MARIN SOFTWARE INC - Annual Report: 2018 (Form 10-K)

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results, including statements regarding the capabilities of our technology platform and upgrades to the platform, product capabilities and their benefits for our customers, and expectations as to financial performance, that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, our business strategy and plans, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," “may,” “potentially,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “predict,” “expect,” “seek,” “likely,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations, estimates and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These statements reflect our beliefs and certain assumptions based upon information available to us at the time we file this Annual Report on Form 10-K or the time of the documents incorporated by reference. Such forward-looking statements are only predictions, which may differ materially from actual results or future events. Although we believe that our expectations, estimates and projections reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot be sure that they will be achieved. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

As used in this report, the terms "Marin," “Registrant,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “the Company” mean Marin Software Incorporated and its subsidiaries unless the context indicates otherwise. References to “fiscal 2018” and “fiscal 2017” refer to the year ended December 31, 2018 and the year ended December 31, 2017, respectively.

PART I

We are a leading provider of digital marketing software for search, social, eCommerce and display advertising channels, offered as a unified software-as-a-service, or SaaS, advertising management platform for performance-driven advertisers and agencies. Our platform is an analytics, workflow and optimization solution for marketing professionals, allowing them to effectively manage their digital advertising spend. We market and sell our solutions to advertisers directly and through leading advertising agencies, and our customers collectively manage billions of dollars in advertising spend on our platform globally across a wide range of industries. We believe this makes us one of the largest providers of independent advertising cloud solutions. Our software solution is designed to help our customers:

Advertisers use our platform to create, target and convert precise audiences based on recent buying signals from users’ search, social, eCommerce and display interactions. Our platform is integrated with leading publishers such as Amazon, Baidu, Bing, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Verizon Media, Yahoo! Japan and Yandex. Additionally, we have integrations with more than 50 leading web analytics and advertisement-serving solutions and key enterprise applications, enabling our customers to more accurately measure the return on investment of their marketing programs.

Our software platform serves as an integration point for advertising performance, sales and revenue data, allowing advertisers to connect the dots between advertising spend and revenue outcomes. Through an intuitive interface, we enable our customers to simultaneously run large-scale digital advertising campaigns across multiple publishers and channels, making it easy for marketers to create, publish, modify and optimize campaigns.

Our predictive bid management and optimization technology also allows advertisers to forecast outcomes and optimize campaigns across multiple publishers and channels to achieve their business goals. Our optimization technology can help advertisers increase advertisement spend on those campaigns, publishers and channels that are performing well while reducing investment in those that are not. This category of solutions, which we refer to as cross-channel bid and campaign optimization, helps businesses intelligently and efficiently measure, manage, and optimize their digital advertising spend to achieve desired business results.

Headquartered in San Francisco, we were incorporated in the State of Delaware in 2006. The mailing address of our headquarters is 123 Mission Street, 27th Floor, San Francisco, California 94105 and our telephone number at that location is (415) 399-2580.

Offered Solutions

Our cloud-based platform helps our customers to measure, manage and optimize their digital marketing campaigns to improve performance of their online advertising campaigns, realize efficiencies and time savings, and make better business decisions. We offer solutions for direct advertisers of all sizes and the agencies that represent them, including enterprise, mid-market or small businesses. We offer SaaS solutions and managed services for search, social, eCommerce and display.

Search, Social and eCommerce

Our current product lineup consists of MarinOne, which launched in 2018, and our two legacy products, Marin Search and Marin Social. We will continue to migrate customers to MarinOne over the course of 2019.

Our platforms are comprised of the following modules:

Display – Perfect Audience

Targeting small businesses, Perfect Audience, our wholly-owned subsidiary, is designed for rapid deployment and offers customers an easy-to-use interface to implement and optimize campaigns across all major networks and across devices.

Technology & Supporting Platform

We designed our cloud-based platform to support large global advertisers. The majority of our software is written in Java. Our hardware consists of industry-standard servers and network infrastructure. Our standard operating system is Linux. Our software platform is character-set, language, currency, and time-zone independent. Our technology platform has the following key benefits:

We are continuously upgrading our software platform in a manner that we believe will cost-effectively extend the scalability, speed, resiliency and availability of our services and facilitate our ability to add new features to our products.

Strategic Agreements

We have entered into long-term strategic agreements with certain leading search publishers. Under these strategic agreements, we receive consideration based on a percentage of the search advertising spend that our customers manage on our platform.

In December 2018, we entered into such an agreement with Google, under which we receive revenue share payments based on our customers' search advertising spend on Google and certain other eligible search engines. In exchange, we will reinvest a percentage of these revenue share payments to drive our technology platform innovation. This agreement went into effect on October 1, 2018, and is scheduled to terminate on September 30, 2021, although Google may terminate the agreement on September 30, 2020 if we do not meet certain financial metrics for the three month period preceding that date. This agreement and the related revenue recognition considerations are described more fully in Note 3 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

Customers

We market and sell our technology solutions to advertisers directly and through advertising agencies that use our platform on behalf of their customers. Advertisers that we serve through our relationships with agencies have historically represented between approximately one-third to one-half our overall revenues. We also generate revenues from leading publishers through our long-term strategic agreements.

Competition

The digital advertising cloud market is highly competitive, fragmented, and subject to changes in both technology and customer behavior. We face significant competition today and expect competition to intensify in the future. To maintain and improve our competitive position, we must keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers and continue to develop and introduce new modules, features and services in a timely and efficient manner. We currently compete with large, well-established companies, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated, Facebook, Inc., Google Inc. (through its wholly owned subsidiary DoubleClick) and Kenshoo Ltd. We also compete with in-house proprietary tools, tools from publishers and custom solutions, including spreadsheets. We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:

Apart from cross-channel platform competitors, we also compete with channel solutions in the display and social advertising markets. Competitors in the display advertising market include companies such as AdRoll Inc., Criteo S.A. , MediaMath, Inc. and Sizmek, Inc., while in the social advertising market we compete with public companies such as 4C Insights, Inc., Nanigans, Inc., Salesforce.com (through its wholly owned subsidiary Social.com) and Smartly.io Inc.

Our ability to remain competitive will largely depend on our ongoing performance in the areas of the quality, functionality and breadth of our solution and the availability and knowledgeability of our customer support.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our solutions directly to advertisers and to agencies in a wide range of industries through our global sales team. Our sales cycle can vary substantially by advertiser and agency, but can take up to nine months. We have a number of account executive sales teams organized by geography and market segments. We also have customer success professionals who are responsible for long-term customer satisfaction and retention, renewal, support and driving an increase in the volume of media managed by customers on our platform.

Our marketing team is focused on driving awareness and demand generation across major markets. This team provides thought leadership in the form of white papers, benchmarking reports, bylines, presenting at industry conferences and speaking to the press. In addition, they are responsible for the creation of field enablement assets such as case studies, blog posts and corporate and product collateral.

Research and Development

Our research and development team is responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of our platform. Our research and development process emphasizes frequent, iterative and incremental development cycles. Within our research and development organizations, we have several project teams that focus on platform and feature development for our advertising cloud solutions. Each of these project teams includes engineers, quality engineers and product managers, as needed, responsible for the initial and ongoing development for their projects.

Government Regulation

We are subject to a number of laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business in the advertising and SaaS industries and on the Internet, many of which are still evolving and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. The manner in which existing laws and regulations will be applied to the SaaS and advertising industries and the Internet in general and how they will relate to our business in particular, are often unclear. For example, we often cannot be certain how existing laws will apply in the eCommerce and online context, including with respect to such topics as privacy, advertising, pricing, taxation, content regulation, quality of products and services and intellectual property ownership and infringement.

Numerous laws and regulatory schemes have been adopted at the national and state level in the United States, and in some cases internationally, that have a direct impact on our business and operations. For example, in 2016 the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, a new regulation governing data privacy, which became effective in May 2018 and replaced the Data Protection Directive. The GDPR establishes new requirements applicable to the handling of personal data and imposes penalties for non-compliance of up to the greater of €20,000,000 or 4% of worldwide revenue. Additionally, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which goes into effect on January 1, 2020, provides consumers the right to know what personal data companies collect, how it is used, and the right to access, delete and opt of sale of their personal information to third parties. It also expands the definition of personal information and gives consumers increased privacy rights and protections for that information.

Employees

As of December 31, 2018, we had a total of 292 full-time and part-time employees.

Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property rights are a key component of our success. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions, to establish, maintain and protect our proprietary rights.

As of December 31, 2018, we had three issued patents and six patent applications (one of which is allowed) pending in the United States. We own and use trademarks on or in connection with our products and services, including two registered trademarks in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Australia, China, Japan and Russia, one registered mark in South Korea and Singapore, and unregistered common law marks and pending trademark applications in the United States, Canada and the European Union. We have also registered numerous Internet domain names.

Available Information

The mailing address of our headquarters is 123 Mission Street, 27th Floor, San Francisco, California 94105 and our telephone number at that location is (415) 399-2580. Our website is www.marinsoftware.com. Through a link on the Investor Center section of our website, we make available the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC: our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All such filings are free of charge. The information posted to our website is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The public may read and copy any materials that we file with the SEC at its website at www.sec.gov.

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial conditions and the trading price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.

We have incurred significant losses in each fiscal year since our incorporation in 2006. We experienced net losses of $41.2 million, $31.5 million and $16.5 million during 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. As of December 31, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of $264.7 million. The losses and accumulated deficit were due largely to the substantial investments we made to grow our business and acquire customers. Our cost of revenues and operating expenses could increase in the future due to investments to grow our business, acquire customers and develop our platform and new functionality. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenues sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. Many of our efforts to generate revenues from our business are new and unproven, and any failure to increase our revenues or generate revenues from new solutions or to maintain or increase revenues from existing products and customers could prevent us from attaining or increasing profitability. We do not expect to be profitable in 2019 on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP, and we cannot be certain that we will be able to attain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis, or if we do, that we will sustain profitability.

We expect to continue to incur losses and experience negative cash flows, and may need to sell additional securities, borrow additional funds or reduce operating expenses to continue as a going concern.

We currently operate at a loss and we anticipate that we will continue to have operating losses in the near term. Our business has not generated enough cash flow to fund our sales and marketing activities, research and development initiatives, and other business activities. We anticipate that increasing our market share for our current services through sales and marketing efforts, continuing development of new platform features and delivering efficient service to customers will require additional capital and expenditures. If we continue to burn cash without a corresponding increase to revenue, we will need to sell additional securities or borrow additional funds or reduce operating expenses through successful cost-cutting measures to continue as a going concern. There is no guarantee that we will be able to issue additional securities in future periods or borrow additional funds on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, in order to meet our cash needs. Further, there is no guarantee that we will be able to successfully reduce our operating expenses through successful cost-cutting measures. Our ability to continue as a going concern may be adversely affected if we are unable to raise additional cash or reduce our operating expenses.

We might require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features or enhance our existing platform, improve our operating infrastructure or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing 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 secured by us 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, including potential acquisitions. In addition, 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 and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired.

We operate in a rapidly developing and changing industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects.

We have encountered and will continue to encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by companies in rapidly developing and changing industries, including challenges in forecasting accuracy, hiring and retaining qualified employees, determining appropriate investments of our limited resources, market acceptance of our existing and future solutions, effectively integrating acquired products, competition from established companies with greater financial and technical resources, acquiring and retaining customers, managing customer deployments, making improvements to our existing products and developing new solutions. Our current operations infrastructure may require changes in order for us to achieve profitability and scale our operations efficiently. For example, we may need to automate portions of our solution to decrease our costs, ensure our marketing infrastructure is designed to drive highly qualified leads cost effectively and implement changes in our sales model to improve the predictability of our sales and reduce our sales cycle. In addition, from time to time, we may need to make additional investments in product development to address market demands, which may increase our overall expenses and reduce our ability to achieve profitability. If we fail to implement these changes in a timely manner or are unable to implement them due to factors beyond our control, our business may suffer, our revenue may decline and we may not be able to achieve growth or profitability. We cannot be assured that we will be successful in addressing these and other challenges we may face in the future.

Our usage-based pricing model makes it difficult to forecast revenues from our current customers and future prospects.

We primarily have a usage-based pricing model in which most of our fees are calculated as a percentage of customers’ advertising spend managed on our platform. This pricing model makes it difficult to accurately forecast revenues because our customers’ advertising spend managed by our platform may vary from month to month based on the variety of industries in which our advertisers operate, the seasonality of those industries and fluctuations in our customers’ advertising budgets or other factors. Our subscription contracts with our direct advertiser customers generally contain a minimum monthly platform fee, which is generally greater than one-half of our estimated monthly revenues from the customer at the time the contract is signed, and, as a result, the minimum monthly platform fee may not be a good indicator of our revenues from that customer. In addition, advertisers that use our platform through our agency customers typically do not have a minimum monthly spend amount or a minimum term during which they must use our platform, and as a result, our ability to forecast revenues from these advertisers is difficult. If we incorrectly forecast revenues for these advertisers and the amount of revenue is less than projections we provide to investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Additionally, if we overestimate usage, we may incur additional expenses in adding infrastructure, without a commensurate increase in revenues, which would harm our gross margins and other operating results.

We must develop and introduce enhancements and new features that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with technological developments to remain competitive in our evolving industry.

We operate in a dynamic market characterized by rapidly changing technologies and industry and legal standards. The introduction of new advertising platform solutions by our competitors, the market acceptance of solutions based on new or alternative technologies, or the emergence of new industry standards could render our platform obsolete. Our ability to compete successfully, attract new customers and increase revenues from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing cross-channel, cross-device, enterprise marketing software platform and to continually introduce or acquire new features that are in demand by the market we serve. We also must update our software to reflect changes in publishers’ APIs and terms of use. We are in the process of a significant upgrade to our software platform infrastructure, and the success of this project or any other enhancement or new solution depends on several factors, including timely completion, adequate quality testing, effective migration of existing customers with minimal disruption and appropriate introduction and market acceptance. Any new platform or feature that we develop or acquire may not be introduced in a timely manner, may contain defects, may be more costly to compete than we anticipate or may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenues. If we are unable to complete the upgrade to our software platform infrastructure effectively or in a timely manner, or to anticipate or timely and successfully develop or acquire new offerings or features or enhance our existing platform to meet customer requirements, our business and operating results will be adversely affected.

If the market for digital advertising slows or declines, our business, growth prospects, and financial condition would be adversely affected.

The future growth of our business could be constrained by the level of acceptance and expansion of emerging cloud-based advertising channels, as well as the continued use and growth of existing channels, such as search and display advertising. Even if these channels become widely adopted, advertisers and agencies may not make significant investments in solutions such as ours that help them manage their digital advertising spend across publisher platforms and advertising channels. It is difficult to predict customer adoption rates, customer demand for our platform, the future growth rate and size of the advertising cloud solutions market or the entry of competitive solutions. The continued expansion of the market for advertising cloud solutions depends on a number of factors, including the continued growth of the cloud-based advertising market, the growth of social and mobile as advertising channels and the cost, performance and perceived value associated with advertising cloud solutions, as well as the ability of cloud computing companies to address security and privacy concerns. Further, the cloud computing market is less developed in many jurisdictions outside the United States. If we or other cloud computing providers experience security incidents, loss of customer data, disruptions in delivery or other problems, the market for cloud computing as a whole, including our applications, may be negatively affected.

If we are unable to maintain our relationships with, and access to, publishers, advertising exchange platforms and other platforms that aggregate the supply of advertising inventory, our business will suffer.

We currently depend on relationships with various publishers, including Amazon, Baidu, Bing, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Verizon Media and Yahoo! Japan, as well as advertising exchange platforms and aggregators of advertising inventory, including Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Facebook’s Exchange, Microsoft’s Ad Exchange, Twitter’s MoPub, OpenX, The Rubicon Project, PubMatic and AppNexus. Our subscription services interface with these publishers’ platforms through APIs, such as the Google AdWords API or Facebook API. We are subject to the respective platforms’ standard API terms and conditions, which govern the use and distribution of data from these platforms. Our business significantly depends on having access to these APIs, particularly the Google AdWords API, which the substantial majority of our customers use, on commercially reasonable terms and our business would be harmed if any of these publishers, advertising exchanges or aggregators of advertising inventory discontinues or limits access to their platforms, modifies their terms of use or other policies or place additional restrictions on us as API users, or charges API license fees for API access. Moreover, some of these publishers, such as Google, market competitive solutions for their platforms. Because the advertising inventory suppliers control their APIs, they may develop competitive offerings that are not subject to the limits imposed on us through the API terms and conditions. Currently, restrictions in these API agreements limit our ability to implement certain functionality, require us to implement functionality in a particular manner or require us to implement certain required minimum functionality, causing us to devote development resources to implement certain functionality that we would not otherwise include in our subscription services and to incur costs for personnel to provide services to implement functionality that we are prohibited from automating. Publishers, advertising exchanges and advertising inventory aggregators update their API terms of use from time to time and new versions of these terms could impose additional restrictions on us. In addition, publishers, advertising exchanges and advertising inventory aggregators continually update their APIs and may update or modify functionality, which requires us to modify our software to accommodate these changes and to devote technical resources and personnel to these efforts which could otherwise be used to focus on other priorities. Any of these outcomes could cause demand for our products to decrease, our research and development costs to increase, and our results of operations and financial condition to be harmed.

Our growth depends in part on the success of our relationships with advertising agencies.

Our future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to enter into successful relationships with advertising agencies. Identifying agencies and negotiating and documenting relationships with them requires significant time and resources. These relationships may not result in additional customers or enable us to generate significant revenues. Our contracts for these relationships are typically non-exclusive and do not prohibit the agency from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. Frequently, these agencies do in fact work with our competitors and compete with us. In addition, we often work with, or seek to work with, high-profile brands directly. This may not be possible where, for example, those brands obtain advertising services exclusively or primarily from advertising agencies.

We generally bill agencies for their customers’ use of our platform, but in most cases the agency’s customer has no direct contractual commitment to make payment to us. Furthermore, some of these agency contracts include provisions whereby the agency is not liable for making payment to us for our subscription services if the agency does not receive a corresponding payment from its client on whose behalf the subscription services were rendered. These provisions may result in longer collections periods or our inability to collect payment for some of our subscription services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with these agencies on commercially reasonable terms, or if these relationships are not profitable for us, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenues could be impaired and our operating results would suffer.

We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.

The overall market for advertising cloud solutions is rapidly evolving, highly competitive, complex, fragmented, and subject to changing technology and shifting customer needs. We face significant competition in this market and we expect competition to intensify in the future. We currently compete with large, well-established companies, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated and Google Inc. (through its wholly owned subsidiary DoubleClick), and privately-held companies, such as Kenshoo Ltd. We also compete with channel-specific offerings, in-house proprietary tools, tools from publishers and custom solutions, including spreadsheets. Increased competition may result in reduced pricing for our solutions, longer sales cycles or a decrease of our market share, any of which could negatively affect our revenues and future operating results and our ability to grow our business.

A number of competitive factors could cause us to lose potential sales or to sell our solutions at lower prices or at reduced margins, including, among others:

We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors. If we cannot compete successfully, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.

Our business depends on our customers’ continued willingness to manage advertising spend on our platform.

In order for us to improve our operating results, it is important that our customers continue to manage their advertising spend on our platform, increase their usage and also purchase additional solutions from us. In the case of our direct advertiser customers, we offer our solutions primarily through subscription contracts and generally bill customers over the related subscription period, which is generally one year or longer. During the term of their contracts, our direct advertiser customers generally have no obligation to maintain or increase their advertising spend on our platform beyond a specified minimum monthly platform fee, which is typically set at the time the contract is signed and is generally greater than half of the monthly amount we anticipate the customer will spend. Our direct advertiser customers generally have no renewal obligation after the initial or then-current renewal subscription period expires, and even if customers renew contracts, they may decrease the level of their digital advertising spend managed through our platform, resulting in lower revenues from that customer. Advertisers that we serve through our arrangements with our advertising agencies generally do not have any contractual commitment to use our platform. Our customers’ usage may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including, but not limited to, their satisfaction with our platform and our customer support, the frequency and severity of outages, the pricing of our, or competing, solutions, the effects of global economic conditions and reductions in spending levels or changes in our customers’ strategies regarding digital advertising. We may not be able to accurately predict future usage trends. If our customers renew on less favorable terms or reduce their advertising spend on our platform, our revenues may grow more slowly than expected or decline.

We incur upfront costs associated with onboarding advertisers to our platform and may not recoup our investment if we do not maintain the advertiser relationship over time.

Our operating results may be negatively affected if we are unable to recoup our upfront costs for onboarding new advertisers to our platform. Upfront costs when adding new advertisers generally include sales commissions for our sales force, expenses associated with entering customer data into our platform and other implementation-related costs. Because our customers, including direct advertisers and agencies, are billed over the term of the contract, if new customers sign contracts with short initial subscription periods and do not renew their subscriptions, or otherwise do not continue to use our platform to a level that generates revenues in excess of our upfront expenses, our operating results could be negatively impacted. In cases in which the implementation process is particularly complex, the revenues resulting from the customer under our contract may not cover the upfront investment; therefore, if a significant number of these customers do not renew their contracts, it could negatively affect our operating results. In addition, because we capitalize certain upfront costs to obtain and fulfill contracts under authoritative accounting guidance, we could be required to record impairment expense for these upfront costs that are not covered by the underlying revenues.

Because we generally bill our customers over the term of the contract, near term decline in new or renewed subscriptions may not be reflected immediately in our operating results.

Most of our revenues in each quarter are derived from contracts entered into with our customers during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be fully reflected in our revenues for that quarter. Such declines, however, would negatively affect our revenues in future periods and the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our solutions, and potential changes in our rate of renewals or renewal terms, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our cost structure rapidly, or at all, to take account of reduced revenues. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our total revenues through additional sales in any period, as revenues from new customers must be earned over the applicable subscription term based on the value of their monthly advertising spend.

We have been dependent on our customers’ use of search advertising. Any decrease in the use of search advertising or our inability to further penetrate social and display advertising channels would harm our business, growth prospects, operating results and financial condition.

Historically, our customers have primarily used our solutions for managing their search advertising, including mobile search advertising, and the substantial majority of our revenue is derived from advertisers that use our platform to manage their search advertising. We expect that search advertising will continue to be the primary channel used by our customers for the foreseeable future. Should our customers lose confidence in the value or effectiveness of search advertising, or if search advertising growth moderates or declines, the demand for our solutions may decline, and it may negatively impact our revenues. In addition, our failure to achieve market acceptance of our solution for the management of social and display advertising spend would harm our growth prospects, operating results and financial condition.

Our sales cycle can be long and unpredictable and require considerable time and expense, which may cause our operating results to fluctuate.

The sales cycle for our solutions, from initial contact with a potential lead to contract execution and implementation, varies widely by customer, but can take up to nine months. Some of our customers undertake a significant evaluation process that frequently involves not only our solutions but also those of our competitors, which has in the past resulted in extended sales cycles. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use, technical capabilities and benefits of our platform. In addition, under certain circumstances, we sometimes offer an initial term, typically of a few months in duration, to new customers who may terminate their subscription at any time during this initial period before the fixed term contract commences. We have no assurance that the substantial time and money spent on our sales efforts will produce any sales. If our sales efforts result in a new customer subscription, the customer may terminate its subscription during the initial period, after we have incurred the expenses associated with entering the customer’s data in our platform and related training and support. If sales expected from a customer are not realized in the time period expected or not realized at all, or if a customer terminates during the initial period, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our ability to generate revenue depends on our collection of significant amounts of data from various sources.

Our ability to optimize the delivery of Internet advertisements for our customers depends on our ability to successfully leverage data, including data that we collect from our customers as well as data provided by publishers and from third parties. Using cookies and similar tracking technologies, we collect information about the interaction of users with our advertisers’ and publishers’ websites. Our ability to successfully leverage such data is dependent upon our continued ability to access and utilize such data. Our ability to access and use such data could be restricted by a number of factors, including consumer choice, restrictions imposed by advertisers and publishers, changes in technology, and new developments in laws, regulations, and industry standards.

If consumer resistance to the collection and sharing of the data used to deliver targeted advertising, increased visibility of consent / Do Not Track mechanisms as a result of industry regulatory and/or legal developments, and/or the development and deployment of new technologies result in a material impact on our ability to collect data, this will materially impair the results of our operations.

Material defects or errors in our software platform could harm our reputation, result in significant costs to us and impair our ability to sell our subscription services.

The software applications underlying our subscription services are inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors, which may cause disruptions in availability, misallocation of advertising spend or other performance problems. Any such errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems with our software platform, including those resulting from new versions or updates, could negatively impact our customers’ businesses or the success of their advertising campaigns and cause harm to our reputation. If we have any errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems with our software platform, customers could elect not to renew or reduce their usage or delay or withhold payment to us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts or an increase in the length of collection cycles for accounts receivable. Errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems could also result in customers making warranty or other claims against us, our giving credits to our customers toward future advertising spend or costly litigation. As a result, material defects or errors in our platform could have a material adverse impact on our business and financial performance.

The costs incurred in correcting any material defects or errors in our software platform may be substantial and could adversely affect our operating results. After the release of new versions of our software, defects or errors may be identified from time to time by our internal team and by our customers. We implement bug fixes and upgrades as part of our regularly scheduled system maintenance. If we do not complete this maintenance according to schedule or if customers are otherwise dissatisfied with the frequency and/or duration of our maintenance services, customers could elect not to renew, or delay or withhold payment to us, or cause us to issue credits, make refunds or pay penalties.

We primarily derive our revenues from a single software platform and any factor adversely affecting subscriptions to our platform could harm our business and operating results.

We primarily derive our revenues from sales of a single software platform. As such, any factor adversely affecting subscriptions to our platform, including product release cycles, market acceptance, product competition, performance and reliability, reputation, price competition, and economic and market conditions, could harm our business and operating results.

If mobile connected devices, their operating systems or content distribution channels, including those controlled by our competitors, develop in ways that prevent our advertising campaigns from being delivered to their users, our ability to grow our business will be impaired.

Our success in the mobile channel depends upon the ability of our technology platform to integrate with mobile inventory suppliers and provide advertising for most mobile connected devices, as well as the major operating systems that run on them and the applications that are downloaded onto them. The design of mobile devices and operating systems is controlled by third parties with whom we do not have any formal relationships. These parties frequently introduce new devices, and from time to time they may introduce new operating systems or modify existing ones. Network carriers may also impact the ability to access specified content on mobile devices. If our solution were unable to work on these devices or operating systems, either because of technological constraints or because an operating system or app developer, device maker or carrier wished to impair our ability to purchase inventory and provide advertisements, our ability to generate revenue could be significantly harmed.

We primarily use third-party data centers to deliver our services. Any disruption of service at these facilities could harm our business.

We manage a significant portion of our services and serve substantially all of our customers from only a single third-party data center facility. While we control the actual computer, network and storage systems upon which our platform runs, and deploy them to the data center facility, we do not control the operation of the facility. The owner of the facility has no obligation to renew the agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to renew the agreement on commercially reasonable terms, we may be required to transfer to a new facility or facilities, and we may incur significant costs and possible service interruption in connection with doing so.

The facility is vulnerable to damage or service interruption resulting from human error, intentional bad acts, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, war, terrorist attacks, power losses, hardware failures, systems failures, telecommunications failures and similar events. Moreover, while we have a disaster recovery plan in place, we do not maintain a "hot failover" instance of our software platform permitting us to immediately switch over in the event of damage or service interruption at our data center. The occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, any outages or vandalism or other misconduct, or a decision to close the facility without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems could result in lengthy interruptions in our services.

Any changes in service levels at the facility or any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems at or related to the facility that affect our services could harm our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. For instance, in December 2017, researchers identified significant CPU architecture vulnerabilities commonly known as "Spectre" and "Meltdown" that have required software updates and patches to mitigate such vulnerabilities, and such updates and patches may require servers to go offline and may potentially slow their performance. Interruptions in our services might reduce our revenues, subject us to potential liability, or result in reduced usage of our platform. In addition, some of our customer contracts require us to issue credits for downtime in excess of certain levels and in some instances give our customers the ability to terminate their subscriptions.

We also depend on third-party Internet-hosting providers and continuous and uninterrupted access to the Internet through third-party bandwidth providers to operate our business. If we lose the services of one or more of our Internet-hosting or bandwidth providers for any reason or if their services are disrupted, for example due to viruses or "denial-of-service" or other attacks on their systems, or due to human error, intentional bad acts, power loss, hardware failures, telecommunications failures, fires, wars, terrorist attacks, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or similar events, we could experience disruption in our ability to offer our solutions or we could be required to retain the services of replacement providers, which could increase our operating costs and harm our business and reputation.

If we cannot efficiently implement our solutions for customers, we may lose customers.

Our customers have a variety of different data formats, enterprise applications and infrastructure and our platform must support our customers’ data formats and integrate with complex enterprise applications and infrastructures. If our platform does not currently support a customer’s required data format or appropriately integrate with a customer’s applications and infrastructure, then we may choose to configure our platform to do so, which would increase our expenses. Additionally, we do not control our customers’ implementation schedules. As a result, as we have experienced in the past, if our customers do not allocate internal resources necessary to meet their implementation responsibilities or if we face unanticipated implementation difficulties, the implementation may be delayed. Further, in the past, our implementation capacity has at times constrained our ability to successfully implement our solutions for our customers in a timely manner, particularly during periods of high demand. If the customer implementation process is not executed successfully or if execution is delayed, we could incur significant costs, customers could become dissatisfied and decide not to increase usage of our platform, not to use our platform beyond an initial period prior to their term commitment and revenue recognition could be delayed. In addition, competitors with more efficient operating models with lower implementation costs could penetrate our customer relationships.

Additionally, large customers may request or require specific features or functions unique to their particular business processes, which increase our upfront investment in sales and deployment efforts and the revenues resulting from the customers under our typical contract length may not cover the upfront investments. If prospective large customers require specific features or functions that we do not offer, then the market for our solution will be more limited and our business could suffer. In addition, supporting large customers could require us to devote significant development services and support personnel and strain our personnel resources and infrastructure. If we are unable to address the needs of these customers in a timely fashion or further develop and enhance our solution, these customers may not renew their subscriptions, seek to terminate their relationship with us, renew on less favorable terms, or reduce their advertising spend on our platform. If any of these were to occur, our revenues may decline and our operating results could be adversely affected.

If we are unable to maintain or expand our sales and marketing capabilities, we may not be able to generate anticipated revenues.

Increasing our customer base and achieving broader market acceptance of our software platform will depend to a significant extent on our ability to expand our sales and marketing operations and activities. We are substantially dependent on our sales force to obtain new customers and our marketing organization to generate a sufficient pipeline of qualified sales leads. We may expand our sales team in order to increase revenues from new and existing customers and to further penetrate our existing markets and expand into new markets, but may not be able to attract and hire qualified sales personnel quickly enough or at all. Our solutions require a sophisticated sales force with specific sales skills and technical knowledge. Competition for qualified sales personnel is intense, and we may not be able to retain our existing sales personnel or attract, integrate, train or retain sufficient highly qualified sales personnel. In addition, we need to invest in lead generation activities to develop our pipeline of qualified opportunities for our sales force, which could increase our marketing expenses. If our lead generation activities do not increase our pipeline or if our sales force is unable to close opportunities at a high rate, then we may not generate an increase in revenues.

Any failure to offer high-quality technical support services may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and harm our financial results.

Our customers depend on our support organization to resolve any technical issues relating to our solutions. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on the quality of our solutions, our business reputation and on strong recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality technical support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation, adversely affect our ability to sell our solutions to existing and prospective customers, and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We offer technical support services with our solutions and may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support services. We also may be unable to modify the format of our support services to compete with changes in support services provided by competitors. It is difficult to predict customer demand for technical support services and if customer demand increases significantly, we may be unable to provide satisfactory support services to our customers. Additionally, increased customer demand for these services, without corresponding revenues, could increase costs and adversely affect our operating results.

If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data or our data is otherwise obtained, our solutions may be perceived as not being secure, customers may reduce the use of or stop using our solutions and we may incur significant liabilities.

In the ordinary course of our business, we maintain sensitive data on our networks, including our intellectual property and proprietary or confidential business information relating to our business and that of our customers and business partners. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our business and reputation. We believe that companies have been increasingly subject to a wide variety of security incidents, cyber-attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access. These threats can come from a variety of sources, ranging in sophistication from an individual hacker to a state-sponsored attack. Cyber threats may be generic, or they may be custom-crafted against our information systems. Cyber-attacks have become more prevalent and much harder to detect and defend against. Our network and storage applications may be subject to unauthorized access by hackers or breached due to operator error, malfeasance or other system disruptions. It is often difficult to anticipate or immediately detect such incidents and the damage caused by such incidents. These data breaches and any unauthorized access or disclosure of our information or intellectual property could result in the loss of information, litigation, indemnity obligations and other liability. While we have security measures in place, our systems and networks are subject to ongoing threats and therefore these security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including cyber-attacks or other intentional misconduct by computer hackers, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. This could result in one or more third parties obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data or our data, including intellectual property and other confidential business information. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Third parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information in order to gain access to our customers’ data or our data, including intellectual property and other confidential business information. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, we could lose potential sales and existing customers or we could incur other liabilities, which could adversely affect our business.

Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties.

Our future growth will depend on our ability to enter into and retain successful strategic relationships with third parties. For example, we are seeking to establish relationships with third parties to develop integrations with complementary technology and content. These relationships may not result in additional customers or enable us to generate significant revenues. Identifying partners and negotiating and documenting relationships with them require significant time and resources. Our contracts for these relationships are typically non-exclusive and do not prohibit the other party from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with these third parties, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenues could be impaired and our operating results would suffer.

As a result of our customers’ usage of our software platform, we will need to continually improve our hosting infrastructure to avoid service interruptions or slower system performance.

We have experienced growth in the number of transactions and data that our hosting infrastructure supports. We seek to maintain sufficient excess capacity in our infrastructure to meet the needs of all of our customers. We also seek to maintain excess capacity to facilitate the rapid provision of new customer deployments and the expansion of existing customer deployments. For example, if we secure a large customer or a group of customers that require significant amounts of bandwidth or storage, we may need to increase bandwidth, storage, power or other elements of our application architecture and our infrastructure, and our existing systems may not be able to scale in a manner satisfactory to our existing or prospective customers.

The amount of infrastructure needed to support our customers is based on our estimates of anticipated usage. If we were to experience unforeseen increases in usage, we could be required to increase our infrastructure investments resulting in increased costs or reduced gross margins, and if we do not accurately predict our infrastructure capacity requirements, our customers could experience service outages that may subject us to financial penalties and liabilities and result in customer losses. If our hosting infrastructure capacity fails to keep pace with increased sales, customers may experience service interruptions or slower system performance as we seek to obtain additional capacity, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our revenue growth. As use of our software platform grows and as customers use it for more complicated tasks, we will need to devote additional resources to improving our application architecture and our infrastructure in order to maintain the performance of our software platform. We may need to incur additional costs to upgrade or expand our computer systems and architecture in order to accommodate increased demand if our systems cannot handle current or higher volumes of usage. In addition, increasing our systems and infrastructure in advance of new customers would cause us to have increased cost of revenues, which can adversely affect our gross margins until we increase revenues that are spread over the increased costs.

Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.

Our success and ability to compete depends in part upon our intellectual property. We primarily rely on a combination of copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions with our employees, customers, partners and others to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate or we may be unable to secure intellectual property protection for all of our solutions. In particular, we have three issued U.S. patents.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, our competitors could use our intellectual property to market products and services similar to ours and our ability to compete effectively would be impaired. Moreover, others may independently develop technologies that are competitive to ours or infringe our intellectual property. The enforcement of our intellectual property rights depends on our legal actions against these infringers being successful, but we cannot be sure these actions will be successful, even when our rights have been infringed. In addition, defending our intellectual property rights might entail significant expense and diversion of management resources. Any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative processes or litigation. Any patents issued in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages or may be successfully challenged by third parties.

Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Effective protection of our intellectual property may not be available to us in every country in which our solutions are available. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property.

We might be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights, and 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. Litigation to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, and could ultimately result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property.

We could incur substantial costs as a result of any claim of infringement of another party’s intellectual property rights.

In recent years, there has been significant litigation in the United States involving patents and other intellectual property rights. Companies in the Internet and technology industries are increasingly bringing and becoming subject to suits alleging infringement of proprietary rights, particularly patent rights, and our competitors may hold patents or have pending patent applications, which could be related to our business. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties, which we refer to as non-practicing entities, whose sole primary business is to assert such claims. We have received in the past, and expect to receive in the future, notices that claim we or our customers using our solutions have misappropriated or misused other parties’ intellectual property rights. If we are sued by a third party that claims that our technology infringes its rights, the litigation could be expensive and could divert our management resources. We do not currently have an extensive patent portfolio of our own, which may limit the defenses available to us in any such litigation.

In addition, in most instances, we have agreed to indemnify our customers against certain claims that our subscription services infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties. Our business could be adversely affected by any significant disputes between us and our customers as to the applicability or scope of our indemnification obligations to them. The results of any intellectual property litigation to which we might become a party, or for which we are required to provide indemnification, may require us to do one or more of the following:

If we are required to make substantial payments or undertake any of the other actions noted above as a result of any intellectual property infringement claims against us or any obligation to indemnify our customers for such claims, such payments or costs could have a material adverse effect upon our business and financial results.

Our use of open source technology could impose limitations on our ability to commercialize our software platform.

We use open source software in our platform. Some open source software licenses require users who distribute open source software as part of their software to publicly disclose all or part of the source code to such software and/or make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. The terms of various open source licenses have not been interpreted by the U.S. 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 software platform. While we monitor our use of open source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose our source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open source agreement, such use could inadvertently occur and we may be required to release our proprietary source code, pay damages for breach of contract, re-engineer our applications, discontinue sales in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis or take other remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts, any of which could cause us to breach customer contracts, harm our reputation, result in customer losses or claims, increase our costs or otherwise adversely affect our business and operating results.

Because our long-term success depends, in part, on our ability to expand our sales to customers outside the United States, our business will be susceptible to risks associated with international operations.

We currently have personnel and/or customers in China, England, France, Ireland, Japan and Singapore, as well as the United States. Due to our international exposure, our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations. However, we have a limited operating history outside the United States, and our ability to manage our business and conduct our operations internationally requires considerable management attention and resources and is subject to particular challenges of supporting a rapidly growing business in an environment of diverse cultures, languages, customs, tax laws, legal systems, alternate dispute systems and regulatory systems. The risks and challenges associated with international expansion include:

We have limited experience in marketing, selling and supporting our subscription services internationally, which increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake will not be successful.

Fluctuations in the exchange rate of foreign currencies could result in currency transactions losses.

We currently have foreign sales denominated in Australian Dollars, British Pound Sterling, Chinese Yuan, Euros, Japanese Yen and Singaporean Dollars. In addition, we incur a portion of our operating expenses in the currencies of the countries where we have offices. We face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates, which may cause our revenues and operating results to differ materially from expectations. If the U.S. Dollar continues to strengthen relative to foreign currencies as it has been doing since the second quarter of 2018, our non-U.S. revenues would be adversely affected. Conversely, a decline in the U.S. Dollar relative to foreign currencies would increase our non-U.S. revenues when translated into U.S. Dollars. Our operating results could be negatively impacted depending on the amount of expense denominated in foreign currencies. As exchange rates vary, revenues, cost of revenues, operating expenses and other operating results, when translated, may differ materially from expectations. In addition, our revenues and operating results are subject to fluctuation if our mix of U.S. and foreign currency-denominated transactions or expenses changes in the future because we do not currently hedge our foreign currency exposure. Even if we were to implement hedging 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.

Unfavorable conditions in the market for digital advertising or the global economy or reductions in digital advertising spend could limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our operating results.

Revenue growth and potential profitability of our business depends on digital advertising spend by advertisers in the markets we serve. Our operating results may vary based on changes in the market for digital advertising or the global economy. To the extent that weak economic conditions cause our customers and potential customers to freeze or reduce their advertising budgets, particularly digital advertising, demand for our solution may be negatively affected.

Historically, economic downturns have resulted in overall reductions in advertising spend. If economic conditions deteriorate or the rise of geopolitical instability and military hostilities causes economic uncertainty, our customers and potential customers may elect to decrease their advertising budgets or defer or reconsider software and service purchases, which would limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our operating results.

We have experienced turnover in our senior management, and the loss of key personnel or an ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel may result in operational inefficiencies that could negatively affect our business.

Our success depends upon the continued service of our talented management, operational and key technical employees, as well as our ability to continue to attract additional highly qualified talent. Turnover amongst our employees could result in operational and administrative inefficiencies and added costs, which could adversely impact our results of operations, stock price and customer relationships, and could make recruiting for future management and other positions more difficult. In addition, we must successfully integrate any new senior management and other new personnel within our organization in order to achieve our operating objectives, and changes in other key positions may temporarily affect our financial performance and results of operations as new employees become familiar with our business.

We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees. Each of our executive officers, key technical personnel and other employees could terminate his or her relationship with us at any time. Our business also requires skilled technical, sales and other personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. As we expand into additional geographic markets, we will require personnel with expertise in these new areas. Competition for qualified employees is intense in our industry and particularly in San Francisco, California. An inability to retain, attract, relocate and motivate employees required for our business, including the planned expansion of our business, could delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives and could materially harm our business and our customer relationships.

Managing a global organization has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and infrastructure. If we fail to manage our operations effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service or address competitive challenges adequately.

Managing a global and geographically dispersed workforce and operation has required substantial management effort, the allocation of valuable management resources and significant additional investment in our infrastructure. We will be required to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and operations reporting procedures, and we may not be able to do so effectively. Moreover, we may from time to time decide to undertake cost savings initiatives, such as additional restructurings, disposing of, and/or otherwise discontinuing certain products, in an effort to focus our resources on key strategic initiatives and streamline our business. Further, supporting our customers and operations, and driving future growth, we must continually improve and maintain our technology, systems and network infrastructure. As such, we may be unable to manage our expenses effectively in the future, which may negatively impact our gross margins or operating expenses in any particular quarter. If we fail to manage our anticipated growth or change in a manner that does not preserve the key aspects of our corporate culture, the quality of our solutions may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to retain and attract customers.

Domestic and foreign government regulation and enforcement of data practices and data tracking technologies is expansive, not clearly defined and rapidly evolving. Such regulation could directly restrict portions of our business or indirectly affect our business by constraining our customers’ use of our platform or limiting the growth of our markets.

Federal, state, municipal and/or foreign governments and agencies have adopted and could in the future adopt, modify, apply or enforce laws, policies, and regulations covering user privacy, data security, technologies such as cookies that are used to collect, store and/or process data, the taxation of products and services, unfair and deceptive practices, and/or the collection, use, processing, transfer, storage and/or disclosure of data associated with a unique individual. The categories of data regulated under these laws vary widely and are often ill-defined and subject to new applications or interpretation by regulators. Our subscription services enable our customers to display digital advertisements to targeted population segments, as well as collect, manage and store data regarding the measurement and valuation of their digital advertising and marketing campaigns, which may include data that is directly or indirectly obtained or derived through the activities of online or mobile visitors. The uncertainty and inconsistency among these laws, coupled with a lack of guidance as to how these laws will be applied to current and emerging Internet and mobile analytics technologies, creates a risk that regulators, lawmakers or other third parties, such as potential plaintiffs, may assert claims, pursue investigations or audits, or engage in civil or criminal enforcement. These actions could limit the market for our subscription services or impose burdensome requirements on our services and/or customers’ use of our services, thereby rendering our business unprofitable.

Some features of our subscription services use cookies, which trigger the data protection requirements of certain foreign jurisdictions, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, and the EU ePrivacy Directive. In addition, our services collect data about visitors’ interactions with our advertiser clients that may be subject to regulation under current or future laws or regulations. If our privacy or data security measures fail to comply with these current or future laws and regulations in any of the jurisdictions in which we collect information, we may be subject to litigation, regulatory investigations, civil or criminal enforcement, audits or other liabilities in such jurisdictions, or our advertisers may terminate their relationships with us. In addition, foreign court judgments or regulatory actions could impact our ability to transfer, process and/or receive transnational data that is critical to our operations, including data relating to users, clients, or partners outside the United States. Such judgments or actions could affect the manner in which we provide our services or adversely affect our financial results if foreign clients and partners are not able to lawfully transfer data to us.

This area of the law is currently under intense government scrutiny and many governments, including the U.S. government, are considering a variety of proposed regulations that would restrict or impact the conditions under which data obtained from or through the activities of visitors could be collected, processed or stored. In addition, regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission and the California Attorney General are continually proposing new regulations and interpreting and applying existing regulations in new ways. For example, in June 2018, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, which provides new data privacy rights for consumers and new disclosure and operational requirements for companies, effective January 2020. Fines for non-compliance may be up to $7,500 per violation. The burdens imposed by the GDPR and CCPA, and changes to existing laws or new laws regulating the solicitation, collection or processing of personal and consumer information, truth-in-advertising and consumer protection could affect our customers’ utilization of digital advertising and marketing, potentially reducing demand for our subscription services, or impose restrictions that make it more difficult or expensive for us to provide our services.

If legislation dampens the growth in web and mobile usage or access to the Internet, our results of operations could be harmed.

Legislation enacted in the future could dampen the growth in web and mobile usage and decrease its acceptance as a medium of communications and commerce or result in increased adoption of new modes of communication and commerce that may not be serviced by our products. In addition, government agencies or private organizations may begin to impose taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the Internet, which could result in slower growth or a decrease in eCommerce, use of social media and/or use of mobile devices. Any of these outcomes could cause demand for our platform to decrease, our costs to increase, and our results of operations and financial condition to be harmed.

If our customers fail to abide by applicable privacy laws or to provide adequate notice and/or obtain consent from end users, we could be subject to litigation or enforcement action or reduced demand for our services. Industry self-regulatory standards may be implemented in the future that could affect demand for our platform and our ability to access data we use to provide our platform.

Our customers utilize our services to support and measure their direct interactions with visitors, and although we provide notice and choice mechanisms on our websites for our subscription services, we also must rely on our customers to implement and administer notice and choice mechanisms required under applicable laws. If we or our customers fail to abide by these laws, it could result in litigation or regulatory or enforcement action against our customers or against us directly.

In addition, self-regulatory organizations (such as the Digital Advertising Network or Network Advertising Initiative) to which our customers, partners and suppliers may belong, may impose opt-in or opt-out requirements on our customers, which may in the future require our customers to provide various mechanisms for users to opt-in or opt-out of the collection of any data, including anonymous data, with respect to such users’ web or mobile activities. The online and/or mobile industries may adopt technical or industry standards, or federal, state, local or foreign laws may be enacted that allow users to opt-in or opt-out of data that is necessary to our business. In particular, some government regulators and standard-setting organizations have suggested a “Do Not Track” standard that allows users to express a preference, independent of cookie settings in their browser, not to have website browsing recorded. All the major Internet browsers have implemented some version of a “Do Not Track” setting. Furthermore, publishers may implement alternative tracking technologies that make it more difficult to access the data necessary to our business or make it more difficult for us to compete with the publisher’s own advertising management solutions. If any of these events were to occur in the future, it could have a material effect on our ability to provide services and for our customers to collect the data that is necessary to use our services.

Our revenues may be adversely affected if we are required to charge sales taxes in additional jurisdictions or other taxes for our solutions.

We collect or have imposed upon us sales or other taxes related to the solutions we sell in certain states and other jurisdictions. Additional states, countries or other jurisdictions may seek to impose sales or other tax collection obligations on us in the future, or states or jurisdictions in which we already pay tax may increase the amount of taxes we are required to pay. A successful assertion by any state, country or other jurisdiction in which we do business that we should be collecting sales or other taxes on the sale of our products and services could, among other things, create significant administrative burdens for us, result in substantial tax liabilities for past sales, discourage clients from purchasing solutions from us or otherwise substantially harm our business and results of operations.

We may experience quarterly fluctuations in our operating results due to a number of factors which make our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or our guidance.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as indicative of our future performance. If our revenues or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, or below any guidance we may provide to the market, the price of our common stock could decline substantially.

In addition to other risk factors listed in this section, factors that may affect our quarterly operating results include the following:

Based upon all of the factors described above, we have a limited ability to forecast our future revenues, costs and expenses, and as a result, our operating results may from time to time fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors.

Future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships or alliances could be difficult to integrate, divert the attention of key management personnel, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We acquired businesses in the past and may seek to acquire additional businesses, products or technologies in the future. However, we have limited experience in acquiring and integrating businesses, products and technologies. If we identify an appropriate acquisition candidate, we may not be successful in negotiating the terms and/or financing of the acquisition, and our due diligence may fail to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired business, product or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, product quality or architecture, regulatory compliance practices, revenue recognition or other accounting practices or employee or client issues.

Any acquisition or investment may require us to use significant amounts of cash, issue potentially dilutive equity securities or incur debt. In addition, acquisitions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business, including:

If we are unable to successfully integrate any future business, product or technology we acquire, our business and results of operations may suffer.

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. 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. For instance, in connection with our prior acquisitions, we issued shares of our common stock.

We identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in the year ended December 31, 2016 that has since been remediated. If we experience additional material weaknesses or deficiencies in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

Our management determined that there was a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting for the year ended December 31, 2016 because we did not maintain effective controls over the preparation and review of the annual income tax provision. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the registrant’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected in a timely basis. As previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, this material weakness arose during the review of the annual income tax provision in connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016, where an error was identified that related to the accounting for changes in uncertain tax positions at one of our subsidiaries in France. Once this error was identified, an accounting adjustment was recorded to our liability for uncertain tax positions and the provision for income taxes, as well as the related income tax disclosures, on the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016. Although the error was identified prior to the completion of our 2016 consolidated financial statements, management determined that a design deficiency existed in a control intended to properly account for and present the accounting for income taxes in accordance with GAAP.

As further described in Part I, Item 4 “Controls and Procedures,” of our Annual Report on form 10-K, as amended, for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, on March 5, 2018, we developed a detailed plan to address the material weakness, and were successful in remediating it in the year ended December 31, 2017. However, there can be no assurance that we will not identify additional control deficiencies or material weaknesses in the future.

In addition, if we identify new material weaknesses in the future, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, in a timely manner, if we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

We are a smaller reporting company and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

While we have ceased being an emerging growth company as of December 31, 2018, many of the exemptions available for emerging growth companies are also available to smaller reporting companies like us that have less than $250 million of worldwide common equity held by non-affiliates. The disclosures we will be required to provide in our SEC filings will increase, but will still be less than it would be if we were not considered a smaller reporting company. Specifically, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies are able to provide simplified executive compensation disclosures in their filings; are exempt from the provisions of Section 404 requiring that independent registered public accounting firms provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting; and have certain other decreased disclosure obligations in their SEC filings, including, among other things, only being required to provide two years of audited financial statements in annual reports. Decreased disclosures in our SEC filings due to our status as a smaller reporting company may make it harder for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on the exemptions available to smaller reporting companies. 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 may not be able to utilize a significant portion of our net operating loss or research tax credit carryforwards, which could adversely affect our profitability.

As of December 31, 2018, we had federal and state net operating loss carryforwards due to prior period losses, which if not utilized will begin to expire in 2026 and 2022 for federal and state purposes, respectively. We also have federal research tax credit carryforwards, which if not utilized will begin to expire in 2026. These net operating loss and research tax credit carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our profitability.

In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, our ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes, such as research tax credits, in any taxable year may be limited if we experience an “ownership change.” A Section 382 “ownership change” generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of our stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws.

Future issuances of our stock could cause an “ownership change.” It is possible that any future ownership change could have a material effect on the use of our net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes, which could adversely affect our profitability.

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 are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, 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.

We may be required to record a significant charge to earnings if our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets become further impaired.

We are required under GAAP to review our amortizable intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. Conditions that would necessitate an impairment assessment include a significant decline in the observable market value of an asset, a significant change in the extent or manner in which an asset is used, or any other significant adverse change that would indicate that the carrying amount of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable. The events and circumstances we consider include the business climate, legal factors, operating performance indicators and competition. In the future we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings in our consolidated financial statements for the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or amortizable intangible assets is determined. This could adversely impact our results of operations and harm our business.

During the year ended December 31, 2018, the market capitalization of our publicly traded common stock sustained a decline to the extent that it fell below the book value of our net assets, triggering the need to perform a goodwill impairment test. As a result of this test, we identified and recorded goodwill impairment expense of $14.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. Refer to Note 2 and Note 6 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further information on this goodwill impairment expense. As additional facts, circumstances or assumptions change in the future, we may be required to record additional impairment charges to reduce the carrying value of our goodwill, intangible assets and other long-term assets.

Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Common Stock

If we cannot meet the continued listing requirements of The Nasdaq Global Market, The Nasdaq Global Market may de-list our common stock, which would have an adverse effect on the trading volume, liquidity and market price of our common stock.

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq. Although we currently meet Nasdaq’s listing standards, which generally require that we meet certain requirements relating to stockholders’ equity, market capitalization, stock price, the aggregate market value of publicly held shares, and distribution requirements, we cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to meet Nasdaq’s listing requirements. If we fail to satisfy Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, Nasdaq may take steps to de-list our common stock. If Nasdaq delists our securities for trading on the Nasdaq, we could face significant adverse consequences, including:

Such a de-listing would likely have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. In the event of a de-listing, we may take actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity or trading volume of our common stock, prevent our common capitalization and stockholder’s equity from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum requirements, or prevent other future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements.

The trading prices of the securities of technology companies have been highly volatile. Accordingly, the market price of our common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, subject to wide fluctuations and could subject us to litigation.

Since our initial public offering, the closing sales price of our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (from March 22, 2013 through June 19, 2018) and The Nasdaq Global Market (from June 20, 2018 to December 31, 2018) has been volatile. Factors affecting the market price of our common stock include:

In addition, the stock market in general has experienced substantial price and volume volatility that is often seemingly unrelated to the operating results of any particular companies. Moreover, if the market for technology stocks, especially software and cloud computing-related stocks, or the stock market in general experiences uneven investor confidence, the market price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. The market price for our stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies within, or outside, our industry, even if these events do not directly affect us. Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their stock have been subject of securities litigation. If we are the subject of such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources.

From January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2018, the closing sales price of our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (from January 1, 2016 through June 19, 2018), and The Nasdaq Global Market (from June 20, 2018 to December 31, 2018) ranged from $2.20 to $25.27 per share (retroactively adjusting for the one-for-seven reverse stock split, which became effective on October 5, 2017). Because our stock price has been volatile, investing in our common stock is risky.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared nor paid cash dividends on our capital stock. 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, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.

If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur could depress the market price of our common stock and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock. Any sales of securities by existing stockholders could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

Delaware law and provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our common stock.

Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our Company more difficult, including the following:

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our common stock price 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.

None.

Our corporate headquarters are located in San Francisco, California, where we occupy facilities totaling approximately 43,000 square feet under a lease which expires in July 2022. We use these facilities for administration, sales and marketing, research and development, engineering, customer support and professional services. We sublease approximately 28,600 square feet of this property to two unrelated third parties through separate agreements. One of these sublease agreements expires in July 2022, while the other expires in May 2020, but has a subtenant option to extend the agreement through July 2022.

We lease office space in Austin, Chicago, New York and Portland in the United States, and China, England, France, Ireland, and Japan, which we use principally for sales and marketing, research and development, administration, customer support and to deliver professional services locally. We operate a data center at a third-party facility located in the United States. During 2018, we exited office space in Australia and Germany as part of the organizational restructuring described in Note 4 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

We believe our facilities are in good condition and adequate for our current needs and for the foreseeable future. See Note 15 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Contractual Obligations and Commitments” for information regarding our lease obligations.

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. We are not presently a party to any legal proceedings that, if determined adversely to us, would individually or taken together have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition or cash flows.

Not applicable.

PART II

Market Price of Our Common Stock

Our common stock trades on The Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol MRIN.

Holders of our Common Stock

As of March 9, 2019, there were 54 stockholders of record. The actual number of stockholders is greater than the number of record holders, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. The number of holders of record also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings and do not expect to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will be dependent on a number of factors, including our earnings, capital requirements and overall financial conditions.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

We made no sales of unregistered securities during the quarter ended December 31, 2018.

Use of Proceeds from Public Offering of Common Stock

There have been no material changes in our use of the proceeds from our initial public offering in March 2013.

Recent Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

We made no purchases of equity securities during the quarter ended December 31, 2018.

Stock Performance Graph

The following shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, or incorporated by reference into any of our other filings under the Exchange Act or the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.

The following graph shows a comparison from December 31, 2013 through December 31, 2018, of the cumulative total return for our common stock, the NYSE Composite Index, and the S&P 1500 Data Processing & Outsourced Services Index (retroactively adjusting for the one-for-seven reverse stock split, which became effective on October 5, 2017). The graph assumes an investment of $100 on December 31, 2013 and reinvestment of any dividends. The comparisons in the graph below are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common shares.

The following tables present selected historical financial data for our business. You should read this information together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements, related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We derived the consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report. We derived the consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 from our audited financial statements not included in this report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future. The selected consolidated financial data includes the impact of our acquisitions.

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those forward-looking statements below. Factors that could cause or contribute to those differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and those discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. These statements are often identified by the use of words such as “believe,” “may,” “potentially,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “predict,” “expect,” “seek” and similar expressions or variations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified herein, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors”, set forth in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements. References to “2018,” “2017” and “2016” refer to the year ended December 31, 2018, the year ended December 31, 2017 and the year ended December 31, 2016, respectively.

Overview

We are a leading provider or cross-channel, cross-device, enterprise marketing software platform for search, social, eCommerce and display advertising channels, offered as a software-as-a-service, or SaaS, solution for advertisers and agencies. Our platform is an analytics, workflow and optimization solution for marketing professionals, allowing them to effectively manage their digital advertising spend. We market and sell our solutions to advertisers directly and through leading advertising agencies, and our customers collectively manage billions of dollars in advertising spend on our platform globally across a wide range of industries. Our solution is designed to help our customers:

Our subscription contracts provide advertisers with access to our search, social, eCommerce and display advertising management platform, either directly or through the advertiser’s relationship with an agency with whom we have a contract. Under our subscription contracts with most of our direct advertisers and some of our independent agency customers, customers are contractually committed to a minimum or fixed monthly platform fee, which is payable on a monthly basis over the duration of the contract and is generally greater than one-half of our estimated monthly revenues from these customers, at the time the contract is signed. However, most of our subscription contracts with our network advertising agency customers do not include a committed minimum monthly platform fee. In general, if our contractual arrangement is with an advertising agency, the advertiser is not a party to the terms of the contract. Accordingly, most advertisers through our agency customers do not have a commitment to use our services and the advertisers may be added or removed from our platform at the discretion of the respective agency. Historically, our revenues earned from advertising agency customers have ranged between approximately one-third and one-half of our overall revenues. In accordance with the terms of our subscription contracts, we generally begin invoicing our customers the first day of the month following the execution of the contract at an amount equal to the greater of the minimum monthly platform fee or the percentage of advertising spend on our platform. The implementation process for new advertisers is typically four to six weeks, and we have not historically charged a separate implementation fee under our standard subscription contracts. Our search subscription contracts are generally one year in length, while social and display contracts may vary in duration.

Our implementation and customer support personnel, as well as costs associated with our operating infrastructure, are included in our cost of revenues. We are leveraging our headcount and operating expenses to bring them in line with our revenues, while continuing to invest in our data center capacity and new platform features.

To grow subscription revenues, we need to invest in (1) research and development to improve and further expand our platform and support for additional publishers and (2) sales activities by adding sales representatives globally to target new advertisers and agencies. These activities will require us to make investments, particularly in research and development and sales and marketing, and if these investments do not generate additional customers or additional advertising spend managed by our platform, our future operating results could be harmed.

We have also entered into long-term strategic agreements with certain leading search publishers. Under these strategic agreements, we receive consideration based on a percentage of the search advertising spend that our customers manager on our platform. In December 2018, we entered into such an agreement with Google, under which we receive revenue share payments based on our customers' search advertising spend on Google and certain other eligible search engines. In exchange, we will reinvest a percentage of these revenue share payments to drive our technology platform innovation. This agreement and the related revenue recognition considerations are described more fully in Note 3 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements. 

The majority of our revenues are derived from advertisers based in the United States. Advertisers from outside of the United States represented 30%, 34% and 31% of total revenues for 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

We were incorporated in 2006 and initially focused on building the core elements of our cloud-based platform, which we currently use to service our customers. In September 2007, we launched Marin Search, which targets large advertisers and agencies. In June 2018, we launched MarinOne, the next generation of our cross-channel advertising platform. We have an iterative development process and we typically release new features every month.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenues, Net

We generate revenues principally from subscription contracts under which we provide advertisers with access to our search, social, eCommerce and display advertising management platform, either directly or through the advertiser’s relationship with an agency with whom we have a contract. Our search subscription contracts are generally one year or less in length, while social and display contracts may vary in duration. Under subscription contracts with most of our direct advertisers and some independent agencies, we charge fees generally based on the amount of advertising spend that these customers manage through our platform or a contractual minimum monthly platform fee, whichever is greater. Certain of these customers are charged only a fixed monthly platform fee. Most of our subscription contracts with our network agency customers do not include a committed minimum monthly platform fee, and we charge fees based upon the amount of advertising spend that these customers manage through our platform. Due to the nature of the platform and the services performed under the subscription agreements, revenues are typically recognized in the amount billable to the advertiser.

Our long-term strategic agreements have historically included multiple-year terms, and are invoiced quarterly. In the case of our largest agreement with Google, it includes both a fixed baseline amount, as well as a variable portion based on a percentage of relevant advertising search spend above the baseline threshold that runs through our technology platform. We recognize the entire contract price under this agreement ratably over the initial minimum two-year term. Our other long-term strategic agreements are generally variable in nature, based on a percentage of relevant search advertising spend that runs through our technology platform. Consideration received under these agreements is allocated to the period in which we have the contractual right to bill. We expect that in the future, revenues from these strategic agreements will continue to grow as a percentage of our total revenues, net.

Refer to Note 3 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further discussion of our revenue recognition considerations.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues primarily includes personnel costs, consisting of salaries, benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation expense for employees associated with our cloud infrastructure and global services for implementation and ongoing customer service. Other costs of revenues include fees paid to contractors who supplement our support and data center personnel, expenses related to third-party data centers, depreciation of data center equipment, amortization of internally developed software, amortization of intangible assets and allocated overhead.

We expect that, in the future, cost of revenues will decrease year-over-year in absolute dollars as we seek to realign our cost structure with our future revenues.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, including salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation expense and bonuses, as well as sales commissions and other costs including travel and entertainment, marketing and promotional events, lead generation activities, public relations, marketing activities, professional fees, amortization of intangible assets and allocated overhead. All of these costs are expensed as incurred, except sales commissions and the related payroll taxes, which are capitalized and amortized over a three year expected period of benefit in accordance with the relevant authoritative accounting guidance (refer to Note 3 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements). Our commission plans provide that commission payments to our sales representatives are paid based on the key components of the applicable customer contract, including the minimum or fixed monthly platform fee during the initial contract term.

We expect that, in the future, sales and marketing expenses will decrease year-over-year in absolute dollars as we seek to realign our cost structure with our future revenues.

Research and Development

Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our product development and engineering employees and executives, including salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation expense and bonuses. Also included are non-personnel costs such as professional fees payable to third-party development resources, amortization of intangible assets and allocated overhead.

Our research and development efforts are focused on enhancing our software architecture, adding new features and functionality to our platform and improving the efficiency with which we deliver these services to our customers, including the development of MarinOne. We expect that research and development expenses may decrease year-over-year in absolute dollars as we seek to realign our cost structure with our future revenues.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, including salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation expense and bonuses for our administrative, legal, human resources, finance and accounting employees and executives. Also included are non-personnel costs, such as audit fees, tax services and legal fees, as well as professional fees, insurance and other corporate expenses, including allocated overhead.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to decrease year-over-year in absolute dollars as we seek to align our cost structure with our future revenues.

Other Income (Expenses), Net

Other income (expenses), net, primarily consists of sublease income and foreign currency transaction gains and losses, as well as interest income earned on our cash equivalents offset by the interest expense related to our capital lease obligations.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes consists of federal, state and foreign income taxes. Due to recent losses, we maintain a valuation allowance against our United States deferred tax assets as of December 31, 2018. We consider all available evidence, both positive and negative, in assessing the extent to which a valuation allowance should be applied against our deferred tax assets.

Results of Operations

The following table is a summary of our consolidated statements of operations for the specified periods and results of operations as a percentage of revenues for those periods. The period-to-period comparisons of results are not necessarily indicative of results for future periods. Percentage of revenues figures are rounded and therefore may not subtotal exactly.

The following table sets forth our consolidated revenues by geographic area, as well as the related percentages of total revenues, for the specified periods.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net loss, adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, depreciation, the amortization of internally developed software, intangible assets and deferred costs to obtain and fulfill contracts, the capitalization of internally developed software costs, the deferral of costs to obtain and fulfill contracts, the impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets, the benefit from or provision for income taxes, other income or expenses, net and the non-recurring costs associated with acquisitions and restructurings. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net loss, operating loss or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. We prepare Adjusted EBITDA to eliminate the impact of items that we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance. Investors are encouraged to evaluate these adjustments and the reasons we consider them appropriate.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors in evaluating our operating performance for the following reasons:

We understand that, although Adjusted EBITDA is frequently used by investors and securities analysts in their evaluations of companies, it has limitations as an analytical tool, and investors should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results of operations as reported under GAAP. These limitations include:

The following table presents a reconciliation of net loss, the most comparable GAAP measure, to Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated:

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2017

Revenues, Net

Revenues, net in 2018 decreased by $16.4 million, or 22%, as compared to 2017. During 2018, we experienced ongoing customer turnover, which was not fully offset by new customer bookings. Revenues, net in 2018 are inclusive of $2.9 million from the revenue share agreement with Google that became effective in the fourth quarter of 2018, as described in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements.

Revenues in 2018 and 2017 from our customers located in the United States represented 70% and 66%, respectively, of total revenues, net. There were no customers that accounted for greater than 10% of our revenues in either 2018 or 2017.

Cost of Revenues and Gross Margin

Cost of revenues in 2018 decreased by $5.4 million, or 17%, as compared to 2017. This was primarily driven by a reduction in the number of global services and cloud infrastructure personnel, which led to decreases of $2.8 million in compensation and benefits expense and $0.3 million in allocated facilities and information technology costs as compared to 2017. We also experienced decreases of $0.6 million in hosting costs, due to a decline in the usage of our hosted platform, and $1.6 million in depreciation and amortization of internally developed software, due primarily to the nature and timing of capital expenditures and internal projects as compared to 2017.

Our gross margin decreased to 54% during 2018, as compared to 57% during 2017. This was primarily due to our revenues declining during the year at a faster rate than the corresponding decrease in costs. Specifically, expenses for compensation and benefits, hosting and facilities and information technology all declined in absolute dollars, but increased as a percentage of revenues in 2018, as compared to 2017.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses in 2018 decreased by $3.5 million, or 13%, as compared to 2017. This decrease was primarily due to a reduction in the global sales support and marketing headcount, including reductions that were part of our restructuring activities during 2018 (refer to Note 4 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements), contributing to net decreases of $3.3 million in personnel-related costs, and $0.6 million in allocated facilities and information technology costs as compared to 2017. Due in part to this headcount reduction, we incurred restructuring costs of $0.8 million in 2018, as compared to 2017 when no restructuring costs were incurred. The remaining decrease during 2018 was primarily the result of lower marketing costs of $0.6 million, as we eliminated or shifted the timing of certain of our marketing activities.

Research and Development

Research and development expenses in 2018 decreased by $4.1 million, or 15%, as compared to 2017. This was primarily due to a reduction in the number of full-time research and development personnel, resulting in a decrease of $3.6 million in compensation and benefits expense as compared to 2017. This included a decrease in stock-based compensation expense of $0.6 million, driven by employee turnover and the decline in our stock price. These decreases were further driven by lower professional fees of $0.2 million in 2018, as we reduced the number of research and development contractors as compared to 2017, and $0.2 million in depreciation expense, as we have reduced capital expenditures in recent years.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses in 2018 decreased by $3.3 million, or 20%, as compared to 2017. Compensation and benefits expenses decreased by $0.8 million during 2018, primarily due to reductions in headcount and a decrease in stock-based compensation expense, driven by employee turnover and the decline in our stock price. These decreases were further driven by the reduction in our provision for bad debts of $1.5 million in 2018. We reduced our allowance for doubtful accounts by $1.4 million during this period, primarily due to improved efforts to collect on long outstanding and reserved receivables. Additionally, professional fees declined $1.3 million in 2018, due largely to reductions in accounting and legal costs. We reduced these costs through a combination of changing service providers, eliminating certain services and shifting the timing of projects.

Impairment of Goodwill

We recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $14.7 million in the third quarter of 2018, and a goodwill impairment charge of $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2017. Refer to Note 2 and Note 6 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for additional information on these goodwill impairment charges.

Other Income (Expenses), Net

n/m: not meaningful

Other income or expenses, net, primarily consists of sublease income recorded under agreements for portions of our San Francisco and Portland office spaces, with terms through July 2022 and May 2020, respectively, as well as foreign currency transaction gains and losses and interest income and expense. In 2018, we generated sublease income of $1.5 million, as compared to $1.1 million in 2017. Foreign currency transaction gains were $0.2 million in 2018, partially offset by interest expense of $0.1 million. This compared to foreign currency transaction losses of $1.0 million and interest expense of $0.2 million in 2017.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes in 2018 totaled $0.6 million, primarily due to profits earned by our wholly owned foreign subsidiaries.

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2017 and 2016

Revenues, Net

Revenues in 2017 decreased by $24.9 million, or 25%, as compared to 2016. During 2017, we experienced an increase in customer turnover, combined with a decrease in new customer bookings. In addition, we continued to encounter significant competition and related price pressure within our marketplace, further driving down our revenues, net. Revenues, net in 2017 are also inclusive of the out-of-period adjustment described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, which resulted in a decrease in revenues, net, of $0.4 million due to corrections from prior periods.

Revenues in 2017 and 2016 from our customers located in the United States represented 66% and 69%, respectively, of total revenues, net. There were no customers that accounted for greater than 10% of our revenues in either 2017 or 2016.

Cost of Revenues and Gross Margin

Cost of revenues in 2017 decreased by $2.7 million, or 8%, as compared to 2016. This was primarily driven by a reduction in the number of global services and cloud infrastructure personnel, which led to decreases of $1.5 million in compensation and benefits expense, including stock-based compensation expense, and $0.3 million in allocated facilities and information technology costs as compared to 2016. We also experienced decreases of $0.4 million in both hosting costs, due to a decline in usage of our hosted platform, and in depreciation and amortization of internally developed software, due primarily to the nature and timing of internal projects as compared to 2016.

Our gross margin decreased to 57% during 2017, as compared to 65% during 2016. This was primarily due to our revenue declining during the year at a faster rate than the corresponding decrease in costs. Specifically, expenses for compensation and benefits, hosting, facilities and information technology and depreciation and amortization of internally developed software all declined in absolute dollars, but increased as a percentage of revenues in 2017, as compared to 2016.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses in 2017 decreased by $6.0 million, or 18%, as compared to 2016. This decrease was primarily due to a reduction in the global sales support and marketing headcount, contributing to net decreases of $5.9 million in personnel-related costs, and $0.7 million in allocated facilities and information technology costs as compared to 2016. Additionally, sales and marketing expenses in 2016 are inclusive of $0.4 million in costs associated with the 2016 Restructuring Plan, as described in Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements. These decreases were partially offset by increases of $0.4 million in marketing costs, due primarily to increased events and trade shows, and $0.5 million in professional fees, due largely to increased usage of consultants and contractors, as compared to 2016.

Research and Development

Research and development expenses in 2017 decreased by $1.3 million, or 5%, as compared to 2016. This primarily reflects a $3.0 million decrease in stock-based compensation expense driven by employee turnover and the decline in our stock price, partially offset by a $2.0 million increase in compensation and benefits expense, excluding stock-based compensation expense, due to an overall increase in the number of full-time research and development personnel. There was also a corresponding reduction in the number of contractors and consultants utilized during 2017, resulting in a $0.2 million decrease in professional fees.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses in 2017 decreased by $3.4 million, or 17%, as compared to 2016. Compensation, benefits and other employee-related expenses decreased by $2.6 million during 2017, primarily due to reductions in headcount and stock-based compensation expense, driven by employee turnover and the decline in our stock price. Additionally, bad debt expense decreased $0.8 million as we improved efforts to collect on long outstanding balances, and facilities expense decreased $0.7 million as we consolidated office space in certain locations in the prior year, including New York. These decreases were partially offset by a $0.8 million increase in professional fees, largely driven by the retention of outside firms and consultants to assist with ongoing accounting matters, including the implementation of revenue recognition guidance, as described in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, and the remediation of a material weakness over internal control identified in 2016.

Impairment of Goodwill

We recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $2.8 million in 2017. No goodwill impairment triggering events were identified in 2016. Refer to Note 2 and Note 6 of the accompanying consolidated financial statements for additional information on this goodwill impairment.

Other (Expenses) Income, Net

Other expenses or income, net, primarily consists of sublease income recorded under agreements for portions of our San Francisco and Portland office spaces, as well as foreign currency transaction gains and losses. During 2017, we earned sublease income of $1.1 million, which was offset by foreign currency transaction losses of $1.0 million, interest expense of $0.1 million and miscellaneous expenses of $0.1 million. This compared to 2016, when we earned sublease income of $0.8 million, with foreign currency transaction losses of less than $0.1 million.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes for 2017 totaled $1.0 million, primarily due to profits earned by our wholly owned foreign subsidiaries.

Quarterly Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our unaudited quarterly consolidated statements of operations data for each of the eight quarters in the period ended December 31, 2018. We have prepared the quarterly data on a basis consistent with our audited annual financial statements, including, in the opinion of management, all normal recurring adjustments necessary for the fair statement of the financial information contained in these statements. The historical results are not necessarily indicative of future results and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.