Vivek Shah: Yeah. I mean, look I think we have always thought of M&A really through both lenses. So we have seven verticals, seven platforms for acquisitions as you know. We have all seven of those verticals and the individuals who work there continually sourcing deals and opportunities that can — from which we can extract value by placing them on to those platforms. That is always been the center of the bull’s eye. At the same time, adding new verticals is something we have done multiple times in the past, whether it’s the shopping vertical, the connectivity vertical, the health vertical and those when we do new verticals there larger deals. And so the answer to your question is, yes, we are looking at both opportunities within our seven verticals and opportunities to add in each vertical.
I just wouldn’t say that’s new. I don’t think that’s a function of what we presently have on the balance sheet or what our debt capacity is. Obviously it’s quite robust right now probably as robust as it’s ever been. But I don’t think that changes our mindset. I think what I will say is that what we’ve been dealing with and I have a scenario, our valuation gap and that’s what we’ve been dealing with. And I don’t think we’re alone. I think the marketplace has spoken to this and the statistics around deals done, et cetera. We’ve all seen them. But we do see that gap closing. We find our conversations to be more constructive. We think that our patience has been — will be rewarded. And I know I say that every quarter, but until you see it, right, you’re not going to feel it but we feel good about that.
And so look, I think that right now, we’re in a position to file a possibly to do both, right, they’re not either or by the way. There they can be an end. So look, I think we’re excited for the opportunities and we’re excited to hopefully be in a position to be talking about some of them once they’re — once we get something done.
Bret Richter: And the only thing I’d add to that and this is at risk of a gross oversimplification is that every M&A deal leads that thesis. Every M&A deal needs to answer one fundamental question, which is why are we the right future owner of this asset and that can come in a number of different ways, that would be revenue opportunities, that could be the product enhancements, that could be market expansion, that could be higher hard cost synergies. Those could be within our verticals and within our businesses. They can be a new vertical. But if we can’t answer those two fundamental elements, what’s the thesis and why are we the right future owner of this business. It’s probably not the right deal.
Jian Li: Awesome. Thanks for the time.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from John Katsingris from Wedbush. John, your line is live.
John Katsingris: Hi. Thanks. This is John Katsingris on for Daniel [ph]. Can we dive a little further and any color you can give on to what types of conversations you’re having around consumer tech side of the business and how you see that appetite and demand going forward? Thanks.
Vivek Shah: Look, I think on the consumer tech side of the business at, one, I will just say as a vertical. It has historically been kind of the original vertical of Ziff Davis. So it has a lot of sort of normative import here I guess. But more importantly, I think that the fact that we are — I think coming out of what has been a fairly punishing period of time is really great. So the consumer tech business is quite strong. The B-to-B tech business, which I know you didn’t ask about but we put them all together, it’s stable. We’re very excited. Kate Gutmann just joined us to oversee PCMag, Mashable on Life factor and Spiceworks, which is the tech media division, very experienced and capable executive on that. So we’ve got great leadership in place, great brands, opportunities to potentially add to our portfolio of brands over time, grow the ones we have. So we’re committed to the space.
John Katsingris: Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. And there were no other questions at this time. I would like to hand the call back to Bret Richter now for any closing remarks.
Bret Richter: Thank you very much Paul. We appreciate everybody joining us today for our Q1 2024 earnings call. Our upcoming conference participation, again, is on our website. We have events coming up and we hope to see some of you there. And we appreciate all your attention and your investment. Thank you. Have a great day.
Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.
