports have in the past impacted our supply of inventory from our third-party labels, studios, publishers, and suppliers, and the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China has and may in the future lead to increased tariffs, the revocation of current tariff exclusions for certain of our products, which may restrict the flow of the goods from China to the United States. We are also subject to risks of damage or loss during delivery by our shipping vendors. If our products are not delivered in a timely fashion or are damaged or lost during the delivery process, our consumers could become dissatisfied and cease shopping on our site or retailer or third-party ecommerce sites, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.

We are subject to risks related to online payment methods, including third-party payment processing-related risks.

We currently accept payments using a variety of methods, including checks, ACH, wire transfers, credit card, debit card, PayPal, and gift cards. As we offer new payment options to consumers, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements, fraud, and other risks. We also rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, and for certain payment methods, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and affect our ability to achieve or maintain profitability. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI-DSS, and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we (or a third-party processing payment card transactions on our behalf) suffer a security breach affecting payment card information, we may have to pay onerous and significant fines, penalties and assessments arising out of the major card brands’ rules and regulations, contractual indemnifications or liability contained in merchant agreements and similar contracts, and we may lose our ability to accept payment cards for payment for our goods and services, which could materially impact our operations and financial performance.

Furthermore, as our business changes, we may be subject to different rules under existing standards, which may require new assessments that involve costs above what we currently pay for compliance. As we offer new payment options to consumers, including by way of integrating emerging mobile and other payment methods, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements and fraud. If we fail to comply with the rules or requirements of any provider of a payment method we accept, if the volume of fraud in our transactions limits or terminates our rights to use payment methods we currently accept, or if a data breach occurs relating to our payment systems, we may, among other things, be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose, or face restrictions placed upon, our ability to accept credit card payments from consumers or facilitate other types of online payments.

We also occasionally receive orders placed with fraudulent data and we may ultimately be held liable for the unauthorized use of a cardholder’s card number in an illegal activity and be required by card issuers to pay charge-back fees. Charge-backs result not only in our loss of fees earned with respect to the payment, but also leave us liable for the underlying money transfer amount. If our chargeback rate becomes excessive, card associations also may require us to pay fines or refuse to process our transactions. To mitigate credit card fraud, we use Kount to score all credit card orders for risk of fraud. In addition, we may be subject to additional fraud risk if third-party service providers or our employees fraudulently use consumer information for their own gain or facilitate the fraudulent use of such information. Overall, we may have little recourse if we process a criminally fraudulent transaction. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

We rely on third-party suppliers, labels, studios, publishers, suppliers, retail and ecommerce partners and other vendors, and they may not continue to produce products or provide services that are consistent with our standards or applicable regulatory requirements, which could harm our brand, cause consumer dissatisfaction, and require us to find alternative suppliers of our products or services.

We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities. We use multiple third-party suppliers and labels, studios, publishers, suppliers based primarily in the United States, China and Mexico and other countries to a lesser extent, to manufacture and supply all the products we offer and sell.

We engage many of our third-party suppliers and labels, studios, publishers, suppliers on a purchase order basis and in most cases are not party to long-term contracts with them. The ability and willingness of these third parties to supply and manufacture the products we offer, and sell may be affected by competing orders placed by other companies and the demands of those companies. If we experience significant increases in demand or need to replace a significant number of existing suppliers or manufacturers, there can be no assurance that additional supply and manufacturing capacity will be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, or that any supplier or manufacturer will allocate sufficient capacity to us to meet our requirements. Furthermore, our reliance on suppliers and manufacturers outside of the United States, the number of third parties with whom we transact and the number of jurisdictions to which we sell complicates our efforts to comply with customs duties and excise taxes; any failure to comply could adversely affect our business. In addition, quality control problems, such as the use of materials and delivery of products that do not meet our quality control standards and specifications or comply with applicable laws or regulations, could harm our business. Quality control problems could result in regulatory action, such as restrictions on importation, products of inferior quality or product stock outages or shortages, harming our sales and creating inventory write-downs for unusable products.

We have also outsourced minute portions of our fulfillment process, as well as certain technology-related functions, to third-party service providers. Specifically, we are dependent on third-party vendors for credit card processing, and we use third-party hosting and networking providers to host our sites. The failure of one or more of these entities to provide the expected services on a timely basis, or at all, or at the prices we expect, or the costs and disruption incurred in changing these outsourced functions to being performed under our management and direct control or that of a third party, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We are party to short-term contracts with some of our retail and ecommerce partners, and upon expiration of these existing agreements, we may not be able to renegotiate the terms on a commercially reasonable basis, or at all.

Further, our third-party labels, studios, publishers, suppliers and retail and ecommerce partners may:

have economic or business interests or goals that are inconsistent with ours;
take actions contrary to our instructions, requests, policies, or objectives;
be unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations under relevant purchase orders, including obligations to meet our production deadlines, quality standards, pricing guidelines and product specifications, and to comply with applicable regulations, including those regarding the safety and quality of products;
have financial difficulties;
encounter raw material or labor shortages;
encounter increases in raw material or labor costs which may affect our procurement costs;
encounter difficulties with proper payment of custom duties or excise taxes;
disclose our confidential information or intellectual property to competitors or third parties;
engage in activities or employ practices that may harm our reputation; and
work with, be acquired by, or come under control of, our competitors.

Risks Related to Our Debt

Alliance’s existing and any future indebtedness could adversely affect its ability to operate its business.

On December 31, 2023, the Company as Parent and Guarantor, certain of its subsidiaries from time to time party thereto, as Borrowers and/or Guarantors, White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC, as administrative agent, and the other lenders from time to time party thereto, entered into a Loan and Security Agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) which provides for a $120 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). The Revolving Credit Facility matures on December 21, 2026 (the “Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date”). As of June 30, 2024, the Company had approximately $73 million outstanding under the Revolving Credit facility (see Note 8 to Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements)

Borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility bear interest at the 30-day SOFR rate, subject to a floor rate of 2.00%, plus a margin of 4.50% to 4.75%, depending on the level of the Company’s utilization of the facility and consolidated fixed charge coverage ratio. The effective interest rate for the period from execution of the Revolving Credit Facility through June 30, 2024, was 9.5%.

The Credit Agreement is secured by a first priority security interest on the Company’s and the borrowers’ and other guarantors’ cash, accounts receivable, books and records and related assets. In addition, the Revolving Credit Facility contains certain financial covenants, financial reporting requirements and affirmative covenants with which the Company is required to comply.

A breach of the covenants under the Credit Agreement could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the Credit Facility could permit the lenders under the Credit Agreement to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under the Credit Agreement. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the Credit Agreement, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In the event our lender accelerates the repayment of our borrowings, we may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness.

The Revolving Credit Facility also includes an unused commitment fee of 0.25%. Upon the reduction or termination of the commitments under the Revolving Credit Facility prior to the Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date, the Company will be required to pay an early termination fee of 2.0% if reduced or terminated prior to December 21, 2024, or 1.0% if reduced or terminated after December 21, 2024 but before August 21, 2025 plus an amount of minimum interest if reduced or terminated on or prior to June 21, 2025.

Availability under the Revolving Credit Facility is limited by formula based on eligible accounts receivable and eligible inventory, subject to adjustment at the discretion of the lenders.

Alliance’s outstanding indebtedness, including any additional indebtedness beyond our borrowings under the Credit Agreement, combined with its other financial obligations and contractual commitments could have significant adverse consequences, including:

Requiring us to dedicate a portion of our cash resources to the payment of interest and principal, reducing money available to fund working capital, capital expenditures, potential acquisitions, international expansion, new product development, new enterprise relationships and other general corporate purposes;
Increasing our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and market conditions;
Subjecting us to restrictive covenants that may reduce our ability to take certain corporate actions or obtain further debt or equity financing;
Limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we compete; and
Placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt or better debt servicing options.

We intend to satisfy our current and future debt service obligations with our then existing cash and cash equivalents. However, we may not have sufficient funds, and may be unable to arrange for additional financing, to pay the amounts due under the Revolving Credit Facility or any other debt instruments. Failure to make payments or comply with other covenants under our existing credit facility or such other debt instruments could result in an event of default and acceleration of amounts due, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

A breach of the covenants under the Revolving Credit Facility could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the Revolving Credit Facility could permit the lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under the Revolving Credit Facility. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the Revolving Credit Facility, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In the event our lender accelerates the repayment of our borrowings, we may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness.

Covenants and events of default under Alliance’s Credit Facility could limit our ability to undertake certain types of transactions and adversely affect our liquidity.

Government efforts to combat inflation, along with other interest rate pressures arising from an inflationary economic environment, could lead to us to incur even higher interest rates and financing costs.

Inflation has risen on a global basis, the United States has been experiencing historically high levels of inflation, and government entities have taken various actions to combat inflation, such as raising interest rate benchmarks. Government entities may continue their efforts, or implement additional efforts, to combat inflation, which could include among other things continuing to raise interest rate benchmarks and/or maintaining interest rate benchmarks at elevated levels. Such government efforts, along with other interest rate pressures arising from an inflationary economic environment, could lead to us to incur even higher interest rates and financing costs on our Credit Agreement with White Oak Commercial Financing, LLC. and have material adverse effects on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our indebtedness may limit our availability of cash, cause us to divert cash to fund debt service payments or make it more difficult to take certain other actions.

We operate the business with an asset-based line of credit to fund working capital to support our Accounts Payable and our Inventory purchases.

make it more difficult and/or costly for us to pay or refinance our debts as they become due, particularly during adverse economic and industry conditions, because a decrease in revenues or increase in costs could cause cash flow from operations to be insufficient to make scheduled debt service payments;
require a substantial portion of our available cash to be used for debt service payments, thereby reducing the availability of our cash to fund working capital, capital expenditures, development projects, acquisitions or other strategic opportunities, dividend payments, share repurchases and other general corporate purposes;
make it more difficult for us to raise capital to fund working capital, make capital expenditures, pay dividends, pursue strategic initiatives or for other purposes and result in higher interest expense, which could be further increased in case of current or future borrowings subject to variable rates of interest;
require that materially adverse terms, conditions, or covenants be placed on us under our debt instruments, which could include, for example, limitations on additional borrowings or limitations on our ability to create liens, pay dividends, repurchase our common stock or make investments, any of which could hinder our access to capital markets or our flexibility in the conduct of our business and make us more vulnerable to economic downturns and adverse competitive industry conditions; and
jeopardize our ability to pay our indebtedness if our business experienced a severe downturn.

If we were unable to obtain or service our other external financing, or if the restrictions imposed by such financing were too burdensome, our business would be harmed.

Due to the seasonal nature of our business, to meet our working capital needs, we rely on a revolving credit agreement that provides for a $120,000,000 committed revolving asset-based loan Revolving Credit Facility. The Revolving Credit Facility contains certain restrictive covenants setting forth leverage and coverage requirements and certain other limitations typical of an investment-grade facility. These restrictive covenants may limit our future actions as well as our financial, operating, and strategic flexibility.

Not only may our financial performance impact our ability to access external financing sources, but significant disruptions to credit markets in general may also harm our ability to obtain financing. In times of severe economic downturn and/or distress in the credit markets, it is possible that one or more sources of external financing may be unable or unwilling to provide funding to us. In such a situation, it may be that we would be unable to access funding under our existing credit facilities, and it might not be possible to find alternative sources of funding.

We also may choose to finance our capital needs, from time to time, through the issuance of debt securities. Our ability to issue such securities on satisfactory terms, if at all, will depend on the state of our business and financial condition, any ratings issued by major credit rating agencies, market interest rates, and the overall condition of the financial and credit markets at the time of the offering. The condition of the credit markets and prevailing interest rates have fluctuated significantly in the past and are likely to fluctuate in the future. Variations in these factors could make it difficult for us to sell debt securities or require us to offer higher interest rates in order to sell new debt securities. The failure to receive financing on desirable terms, or at all, could damage our ability to support our future operations or capital needs or engage in other business activities.

If we are unable to generate sufficient available cash flow to service our outstanding debt, we would need to refinance our outstanding debt or face default. We cannot guarantee that we would be able to refinance debt on favorable terms, or at all.

Risks Related to our Management

Our success is dependent on the efforts and dedication of our officers and other employees.

Our officers and employees are at the heart of all our efforts. It is their skill, innovation and hard work that drive our success. We compete with many other potential employers in recruiting, hiring, and retaining our management team and our many other skilled officers and employees around the world. The increasing prevalence of remote work creates further challenges in retaining employees as some employees desire more flexibility in their employment and the ability to work remotely opens more employment opportunities. The impact of failing to retain key employees can be high due to loss of key knowledge and relationships, loss of creative talent, lost productivity, hiring and training costs, all of which could result in lower profitability. We cannot guarantee that we will recruit, hire, or retain the key personnel we need to succeed.

Our future success also depends on the continued leadership of key executives, including Mr. Bruce Ogilvie, our Executive Chairman, and Mr. Jeff Walker, our Chief Executive Officer/Chief Financial Officer. The loss of any key members of our management team, including Mr. Ogilvie and Mr. Walker, or the failure to attract and retain talented individuals with the necessary skill sets for our diverse and evolving business could materially and adversely affect our operations and financial results. We cannot guarantee that we will successfully recruit, hire, or retain the personnel essential to our success.

If we fail to develop diverse top talent, we may be unable to compete, and our business may be harmed.

To compete successfully, we must continuously develop a diverse group of talented people. We promote a diverse and inclusive work environment. To that end, we have set goals and objectives with respect to hiring and retention of talented, diverse employees, who we believe will foster new ideas and perspectives that will benefit our business. Competition for diverse talent is intense. We cannot guarantee we will achieve our goals or that our actions will result in expected benefits to our business.

Alliance has engaged in transactions with related parties, and such transactions present possible conflicts of interest that could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Alliance has entered transactions with related parties, including our two principal stockholders. We have entered into transactions with companies owned by Bruce Ogilvie and Jeffrey Walker, including GameFly Holdings, LLC. For the year ended June 30, 2024, and 2023, Alliance made sales of new release movies, video games, and video game consoles to GameFly Holdings LLC in the amount of $8.4 million and $16.8 million, respectively. GameFly, a customer of Alliance, is equally owned by Bruce Ogilvie and Jeff Walker, the two shareholders of Alliance. Alliance believes the amounts payable to GameFly are at fair market value. Although the agreement between Alliance and GameFly can be terminated by either party at any time, given Mr. Ogilvie’s and Mr. Walker’s positions with Alliance as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer/Chief Financial Officer, respectively. We may in the future enter into additional transactions with entities in which majority shareholders, executive officers and members of our board of directors and other related parties hold ownership interests. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”

Transactions with such related parties present potential for conflicts of interest, as the interests of the third-party owned related entity and its shareholders may not align with the interests of our stockholders with respect to the negotiation of, and certain other matters. For example, conflicts of interest may arise in connection with decisions regarding the structure and terms of the GameFly contract, contractual remedies, events of default and dealings with customers.

Pursuant to our related party transactions policy, all additional material related party transactions that we enter require either (i) the unanimous consent of our audit committee or (ii) the approval of a majority of the members of our board of directors. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions — Policies and Procedures for Related Party Transactions.” Nevertheless, we may have achieved more favorable terms if such transactions had not been entered into with related parties and these transactions, individually or in the aggregate, may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations or may result in government enforcement actions or other litigation.

Alliance’s management has limited experience in operating a public company.

Alliance’s executive officers have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. Alliance’s management team may not successfully or effectively manage its transition to a public company that will be subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under federal securities laws. Their limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities which will result in less time being devoted to the management and growth of Alliance.

Alliance may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience, and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal controls over financial reporting required of public companies in the United States. The development and implementation of the standards and controls necessary for Alliance to achieve the level of accounting standards required of a public company in the United States may require costs greater than expected. It is possible that Alliance will be required to expand its employee base and hire additional employees to support its operations as a public company, which will increase its operating costs in future periods.

Risks Related to Our Technology and Intellectual Property

Our business may be harmed if we are unable to protect our critical intellectual property rights.

Our intellectual property, including our trademarks and tradenames, copyrights, patents, and rights under our license agreements and other agreements that establish our intellectual property rights and maintain the confidentiality of our intellectual property, is of critical value. We rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright, trademark, patent, and other proprietary rights laws to protect our rights to valuable intellectual property in the U.S. and around the world. From time to time, third parties have challenged, and may in the future try to challenge, our ownership of our intellectual property in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, our business is subject to the risk of third parties counterfeiting our products or infringing on our intellectual property rights, as well as the risk of unauthorized third parties copying and distributing our entertainment content or leaking portions of planned entertainment content. We may need to resort to litigation to protect our intellectual property rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. Similarly, third parties may claim ownership over certain aspects of our products, productions, or other intellectual property. Our failure to successfully protect our intellectual property rights could significantly harm our business and competitive position.

Failure to successfully operate our information systems and implement new technology effectively could disrupt our business or reduce our sales or profitability.

We rely extensively on various information technology systems and software applications to manage many aspects of our business, including product development, management of our supply chain, sale and delivery of our products, royalty and financial reporting and various other processes and transactions. We are critically dependent on the integrity, security and consistent operations of these systems and related back-up systems. These systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, malware and other cybersecurity breaches, catastrophic events such as hurricanes, fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, acts of war or terrorism and usage errors by our employees or partners. The efficient operation and successful growth of our business depends on these information systems, including our ability to operate them effectively and to select and implement appropriate upgrades or new technologies and systems and adequate disaster recovery systems successfully. The failure of our information systems or third-party hosted technology to perform as designed or our failure to implement and operate them effectively could disrupt our business, require significant capital investments to remediate a problem or subject us to liability.

If our electronic data is compromised our business could be significantly harmed.

We and our business partners maintain significant amounts of data electronically in locations around the United States and in the cloud. This data relates to all aspects of our business, including current and future products and entertainment under development, and also contains certain customer, consumer, supplier, partner and employee data. We maintain systems and processes designed to protect this data, but notwithstanding such protective measures, there is a risk of intrusion, cyber-attacks or tampering that could compromise the integrity and privacy of this data. Cyber-attacks are increasing in their frequency, sophistication, and intensity, and are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. They are often carried out by motivated, well-resourced, skilled, and persistent actors, including nation states, organized crime groups, “hacktivists” and employees or contractors acting with malicious intent. Cyber-attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware and key loggers, ransomware, a denial-of-service attack, a malicious website, the use of social engineering and other means to affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our technology systems and data. Cyber-attacks could also include supply chain attacks, which could cause a delay in the manufacturing of our products. In addition, we provide confidential and proprietary information to our third-party business partners in certain cases where doing so is necessary to conduct our business. While we obtain assurances from those parties that they have systems and processes in place to protect such data, and where applicable, that they will take steps to assure the protections of such data by third parties, those partners may also be subject to data intrusion or otherwise compromise the protection of such data. Any compromise of the confidential data of our customers, consumers, suppliers, partners, employees or ourselves, or failure to prevent or mitigate the loss of or damage to this data through breach of our information technology systems or other means could substantially disrupt our operations, harm our customers, consumers, employees and other business partners, damage our reputation, violate applicable laws and regulations, subject us to potentially significant costs and liabilities and result in a loss of business that could be material.

Risks Related to Matters Outside our Control That May Impact Our Business

The global coronavirus outbreak or other similar outbreaks of communicable infections, diseases, or public health pandemics in the markets in which we and our employees, consumers, customers, partners, licensees, suppliers, and manufacturers operate, could substantially harm our business.

The global outbreak of the coronavirus which had adversely impacted global populations, and any other variants or outbreaks of communicable infections, diseases or other adverse public health conditions in markets in which we, our employees, consumers, customers, partners, licensees, licensors, suppliers and manufacturers operate, could have a significant negative impact on our business, revenues and profitability. The occurrence of these types of events can result, and in the case of the coronavirus has resulted in, disruptions and damage to our business, caused by a number of factors:

difficulties in shipping and distributing products due to ongoing port capacity, and labor, shipping container and truck transportation shortages, resulting in higher costs for both ocean and air freight and delays in the availability of products, which can result in delayed sales and in some cases result in lost sales.
disruptions in supply of products, due to closures or reductions in operations at third-party manufacturing facilities across several geographies including, but not limited to, China, Vietnam, and the United States.
adverse sales impact due to changes in consumer purchasing behavior and availability of products to consumers, resulting from retail store closures, limited reopening of retail stores and limitations on the capacity of ecommerce channels to supply additional products.
fluctuations in our performance based on the progress of different countries in controlling the coronavirus and the maturity of e-commerce platforms in those markets.
limited production of live action scripted and unscripted entertainment content due to the hard stop and soft reopening of production studios.
delays or postponements of entertainment productions and releases of entertainment content both internally and by our partners.
increases in entertainment production costs due to measures required to minimize COVID-19 risks; and
challenges of working remotely.

We have reopened our offices, providing employees with flexibility in their return to the office by working partially in the office and partially remote. We have taken measures to safely bring additional workers back to the office, including a return to fully remote work when variants emerge which increase infection rates significantly in areas where we do business. The transition back from fully remote work to partial remote and partial in person may be difficult for some employees. We are actively soliciting feedback and making modifications to provide our employees with a productive and safe environment, and plan to continue to monitor employee efficiency, satisfaction, and morale as we continue to transition. There can be no assurance that employees will not have some disruption in their work due to the transition. Changes in flexible working arrangements could impact employee retention, employees’ productivity, and morale, strain our technology resources, and introduce operational risks. Additionally, the risk of cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents may be heightened as a result of our moving increasingly towards a remote working environment, which may be less secure and more susceptible to hacking attacks.

Adverse economic conditions in the markets in which we and our employees, consumers, customers, suppliers, and manufacturers operate could negatively impact our ability to produce and ship our products, and lower our revenues, margins and profitability.

Various economic conditions in the markets we, our employees, consumers, customers, suppliers, and manufacturers operate, could have a significant negative impact on our revenues, profitability and business. The occurrence of adverse economic conditions can result in manufacturing and other work stoppages, slowdowns, and delays; shortages or delays in production or shipment of products or raw materials; delays or reduced purchases from customers and consumers; and other factors that cause increases in costs or delay in revenues. Inflation, such as what consumers in the U.S. and other economies are experiencing, can cause significant increases in the costs of other products which are required by consumers, such as gasoline, home heating fuels, or groceries, may reduce household spending on the discretionary products and entertainment we offer. Weakened economic conditions, higher interest rates, lowered employment levels or recessions may also significantly reduce consumer purchases of our products and spending on entertainment. Economic conditions may also be negatively impacted by terrorist attacks, wars, and other conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, natural disasters, increases in critical commodity prices or labor costs, or the prospect of such events. Such a weakened economic and business climate, as well as consumer uncertainty created by such a climate, could significantly harm our revenues and profitability.

Our success and profitability not only depend on consumer demand for our products, but also on our ability to produce and sell those products at costs which allow us to make a profit. Rising fuel and raw material prices, due to inflation or otherwise, for paperboard and other components such as resin used in plastics or electronic components, increased transportation and shipping costs, and increased labor costs in the markets in which our products are manufactured all may increase the costs we incur to produce and transport our products, which in turn may reduce our margins, reduce our profitability and harm our business.

Changes in U.S., global or regional economic conditions could harm our business and financial performance.

Our financial performance is impacted by the level of discretionary consumer spending in the markets in which we operate. Reductions in stimulus payments provided to consumers, high inflation and rising interest rates on credit cards could impact discretionary spending. Recessions, credit crises and other economic downturns, or disruptions in credit and financial markets in the U.S. and in other markets in which we operate can result in lower levels of economic activity, lower employment levels, less consumer disposable income, and lower consumer confidence. Similarly, reductions in the value of key assets held by consumers, such as their homes or stock market investments, can lower consumer confidence and consumer spending power. Any of these factors can reduce the amount which consumers spend on the purchase of our products and entertainment. This in turn can reduce our revenues and harm our financial performance and profitability.

Our global operations mean we transact business in many different jurisdictions with many different currencies. As a result, if the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and a local currency for an international market in which we have significant sales or operations changes, our financial results as reported in U.S. dollars, may be meaningfully impacted even if our business in the local currency is not significantly affected. Similarly, our expenses can be significantly impacted, in U.S. dollar terms, by exchange rates, meaning the profitability of our business in U.S. dollar terms can be negatively impacted by exchange rate movements which we do not control. Depreciation in key currencies may have a significant negative impact on our revenues and earnings as they are reported in U.S. dollars.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate due to seasonality in our business and union strikes impacting the availability of content.

Sales of our music, video movies, video games and other entertainment products are seasonal, with an increase of retail sales occurring during the period from October through December for the holiday season. This seasonality for our consumer products business has increased over time, as retailers become more and more efficient in their control of inventory levels through quick response or just in time inventory management techniques, including the use of automated inventory replenishment programs. Further, ecommerce continues to grow significantly and accounts for a higher portion of the ultimate sales of our products to consumers. Ecommerce retailers tend to hold less inventory and take inventory closer to the time of sale to consumers than traditional retailers. As a result, customers are timing their orders so that they are being fulfilled by suppliers, such as us, closer to the time of purchase by consumers. While these techniques reduce a retailer’s investment in inventory, they increase pressure on suppliers like us to fill orders promptly and thereby shift a significant portion of inventory risk and carrying costs to the supplier. This can also result in our losing significant revenues and earnings if our supply chain is unable to supply product to our customers when they want it.

The level of inventory carried by retailers may also reduce or delay retail sales resulting in lower revenues for us. If we or our customers determine that one of our products is more popular at retail than was originally anticipated, we may not have sufficient time to procure and ship enough additional products to fully meet consumer demand. Additionally, the logistics of supplying more product within shorter time periods increases the risk that we will fail to achieve tight and compressed shipping schedules, which also may reduce our sales and harm our financial performance.

Our entertainment business is also subject to seasonal variations based on the timing of music, television, film, gaming content releases. Release dates are determined by several factors, including the timing of holiday periods, geographical release dates and competition in the market. Additionally, the SAG AFTRA strike has created a lack of content for CDs, DVDs and other entertainment sectors. This could negatively affect our business.

This seasonal pattern of our business requires significant use of working capital, mainly to purchase inventory during the months prior to the holiday season and requires accurate forecasting of demand for products during the holiday season in order to avoid losing potential sales of popular products or producing excess inventory of products that are less popular with consumers. Our failure to accurately predict and respond to consumer demand, resulting in our underproducing popular items and/or overproducing less popular items, would reduce our total sales and harm our results of operations.

As a result of the seasonal nature of our business, we would be significantly and adversely affected, in a manner disproportionate to the impact on a company with sales spread more evenly throughout the year, by unforeseen events such as a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, economic shock or pandemic that harms the retail environment or consumer buying patterns during our key selling season, or by events such as strikes or port delays or other supply chain challenges that interfere with the shipment of goods, particularly from the Far East, during the critical months leading up to the holiday shopping season.

Risks Related to Taxes and Government Related Matters

We face additional tax liabilities and collection obligations. Changes in, or differing interpretations of, income tax laws and rules, and changes in our geographic operating results, may impact our effective tax rate.

We are subject to a variety of taxes and tax collection obligations in the U.S. (federal and state) and numerous foreign jurisdictions. We may recognize additional tax expense and be subject to additional tax liabilities, including other liabilities for tax collection obligations due to changes in laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles, and interpretations related to tax, including changes to the global tax framework, competition, and other laws and accounting rules in various jurisdictions. Such changes could come about as a result of economic, political, and other conditions. Proposals to reform U.S. and foreign tax laws could significantly impact how U.S. multinational corporations are taxed on global earnings and could increase the U.S. corporate tax rate. For example, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the “Inclusive Framework”) has put forth two proposals—Pillar One and Pillar Two—that revise the existing profit allocation and nexus rules and ensure a minimal level of taxation, respectively. On December 12, 2022, the European Union member states agreed to implement the Inclusive Framework’s global corporate minimum tax rate of 15%. Other countries are also actively considering changes to their tax laws to adopt certain parts of the Inclusive Framework’s proposals. Although we cannot predict whether or in what form these proposals will be enacted into law, these changes, if enacted into law, would not have a material impact on our effective tax rate, income tax expense and cash flows. On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which contained certain tax measures, including, among other items, a corporate alternative minimum tax of 15% on some large corporations and an excise tax of 1% on certain corporate stock buy-backs. Moreover, an increasing number of jurisdictions are considering or have adopted laws or administrative practices that impose new tax measures, including revenue-based taxes, targeting online commerce and the remote selling of goods and services. These include new obligations to collect sales, consumption, value added, or other taxes on online marketplaces and remote sellers, or other requirements that may result in liability for third party obligations. For example, non-U.S. jurisdictions have proposed or enacted taxes on online marketplace service revenues. Proliferation of these or similar unilateral tax measures may continue unless broader international tax reform is implemented. Our results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected by additional taxes imposed on us prospectively or retroactively or additional taxes or penalties resulting from the failure to comply with any collection obligations or failure to provide information about our customers, suppliers, and other third parties for tax reporting purposes to various government agencies. In some cases, we also may not have sufficient notice to enable us to build systems and adopt processes to properly comply with new reporting or collection obligations by the effective date.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and in United Kingdom tax jurisdictions. We also conduct business activities between our operating units, and we are subject to transfer pricing rules in the United Kingdom in which we operate. There is some degree of uncertainty and subjectivity in complying with transfer pricing rules. Our effective tax rate could be impacted by changes in, or the interpretation of, tax laws, such as those being considered by the current United States administration and other jurisdictions in which we do business, or by changes in the amount of revenue and earnings we derive, or are determined to derive by tax authorities, from jurisdictions with differing tax rates.

In addition, we have been and may be subject to tax examinations by federal, state, and international jurisdictions, and these examinations can result in significant tax findings if the tax authorities interpret the application of laws and rules differently than we do or disagree with the intercompany rates we are applying. We assess the likelihood of outcomes resulting from tax uncertainties. While we believe our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate outcome of these uncertain tax benefits, or results of possible current or future tax examinations, may differ from our estimates and may have a significant adverse impact on our business and operating results.

We are subject to various government regulations, violations of which could subject us to sanctions or otherwise harm our business. In addition, we could be the subject of future product liability suits or merchandise recalls, which could harm our business.

We are subject to significant government regulations, including, in the U.S., under The Consumer Products Safety Act, The Federal Hazardous Substances Act, and The Flammable Fabrics Act, as well as under product safety and consumer protection statutes in our international markets. In addition, certain of our products are subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration or similar international authorities. Advertising to children is subject to regulation by the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and a host of other agencies globally, and the collection of information from children under the age of 13 is subject to the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and other privacy laws around the world. The collection of personally identifiable information from anyone, including adults, is under increasing regulation in many markets, such as the General Data Protection Regulation adopted by the European Union, and data protection laws in the United States and in a number of other counties. While we take all the steps, we believe are necessary to comply with these acts and regulations, we cannot assure you that we will be in compliance and, if we fail to comply with these requirements or other regulations enacted in the future, we could be subject to fines, liabilities or sanctions which could have a significant negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may also be subject to involuntary product recalls or may voluntarily conduct a product recall. While costs associated with product recalls have generally not been material to our business, the costs associated with future product recalls individually or in aggregate in any given fiscal year could be significant. In addition, any product recall, regardless of direct costs of the recall, may harm the reputation of our products and have a negative impact on our future revenues and results of operations.

As a multinational corporation, we are subject to a host of governmental regulations throughout the world, including antitrust, employment, customs and tax requirements, anti-boycott regulations, environmental regulations, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Complying with these regulations imposes costs on us which can reduce our profitability and our failure to successfully comply with any such legal requirements could subject us to monetary liabilities and other sanctions that could further harm our business and financial condition.

Risks Related to Litigation

We may face increased costs in achieving our sustainability goals and any failure to achieve our goals could result in reputational damage.

We view sustainability challenges as opportunities to innovate and continuously improve our product design and operational efficiencies. We also believe the long-term viability and health of our own operations and our supply chain, and the significant potential for environmental improvements, are critical to our business success. We have set key goals and objectives in this area as described in our business section of this Form 10-K.

We devote significant resources and expenditure to help achieve these goals. It is possible that we will incur significant expense in trying to achieve these goals with no assurance that we will be successful. Additionally, our reputation could be damaged if we fail to achieve our sustainability goals, or if we or others in our industry do not act, or are perceived not to act, responsibly with respect to the production and packaging of our products.

Our entertainment business involves risks of liability claims for media content, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As a distributor of media content, we may face potential liability for defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials distributed. These types of claims have been brought, sometimes successfully, against producers and distributors of media content. Any imposition of liability that is not covered by insurance or is in excess of insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.

We are involved in litigation, arbitration or regulatory matters where the outcome is uncertain, and which could entail significant expense.

As a larger multinational corporation, we are subject to regulatory investigations, risks related to internal controls, litigation and arbitration disputes, including potential liability from personal injury or property damage claims by the users of products that have been or may be developed by us, claims by third parties that our products infringe upon or misuse such third parties’ property or rights, or claims by former employees for employment related matters. Because the outcome of litigation, arbitration and regulatory investigations is inherently difficult to predict, it is possible that the outcome of any of these matters could entail significant cost for us and harm our business. The fact that we operate in a significant number of international markets also increases the risk that we may face legal and regulatory exposures as we attempt to comply with a large number of varying legal and regulatory requirements. Any successful claim against us could significantly harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In particular, on March 31, 2023, a class action complaint, titled Matthew McKnight v. Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. f/k/a Adara Acquisition Corp., Adara Sponsor LLC, Thomas Finke, Paul G. Porter, Beatriz Acevedo-Greiff, W. Tom Donaldson III, Dylan Glenn, and Frank Quintero, was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery against our pre-Business Combination board of directors and executive officers and the Sponsor, alleging breaches of fiduciary duties by purportedly failing to disclose certain information in connection with the Business Combination and by approving the Business Combination. On August 8, 2024, the Company entered into a settlement agreement regarding pending litigation. A settlement hearing is scheduled for November 25, 2024. The Company has accrued $511,000 and $150,000 as of June 30, 2024, and June 30, 2023, respectively, based on the expected loss.

Risks Related to Accounting Matters

Alliance has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting: While we have developed and implemented a remediation plan designed to address these material weaknesses, the remediation measures have not yet proven effective.

Alliance has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting. We have actively developed and implemented a remediation plan designed to address these material weaknesses. However, certain remediation measures are still ongoing or were not in place long enough to be deemed effective as of the reporting period and we cannot guarantee these steps will be sufficient to address the material weaknesses. If this remediation proves ineffective, if we fail to develop and maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, or if additional material weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting are discovered or occur in the future, Alliance’s ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements, comply with applicable laws and regulations, or access the capital markets could be impaired and we could be required to restate our financial results.

As a public company, Alliance is actively evaluating its internal control over financial reporting in a manner that meets the standards of publicly traded companies required by Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404. A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or 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 on a timely basis.

Alliance is ultimately responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over our financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. As disclosed in Item 9A, “Controls and Procedures,” management noted several material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2023. Refer to “Item 9A. Control and Procedures” for a detailed discussion regarding the material weaknesses identified, as well as management’s remediation actions and plans.

If we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, or if our remediation measures are not effective, any such newly identified or existing material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding the timely filing of periodic reports, in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements. Investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, and our stock price may decline as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.

Prior to the Business Combination, Adara had accounted for its outstanding Warrants as a warrant liability and following the Business Combination, Alliance is now required to determine the value warrant liability for the Private Warrants quarterly, which could have a material impact on Alliance’s financial position and operating results.

Included on Alliance’s balance sheet as of June 30, 2024, and 2023, contained elsewhere in this Form 10-K, are derivative liabilities related to embedded features contained within the Warrants. Accounting Standards Codification 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”) provides for the remeasurement of the fair value of such derivatives at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value being recognized in earnings in the statements of operations. As a result of the recurring fair value measurement, our financial statements and results of operations may fluctuate quarterly based on factors that are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we expect that we will recognize non-cash gains or losses on our warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material.

Following the Business Combination, although Alliance has determined that the Public Warrants are treated as equity, Alliance is required to continue to recognize the changes in the fair value of the Private Warrants from the prior period, if any, in its operating results for the current period, which could have a material impact on Alliance’s financial position and operating results.

We will incur significantly increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

As a public company, we face increased legal, 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 PCAOB and the securities exchanges, impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with public company requirements have increased costs and made certain activities more time-consuming. A number of those requirements require Alliance to carry out activities Alliance had not done previously. For example, Alliance created new board committees and has adopted new internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements have been incurred. Furthermore, issues in complying with those requirements have been identified, and Alliance has incurred additional costs in connection with remediation of such compliance issues. As an example, management has identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. There may be additional material weaknesses, or a significant deficiency in the future. Alliance could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, and the existence of those issues could adversely affect Alliance’s reputation or investor perceptions of it. It may also be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance. Risks associated with Alliance’s status as a public company may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified people to serve on Alliance’s board of directors or as executive officers. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed by these rules and regulations have increased legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of related legal, accounting, and administrative activities, and may continue to do so. These increased costs require Alliance to divert a significant amount of funds 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 these related costs.

Since Alliance currently qualifies as an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, it could make Alliance’s securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare Alliance’s performance to the performance of other public companies.

Alliance qualifies as an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Rule 405 promulgated under the Securities Act and Rule12b-2 promulgated under the Exchange Act. As such, Alliance will be eligible for and intends to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies, including (a) the exemption from the auditor attestation requirements with respect to internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (b) the exemptions from say-on-pay, say-on-frequency and say-on- golden parachute voting requirements and (c) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the exemption from complying with new or revised accounting standards provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act as long as Alliance is an emerging growth company. An emerging growth company can therefore delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies, which Alliance will not be able to do for its next fiscal year.

Even after Alliance no longer qualifies as an emerging growth company, it may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company” or “non-accelerated filer,” which would allow it to continue to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements. Moreover, smaller reporting companies may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in their Annual Reports on Form 10-K.

Investors may find the Class A common stock less attractive due to Alliance’s reliance on these exemptions, which could result in a less active trading market for the stock and potentially greater price volatility.

Risks Related to Our Securities

The warrant agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of the Warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with Alliance.

The warrant agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the warrant agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. Alliance will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the warrant agreement do not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of the Warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in the warrant agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the warrant agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of the Warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to:

(x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and

(y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.

This choice of forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with our company, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our warrant agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, Alliance may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.

Alliance may redeem unexpired Warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to a Warrant holder, thereby making the Warrants worthless.

Alliance has the ability to redeem outstanding Warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of the Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading- day period commencing once the warrants become exercisable and ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which Alliance gives proper notice of such redemption and provided certain other conditions are met. If and when the Warrants become redeemable, Alliance may not exercise our redemption right if the issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of the Warrants is not exempt from registration or qualification under applicable state blue sky laws or it is unable to affect such registration or qualification. Alliance will use its best efforts to register or qualify such shares of Class A common stock under the blue-sky laws of the state of residence in those states in which the Warrants were offered in the IPO, if necessary. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force holders (i) to exercise the Warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for a holder to do so, (ii) to sell Warrants at the then-current market price when the holder might otherwise wish to hold Warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding Warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of the Warrants. None of the Private Warrants are redeemable by Alliance so long as they are held by the Sponsor or its permitted transferees.

If Warrant holders exercise Public Warrants on a “cashless basis,” they will receive fewer shares of Alliance common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.

There are circumstances in which the exercise of the Public Warrants may be required or permitted to be made on a cashless basis. First, if a registration statement covering the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the Warrants is not effective by a specified date, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a cashless basis in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption. Second, if a registration statement covering the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective within a specified period following the consummation of the Business Combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when Alliance shall have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise Warrants on a cashless basis pursuant to the exemption provided by Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act, provided that such exemption is available; if that exemption, or another exemption, is not available, holders will not be able to exercise their Warrants on a cashless basis.

Third, if Alliance calls the Public Warrants for redemption, Alliance’s management will have the option to require all holders that wish to exercise Warrants to do so on a cashless basis. In the event of an exercise on a cashless basis, a holder would pay the Warrant exercise price by surrendering the Warrants for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the Warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the Warrants and the “fair market value” (as defined in the next sentence) by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” for this purpose shall mean the average reported last sale price of the Class A common stock for the ten trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent or on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of Warrants, as applicable. As a result, you would receive fewer shares of Class A common stock from such exercise than if you were to exercise such warrants for cash.

The receipt of cash proceeds from the exercise of our Warrants is dependent upon the market price exceeding the $11.50 exercise price and the Warrants being exercised for cash.

The receipt of cash proceeds from our Warrants’ exercise depends on the market price exceeding the $11.50 exercise price and the Warrants being exercised for cash. The $11.50 exercise price per share of the Warrants is considerably higher than the $2.11 closing sale price of the Class A common stock on September 18, 2024. If the price of our Class A Common Stock remains below the respective Warrant exercise prices per share, warrant holders will unlikely cash exercise their Warrants, resulting in little or no cash proceeds to us.

In addition, we may lower the exercise price of the Warrants in accordance with the Warrant Agreement to induce the holders to exercise such warrants. We may affect such a reduction in exercise price without the consent of such warrant holders and such reduction would decrease the maximum amount of cash proceeds we would receive upon the exercise in full of the Warrants for cash. Further, the holders of the Private Warrants and the Underwriter Warrants may exercise such Warrants on a cashless basis at any time. The holders of the Public Warrants may exercise such Warrants on a cashless basis at any time a registration statement is not effective. A prospectus is not currently available for issuing Class A common stock shares upon such exercise. Accordingly, we would not receive any proceeds from a cashless exercise of Warrants.

Concentration of ownership among Alliance’s executive officers, directors and their affiliates may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

As of the date of this Form 10-K, the executive officers and directors and their affiliates collectively beneficially owned, directly, or indirectly, excluding the Contingent Consideration Shares, approximately 97.9% of the outstanding Class A common stock.

As a result, these stockholders are able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, appointment and removal of officers, any amendment of our Certificate of Incorporation and approval of mergers and other business combination transactions requiring stockholder approval, including proposed transactions that would result in Alliance’s stockholders receiving a premium price for their shares and other significant corporate transactions. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders.

An active trading market may not develop for our securities, and you may not be able to sell your Class A common stock at or above the price per share for which you purchased it.

Our Class A common stock was quoted on the OTC Pink Open Market until June 30, 2023, when we began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Our Class A common stock shares are thinly traded, and we cannot predict when or if an active trading market will develop or how liquid that market might become. If such a market does not develop or is not sustained, it may be difficult for you to sell your shares of Class A common stock at a time or at price that is attractive to you, or at all.

The trading market for our Class A common stock in the future could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to several factors, including, but not limited to:

Actual or anticipated variations in our results of operations.
Our ability or inability to generate revenues or profit.
The relatively small number of shares in our public float, which could exacerbate stock price volatility.
Increased competition.

Furthermore, our stock price may be impacted by unrelated or disproportionate factors to our operating performance. These market fluctuations, along with general economic, political, and market conditions—such as recessions, interest rates, or international currency fluctuations—may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock. Due to our status as a smaller reporting company, the limited number of shares in our public float could contribute to extreme fluctuations in our Class A common stock price, increasing the risk of price volatility.

We might not be able to maintain the listing of our Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Our Class A common stock and warrants are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain the listing standards of that exchange, which include requirements that we maintain our stockholders’ equity, total value of shares held by unaffiliated stockholders, and market capitalization above certain specified levels. If we fail to maintain the Nasdaq listing requirements on an ongoing basis, our Class A common stock might cease to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and may move to the OTCQX, OTCQB or OTC Pink Open Market operated by OTC Markets Group, Inc. These quotation services are generally considered to be less efficient, and to provide less liquidity, than the Nasdaq Capital Market.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about Alliance, its business, or its market, or if they change their recommendations regarding Alliance’s securities adversely, the price and trading volume of Alliance’s securities could decline.

The trading market for Alliance’s securities is influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about Alliance, its business, market, or competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on Alliance. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of Alliance, Alliance’s share price and trading volume would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover Alliance change their recommendation regarding Alliance’s shares of common stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about its competitors, the price of Alliance’s shares of common stock would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover Alliance were to cease coverage of Alliance or fail to regularly publish reports on it, Alliance could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause its share price or trading volume to decline.

Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on Alliance’s common stock for the foreseeable future, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell Alliance’s common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

Alliance may retain future earnings, if any, for future operations, expansion and debt repayment and has no current plans to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any decision to declare and pay dividends as a public company in the future will be made at the discretion of Alliance’s board of directors and will depend on, among other things, Alliance’s results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors that Alliance’s board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, Alliance’s ability to pay dividends may be limited by covenants of any existing and future outstanding indebtedness it or its subsidiaries incur. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in the Class A common stock unless you sell your shares of common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

Anti-takeover provisions in the Certificate of Incorporation and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of Alliance, which may be beneficial to its stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by its stockholders to replace or remove Alliance’s then current management.

The Certificate of Incorporation contains provisions that may delay or prevent an acquisition of Alliance or a change in its management. These provisions may make it more difficult for stockholders to replace or remove members of the board of directors. Because the board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of the management team, these provisions could in turn frustrate or prevent any attempt by the stockholders to replace or remove current management. In addition, these provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of Class A common stock. Among other things, these provisions include:

the limitation of the liability of, and the indemnification of, its directors and officers.
a prohibition on actions by its stockholders except at an annual or special meeting of stockholders.
a prohibition on actions by its stockholders by written consent; and
the ability of the board of directors to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval, which could be used to institute a “poison pill” that would work to dilute the stock ownership of a potential hostile acquirer, effectively preventing acquisitions that have not been approved by the board of directors.

Moreover, because Alliance is incorporated in Delaware, it is governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL), which prohibits a person who owns 15% or more of its outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with Alliance for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired 15% or more of Alliance’s outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. This could discourage, delay, or prevent a third party from acquiring or merging with Alliance, whether or not it is desired by, or beneficial to, its stockholders. This could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for Alliance’s common stock, including transactions that may be in its stockholders’ best interests. Finally, these provisions establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings. These provisions would apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders. For more information, see the section titled “Description of Securities — Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of Delaware Law and the Existing Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws.”

The Certificate of Incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will, subject to certain exceptions, be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel, which may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders.

The Certificate of Incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in the name of Alliance, actions against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any officer, director or other employee of Alliance or Alliance’s shareholders, any action asserting a claim against Alliance, its directors, officers or other employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or the Certificate of Incorporation or By-laws and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel except any action (A) as to which the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery or (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in the Certificate of Incorporation. This choice of forum provision may limit or make more costly a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees, or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in the Certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm Alliance’s business, operating results and financial condition.

The Certificate of Incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, subject to certain exceptions. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. In addition, The Certificate of Incorporation provides that, unless Alliance consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. There is, however, the uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this provision and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for state and federal courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.

A possible “short squeeze” due to a sudden increase in demand of our Class A common stock that largely exceeds supply may lead to price volatility in our Class A common stock.

Investors may purchase our Class A common stock to hedge existing exposure in our Class A common stock or to speculate on the price of our Class A common stock. Speculation on the price of our Class A common stock may involve long and short exposures. To the extent aggregate short exposure exceeds the number of shares of our Class A common stock available for purchase in the open market, investors with short exposure may have to pay a premium to repurchase our common stock for delivery to lenders of our Class A common stock. Those repurchases may in turn, dramatically increase the price of our Class A common stock until investors with short exposure are able to purchase additional Class A common stock to cover their short position. This is often referred to as a “short squeeze.” A short squeeze could lead to volatile price movements in our common stock that are not directly correlated to the performance or prospects of our Class A common stock and once investors purchase the shares of Class A common stock necessary to cover their short position the price of our Class A common stock may decline.

We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or preferred shares under the 2023 Plan, which would dilute the interest of our stockholders.

Pursuant to the Certificate of Incorporation, Alliance’s authorized capital stock consists of 490,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, 60,000,000 shares of Alliance Class E common stock and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock. As of the date of this 10-K, we have 50,957,370 shares of Class A common Stock outstanding and no shares of preferred stock outstanding. We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of common stock or shares of preferred stock under the 2023 Plan. Pursuant to Alliance’s 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan, Alliance may issue an aggregate of up to 600,000 shares of Class A common stock, which amount may be subject to increase from time to time. For additional information about this plan, please read the discussion under the heading “Alliance’s Executive Compensation — Employee Benefit Plans.” Additionally, as of the date of this 10-K, Alliance has Warrants outstanding to purchase an aggregate of 9,920,090 shares of common stock. Alliance may also issue additional shares of common stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, future acquisitions, or repayment of outstanding indebtedness, without stockholder approval, in a number of circumstances.

The issuance of additional common stock or preferred shares:

may significantly dilute the equity interest of holders of Class A common stock.
may subordinate the rights of holders of shares of common stock if one or more classes of preferred stock are created, and such shares of preferred stock are issued, with rights senior to those afforded to Class A common stock.
could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of common stock are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and
may adversely affect prevailing market prices for the Class A common stock and/or Warrants.

Cybersecurity

As filed, 1,635 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

In the ordinary course of business, we receive, process, use, and store digitally large amounts of data, including customer data as well as confidential, sensitive, proprietary, and personal information. Maintaining the integrity and availability of our information technology systems and this information, as well as appropriate limitations on access and confidentiality of such information, is important to us and our business operations. To this end, we have implemented a program designed to assess, identify, and manage risks from potential unauthorized occurrences on or through our information technology systems that may result in adverse effects on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of these systems and the data residing in them.

The program is managed by our executive management team, and includes mechanisms, controls, technologies, systems, policies, and other processes designed to prevent or mitigate data loss, theft, misuse, or other security incidents or vulnerabilities affecting the systems and data residing in them. We consult with and rely upon outside advisors and experts to assist us with assessing, identifying, and managing cybersecurity risks.

We consider cybersecurity, along with other significant risks that we face, within our overall enterprise risk management framework. Our Board of Directors has oversight for the most significant risks facing us and for our processes to identify, prioritize, assess, manage, and mitigate those risks. The Board of Directors receives periodic updates on cybersecurity and information technology matters and related risk exposures from management.

Properties

As filed, 1,276 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

Our principal executive offices are located at 8201 Peters Road, Suite 1000, Plantation, FL 33324, and our telephone number is (954) 255-4000. We have no long-term lease commitment. We lease several distribution center facilities:

Shepherdsville, Kentucky — A 672,087 square foot facility (including 30,000 square feet of cold storage) leased for $4.48 per square foot through November 30, 2024. We have revised the lease and extended the term through January 31, 2031, at a rate of $5.86 per square foot with 3.25% annual increases to base rent. In addition, we retain the right to extend for an additional term of five years at fair market rent.
Shakopee, Minnesota — A 162,753 square foot facility leased for $4.43 per square foot with 2% annual escalations through May 31, 2024, at which time the lease was allowed to expire, and operations were consolidated in our Shepherdsville, KY location.
Shakopee, Minnesota — A 29,688 square foot facility leased for $5.53 per square foot through September 30, 2025.

We also maintain marketing and sales offices in six cities throughout the United States and believe our facilities are adequate and suitable for our current business needs and expect to continue to reduce reliance on fixed office space in the future.

Legal proceedings

As filed, 3,411 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

Alliance is currently involved in, and may in the future be involved in, legal proceedings, claims, and government investigations in the ordinary course of business. These include proceedings, claims, and investigations relating to, among other things, regulatory matters, commercial matters, intellectual property, competition, tax, employment, pricing, discrimination, consumer rights, personal injury, and property rights.

Depending on the nature of the proceeding, claim, or investigation, the Company may be subject to monetary damage awards, fines, penalties, or injunctive orders. Furthermore, the outcome of these matters could materially adversely affect Alliance’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. The outcomes of legal proceedings, claims, and government investigations are inherently unpredictable and subject to significant judgment to determine the likelihood and amount of loss related to such matters.

On March 31, 2023, a class action complaint, titled Matthew McKnight v. Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. f/k/a Adara Acquisition Corp., Adara Sponsor LLC, Thomas Finke, Paul G. Porter, Beatriz Acevedo-Greiff, W. Tom Donaldson III, Dylan Glenn, and Frank Quintero, was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery against our pre-Business Combination board of directors and executive officers and Adara Sponsor LLC, alleging breaches of fiduciary duties by purportedly failing to disclose certain information in connection with the Business Combination and by approving the Business Combination. On August 8, 2024, the Company entered into a settlement agreement regarding pending litigation. A settlement hearing is scheduled for November 25, 2024. The Company has accrued $511,000 and $150,000 as of June 30, 2024, and June 30, 2023, respectively, based on the expected loss.

On June 6, 2024, Office Create Corporation filed a complaint against COKeM International Ltd. (“COKeM”) in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota alleging contributory trademark infringement, contributory false designation of origin and unjust enrichment relating to COKeM’s alleged] distribution of a specific video game, Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Plaintiff is seeking damages of no less $20,913,200, plus interest of 9% accruing from October 3, 2022. On August 29, 2024, COKeM filed a response denying all allegations. COKeM intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit. At this time, we are unable to estimate potential losses, if any, related to this lawsuit.

On August 8, 2024, a class action complaint, Feller v. Alliance Entertainment, LLC and DirectToU, LLC, was filed under the Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”). The complaint alleges that the Company violated the VPPA by disclosing users’ personally identifiable information, as well as information regarding videos they viewed on the Company’s website, to Facebook through the use of Facebook Pixel. The Company is evaluating the claims and intends to defend against the allegations vigorously. At this time, the potential outcome or range of financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated.

While it is not possible to determine the outcomes, the Company believes based on its current knowledge that the resolution of all such pending matters will not, either individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on the business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

Management's discussion and analysis

As filed, 34,815 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

The objective for the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” is to provide information the Company’s management team believes is necessary to achieve an understanding of its financial condition and the results of business operations with particular emphasis on the Company’s future and should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements, and footnotes.

This analysis contains forward-looking statements concerning the Company’s performance expectations and estimates. Other than statements with historical context, commentary should be considered forward- looking and carries with it risks and uncertainties. See “Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K for a discussion of other uncertainties, risks and assumptions associated with these statements.

Alliance is a leading global wholesaler and a key player in the entertainment industry, boasts a diverse portfolio of owned brands, including Critics’ Choice, Collectors’ Choice, Movies Unlimited, DeepDiscount, popmarket, blowitoutahere, Fulfillment Express, importCDs GamerCandy, WowHD, and others. As a leading global wholesaler, direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) distributor, and e- commerce provider, Alliance operates as the vital link between renowned international manufacturers of entertainment content, such as Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Home Video, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Microsoft, Nintendo, Take Two, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and others.

This pivotal role extends to connecting these manufacturers with top-tier retail partners both domestically and internationally. Notable partners encompass giants like Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Wayfair, Costco, Dell, Verizon, Kohl’s, Target, Shopify, and others.

Employing an established multi-channel strategy, Alliance distributes physical media, entertainment products, hardware, and accessories across various platforms. Currently, the company sells its products, permitted for export, to more than 70 countries worldwide.

Alliance provides state-of-the art warehousing and distribution technologies, operating systems and services that seamlessly enable entertainment product transactions to better serve customers directly or through our distribution affiliates. These technology-led platforms with access to the Company’s in stock inventory of over 325,000 SKU products, consisting of vinyl records, video games, compact discs, DVD, Blu-Rays, toys, and collectables, combined with Alliance’s sales and distribution network, create a modern entertainment physical product marketplace that provides the discerning customer with enhanced options on efficient consumer-friendly platforms inventory. Alliance is the retailers’ back office for in-store and e-commerce solutions. All electronic data interchange (“EDI”) and logistics are operational and ready for existing retail channels to add new products.

Merger and Business Acquisition

Alliance has a proven history of successfully acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses. The Company will continue to evaluate opportunities to identify targets that meet strategic and economic criteria.

On July 1, 2022, Alliance purchased the assets and liabilities of Think3Fold, LLC, a collectables distribution company. This acquisition resulted in increased shelf space for our largest customer and expanded our product offerings.

On February 10, 2023, AENT Corporation (f/k/a Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation) (“Legacy Alliance”), Adara Acquisition Corp. (“Adara”) and Adara Merger Sub, Inc. (“Merger Sub”) consummated the closing of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, dated as of June 22, 2022, by and among Adara, Merger Sub and Legacy Alliance. Pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination Agreement, a business combination of Legacy Alliance and Adara was affected by the merger of Merger Sub with and into Alliance (the “Merger” or the “Business Combination”), with Alliance surviving the Merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adara. Following the Merger’s consummation on the closing of the Business Combination, Adara changed its name from Adara Acquisition Corp. to Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation (the “Company”).

While the legal acquirer in the Business Combination Agreement was Adara, for financial accounting and reporting purposes under U.S. GAAP, Legacy Alliance was the accounting acquirer, and the Merger was accounted for as a “reverse recapitalization.” A reverse recapitalization (i.e., a capital transaction involving the exchange of stock by Adara for Legacy Alliance’s stock) does not result in a new basis of accounting, and the consolidated financial statements of the combined entity represent the continuation of the consolidated financial statements of Legacy Alliance in many respects. Accordingly, the consolidated assets, liabilities, and results of Legacy Alliance operations became the company’s historical consolidated financial statements. Adara’s assets, liabilities, and operations results were consolidated with Legacy Alliance beginning on the acquisition date. Operations prior to the Merger are presented as those of Legacy Alliance in future reports. The net assets of Adara were recognized at historical cost (which was consistent with carrying value), with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded.

Upon consummation of the Merger, the most significant change in Legacy Alliance’s future reported financial position and results of operations was a decrease in net Equity of $787,000 compared to its consolidated balance sheet.

As a result of the Merger, Alliance Entertainment became the successor to an SEC-registered company, which requires us to hire additional personnel and implement procedures and processes to address public company regulatory requirements and customary practices. We expect to incur additional annual expenses as a public company for, among other things, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, director fees and additional internal and external accounting, legal and administrative resources, including increased audit and legal fees.

Macroeconomic Uncertainties

Unfavorable conditions in the economy in the United States and abroad may negatively affect the growth of our business and have affected our results of operations. For example, macroeconomic events, including inflation, interest rates, geopolitical issues, and uncertainty regarding the U.S. elections in the Fall of 2024 have led to economic uncertainty globally. The effect of macroeconomic conditions may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. If, however, economic uncertainty increases or the global economy worsens, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be harmed. For further discussion of the potential impacts of macroeconomic events on our business, financial condition, and operating results, see the section titled Part I “Item 1A. Risk Factors”.

Key Performance Indicators

Management monitors and analyzes key performance indicators to evaluate financial performance, including:

Net Revenue: To derive Net Revenue, the Company reduces total gross sales by customer returns, returns reserve, and allowances including discounts.

Cost of Revenues (excluding depreciation and amortization): Our cost of revenues reflects the total costs incurred to market and distribute products to customers. Changes in cost are impacted primarily by sales volume, product mix, product obsolescence, freight costs, and market development funds (“MDF”).

Margins: To analyze profitability, the Company reviews gross and net margins in dollars and as a percentage of revenue by line of business and product line.

Operating Expenses: Our Operating Expenses are the direct and indirect costs associated with the distribution and fulfillment of products and services. They include both Distribution and Fulfillment and Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) Expenses. The Distribution and Fulfillment Expenses are the payroll and operating expenses associated with the receipt, warehousing, and distribution of product.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses: The Selling, General and Administrative Expenses are payroll and operating costs for Information Technology, Sales & Marketing, and General & Administrative functions. In addition, we include Depreciation and Amortization expenses and Transaction Costs, if applicable.

Balance Sheet Indicators: The Company views cash, product inventory, accounts payable, and working capital as key indicators of its financial position.

Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation

Results of Operations Year Ended June 30, 2024, Compared to Year Ended June 30, 2023

($ in thousands)

	Year Ended June 30, 2024	Year Ended June 30, 2023
Net Revenues	$1,100,483	$1,158,722
Cost of Revenues (excluding depreciation and amortization)	971,594	1,054,788
Operating Expenses
Distribution and Fulfillment Expense	48,818	62,841
Selling, General and Administrative Expense	57,651	59,060
Depreciation and Amortization	5,880	6,629
Transaction Costs	2,086	5,014
IC DISC Commissions	-	2,833
Restructuring Costs	280	306
Loss (Gain) on Disposal of Fixed Assets	33	(3)
Total Operating Expenses	114,748	136,680
Operating Income (Loss)	14,141	(32,746)
Other Expenses
Change in Fair Value of Warrants	41	1
Interest Expense, Net	12,247	11,715
Total Other Expenses	12,288	11,716
Income (Loss) Before Income Tax Expense (Benefit)	1,853	(44,462)
Income Tax (Benefit)	(2,728)	(9,058)
Net Income (Loss)	4,581	(35,404)
Other Comprehensive loss	(2)	-
Total Comprehensive Income (Loss)	4,579	(35,404)

Net Revenue: Year-over-year, total Net Revenues decreased from $1,159 million to $1,100 million (-$59 million, -5%) for the year ended June 30, 2024. Along with other retailers and distributors in the United States, we are not immune to the macroeconomic headwinds caused by high interest rates and consumer spending discretion prompted by reduced buying power and geopolitical risks. Alliance Entertainment stands out as a value-added retail distributor with exclusive distribution rights for approximately 150 studios and labels in the film and music industry. This extensive portfolio of unique content, combined with our deep inventory portfolio, enables us to cater to bulk B2B and direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses with a vast selection of products unavailable through other distributors. Our unique DTC suite of distribution and inventory solutions for the e-commerce retail industry, including our consumer direct subsidiary DirectToU LLC, enabled approximately 36% of gross revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024, versus 31% for the 12 months ended June 30, 2023.

Physical music and movie products continue to show resilience. Year over year, Vinyl record sales increased from $324 million to $329 million ($5 million, 2%) for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024. The average selling price of Vinyl was up 6% and partially offset by decreased volume resulting in net revenue improvement versus the prior year. We expect music enthusiasts and collectors to extend this upward trend because of their passion for music, their appreciation for the artwork, and a desire to enhance their physical collection. Likewise, music Compact Discs (CDs) sales increased from $128 million to $130 million ($2 million, 2%). The average selling price of CDs increased by 12%, however, the decline in volume, partially due to the delay of some new K-Pop releases, offset some of the gains. Physical movie sales, which include DVDs, Blu-Ray, and Ultra HD, increased from $190 million to $204 million ($14 million, 8%) versus the same period last year. The average selling price of physical film products increased 19% year over year and was partially offset by a decline in volume. Digital sales of our exclusive content increased approximately 135% over the same period prior year. The consistent flow of new theatrical releases, combined with 4K and collectable SteelBook content, continues to drive home video sales. We expect the trend of higher price points to continue as brick & mortar retailers cater to the consumer preference for omnichannel shopping experiences and curated content versus inexpensive, mass market product offerings. Alliance Entertainment’s ability to offer retailers in-store and on-line channels a deep, extensive library of both music and movies helps provide them the products for a cohesive shopping experience based on personal preference and engagement with their respective brands.

Year-over-year, gaming sales decreased from $391 million to $338 million (-$53 million, -14%) for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024. The average selling price of gaming products more than doubled for the period versus prior year but was offset by a decrease in unit volume. The revenue derived from a higher price point was the direct result of our success selling more hardware and retro arcades than prior periods. Gaming suppliers continue to transition to subscription-based models, and we expect to benefit from new hardware releases during the next year. We continue to proactively monitor gaming industry trends to ensure we have the right product mix to meet market demand and maximize profitability.

For the 12 months ended June 30, 2024, Consumer Products revenue decreased from $80 million to $43 million (-$37 million, -46%) versus the same period prior year. The average selling price increased by approximately 28% this year and while volume declined, margins improved significantly as we rationalized our inventory. The toys & collectables industry appears to have stabilized in the post- pandemic era and major trade shows have resumed their promotion of these unique products. The collectables market is an integral part of the entertainment market segment due to its mix of nostalgic, investment, and intrinsic value. As such, we believe there is continued profitable growth in this category.

Cost of Revenues: Total cost of revenues, excluding depreciation and amortization, decreased from $1,055 million to $972 million ($83 million or 8%) year over year primarily due to the direct relation of product costs to sales volume. Gross Margin dollars increased $25 million year over year on lower sales and higher gross margins. Product margins increased from 9.0% to 11.7% (+2.7percentage points) for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024 versus June 30, 2023. The gross margin improvement was primarily driven by reduced costs compared to the previous year, as a result of inventory adjustments to manage the high landed costs caused by supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. In addition, business conditions allowed us to reduce our company sponsored marketing development funds (MDF) for arcades relative to prior year. Since gaming products are largely non-returnable, the supply chain does not have an established practice and cadence for mark downs like the movie and music industries. As such, gaming products typically require the distributor to bear the risk of slow-moving inventory. The change in MDF in future periods is dependent on consumer demand for gaming products and the volume and success of new movie and music releases.

Operating Expenses: Total Operating Expenses declined 16% and decreased as a percentage of revenue from 11.8% to 10.4% (1.4 percentage points) year over year. Distribution and Fulfillment expenses declined in terms of absolute dollars and the percentage of revenue and Selling General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses declined in terms of absolute dollars as well.

Total Distribution and Fulfillment Expense, as a percentage of net revenue, decreased from 5.4% to 4.4% (1.0 percentage point) for the year ended June 30, 2024, versus the same period prior year. We successfully reduced fulfillment and payroll expenses as we executed our plan to rationalize fulfillment center capacity without degradation of services. By May, we completely transitioned out of our primary Shakopee, MN warehouse and consolidated most of the product storage capacity and fulfillment operations in Shepherdsville, KY. Total Fulfillment payroll was reduced $9 million or 22% for the year ended June 30, 2024 enabling us to absorb a 2.5% increase in average labor costs while simultaneously improving warehouse efficiency by leveraging our investments in warehouse automation. In addition, we continue to monitor and optimize the use of temporary labor and overtime. Non-payroll-related fulfillment expenses were down significantly year over year and costs related to storage and freight decreased as we sold through surplus pandemic- related inventory. We expect the elimination of a warehouse, combined with continuous improvements efforts, to experience additional declines in fulfillment expenses in fiscal year 2025.

Contributing to the decline of operating expenses was reduced Selling, Administrative, and General of $1.4 million or 2.3% for the year ended June 30, 2024, versus the same period prior year. SG&A expenses declined from $59.1 million to $57.7 million year-over- year. In addition to the reduction of overhead costs, Transaction Costs declined from $5.0 million to $2.1 million and $2.8 million of IC DISC Commissions were eliminated. SG&A costs, including business process, are being examined and analyzed to identify and capture additional cost-saving opportunities.

Interest Expense: Interest Expense increased marginally from $11.7 million to $12.2 million ($0.5 million or 4.3%) for the year ended June 30, 2024, versus the prior year. Despite a significantly higher average effective interest rate this fiscal year that increased year over year from 6.0% to 9.5% (+3.5 percentage points), we successfully reduced the revolver balance $53 million or 34% from an average of $156 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 2023 to an average of $103 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024.

Income Tax: For the year ended June 30, 2024, an income tax benefit of $2.7 million was recorded compared to tax benefit of $9.1 million for the same period in the prior year. Alliance reported a pretax income of $1.9 million and pretax net loss of $(44.5) million for the years ended June 30, 2024, and 2023, respectively. The annual effective tax rate (“ETR”) for the year ended June 30, 2024, was 147% due to an immaterial true up adjustment to deferred income taxes related to the net tax effects of temporary differences between the amount of assets and liabilities for accounting purposes and the amounts used for tax purposes.

Provision for income taxes, effective tax rate and statutory federal income tax rate for the years ended June 30, 2024, and 2023 were as follows:

($ in thousands)

	Year Ended June 30, 2024	Year Ended June 30, 2023
Income tax benefit	$(2,728)	$(9,058)
Effective tax rate	147%	21%
Statutory federal income tax rate	21%	21%

Non-GAAP Financial Measures: For the year ended June 30, 2024, we had non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of $24.3 million compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $(17.6) million prior year or an improvement of $41.9 million year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended June 30, 2023, includes excessive transportation costs of $15.3 million, arcade markdowns of $12.2 million, incremental arcade storage fees of $4.6 million and additional reserves for consumer products inventory of $3.7 million. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income or loss adjusted to exclude: (i) income tax expense; (ii) other income (loss); (iii) interest expense; and (iv) depreciation and amortization expense and (v) other infrequent, non- recurring expenses. Our method of calculating Adjusted EBITDA may differ from other issuers and accordingly, this measure may not be comparable to measures used by other issuers. We use Adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our own operating performance and as an integral part of our planning process. We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure because we believe such a measure is useful to investors as a reasonable indicator of operating performance. We believe this measure is a financial metric used by many investors to compare companies. This measure is not a recognized measure of financial performance under GAAP in the United States and should not be considered as a substitute for operating earnings (losses), net earnings (loss) from continuing operations or cash flows from operating activities, as determined in accordance with GAAP. See the table below for a reconciliation, for the periods presented, of our GAAP net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA.

($ in thousands)

	Year Ended June 30, 2024	Year Ended June 30, 2023
Net Income (Loss)	$4,581	$(35,404)
Add back:
Interest Expense	12,247	11,715
Income Tax (Benefit) Expense	(2,728)	(9,058)
Depreciation and Amortization	5,880	6,629
EBITDA	19,980	(26,118)
Adjustments
IC-DISC	-	2,833
Transaction Costs	2,086	5,014
Restructuring Costs	280	306
Stock-based Compensation Expense	1,386	216
Change in Fair Value of Warrants	41	1
Contingent Loss	461	150
Loss (Gain) on Disposal of PPE	33	(3)
Adjusted EBITDA	$24,267	$(17,601)
Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended June 30, 2023, included the following expenses:
Excessive International Transportation Costs (Units Sold)		8,241
Excessive International Transportation Costs (On Hand)		7,100
Markdown for Arcades Sold		12,156
Incremental Storage Fees Arcades		4,643
Consumer Products Inventory Reserve		3,700
Total		35,840

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Liquidity: On December 21, 2023, Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation entered into a Revolving Credit Facility, which is a three-year $120 million senior secured asset-based credit facility with White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC. The Revolving Credit Facility replaced the Company’s revolver with Bank of America (the “Prior Credit Facility”). The Prior Credit Facility was scheduled to expire on December 31, 2023.

The Company has implemented certain strategic initiatives to reduce expenses and focus on the sale of higher margin products. As a result of the new credit facility, combined with these initiatives and the Company’s financial performance for the year ended June 30, 2024, the Company has concluded that it has sufficient cash to fund its operations and obligations (from its cash on hand, operations, working capital and availability on the credit facility) for at least twelve months from the issuance of these consolidated financial statements.

Our primary sources of liquidity are existing cash and cash equivalents, cash provided by operating activities, and borrowings under our credit facility. As of June 30, 2024, in addition to the $1.1 million of cash, we carried a $73 million revolver balance on our $120 million credit facility under the Loan and Security Agreement with White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC. Since June 30, 2023, our available collateral decreased from $135 million to $117 million ($18 million, 13%); however, our availability increased from $2 million to $44 million, an increase of $42 million, as we converted accounts receivable and inventory to cash which was used to reduce the revolver from $133 million to $73 million ($60 million or 45%) year over year. Combined with a lower loan ceiling of $120 million versus $175 million, we have reduced debt service costs.

($in millions)

	June 30, 2024	June 30, 2023
Revolver Balance	$73	$133
Availability	44	2

Our liquidity position has not changed significantly since the Merger, and we intend to principally rely on our borrowing capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility as well as any renewal of such facility. Although the Company does not currently intend to do so, the Company may seek to raise additional capital through the sale of equity securities.

The receipt of cash proceeds from the exercise of our Warrants is dependent upon the market price exceeding the $11.50 exercise price and the Warrants being exercised for cash. Since the exercise price of the Warrants of $11.50 per share is significantly greater than the current market price of the Class A common stock, we do not expect the Warrants to be exercised until such time, if ever, that the market price of the Class A common stock exceeds the exercise price of the Warrants. If the price of our Class A common stock remains below the respective Warrant exercise prices per share, we believe warrant holders will be unlikely to cash exercise their Warrants, resulting in little or no cash proceeds to us.

In addition, we may lower the exercise price of the Warrants in accordance with the Warrant Agreement to induce the holders to exercise such Warrants. We may effect such reduction in exercise price without the consent of such warrant holders and such reduction would decrease the maximum amount of cash proceeds we would receive upon the exercise in full of the Warrants for cash. Further, the holders of the Private Warrants and the Underwriter Warrants may exercise such Warrants on a cashless basis at any time and the holders of the Public Warrants may exercise such Warrants on a cashless basis at any time an effective registration statement is not available for the issuance of shares of Class A common stock upon such exercise. Accordingly, we would not receive any proceeds from a cashless exercise of Warrants.

Cash Flow: The following table summarizes our net cash provided by or used on operating activities, investing activities and financing activities for the periods indicated and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024 and 2023.

($ in thousands)

	Year Ended June 30, 2024	June 30, 2023
Net Income (Loss)	$4,581	$(35,404)
Net Cash (Used In) Provided By:
Operating Activities	55,818	3,388
Investing Activities	(162)	(824)
Financing Activities	(55,390)	(3,157)

For the year ended June 30, 2024, on a net income of $4.6 million, the Company’s cash provided by operating activities was $55.8 million versus $3.4 million for the year ended June 30, 2023. The primary drivers, year over year, was a $40 million increase to Net Income combined with a $49.3 million reduction of Inventory versus a $99.7 million reduction of prior year. As a result of the supply chain disruptions that occurred during the pandemic, surplus inventory accumulated and the level to support sales during fiscal year 2024 and 2023 was greatly reduced. In addition, for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024, working capital improved as Accounts Payable decreased $18.4 million and was partially offset by trade receivables that declined by $11.9 million; whereas in the prior year, Accounts Payable increased $69.0 million and trade receivables increased by $4.6 million.

Cash Flows from investing activities for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024 were marginal at $0.2 million. By comparison, for the 12 months ended June 30, 2023, cashflow from investing activities was $0.8 million due to the combined net working capital structure of the acquisition transaction attributed to Cash Paid for Business Acquisition of Think3Fold that was acquired for no consideration.

Net cash from financing activities was $55.4 million for the year ended June 30, 2024 versus cash used in financing activities of $3.2 million for the same period prior year. The cash from financing activities for the 12 months ended June 30, 2024 was used for debt service to reduce the principal on our revolver from $133 million to $73 million year over year.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The consolidated financial statements and disclosures have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which require that management apply accounting policies, estimates, and assumptions that impact the results of operations and the reported amounts of assets and liabilities in the financial statements. Management uses estimates and judgments based on historical experience and other variables believed to be reasonable at the time. Actual results may differ from these estimates under a separate set of assumptions or conditions. Note 1 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements includes a summary of the significant accounting policies and methods used by the Company in the preparation of its consolidated financial statements. Management believes that of the Company’s significant accounting policies and estimates, the following involve a higher degree of judgment or complexity:

Inventory and Returns Reserve: Product inventory is recorded at the lower of cost or net realizable value. The valuation of inventory requires significant judgment and estimates, including evaluating the need for any adjustments to net realizable value related to excess or obsolete inventory to ensure that the inventory is reported at the lower of cost or net realizable value. For all product categories, the Company records any adjustments to net realizable value, if appropriate, based on historical sales, current inventory levels, anticipated customer demand, and general market conditions.

For the year ended June 30, 2024, the Company continued to perform a net realizable value analysis to determine if a reserve or write-down was necessary for excess or obsolete inventory. The key assumptions in this analysis included estimated monthly sales and the average sales price of inventory items. The analysis considered factors such as fluctuations in market prices, recent purchase invoices, and advertised prices, adjusted for potential discounts and costs to complete, and sell.

During the year ended June 30, 2023, the Company recognized write-downs of $7.1 million for gaming arcades and $3.7 million for consumer products to their estimated net realizable value. These write-downs were recorded in cost of revenue. The Company continues to monitor macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, and supply chain disruptions, which could materially impact future net realizable value assessments.

The Company tests its goodwill for impairment when events or circumstances indicate that the fair value of the entity may be less than its carrying amount. For the year ended June 30, 2024, the Company performed a quantitative assessment of goodwill at the entity level, which is considered a single reporting unit. Based on this analysis, the Company determined that the fair value of the reporting unit exceeded its carrying value, and no impairment was recognized.

Intangible assets are carried at cost, less accumulated amortization, and are amortized over their estimated useful lives, which range from 5 to 15 years. The Company reviews these assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. There was no impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets for the year ended June 30, 2024.

Given the inherent uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment, including interest rates and economic conditions, actual results could differ from management’s estimates, which could lead to future impairment charges.

Business Combinations — Valuation of Acquired Assets and Liabilities Assumed: The Company allocates the purchase price for each business combination, or acquired business, based upon (i) the fair value of the consideration paid and (ii) the fair value of net assets acquired, and liabilities assumed. The determination of the fair value of net assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires estimates and judgements of future cash flow expectations for the acquired business and the allocation of those cash flows to identifiable tangible and intangible assets. Fair values are calculated by applying estimates related to Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) assumptions as well as incorporating expected cash flows into industry standard valuation techniques. Goodwill is the amount by which the purchase price consideration exceeds the fair value of tangible and intangible assets acquired, less assumed liabilities. Intangible assets, such as customer relations and trade names, when identified, are separately recognized and amortized over their estimated useful lives, if considered definite lived. Acquisition costs are expensed as incurred and are included in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income.

Warrant Liability – The Company’s warrant liability is remeasured at fair value as of the reporting period balance sheet date. The fair value of the Private Warrant was measured using the Lattice model approach. Significant inputs into the respective models at June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2023 are as follows:

	June 30, 2024	February 10, 2023
Stock Price	$3.00	$2.55
Exercise price per share	$11.50	$11.50
Risk-free interest rate	4.41%	4.16%
Expected term (years)	3.6	4.6
Expected volatility	36.0%	34.6%
Expected dividend yield	—	—

The warrants are scheduled to expire on February 10, 2028.

The significant assumptions using the Lattice model approach for valuation of the Private Placement Warrants and Representative Warrants were determined in the following manner:

Risk-free interest rate: the risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury rate with a term matching the time to expiration.
Expected term: the expected term is estimated to be equivalent to the remaining contractual term.
Expected volatility: expected stock volatility is based on daily observations of the Company’s historical stock value and implied by market price of the Public Warrants, adjusted by guideline public company volatility.
Expected dividend yield: expected dividend yield is based on the Company’s anticipated dividend payments. As the Company has never issued dividends, the expected dividend yield is 0% and this assumption will be continued in future calculations unless the Company changes its dividend policy.

Controls and procedures

As filed, 8,808 characters, with its headings, lists and tables. Extracted from the main document; charts and exhibits are in the original on sec.gov.

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, under the direction of and with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act) as of June 30, 2024. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures, our management concluded that, as of June 30, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective due to the material weaknesses described below. These material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting relate to the fact that the Company did not have the necessary business processes and related internal controls fully implemented to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of the financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, as described further below. The Company has added and continues to evaluate the need for additional controls over the accounting and financial reporting requirements related to certain non-routine transactions, which has been implemented withing the reporting period but has yet to be effective for most of the year. The material weaknesses will be considered remediated when such time as management designs and implements effective controls that operate for a sufficient period of time and has concluded, through testing, that these controls are effective.

Material Weaknesses in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

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 consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. As of June 30, 2024, the following material weaknesses existed:

Entity Level Controls

Management did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the (1) control environment, (2) risk assessment procedures, and (3) Board of Director’s oversight, including monitoring activities to prevent or detect material misstatements to the financial statements and assess whether the components of internal control were present and functioning. These deficiencies were primarily attributed to an insufficient number of qualified resources to support and provide proper oversight and accountability over the performance of controls.

Control Activities

Management did not have adequate selection and development of effective control activities resulting in the following material weaknesses:

Information Technology (IT) General Controls – Certain information technology general controls for security and administration of key IT systems were not designed properly or did not operate effectively. Specifically, (i) periodic user access reviews of roles and permissions were not performed sufficiently throughout the period for certain key IT systems, and (ii) certain key IT systems were not logically restricted, resulting in improper segregation of duties for certain business processes.
Financial Close Processes – Management did not design and maintain formal accounting policies, and effective control activities over certain routine aspects of financial reporting. Specifically, management did not design and maintain effective controls over (i) the financial reporting process, including management review controls over areas of accounting such as revenue, inventory, accounts payable, income taxes and payroll, at an appropriate level of precision to detect a material misstatement and sufficient appropriate evidence was not maintained to support the execution and evaluation of the controls performed, (ii) the monthly financial close process, including the review of journal entries, account reconciliations, and analysis of recorded balances, and (iii) the completeness and accuracy of information used by control owners in the operation of certain controls.

Remediation Plan for Material Weaknesses

As of June 30, 2024, the Company has implemented controls that we are confident will remediate the identified material weaknesses. While certain controls were fully operational only for a portion of the fiscal year, some control implementations are still ongoing, with significant remediation efforts being finalized by year-end. These efforts focused on enhancing financial oversight, improving the accuracy and compliance of financial operations, and strengthening our internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR). The Company continues to monitor the effectiveness of these controls to ensure sustained compliance.

Key remediation actions included:

Entity-Level Controls: We enhanced support, oversight, and accountability for key financial reporting positions. Management continues to assess and address resource needs, including the potential addition of accounting and compliance personnel and engagement of third-party advisors, as necessary.
Information Technology General Controls: We implemented user access assessments and periodic reviews for key IT systems to ensure appropriate logical security. IT processes are now centrally managed, and we are evaluating the transition of certain hosting and administrative responsibilities to third-party providers.
Financial Close Process and ICFR: We enhanced controls over revenue, inventory, accounts payable, payroll, income taxes, journal entries, and other business processes. This included developing monitoring controls to timely assess and adjust our ICFR as needed. Additionally, we engaged a third-party service provider to assist in designing and implementing significant process transaction flows and key controls across various business processes.

Despite these material weaknesses, we believe that the financial information presented in this report is materially correct and in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We are committed to ongoing monitoring and will continue reporting progress to the audit committee. However, the full remediation of these material weaknesses requires that the newly implemented controls operate effectively over time, and we cannot guarantee that additional weaknesses will not be identified in the future.

Management’s Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting

As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-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 our consolidated financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:

(1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our company,

(2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and

(3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the consolidated financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our consolidated financial statements. 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 or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to our status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act, and due to our non-accelerated filer status.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Except as described above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the most recent fiscal quarter that were identified in connection with management’s evaluation required by paragraph (d) of Rules 13d-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Figures reported in this filing

Standardized line items from the XBRL in this filing, for the period ended 2024-06-30. Comparative periods it repeats are left out.

Figures reported in this filing
Line item	Period	Value	XBRL concept
Revenue	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$1.10bn	us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax
Cost of revenue	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$1.0m	us-gaap:CostOfRevenue
Selling, general and administrative	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$57.7m	us-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpense
Operating income	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$14.1m	us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss
Interest expense	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$11.2m	us-gaap:InterestExpense
Income tax	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	−$2.7m	us-gaap:IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit
Net income	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$4.6m	us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss
Diluted EPS	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$0.09	us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted
Basic EPS	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$0.09	us-gaap:EarningsPerShareBasic
Diluted shares (weighted)	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	50,837,148 shares	us-gaap:WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding
Operating cash flow	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$55.8m	us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities
Capital expenditure	12 months2023-07-01 to 2024-06-30	$183.0k	us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment
Cash and equivalents	At period end2024-06-30	$1.1m	us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue
Current assets	At period end2024-06-30	$196.2m	us-gaap:AssetsCurrent
Total assets	At period end2024-06-30	$340.8m	us-gaap:Assets
Current liabilities	At period end2024-06-30	$147.9m	us-gaap:LiabilitiesCurrent
Total liabilities	At period end2024-06-30	$253.2m	us-gaap:Liabilities
Current portion of debt	At period end2024-06-30	$73.0m	us-gaap:DebtCurrent
Shareholders' equity	At period end2024-06-30	$87.6m	us-gaap:StockholdersEquity

Source: SEC EDGAR, the filing index for accession 0001493152-24-037185. Last ingested by Listed: Oct 24, 2026, 15:15 ET. Listed shows no prices and gives no investment advice.