i don't think it is appropriate to say, "their actual revenues declined." You could of course say, "Their IFRS revenues," but it would probably be most appropriate to say, "their NET revenues."
it seems pretty clear this (Kognitiv) is a tech company, and of course we have very limited details.
true to course, wabuffo of course gives the most pessimistic interpretation possible. but another interpretation is that like most fast growing tech companies, Kognitiv sacrificed some margin in order to grow fast. Gross revenues did in fact grow 65% YoY.
We don't know enough to know if this is a good thing or not, but if we are looking at the public market tech sample set, we could say that the more money they lose in pursuit of growth, the higher multiple they deserve. I will again reference Nuvei, which just went public as the largest ever Canadian IPO burning $100M, growing fast, and trading at 20x sales.
I am not saying this deserves to trade at 20x sales.
I am saying that if they IPO this, and the headline for the market is 65% gross revenue growth yada yada yada block chain blah blah blah online gambling, i think we will all be surprised at the valuation the public market gives it.
I am also saying you don't need to believe that because you're not paying for it in Aimia's stock price. Its just a free lotto ticket that could be worth a whole bunch.