Pink OTC Markets Reports Results for First Quarter Fiscal 2010

NEW YORK, May 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pink OTC Markets Inc. (OTCQX: PINK) announced strong revenues and net income for the three months ended March 31, 2010.

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For the three months ended March 31, 2010, revenues totaled $6.6 million, an increase of $1.2 million, or 22.7%, compared to the prior year's first quarter results of $5.4 million.  Net Income for the first quarter of 2010 rose 62.2% to $963 thousand from $594 thousand in the first quarter of 2009.  Net Income per weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding increased 52.8% to $0.09, compared to $0.06 for the first quarter of 2009.

"Our year over year growth in revenues and net income and strong cash flow have allowed Pink OTC to invest in further improving our information products and technology platform," stated R. Cromwell Coulson, President and Chief Executive Officer.  "More and more broker-dealers are choosing to use our interdealer quotation system for all of their OTC equity quotation activities, resulting in immediate cost savings to our customers and increased value to our market data and issuer services products."

First Quarter Results

First quarter revenues increased 22.7% to $6.6 million compared to $5.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009.  Trading Services revenues increased by 8.7% to $2.8 million as compared to $2.6 million for the first quarter of 2009 primarily due to price modifications enacted on July 1, 2009.  Market Data Licensing revenues posted a strong 30.4% increase to $2.9 million for the first quarter of 2010 compared to $2.2 million for the same period in 2009.  Revenue growth was attributable to the introduction of six new market data licenses as of January 1, 2009 and a price increase that was phased in during 2009.  Issuer Services revenues for the quarter grew by $0.4 million, or 70.3%, to $0.9 million as compared to $0.6 million for the same period in 2009.  The growth in Issuer Services revenues was attributable to the addition of new OTCQX® companies as well as new and greater renewal subscription fees associated with one or more of the Issuer Services suite of products and services.  Website Advertising revenues in the first quarter of 2010 decreased by 55.3% to $39 thousand compared to $88 thousand in the first quarter of 2009.

Operating expenses increased 12.8% during the first quarter to $4.5 million from $4.0 million in the first quarter of 2009 primarily as a result of increased compensation and professional services.  "We remain very concerned about the FINRA QCF rule proposal, which, if enacted, would be detrimental to OTC market participants and to investors," continued Coulson.  "If adopted, the QCF will have a negative impact on Pink OTC's market data revenues, so we are devoting legal resources to best protect our intellectual property rights."

Operating income in the first quarter rose 59.2%, or $0.6 million, to $1.6 million compared to $1.0 million in the first quarter of 2009 and operating margin increased to 24.4% compared to 18.8% for the first quarter of 2009.  In both cases, the growth was primarily attributable to greater revenues across the three main businesses.

"The OTCQX marketplace recently hit the important 100 company milestone," stated Mr. Coulson. "We are seeing this new offering take off as investor-focused companies take advantage of the OTCQX platform to create a better OTC market for their investors."

Pink OTC Markets' Quarterly Report for the period ended March 31, 2010 is available publicly at: http://www.otcmarkets.com/pink/quote/quote.jsp?symbol=PINK&tabValue=4#getFilings.

Dividend Declaration – Quarterly Cash Dividend

Contemporaneous with the announcement of earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, Pink OTC Markets announced today that its Board of Directors authorized a quarterly cash dividend on its Class A common stock of $0.04 per share.  The dividend is payable on July 8, 2010 to stockholders of record on June 22, 2010.  The ex-dividend date is June 18, 2010.  This dividend payment is unchanged from the Company's two previous quarterly cash dividends.

R. Cromwell Coulson, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "The Board and I believe that it is in the best interest of our shareholders to pay an attractive dividend; in recognition of the strong cash flow produced by our operations, we are pleased to share these results with our stockholders by continuing our quarterly dividend at $0.04 per share."

On March 11, 2010, Pink OTC Markets' Class A Common Stock moved to the OTCQX U.S. Premier tier, having previously traded on the Pink Sheets' Current Information tier from September 16, 2009, under the ticker symbol PINK.

About Pink OTC Markets Inc.

Pink OTC Markets Inc. (OTCQX: PINK), headquartered in New York City, operates the leading electronic interdealer quotation and trading system and facilitates trading in over 9,000 securities not listed on a U.S. stock exchange.  Pink OTC Markets segments these securities into three tiers: the quality-controlled OTCQX marketplace, the U.S. registered and reporting OTCQB marketplace, and the speculative trading Pink Sheets marketplace.  These three tiers constitute the third largest U.S. liquidity pool for trading public company shares after The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. and The New York Stock Exchange.  Our products and services promote market transparency, improve price discovery, facilitate regulatory compliance, and increase the quality of issuer disclosure, to the benefit of all OTC market participants.  To learn more about how Pink OTC Markets' products and services make OTC markets more transparent, informed, and efficient, please visit our websites at www.otcmarkets.com, www.pinkotc.com and www.otcqx.com or contact us at [email protected].

About OTCQX

The OTCQX marketplace is the premier tier of the U.S. OTC securities market.  Investor-focused companies use the quality controlled OTCQX listing platform to offer investors transparent trading, superior information, and easy access through their regulated U.S. broker-dealers.  The innovative OTCQX platform offers companies and their shareholders a level of marketplace services formerly available only on a U.S. exchange.  For more information about OTCQX, visit www.otcqx.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements can be identified by use of the words "expect," "project," "may," "might," potential," and similar terms.  Pink OTC Markets Inc. ("Pink OTC", "we" or the "Company") cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information.  Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond Pink OTC's control.  These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to implement our strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and price fluctuations, government and industry regulation, U.S. and global competition and other factors.  We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Item VIII of our Initial Company Information and Disclosure Statement for the year ended December 31, 2009.  We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements.  Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Pink OTC Markets Inc.