Xcel Brands (NASDAQ: XELB) and Paradium.AI (NYSE American: PAAI) announced an agreement to launch PetHelpful x Trust·Respect·Love by Cesar Millan.
The pet-product co-brand targets a third-quarter 2027 retail launch across multiple pet categories. Xcel will work with licensed operating partners to develop and manufacture the line. Paradium plans to use its Cutter Studios AI technology to turn long-form video into short shopping videos and articles for Parade, PetHelpful and Cesar Millan’s platforms. Those platforms have a combined reach of over 21 million social media followers and 31 million monthly readers.
Paradium.AI (PAAI) and Roundtable (RTB) signed a 10-year strategic platform agreement and related equity transaction, targeted to close in Q4 2026, both subject to closing conditions.
Under the Platform Agreement, Roundtable is expected to provide technology, monetization and operating services for Paradium.AI’s media brands, while Paradium.AI keeps ownership of its brands, domains, intellectual property and audiences. Roundtable’s model is to assume a substantial portion of Paradium.AI’s annual operating functions and costs in areas such as product, engineering and monetization, in return for a percentage of revenue from media brands hosted on Roundtable’s platform.
Roundtable will also receive a worldwide, perpetual license to certain Paradium.AI technology assets, and Paradium.AI will receive Roundtable common stock, subject to closing price and Nasdaq minimum pricing requirements. Separately, Roundtable agreed in a private deal to buy Paradium.AI shares from Simplify at $3.80 per share, resulting in post-closing ownership of about 49.5% of Paradium.AI, with Simplify retaining roughly 23.1%.
Roundtable (RTB) agreed a 10-year, $1 billion deal with Paradium.AI (PAAI, formerly The Arena Group) to migrate, operate and monetize PAAI’s premium media portfolio on Roundtable’s AI/DeFi-powered MediaOS.
After closing, Roundtable forecasts $100 million annualized revenue and an EBITDA-positive run rate on a stand-alone basis, supported by about 100 million monthly consumers. Roughly two dozen brands, including TheStreet, Parade, Men's Journal, Athlon Sports, Autoblog and Powder, plus hundreds of professional journalists, are expected to move onto MediaOS.
Roundtable will assume PAAI’s ad operations, consolidate a nine-figure ad ecosystem, and receive a worldwide, non-cancelable, perpetual license to PAAI’s technical assets. The agreements depend on Roundtable making an $89 million cash-and-stock minority investment for approximately 49% of PAAI and satisfying other funding and closing conditions targeted for Q4.
Paradium.AI (PAAI) announced a strategic partnership with Elcano integrating Elcano’s AI deal-management agent Victoria with Paradium.AI’s first-party data curation platform Encore. The combined offering is designed to streamline access to curated audiences and brand-aligned inventory across display, online video, native and CTV programmatic channels.
Elcano’s infrastructure will power automated deal creation and management, real-time intelligence, reporting and continuous supply-side optimization to improve media quality, efficiency and performance for advertisers. Paradium.AI cites internal Adomik reporting showing its curated inventory in Q2 2026 delivered a $3.18 CPM, 7% above the open market CPM of $2.97, and a 0.27% CTR versus 0.22% in the open market, highlighting the value of curated inventory and the potential to accelerate its curation desk initiatives using Elcano’s technology.
Paradium.AI (NYSE American: PAAI) announced it will participate in the Lake Street Capital Markets Best Ideas Growth (BIG10) Conference in New York City on September 10, 2026. Company executives, including the CEO, president, and principal financial officer, will be available for one-on-one investor meetings. Investors can request meetings via their Lake Street representative or Paradium.AI’s investor relations email.