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Odyssey Marine Exploration posts just $500,000 in revenue for Q1

 
Deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration posted another quarter of shaky earnings. The Tampa-based firm reported $511,735 in revenue for the year's first quarter, down 21 percent from $649,353 in the same quarter last year. Pictured is CEO Mark Gordon. | [Courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration]
Deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration posted another quarter of shaky earnings. The Tampa-based firm reported $511,735 in revenue for the year's first quarter, down 21 percent from $649,353 in the same quarter last year. Pictured is CEO Mark Gordon. | [Courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration]
Published May 10, 2018

TAMPA — Deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration posted another quarter of shaky earnings.

The Tampa-based firm reported $511,735 in revenue for the year's first quarter, down 21 percent from $649,353 in the same quarter last year. Odyssey had a net loss of $1.74 million, narrowed 21 percent from a loss of $2.2 million last year.

The company reported a 21-cent loss per share for the quarter, down 25 percent from last year's loss of 28 cents per share. As of midday Thursday, the company's stock was trading at about $7 per share, down 3 percent.

"Our first quarter results continue to demonstrate our focus on improving operational efficiencies as a strong foundation for our transformation," Mark Gordon, CEO, said in a release. "We have successfully built a new business model with more stability and less risk while utilizing our world-class capabilities."

Odyssey has struggled in recent years to turn a profit. In the third quarter last year, it posted a $2.3 million loss, reporting just over $12,000 in revenue.

Related coverage: Odyssey Marine Exploration reports nearly nothing in revenue>

The company, which in previous years had multi-million-dollar revenue, has grappled with a changing business model. It recently pivoted from its bread-and-butter work of shipwreck search and recovery to seafloor mineral exploration.

In 2015, Odyssey sold $21 million in shipwreck assets to Magellan Offshore Services to pay down $11.7 million in debt. As part of the sale, Magellan bought Odyssey's shipwreck database, a proprietary data set used to find shipwreck sites to explore. Magellan agreed that Odyssey would be the only company to do such search and recovery for it, and it would cut Odyssey in on 21 percent of proceeds from the shipwreck projects.

Gordon said the new business model and upcoming projects would bring in cash during 2018.

"Concurrent with our active marine operations and mineral programs, our team continues to develop a portfolio of diversified high-potential mineral projects that we expect will create significant future value for our shareholders and company," he said in a Thursday release.

The company is scheduled to work with the Mexican government on a project, as well as two mineral-related projects.

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Contact this reporter at mcarollo@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2249. Follow @malenacarollo.