Founders James Heckman, and Eyal Hertzog, Chairman Walton Comer of Roundtable (Nasdaq: RTB) ringing the Nasdaq closing bell (Source: Nasdaq, Inc. / Vanja Savic)
SEATTLE, Sept. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Roundtable (Nasdaq: RTB) CEO, James Heckman announced a 10-year, $1 billion agreement with The Arena Group, now known as Paradium.AI (NYSE: PAAI), to migrate, operate and monetize Arena’s premium media portfolio on Roundtable’s AI/DeFi-powered MediaOS, bringing global scale to the world’s most advanced platform.
Following deal closure, Roundtable forecasts a $100 million annualized revenue and an EBITDA-positive run rate - on a stand-alone basis, with 100 million monthly consumers - ensuring global media partners can thrive safely in sovereignty.
The transaction will deliver global scale and a profitable ecosystem to the world’s leading professional media brands and journalists. Roundtable’s operating system, powered by AI and DeFi, eliminates publishers’ infrastructure and operational costs by replacing antiquated systems with a single unified AI based platform. It encompasses AI-integration, DeFi reporting and payments, on-chain publishing, hosting, monetization, syndication, ad operations, AI-resistance, brand safety, IP and audience security - while publishers remain fully sovereign over their brands, domains, journalism, IP and audiences.
The partnership reunites founding leaders PAAI CEO Paul Edmondson, with RTB founders Heckman and Bill Sornsin, who were last teamed in 2020. The teams believe combining platforms and distribution will accelerate growth, save tens of millions in costs and amplify profits for both companies. Following the Arena partnership, RTB anticipates hundreds of large-scale customers joining the hundreds of professional journalists already adopting its revolutionary Operating System.
“This is the apex of what we have architected over decades,” said James Heckman, Roundtable CEO. “Roundtable will have the scale to provide premium publishers and advertisers a profitable, brand-safe ecosystem, a revolutionary DeFi payment platform that finances the industry in real time, and global distribution that professional, human journalists and media can leverage to survive and thrive in a world being enveloped by AI.”
RTB co-founder, Bill Sornsin added, “Professional media has historically surrendered economics, data and audience control to big tech, social platforms and intermediaries - and now AI. Roundtable’s operating system reverses that equation. Our partnership provides the infrastructure, financial system, monetization and distribution, so professional publishers can regain independence.”
Deal Highlights:
- 10-Year Agreement - Iconic Brand Portfolio. Two dozen brands and nearly 100 million consumers will migrate to Roundtable’s MediaOS, including TheStreet, Parade, Men's Journal, Athlon Sports, Autoblog, Powder including hundreds of professional journalists.
- Full platform migration. PAAI's publishing, advertising operations and technology, syndication, streaming, data, community, reporting and DeFi payments move to RTB.
- Immediate monetization scale: Partnership consolidates nine-figure ad ecosystem and a decade of market maturity/yield; Roundtable assumes PAAI's ad operations.
- Perpetual technology license: RTB receives a worldwide, non-cancelable, perpetual license to PAAI's technical assets for integration into its platform, for all RTB customers.
- AI/DeFi payments: Hundreds of journalists across two dozen brands will use Roundtable's Coinbase-integrated smart-wallet reporting and real-time payment infrastructure, adding to the hundreds of journalists already utilizing it.
- The agreements are subject to Roundtable’s minority investment in PAAI, $89 million in cash and stock for ~49% of PAAI, in a private transaction, and other conditions precedent, which include funding requirements to complete the transactions in Q4.
About Roundtable (RTB Digital, Inc.)
Roundtable (NASDAQ: RTB) is the world’s only AI/DeFi-powered Enterprise Media Operating System, integrating distribution, publishing, monetization, community, syndication and DeFi payment operations, powering professional and major media brands. The Web3 platform was developed over years by digital pioneers and co-founders, Eyal Hertzog, and James Heckman. For more information, visit rtb.io.
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