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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4)
Registration No. 333-216642
PROSPECTUS
10,500,000 Shares
COMMON STOCK
Yext, Inc. is offering 10,500,000 shares of its common stock. This is our initial public offering, and no public market currently exists for our shares.
Our common stock has been authorized for listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "YEXT."
We are an "emerging growth company" as defined under the federal securities laws. Investing in our common stock involves risks. See "Risk Factors" beginning on page 13.
PRICE $11.00 A SHARE
|
Price to Public |
Underwriting Discounts and Commissions(1) |
Proceeds to Yext |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | |
Per Share |
$11.00 | $0.77 | $10.23 | |||
Total |
$115,500,000 | $8,085,000 | $107,415,000 |
(1) See "Underwriting" for a description of compensation payable to the underwriters.
We have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,575,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and state securities regulators have not approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The underwriters expect to deliver the shares of common stock to purchasers on April 19, 2017.
MORGAN STANLEY | J.P. MORGAN | RBC CAPITAL MARKETS |
PACIFIC CREST SECURITIES a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets |
PIPER JAFFRAY |
April 12, 2017
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus and in any free writing prospectus. We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you with information different from that contained in this prospectus. We and the underwriters are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any sale of shares of our common stock.
Through and including May 7, 2017 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery requirement is in addition to a dealer's obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.
Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.
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This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider before buying shares in this offering. Therefore, you should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before deciding to purchase shares of our common stock. Unless the context requires otherwise, the words "we," "us," "our" and "Yext" refer to Yext, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries.
Overview
Yext is a knowledge engine. Our platform lets businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud and sync it to over 100 services, including Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. Digital knowledge is the structured information that a business wants to make publicly accessible. For example, in food service, the address, phone number or menu details of a restaurant; in healthcare, the health insurances accepted by a physician or the precise drop-off point of the emergency room at a hospital campus; or in finance, the ATM locations, retail bank holiday hours or insurance agent biographies. We believe a business is the ultimate authority on its own digital knowledge, and it is our mission to put that business in control of it everywhere.
Intelligent search, which are searches of digital knowledge that combine context and intent, has grown significantly in recent years. In particular, searches that return maps in the results have grown significantly with the proliferation of mobile devices and now make up 30% of all mobile searches. For example, searches for categories, such as "restaurants", "wine", "insurance", "wealth advisor" or "doctor", or for specific brands, such as "Marriott", "McDonald's" or "Home Depot", return maps directly in the search results. The source of the results for each of these searches is not a web pageit is structured data. Businesses and service providers want their information to be accurate, compelling and more prominent than that of their competitors when consumers look for them on search platforms, applications, social media, connected devices and other digital sources. Our solution drives commerce by providing real-time digital knowledge that allows consumers to find the businesses and service providers that are most relevant to them.
The vast majority of digital knowledge provided by searches currently comes from third-party sources such as data aggregators, governmental agencies and consumers. The net result of this third-party sourcing has been to produce "best guess" data that can often miss or misstate the true digital knowledge about businesses worldwide. We have built our business on the fundamental premise that the best source of accurate and timely digital knowledge about a business is the business itself. We have established direct data integrations between our software and the over 100 members of our PowerListings Network that end consumers around the globe use to discover new businesses, read reviews and find accurate answers to their queries. These integrations include Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Yelp and many others. Our platform uses our patented Match & Lock process to ensure that our customers' digital knowledge is in sync across our PowerListings Network. Businesses can directly control their own digital knowledge rather than leaving it in the hands of third parties, thereby making our platform the system of record for such vital knowledge.
We offer our cloud-based digital knowledge platform, the Yext Knowledge Engine, to customers on a subscription basis in several packages. Each package provides varying levels of access to our key Listings, Pages, Reviews and other features. Our Listings feature provides customers with control over their digital presence, including their location and other related attributes published on the most widely used third-party applications. Our Pages feature allows customers to establish landing pages on their own websites and to manage rich and compelling digital content on those sites, including calls to action. Our Reviews
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feature enables customers to encourage and facilitate reviews from end consumers, thereby increasing the quantity and quality of the reviews available to potential consumers and improving the search relevance for businesses on our PowerListings Network.
Our customers use our platform to manage their digital knowledge covering over 17 million attributes and over 925,000 locations. These customers include leading businesses in a diverse set of industries, such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail, financial services, manufacturing and technology. Our customers include AutoZone, Ben & Jerry's, Best Buy, Citi, Denny's, Farmers Insurance Group, H&R Block, HCA, Infiniti, Marriott, Michael's, McDonald's, Rite Aid, Steward Health Care and many others.
We believe that the market for digital knowledge management is a large and mostly untapped market. As a subset of digital knowledge, we estimate that there are currently over 100 million potential business locations and points of interest in the world that could benefit from our platform, representing an estimated addressable market, solely with respect to locations, of approximately $10 billion annually for our existing platform in 2017. Our estimate however is subject to risks and uncertainties as described in "Risk FactorsRisks Related to Our Business and IndustryIf the assumptions we use to estimate the size of our total addressable market are inaccurate, our future growth may be affected."
We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods. For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, our revenues were $60.0 million, $89.7 million and $124.3 million, respectively, our net loss was $17.3 million, $26.5 million and $43.2 million, respectively, and our non-GAAP net loss1 was $14.4 million, $22.0 million and $33.3 million, respectively.
Industry Background
Consumer Discovery Has Changed. Intelligent search has grown significantly in recent years. Businesses are now able to leverage intelligent search to help individuals discover what they need without having to necessarily visit the business's own website and return digital knowledge, such as location and other related data, for nearly any search.
Knowledge Is Fundamental. Businesses spend significant sums on developing their brands and creating product and market awareness. When potential consumers reached through those efforts want to make a purchase, businesses need their digital knowledge to be widely available and correct so that they can be found efficiently. Inaccurate or incomplete information results in lost sales opportunities, negative brand experiences and organizational inefficiencies.
Intelligent Search Drives Commerce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 92% of U.S. retail sales occurred at physical locations during 2016. When searching for a business, consumers need to know many relevant attributes such as the address, phone number, menu options of a restaurant or operating hours. According to Think with Google, 76% of location searches in the United States in May 2016 resulted in visits to a business within one day of the search and 28% of those searches resulted in a purchase.
Managing Digital Knowledge Is Challenging. Many businesses lack the capabilities to effectively control, structure and manage digital knowledge across the digital ecosystem where consumers discover businesses. This lack of management capability is due to several factors:
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of this third-party sourcing has been to produce "best guess" data that can often miss or misstate the true digital knowledge for businesses worldwide.
Businesses Need to Provide Customers with Relevant and Actionable Information. When consumers search for businesses, they expect to be able to quickly find all of the relevant information they need about those organizations, such as a description, the nearest store if it is a chain, the actual location on a map, the ability to make an appointment if it is a professional service provider, such as an insurance agent, or the ability to search for a menu item if it is a restaurant.
Existing Alternatives Are Inadequate. Traditional methods for managing digital knowledge about location include paper or legacy software-based solutions, such as word processors or spreadsheets. Simply managing and updating the few core search engines, such as Google and Bing, through these traditional methods is already very challenging, and becomes even more so when implementing updates on newer services such as Instagram, Snapchat and Uber.
Our Solutionthe Yext Knowledge Engine
We offer our Yext Knowledge Engine, a cloud-based global platform that enables businesses to control and manage their digital knowledge and make it available through our PowerListings Network of over 100 third-party maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories and social networks in a complete, up to date and accurate manner. Our platform serves as the system of record for the vital information used internally to execute operations and distributed externally across the web, mobile listings, search platforms, applications, social media and connected devices that leverage intelligent search. The core of our platform is our global Knowledge Engine, which powers our Listings, Pages and Reviews features. We currently offer subscription packages that include some or all of these and other features based on the edition purchased. The key features of our platform are as follows:
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Key Benefits of Our Platform
Our global Knowledge Engine provides the following benefits depending on a customer's subscription level and enabled solutions and features:
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe our competitive strengths include:
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Growth Strategy
The key elements of our strategy include:
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will continue to invest in platform and features development to help our customers better manage their digital knowledge.
Risks Related to Our Business
Investing in our common stock involves risk. You should carefully consider all the information in this prospectus prior to investing in our common stock. These risks are discussed more fully in the section entitled "Risk Factors" immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:
Ownership of Capital Stock
Upon the completion of this offering, our executive officers, directors and current beneficial owners of 5% or more of our common stock, together with their respective affiliates, will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 73,807,346 shares of our common stock, or approximately 82% of our
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outstanding common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares of our common stock in this offering.
Company Information
We were incorporated in 2006 as a Delaware corporation. Our headquarters are located at 1 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10010 and our telephone number is (212) 994-3900. You can access our website at www.yext.com. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part and is not incorporated by reference in this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part.
"Yext" and "PowerListings" as well as the Yext logo are registered trademarks in the United States and, in some cases, in certain other countries. Our other unregistered trademarks and service marks in the United States include, but are not limited to, "LocationWorld" and "We put business on the map." This prospectus also contains trademarks of other persons and entities.
Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company
We are an "emerging growth company" as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and intend to rely on exemptions from specified disclosure and other requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. These exemptions include:
We may take advantage of these provisions for up to five years or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company if we have more than $1 billion in annual revenues, have more than $700 million in market value of our capital stock held by non-affiliates or issue more than $1 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period. We may choose to take advantage of some, but not all, of the available exemptions.
We have elected to take advantage of the extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards and to adopt certain of the reduced disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies. As a result of the accounting standards election, we will not be subject to the same implementation timing for new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, which may make comparison of our financials to those of other public companies more difficult. Additionally, because we have taken advantage of certain reduced reporting requirements, the information contained herein may be different than the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold stock.
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Common stock offered by us |
10,500,000 shares | |
Common stock outstanding after this offering |
85,489,470 shares |
|
Over-allotment option |
1,575,000 shares |
|
Use of proceeds |
We estimate that the net proceeds from our sale of shares of common stock in this offering will be approximately $103.0 million (or approximately $119.1 million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full), at the initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
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|
We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes. We may also use a portion of our net proceeds to fund potential acquisitions of, or investments in, technologies or businesses that complement our business, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any such acquisitions or make any such investments. See "Use of Proceeds." |
|
New York Stock Exchange symbol |
"YEXT" |
|
Risk factors |
See "Risk Factors" and other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in shares of our common stock. |
The number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 74,989,470 shares outstanding as of January 31, 2017. This number excludes:
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We refer to our Series A Preferred Stock, Series B Preferred Stock, Series C Preferred Stock, Series D Preferred Stock, Series E Preferred Stock and Series F Preferred Stock herein as our "convertible preferred stock." Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus assumes:
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
In the following tables, we provide our summary consolidated financial data. You should read the summary historical financial data set forth below in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, the notes to our consolidated financial statements and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our fiscal year ends on January 31. References to fiscal year 2017, for example, refer to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017.
The historical statement of operations data for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and balance sheet data as of January 31, 2017 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results. The summary consolidated financial data in this section are not intended to replace the consolidated financial statements and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
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|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
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|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands, except share and per share data) |
|||||||||
Consolidated Statement of Operations Data: |
||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 60,002 | $ | 89,724 | $ | 124,261 | ||||
Cost of revenues(1) |
24,832 | 31,033 | 36,950 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Gross profit |
35,170 | 58,691 | 87,311 | |||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||
Sales and marketing(1) |
31,588 | 49,822 | 81,529 | |||||||
Research and development(1) |
11,945 | 16,201 | 19,316 | |||||||
General and administrative(1) |
8,988 | 18,806 | 29,166 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
52,521 | 84,829 | 130,011 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(17,351 | ) | (26,138 | ) | (42,700 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense), net |
78 | (412 | ) | (382 | ) | |||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(17,273 | ) | (26,550 | ) | (43,082 | ) | ||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
| 55 | (68 | ) | ||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
$ | (17,273 | ) | $ | (26,495 | ) | $ | (43,150 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2) |
$ | (0.61 | ) | $ | (0.89 | ) | $ | (1.39 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Weighted-average number of shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2) |
28,519,917 | 29,917,814 | 31,069,695 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
$ | (0.58 | ) | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Weighted-average number of shares used in computing pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
74,664,448 | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
|||||||||
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|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Cost of revenues |
$ | 399 | $ | 533 | $ | 590 | ||||
Sales and marketing |
920 | 1,559 | 4,359 | |||||||
Research and development |
1,104 | 1,300 | 1,954 | |||||||
General and administrative |
480 | 1,115 | 2,948 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total stock-based compensation |
$ | 2,903 | $ | 4,507 | $ | 9,851 | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
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The following table presents our consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2017:
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As of January 31, 2017 | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Actual | Pro Forma | Pro Forma As Adjusted(1) |
|||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: |
||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 24,420 | $ | 24,420 | $ | 127,605 | ||||
Total current assets |
61,829 | 61,829 | 165,014 | |||||||
Total assets |
86,465 | 86,465 | 187,131 | |||||||
Total liabilities |
93,605 | 92,661 | 90,312 | |||||||
Convertible preferred stock |
120,615 | | | |||||||
Total stockholders' (deficit) equity |
(127,755 | ) | (6,196 | ) | 96,819 |
The pro forma as adjusted balance sheet data is presented for informational purposes only and does not purport to represent what our consolidated financial position actually would have been had the transactions reflected occurred on the date indicated or to project our financial condition as of any future date.
Non-GAAP Net Loss
In addition to our financial results determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, we believe that non-GAAP net loss is useful in evaluating our operating performance. Non-GAAP net loss is a financial measure not calculated in accordance with GAAP. We define non-GAAP net loss as our GAAP net loss as adjusted to exclude the effects of stock-based compensation expenses. We regularly review non-GAAP net loss as we evaluate our business.
A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP-based measure, along with a summary of the material limitations of this measure, are included under "Selected Consolidated Financial DataNon-GAAP Net Loss".
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Non-GAAP net loss |
$ | (14,370 | ) | $ | (21,988 | ) | $ | (33,299 | ) |
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An investment in our common stock offered by this prospectus involves a substantial risk of loss. You should carefully consider these risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this prospectus, before you decide to purchase shares of our common stock. The occurrence of any of the following risks could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or operating results. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We have a history of losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.
We generated a net loss of $17.3 million, $26.5 million and $43.2 million in fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. As of January 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $166.9 million, reflecting our losses recognized historically on a GAAP basis. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels in future periods to become profitable, and, even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase our level of profitability. As a result, we may continue to experience operating losses for the indefinite future. Further, we expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we hire additional personnel, expand our distribution channels, develop our technology and new features and face increased compliance costs associated with growth and entry into new markets and geographies and operations as a public company. If our revenue does not increase to offset these and other potential increases in operating expenses, we may not be profitable in future periods. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the market price of our common stock may significantly decrease.
We have a limited operating history as a digital knowledge software company, which makes it difficult to predict our future operating results.
We were incorporated in 2006 and originally operated as an advertising services company. Our business has evolved several times since then. For example, we sold our advertising business to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2012 to focus our operations on becoming a leading digital knowledge software company. Many of the most popular features of our platform have only been launched in the past few years. Our Listings feature was launched in 2011, our Pages feature was launched in 2014, and our Reviews feature was launched in 2016.
As a result of our limited operating history and recent changes to our platform and our sales model, our ability to forecast our future operating results is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model our future growth. The dynamic nature of our business and our industry may make it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, and as a result our historical performance should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described in this prospectus. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties are incorrect or change due to changes in our industry, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations and our business could suffer.
We have recently experienced rapid growth and significant changes to our organization and structure and may not be able to effectively manage such growth.
Our headcount and operations have grown substantially in recent years. We increased the number of our full-time employees from over 450 as of January 31, 2016 to over 630 as of January 31, 2017 and have hired several members of our senior management team in recent years.
We believe that our corporate culture has been a critical component of our success. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team and nurturing our culture. As we expand our business
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and operate as a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate culture while managing our personnel growth. Any failure to manage our anticipated growth and organizational changes in a manner that preserves the key aspects of our culture could hurt our chance for future success, including our ability to recruit and retain personnel, and effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives.
In addition, to manage the expected growth of our headcount and operations, we will need to continue to improve our information technology infrastructure and our operational, financial and management systems and procedures. We have implemented many of these systems and procedures only recently, and they may not work as we expect or at all. Our anticipated additional headcount and capital investments will increase our costs, which will make it more difficult for us to address any future revenue shortfalls by reducing expenses in the short term.
Finally, in order to successfully manage our rapid growth, our organizational structure has become more complex. We have added personnel and may need to continue to scale and adapt our operational, financial and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures. The expansion of our systems and infrastructure may require us to commit additional financial, operational and management resources before our revenue increases and without any assurances that our revenue will increase. If we fail to successfully manage our growth, we likely will be unable to successfully execute our business strategy, which could have a negative impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Failure to adequately expand our sales force will impede our growth.
Our revenue growth is substantially reliant on our sales force. Our sales process is relationship-driven, which requires a significant sales force. While we plan to continue to expand our direct sales force, both domestically and internationally, we have historically had difficulty recruiting a sufficient number of sales personnel. If we are unable to adequately scale our sales force, we will not be able to reach our market potential and execute our business plan.
Identifying and recruiting qualified sales personnel and training them on our products requires significant time, expense and attention. Our financial results will suffer if our efforts to expand and train our direct sales force do not generate a corresponding increase in revenue. In particular, if we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel or if new direct sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, we may not be able to realize the expected benefits of this investment or increase our revenue.
We are in the process of expanding our international operations, which exposes us to significant risks.
In 2014, we opened our first office outside the United States, and we intend to continue to expand our operations abroad. Our revenues from non-U.S. operations has grown from an immaterial amount of our total revenues in fiscal year 2015 to more than 6% of our total revenues in fiscal year 2017. Our international expansion has created and will create significant challenges for our management, administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to regulatory, economic and political risks in addition to those we already face in the United States. Because of our limited experience with international operations and developing and managing sales in international markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful.
Some of the specific risks we will face in conducting business internationally that could adversely affect our business include:
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Also, our network service provider fees outside of the United States are generally higher than domestic rates, and our gross margin may be affected and fluctuate as we expand our operations and customer base worldwide.
Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations, and adversely affect our overall business, operating results and financial condition.
Some of our resellers and PowerListings Network application providers also have international operations and are subject to the risks described above. Even if we are able to successfully manage the risks of international operations, our business may be adversely affected if these resellers and application providers are not able to successfully manage these risks.
Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with existing and prospective PowerListings Network application providers.
We have established strategic relationships with over 100 third-party application providers, including Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Yelp and many others, which comprise our PowerListings Network. These application providers provide us with direct access to update content on their websites and applications. This direct access enables us to control our customers' business listings on the PowerListings Network application providers' websites and applications and to push real-time or nearly
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real-time updates to those business listings. If we were to lose access to these applications, either in whole or in part, our PowerListings Network would not be as efficient, accurate or competitive.
In order to grow our business, we anticipate that we will need to continue to maintain and potentially expand these relationships. We may be unsuccessful in renegotiating our agreements with these third-party application providers or third-party application providers may insist on fees to access their applications. Additionally, our contracts with these third-party application providers are generally cancellable upon 30 days' notice. We believe we will also need to establish new relationships with third-party application providers, including third-party application providers in new geographic markets that we enter, and third-party application providers that may emerge in the future as leading sources of digital knowledge for end consumers. Identifying potential third-party application providers, and negotiating and documenting relationships with them, requires significant time and resources. Our competitors may be more effective than us in providing incentives to application providers to favor their products or services or to prevent or reduce subscriptions to our products. In addition, the acquisition of a competitor by one of our third-party application providers could result in the termination of our relationship with that third-party application provider, which, in turn, could lead to decreased customer subscriptions. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third-party application providers, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenues could be impaired and our operating results could suffer.
We do not have a long history with our subscription or pricing models and changes could adversely affect our operating results.
We have limited experience with respect to determining the optimal prices and contract length for our platform. As the markets for our features grow, as new competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours or reduce their prices, or as we enter into new international markets, we may be unable to attract new customers or retain existing customers at the same price or continue to migrate customers to our multi-tiered subscription model. Moreover, large customers, which have historically been the focus of our direct sales efforts, may demand greater price discounts.
As we expand internationally, we also must determine the appropriate price to enable us to compete effectively internationally. In addition, if the mix of features we sell changes, then we may need to, or choose to, revise our pricing. As a result, in the future we may be required to reduce our prices or offer shorter contract durations, which could adversely affect our revenue, gross margin, profitability, financial condition and cash flow.
Our success depends on a fragmented internet environment for finding digital knowledge, particularly information about physical business locations.
We believe that our Knowledge Engine offers value to our customers in part because of the difficulty for a customer to update digital knowledge, particularly about its physical business locations and other attributes across many websites and apps, many of which are owned or controlled by different entities and receive information from a variety of sources. Industry consolidation or technological advancements could result in a small number of websites or applications emerging as the predominant sources of digital knowledge, including information about physical business locations, thereby creating a less fragmented internet environment for purposes of end consumer searches about physical business locations or digital knowledge generally. Additionally, we may enter new geographies with less fragmented internet environments. If most end consumers relied on a few websites or applications for this information, or if reliably accurate information across the most used websites and applications were generated from a single source, the need for digital business listing synchronization and our platform could decline significantly. In particular, if larger providers of internet services were able to consolidate or control key websites and apps from which end consumers seek digital knowledge, including regarding physical locations, our platform may become less necessary or attractive to our customers, and our revenue would suffer accordingly.
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Our platform faces competition in the marketplace. If we are unable to compete effectively, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The market for our features is competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented, and is subject to changing technology and shifting customer needs. Many vendors develop and market products and services that compete to varying extents with our features, and we expect competition in our market to intensify. Moreover, industry consolidation may increase competition. Additionally, new entrants, specifically application providers, that enter our industry through acquisitions or otherwise, would increase competition in our industry significantly.
We currently face many competitors with a variety of product offerings. These companies have developed, or are developing, products that currently, or in the future are likely to, compete with some or all of our features. Also, a number of potential new competitors may have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, more established customer bases or significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. We could lose customers if our competitors introduce new competitive products, add new features to existing competitive products, acquire competitive products, reduce prices, form strategic alliances with other companies or are acquired by third parties with greater available resources. If our competitors' products, services or technologies become more accepted than our features, if they are successful in bringing their products or services to market earlier than we bring our features to market, or if their products or services are more technologically capable than our features, then our revenue growth could be adversely affected. In addition, some of our competitors offer their products and services at a lower price. If we are unable to achieve our target pricing levels, our margins and operating results could be negatively affected.
Business and professional service providers may not widely adopt our platform to manage the important aspects of their digital knowledge, which would limit our ability to grow our business.
Our ability to grow our business and increase revenue depends on our success in educating businesses and professional service providers about the potential benefits of our cloud-based platform. Cloud applications for organizing and managing digital knowledge, particularly for location and location-related data, have not previously been widely adopted. Concerns about cost, security, reliability and other issues may cause businesses and professional service providers not to adopt our platform. Moreover, businesses and professional service providers who have already invested substantial resources in other digital knowledge and location data management systems or methods may be reluctant to adopt a new approach like ours to supplement or replace existing systems or methods. If businesses and professional service providers do not widely adopt software such as ours, our ability to grow our business will be limited.
Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions for our platform over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in new business may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their agreements, which are typically one year in length but may be up to three years or longer in length. As a result, most of the revenue we report in each quarter is the result of subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be reflected in our revenue results for that quarter. Any such decline, however, will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our products, and potential changes in our attrition rate, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.
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If customers do not renew their subscriptions for our platform or reduce their subscriptions at the time of renewal, our revenue will decline and our business will suffer.
Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our platform after the expiration of their subscription periods. In the normal course of business, some customers have elected not to renew their subscriptions with us. However, because our recent growth has resulted in the rapid expansion of our business and we have changed our subscription model in recent years, we do not have a long history upon which to base forecasts of renewal rates with customers or future operating revenue. Our customers may seek to renew their subscriptions for fewer features, at renegotiated rates, or for shorter contract lengths, all of which could reduce the amount of the subscription. Our renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including limited customer resources, pricing changes, customer satisfaction with our platform, the acquisition of our customers by other companies and deteriorating general economic conditions. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our platform or decrease the amounts they spend with us, our revenue will decline and our business will suffer. If our renewal rates fall significantly below the expectations of the public market, equity research analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could also be harmed.
If we are unable to attract new customers, our revenue growth could be slower than we expect and our business may be harmed.
To increase our revenue, we must add new customers. If competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated products or services that are perceived to compete with our features, our ability to sell our features based on factors such as pricing, technology and functionality could be impaired. As a result, we may be unable to attract new customers at rates or on terms that would be favorable or comparable to prior periods, which could negatively affect the growth of our revenue.
If we fail to integrate our platform with a variety of third-party technologies, our platform may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete and our operating results would be harmed.
Our platform must integrate with a variety of third-party technologies, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our platform to adapt to changes in cloud-enabled hardware, software, networking, mobile, browser and database technologies. Any failure of our platform to operate effectively with future technologies could reduce the demand for our platform, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and harm to our business. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our platform may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete and our operating results may be negatively affected. In addition, an increasing number of customers are utilizing mobile devices to access the internet and conduct business. If we cannot continue to effectively make our platform available on these mobile devices and offer the information, services and functionality required by enterprises that widely use mobile devices, we may experience difficulty attracting and retaining customers.
If we are unable to successfully develop and market new features, make enhancements to our existing features, or expand our offerings into new market segments, our business, results of operations and competitive position may suffer.
The software industry is subject to rapid technological change, evolving standards and practices, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends, in part, on our ability to enhance and improve our existing features, increase adoption and usage of our platform and introduce new features. We expend significant resources on research and development to enhance our platform and to incorporate additional features, improve functionality or add other enhancements in order to meet our customers' rapidly evolving demands. The success of any enhancements or new features depends on several factors, including timely completion, adequate quality testing, actual performance quality, market-accepted pricing levels
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and overall market acceptance. We may not be successful in these efforts, which could result in significant expenditures that could impact our revenue or distract management's attention from current offerings.
Increased emphasis on the sale of new features could distract us from sales of our core platform, negatively affecting our overall sales. We have invested and expect to continue to invest in new businesses, products, features, services, and technologies. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including insufficient revenue from such investments to offset any new liabilities assumed and expenses associated with these new investments, inadequate return of capital on our investments, distraction of management from current operations, and unidentified issues not discovered in our due diligence of such strategies and offerings that could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such investments and incur unanticipated liabilities. Because these new strategies and offerings are inherently risky, no assurance can be given that they will be successful.
Even if we are successful in these endeavors, diversifying our platform offerings will bring us more directly into competition with other providers that may be better established or have greater resources than we have. Our new features or enhancements could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
There is no assurance that we will successfully identify new opportunities or develop and bring new features to market on a timely basis, or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our platform obsolete or noncompetitive, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results and compromise our ability to generate revenues. If our new features or enhancements do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, or if our new features do not result in increased sales or subscriptions, our brand and competitive position will be impaired, our anticipated revenue growth may not be achieved and the negative impact on our operating results may be particularly acute because of the upfront technology and development, marketing, advertising and other expenses we may incur in connection with the new feature or enhancement.
If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and changing customer needs or requirements, our platform may become less competitive.
Our future success depends on our ability to adapt and innovate our platform. To attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers, we need to continue to enhance and improve our offerings to meet customer needs at prices that our customers are willing to pay. Such efforts will require adding new functionality and responding to technological advancements, which will increase our research and development costs. If we are unable to develop new features that address our customers' needs, or to enhance and improve our platform in a timely manner, we may not be able to maintain or increase market acceptance of our platform. Our ability to grow is also subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies. Access and use of our platform is provided via the cloud, which, itself, was disruptive to the previous
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enterprise software model. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver software and related applications at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely affect our ability to compete.
If customers do not expand their use of our platform beyond their current subscriptions, our ability to grow our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
Most of our customers currently subscribe to packages that do not include all of our features. Our ability to grow our business depends in part on our ability to encourage current and future customers to subscribe to our higher priced packages with more extensive features. If we fail to achieve market acceptance of new features, or if a competitor establishes a more widely adopted platform, our revenue and operating results will be harmed.
Because our platform is sold to enterprises that often have complex operating environments, we may encounter long and unpredictable sales cycles, which could adversely affect our operating results in a given period.
Our ability to increase revenue and achieve profitability depends, in large part, on widespread acceptance of our platform by enterprises. As we target our sales efforts at these customers, we face greater costs, longer sales cycles and less predictability in completing some of our sales. As a result of the variability and length of the sales cycle, we have only a limited ability to forecast the timing of sales. A delay in or failure to complete sales could harm our business and financial results, and could cause our financial results to vary significantly from period to period. Our sales cycle varies widely, reflecting differences in potential customers' decision-making processes, procurement requirements and budget cycles, and is subject to significant risks over which we have little or no control, including:
Our typical direct sales cycles for more substantial enterprise customers can often be long, and we expect that this lengthy sales cycle may continue or could even increase. Longer sales cycles could cause our operating results and financial condition to suffer in a given period. If we cannot adequately scale our direct sales force, we will experience further delays in signing new customers, which could slow our revenue growth.
A portion of our revenue is dependent on a few customers.
In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, our top five customers, which included third-party resellers, accounted for approximately 22% and 18%, respectively, of our revenues. We anticipate that sales of our platform to a relatively small number of customers will continue to account for a significant portion of our revenue in future periods. If we were to lose any of our significant customers, our revenue could decline and our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. These negative effects could be exacerbated by customer consolidation, changes in technologies or solutions used by customers, changes in demand for our features, selection of suppliers other than us, customer bankruptcies or customer departures from their respective industries, pricing competition or deviation from marketing and sales methods away from physical location retailing, any one of which may result in even fewer customers accounting for a high percentage of our revenue and reduced demand from any single significant customer.
In addition, some of our customers have used, and may in the future use, the size and relative importance of their purchases to our business to require that we enter into agreements with more
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favorable terms than we would otherwise agree to, to obtain price concessions, or to otherwise restrict our business.
A significant portion of our revenue is dependent on third-party resellers, the efforts of which we do not control.
We are dependent on the efforts of third parties who resell our packages for a significant portion of our revenue. We currently work with more than 3,500 resellers. In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, one reseller, Dex Media, accounted for 12% and 10% of our revenues, respectively. No single customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue for fiscal year 2017. We do not control the efforts of these resellers. If they fail to market or sell our platform successfully, merge or consolidate with other businesses, declare bankruptcy or depart from their respective industries, our business could be harmed. Also, we may expend significant resources managing these reseller relationships. Further, in some international markets, we grant resellers the exclusive right to sell our features. If resellers to whom we have granted exclusive rights fail to successfully market and sell our platform in their assigned territories, then we may be unable to adequately address sales opportunities in that territory. If we are unable to maintain or replace our contractual relationships with resellers, efficiently manage our relationships with them or establish new contractual relationships with other third parties, we may fail to retain subscribers or acquire potential new subscribers and may experience delays and increased costs in adding or replacing subscribers that were lost, any of which could materially affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our revenue growth rate in recent periods may not be indicative of our future performance.
We experienced revenue growth rates of 50% from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2016 and 38% from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2017. Our historical revenue growth rates are not indicative of future growth, and we may not achieve similar revenue growth rates in future periods. You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual periods as an indication of our future revenue or revenue growth. Our operating results may vary as a result of a number of factors, including our ability to execute on our business strategy and compete effectively for customers and business partners and other factors that are outside of our control. If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it could be difficult to achieve or maintain profitability.
A security breach, network attack or information security incident could delay or interrupt service to our customers, result in the unauthorized access to, or use, modification or publishing of customer content or other information, harm our reputation or subject us to significant liability.
We are vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins, phishing attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks and similar disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems. Any such attack, or any information security incident from any other source affecting us or our services providers, including through employee error or misconduct, could lead to interruptions, delays, website or application shutdowns, loss of data or unauthorized access to, or use or acquisition of, personal information, confidential information or other data that we or our services providers process or maintain.
For example, in December 2015, we suffered a denial-of-service attack, which resulted in the inability for some of our customers to access our platform for several hours. If we experience additional compromises to our security that result in performance or availability problems, the complete shutdown of our platform or the loss of, or unauthorized access to, personal information or other types of confidential information, our customers or application providers may assert claims against us for credits, refunds or other damages, and may lose trust and confidence in our platform. Additionally, security breaches or other unauthorized access to, or use or acquisition of, personal information or other types of confidential information that we or our services providers maintain, could result in claims against us for identity theft or other similar fraud claims, governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, and could cause our customers and partners to lose trust in us, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, reputation, operating results and financial condition. Because the
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techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems change frequently, often are not recognized until launched against a target and may originate from less regulated countries, we may be unable to proactively address these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures.
In addition, customers' and application providers' accounts and listing pages hosted on our platform could be accessed by unauthorized persons for the purpose of placing illegal, abusive or otherwise unauthorized content on their respective websites and applications. If an unauthorized person obtained access to a customer's account, such person could update the customer's business information with abusive content. This type of unauthorized activity could negatively affect our ability to attract new customers and application providers, deter current customers and application providers from using our platform, subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines, indemnification requests or additional liability under customer contracts, or other action or liability, any of which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
In connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements in recent years, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are not able to remediate the material weaknesses and otherwise to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, the reliability of our financial reporting, investor confidence in us and the value of our common stock could be materially and adversely affected.
As a public company, we will be required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and, beginning with our second annual report following this offering, which will cover our fiscal year ending January 31, 2019, provide a management report on internal control over financial reporting. Under standards established by the United States Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
In connection with the audits of fiscal years 2016 and 2017 financial statements, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified two material weaknesses in our controls. The first material weakness pertained to controls over the revenue recognition process resulting from a lack of logical access controls over our revenue system and the lack of review controls with regard to manual revenue adjustments. Specifically, we did not have adequate:
We also identified a significant reliance on manual processes in our customer order entry procedures. We are working to remediate the material weakness and have taken steps to improve our internal control environment, including implementing procedures and controls designed to improve our revenue recognition process. Specifically, we are:
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Also in connection with our audits of the fiscal year 2016 and 2017 consolidated financial statements, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified a second material weakness, primarily related to the lack of review and oversight over financial reporting. We determined that we had insufficient financial statement close processes and procedures, including the classification and presentation of expenses. We are taking steps to remediate this weakness, including hiring of senior accounting personnel in our internal audit group and controller's group with a focus on SEC reporting and technical accounting.
We cannot at this time estimate how long it will take to remediate these material weaknesses, and we may not ever be able to remediate the material weaknesses. If we are unable to successfully remediate the material weaknesses and otherwise to establish and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, the reliability of our financial reporting, investor confidence in us and the value of our common stock could be materially and adversely affected. Additionally, the process of designing and implementing internal control over financial reporting required to comply with Section 404 will be time consuming, costly and complicated. In addition, we may discover other control deficiencies in the future, and we cannot assure you that we will not have a material weakness in future periods.
Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable and timely financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to reasonably detect and prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. For as long as we are an "emerging growth company" under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. We could be an "emerging growth company" for up to five years. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could detect problems that our management's assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. Deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are identified in such assessments may be deemed to be material weaknesses or may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement.
We may acquire other companies or technologies, which could divert our management's attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our operating results.
We have in the past acquired and may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, features or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our platform, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.
Although we have previously acquired businesses, we have limited acquisition experience. If we acquire additional businesses, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies successfully or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including:
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In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results. If an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer.
Assertions by third parties of infringement or other violations by us of their intellectual property rights could result in significant costs and harm our business and operating results.
Patent and other intellectual property disputes are common in our industry. Some companies, including some of our competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks, which they may use to assert claims against us. In addition, because patent applications can take years to issue and are often afforded confidentiality for some period of time, there may currently be pending applications, unknown to us, that later result in issued patents that could cover one or more of our features.
Third parties may in the future assert claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights against us. If asserted, we cannot assure you that an infringement claim will be successfully defended. Certain third parties have substantially greater resources than we have and may be able to sustain the costs of intellectual property litigation for longer periods of time than we can. A successful claim against us could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering our platform, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify applications or refund fees, which could be costly. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.
We could incur substantial costs in protecting or defending our intellectual property rights, and any failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary methods and technologies. There can be no assurance that the particular forms of intellectual property protection that we seek, including business decisions about when to file trademark applications and patent applications, will be adequate to protect our business. We intend to continue to file and prosecute patent applications when appropriate to attempt to protect our rights in our proprietary technologies. However, there can be no assurance that our patent applications will be approved, that any patents issued will adequately protect our intellectual property, that the scope of the claims in our issued patents will be sufficient or have the coverage originally sought, that our issued patents will provide us with any competitive advantages, or that such patents will not be challenged by third parties or found by a judicial authority to be invalid or unenforceable.
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We could be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, determine the validity and scope of our proprietary rights or those of others, or defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation may fail, and even if successful, could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in a diversion of significant resources. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights or alleging that we infringe the counterclaimant's own intellectual property. An adverse determination of any litigation or defense proceedings could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our related pending patent applications at risk of not being issued. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential or sensitive information could be compromised by disclosure in the event of litigation. During the course of litigation there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock.
Any of our patents, copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property rights could be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Furthermore, there can be no guarantee that others will not independently develop similar products, duplicate any of our products or design around our patents.
We also rely, in part, on confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, advisors, customers and others in our efforts to protect our proprietary technology, processes and methods. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information, and it may be possible for unauthorized parties to copy our software or other proprietary technology or information, or to develop similar software independently without our having an adequate remedy for unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in these cases we would not be able to assert any trade secret rights against those parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property and other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying, transfer and use of our proprietary technology or information may increase. For example, many foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate. In addition, changes in the law and legal decisions by courts in the United States and foreign countries may affect our ability to obtain adequate protection for our technology and the enforcement of intellectual property.
We cannot be certain that our means of protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights will be adequate or that our competitors will not independently develop similar technology. If we fail to meaningfully protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
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Our platform utilizes open source software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could negatively affect our business.
Our platform utilizes software governed by open source licenses. The terms of various open source licenses have not been interpreted by United States courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market our platform. By the terms of certain open source licenses, we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, and to make our proprietary software available under open source licenses, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a specified manner. In the event that portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, or to re-engineer all or a portion of software, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our platform. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated and could negatively affect our business.
We employ third-party licensed software for use in or with our platform, and the inability to maintain these licenses or errors in the software we license could result in increased costs, or reduced service levels, which could adversely affect our business.
Our platform incorporates certain third-party software obtained under licenses from other companies. We anticipate that we will continue to rely on such third-party software and development tools in the future. Although we believe that there are commercially reasonable alternatives to the third-party software we currently license, this may not always be the case, or it may be difficult or costly to replace. In addition, integration of the software used in our platform with new third-party software may require significant work and require substantial investment of our time and resources. Also, to the extent that our platform depends upon the successful operation of third-party software in conjunction with our software, any undetected errors or defects in this third-party software could prevent the deployment or impair the functionality of our platform, delay new feature introductions, result in a failure of our platform and injure our reputation. Our use of additional or alternative third-party software would require us to enter into license agreements with third parties.
We are subject to general litigation that may materially adversely affect us.
From time to time, we may be involved in disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business. We expect that the number and significance of potential disputes may increase as our business expands and our company grows larger. While our agreements with customers limit our liability for damages arising from our platform, we cannot assure you that these contractual provisions will protect us from liability for damages in the event we are sued. Although we carry general liability insurance coverage, our insurance may not cover all potential claims to which we are exposed or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, require significant amounts of management time, and result in the diversion of significant operational resources. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.
We are currently a party to a lawsuit alleging deceptive sales practices by us as further described in "BusinessLegal Proceedings." On April 11, 2017, we entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which the case will be dismissed with prejudice.
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We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, including those related to privacy, data protection and information security, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business. Compliance with such laws could also impair our efforts to maintain and expand our customer base, and thereby decrease our revenue.
We receive, store and process personal information and other data from and about customers, including resellers, partners and, in limited instances, end users of our services, in addition to our employees and services providers. Also, in connection with future feature offerings, we may receive, store and process additional types of data, including personally identifiable information, related to end consumers. Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, and various state, local and foreign agencies. Our data handling also is subject to contractual obligations and industry standards.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of data relating to individuals, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the United States, various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure, and security of certain types of data. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data. The laws and regulations relating to privacy and data security are evolving, can be subject to significant change and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions.
In addition, several foreign countries and governmental bodies, including the European Union, have laws and regulations dealing with the handling and processing of personal information obtained from their residents, which in certain cases are more restrictive than those in the United States. Laws and regulations in these jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, disclosure and security of various types of data, including data that identifies or may be used to identify an individual, such as names, email addresses and in some jurisdictions, Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses. Such laws and regulations may be modified or subject to new or different interpretations, and new laws and regulations may be enacted in the future. Within the European Union, legislators recently adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which, when effective in 2018, will replace the 1995 European Union Data Protection Directive and supersede applicable EU member state legislation. The GDPR includes more stringent operational requirements for processors and controllers of personal data and imposes significant penalties for non-compliance. We have certified under the U.S.-European Union Privacy Shield with respect to our transfer of certain personal data from the European Union to the United States.
We also handle credit card and other personal information. Due to the sensitive nature of such information, we have implemented policies and procedures to preserve and protect our data and our customers' data against loss, misuse, corruption, misappropriation caused by systems failures, unauthorized access or misuse. Notwithstanding these policies, we could be subject to liability claims by individuals and customers whose data resides in our databases for the misuse of that information. If we fail to meet appropriate compliance levels, this could negatively impact our ability to collect and store credit card information, which could disrupt our business.
Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal or contractual obligations, industry standards, or regulatory guidance relating to privacy or data security, may result in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, and could cause our customers and partners to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, consumer communications and information security in the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations or any changed interpretation of existing laws or regulations
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could impair our ability to develop and market new features and maintain and grow our customer base and increase revenue. Future restrictions on the collection, use, sharing or disclosure of data or additional requirements for express or implied consent of our customers, partners or end consumers for the use and disclosure of such information could require us to incur additional costs or modify our platform, possibly in a material manner, and could limit our ability to develop new features. If our policies, procedures, or measures relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, or customer communications fail to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal obligations or industry standards, we may be subject to governmental enforcement actions, litigation, regulatory investigations, fines, penalties and negative publicity and could cause our application providers, customers and partners to lose trust in us, which could materially affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
The reliability of our network and support infrastructure will be critical to our success. Sustained failures or outages could lead to significant costs and service disruptions, which could negatively affect our business, financial results and reputation.
Our reputation and ability to attract, retain, and serve our customers and application providers are dependent upon the reliable performance of our platform and our underlying technical and network infrastructure. Our customers access our platform through our website and related technologies. We rely on internal systems and third-party vendors, including data center, bandwidth and telecommunications equipment providers, to maintain the availability of our platform. Our primary data center is in New Jersey, and our backup data center is in Texas. If these data centers become unavailable to us without sufficient advance notice, we would likely experience delays in delivering our platform until we could migrate to an alternate data center provider. Our disaster recovery program contemplates transitioning our platform to our backup center in the event of a catastrophe, but we have not yet fully tested the procedure, and our platform may be unavailable, in whole or in part, during any transition procedure.
We have experienced, and will in the future experience, interruptions, outages and other performance problems. Such disruptions may be due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of customers and partners accessing our platform simultaneously and inadequate design. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. If we do not accurately predict our infrastructure requirements, our existing customers may experience service outages that may subject us to financial penalties, financial liabilities and customer losses. If our operations infrastructure fails to keep pace with increased sales, customers may experience delays as we seek to obtain additional capacity, which could materially affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Natural disasters and other events beyond our control could adversely affect us.
Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations and the global economy, and thus could have a strong negative effect on us. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, pandemics and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to continue operations, and could decrease demand for our platform. Our data centers are located in New Jersey and Texas, making our business particularly susceptible to natural disasters in those areas. Any natural disaster affecting our data centers could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our software, or in the software or systems of our third-party applications providers and partners, could materially and adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
Our features are highly technical and complex. Our software has previously contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Some errors in our software may only be discovered after the software has been deployed. Any errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities discovered in our
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software after it has been deployed could result in damage to our reputation, loss of customers, partners or application providers, loss of revenue or liability for damages.
In addition, the proper functioning of our platform is dependent on the ability of our PowerListings Network application providers and partners to maintain the availability and proper functioning of their software integrations with our systems and also is dependent on the ability of our third-party applications providers to maintain the availability and proper functioning of their websites and applications on which business listing information is published for customers. For example, a number of our PowerListings Network application providers provide us with an Application Program Interface, or API, on which our ability to interface with that provider is based. If our PowerListings Network application providers do not maintain the availability and proper functioning of their software, APIs, websites and applications, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially affected.
We depend on our senior management team and the loss of our chief executive officer, president or one or more key employees could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our key executive officers. In particular, two of our co-founders, Howard Lerman and Brian Distelburger, who serve as our Chief Executive Officer and President, respectively, are critical to our vision, strategic direction, feature innovation, culture and overall business success. We also rely on our leadership team in the areas of research and development, marketing, sales, services and general and administrative functions. From time to time, there may be changes in our executive management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. We do not have employment agreements with our executive officers or other key personnel that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of one or more of our executive officers or key employees could have a serious adverse effect on our business.
The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel could prevent us from executing our business strategy.
To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. In particular, we compete with many other companies for software developers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing cloud-based software, as well as for skilled information technology, sales, marketing, legal and accounting professionals, and we may not be successful in attracting and retaining the professionals we need. In the future, we may experience difficulty in hiring and difficulty in retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous software and other technology companies. Competition for qualified personnel is particularly intense in the New York area. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain qualified personnel, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies before we capitalize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them.
In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the software industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options or other equity incentives they are to receive in connection with their employment. If the price of our stock declines, or experiences significant volatility, our ability to attract or retain key employees will be adversely affected. Also, as employee options vest and lock-ups expire, we may have difficulty retaining key employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our growth prospects could be severely harmed.
If we fail to offer high-quality customer support, our business and reputation may suffer.
High-quality education, training and customer support is important for the successful retention of existing customers. Providing this education, training and support requires that our support personnel have specific knowledge and expertise of our platform, making it more difficult for us to hire qualified personnel and to scale up our support operations. The importance of high-quality customer support will increase as
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we expand our business and pursue new customers. If we do not provide effective and timely ongoing support, our ability to sell additional features to, or to retain, existing customers may suffer, and our reputation with existing or potential customers may be harmed.
If we fail to continue to develop our brand, our business may suffer.
We believe that continuing to develop and maintain awareness of our brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform and is an important element in attracting and retaining customers. Efforts to build our brand may involve significant expense and may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue at all, or in an amount sufficient to offset expenses we incur in building our brand. In addition, we sell our features to companies in a number of industries, including healthcare, financial and retail. If we are not successful in building our brand, we may become identified with a single industry, which could make it more difficult for us to penetrate other industries.
Promotion and enhancement of our brand will depend largely on our success in being able to provide high quality, reliable and cost-effective features. If customers do not perceive our platform as meeting their needs, or if we fail to market our platform effectively, we will likely be unsuccessful in creating the brand awareness that is critical for broad customer adoption of our platform.
Adverse economic conditions or reduced technology spending may adversely impact our business.
Our business depends on the overall demand for technology and on the economic performance of our current and prospective customers. In general, worldwide economic conditions may remain unstable, and these conditions would make it difficult for our customers, prospective customers and us to forecast and plan future business activities accurately, and they could cause our customers or prospective customers to reevaluate their decision to purchase our features. Weak global economic conditions, or a reduction in technology spending even if economic conditions stabilize, could adversely impact our business and results of operations in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, lower prices for our platform, fewer subscriptions and lower or no growth.
Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate may impact our financial results.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various jurisdictions outside of the United States, and we are in the process of expanding our international operations. Our effective tax rate could fluctuate due to changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates. Our tax expense could also be impacted by changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in accounting principles, expiration or non-utilization of net operating losses, changes in excess tax benefits related to exercises and vesting of stock-based expense, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and our ability to utilize them and the applicability of withholding taxes. While we regularly evaluate new information that may change our judgment resulting in recognition, derecognition or change in measurement of a tax position taken, there can be no assurance that the final determination of any examinations will not have an adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.
We may have additional tax liabilities, which could harm our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Significant judgments and estimates are required in determining the provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. We generally conduct our international operations through wholly-owned subsidiaries and report our taxable income in various jurisdictions worldwide based upon our business operations in those jurisdictions. The amount of taxes we pay may depend on the application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions, including the United States, to our international business activities, changes in tax rates, new or revised tax laws or interpretations of existing tax laws and policies and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. Our tax expense may be impacted if our intercompany transactions, which are required to be computed on an
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arm's-length basis, are challenged and successfully disputed by the tax authorities. In determining the adequacy of income taxes, we assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes that could result if our tax positions were challenged by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, and other tax authorities. The tax authorities in the United States and other countries where we do business regularly examine our income and other tax returns. The ultimate outcome of these examinations cannot be predicted with certainty. Should the IRS or other tax authorities assess additional taxes as a result of examinations, we may be required to record charges that would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Adverse tax laws or regulations could be enacted or existing laws could be applied to us or our customers, which could increase our costs and adversely affect our business.
The application of federal, state, local and international tax laws to services provided electronically is evolving. New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, possibly with retroactive effect, and could be applied solely or disproportionately to services provided over the internet. These enactments could adversely affect our sales activity due to the inherent cost increase the taxes would represent and ultimately result in a negative impact on our operating results and cash flows.
In addition, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us, possibly with retroactive effect, which could require us or our customers to pay additional tax amounts, as well as require us or our customers to pay fines or penalties and interest for past amounts. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes from our customers, we could be held liable for such costs.
Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable, which has resulted or could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, to us or our customers for past amounts, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest, or future requirements may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
As of January 31, 2017, we had gross U.S. federal and tax-effected state net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of $119.6 million and $5.2 million, respectively, due to prior period losses. In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an ownership change, which is generally defined as a greater than 50-percentage-point cumulative change by value in the equity ownership of certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs to offset post-change taxable income. Our existing NOLs may be subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes, and if we undergo an ownership change in connection with or after this offering, our ability to utilize NOLs could be further limited by Section 382 of the Code. Future changes in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs, or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. For these reasons, we may not be able to realize a tax benefit from the use of our NOLs, even if we attain profitability.
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Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or U.S. GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.
In particular, in May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in ASC 605, Revenue Recognition. The core principle of ASU 2014-09 is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. As an "emerging growth company" the JOBS Act allows us to delay adoption of new or revised accounting pronouncements applicable to public companies until such pronouncements are made applicable to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period under the JOBS Act, including with respect to ASU 2014-09. As a result, we will not be required to apply ASU 2014-09 until February 1, 2019.
The estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts included in this prospectus are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. Even if the market in which we compete meets the size estimates and growth forecasted in this prospectus, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all. For more information regarding the estimates of market opportunity and the forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus, see "Industry Data."
Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.
Our chief executive officer does not have experience managing a public company, interacting with public company investors and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. While our chief financial officer and certain other executives have such experience, our management team, as a whole, may not successfully or efficiently manage the transition to being a public company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management, particularly from our chief executive officer, and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.
We are subject to anti-corruption and anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and possibly other anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, offering, soliciting or accepting improper payments or other benefits to or from government officials and others in the private sector. As we increase our international sales and business, particularly in countries with a low score on the Corruptions Perceptions Index by Transparency International, and increase our use of third-party business partners such as sales agents, distributors,
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resellers, or consultants, our risks under these laws may increase. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, representatives, contractors, business partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. While we have policies and procedures in this area, we cannot guarantee that improprieties committed by our employees or third parties will not occur. Noncompliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with certain persons, the loss of export privileges, whistleblower complaints, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management's attention and resources and significant defense and compliance costs and other professional fees. In certain cases, enforcement authorities may even require us to appoint an independent compliance monitor, which can result in added costs and administrative burdens. Any investigations, actions or sanctions or other previously mentioned harm could have a material negative effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls and economic sanctions laws that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our business activities are subject to various restrictions under U.S. export and import controls and trade and economic sanctions laws, including U.S. customs regulations, the U.S. Commerce Department's Export Administration Regulations and economic and trade sanctions regulations maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. export control laws and U.S. economic sanctions laws include prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities and also require authorization for the export of certain encryption items. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our services or could limit our customers' ability to implement our services in those countries. Although we take precautions to prevent our platform from being provided in violation of such laws, our platform may have been in the past, and could in the future be, provided inadvertently in violation of such laws, despite the precautions we take. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export or import privileges, monetary penalties, and, in extreme cases, imprisonment of responsible employees for knowing and willful violations of these laws. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular transaction may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. In addition, changes in our platform or changes in applicable export or import regulations may create delays in the introduction and sale of our products in international markets, prevent our customers with international operations from deploying our products or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such regulations, could also result in decreased use of our products or in our decreased ability to export or sell our products to existing or potential customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or limitation on our ability to export or sell our products would likely adversely affect our business. Although we take precautions to prevent transactions with U.S. sanction targets, we could inadvertently provide our platform to persons prohibited by U.S. sanctions. Violations of export and import regulations and economic sanctions could result in negative consequences to us, including government investigations, penalties and reputational harm.
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Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our platform and could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet. Federal, state or foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the internet, generally. These laws or charges could limit the use of the internet or decrease the demand for internet-based solutions. In addition, the use of the internet as a business tool could be adversely affected due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility and quality of service. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been adversely affected by "viruses", "worms" and similar malicious programs. If the use of the internet is reduced as a result of these or other issues, then demand for our platform could decline, which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
We face exposure to movements in currency exchange rates, which may cause our revenue and operating results to differ materially from expectations. Our operating results could be negatively affected depending on the amount of expense denominated in foreign currencies. As exchange rates vary, revenue, cost of revenue, operating expenses and other operating results, when re-measured, may differ materially from expectations. In addition, our operating results are subject to fluctuation if our mix of U.S. and foreign currency denominated transactions and expenses changes in the future. Although we may apply certain strategies to mitigate foreign currency risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expertise, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications. Additionally, as we anticipate growing our business further outside of the United States, the effects of movements in currency exchange rates will increase as our transaction volume outside of the United States increases.
Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants that may limit our operating flexibility.
Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants that limit our ability to transfer or dispose of assets, merge with other companies or consummate certain changes of control, acquire other companies, open new offices that contain a material amount of assets, pay dividends, incur additional indebtedness and liens and enter into new businesses. We therefore may not be able to engage in any of the foregoing transactions unless we obtain the consent of the lender or terminate the credit facility, which may limit our operating flexibility. In addition, our credit facility is secured by all of our assets, other than our intellectual property, and requires us to satisfy certain financial covenants. There is no guarantee that we will be able to generate sufficient cash flow or sales to meet these financial covenants or pay the principal and interest on any such debt. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that future working capital, borrowings or equity financing will be available to repay or refinance any such debt. Any inability to make scheduled payments or meet the financial covenants on our credit facility would adversely affect our business.
We may require additional capital to support our business, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We intend to continue to make investments to support our business and may require additional funds. In particular, we may seek additional funds to develop new features and enhance our existing features, expand our operations, including our sales and marketing organizations and our presence outside of the United States, improve our infrastructure or acquire complementary businesses, technologies, services, features and other assets. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt
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securities, our stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. Any debt financing that we may secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth, scale our infrastructure, develop feature enhancements and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, and our business, operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected.
If the assumptions we use to estimate the size of our total addressable market are inaccurate, our future growth may be affected.
We calculate the size of our estimated total addressable market based on the number of potential business locations and points of interest in the world that we believe could benefit from our platform. We use data published by Google Maps as well as internally generated data and assumptions regarding our ability to generate revenue from those locations. We have not independently verified the estimate of locations published by Google Maps and cannot assure you of its accuracy or completeness. In addition, our estimated market size is based on estimated annual revenue per location of $100, which would be lower than the average revenue per location of $134, calculated using our total revenue of $124.3 million in fiscal year 2017 divided by our worldwide locations managed of 925,000 as of January 31, 2017. For the purposes of this calculation, we estimated a more conservative average revenue per location than our historical average to account for the anticipated effects of entering new markets that may not generate the same revenue per location as our existing markets. For example, when we first enter a new geographic market, we may initially provide discounts to customers to gain market traction. The amount and effect of these discounts may vary greatly by geography and size of market.
Our estimate of our total addressable market does not include other opportunities, including but not limited to:
While we believe the information on which we base our estimated market size is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, our expectations, assumptions and estimates of future opportunities are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in this "Risk Factors" section of this prospectus. If third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our future growth rate may be affected. In addition, these inaccuracies or errors may cause us to misallocate capital and other business resources, all of which would harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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Risks Related to this Offering, Ownership of Our Common Stock and Our Status as a Public Company
Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
Our quarterly results of operations, including the levels of our revenues, gross margin and profitability, as well as our cash flows and deferred revenue balances, may vary significantly in the future, and period-to-period comparisons of our operating results and key metrics may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Although we have not historically experienced meaningful seasonality, our quarterly financial results and metrics may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and, as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. These fluctuations may negatively affect the value of our common stock. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly results include:
If securities or industry analysts do not initiate, publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, or if our actual results differ significantly from our guidance, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if industry analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price for our common stock would be negatively affected. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our common stock price and trading volume to decline.
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In addition, from time to time, we may release earnings guidance or other forward-looking statements in our earnings releases, earnings conference calls or otherwise regarding our future performance that represent our management's estimates as of the date of release. Some or all of the assumptions of any future guidance that we furnish may not materialize or may vary significantly from actual future results. Any failure to meet guidance or analysts' expectations could have a material adverse effect on the trading price or trading volume of our common stock.
Our share price may be volatile, and you may be unable to sell your shares at or above the offering price, if at all. Market volatility may affect the value of an investment in our common stock and could subject us to litigation.
Technology stocks have historically experienced high levels of volatility. There has been no public market for our common stock prior to this offering. The initial public offering price for the shares of our common stock has been determined by negotiations between us and representatives of the underwriters and may vary from the market price of our common stock following this offering. The market price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to many risk factors listed in this section, and others beyond our control, including:
Furthermore, in recent years, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, and technology companies in particular. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our common stock. If the market price of our common stock after this offering does not exceed the initial public offering price, you may not realize any return on your investment in us and may lose some or all of your investment.
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In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management's attention from other business concerns, which could also harm our business.
There has been no prior market for our common stock and an active market may not develop or be sustained and investors may not be able to resell their shares at or above the initial public offering price.
There has been no public market for our common stock prior to this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price, if at all. An active or liquid market in our common stock may not develop upon the closing of this offering or, if it does develop, it may not be sustainable.
If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution.
The public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share of our common stock. Therefore, if you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds our net tangible book value per share after this offering. Based on the initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, you will experience immediate dilution of $9.96 per share, representing the difference between the initial public offering price and our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering.
Future sales and issuances of our capital stock or rights to purchase capital stock could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to decline.
We may issue additional securities following the completion of this offering. Our certificate of incorporation to be in effect following this offering will authorize us to issue up to 500,000,000 shares of common stock. Future sales and issuances of our capital stock or rights to purchase our capital stock could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders. We may sell common stock, convertible securities and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, the ownership of existing stockholders will be diluted, possibly materially. New investors in subsequent transactions could also gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of existing holders of our common stock.
We may invest or spend the proceeds of this offering in ways with which you may not agree or in ways which may not yield a return.
The net proceeds from the sale of our shares of our common stock by us in this offering may be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital, capital expenses and other general corporate purposes. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to fund potential acquisitions, or investments in, technologies or businesses that complement our business, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any such acquisitions at this time. Our management will have considerable discretion in the application of the net proceeds, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the proceeds are being used appropriately. Until the net proceeds are used, they may be placed in investments that do not produce significant income or that may lose value.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We may not declare or pay cash dividends on our capital stock in the near future. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, stockholders must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
38
Substantial blocks of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market when the lock-up period ends. If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, or the market perception that such sales may occur, the price of our common stock could decline.
The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or if there is a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale and the market perceives that sales will occur. After this offering, we will have 85,489,470 shares of our common stock outstanding, based on the number of shares outstanding as of January 31, 2017. All of the shares of common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradeable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. All shares held by our directors and officers and substantially all of our stockholders and holders of options and warrants, other than shares of common stock issued in this offering, are currently restricted from resale as a result of a contractual "lock-up" restriction. These shares will become available to be sold 181 days after the date of this prospectus, with earlier sales permitted at the discretion of the representatives of the underwriters. The lock-up restrictions are more fully described in the "Shares Eligible for Future Sale" and "Underwriting" sections of this prospectus. Shares held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act.
In addition, we intend to file one or more registration statements to register the shares of common stock subject to outstanding options under our equity incentive plans and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. Shares registered on these registration statements would be eligible for sale to the public, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations. The market price of the shares of our common stock could decline as a result of the sale of a substantial number of our shares of common stock in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.
Additionally, after this offering, certain existing holders of our common stock and outstanding warrants, or their transferees, will have rights, subject to specified conditions, to require us to file one or more registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. If we were to register the resale of these shares, they could be freely sold in the public market. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could be adversely affected.
The concentration of our stock ownership will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the ability to influence the outcome of director elections and other matters requiring stockholder approval.
Following this offering, our executive officers, directors and the holders of more than 5% of our outstanding common stock in the aggregate will beneficially own approximately 82% of our common stock, assuming no exercise by the underwriters of their over-allotment option, no exercise of outstanding options or warrants, and after giving effect to the issuance of shares in this offering. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have significant influence over all matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate actions might be taken even if other stockholders, including those who purchase shares in this offering, oppose them. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company that other stockholders may view as beneficial.
Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect at the closing of this offering could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our common stock.
Following the closing of this offering, our status as a Delaware corporation may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In
39
addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect at the closing of this offering will contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. The provisions of Section 203 may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for three years after achieving that ownership threshold. A Delaware corporation may opt out of this provision by express provision in its original certificate of incorporation or by amendment to its certificate of incorporation or bylaws approved by its stockholders. However, we have not opted out of this provision.
These and other provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to obtain control of our Board of Directors or initiate actions that are opposed by our then-current Board of Directors, including delaying or impeding a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest involving our company. The existence of these provisions could negatively affect the price of our common stock and limit opportunities for you to realize value in a corporate transaction.
For additional information regarding these and other provisions, see "Description of Capital Stock."
We will incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company.
As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities
40
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and will be required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. We expect that compliance with these requirements will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, we expect that our management and other personnel will need to divert attention from operational and other business matters to devote substantial time to these public company requirements. In particular, we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which will increase when we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined by the JOBS Act. We will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and maintain an internal audit function. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur as a result of becoming a public company or the timing of such costs.
We are an emerging growth company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
We will remain an emerging growth company and may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until the earliest of (i) the end of the fiscal year in which the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the preceding July 31, which is the end of our second fiscal quarter, (ii) the end of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1 billion or more during such fiscal year, (iii) the date on which we issue more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt in a three-year period or (iv) the end of the fiscal year that is five years from the date of this prospectus.
We are an emerging growth company, and we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards otherwise applicable to public companies, which may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
As an emerging growth company, the JOBS Act allows us to delay adoption of new or revised accounting pronouncements applicable to public companies until such pronouncements are made applicable to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period under the JOBS Act. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
41
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. These statements may relate to, but are not limited to, expectations of future operating results or financial performance, capital expenditures, use of proceeds from this offering, introduction of new products and enhancements to our current platform, regulatory compliance, plans for growth and future operations, the size of our addressable market and market trends, as well as assumptions relating to the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. These risks and other factors include, but are not limited to, those listed under "Risk Factors." In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "might," "would," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Actual events or results may differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and these differences may be material and adverse. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in "Prospectus Summary," "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Result of Operations" and "Business."
We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects, business strategy and financial needs. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors described in the section captioned "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this prospectus. These risks are not exhaustive. Other sections of this prospectus include additional factors that could adversely affect our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
In addition, statements that "we believe" and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance and achievements may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which such statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this prospectus or to conform such statements to actual results or revised expectations, except as required by law.
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This prospectus contains estimates and other information concerning our industry, including market size and growth rates of the markets in which we participate, that are based on industry publications, surveys and forecasts, including those generated by Google, the U.S. Census Bureau and BIA/Kelsey. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. The industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in "Risk Factors." These and other factors could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these publications, surveys and forecasts.
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We estimate that the net proceeds from our sale of 10,500,000 shares of common stock in this offering will be approximately $103.0 million, or $119.1 million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, at the initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
The principal purposes of this offering are to create a public market for our common stock and to facilitate our future access to the public equity markets, as well as to obtain additional capital.
Except as discussed below, we currently have no specific plans for the use of a significant portion of the net proceeds of this offering. However, we anticipate that we will use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate expenses. We may also use a portion of our net proceeds to fund potential acquisitions, or investments in, technologies or businesses that complement our business, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any such acquisitions or make any such investments. The timing and amount of our actual expenditures will be based on many factors, including cash flows from operations and the anticipated growth of our business. Pending these uses, we intend to invest the net proceeds of this offering primarily in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our capital stock. We anticipate that we will retain any earnings to support operations and to finance the growth and development of our business. Accordingly, we do not expect to pay cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. In addition, our revolving credit facility agreement contains customary covenants restricting our ability to pay dividends.
44
The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of January 31, 2017:
You should read this table in conjunction with "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
|
As of January 31, 2017 | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Actual | Pro Forma | Pro Forma As Adjusted |
|||||||
|
(in thousands, except share and per share amounts) |
|||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 24,420 | $ | 24,420 | $ | 127,605 | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Preferred stock warrant liability |
$ | 944 | $ | | $ | | ||||
Long term debt |
5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | |||||||
Convertible preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share; 43,705,690 shares authorized actual and pro forma; 43,594,753 shares issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized, pro forma as adjusted; no shares issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted |
120,615 | | | |||||||
Stockholders' (deficit) equity: |
||||||||||
Preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share; no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, actual and pro forma; 50,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued or outstanding, pro forma as adjusted |
| | | |||||||
Common stock, $0.001 par value per share; 200,000,000 shares authorized, actual and pro forma; 500,000,000 shares authorized, pro forma as adjusted; 37,900,051 shares issued, actual; 81,494,804 shares issued, pro forma; 91,994,804 shares issued, pro forma as adjusted; 31,394,717 shares outstanding, actual; 74,989,470 shares outstanding, pro forma; 85,489,470 shares outstanding, pro forma as adjusted |
38 | 82 | 92 | |||||||
Additional paid-in capital |
52,805 | 174,320 | 277,325 | |||||||
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |
(1,808 | ) | (1,808 | ) | (1,808 | ) | ||||
Accumulated deficit |
(166,885 | ) | (166,885 | ) | (166,885 | ) | ||||
Treasury stock, at cost |
(11,905 | ) | (11,905 | ) | (11,905 | ) | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total stockholders' (deficit) equity |
(127,755 | ) | (6,196 | ) | 96,819 | |||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total capitalization |
$ | (1,196 | ) | $ | (1,196 | ) | $ | 101,819 | ||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
45
The preceding data is based on the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of January 31, 2017. This number excludes:
46
If you invest in our common stock, your interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering. Our pro forma net tangible book value as of January 31, 2017 was $(13.8) million, or $(0.18) per share of common stock. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents total tangible assets less total liabilities, divided by the number of shares of common stock outstanding, assuming (i) the conversion of all then outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 43,594,753 shares of our common stock, which will occur automatically upon the closing of this offering; and (ii) the automatic conversion of outstanding warrants exercisable for shares of our convertible preferred stock into warrants exercisable for 110,937 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering and the reclassification of the related warrant liability to additional paid-in-capital. After giving effect to the sale by us of 10,500,000 shares of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of January 31, 2017 would have been $89.2 million, or $1.04 per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $1.22 per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $9.96 per share to our new investors purchasing shares of common stock in this offering. The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:
Initial public offering price per share |
$ | 11.00 | |||||
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of January 31, 2017 |
$ | (0.18 | ) | ||||
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to this offering |
1.22 | ||||||
| | | | | | | |
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering |
1.04 | ||||||
| | | | | | | |
Dilution per share to new investors |
$ | 9.96 | |||||
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after the offering would be $1.21 per share, the increase in the pro forma net tangible book value per share to existing stockholders would be $1.39 per share and the dilution to new investors purchasing common stock in this offering would be $9.79 per share.
The following table illustrates, on the pro forma as adjusted basis described in the preceding paragraphs as of January 31, 2017, the differences between the number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid, and the average price per share paid by existing stockholders and new investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
|
|
|
Total Consideration |
|
||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Shares Purchased | |
||||||||||||||
|
Average Price Per Share |
|||||||||||||||
|
Number | Percent | Dollars | Percent | ||||||||||||
Existing Investors |
74,989,470 | 88 | % | $ | 162,497,000 | 58 | % | $ | 2.17 | |||||||
New Investors |
10,500,000 | 12 | 115,500,000 | 42 | 11.00 | |||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Total |
85,489,470 | 100 | % | $ | 277,997,000 | 100 | % | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, the percentage of shares of common stock held by existing stockholders will decrease to 86% of the total number of shares of our common stock
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outstanding after this offering, and the number of shares held by new investors will be increased to 12,075,000, or 14% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding after this offering.
The data in the preceding table and paragraphs exclude, as of January 31, 2017:
The shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2016 Equity Incentive Plan will be subject to automatic annual increases in accordance with the terms of the Plan. To the extent that options or warrants are exercised, new options are issued under our 2016 Equity Incentive Plan, or we issue additional shares of common stock in the future, there will be further dilution to investors participating in this offering. In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital because of market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe that we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. If we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of these securities could result in further dilution to our stockholders.
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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and the consolidated financial statements and related notes included within this prospectus. Our fiscal year ends on January 31. References to fiscal year 2017, for example, refer to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017.
The consolidated statement of operations data for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2016 and 2017, are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results. The selected consolidated financial data in this section are not intended to replace our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
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|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands, except share and per share data) |
|||||||||
Consolidated Statement of Operations Data: |
||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 60,002 | $ | 89,724 | $ | 124,261 | ||||
Cost of revenues(1) |
24,832 | 31,033 | 36,950 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Gross profit |
35,170 | 58,691 | 87,311 | |||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||
Sales and marketing(1) |
31,588 | 49,822 | 81,529 | |||||||
Research and development(1) |
11,945 | 16,201 | 19,316 | |||||||
General and administrative(1) |
8,988 | 18,806 | 29,166 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
52,521 | 84,829 | 130,011 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(17,351 | ) | (26,138 | ) | (42,700 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense), net |
78 | (412 | ) | (382 | ) | |||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(17,273 | ) | (26,550 | ) | (43,082 | ) | ||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
| 55 | (68 | ) | ||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
$ | (17,273 | ) | $ | (26,495 | ) | $ | (43,150 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2) |
$ | (0.61 | ) | $ | (0.89 | ) | $ | (1.39 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Weighted-average number of shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2) |
28,519,917 | 29,917,814 | 31,069,695 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
$ | (0.58 | ) | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Weighted-average number of shares used in computing pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
74,664,448 | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Cost of revenues |
$ | 399 | $ | 533 | $ | 590 | ||||
Sales and marketing |
920 | 1,559 | 4,359 | |||||||
Research and development |
1,104 | 1,300 | 1,954 | |||||||
General and administrative |
480 | 1,115 | 2,948 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total stock-based compensation |
$ | 2,903 | $ | 4,507 | $ | 9,851 | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
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|
January 31, | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 | 2017 | |||||
|
(in thousands) |
||||||
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: |
|||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 30,028 | $ | 24,420 | |||
Total current assets |
58,156 | 61,829 | |||||
Total assets |
85,497 | 86,465 | |||||
Current deferred revenue |
35,954 | 57,112 | |||||
Total liabilities |
60,118 | 93,605 | |||||
Convertible preferred stock |
120,615 | 120,615 | |||||
Total stockholders' deficit |
(95,236 | ) | (127,755 | ) |
Non-GAAP Net Loss
In addition to our financial results determined in accordance with GAAP, we believe that non-GAAP net loss is useful in evaluating our operating performance. We regularly review non-GAAP net loss as we evaluate our business.
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Non-GAAP net loss |
$ | (14,370 | ) | $ | (21,988 | ) | $ | (33,299 | ) |
Non-GAAP net loss is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. We define non-GAAP net loss as our GAAP net loss as adjusted to exclude the effects of stock-based compensation expenses. We believe non-GAAP net loss provides investors and other users of our financial information consistency and comparability with our past financial performance and facilitates period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations. We also believe non-GAAP net loss is useful in evaluating our operating performance compared to that of other companies in our industry, as this metric eliminates the effects of stock-based compensation, which may vary for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance.
We use non-GAAP net loss in conjunction with traditional GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies and to communicate with our Board of Directors concerning our financial performance. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish this or similar metrics. Thus, our non-GAAP net loss should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, nor superior to or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Non-GAAP net loss may be limited in its usefulness because it does not present the full economic effect of our use of stock-based compensation. We compensate for these limitations by providing investors and other users of our financial information a reconciliation of non-GAAP net loss to net loss, the most closely related GAAP financial measure. We encourage investors and others to review our financial information in its entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure and to view non-GAAP net loss in conjunction with net loss.
The following table provides a reconciliation of net loss to non-GAAP net loss:
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Net loss |
$ | (17,273 | ) | $ | (26,495 | ) | $ | (43,150 | ) | |
Stock-based compensation |
2,903 | 4,507 | 9,851 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Non-GAAP net loss |
$ | (14,370 | ) | $ | (21,988 | ) | $ | (33,299 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
51
MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results and timing of selected events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this prospectus. See "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements."
Our fiscal year ends on January 31. References to fiscal year 2017, for example, refer to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017.
Overview
Yext is a knowledge engine. Our platform lets businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud and sync it to over 100 services including Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. We have established direct data integrations between our software and the members of our PowerListings Network, which consumers around the globe use to discover new businesses, read reviews and find accurate answers to their queries.
Our cloud-based software platform, the Yext Knowledge Engine, powers all of our key features including our Listings, Pages and Reviews features along with our other features and capabilities. We offer annual and multi-year subscriptions to our platform. We had historically priced our subscriptions based on custom combinations of the features that the customer wished to access and the number of locations that the customer managed with our platform. Beginning in October 2015, we began pricing new subscriptions in a more discrete range of packages, with pricing based on specified feature sets and the number of locations managed by the customer with our platform.
We sell our solution globally to customers of all sizes, from one location to thousands of locations, through direct sales efforts to our customers, including third-party resellers, and through a self-service purchase process. Our direct sales force has grown to 106 full-time employees as of January 31, 2017. Most of our resellers serve small business customers or non-U.S. customers, while we serve the significant majority of enterprise and mid-size business customers through our direct sales force. In transactions with resellers, we are only party to the transaction with the reseller and are not a party to the reseller's transaction with its customer.
Although our business has predominantly focused on the U.S. market, we have been growing internationally in recent years. We offer the same services internationally as we do in the United States, and we intend to continue to pursue a strategy of expanding our international operations. Our revenues from non-U.S operations have grown from an immaterial amount of our total revenues in fiscal year 2015 to more than 6% of total revenues in fiscal year 2017. Our non-U.S. revenues are defined as revenues derived from contracts that are originally entered into with our non-U.S. offices, regardless of the location of the customer. We generally direct non-U.S. customer sales to our non-U.S. offices.
Our business has evolved in recent years. For example:
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We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods, nearly all of which has been organic growth as we have not historically conducted many acquisitions. Evidencing our strengthening market position in recent years, we have grown the number of locations listed in our Knowledge Engine platform from approximately 345,000 as of January 31, 2015 to over 925,000 as of January 31, 2017. For our fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, our revenues were $60.0 million, $89.7 million and $124.3 million, respectively, our net loss was $17.3 million, $26.5 million and $43.2 million, respectively, and our non-GAAP net loss was $14.4 million, $22.0 million and $33.3 million, respectively.
Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our future performance will depend on many factors, including the following:
Adding New Customers. Growth of our customer base is important to our continued revenue growth. We believe that we are positioned to grow significantly. There are currently over 100 million potential business locations and points of interest in the world as identified by Google Maps, and we believe this is the potential market that could benefit from some or all of the features of our platform. The number of locations managed by our customers on our platform has grown from approximately 345,000 as of January 31, 2015 to over 925,000 as of January 31, 2017. We believe that we have a substantial opportunity to expand our number of customers in the coming years.
Market Adoption of Cloud-Based Digital Knowledge Software. A key focus of our sales and marketing efforts is creating market awareness about the benefits of our Knowledge Engine platform. The market for digital knowledge management software is largely undeveloped, and potential customers may not yet fully appreciate the potential benefit of the flexibility and power of our platform. As digital knowledge becomes increasingly critical, including as customers need to manage more locations or as their digital knowledge evolves to include more complex and dynamic data, such as events, people and products, we believe that the need for digital knowledge management solutions will increase and our customer use opportunities will correspondingly expand.
Retention of and Expansion within Our Existing Customer Base. Our pricing strategy generally varies based on the number of locations managed by a customer and the level of service and features that a customer requires. Until October 2015, we generally offered various customized levels of access to some or all of our features in our platform on a subscription basis with pricing based on the number of locations and features used. In October 2015, we changed our pricing model for new subscriptions to offer a multi-tiered approach that starts with basic access to the Knowledge Engine and successively includes access to additional packages of key features as summarized as follows. We categorize our current packages as Base,
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Starter, Professional and Ultimate. Each package can then include or exclude our Pages feature. The current features of the packages are as follows:
Many of our customers initially deploy a Starter or Professional subscription to control and manage their digital knowledge using the Listings feature. Some customers start with the Base subscription if they only need internal location management. As customers realize the benefits of our platform, many have increased or expanded their existing subscription levels to obtain greater access to our key features, such as Reviews and Pages, as they need them.
We believe that our ability to retain our customers and expand the revenue they generate for us over time is an important component of our growth strategy and reflects the long-term value of our customer relationships. We assess our performance in this respect using a metric we refer to as our dollar-based net retention rate. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 113%, 121%, and 119% for fiscal years 2015, 2016
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and 2017, respectively. We calculate this metric for a particular period by first establishing a cohort of the enterprise, mid-size and reseller customers who had active contracts at the end of each month of the same period in the prior year. We divide the single month revenue from each of those customer cohorts for the applicable month in the current year by the single month revenue of that same customer cohort for the corresponding month in the prior year. We then determine the dollar-based weighted average of each of the monthly rates, and this average represents the dollar-based net retention rate for the period. We only consider revenue from enterprise and mid-size customers and reseller customers when calculating this metric since small businesses that have limited locations experience inherently high turnover. Our revenue from direct sales to small businesses represented less than 20% of our total revenue in the fiscal years ended January 31, 2016 and 2017, and we expect it to decline further as a percentage of total revenues as our other channels increase, although not in absolute dollars.
We have experienced significant revenue growth by attracting new customers and growing their annual spend with us over time through increased subscription levels and new product offerings. The chart below shows the total revenue from each cohort over the periods presented. Each cohort represents the period in which revenue was first recognized from a customer making their initial purchase. For example, the fiscal year 2015 cohort represents revenue recognized from customers whose initial subscription commenced between February 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015. The fiscal year 2015 cohort increased their revenue from $9.2 million in fiscal year 2015 to $24.0 million in fiscal year 2017, growing by 161% over that two-year period. We only consider revenue from enterprise and mid-size customers and reseller customers in this analysis since small businesses have limited locations and inherently high turnover.
We believe that we will be able to generate additional revenue as our customers increase their subscription levels and as we introduce new products into the marketplace.
Investment in Growth. We plan to continue to invest in our business so that we can capitalize on our market opportunity and focus on long-term growth. We believe that our market opportunity is large and mostly untapped, and we will continue to invest significantly in sales and marketing to acquire new customers and to increase sales to existing customers. We also intend to increase our sales and marketing efforts on certain specific industry verticals such as healthcare and financial services, where a specialized approach may be beneficial, and to pursue new verticals. We have increased our sales and marketing headcount from 98 as of February 1, 2014 to 372 as of January 31, 2017, and we expect to continue to increase our sales and marketing headcount in the future. Along with growing our direct sales force, we are continuing to develop and expand our network of resellers including professional marketers, digital agencies, search engine optimization providers, web developers and social media managers to supplement our direct sales resources and increase our reach in our target markets. We also intend to continue to grow our research and development team to extend the range of our Knowledge Engine platform to bring
55
additional products and features to our customer base. However, we expect our sales and marketing expenses and research and development expenses as a percentage of revenues to decrease over time as we grow our revenues and gain economies of scale by increasing our customer base and increasing sales to our existing customer base. We believe that these investments will contribute to our long-term growth, although they may compromise our ability to achieve and maintain profitability in the near term. To support our expected growth and our transition to being a public company, we plan to invest in other operational and administrative functions. We expect to use the proceeds from this offering to fund these growth strategies. We do not expect to be profitable in the near future.
Components of Our Operating Results
Revenues
We derive our revenues primarily from subscription services. We sell subscriptions to our cloud platform through contracts that are typically one year in length, but may be up to three years or longer in length. Revenues are a function of the number of customers, the number of locations at each customer, the edition, or for older contracts, number of features, to which each customer subscribes, the price of the edition or the feature set and renewal rates. Revenues are recognized ratably over the contract term beginning on the commencement date of each contract, at which time the customers are granted access to the platform, the appropriate edition or feature set and associated support. We typically invoice our customers in annual installments at the beginning of each year in the subscription period. Amounts that have been invoiced are initially recorded as deferred revenue and are recognized ratably over the subscription period.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues includes fees we pay for our PowerListings Network application integrations. Our arrangements with PowerListings Network providers follow one of three mechanisms, unpaid, fixed fee or variable fee based on locations served or revenues. The arrangements with many of our larger providers are unpaid. As the value of our customers' digital knowledge increases over time to our PowerListings Network providers, we expect that we will be able to negotiate lower or no fees and, therefore, that our provider fees as a percentage of total revenues will generally decline. Cost of revenues also includes expenses related to hosting our service and providing support services. These expenses are primarily comprised of personnel and related costs directly associated with our cloud infrastructure and customer support, including salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation, data center capacity costs and other allocated overhead costs.
Operating Expenses
Sales and marketing expenses. Sales and marketing expenses are our largest cost and consist primarily of salaries and related expenses, including stock-based compensation and commissions, as well as costs related to advertising, marketing, brand awareness activities and lead generation.
Research and development expenses. Research and development expenses consist primarily of salaries and related expenses, including stock-based compensation, upfront costs to integrate new PowerListings Network applications with our platform and costs to develop new products and features.
General and administrative expenses. General and administrative expenses consist of salaries and related expenses, including stock-based compensation, for our finance and accounting, human resources, information technology and legal support departments, as well as professional and consulting fees in connection with these departments.
Other income (expense), net
Other income (expense), net consists primarily of the change in the fair value of outstanding warrants, interest expense and interest income. The fair value of our preferred stock warrant liability is re-measured at the end of each reporting period and any changes in fair value are recognized in other income or expense. Upon completion of this offering, the preferred stock warrants will automatically, in accordance
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with their terms, become warrants to purchase common stock, which will result in the reclassification of the preferred stock warrant liability to additional paid-in capital, and no further changes in fair value will be recognized in other income or expense for these warrants.
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes consists primarily of income taxes related to foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. For further information, see Note 10 of our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth selected consolidated statement of operations data and such data expressed as a percentage of revenues for each of the periods indicated.
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 60,002 | $ | 89,724 | $ | 124,261 | ||||
Cost of revenues(1) |
24,832 | 31,033 | 36,950 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Gross profit |
35,170 | 58,691 | 87,311 | |||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||
Sales and marketing(1) |
31,588 | 49,822 | 81,529 | |||||||
Research and development(1) |
11,945 | 16,201 | 19,316 | |||||||
General and administrative(1) |
8,988 | 18,806 | 29,166 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
52,521 | 84,829 | 130,011 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(17,351 | ) | (26,138 | ) | (42,700 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense), net |
78 | (412 | ) | (382 | ) | |||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(17,273 | ) | (26,550 | ) | (43,082 | ) | ||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
0 | 55 | (68 | ) | ||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
$ | (17,273 | ) | $ | (26,495 | ) | $ | (43,150 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Cost of revenues |
$ | 399 | $ | 533 | $ | 590 | ||||
Sales and marketing |
920 | 1,559 | 4,359 | |||||||
Research and development |
1,104 | 1,300 | 1,954 | |||||||
General and administrative |
480 | 1,115 | 2,948 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total stock-based compensation |
$ | 2,903 | $ | 4,507 | $ | 9,851 | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
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|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
Revenues |
100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||||
Cost of revenues |
41 | 35 | 30 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Gross margin |
59 | 65 | 70 | |||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
53 | 56 | 66 | |||||||
Research and development |
20 | 18 | 16 | |||||||
General and administrative |
15 | 21 | 23 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
88 | 95 | 105 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(29 | ) | (29 | ) | (35 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense), net |
0 | (1 | ) | 0 | ||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(29 | ) | (30 | ) | (35 | ) | ||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
(29 | )% | (30 | )% | (35 | )% | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2016 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2017
Revenues and Cost of Revenues
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
Variance | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 | 2017 | Dollars | Percent | |||||||||
|
(dollars in thousands) |
||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 89,724 | $ | 124,261 | $ | 34,537 | 38 | % | |||||
Cost of revenues |
31,033 | 36,950 | 5,917 | 19 | |||||||||
Gross margin |
65 | % | 70 | % |
Revenues increased primarily due to the continued growth of our customer base and expanded subscriptions sold to existing customers. Approximately $13.2 million of this increase was attributable to new customers during the period. Growth was even greater for revenue from our enterprise and mid-size business and reseller customers, which represent the substantial majority of our revenue, and not including direct sales to small business customers, which by their nature have limited locations and experience inherently high turnover. Our revenue from those enterprise and mid-size customers grew by 46% from $73.1 million to $106.6 million.
Cost of revenues increased primarily due to an increase in PowerListings Network application provider fees of $2.8 million, which grew from $16.3 million to $19.1 million, as some of our PowerListings Network application provider costs are variable and increase with increased sales volume. Of the increase in provider costs in fiscal year 2017, $1.9 million was attributable to increases in variable costs from certain PowerListings Network provider arrangements that required us to pay increased fees based on the number of active locations on our platform or as a percentage of our revenues. In addition, personnel-related costs, which mainly consisted of salaries and wages, increased $1.6 million from $8.9 million to $10.5 million, driven by increased headcount. Gross margin improved from 65% to 70%, as revenue growth outpaced the increase in cost of revenues.
Operating Expenses
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
Variance | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 | 2017 | Dollars | Percent | |||||||||
|
(dollars in thousands) |
||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
$ | 49,822 | $ | 81,529 | $ | 31,707 | 64 | % | |||||
Research and development |
16,201 | 19,316 | 3,115 | 19 | |||||||||
General and administrative |
18,806 | 29,166 | 10,360 | 55 |
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The increase in sales and marketing expenses was primarily driven by personnel-related costs, which increased $21.4 million, from $27.3 million to $48.7 million, and consisted mainly of salaries and wages, commissions and bonuses. The increase in personnel-related costs was primarily due to an increased headcount, which grew from 249 to 372 employees in the sales and marketing function year over year, as we continued to expand our sales force to invest in our overall growth. Stock-based compensation expense increased $2.8 million from $1.6 million to $4.4 million, due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock. In addition, in November 2016, we held our inaugural LocationWorld industry and customer event, which accounted for $1.6 million in sales and marketing expense.
Research and development expenses increased primarily due to increases in personnel-related costs, which increased $2.8 million due to increased headcount and consisted mainly of salaries and wages. Stock-based compensation increased $0.7 million, from $1.3 million to $2.0 million, due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock. The overall increase reflects our continued investment in our overall growth.
General and administrative expenses increased primarily due to increases in personnel-related costs, which increased $4.8 million and consisted mainly of salaries and wages, in line with our increase in headcount, which grew from 55 to 82 employees in general and administrative functions year over year. Recruiting and professional fees increased $1.4 million from $6.5 million to $7.9 million to support our overall growth and scale our operations. Stock-based compensation increased $1.8 million, from $1.1 million to $2.9 million, due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock.
Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2015 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2016
Revenues and Cost of Revenues
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
Variance | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | Dollars | Percent | |||||||||
|
(dollars in thousands) |
||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 60,002 | $ | 89,724 | $ | 29,722 | 50 | % | |||||
Cost of revenues |
24,832 | 31,033 | 6,201 | 25 | |||||||||
Gross margin |
59 | % | 65 | % |
Revenues increased primarily due to the continued growth of our customer base and expanded subscriptions sold to existing customers. Approximately $10.0 million of this increase was attributable to new customers during the period. Growth was even greater for revenue from our enterprise and mid-size business and reseller customers, which represent the substantial majority of our revenue, and not including direct sales to small business customers, which by their nature have limited locations and experience inherently high turnover. Our revenue from those enterprise and mid-size customers grew by 63% from $44.8 million to $73.1 million.
Cost of revenues increased primarily due to an increase in PowerListings Network application provider fees of $4.9 million, which grew from $11.4 million to $16.3 million, as some of our PowerListings Network application provider costs are variable and increase with increased sales volume. Of the increase in provider costs in fiscal year 2016, $1.2 million was attributable to increases in variable costs from certain PowerListings Network provider arrangements that required us to pay increased fees based on the number of active locations on our platform or as a percentage of our revenues. In addition, personnel-related costs increased $1.4 million from $7.5 million to $8.9 million and consisted mainly of salaries and wages, driven by increased headcount. Gross margin improved from 59% to 65%, as revenue growth outpaced the increase in cost of revenues.
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Operating Expenses
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, |
Variance | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | Dollars | Percent | |||||||||
|
(dollars in thousands) |
||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
$ | 31,588 | $ | 49,822 | $ | 18,234 | 58 | % | |||||
Research and development |
11,945 | 16,201 | 4,256 | 36 | % | ||||||||
General and administrative |
8,988 | 18,806 | 9,818 | 109 | % |
The increase in sales and marketing expenses was primarily driven by personnel-related costs, which increased $11.5 million, from $15.8 million to $27.3 million, and consisted mainly of salaries and wages, commissions and bonuses. The increase in personnel-related costs was primarily due to an increased headcount, which grew from 185 to 249 employees in the sales and marketing function year over year, as we continued to expand our sales force to invest in our overall growth. Stock-based compensation expense increased from $0.9 million to $1.6 million due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock.
Research and development expenses increased primarily due to increases in personnel-related costs, which increased $2.4 million and consisted mainly of salaries and wages. Stock-based compensation increased from $1.1 million to $1.3 million due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock. The overall increase reflects our continued investment in our overall growth.
General and administrative expenses increased primarily due to professional fees, which increased $4.2 million from $2.3 million to $6.5 million and were primarily driven by costs incurred to scale the business and accommodate international growth. Personnel-related costs increased $2.4 million from $3.3 million to $5.7 million and consisted mainly of salaries and wages, in line with our increase in headcount, which grew from 35 to 55 general and administrative employees year over year. Stock-based compensation increased $0.6 million, from $0.5 million to $1.1 million, due to a combination of additional share-based awards to new hires and the increasing valuation of our underlying common stock.
Quarterly Results of Operations
The following tables set forth selected unaudited quarterly consolidated statement of operations data for each of the eight quarters through the quarter ended January 31, 2017, as well as the percentage of revenues that each line item represents for each quarter. The information for each of these quarters has been prepared on the same basis as the audited annual consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus and, in the opinion of management, includes all adjustments, which consist only of normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of the results of operations for these periods in accordance with GAAP. This data should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. These quarterly operating results are not necessarily indicative of our operating results for a full year or any future period.
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|
Quarter ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
April 30, 2015 |
July 31, 2015 |
October 31, 2015 |
January 31, 2016 |
April 30, 2016 |
July 31, 2016 |
October 31, 2016 |
January 31, 2017 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
(in thousands) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 18,930 | $ | 21,707 | $ | 23,403 | $ | 25,684 | $ | 27,125 | $ | 29,556 | $ | 31,909 | $ | 35,671 | |||||||||
Cost of revenues |
6,592 | 7,435 | 8,145 | 8,861 | 8,835 | 9,067 | 9,324 | 9,724 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gross profit |
12,338 | 14,272 | 15,258 | 16,823 | 18,290 | 20,489 | 22,585 | 25,947 | |||||||||||||||||
Operating expenses: |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
10,699 | 11,382 | 13,294 | 14,447 | 16,843 | 18,132 | 20,393 | 26,161 | |||||||||||||||||
Research and development |
3,457 | 3,958 | 4,218 | 4,568 | 4,771 | 4,673 | 4,764 | 5,108 | |||||||||||||||||
General and administrative |
3,604 | 4,526 | 4,618 | 6,058 | 5,983 | 6,691 | 7,548 | 8,944 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
17,760 | 19,866 | 22,130 | 25,073 | 27,597 | 29,496 | 32,705 | 40,213 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(5,422 | ) | (5,594 | ) | (6,872 | ) | (8,250 | ) | (9,307 | ) | (9,007 | ) | (10,120 | ) | (14,266 | ) | |||||||||
Other expense |
(94 | ) | (129 | ) | (167 | ) | (22 | ) | (35 | ) | (5 | ) | (99 | ) | (243 | ) | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(5,516 | ) | (5,723 | ) | (7,039 | ) | (8,272 | ) | (9,342 | ) | (9,012 | ) | (10,219 | ) | (14,509 | ) | |||||||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
66 | 41 | (61 | ) | 9 | (1 | ) | | (3 | ) | (64 | ) | |||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
$ | (5,450 | ) | $ | (5,682 | ) | $ | (7,100 | ) | $ | (8,263 | ) | $ | (9,343 | ) | $ | (9,012 | ) | $ | (10,222 | ) | $ | (14,573 | ) | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Quarter ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
April 30, 2015 |
July 31, 2015 |
October 31, 2015 |
January 31, 2016 |
April 30, 2016 |
July 31, 2016 |
October 31, 2016 |
January 31, 2017 |
|||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | |||||||||
Cost of revenues |
35 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 33 | 31 | 29 | 27 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gross margin |
65 | 66 | 65 | 65 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 73 | |||||||||||||||||
Operating expenses: |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
57 | 52 | 57 | 56 | 62 | 61 | 64 | 73 | |||||||||||||||||
Research and development |
18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | |||||||||||||||||
General and administrative |
19 | 21 | 20 | 24 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Total operating expenses |
94 | 92 | 95 | 98 | 102 | 100 | 102 | 113 | |||||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations |
(29 | ) | (26 | ) | (29 | ) | (32 | ) | (34 | ) | (30 | ) | (32 | ) | (40 | ) | |||||||||
Other expense |
(0 | ) | (1 | ) | (1 | ) | (0 | ) | (0 | ) | (0 | ) | (0 | ) | (1 | ) | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Loss from operations before income taxes |
(29 | ) | (26 | ) | (30 | ) | (32 | ) | (34 | ) | (30 | ) | (32 | ) | (41 | ) | |||||||||
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes |
0 | 0 | (0 | ) | 0 | (0 | ) | | (0 | ) | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net loss |
(29 | )% | (26 | )% | (30 | )% | (32 | )% | (34 | )% | (30 | )% | (32 | )% | (41 | )% | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Quarterly Trends
Our quarterly revenues have increased sequentially for all periods presented, primarily due to an increasing number of customers. We expect both upselling to our existing customer base and new customer acquisitions to continue to be significant drivers of revenue growth. We have not historically experienced meaningful seasonality in our revenue, although the rate of our recent growth and the nature of our subscription agreements would likely have the effect of mitigating the effects of any potential seasonality in those periods.
Total costs and expenses increased sequentially for all periods presented, primarily due to increased salary and related costs coinciding with an increase in the number of employees required to run our growing business.
Gross margin has generally improved as we have increased our revenues faster than our PowerListings Network application provider costs and other costs of revenues have increased. In the long term, we expect gross margin to continue to increase as our PowerListings Network application provider costs decline as our data set becomes more important to those providers such that we are able to negotiate more favorable terms with them. However, in the short to medium term, our gross margin may decrease as we enter new international markets in which we have yet to achieve efficiencies of scale or introduce new features and products.
Sales and marketing expenses grew sequentially over the periods primarily due to an expanding sales and marketing team and related expenses. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, we held our inaugural LocationWorld industry and customer event. While generally growing, research and development expenses have declined slightly as a percentage of revenues as our revenues have grown more rapidly. General and administrative expenses have generally grown due to increased costs required to support a growing business and will continue to increase as we prepare to be a public company as evidenced by the increased expenses in fiscal year 2017 as we prepared for this offering.
Our quarterly results may fluctuate due to various factors affecting our performance. Because we recognize revenues from subscription and support fees ratably over the term of the contract, changes in our contracting activity in the near term may not be apparent as a change to our reported revenues until future periods. Most of our expenses are recorded as period costs and thus factors affecting our cost structure may be reflected in our financial results sooner than changes to our revenues.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since our inception, we have financed our operations primarily through sales of convertible preferred stock and recently from drawing on our revolving credit line. Between our inception in 2006 and January 31, 2017, we generated proceeds of $120.6 million from the sale of convertible preferred stock, net of issuance costs. At January 31, 2017, we had cash and cash equivalents totaling $24.4 million, which were held for working capital purposes. Our cash equivalents are comprised primarily of bank deposits and money market funds.
We believe our existing cash and cash flow from operations, together with the proceeds from this offering and our undrawn balance under our credit facility will be sufficient to meet our working capital requirements for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements and the adequacy of available funds will depend on many factors, including those set forth under "Risk Factors."
Credit Facility
On March 16, 2016, we entered into a loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank that provides for a $15.0 million revolving credit line and an additional $7.0 million in letters of credit. The facility with Silicon Valley Bank matures on March 16, 2018. We are obligated to pay ongoing commitment fees at a rate equal to 0.25% for the revolving line and 1.75% for any issued letters of credit. Subject to certain terms of the loan agreement, we may borrow, prepay and reborrow amounts under the revolving
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line at any time during the agreement. Interest rates on borrowings under the revolving line will be based on 0.50% above the prime rate (with such prime rate as set forth in the money rates section of The Wall Street Journal). The loan and security agreement and letters of credit contain customary affirmative and negative covenants, including an adjusted quick ratio financial covenant, a minimum revenue financial covenant, a limit on our ability to incur additional indebtedness, dispose of assets, merge with or acquire other companies, pay dividends or distributions, and certain other restrictions on our activities. On November 18, 2016, we drew $5.0 million on our revolving line for strategic operating purposes. As of January 31, 2017, we allocated $5.3 million under the letter of credit facility as security in favor of certain landlords for office space.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows:
|
Fiscal year ended January 31, | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |||||||
|
(in thousands) |
|||||||||
Cash flows used in operating activities |
$ | (14,226 | ) | $ | (10,525 | ) | $ | (7,743 | ) | |
Cash flows used in investing activities |
(7,836 | ) | (10,005 | ) | (3,803 | ) | ||||
Cash flows provided by financing activities |
50,362 | 1,647 | 5,968 |
Operating Activities
Cash used in operating activities of $7.7 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017 was primarily due to a net loss of $43.2 million, partially offset by stock-based compensation of $9.9 million, the release of $5.8 million of restricted cash primarily associated with amounts previously held as collateral against our office leases, and depreciation and amortization of $4.1 million. The net change in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a change in the deferred revenue balance of $20.9 million and accounts receivable balance of $4.1 million, mainly due to timing of billing and cash collections during the period. The increase in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other current liabilities of $6.0 million was offset by increases in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $1.6 million and deferred commissions of $5.6 million. The increase in deferred commissions reflected the growth in headcount and sales resulting in increased compensation and sales commissions.
Cash used in operating activities of $10.5 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016 was primarily due to a net loss of $26.5 million, partially offset by stock-based compensation of $4.5 million and depreciation and amortization of $3.1 million. The net change in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a change in the deferred revenue balance of $12.9 million, partially offset by an increase in accounts receivable of $12.1 million, mainly due to timing of billing and cash collections during the period. The change in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other current liabilities of $8.3 million was attributable to an increase in compensation cost due to headcount growth, as well as future payments for sales tax due to customer billing. The change in deferred rent of $2.1 million was related to a tenant improvement allowance received for the leasehold improvements in our New York headquarters. These changes were offset by changes in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $0.2 million. The changes were attributable to increased spending related to operational growth of our business.
Cash used in operating activities of $14.2 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 was primarily due to a net loss of $17.3 million, partially offset by stock-based compensation of $2.9 million and depreciation and amortization of $1.2 million. The net change in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a change in the deferred revenue balance of $6.9 million, partially offset by an increase in accounts receivable of $5.0 million, mainly due to timing of billing and cash collections during the period. The change in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other current liabilities of $1.1 million was attributable to an increase in compensation cost due to headcount growth, as well as future payments for sales tax due to customer billing. These changes were offset by changes in prepaid expenses and other
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current assets of $1.1 million. The changes were attributable to increased spending related to operational growth of our business.
Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017 was $3.8 million and primarily related to capital expenditures of $3.5 million.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016 was $10.0 million and primarily related to capital expenditures, largely associated with leasehold improvements in our New York headquarters.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 was $7.8 million and primarily related to our acquisition of Inner Balloons Consulting B.V., a Dutch company, in December 2014 to facilitate our operations in Europe. Cash used in investing activities was also affected by capital expenditures, largely associated with leasehold improvements in our New York headquarters.
Financing Activities
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017 was $6.0 million and primarily related to $5.0 million drawn on our revolving credit line, as well as $1.3 million of proceeds from the exercise of stock options, partially offset by payments of deferred offering costs and deferred financing costs.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016 was $1.6 million, which consisted primarily of $28.3 million used for share repurchases pursuant to a tender offer and stock option settlements in connection with the tender offer, offset by $29.5 million in proceeds from the contemporaneous sale of common stock to existing investors and $0.4 million in proceeds from the exercise of stock options.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 of $50.4 million consisted almost entirely of proceeds from the sale of our Series F preferred stock.
Contractual Obligations
Our principal commitments and contractual obligations consist of obligations under operating leases for office facilities, the agreements for which expire at various dates between fiscal years 2017 and 2022, including a long-term operating lease for our primary facility in New York which expires in December 2020, and our various agreements with PowerListings Network application providers, which agreements expire at various dates between fiscal years 2017 and 2020.
We typically enter into multiyear arrangements with our PowerListings Network application providers, many of which automatically renew at the end of the stated contractual term. With certain application providers, we operate under the application provider's standard terms and conditions and we do not pay a fee. For contracts involving a payment by us to the PowerListings Network application provider, there is typically either a fixed fee or variable fee structure. The variable fee structure differs across our contracts and may consist of an amount based on the number of listings provided or a percentage of our revenues. Because there is a variable fee aspect to our relationships with the PowerListings Network, the growth of our business, whether through an increase in our revenues, an increase in our customers, or an increase in the locations managed on our platform, will result in increased payments to certain PowerListings Network application providers. These contracts are typically terminable by either party only upon an uncured material breach.
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The following table summarizes our non-cancelable contractual obligations as of January 31, 2017 (in thousands):
Payments due by period
|
Application Provider Obligations(1) |
Operating Lease Obligations |
Total | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Less than 1 Year |
$ | 13,964 | $ | 6,905 | $ | 20,869 | ||||
1 - 2 Years |
4,407 | 6,969 | 11,376 | |||||||
3 - 5 Years |
1,100 | 14,408 | 15,508 | |||||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
Total obligations |
$ | 19,471 | $ | 28,282 | $ | 47,753 | ||||
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not engage in transactions that generate relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, as part of our ongoing business. Accordingly, our operating results, financial condition and cash flows are not subject to off-balance sheet risks.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our management's discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported revenues generated and expenses incurred during the reporting periods. Our estimates are based on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to understanding our historical and future performance, as these policies relate to the more significant areas involving management's judgments and estimates.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily from subscription services. We sell subscriptions to our platform through contracts that are typically one year in length, but may be up to three years or longer in length. The subscription contracts do not provide customers with the right to take possession of the software supporting the applications and, as a result, are accounted for as service contracts.
We sell our products through our direct sales force to our customers, including third-party resellers. We recognize revenue when four basic criteria are met: (1) persuasive evidence exists of an arrangement with the customer reflecting the terms and conditions under which the services will be provided; (2) services have been provided or delivery has occurred; (3) the fee is fixed or determinable; and (4) collection is reasonably assured. Collectability is assessed based on a number of factors, including the creditworthiness of a customer and transaction history.
We recognize revenue based on the amount billed to customers, including third-party resellers. Our revenue consists solely of contractual fees for subscription and support services charged to our customers on a per-location basis. In transactions with resellers, we contract only with the reseller, in which pricing, length of subscription and support services are agreed upon. The reseller negotiates the price charged and length of subscription and support service directly with its customers. We do not pay separate fees to third-party resellers and do not have direct interactions with the resellers' customers.
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Subscription Revenue. Subscription revenue recognition commences on the date that our platform is made available to the customer, which is the subscription start date, provided all of the other criteria described in the preceding paragraphs are met. Revenue is recognized based on the terms of the customer contracts, which include a fixed fee based upon the actual or contractual number of locations, and is recognized on a straight-line basis over the contractual term of the arrangement.
Multiple Deliverable Arrangements. Certain of our arrangements include both a subscription to our platform and support services. We evaluate each element in an arrangement to determine whether it represents a separate unit of accounting. An element constitutes a separate unit of accounting when the delivered item has standalone value and delivery of the undelivered element is probable and within our control. Our support services are not sold separately from the subscription and there is no alternative use for them. Further, no other vendor provides similar support services. Based on these factors, the support services do not have standalone value. Accordingly, subscription and support revenue is combined and recognized as a single unit of accounting.
We generally recognize the fixed portion of subscription fees and support services fees ratably over the contract term. Recognition begins when the customer has access to our platform and the support services have commenced.
Deferred Revenue. Deferred revenue primarily consists of billings or payments received in advance of revenue recognition from subscription services described above and is reduced as the revenue recognition criteria are met. The deferred revenue balance is influenced by several factors, including seasonality, the compounding effects of renewals, invoice duration, invoice timing and size.
Deferred revenue that will be recognized during the succeeding twelve-month period is recorded as current deferred revenue within current liabilities. Typically, invoices are issued for a period of 12 months or less. In those instances when invoicing is for a period greater than 12 months, the portion of the invoice that is for the period past 12 months is recorded as long-term deferred revenue within other long-term liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.
Deferred Commissions
We capitalize commission costs that are incremental and directly related to selling subscription contracts to customers and consist of sales commissions paid to our direct sales force. Our subscription contracts are predominantly non-cancelable in nature. Commissions are earned by sales personnel upon the execution of the sales contracts, and commission payments are made shortly after they are earned.
Commission costs that are direct and incremental to selling revenue-generating customer contracts are deferred and amortized to sales and marketing expense over the terms of the related subscription contracts, which are typically one year in length but may be up to three years or longer in length. The deferred commission amounts are recoverable through the future revenue streams under the customer contracts.
We capitalized commission costs of $3.8 million and $10.3 million during the fiscal years ended January 31, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Capitalized commission costs are included in deferred commissions and other long term assets on our consolidated balance sheets.
Amortization of deferred commissions of $1.6 million, $2.3 million and $4.7 million was included in sales and marketing expense in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Stock-Based Compensation
Compensation cost for all stock-based awards, including options to purchase stock and restricted stock units, or RSUs, is measured at fair value on the date of grant and recognized over the service period. The fair value of stock options is estimated on the date of grant using a Black-Scholes model. The fair value of
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RSUs awarded is estimated on the date of grant based on the fair value of our common stock. Compensation cost is recognized over the requisite service periods of awards, which is typically four years for options and one to three years for RSUs.
Our use of the Black-Scholes option-pricing model requires the input of highly subjective assumptions, including the fair value of our underlying common stock, expected term of the option, expected volatility of the price of our common stock, risk-free interest rates, and the expected dividend yield of our common stock. The assumptions used in our option-pricing model represent management's best estimates. These estimates involve inherent uncertainties and the application of management's judgment. If factors change and different assumptions are used, our stock-based compensation expense could be materially different in the future.
These assumptions and estimates are as follows:
The estimated forfeiture rate applied is based on historical forfeiture rates. The estimated number of stock awards that will ultimately vest requires judgment, and to the extent actual results or updated estimates differ from our current estimates, such amounts will be recorded as a cumulative adjustment in the period during which the estimates are revised.
Common Stock Valuations
We have historically granted stock options at exercise prices equal to the fair value as determined by our Board of Directors on the date of grant. In the absence of a public trading market, the Board of Directors, with input from management, exercised significant judgment and considered numerous objective and subjective factors to determine the fair value of our common stock as of the date of each stock option and RSU grant, including:
In addition, our Board of Directors considered the independent valuations completed by a third-party valuation consultant. Valuations were generally performed as of a date immediately preceding the regularly scheduled Board of Directors meeting. The valuations of our common stock were determined in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Practice
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Aid, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation. In performing these valuations, a variety of relevant factors were considered including, but not limited to:
In valuing the common stock, our enterprise value was estimated by utilizing the Probability-Weighted Expected Return Method, or PWERM, allocation method and the market approach. The market-based approach considers multiples of financial metrics based on trading multiples of a selected peer group of companies in similar lines of business. For each of the possible events, a range of future equity values is estimated, based on the market approach discussed above and over a range of possible liquidity event dates, all plus or minus a standard deviation for value and timing. The timing of these events is based on our expectations. In each valuation approach, the firm value is allocated across the capital structure using an option pricing model, which recognizes the economic characteristics of each security and assigns value to each class based on those characteristics. A marketability discount was applied to the common stock in each valuation in order to recognize the inherent illiquidity in holding stock of a privately held company.
Two possible events were considered for estimating firm value. The first possible event, which assumed that we would complete an initial public offering, or IPO, utilized a market-based approach. The second possible event, which assumed that we would remain a private company or experience a liquidation event other than an IPO, also utilized the market approach. In estimating the common stock value, a probability was assigned to each of the possible events based on an analysis of prevailing IPO market conditions, recent acquisitions and input from management.
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The following table summarizes all stock option and restricted stock unit grants from October 31, 2015 through January 31, 2017, the date of our most recently closed fiscal period:
Grant Date
|
Type of Award | Number of Shares of Common Stock Underlying Grant |
Grant Date Fair Value Per Share |
Exercise Price Per Share (for Options Only) |
||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
November 5, 2015 |
Options | 7,000 | $ | 5.00 | $ | 5.00 | ||||||
December 3, 2015 |
Options | 1,396,000 | 6.05 | 6.05 | ||||||||
January 11, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 20,000 | 6.08 | | ||||||||
January 15, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 20,000 | 6.08 | | ||||||||
March 10, 2016 |
Options | 942,500 | 6.11 | 6.11 | ||||||||
March 17, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 20,000 | 6.18 | | ||||||||
April 28, 2016 |
Options | 2,330,000 | 6.11 | 6.11 | ||||||||
June 9, 2016 |
Options | 839,300 | 6.48 | 6.48 | ||||||||
June 9, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 200,000 | 6.48 | | ||||||||
September 9, 2016 |
Options | 1,482,500 | 6.58 | 6.58 | ||||||||
September 9, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 10,000 | 6.58 | | ||||||||
December 7, 2016 |
Options | 1,283,500 | 7.18 | 7.18 | ||||||||
December 7, 2016 |
Restricted stock units | 60,000 | 7.18 | | ||||||||
December 15, 2016 |
Options | 455,000 | 7.18 | 7.18 | ||||||||
January 9, 2017 |
Options | 1,111,000 | 7.18 | 7.18 | ||||||||
January 17, 2017 |
Options | 1,259,000 | 7.18 | 7.18 |
Subsequent to January 31, 2017, we granted options to purchase an aggregate of 799,250 shares of our common stock with exercise prices ranging from $8.59 to $9.00 per share.
Once we are operating as a public company, we will rely on the closing price of our common stock as reported on the date of grant to determine the fair value of our common stock.
Based on the initial public offering price per share of $11.00, the aggregate intrinsic value of our outstanding stock awards as of January 31, 2017 was $187.4 million, of which $121.6 million related to vested awards and $65.8 million related to unvested awards.
Emerging Growth Company Status
Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. Thus, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this extended transition period and, as a result, we will not adopt new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for other public companies until required by private company accounting standards.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, No. 2014-09, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)", or ASU 2014-09. ASU 2014-09 establishes principles for recognizing revenue upon the transfer of promised goods or services to customers, in an amount that reflects the expected consideration received in exchange for those goods or services. ASU 2014-09 is effective for public entities for annual reporting periods, and interim periods within those annual reporting periods, beginning after December 31, 2017. For all other entities, including emerging growth companies, the standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within annual reporting periods, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption of this standard is permitted for all entities. The guidance allows for the amendment to be applied either retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented or
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retrospectively as a cumulative-effect adjustment as of the date of adoption. We plan to adopt this standard under a modified retrospective transition method and are currently evaluating the impact.
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, "Leases," which will require lessees to recognize a right-of-use asset and a lease liability, initially measured at the present value of the lease payments, on its balance sheet for operating leases. The standard also requires a lessee to recognize a single lease cost, calculated so that the cost of the lease is allocated over the lease term, on a generally straight-line basis. The standard is effective for public entities for annual reporting periods, and interim periods within those annual reporting periods, beginning after December 15, 2018. For all other entities, including emerging growth companies, the standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods within annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2020. We are evaluating the potential impact of adopting this new accounting guidance.
In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-09, "Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Shared-Based Payment Accounting," which simplifies and improves several aspects of the accounting for employee share-based payment transactions for public entities. The guidance will require all tax effects related to share-based payments at settlement or expiration to be recorded through the income statement and be reported as operating activities on the statement of cash flows. Further, under the new guidance, entities are permitted to make an accounting policy election for the impact of forfeitures on the recognition of expense for share-based payment awards, whereby forfeitures can be estimated, as required today, or recognized when they occur. The standard is effective for public entities for annual reporting periods, and interim periods within those annual periods, beginning after December 15, 2016. For all other entities, including emerging growth companies, the standard is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted for any entity in any interim or annual period. We are evaluating the potential impact of adopting this new accounting guidance.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
Market risk represents the risk of loss that may affect our financial position due to adverse changes in financial market prices and rates. We are exposed to market risks related to foreign currency exchange rates, inflation and interest rates.
Foreign Currency Risk
Assets and liabilities of non-U.S. subsidiaries that operate in a local currency environment, where the local currency is the functional currency, are translated from foreign currencies into U.S. dollars using month-end rates of exchange for assets and liabilities, and average rates for the period derived from month-end spot rates for revenues, costs and expenses. We record translation gains and losses in accumulated other comprehensive income as a component of stockholders' deficit. We reflect net foreign exchange transaction gains and losses resulting from the conversion of the transaction currency to functional currency as a component of foreign currency exchange losses in other income (expense), net.
Based on the size of our international operations and the amount of our expenses denominated in foreign currencies, we would not expect a 10% decline in the value of the U.S. dollar from rates on January 31, 2017 to have a material effect on our financial position or results of operations.
Inflation Risk
We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations, other than its impact on the general economy. Nonetheless, if our costs were to become subject to inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Interest Rate Risk
We had cash and cash equivalents of $24.4 million as of January 31, 2017. We consider all cash investments available with original maturities of three months or less to be cash, and such investments consist of high-yield savings accounts. Cash includes investments in money market funds and is stated at cost. The carrying amount of our cash equivalents reasonably approximates fair value due to the short-term maturities of these instruments. The primary objective of our investments is the preservation of capital to fulfill liquidity needs. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes.
We do not believe our cash equivalents have significant risk of default or illiquidity. While we believe our cash equivalents do not contain excessive risk, we cannot assure you that in the future our investments will not be subject to adverse changes in market value. In addition, we maintain significant amounts of cash and cash equivalents at one or more financial institutions that are in excess of federally insured limits and are exposed to counterparty risk.
We had total outstanding debt of $5.0 million as of January 31, 2017 under our revolving credit line with Silicon Valley Bank. The line of credit carries a variable interest rate equal to the prime rate plus 0.5% and is available through March 16, 2018.
We have not been exposed to, nor do we anticipate being exposed to, material risks due to changes in interest rates. A hypothetical 10% change in interest rates during any of the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our financial statements.
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Overview
Yext is a knowledge engine. Our platform lets businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud and sync it to over 100 services including Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. Digital knowledge is the structured information that a business wants to make publicly accessible. For example, in food service, the address, phone number or menu details of a restaurant; in healthcare, the health insurances accepted by a physician or the precise drop-off point of the emergency room at a hospital campus; or in finance, the ATM locations, retail bank holiday hours or insurance agent biographies. We believe a business is the ultimate authority on its own digital knowledge, and it is our mission to put that business in control of it, everywhere.
Intelligent search, which are searches of digital knowledge that combine context and intent, has grown significantly in recent years. In particular, searches that return maps in the results have grown significantly with the proliferation of mobile devices. According to Think with Google, an online source of marketing research published by Google, location-based searches now make up 30% of all mobile searches. Searches for categories, such as "restaurants", "wine", "insurance", "wealth advisor" or "doctor", or for specific brands, such as "Marriott", "McDonald's" or "Home Depot", return maps directly in the search results. The source of the results for each of these searches is not a web pageit is structured data. Businesses and service providers want their digital knowledge to be accurate, compelling and more prominent than that of their competitors when consumers look for them on search platforms, applications, social media, connected devices and other digital sources. Our solution drives commerce by providing real-time digital knowledge that allows consumers to find the businesses and service providers that are most relevant to them.
The vast majority of digital knowledge provided by searches currently comes from third-party sources such as data aggregators, governmental agencies and consumers. The net result of this third-party sourcing has been to produce "best guess" data that can often miss or misstate the true digital knowledge for businesses worldwide. We pioneered a better way to source critical digital knowledge. We have built our business on the fundamental premise that the best source of accurate and timely digital knowledge about a business is the business itself. We have established direct data integrations between our software and the over 100 members of our PowerListings Network that end consumers around the globe use to discover new businesses, read reviews and find accurate answers to their queries. These integrations include Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Yelp and many others. Our platform uses our patented Match & Lock process to ensure that our customers' digital knowledge is in sync across our PowerListings Network. Businesses can directly control their own digital knowledge rather than leaving it in the hands of third parties, thereby making our platform the system of record for such vital knowledge.
We also make search intelligent by helping to provide precise, accurate and current answers to location-based queries that are conducted across web and mobile applications and voice and artificial intelligence, or AI, engines. We are increasingly using the structured data on our platform to expand or add new integrations with vertically specialized applications, voice-based search and AI engines. Our provision of structured digital knowledge, directly produced and managed by businesses and professional service providers themselves, helps ensure the accuracy of search results whether they are presented in traditional search results, an information card or an answer from a digital assistant.
The Yext Knowledge Engine is the core of our platform and enables businesses and professional service providers of all sizesfrom one location to thousandsto:
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