Phunware

PHUN

Phunware, Inc. is an Austin, Texas based mobile application, location tracking, and advertising software company founded in 2009. It is traded on NASDAQ as PHUN. Phunware also has offices in Irvine, California, San Diego, California, and Miami, Florida.Its executives are Alan Knitowski (cofounder and CEO), Randall Crowder (COO), Luan Dang (cofounder and CTO), and Matt Aune (CFO). Knitowski's 2019 total compensation was $1.9 million, with $1 million for Crowder, $1.2 million for Dang, $1.4 million for Aune.The company has acquired Odyssey, Simplikate, Digby, Tapit! ($23 million acquisition in 2017) and GoTV. Their customers in 2019 include Fox Networks Group, HID Global, American Made Media Consultants, Presidio Networked Solutions, and MD Anderson. Previous customers included Warner Brothers, NASCAR, NFL, and NBC Sports. Applications that send data to Phunware servers include the campus map for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and GunDealio, an app for gun sales from Gun Talk Media. Phunware's location tracking was used, for instance, to target 2018 Democratic ads at participants in the anti-Trump 2017 Women's March in DC.Phunware provides campaign data, including "users' daily digital trail", to the Trump reelection campaign, through a $3 million contract awarded by Brad Parscale's American Made Media Consultants. They also built the Trump/Pence reelection app for the campaign in November 2019.On September 26, 2017, Phunware sued Uber Technologies for $3 million in unpaid services. The suit was still open as of early 2020, but on October 9, 2020, Phunware reached a settlement to pay $6 million to Uber Technologies.Phunware performed a reverse merger with Stellar Acquisitions III, a special-purpose acquisition company (or shell company) in December 2018, placing Phunware on NASDAQ.The company's non-GAAP adjusted net revenues were stated at $19 million in 2019, down from $22.5 million in 2018.

Phunware has been a target of short sellers for a while. The current short interest of 2.75% is roughly at the average of the last 12 months (3.62%).