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Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Blucora Q3 2015 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)
I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Ms. Stacy Ybarra, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please begin.
Stacy Ybarra - VP IR & Corporate Communications
Good afternoon, and welcome to Blucora's investor conference call to discuss third-quarter 2015 earnings. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during the course of this call, Blucora representatives will make forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding Blucora's expectations about its products and services, outlook for the future of our businesses and growth initiatives, and anticipated financial performance for the fourth quarter and future periods. Other statements that refer to our beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions which may be made in response to questions are also forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.
Because these statements pertain to future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations and beliefs. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risks and other factors discussed in Blucora's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Blucora assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, which speak only as of the date the statement is made.
In addition, during this call our management will discuss GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. In the press release, which has been posted on our website and filed with the SEC on Form 8-K, we present GAAP and non-GAAP results along with reconciliation tables and the reasons for our presentation of non-GAAP information.
We have also provided supplemental financial information to our results in the Investor Relations section of our corporate website at www.blucora.com and filed with the SEC on Form 8-K.
Now, I'll turn the call over to Bill Ruckelshaus. Following his comments, Eric Emans will review third-quarter results and fourth-quarter outlook. Then we'll open up the call to your questions.
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Thank you, Stacy. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. On today's call we will address our operating results, the Q4 outlook, and highlight our pending acquisition of HD Vest and the strategic transformation underway at Blucora.
First, our operating performance and outlook. Third-quarter performance is in line with our expectations. Consolidated revenue of $84.8 million is driven in large part by continued downward pressure at InfoSpace. On a year-over-year basis, Tax revenue increased 16%, Search and Content was down 42%, and E-Commerce was up slightly.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.6 million reflects the top-line trends of our businesses and includes one-time charges associated with our acquisition of HD Vest.
Turning first to TaxACT. The TaxACT team continues to gear up this off-season, focusing on reinforcing its value leadership position in consumer DIY and maximizing opportunities in ancillary services and adjacent markets like SMB and assisted prep. On the consumer front, TaxACT is introducing newly aligned product packages and refreshed branding this season, which will enable filers of all types to more easily identify TaxACT as the best deal in tax.
TaxACT's new product packages will include competitive offers for simple returns. Additional TaxACT packages for a more complicated return will be personalized to specific tax situations and emphasize easy experiences for filers to access the forms and schedules needed to successfully complete their returns.
The comprehensive accuracy, maximum refund, price lock, and satisfaction guarantees that TaxACT has long offered will continue. Priced well below similar DIY online products, TaxACT's new product packages will continue to make it easy for individuals and business owners to choose a solution to help do their taxes fast, easily, and at fair prices. We are looking forward to the upcoming tax season and excited to now be working with HD Vest to test new opportunities to bring more value to our TaxACT customers.
Search and Content continues to be a mixed story. Core search is declining, consistent with recent trends. Over 30% of our network partners are now migrated to Bing; and the financial uplift of this transition is positive. Overall, the core search business continues to transition to new policies from our search engine partners, but signs of stabilization are evident and the model is intact.
At HowStuffWorks, the team is making great progress on several fronts, highlighted by the recent launch of an advanced publishing and revenue optimization platform built for the social age. The work done by this team in a short time is impressive and includes: tools providing real-time insights into relevant content; a lightweight platform enabling editorial publishing of modern articles; underlying data and analytics to optimize site monetization and customer ROI.
Soft-launched in September, the results are showing. Monthly page views are up over 50% compared to June; programmatic revenue is up 31% over Q2.
In October the team launched HowStuff NOW, a new HSW online publication to deliver enlightening, trending content to smart social media consumers. In its first week, NOW is contributing over 150,000 incremental weekly unique sessions. NOW is built on a new technology stack that extends the tremendous HowStuffWorks content to new, engaged audiences.
At Monoprice, the team continues to advance against its goals of product innovation, operational enhancement, and channel development. Recent product introductions in core categories like cables and battery back-ups have been well reviewed and are generating customer excitement. New launches in pro-audio, display, camera, home theater, and security position Monoprice well for the coming holiday season and onward.
On the operational front, Monoprice opened up a new distribution center in Kentucky, providing faster delivery times and better value to Eastern US customers. Last, third-party channels continue to provide growth outside of Monoprice.com, expand our reach to new domestic and international customers, and demonstrate the value proposition of our extensive CE product offerings.
The outlook for Monoprice and Infospace is encouraging. As we announced earlier this month, our plan is to divest both businesses in connection with our strategic transformation. We are close to launching both sales processes and expect each to generate interest from multiple parties and unlock value. The plan is to complete both divestitures no later than mid next year.
Now for a few words on our pending acquisition of HD Vest. This transaction builds around our strongest asset, TaxACT, and creates opportunities to realize significant synergies.
In 2017 we estimate $5 million in revenue synergy, and $7 million in cost reductions as a result of our narrowed focus. Our anticipated divestitures of InfoSpace and Monoprice will facilitate our strategic transformation and in turn enable us to reduce operating expenses and focus concertedly on the growing financial services and technology market.
I am thrilled about the plans for HD Vest to join forces with Blucora. Led by Roger Ochs, the HD Vest team brings decades of experience in providing financial planning and wealth management solutions to tax professionals and their clients. Our experience in providing tech-enabled financial services through TaxACT positions Blucora to accelerate the distinct HD Vest vision of empowering tax professionals with financial planning and wealth management solutions.
Blucora will enable HD Vest to strengthen its commitment to helping individual clients pursue a holistic approach to their financial well-being. The combination provides HD Vest with the advantages of operating as part of a publicly-traded company, including greater access to capital markets for growth opportunities and enhanced flexibility in compensation and employee ownership participation.
For over 30 years, HD Vest's independent advisors have focused on the mass affluent market, which has been greatly underserved by the financial advisory community. HD Vest has more than 4,500 advisors across the 50 states.
The HD Vest mission statement has not waivered over the years: helping Americans retire with financial dignity. HD Vest delivers holistic financial planning that considers both taxes and investment choices. HD Vest calls this approach Tax Alpha, and it represents the value added to a client's financial plan by optimizing sound tax strategies.
HD Vest's business is built on the relationship that tax professionals have with their clients. It starts with the tax return itself. They teach advisors how to upload data into a financial planning tool called 1040 Analyst and identify investment opportunities, whether it's helping them retire with financial dignity, making sure they have the right investments to fund their children's education or maybe the right insurance in place. They do that by starting with the tax return and then ultimately going through a financial planning process, and then in the end managing the assets to help them get there.
The tie-ins with TaxACT are obvious and compelling. TaxACT delivers a valuable service to 5.5 million consumers, many of them Millennials. These consumers may or may not believe that they need a financial advisor today, but as they get older and they get married and have kids, buy a house, they're going to start thinking about retirement planning, or they're going to start thinking about putting their kids through school, or start thinking about the need for insurance to protect against some catastrophic event. This progression of financial management needs creates an exciting lifetime opportunity for the new Blucora.
TaxACT also provides tax software to more than 19,000 tax professionals. Directly engaging with these tax professionals should help accelerate HD Vest's recruiting efforts and bring added value by growing the practices of the current TaxACT paid professional customers.
In summary, we are excited about our future as a financial services and technology company. Following completion of our strategic transformation, the new Blucora will be well positioned in markets that benefit from positive secular trends. On top of that, the combined Company will benefit from proven growth, strong cash flow generation, and synergy opportunity.
I'd now like to turn the call over to Eric for more details on our financials.
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Thanks Bill. Consolidated results for the third quarter were in line with our guidance expectations, when normalized for transaction-related expenses and other one-time charges. Third-quarter revenue was $84.8 million and adjusted EBITDA was a negative $1.6 million.
Non-GAAP net loss was $5.5 million or a loss of $0.13 per share. GAAP net loss was $10.6 million or a loss of $0.26 per share. We exit the third quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $292.3 million and net cash of $61.1 million.
Turning to our third-quarter segment performance, I want to touch briefly on Tax Preparation, which is in its seasonally slow period. Revenue in the quarter was $2.9 million and segment loss was $2.5 million, both exceeding the high end of our guidance expectations.
We are tightening our full-year 2015 Tax segment expectations to the high end of the range. We expect revenue of $117 million to $117.5 million and segment margin of 47.5% to 48%.
Looking ahead to 2016, we expect first-half segment revenue of $122 million to $125 million at a segment margin of 55% to 56%. We expect approximately 72% of our first-half revenue to hit in the first quarter at a segment margin of approximately 54%.
Now turning to the Search and Content and E-Commerce segments, given our stated intention to divest both businesses their results will be reported as discontinued operations beginning in the fourth quarter. As such, I will provide some color on their respective third-quarter results and then provide combined fourth-quarter outlook for these segments.
Starting with Search and Content, third-quarter revenue was $43.1 million and segment income was $4.5 million, which included a one-time charge of $650,000 associated with a 10% reduction in workforce.
Owned and operated revenue was down 37% sequentially due to new marketing practices referenced in our last call, which pressured margins and resulted in our pulling back in marketing spend in the quarter. The team has successfully optimized and stabilized performance exiting the third quarter, and we expect growth from owned and operated in the fourth quarter. Distribution revenue was down 7% sequentially, in part driven by new marketing changes noted above.
We are encouraged by these results. Although we again expect a step down in the fourth quarter, we are optimistic that we are nearing the bottom.
Moving to E-Commerce, revenue for the third quarter was $38.8 million and segment income was $2.2 million for a segment margin of approximately 6%. The segment margin came in lower than expected, driven by promotional activity and product mix shifts in certain marketplace channels. Revenue was up 2% versus prior year on a 5% decrease in orders offset by an 8% increase in average order value.
Combined fourth-quarter outlook for the Search and Content and E-Commerce segments are as follows: revenue of $83.4 million to $89.1 million; and segment income of $7.5 million to $9.2 million. The revenue outlook reflects expectations of sequential growth for E-Commerce and a potential for growth in Search and Content. Additionally, the revenue outlook reflects a path to double-digit growth for E-Commerce.
With that being said, with our announced intent to divest Monoprice we will be less inclined to sacrifice profitability to chase revenue. We expect sequential segment income growth from both segments and expanded margin in the Search and Content segment.
Finishing off the third-quarter results, unallocated corporate expenses came in at $5.8 million and included one-time charges of $1.5 million, primarily driven by transaction expenses associated with the announced acquisition of HD Vest. For the fourth quarter we expect unallocated corporate expenses of $9.6 million to $9.3 million, which includes approximately $5.9 million in charges associated with the announced acquisition of HD Vest and the Blucora transformation. Charges include employee severance and retention related expenses, non-contingency based transaction expenses, and other non-recurring costs.
It is worth nothing that our fourth-quarter expectations for unallocated expenses exclude contingency-based transaction expenses which will be triggered at the close of the HD Vest acquisition. Further, certain corporate costs that are related to the Search and Content and E-Commerce segments may also be reported as discontinued operations beginning in the fourth quarter.
Closing with our consolidated fourth-quarter expectations, we expect consolidated revenue between $85.9 million and $91.9 million; adjusted EBITDA between negative $7.7 million and negative $5.2 million; non-GAAP net loss of $9.1 million to $6.5 million, or a loss of $0.22 to $0.16 cents per share; and GAAP net loss of $16 million to $14.3 million, or a loss of $0.39 to $0.35 cents per share.
With that, let's turn the call over to the operator and we'll gladly take your questions.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Gil Luria, Wedbush Securities.
Gil Luria - Analyst
Thank you; food afternoon. Overhead is going, it sounds like you're going to break overhead into a couple of pieces, into a piece that will go with the discontinued operations and a piece that will be ongoing and go forward with TaxACT and HD Vest in the future. What's your sense for what the run rate for overhead is going to be exiting this year and entering next year?
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Hey, Gil, it's Eric. We're going to have a lot of transition that carries on into next year, and so I think the best number to point to is our expectation in 2017 getting to the $12 million target. I'd say for modeling purposes a reasonable expectation, and giving some consideration to some of the transition we'll have happening next year, is probably in the $14.5 million to $16 million range next year. But we'll be sure to itemize out those nonrecurring charges as we go forward.
Gil Luria - Analyst
Got it. Then on Tax, $122 million to $125 million, maybe I didn't hear correctly. That's just for the first half of the year, or is that for the full year?
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
That's just for the first half.
Gil Luria - Analyst
That's for the first half? Okay.
On HD Vest, this is new for a lot of us. Can you give us an update on what some of the regulatory challenges are in terms of the products that they sell? Are there any products that are high-yielding that maybe have a change in the regulatory environment? And what part of your revenue comes from those types of products?
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Hey, Gil, it's Eric. I think this is a highly regulated industry and constantly changing, and so it's something we're going to have to stay in front of. We have a very experienced team at HD Vest that has been doing this for years, and so we take great comfort in that.
I think as we think about regulatory exposure and the questions that people have been focused on, it's really related to the prospective DoL changes which would impact primarily retirement-based accounts or retirement assets that are either illiquid or alternative, or variable annuities which are already tax-advantaged savings vehicles for retirement. We've talked a little bit about that in our previous call.
Basically the way to think about that in our business is about 20% of our revenue is driven by transactional -- transaction or commission-based revenue, and only less than 50% of that total is driven by variable annuities and alternative products.
The other thing I would say is this is a top 10 independent broker-dealer. It's got the size and scale to deal with these types of changes and a very experienced group to do that.
Part of the DoL change is going to require fiduciary responsibility from the advisor to its clients. If you think about our clients, they already have a fiduciary responsibility. They are enrolled agents and CPAs, so I think it's nothing that's going to be new for them.
Then as we've also talked about, the trend in our assets under management, over time it's moving more and more towards fee-based, which will not be impacted by the DoL regulation. So I think, look, it's a macro risk to the industry and something that we spend some time on and management at HD Vest is very familiar with. And we think we are well positioned to deal with the changes.
But certainly it can impact players in this space, and we'll work hard to make sure it minimizes the impact on us.
Gil Luria - Analyst
Got it; that makes sense. Thank you very much.
Operator
Dan Kurnos, The Benchmark Company.
Dan Kurnos - Analyst
Great, thanks. Just a couple for me. I guess -- look, we've all had time to digest the HD Vest acquisition. Maybe if we can just about from a high-level picture, I understand that this is a transformational acquisition. Maybe can you guys just give us any more insight into your rationale as it relates to long-term shareholder value between this option and just simply divesting Search and E-Commerce and reinvesting in TaxACT and buying back stock?
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Yes, Dan, it's Bill. Look, I think this is consistent with what we've been citing as the strategic objectives over the last several years, which is to position Blucora with quality businesses that had strong growth prospects, and ideally where there was a tying together of those businesses we owned, where we could focus.
The attributes we would look for would be attributes we would all recognize as contributing to the definition of a good business, including growth and predictability, visibility. And certainly we see those attributes in TaxACT and the opportunities to pair TaxACT with HD Vest and, in connection with that, very logically, look for new owners for InfoSpace and Monoprice, strikes us as precisely the right direction to go to as it relates to fulfillment of the strategy.
So what does that then enable? Well, I referenced in my opening remarks the idea of unlocking value in Monoprice and InfoSpace. I truly believe that these businesses will be more valuable in the hands of a different owner than they are right now in the hands of Blucora. That's one of the reasons why I believe unlocking value is likely to happen in these forthcoming divestiture discussions.
And upon our executing those divestitures then bringing together TaxACT and HD Vest inside of a more lean corporate parent, we are well on the way toward a repositioning of the Company around something that I think actually has probably more recognizability and coherence inside a particular space, and where their synergy opportunity gives us an opportunity to think about reinvesting in strategic ways, as well as shifting our capital allocation view when it comes to M&A toward being much more through a strategic lens, which is always advantageous.
Also, I think importantly it puts us on a path of utilizing the NOL, which has been a significant asset and a potential significant source of value for shareholders. This transaction definitely checks the box on that and positions us, as we discussed on our last call, in 2017 to start returning capital to shareholders so that they can start to benefit directly in the value creation that we're seeing from this.
So I think all in all, it is a very complicated set of messages that we announced a couple weeks ago, but when we get through some of these intermediate execution steps I think we'll be very well positioned and our shareholders will start to benefit.
Dan Kurnos - Analyst
All right. Digging a bit deeper -- and thanks for that, Bill -- can you guys give us -- I know it's still relatively early, but can you give us any more granularity on some of the puts and takes within HD Vest? Such as your expectations for AUM growth; how fast the pieces, whether transactional or fee-based, are growing; or a longer-term outlook for those now that you have dug in a little bit deeper, maybe beyond the initial data you've shared with us. How exactly you plan on capturing the $5 million in synergies and the full value of your NOLs.
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Yes. In the presentation that we provided a couple weeks ago in connection with our announcement, there was a particular schedule where we pointed to 2015 and 2016 results for HD Vest and also referenced a long-term model. That's probably a good schedule to point you to in terms of guidance -- at least guidance that we're prepared to provide at this point, whether it is financial based or metrics based. But I would point you back to that, Dan.
Then the synergy capture is -- frankly, just one of the sources of synergy that we actually see occurring in this transaction specifically relates to bringing some of the HD Vest investment advisory solutions as well as investment choices to TaxACT customers, either in connection with their tax planning and filing or outside of it. We specifically modeled 2017, which is when we think we're going to be best prepared to do that in as seamless and automated a fashion as possible.
you might imagine that as we approach the end of the year and have not yet even closed the transaction, it's going to be difficult to pull that off in the coming tax season. But that's really the source of synergy that was modeled.
I think the synergies that we think actually exist in total are coming from a variety of sources. So in our minds, that's just scratching the surface.
Dan Kurnos - Analyst
Okay.
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Hey, Dan, it's Eric. A couple things that I would add to that is, if you just take the guidance that we provided for the first half of tax season for next year, and do it on an LTM basis just as a proxy for 2016 for the TaxACT business, let's call that $61 million of segment income. And if you assume we get to our corporate OpEx number of $12 million in early 2017 on a run rate basis and just pro forma that back to 2016, you're looking at adjusted EBITDA of close to $100 million, call it $96 million, and unlevered free cash flow about $86 billion, and a non-GAAP EPS of $1.29, which is really in our calculation a proxy for cash per share for shareholders. And that is going to be up, call it, 16% to 18% versus what a pro forma basis would be on 2015.
So I think you really start to see the benefit of this asset being in our ownership structure. And then compounding on top of that is the synergies which are not -- are even outside of that, that we hope to unlock in 2017. So I think there's a really compelling case if you focus on getting through, as Bill said, these transitional steps and putting us on a path to provide some pretty healthy financial results and metrics into the future.
Dan Kurnos - Analyst
On the plus side, I guess it's a good thing that my pro forma 2016 looks kind of in-line with your thinking. But just one more additional question for you, I guess maybe, Eric, this one might be for you.
Just on the TaxACT side, looks like you're giving up maybe a percentage point or so of margin to ensure that you maintain that double-digit growth profile, understanding that HD Vest isn't going to be a significant contributor this quarter, and understand that that could change depending on the way the product mix and how the tax season unfolds.
But is that a fair assessment and thought process, and maybe it ends up being more like a half percentage point at the end of the year? Or how should we think about that?
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Yes. A couple things I would say to that, and Bill touched on it in his prepared remarks. I mean, we are changing some pricing and packaging this year; and I think the way to read that is we are prioritizing share growth.
We've always sought out profitable share and we'll continue to seek out profitable share. But a lot of the pricing and packaging changes that we're going to make this year is to make us more competitive, which will introduce a little more uncertainty into our forward expectations, just when you introduce change. We're going to make sure that we're conservative.
But I would also call your attention to a couple other things. We're continuing to invest in tools and technology, which will -- or one-time investments that we believe are going to come through next year. So I think assuming that we're going to give up a point or so in margin next year for future growth is the right way to think about it.
Then in addition to that, we're bringing Simple Tax on. That's something we're excited about up in Canada, and we're looking to invest in that as well.
So I think that 2016 is a year of where we're changing our pricing and packaging, looking to be a little more aggressive on share, and then as well make some investments in the core as well as up in Simple Tax up in Canada.
Dan Kurnos - Analyst
All right, great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Brian Fitzgerald, Jefferies.
John Struffa - Analyst
Hi, thank you for taking my question. This is actually [John Struffa] on for Brian. Yes, just talking about the acquisition and your history of acquisitions of a little bit, once the HD Vest acquisition closed are you guys going to be looking at any other acquisitions that you might be able to bolt on?
And a quick follow-up to that: would it be a bolt-on to the TaxACT and HD Vest businesses? Or would it be in other verticals, maybe?
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Yes, hey, this is Bill. I think the near-term focus is going to be on integrating HD Vest, making sure that the conversations and tie-ins between HD Vest and TaxACT are happening at the right levels and at the right pace, and deleveraging. We're taking on a fair amount of debt to finance this transaction and that's certainly going to be the priority.
As we move down to a more reasonable level of net leverage, I think we'll have the option to think about acquisitions. But certainly in the next year or so we're going to be laser focused on deleveraging.
John Struffa - Analyst
Great; thank you, and a quick follow-up. I know you mentioned that you have Simple Tax for Canada. Is there any plans on bringing HD Vest services up north a little bit?
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Certainly that can be an option for us. I think the 5.5 million filers in the US is probably the bigger target to focus on; but as Simple Tax continues to ramp up in Canada we're going to look for opportunities to connect HD Vest with Simple Tax as well.
John Struffa - Analyst
Great. Thank you so much.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Mitch Bartlett, Craig-Hallum Capital.
George Sutton - Analyst
Hi, guys. This is George on for much. A couple more on HD Vest. I'm still a bit unclear on the revenue synergy and wondering if that's coming from offering some kind of online -- the platform online to your core tax customers, or it will be delivering leads to the independent tax preparers that use HD Vest.
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
So, probably the simple way, it's the first category you mentioned, which is just as -- the interesting observation that the founders of HD Vest started with was that, as it relates to financial advisory and wealth management, is the unique position that is occupied by the tax preparer, the tax professional, and that comes from two perspectives.
One is that the relationship is among the more trusted relationships of any professional services relationship that most of us have in the United States. There are surveys they've done year in and year out that continually rank your tax preparer right up there maybe alongside your doctor as the most trusted relationship that you have. So that's one.
The second observation was that it is precisely in the process of preparing your tax return and coming out of that filing that ideas are -- and opportunities come forward as it relates to how it is someone can optimize either their tax preparation or their investment objectives. So it's really with those two observations that HD Vest was ultimately founded and has grown to be what it is today.
Well, I would say that precisely that set of dynamics when taken to the TaxACT relationship with its 5.5 million filers I think applies and gives you a sense as to why we think there's an opportunity to bring some of the HD Vest products to those filers, in the sense that there is a trusted relationship between TaxACT and its filers. And it is also true that there is signal coming off of those filings as to what might represent suitable investment opportunities for those particular filers, based on information gleaned from their tax filing.
So that's really the extension of the -- why we think it can fit. I think what we have to do to best execute against these opportunities is build the technology that will allow for, as best as possible, an automated presentation of the investment options as well as an automated fulfillment should a filer want to pursue one of them.
And also, as you might imagine, it's important to be very transparent with our filers in terms of getting their consent along the way, which we think is something that we intend to do. And those will be forthcoming when the filers see the value in the alternatives that they can be presented with.
So hopefully that helps explain it. It is in many respects what the advisers inside of the HD Vest network are doing on behalf of their clients. It's taking those sets of solutions and products and bringing them in a technology-enabled way to the 5.5 million filers inside of TaxACT.
George Sutton - Analyst
Does that require you to get -- to go through some regulatory process to become enabled to be able to offer that stuff yourselves?
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Well, HD Vest itself is a fully registered investment advisor, so they have an ability to offer that. So it would be an HD Vest provided solution.
George Sutton - Analyst
I guess I just mean they're not direct with consumers, though, right? So does that direct relationship make it so that you have to -- I mean, I guess they're just able to offer that right now?
Eric Emans - CFO, Treasurer
Yes. They have a home office, and because they are registered, they are a corporate RIA, they can offer those services.
George Sutton - Analyst
Okay, okay. Then I know that the near-term goal after it's acquired will be paying down debt and getting it all aligned and synched up with TaxACT. Is the longer term, thinking three to five years, are there a lot of opportunities to acquire ancillary services or products, or things that would fit very well with that platform? Are there some obvious products that could be added easily that aren't there right now?
Bill Ruckelshaus - President, CEO
Yes. No, I think that -- not to dismiss inorganic growth as an option for the Company going forward, it's just in this intermediate period of the need to delever. But yes, certainly I think whether it's products or accelerating the rate of advisor acquisition through strategic acquisition, or technology-related pieces that can facilitate the HD Vest model or the HD Vest intersection with TaxACT, yes, all of those things are going to be interesting to evaluate. We're already -- been in discussions with both the TaxACT and HD Vest teams around how to start thinking about segmenting the landscape of opportunities.
George Sutton - Analyst
Great, thank you.
Operator
That concludes today's question-and-answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program, and you may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.