Pink OTC Markets Reports Results for Third Quarter Fiscal 2009

Announces Quarterly Cash Dividend


NEW YORK, Nov. 10  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pink OTC Markets Inc. (Pink Sheets: PINK) today announced strong revenues and net income for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2009.

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For the three months ended September 30, 2009, revenues totaled $5.7 million, an increase of $0.7 million, or 13.4%, compared to the prior year's third quarter results of $5.1 million.  Net Income for the third quarter of 2009 rose 143.5% to $1.0 million from $0.4 million in the third quarter of 2008.  Net Income per weighted average basic share increased 138% to $0.093 and net income per weighted average fully diluted share increased 136% to $0.092, respectively, compared to the third quarter of 2008 of $0.039 per weighted average basic and fully-diluted share.

"Our quarterly and year-to-date growth in revenues and net income is primarily due to solid revenue growth in our Issuer Services and Market Data Licensing businesses, a stabilizing of activities in the broker-dealer community for our Trading Services business, and strong expense management," stated R. Cromwell Coulson, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Third Quarter Results

Third quarter revenues increased 13.4% to $5.7 million compared to $5.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2008.  Trading Services revenues increased to $2.8 million, or 6.6%, and accounted for 49.0% of total revenues compared to $2.6 million and 52.1% of total revenues for the third quarter of 2008.  The revenue growth is attributable to increased Pink Quote(TM) usage, partially offset by a lesser number of broker-dealers subscribing to the Trading Services suite of products and services.  Market Data Licensing revenues posted a strong 19.5% increase to $2.1 million, or 36.6% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2009 compared to $1.8 million, or 34.7% of total revenues for the same period in 2008.  The increase in Market Data revenues was due to an increased level of market data redistributors subscribing to the various enterprise and subscriber market data licenses offered.  Issuer Services revenues for the quarter grew by $0.2 million, or 35.8%, to $0.7 million and accounted for 12.7% of total revenues compared to $0.5 million, and 10.6% of total revenues, for the same period in 2008.  The growth in Issuer Services revenues was attributable to both new OTCQX® listing fees and 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 third quarter of 2009 decreased by 23.4% to $0.1 million, or 1.7% of total revenues, compared to $0.1 million, or 2.5% of total revenues in the third quarter of 2008.

"During the quarter we saw increased activity in the OTC markets as the global capital markets situation began to stabilize," continued Mr. Coulson.  "Our OTCQX listed companies grew by 77% year-to-year, as 30 new investor-focused companies chose to list their OTC securities on the quality-controlled OTCQX marketplace and offer investors trading transparency and superior information.  As well, the combination of a greater number of OTC securities, heightened investor interest in such securities, and the breadth and depth of our OTC security information resulted in greater Market Data Licensing revenues.  Finally, during all of 2009, we achieved significant cost efficiencies in several variable-based expense areas that also contributed to our quarterly and year-to-date results."

Operating expenses decreased 5.9% during the third quarter to $4.1 million, or 71% of revenues, from $4.3 million, or 85.4% of revenues, in the third quarter of 2008.

Operating income in the third quarter rose 143.0%, or $1.0 million, to $1.6 million compared to $0.7 million in the third quarter of 2008 and operating margin increased to 28.4% compared to 13.3% for the third quarter 2008.  In both cases, the growth was attributable to greater revenues across the three main businesses and lower operating expenses.

"We believe the OTCQX marketplace has evolved from development stage to market acceptance stage in 2009," stated Mr. Coulson. "With world-leading issuers traded on OTCQX and the opening of the OTCQX Market Center in New York, we have been able to reduce our advertising and travel and entertainment expenses associated with OTCQX business development."

Weighted average basic shares outstanding for the third quarter were 10,320,950, an increase of 2.4%, compared to 10,080,309 basic shares for the third quarter of 2008.  Weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding for the third quarter were 10,525,176, an increase of 3.1%, compared to 10,206,714 fully diluted shares for the third quarter of 2008.

Nine Months Results

Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 totaled $16.0 million, an increase of $1.1 million, or 7.3%, compared to $14.9 million in the first nine months of 2008.  Trading Services revenues decreased 1.4% to $8.0 million, or 49.8% of firm revenues, from $8.1 million, or 54.2% of firm revenues, for the first nine months of 2008, due to a decline in the number of broker-dealers and traders subscribing to our products and services; however, the rate of decline was lower than the rate of decline we experienced in prior quarters, and partially offset by increased Pink Quote usage.  As with the third quarter results in Issuer Services and Market Data Licensing, both businesses posted year-to-year revenue growth due to increased subscribers and market data distributors, respectively.  Market Data Licensing posted revenues of $5.8 million for the period, representing 36.2% of total revenues, and an increase of $0.8 million, or 16.6%, from the $5.0 million, or 33.3% of total revenues posted in the first nine months of 2008.  Issuer Services recorded revenues for the first nine months of 2008 of $2.0 million, 12.2% of total revenues, and up by $0.5 million, or 37.5%, from the first nine months of 2008 results of $1.4 million, or 9.5% of total revenues.

Operating expenses totaled $12.0 million, or 75.0% of revenues, for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, representing a decrease of $0.1 million, or 1.0%, from $12.1 million, or 81.3% of revenues, for the comparable period in 2008.

Operating income rose $1.2 million, or 48.2%, to $3.8 million for the first nine months of 2009 compared to $2.6 million for the same period last year.  Operating margin rose to 23.7% for the first nine months of 2009 compared to 17.2% for the same period in 2008, due to increased revenues in Issuer Services and Market Data Licensing and reductions in operating expenses, partially offset by lower comparable revenues in Trading Services and Website Advertising.

Net Income for the first nine months of 2009 totaled $2.2 million, an increase of $0.7 million, or 47.1%, compared to the pro-forma Net Income results of $1.5 million for the first nine months of 2008.  Net Income per weighted average basic share increased 45% to $0.218 and net income per weighted average fully diluted share increased 45% to $0.215 compared to the first nine months of 2008 of $0.151 per weighted average basic and $0.149 per weighted average fully diluted share.

Weighted average basic shares outstanding for the first nine months of 2009 were 10,203,543, or an increase of 1.6%, compared to 10,040,397 basic shares for the first nine months of 2008.  Weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding for the third quarter were 10,346,669, or an increase of 1.6%, compared to 10,183,651 fully diluted shares for the first nine months third of 2008.

Pink OTC Markets' Quarterly Report for the period ending September 30, 2009 is available publicly at: http://www.pinksheets.com/pink/quote/quote.jsp?symbol=PINK&tabValue=4#getFilin gs.

Dividend Declaration - Quarterly Cash Dividend

Contemporaneous with the announcement of earnings for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2009, 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 January 8, 2010 to stockholders of record on December 22, 2009.  The ex-dividend date is December 18, 2009.  This dividend payment represents an increase in the quarterly cash dividend of $.01 per share, or 33% from the prior dividend rate of $.03 per share.

R. Cromwell Coulson, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "The Board of Directors declared the first dividend payable to shareholders in February 2009.  Since then Pink OTC Markets has paid two additional dividends to our shareholders.  The Board and I believe that it is in the best interests of our shareholders pay an attractive dividend; in recognition of the strong revenue and earnings growth in 2009, we are pleased to share these result with our shareholders by increasing the quarterly cash dividend by $.01 per share to $.04 per share."

On September 16, 2009, Pink OTC Markets' Class A Common Stock began to be quoted in the U.S. over-the-counter markets, on the Pink Sheets' Current Information tier, under the ticker symbol PINK.

About Pink OTC Markets Inc.

Pink OTC Markets Inc. (Pink Sheets: PINK) is a financial information and technology services company that operates the leading electronic quotation and trading system in the Over-the-Counter, or OTC, securities market. The OTCQX and Pink Sheets® marketplaces that we operate constitute, by dollar volume, 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 technology platform provides a comprehensive suite of information products and trading services for OTC market participants. 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 http://www.pinkotc.com/, http://www.pinksheets.com/ and http://www.otcqx.com/ or contact us at .

  Pink OTC Markets is headquartered in New York City.

  About OTCQX


The OTCQX marketplace is the premier tier of the U.S. Over-the-Counter 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 about OTCQX, visit http://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, 2008.  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.

                   PINK OTC MARKETS INC. and PINK SHEETS LLC
                        CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
                    (in thousands, except per share data)

                                 Three Months Ended      Nine Months Ended
                                    September 30,           September 30,
                                -------------------     -------------------
                                2009 (1)    2008 (1)    2009 (1)    2008 (2)
                                -------     -------     -------     -------

  Revenues from services         $5,737      $5,059     $16,025     $14,940
  Cost of revenues                   42          67         200         234
  Operating expenses              4,064       4,320      12,023      12,141
                                  -----       -----      ------      ------
  Income from operations          1,631         671       3,801       2,565
  Other income (expense)            (22)         (9)        (73)        (16)
                                    ---          --         ---         ---
  Income before provision
   for income taxes               1,609         662       3,728       2,549
  Provision for income taxes
     Corporate income tax           645         266       1,499         659
     LLC unincorporated
      business tax                    -           -           -          49
                                     --          --          --          --
  Net income (historical)          $963        $396      $2,229      $1,842
                                   ====        ====      ======      ======

  Historical income before
   provision for income
   taxes as reported above          N/A         N/A       3,728       2,549
  Pro-forma adjustments
   to reflect corporate
   income taxes *
  Corporate income taxes:
     Historical                     N/A         N/A       1,499         659
     Pro-forma for LLC period*      N/A         N/A           -         376
                                -------     -------          --         ---
  Total provision for corporate
   income taxes (pro-forma)*        N/A         N/A       1,499       1,035
                                -------     -------       -----       -----
  Net income (pro-forma)*           N/A         N/A      $2,229      $1,515
                                =======     =======      ======      ======

  Net income per share
   (pro-forma)*
     Basic*                      $0.093      $0.039      $0.218      $0.151
     Fully-diluted*              $0.092      $0.039      $0.215      $0.149

  Weighted-average shares
   outstanding (pro-forma)*
     Basic*                  10,320,950  10,080,309  10,203,543  10,040,397
     Fully-diluted*          10,525,176  10,206,714  10,346,669  10,183,651

  (1) Unaudited
  (2) Includes the audited results for Pink Sheets LLC for the
      three months ended March 31, 2008.



                   PINK OTC MARKETS INC. and PINK SHEETS LLC
                           CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS
                     (in thousands, except per share data)

                                            September 30,     December 31,
                                               2009 (1)         2008 (2)
                                            ------------      -----------
  ASSETS
  Cash and cash equivalents                       $2,895           $2,827
  Other current assets                             6,337            4,820
  Property and equipment, net                      4,099            3,113
  Intangible assets                                  401              435
  Other assets                                       525              238
                                                     ---              ---
     Total assets                                $14,258          $11,433
                                                 =======          =======

  LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
  Current Liabilities                             $5,314           $4,344
  Long-term liabilities                            2,418            2,708
  Stockholder's' Equity                            6,526            4,381
                                                   -----            -----
     Total liabilities and stockholders' equity  $14,258          $11,433
                                                 =======          =======

  (1) Unaudited
  (2) Audited


http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090708/NY43125LOGODATASOURCE: Pink OTC Markets



CONTACT:  Media: Matt Sheldon of CCG Investor Relations, [phone],

, for Pink OTC Markets; or John Kallop, CFO of Pink

OTC Markets, [phone], 



Web Site:  http://www.pinkotc.com/

http://www.pinksheets.com/

http://www.otcqx.com/ 

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