Tech: Mobile talent comp owner MSM is only making enough money to pay its directors $1.48m
Tech
It sounded like MSM Corporation International (ASX:MSM) were on to a winner: a mobile app-based talent competition, judged by Usher, profiled by the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden, the winner taking home a cool $1 million.
But that platform, dubbed ‘Megastar Millionaire’, has been a complete flop: the company is making virtually no money, is significantly behind in its financial accounts, has been suspended from trading since September last year and posted a loss of nearly $19 million for FY18.
All while its board of directors and key management personnel were paid a collective $1.48 million, ever so slightly less than the $1.5 million they picked up in 2017.
MSM Corp posted its preliminary FY18 figures in late August last year, which showed the talent app was making about 3c per download, but only today released its annual report to shareholders.
It then went into a trading halt in September, which became a voluntary suspension that has held ever since, as the company tries to get its house in order.
MSM is significantly behind in its financial figures — it today released its quarterly report for both September and December, which showed it has not made a dime in the past six months, and has $1.1 million left in the bank, expecting to spend $1.08 million in the March quarter.
It also extended its suspension until at least April 3 as it finalises its half-year report with auditors.
The initial Megastar Worldwide Tournament 1 (WWT1), which concluded in late 2017, was a success on the surface but “did not deliver the monetisation to springboard in WWT2”, the company said in its annual report.
That led to an internal review, with the company now saying it will focus on commercialising the Megastar platform outside of North America, in particular India, and move into eSports, while WWT2 is being prepared in the background.