ACCESS Newswire Inc. (ACCS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings. Welcome to ACCESS Newswire 2026 Annual Shareholder Meeting. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Brian Balbirnie, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Brian Balbirnie, and I am the Chairperson of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of ACCESS Newswire Inc., and I would like to welcome everyone to our 2026 Virtual Annual Meeting. This meeting is being webcast via our virtual annual meeting platform, the URL to which was previously circulated to all stockholders in our proxy statement. First, let's discuss the voting process. You do not need to vote again today if you have already voted. However, if you do wish to vote today, you will find a button on your screen label to Vote My Shares. This link will allow you to vote your online shares during the meeting. This applies only to registered holders. If you are a beneficial holder, meaning that you hold your shares in street name through a broker or bank, you will need to e-mail or request a formal legal proxy to Daragh Hewitt at [email protected], who is acting as the Inspector of Elections and who is a representative of our stock transfer agent, Vinyl Equity, and he will provide you additional instructions to vote your shares. Second, let's discuss how you can ask a question during today's meeting. If you would like to ask a question, you will see a button labeled Ask a Question on your virtual meeting platform screen that will allow you to place a question into the queue. The questions-and-answer sessions will conclude today's formal meeting. I would now ask that the official meeting please come to order. I will serve as the chairperson for today's meeting. I would like to now introduce to you the following persons in attendance. Our Audit Committee Chairperson and Independent Director, Mr. Graeme Rein, our Audit Committee and Compensation Committee member and Independent Director, Mr. Wesley Pollard; our Compensation Committee Chairperson and Independent Director, Mr. Joseph Staples, our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Steve Knerr, Mr. Heath Glidewell of Cherry Bekaert, our independent accountants; and Mr. Jeff Quick, our Corporate Legal Counsel, are in attendance as well. Also, as I mentioned previously, Daragh Hewitt is acting as our Inspector of Elections for today's meeting. Mr. Quick will act as the Secretary for today's meeting. The Chair recognizes Mr. Quick.

Thank you, Brian. The inspector of elections has been appointed to receive and count votes and to report on the results of the meeting. The inspector has prepared a preliminary report of proxies delivered to the company as of June 25, 2026, and has delivered that report to the Chairperson. Proxies were received in response to a notice of meeting which was mailed on or about April 30, 2026, to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 30, 2026. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections indicates that 1/3 of the issued and outstanding shares of the company are represented at this meeting as required by the company's second amended and related bylaws. I therefore declare that a quorum is present and that this meeting is duly and properly convened. I'll now return the meeting to Brian.

Thank you, Jeff. We will now vote on each of the proposals scheduled to come before today's meeting. The first action item is the election of directors to serve until our next annual meeting of shareholders. The following are the nominees to the Board of Directors: Brian Balbirnie, Wesley Pollard, Graeme Rein, Joseph Staples. We will proceed to the next item. . The second and final item to be voted on today is the proposal to ratify the appointment of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Cherry Bekaert LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2026. The Audit Committee has appointed the firm of Cherry Bekaert, independent registered public accounting firm to audit and report on our financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2026. We have engaged Cherry Bekaert as our independent registered public accounting firm since June of 2010. The Board of Directors recommends the approval of Cherry Bekaert as the company's independent accountants. A motion to ratify such appointment would now be in order.

I hereby move for ratification of the appointment of Cherry Bekaert LLP as the independent registered public accountants of the company for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026.

I second the motion.

At this time, if there are any stockholders in attendance who have not yet voted and wish to do so, please click the button voted -- labeled Vote my Shares. We will pause for a moment to allow any and all stockholders this opportunity. . [Voting]

We can now hear from the company's Inspector of Elections for this Annual Meeting of Stockholders who will read the preliminary report of the inspector of elections as to each of the matters of which action was taken. The preliminary report reflects only those votes cast by proxies that were received by the company prior to June 26, 2026, and any votes cast today will appear in the final report of inspector and in the permanent records of the company. . Daragh Hewitt, please, sir, would you present the report?

Thank you. I will read the voting results. For the election of Graeme Rein, there are 1,976,515 shares voted for, that is 87.29%. There are 287,742 shares voted withheld, that is 12.7%. For the election of Wesley Pollard, there are 1,987,945 shares voted for, which is 87.79%. The withheld votes are 276,312 which is 12.2%. For the election of Joseph Staples, there are 1,987,945 shares voted for, which is 87.79% and there are 276,312 shares voted withheld, which is 12.2%. So the election of Brian Balbirnie, there are 1,859,945 shares voted for, which is 82.14% and the withheld votes are 404,000,311 shares, which is 17.5%. For proposal 2, to ratify the appointment of the accounting firm, there are 2,653,094 shares voted for, which is 89.53% and there are 309,949 shares voted against, which is 10.46%. And there are 21 shares abstained from voting, which is less than 1%. That concludes the preliminary report on votes.

Thank you, Daragh. We have now reached the general question-and-answer portion of the meeting. [Operator Instructions] We will pause just for another moment to wait to see if there's any questions. There being no other questions, our final order of business is to adjourn the meeting formally. A motion to adjourn would be in order.

I hereby move that the meeting be adjourned.

I second the motion.

It has been moved and seconded that this meeting be range. Is there any objection to adjourning the meeting at this time? The motion is carried, and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for your attendance today.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation.