Quotient Technology Inc. - Annual Report: 2019 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019

OR

For the transition period from              to             

Commission File Number 001-36331

Quotient Technology Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (650) 605-4600

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definition of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.:

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, as of June 30, 2019, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, based on the closing price of $10.74 per share of the Registrant’s common stock as reported by the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2019, was $906.4 million. The calculation of the aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity excludes 5.4 million shares of the registrant held by executive officers, directors and stockholders that the registrant concluded were affiliates of the registrant on that date.  Exclusion of such shares should not be construed to indicate that any such person possesses the power, direct or indirect, to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of the registrant or that such person is controlled by or under common control with the registrant.

The number of shares of registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of February 18, 2020 was 89,652,547.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement relating to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated.  Such definitive Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

Table of Contents

Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “Quotient,” “Coupons,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K refer to Quotient Technology Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

Quotient, Quotient Retailer iQ, Retail Performance Media, Ubimo, Ahalogy, Elevaate, SavingStar, Shopmium and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks or trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of Quotient and its subsidiaries. Other trademarks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD‑LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “seek,” “might,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “approximately,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions, as they relate to our company, business and management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include, but are not limited to, statements about:

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We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting our business. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available to our management at the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our management’s good faith belief as of such date with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We discuss these risks in greater detail in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.  Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions based on new information, future events or otherwise. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

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PART I

Overview

Quotient Technology Inc. is an industry leading digital marketing company, providing technology and services that power integrated digital promotions and media programs for consumer packaged goods (“CPG”s) brands and retailers. These programs are delivered across our network, including our flagship consumer brand Coupons.com and our retail partners’ properties. This network provides Quotient with proprietary and licensed data, including online behavior, purchase intent, and retailers’ in-store point-of-sale (“POS”) shopper data, to target shoppers with the most relevant digital promotions and ads. We also deliver digital promotions and media programs to third party publishing properties outside of our network. Customers and partners use Quotient to influence shoppers via digital channels, integrate marketing and merchandising programs, and leverage shopper data and insights to drive measurable sales results.

For our retail partners, we provide a digital platform, Quotient Retailer iQ (“Retailer iQ”), to directly engage with shoppers across their websites, mobile, ecommerce, and social channels. This platform is generally co-branded or white-labeled through retailers’ savings or loyalty programs and uses shopper data to deliver relevant digital promotions from brand marketers and retailers to shoppers.

Our network is made up of three constituencies:

Through these three groups, we have created a network effect, which we believe gives us a competitive advantage over both offline and online competitors. As our shopper audience increases, our platform becomes more valuable to CPGs and retailers, which, in turn, rely more heavily on our platform for their digital promotions and media. In addition, the breadth of coupon and advertising content offered from leading brands enables us to attract and retain more retailers and shoppers. As our network expands, we generate more shopper data and insights, which improve our ability to deliver more relevant and personalized promotions and media, and strengthens our measurement and data insights solutions.

We primarily generate revenue by providing digital promotions and media programs to our customers and partners.

We generate revenue from promotion campaigns, in which CPGs pay us to deliver promotions to consumers through our network of publishers and retail partners. Using shopper data from our retail partners and our proprietary data and audience segments, we deliver targeted and/or personalized digital promotions to shoppers through our network, including our websites and mobile apps, as well as those of our publishers, retailers and other third-party properties. Each time a promotion is activated through our platform or, in some cases, redeemed, we are generally paid a fee. Activation of a digital promotion can include: saving it to a retailer loyalty account or printing it for physical redemption at a retailer. Campaigns are targeted to shoppers, and measured based on performance attributable to retail purchases in near real time.

Promotion revenues also include our Specialty Retail business, in which specialty stores including clothing, electronics, home improvement and many others offer coupon codes that we distribute. Each time a consumer makes a purchase using a coupon code, a transaction occurs and a distribution fee is generally paid.

We also generate revenues from digital media, in which CPGs, retailers, and advertising agencies use our platform to deliver digital advertising. Using shopper data from our retail partners and our proprietary data and audience segments, we target audiences with digital ad campaigns. These ads are delivered to shoppers through our network, including our websites and mobile apps, as well as those of our publishers, retailers and other third-party properties. Campaigns are measured based on optimization and performance, attributing digital ad campaigns to retail purchases in near real time. Media solutions we offer include display, targeted media, social influencer, sponsored product search, and audiences. A growing portion of our media campaigns are purchased as an integrated campaign which combines media advertising and promotions in a single campaign. Our media solutions help serve our customers and partners’ needs as they shift more of their marketing dollars to digital channels that can be measured based on campaign performance and attributable sales. In the fourth quarter of 2019 we purchased Ubimo, a data and media activation platform to strengthen our media solution and accelerate the development of a self-service media platform. Through Ubimo, we also offer digital out of home media solutions.

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We generally pay a distribution fee to retailers and publishers for activation or redemption of a digital promotion, for media campaigns, and for use of data for targeting or measurement. We also pay a fee to third-party publishers for traffic acquisition, which consists of delivering campaigns on certain networks or properties. These distribution and third-party service fees are included in our cost of revenues. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – “Non-GAAP Financial Measure and Key Operating Metrics” for more information.

During 2019, we generated revenues of $436.2 million, representing 13% growth over 2018, and a net loss of $37.1 million as compared to $28.3 million in 2018. See our Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes for more information. For the year ended December 31, 2019, there was one customer that accounted for greater than 10% of our total revenues. For the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, there were no customers that accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues.

Our Industry

Retailers and CPGs are turning to data-driven digital marketing strategies to engage and influence shoppers to compete more effectively in today’s retail environment and drive sales. By shifting dollars from traditional offline channels to digital, brands and retailers can use shopper data and behaviors to target and deliver digital promotions and advertising with greater efficiency and return on investment.

For decades, retailers and CPGs have worked together to drive sales, which in turn benefits both parties. CPGs sell their products to retailers, and retailers are responsible for selling those products directly to shoppers. To help retailers attract shoppers and ensure sales, CPGs spend over $225 billion annually in promotions, media, shopper marketing, trade and other in-store advertising. Historically, the vast majority of these dollars have been spent in offline channels such as free-standing inserts found in Sunday newspapers, direct mail, printed circulars, in-store aisle tags, end caps and TV. These traditional offline channels are becoming less effective as consumers spend more time online, particularly on mobile, giving way to the rising importance of using data to drive personalized and targeted, content to shoppers. To reach shoppers at the right time and place, CPGs are shifting dollars historically spent in offline channels to digital.

At the same time, traditional retailers are paving the path for this digital shift by investing in technology and creating digital strategies to better compete and drive sales.  This includes investment around loyalty strategies, ecommerce experiences, and data-driven advertising platforms. As retailers expand their digital capabilities, it creates greater opportunities for CPGs to shift marketing dollars from offline to digital.

Digital promotions, primarily funded by CPGs, have been found to be more effective and are redeemed at higher rates compared to traditional offline promotions. According to a 2018 mid-year industry report by NCH Marketing Services, Inc., digital coupons (including digital print and digital paperless coupons) represented approximately 1.7% of total U.S. CPG coupon distribution volume, but accounted for just over 20% of total U.S. CPG coupon redemptions. We believe that the ease of digital promotions, coupled with greater awareness of digital savings programs, is broadening the demographic reach and driving demand for digital promotions.

Trade promotions, defined as promotions offered to drive additional sales directly from a particular retailer, are also funded by CPGs. Historically, trade promotions have been mass marketed through retailers in offline vehicles such as aisle tags and printed circulars. We believe CPGs will shift offline trade promotions to digital as retailers continue to increase their digital marketing activities and better use their shopper data.

Advertising from shopper marketing, defined as advertising funded by the CPG to gain shopper awareness and drive sales within a specific retailer, is also shifting from traditional in-store and print advertising to digital, particularly to mobile. Shopper marketers are looking to reach shoppers across the right touchpoints at the right time. Additionally, portions of CPG brand advertising, which have historically been spent in traditional offline channels such as print and TV, are also expected to shift to digital channels.

As the shift to digital coupon and digital advertising continues to grow, so does the importance placed on data to target audiences and measure campaign performance. Today, over 90% of grocery sales still occur in-store with shopper data residing offline, creating a particular need to attribute dollars spent in digital promotions and advertising directly to in-store sales. As a greater portion of grocery sales shift to online, retailers are investing in omni-channel strategies, technology, and solutions to meet shopper demands, compete effectively and drive sales. These investments are creating an increased number of digital touchpoints, using combined data from offline and online sales, for retailers and their CPGs to target shoppers with relevant promotions and digital marketing. As retailers add more omni-channel capabilities, it enables CPGs to shift more marketing dollars to digital. 

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Our Platforms and Solutions

We offer an industry leading digital platform providing technology and services that power integrated digital promotions and media programs for CPG brands and retailers. We do this through personalized and targeted promotions and media for the purpose of driving profitable sales and building shopper loyalty. Approximately 700 CPGs, representing approximately 2,000 brands, use our platform to manage and distribute digital promotions and advertising, target shopper audiences, and measure campaign performance and sales results.  

Through Quotient’s solutions, brands and retailers can integrate their marketing campaigns using national brand promotions, trade and loyalty rewards promotions, shopper marketing, brand media advertising, social and influencer marketing, and sponsored search. We also offer Quotient Audiences, which includes syndicated and custom audience segments, to be used for targeting and delivery of campaigns. Our solutions combine shopper insights, purchase data, and audience segments with broad distribution capabilities across mobile, web, social and ecommerce channels. Brands and retailers can develop and execute targeted marketing and promotional programs within days, while using campaign performance metrics to adjust programs in near real time. This differs from the long lead times typically required in traditional offline marketing and measurement vehicles.

We have a broad distribution network that includes our owned and operated web and mobile properties, such as Coupons.com, and thousands of publishing and retail partner properties. Through this network, we distribute relevant and targeted promotions and media.

We power Retailer iQ, our proprietary and core platform, used at top retailers in the grocery, drug, dollar, club and mass merchandise channels. Retailers integrate Retailer iQ into their points-of-sale (POS), or loyalty program, which serves as their digital marketing platform, creating a direct, digital relationship with millions of their shoppers. Through Retailer iQ, we use shopper data and insights to distribute personalized and targeted promotions and media, primarily funded by our CPG customers or retail partners, to help drive shopper loyalty and increase sales. Additional Retailer iQ solutions include personalized e-mails, targeted in-lane promotions at checkout, loyalty rewards, rebate offers, Retail Performance Media, digital grocery list, digital receipts, branding landing pages, and digital circular.

With the foundation of Retailer iQ integrated into retailers’ point of sale or loyalty programs, we’ve developed four proprietary platforms in which our go-to-market solutions fall under: Quotient Promotions Cloud, Quotient Media Cloud, Quotient Analytics Cloud and Quotient Audience Cloud.

Quotient Promotions Cloud

Quotient Promotions Cloud platform offers digital paperless and digital print promotions across our distribution network. With digital paperless, shoppers add promotions directly to retailer loyalty accounts for automatic digital redemption or use a mobile device to take a picture of a retailer receipt with the appropriate purchase for cash back redemption. With digital print, shoppers select promotions and print them from their desktop or mobile device to redeem in store.

Through our platform, CPGs and retailers can reach shoppers on the web and on mobile devices by offering digital promotions through our extensive network which includes:

Quotient Promotions Cloud offers national digital promotions from CPG brands, and retail-specific promotions sourced from shopper marketers and retailers. Other products included in Quotient Promotions Cloud are in-lane targeted promotions at checkout, loyalty rewards promotions, and rebates. Promotions can be personalized and/or targeted to shoppers through a combination of data points, including shopper purchase and intent data, historical purchase transactions, promotion activations and redemptions, interests, online clicks and search behavior, demographics, and location data. These techniques enable us to optimize the delivery of promotions across the network and drive campaign performance.

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Quotient Media Cloud

Quotient Media Cloud platform offers targeted advertising solutions, enabling brands and retailers to reach shoppers before, during and after their shopping cycles with digital media campaigns. Brands and advertisers can leverage our proprietary shopper data and audience segments to deliver targeted media ads across our network, including retail partners and Coupons.com, and across third-party publishers’ web, mobile and social channels outside our network. For example, we can target consumers on Facebook who have redeemed a promotion or purchased a product in a particular product category with advertising within that product category.

Our media solutions include execution and delivery of targeted media, creative services and audience segments through Quotient Audiences.

In 2018, we added influencer marketing and sponsored search through the acquisitions of Ahalogy and Elevaate, respectively. Ahalogy brings social expertise and an extensive influencer network to our customers and partners. Their proprietary data and category trends help develop and create compelling influencer marketing campaigns, including new recipe ideas, creative new product uses and brand awareness to shoppers across paid social channels. With the acquisition of Elevaate, we expanded available media units within a retailer’s ecommerce experience with sponsored search solutions. With this additional technology, retailers can enhance their ecommerce experience while making it easy for shoppers to find the products they need and want. These added solutions also give brands and advertisers the ability to manage their digital budgets through a single strategic partner, reaching shoppers through paid search media and sponsored search directly on the retailers’ properties.  

For retailers, we power the Quotient Retail Performance Media (RPM) platform, giving retailers the technology to expand their digital media strategies and leverage their shopper data to drive sales. Through RPM, brand marketers can use specific retail data to target and deliver media directly to shoppers and measure direct sales results. Additionally, retailers deliver digital media campaigns through RPM. We distribute these targeted ads via retailer digital properties, our expansive network including Coupons.com properties, and other third-party publishing sites.   We also power Quotient Digital Circular, a personalized retail circular experience for shoppers, with targeted media units for brands to advertise their products and drive sales.

We also provide CPGs, retailers and other advertisers access to our Coupons.com audience, including our website and mobile properties, to market their brands, including premium media and advertising placements on our site, promoted positions within our coupon galleries and premium placement in our marketing efforts.

Quotient Analytics Cloud  

Quotient Analytics Cloud provides campaign analytics and measured sales results to CPGs and retailers, attributing digital promotions and/or media campaigns to in-store and online purchases. Through Quotient Analytics, we combine purchase data from select retailers across the Quotient Retailer iQ network with online engagement and purchase-intent data from Quotient’s flagship brand, Coupons.com, and the Company’s thousands of publishing partners. Our campaign measurement tools also provide brands and retailers with flexibility to adjust their campaigns in mid-flight to drive greater efficiency with marketing dollars. As our platform, network and audience expands, the value of our data and analytics increases. We provide analytics and insights through Quotient Promo iQ and Quotient Media iQ.

Quotient Audience Cloud

In the beginning of January 2019, we introduced Quotient Audience Cloud whereby brand marketers can activate shopper audience segments to be used to deliver targeted media and measurement. The audience segments are derived from first party data and insights from Coupons.com properties, and shopper data from select Retailer iQ partners. The Audience Cloud platform offers syndicated shopper audiences, or custom audience segments, and may be used in conjunction with our Quotient Media Cloud advertising services or purchased separately either through us, or a licensed partner.

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Growth Strategy

We intend to grow our platform and our business through the following key strategies:

Increase revenues from CPGs already on our platform.    Based on our experience to date, we believe we have opportunities to continue increasing revenues from our existing CPG customer base through:

Grow our promotions business.      We plan to grow Quotient Promotions Cloud through increased consumer demand of promotions, and by increasing the number of promotions CPG brands offer on the platform. By bringing retailers and shoppers into our network, our ability to expand our targeted promotions and expand our audience reach grows, increasing our ability to more effectively engage consumers and drive sales. We plan to invest in Quotient Promotions Cloud, by expanding shopper adoption on Retailer iQ, and growing our solutions through national promotions, targeted digital paperless promotions, targeted in-lane promotions at checkout, and brand loyalty promotions.  We intend to continue to invest in technologies and product offerings that further integrate digital promotions and media, including selling these offerings together through packaged solutions, including Quotient Integrated Promotions.

Grow our media business.     We plan to grow Quotient Media Cloud, including Retail Performance Media, social influencer marketing, and search and sponsored product. We plan to continue to invest in our media solutions, expanding the use of our proprietary data as well as data from select exclusive retail partnerships, and by adding and expanding relationships, including national media buyers and publishers, new partnerships, verticals, and third parties such as media agencies.

Expand and grow Quotient Analytics and Quotient Audience. As our network, content pool and shopper audience expand, we believe that our platform will become more valuable, resulting in greater data, insights and shopper audience segments. We expect to introduce more robust, solutions to our customers and partners around campaign performance, analytics and insights, as well as around Quotient Audience Cloud.

Grow our current customer base and add new industry segments.    We believe we have the opportunity to grow the number of brands and retailers that we serve, thereby increasing the value of our platform to all constituents. In addition, we intend to continue growing our business with other manufacturers and retailers in new industry segments such as convenience and specialty/franchise retail, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Grow shopper adoption and engagement of our digital offerings.    We plan to continue to innovate and invest across our platform, including Retailer iQ, Retail Performance Media, Quotient Analytics, mobile solutions, media and digital promotion offerings, Coupons.com mobile app, and our network. We plan to continue to create additional consumer touchpoints across the network by expanding our promotions and media solutions at retailer checkout and within ecommerce, in order to generate and increase shopper adoption, expand our audience network and leverage shopper data. We believe that CPG spending on digital promotions and marketing will continue to grow as point of sale, mobile channels and social media offer new opportunities to engage consumers on their path to purchase.

Grow international operations.    Many CPGs and retailers on our platform have global operations and we believe that we can opportunistically grow our operations and offerings in existing international markets and partner with our existing clients to enter new geographies in which they operate. We also plan to leverage our existing presence in France through our mobile application Shopmium, a receipt-scanning, cash-back mobile application platform, to broaden our international opportunity beginning with the United Kingdom.

Selectively pursue strategic acquisitions.   We intend to continue pursuing selective acquisition and partnership opportunities that we believe can expand our business.

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Fraud Prevention and Distribution Controls

Our platform includes a proprietary digital distribution management system to enable CPGs and retailers to securely control the number of coupons distributed by device. We have controls in place to limit the number of digital coupons that can be printed. Similar controls are in place for linking coupons to loyalty cards and other paperless solutions, which allows us to limit the number of coupons distributed and activated. In addition, each printed coupon carries a unique ID that is encrypted, enabling us to trace each coupon from print to redemption. All of our digital print coupons can be authenticated and validated using this unique code. This unique ID also can be used to detect counterfeit or altered coupons. Our platform allows us to systematically identify and respond to fraudulent and prohibited activities by restricting a device from printing coupons.

Sales and Marketing

We have a team of dedicated, skilled specialists focused on CPGs and retailers. We believe that our sales, integration, promotions and media campaign management and analytics, customer success and support capabilities are difficult to replicate and a key reason for the growth of our business. Our sales activity is focused on expanding the number of brands within existing and new CPG customers that offer digital promotions and media through our platform as well as increasing the revenue from those brands currently using our platform. The team is also focused on expanding relationships within CPGs to include shopper marketing and digital media teams, where we believe there is a large opportunity for growth particularly in media. Additionally, we are focused on continuing to increase the size and breadth of our publishing and partner network. We are also seeking to partner with CPGs and other manufacturers and retailers in new industry segments such as convenience and specialty/franchise retail, restaurants and entertainment venues.

In addition to sales support during the campaign planning process, our sales representatives provide additional support to CPGs and retailers to ensure that their campaigns are launched and delivered within specified timeframes. Representatives assigned to specific customers review performance metrics and share feedback with the advertiser.

We are focused on managing our brand, increasing market awareness and generating new advertiser leads. In doing so, we often present at industry conferences, create custom events and invest in public relations. In addition, our marketing team advertises online, in print and in other forms of media, creates case studies, sponsors research, publishes marketing collateral and undertakes customer research studies.

Technology and Infrastructure

Since inception, we have made significant investments and will continue to invest in developing our differentiated and proprietary platforms aimed at solving the problems of CPGs and retailers in ways that traditional solutions cannot. We are focused on offering solutions that provide measurable results. We have assembled a team of highly skilled engineers and computer scientists with deep expertise across a broad range of relevant disciplines. Key focus areas of our engineering team include:

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Competition

We compete against a variety of different businesses with respect to different aspects of our business, including:

We believe the principal factors that generally determine a company’s competitive advantage in our market include the following:

While we believe we compete effectively with respect to the factors identified above, we may face increasing competition from larger or more established companies that seek to enter our market or from smaller companies that launch new products, solutions and services that could gain market acceptance.

Culture and Employees

We are proud of our company culture and consider it to be one of our competitive strengths. Our culture helps drive our business and compete for talented employees in a highly competitive market. We seek to offer an environment that allows our employees to thrive and grow.

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As of December 31, 2019, we had 1,072 full-time employees, consisting of 517 employees in the United States and 555 employees internationally.

Intellectual Property

We protect our intellectual property by relying on federal, state, and common law rights in the United States and equivalent rights in other jurisdictions, as well as contractual restrictions. We control access to our proprietary technology and algorithms by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with third parties.

In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secrets, patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks and domain names to protect our intellectual property. We pursue the registration of our copyrights, trademarks, service marks and domain names in the United States and in certain locations outside the United States. As of December 31, 2019, we hold or have exclusive rights to 34 active issued patents in the United States and 13 active patents that have been issued outside of the United States with terms expiring between 2020 and 2035.

Circumstances outside our control could pose a threat to our intellectual property rights. For example, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in the United States or other countries in which we operate. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective or may require significant expenditures and other resources to enforce. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights or unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property could harm our business and our operating results, or ability to compete.

Companies in Internet-related and other industries may own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks and may frequently request license agreements, threaten litigation or file suit against us based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We currently are, have been subject to in the past, and expect to face in the future, allegations that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties, including our competitors and non-practicing entities. As we face increasing competition and as our business grows, we will likely face more claims of infringement.

Corporate Information

We were incorporated in California in May 1998 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 2009. We changed our name to Quotient Technology Inc. on October 20, 2015. Our corporate website address is www.quotient.com. Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website does not constitute part of this report and inclusions of our website address in this report are inactive textual references only. Quotient, the Quotient logo, the Coupons.com logo, the SavingStar logo, Elevaate, Quotient Retailer iQ, Quotient Analytics, Ahalogy, and Ubimo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quotient Technology Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks are property of their respective owners.

Available Information

We file annual, quarterly and other reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Exchange Act. We also make available, free of charge on the investor relations portion of our website at investors.quotient.com, our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed electronically with the SEC. The SEC also maintains an Internet website at http://www.sec.gov/ where you can obtain most of our SEC filings. You can also obtain paper copies of these reports, without charge, by contacting Investor Relations at (650) 605-4600 (option 7).

Webcasts of our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community are available on our investor relations website at www.quotient.com. Additionally, we announce investor information, including news and commentary about our business and financial performance, SEC filings, notices of investor events, and our press and earnings releases, on our investor relations website, as well as through press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, our corporate blog and social media in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public. We encourage our investors and others to review the information we make public in these locations as such information could be deemed to be material information. Please note that this list may be updated from time to time.  Investors and others can receive notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website in real time by signing up for email alerts. Further corporate governance information, including our corporate governance guidelines, board committee charters, and code of conduct, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Governance.” The contents of our websites, blog, press releases, public conference calls and social media are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC (and the contents of other SEC filings are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with the SEC except as required by law or to the extent we expressly incorporate such SEC filing into this Annual Form 10-K or other report or document we file with the SEC), and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

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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 incurred net losses since inception and we may not be able to generate sufficient revenues to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability.

We have incurred net losses of $37.1 million, $28.3 million and $15.1 million in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. We have an accumulated deficit of $384.9 million as of December 31, 2019. We anticipate that our costs and expenses will increase in the foreseeable future as we continue to invest in:

For example, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur expenses developing, improving, integrating, investing, marketing and maintaining our Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions, which include Retailer iQ, Retail Performance Media, and Quotient Analytics, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenues sufficiently to offset these expenses. 

If we are unable to execute our growth strategy and gain efficiencies in our operating costs, our business could be adversely impacted. We cannot be certain that we will be able to attain or maintain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. If we are unable to effectively manage these risks and difficulties as we encounter them, our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer.

We may not achieve revenue growth.

We may not be able to achieve revenue growth, and we may not be able to generate sufficient revenues to achieve profitability. In addition, historically the growth rate of our business, and as a result, our revenue growth, has varied from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, and we expect that variability to continue. For example, some of our products and services experience seasonal sales and buying patterns mirroring those in the CPG, retail, and e-commerce markets, including back-to-school and holiday campaigns, where demand increases during the second half of our fiscal year. Our revenues may fluctuate due to changes in marketing budgets of CPGs and retailers and the timing of their marketing spend. Marketing spend by CPGs is considered the most flexible and easiest to cut, for instance, at the end of a quarter or fiscal year if a CPG is facing budget pressures and CPGs can change their spend without notice. As a result we are not always able to anticipate such fluctuations. Decisions by major CPGs or retailers to delay or reduce their digital promotion and media spending, or divert spending away from digital promotions, digital media campaigns, or other digital marketing from our platforms, or changes in our fee arrangements with CPGs, retailers and other commercial partners, could also slow our revenue growth or reduce our revenues.  For instance, in the fourth quarter of 2018, decisions by three major CPGs to reduce their marketing spend on promotions had an adverse impact on our revenues and revenue growth through much of 2019.

Our business is complex and evolving. We may offer new solutions, pricing, service models, process and delivery methods to CPGs and retailers. These new solutions may change the way we generate and/or recognize revenue, which could impact our operating results. For example, we offer results-based pricing, a la carte, and/or integrated solutions. If we shift a greater number of our arrangements with CPGs to these other models and we are not able to deliver on the results, our revenue growth and revenues could be harmed. In addition, we announced in the first quarter of 2020 that effective second quarter of 2020, we plan to modify the way we process and deliver certain media products to enhance customer experience. As a result of these changes, we will recognize certain revenue on a net basis as compared to the prior recognition on a gross basis and expect that this will cause a decrease in our revenue growth and impact our revenues.

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We believe that our continued revenue growth will depend on our ability to:

However, we cannot assure you that we will successfully accomplish any of these actions. Failure to do so could harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer. For example, in August 2019 we announced that we expected our revenue growth in the second half of 2019 to be adversely impacted by the delay in launching our in-lane targeted promotions and sponsored product search.

If we fail to attract and retain CPGs, retailers and publishers and expand our relationships with them, our revenues and business will be harmed.

The success of our business depends in part on our ability to increase our share of CPG marketing spend on our promotions and media solutions and on our platforms; increase the number of brands that use our solutions and platforms within each CPG; increase adoption and scale of Retailer iQ; and our ability to demonstrate the value of our solutions through measurement and data analytics. It also depends on (i) our ability to obtain, maintain, and expand our  agreements with our retail partners, (ii) our ability to integrate our platforms and promotions and media solutions into retailers’ in-store and point of sale systems and consumer channels, which depends in part on retailers’ commitment in

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modifying point of sale systems and other solutions to integrate with our platforms, (iii) our ability to obtain the right to distribute Retailer iQ digital promotions more broadly through our websites and mobile apps and those of our publishers, and (iv) our retail partners’ commitment in promoting our digital marketing solutions to their customers. If we do not create more value than available alternatives, or if CPGs and retailers do not find that offering digital promotions and media on our platforms enables them to reach consumers and sufficiently increase sales with the scale and effectiveness that is compelling to them, CPGs and retailers may not increase their distribution of digital promotions and media on our platforms, or they may decrease them or stop offering them altogether, and new CPGs and retailers may decide not to use our platforms.

For example, if CPGs decide that our platforms do not provide the right solutions for them to connect with consumers, we may not be able to increase our prices or CPGs may pay us less. Likewise, if retailers decide that our Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions are less effective at increasing sales to and loyalty of existing and new consumers, retailers may demand a higher percentage of the total proceeds from each digital campaign or demand minimum guaranteed payments. Furthermore, if retailers do not find that our platforms increase consumer engagement and loyalty, our overall success may be harmed. In addition, we expect to face increased competition, and competitors may accept lower payments from CPGs to attract and acquire new CPGs, or provide retailers and publishers a higher distribution fee than we currently offer to attract and acquire new retailers and publishers. We may also experience attrition in our CPGs, retailers and publishers in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, including losses to competitors, changes in CPG budgets, and decisions by CPGs, retailers and publishers to offer digital coupons and media through their own websites or other channels without using a third-party platform such as ours or through a competitive third-party network or platform, and failure to maintain distribution agreements with third-party digital promotions networks and platforms. If we are unable to retain and expand our relationships with existing CPGs, retailers and publishers or if we fail to attract new CPGs, retailers and publishers to the extent sufficient to grow our business, or if too many CPGs, retailers and publishers are unwilling to offer digital coupons and media with compelling terms through our platforms, we may not increase the number of high quality coupons and marketing campaigns on our platforms and our revenues, gross margin and operating results will be adversely affected. 

The loss or decrease in spending of any significant customer could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Our business is exposed to risks related to customer concentration, particularly among CPGs and retailers. The loss or decrease in spending of any of our significant customers or deterioration in our relations with any of them could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

If we are unable to grow or successfully respond to changes in the digital promotions market, our business could be harmed.

As consumer demand for digital promotions has increased, promotion spending has shifted from traditional promotions through traditional offline or analog channels, such as newspapers and direct mail, to digital coupons. However, it is difficult to predict whether the pace of transition from traditional to digital promotions will continue at the same rate and whether the growth of the digital promotions market will continue. Some large retailers do not yet use digital paperless promotions. If a retailer decides not to accept digital paperless promotions or a CPG reduces its spend in digital promotions, our business could be harmed. For example, we saw a decrease in promotion spending with us by three of our top CPG customers in much of 2019. In order to expand our business, we must appeal to and attract consumers who historically have used traditional promotions to purchase goods or may prefer alternatives to our offerings, such as those of our competitors. If the demand for digital promotions does not continue to grow as we expect, or if we fail to successfully address this demand, our business will be harmed. For example, the growth of our revenues will require increasing the number of brands that are using our digital promotions solutions within each CPG. If our projections regarding the adoption and usage of Quotient Promotions and Retailer iQ by retailers, CPGs and consumers, do not occur or are slower than expected, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects will be harmed. A variety of factors could slow the success of Quotient Promotions and Retailer iQ generally, including insufficient time, resources or funds committed by retailers to the promotion of our platforms and solutions, a retailer’s decision to forego marketing our platforms, our inability to obtain sufficient data rights to maximize the functionality of our platforms and our inability to monetize enhanced platform functionality, and our inability to efficiently integrate our platforms and Retailer iQ with a retailer’s system. Even if we are successful in driving the adoption and usage of our platforms and Retailer iQ by retailers, CPGs and consumers, if Retailer iQ fee arrangements or transaction volumes, or the mix of offers, change or do not meet our projections, our revenues may be harmed. We expect that the market will evolve in ways which may be difficult to predict. For instance, although we expect CPGs to stop spending on the offline free-standing insert (FSI), our expectations regarding the timing of such change may not be accurate. It is also possible that digital promotion offerings generally could lose favor with CPGs, retailers or consumers. In the event of these or any other changes to the market,

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our continued success will depend on our ability to successfully adjust our strategy to meet the changing market dynamics. In addition, we will need to continue to grow demand for our digital promotions platform by CPGs, retailers and consumers, including through continued innovation and implementation of new initiatives associated with the digital promotions. For example, if consumer demand for our software-free print solution, cash-back receipt scanning solution, in-lane targeted promotions, or our mobile application does not grow as we expect or decreases, our business may be harmed. If we are unable to grow or successfully respond to changes in the digital promotions market, our business could be harmed and our results of operations could be negatively impacted. For example, we are seeing a shift from digital paper coupons to digital paperless coupons. Our revenues may be harmed if we are unable to manage this transition and the growth of digital paperless coupons is slower than the decline in digital print coupons. Conversely, acceleration of this shift (from, for example, acceptance of digital paperless coupons by new retailers) could lead to unanticipated increases in revenue.

The success and scale of our solutions and platforms depend, in part, on our strategic relationships with retail partners and the level of commitment and support by retailers.  

Our Promotions, Media, Audience, and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions, which include Retail Performance Media (RPM), Retailer iQ, and Quotient Analytics, depend in part to our strategic relationships with retail partners, which provide us with access to retailer data, consumer, web and mobile properties, and scale. If we do not maintain and expand these relationships or add new retailer partners, our business will be harmed.

For example, retailer support and commitment are central to the success and scale of RPM. In turn, RPM fuels the data and insights that drive our other solutions and platforms. Our revenues and growth may be adversely impacted if RPM retailers do not support RPM or if we are unable to add new RPM retail partners.

Similarly, if retailers do not commit sufficient time, resources and funds towards the marketing of digital promotions and media on our platforms, the growth and scale of Retailer iQ and its penetration into the consumer market will be adversely affected. The success of Retailer iQ requires integration with a retailer’s point of sales system, loyalty programs and consumer channels. This integration requires time and effort from both the retailer and ourselves; and may also require us to work with a retailer’s third-party service providers, some of whom may be our competitors. In addition, the success of Retailer iQ requires increased consumer adoption which requires significant support from retailers, this support includes marketing of Retailer iQ to consumers, providing technical support to consumers, and retailers satisfaction of increased and complex data privacy regulations to obtain consumer consent.  

We may develop new products that require integration with a retailer’s systems and the systems of their service providers. The success of these products and our ability to launch them on time as planned similarly depend, in part, on retailer support. Delays by the retailer or their service providers could adversely impact our business. For example, delays in the launch of in-lane targeted promotions and sponsored product search adversely impacted our revenue growth for the second half of 2019.

We depend in part on data-rights agreements with our retail partners to power a range of products and the termination of such agreements or the failure to obtain additional data rights can severely impact our revenue and growth.

Our Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions, which include Retailer iQ, our targeted promotions and media offerings, and Quotient Analytics, are powered in part by data we obtain from our retail partners.  Our access to this data is governed by data-rights agreements with some of our retail partners.  These data-rights agreements have complex rules and are required to be renewed periodically.  If we fail to secure additional data rights or renew expiring data-rights agreements, if we are found to be in violation of any of our obligations under these agreements, or if retailers lose their data rights, we could lose access to retailer data.  Without retailer data, our Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions would be less valuable to our CPG customers, publishers, ad tech and retail partners. In addition, changes to international, federal, state, local and municipal laws, regulations and industry standards that relate to privacy, electronic communications, data protection, intellectual property, e-commerce, competition, price discrimination, consumer protection, taxation, and the use of promotions may require us to amend, or alter our practices under, our data rights agreements.  If we and our retail partners cannot respond timely to such legal and regulatory changes, or if retailers decide to limit or prohibit use of their data to comply with such changes our revenue and growth would be impaired.  For instance, if the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, is amended to prohibit the “sale” (as defined in the CCPA) of loyalty program data, or if retailers restrict our use of purchase and loyalty card data in light of the CCPA or similar laws or regulations, our business will be harmed. See the risk factor below titled “Our business is subject to complex and evolving laws, regulations and industry standards, and unfavorable interpretations of, or changes in, or failure by us to comply with these laws, regulations and industry standards could substantially harm our business and results of operations.” for additional information.

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Our ability to generate revenue depends on our collection and use of significant amounts of data from various sources, which may be restricted by consumer choice, restrictions imposed by retailers, publishers and browsers or other software developers, changes in technology, and new developments in laws, regulations and industry standards.

Our ability to deliver our Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions depends on our ability to successfully leverage data, including data that we collect from consumers, data we receive from retail partners and third parties, and data from our own operating history.  Using cookies, loyalty card numbers both on-line and in-store, device identifiers, and other tracking technologies, we collect information about the interactions of consumers with our retail partners’ digital properties and in-store, our own and operated properties, and certain other publisher sites. Our ability to successfully leverage such data depends on our continued ability to access and use such data, which can be restricted by a number of factors, including consumer choice, the success of our retail partners in obtaining consumer consent, restrictions imposed by our retail partners, publishers and web browser developers or other software developers, changes in technology, including changes in web browser technology, and new developments in, or new interpretations of laws, regulations and industry standards. Consumer resistance to the collection and sharing of the data used to deliver targeted advertising, increased visibility of consent or “do not track” mechanism as a result of industry regulatory and/or legal developments, the adoption by consumers of browsers settings or “ad-blocking” software and the development and deployment of new technologies could materially impact our ability to collect data or reduce our ability to deliver relevant promotions or media, which could materially impair the results of our operations. See the risk factor below titled “Our business is subject to complex and evolving laws, regulations and industry standards, and unfavorable interpretations of, or changes in, or failure by us to comply with these laws, regulations and industry standards could substantially harm our business and results of operations.” for additional information.

Unfavorable publicity and negative public perception about our industry or data collection and use could adversely affect our business and operating results.

With the growth of online advertising and e-commerce, there is increasing awareness and concern among the general public, privacy advocates, mainstream media, governmental bodies and others regarding marketing, advertising, and privacy matters, particularly as they relate to individual privacy interests. Any unfavorable publicity or negative public perception about our use of data or other data focused industries could affect our business and results of operations, and may lead digital publishers like Facebook to change their business practice, or trigger additional regulatory scrutiny or lawmaking that affects us. For example, in recent years, consumer advocates, mainstream media and elected officials have increasingly and publicly criticized data and marketing companies for their collection, storage and use of personal data. The negative public attention could cause CPGs or our retail partners to discontinue using our targeted advertising solutions. This public scrutiny may also lead to general distrust of data and marketing companies, consumer reluctance to share and permit use of personal data and increased consumer opt-out rates, any of which could negatively influence, change or reduce our current and prospective customers’ demand for our products and services and adversely affect our business and operating results.

We expect a number of factors to cause our operating results to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which may make it difficult to predict our future performance.

Growth forecasts are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. Historically, our revenue growth has varied from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, and we expect that variability to continue. In addition, our operating costs and expenses have fluctuated in the past, and we anticipate that our costs and expenses will increase over time as we continue to invest in growing our business. Our operating results could vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year as a result of these and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, and as a result we have a limited ability to forecast the amount of future revenues and expenses, which may adversely affect our ability to predict financial results accurately. Our ability to forecast our future results of operations is subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to effectively plan for and model future growth.  We have encountered in the past, and may encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in changing industries. Our results of operations may fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors. Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results may lead analysts to change their long-term models for valuing our common stock, cause us to face short-term liquidity issues, impact our ability to retain or attract key personnel or cause other unanticipated issues, all of which could cause our stock price and the trading price of the convertible senior notes to decline. As a result of the potential variations in our quarterly revenues and operating results, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our revenues and operating results may not be meaningful and the results of any one quarter or historical patterns should not be considered indicative of our future sales activity, expenditure levels or performance.

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In addition to other factors discussed in this section, factors that may contribute to the variability of our quarterly and annual results include:

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The effects of these factors individually or in combination could cause our quarterly and annual operating results to fluctuate, and affect our ability to forecast those results and our ability to achieve those forecasts. 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 an indication of our future performance. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet or exceeding the expectations of our investors or financial analysts for any period. In addition, we may release guidance in our quarterly earnings conference calls, quarterly earnings releases, or otherwise, based on predictions of our management, which are necessarily uncertain in nature. The guidance provided depends on our prediction of CPG marketing budgets which can fluctuate greatly and are beyond our control.  Our guidance may vary materially from actual results. If our revenue or operating results, or the rate of growth of our revenue or operating results, fall below or above the expectations of our investors or financial analysts, or below or above any forecasts or guidance we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below or above the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline or increase substantially. Such a stock price decline or increase could occur even when we have met our own or other publicly stated revenue or earnings forecasts. Our failure to meet our own or other publicly stated revenue or earnings forecasts, or even when we meet our own forecasts but fall short of analyst or investor expectations, could cause our stock price to decline and expose us to costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits. Such litigation against us could impose substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources. If we exceed our own or other publicly stated revenue or earnings forecasts, or even when we meet our own forecasts but exceed analyst or investor expectations, our stock price could increase.

If the distribution fees that we pay as a percentage of our revenues increase, our gross profit and business will be harmed.

When we deliver promotions or media on a retailer’s receipt, website or mobile app or through its loyalty program, or the website or mobile app of a publisher, or through our Retailer iQ platform, and the consumer takes certain actions, we pay a distribution fee to the retailer or other publisher, which, in some cases may be prepaid or guaranteed prior to being incurred. We also pay fees to retailers for use of their data in our Promotions, Media, Analytics, and Audience platforms and solutions. Such fees have increased as a percentage of our revenues in recent periods. If such fees as a percentage of our revenues continue to increase, our cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues could increase and our operating results would be adversely affected. Additionally, if the adoption and usage of Retailer iQ and our other platforms and solutions do not meet projections, certain prepaid or guaranteed distribution fees with some of the retailers will not be recoverable and the distribution fee will increase as a percentage of revenue. During the third quarter of 2016, we recorded a one-time charge associated with certain distribution fees under an arrangement with a retail partner that were deemed unrecoverable. We considered various factors in our assessment including our historical experience with the transaction volumes through the retailer and comparative retailers, ongoing communications with the retailer to increase its marketing efforts to promote the digital platform, as well as the projected revenues, and associated revenue share payments. Accordingly, during the third quarter of 2016, we recognized a loss of $7.4 million related to such distribution fee arrangement. At December 31, 2019 and 2018, we had no prepaid non-refundable payments with our Retailer iQ partners.

Our gross margins are dependent on many factors, some of which are not directly controlled by us.

The factors potentially affecting our gross margins include:

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For instance, we have seen pressure on our gross margins, which we principally attribute to the factors described above and we expect this pressure to continue as our growth strategy evolves and our product mix continues to change. Although we expect to gain leverage as our business expands and through automation, there is no guarantee that we will succeed.

If we fail to maintain and expand the use by consumers of digital promotions on our platform, our revenues and business will be harmed.

We must continue to maintain and expand the use by consumers of digital promotions in order to increase the attractiveness of our platforms to CPGs and retailers and to increase revenues and achieve profitability. If consumers do not perceive that we offer a broad selection of relevant and high quality digital promotions, or that the usage of digital promotions is easy and convenient through our platforms, we may not be able to attract or retain consumers on our platforms. If we are unable to maintain and expand the use by consumers of digital promotions on our platforms, including through our software-free print solution, our retail partners properties, our white label customer relationship management solutions, and Coupons.com and Shopmium mobile application, or if we do not do so to a greater extent than our competitors, CPGs may find that offering digital promotions on our platforms do not reach consumers with the scale and effectiveness that is compelling to them. Likewise, if retailers find that using our platforms, including Retailer iQ, does not increase sales of the promoted products and consumer loyalty to the retailer to the extent they expect, then the revenues we generate may not increase to the extent we expect or may decrease. Any of these could adversely affect our operating results.

If we are not successful in responding to changes in consumer behavior and do not develop products and solutions that are widely accepted and generate revenues, our results of operations and business could be adversely affected.

The methods by which consumers access digital promotions are varied and evolving. Our platform has been designed to engage consumers at the critical moments when they are choosing the products they will buy and where they will shop. Consumers can select our digital promotions both online through web and mobile and in-store. In order for us to maintain and increase our revenues, we must be a leading provider of digital promotions in each of the forms by which consumers access them. As consumer behavior in accessing digital promotions changes and new distribution channels emerge, if we do not successfully respond and do not develop products or solutions that are widely accepted and generate revenues we may be unable to retain consumers or attract new consumers and as a result, CPGs and retailers, and our business may suffer. As another example, we are seeing a transition from digital print coupons to digital paperless coupons. If we do not manage this transition and digital print transactions decline faster than digital paperless transactions increase, our revenues may be harmed.

We depend in part on third-party advertising agencies as intermediaries, and if we fail to develop and maintain these relationships, our business may be harmed.

A growing portion of our business is conducted indirectly with third-party advertising agencies acting on behalf of CPGs and retailers. Third-party advertising agencies are instrumental in assisting CPGs and retailers to plan and purchase media and promotions, and each third-party advertising agency generally allocates media and promotion spend from CPGs and retailers across numerous channels. We are still developing relationships with, and do not have exclusive relationships with, third-party advertising agencies and we depend in part on third-party agencies to work with us as they embark on marketing campaigns for CPGs and retailers. While in most cases we have developed relationships directly with CPGs and retailers, we nevertheless depend in part on third-party advertising agencies to present to their CPG and retailer clients the merits of our platform. Inaccurate descriptions of our platform by third-party advertising agencies, over whom we have no control, negative recommendations regarding use of our service offerings or failure to mention our platform at all could hurt our business. In addition, if a third-party advertising agency is disappointed with our platform on a particular campaign or generally, we risk losing the business of the CPG or retailer for whom the campaign was run, and of other CPGs and retailers represented by that agency. Since many third-party advertising agencies are affiliated with other third-party agencies in a larger corporate structure, if we fail to develop and maintain good relations with one third-party advertising agency in such an organization, we may lose business from the affiliated third-party advertising agencies as well.

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Our sales could be adversely impacted by industry changes relating to the use of third-party advertising agencies. For example, if CPGs or retailers seek to bring their campaigns in-house rather than using an agency, we would need to develop direct relationships with the CPGs or retailers, which we might not be able to do and which could increase our sales and marketing expenses. Moreover, to the extent that we do not have a direct relationship with CPGs or retailers, the value we provide to CPGs and retailers may be attributed to the third-party advertising agency rather than to us, further limiting our ability to develop long-term relationships directly with CPG and retailers. CPGs and retailers may move from one third-party advertising agency to another, and we may lose the underlying business. The presence of third-party advertising agencies as intermediaries between us and the CPGs and retailers thus creates a challenge to building our own brand awareness and affinity with the CPGs and retailers that are the ultimate source of our revenues. In addition, third-party advertising agencies conducting business with us may offer their own digital promotion solutions. As such, these third-party advertising agencies are, or may become, our competitors. If they further develop their own capabilities they may be more likely to offer their own solutions to advertisers, and our ability to compete effectively could be significantly compromised and our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to access our content, and if we are unsuccessful in expanding the capabilities of our digital marketing solutions for our mobile platforms to allow us to generate revenues as effectively as our website platforms, our revenues could decline.

Web usage and the consumption of digital content are increasingly shifting from desktop to mobile platforms such as smartphones. The growth of our business depends in part on our ability to drive engagement, activation and shopping behavior for our retailers and CPGs through these mobile channels. Our success on mobile platforms will be dependent on our interoperability with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade our functionality, ease of convenience or that give preferential treatment to competitive services could adversely affect usage of our services through mobile devices.

Further, to deliver high quality mobile offerings, it is important that our platform integrates with a range of other mobile technologies, systems, networks and standards that we do not control. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing products that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks or standards. If we fail to achieve success with our mobile applications and mobile website, or if we otherwise fail to deliver effective solutions to CPGs and retailers for mobile platforms and other emerging platforms, our ability to monetize these growth opportunities will be constrained, and our business, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.

Our success on mobile platforms will also be dependent on our ability to develop features or products that will make our mobile platform attractive to, and drive engagement by, consumers.  If we fail to develop such features or products after investing in their development, our ability to monetize these growth opportunities will be constrained, and our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

Competition presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business.

We expect competition in digital promotions and media and audiences to continue to increase. The market for digital promotions and media and audiences is competitive, fragmented and rapidly changing. We compete against a variety of companies with respect to different aspects of our business, including:

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We believe the principal factors that generally determine a company’s competitive advantage in our market include the following:

We are subject to competition from large, well-established companies which have significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do and have offerings that compete with our platform or may choose to offer digital promotions and media and audiences as an add-on to their core business on their own or in partnership with one of our competitors that would directly compete with ours. Many of our larger actual and potential competitors have the resources to significantly change the nature of the digital promotions industry to their advantage, which could materially disadvantage us. For example, Google and Facebook and online retailers such as Amazon have highly trafficked industry platforms which they have leveraged, or could leverage, to distribute digital promotions and media that could negatively affect our business. In addition, these potential competitors may have greater access to first-party data, be able to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in consumer habits. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies, which may allow them to attract more consumers and, as a result, more CPGs and retailers, or generate revenues more effectively than we do. Our competitors may offer digital promotions or targeted media campaigns that are similar to the digital promotions and targeted media campaigns we offer or that achieve greater market acceptance than those we offer. We are also subject to competition from smaller companies that launch similar or new products and services that we do not offer and that could gain market acceptance.

Our success depends on the effectiveness of our platform in connecting CPGs and retailers with consumers and with attracting consumer use of the digital promotions and media delivered through our platforms. To the extent we fail to provide digital promotions and media for high quality, relevant products, or otherwise fail to successfully reach consumers on their mobile device or elsewhere, consumers may become dissatisfied with our platform and decide not to use our digital promotions or interact with our digital media and elect to use or view the digital promotions and media distributed by one of our competitors. As a result of these factors, our CPGs and retailers may not receive the benefits they expect, and CPGs may use the offerings of one of our competitors, and retailers may elect to handle promotions and media themselves or exclude us from integrating with their in-store and point of sale systems or consumer channels, and our operating results would be adversely affected. Similarly, if retailers elect to use a competitive distribution network or platform, and we do not have, or fail to maintain, an agreement to distribute content through that network or platform, CPGs may elect to provide digital promotions and media directly to that network or platform, instead of through our platform. If retailers and CPGs require our platform to integrate with competitive offerings instead of using our products, we could lose some of our competitive advantage and our business could be harmed.

Our success may also depend on our ability to compete against incumbent competitors that our customers use and we may not be successful in persuading CPGs and their agencies to use our platforms and services.

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We also face significant competition for trade promotion and marketing spending. We compete against online and mobile businesses, including those referenced above, and traditional advertising outlets, such as television, radio and print, for trade promotion and marketing spending. In order to grow our revenues and improve our operating results, we must increase our share of CPG spending on digital promotions and media relative to traditional sources and relative to our competitors, many of whom are larger companies that offer more traditional and widely accepted media products.

We also directly and indirectly compete with retailers for consumer traffic. Many retailers market and offer their own digital promotions and media directly to consumers using their own websites, email newsletters and alerts, mobile applications and social media channels. Additionally, some retailers also market and offer their own digital promotions and media directly to consumers using our platform for which we earn no revenue.  Our retailers could be more successful than we are at marketing their own digital promotions and media and could decide to terminate their relationship with us.

We may face competition from companies we do not yet know about. If existing or new companies develop, market or offer competitive digital coupon solutions, acquire one of our existing competitors or form a strategic alliance with one of our competitors, our ability to compete effectively could be significantly compromised and our operating results could be harmed. For example, on March 13, 2019, Inmar announced that it completed the acquisition of Kroger’s subsidiary You Technology and entered into a long-term service agreement to provide digital coupon services to the Kroger family of stores.  Following this acquisition, Inmar terminated our agreement with You Technology as of December 2019. This adversely affected our ability to distribute digital promotions through You Technology, which generated less than 5% of our revenue.  

Acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments could result in operating difficulties, dilution and other harmful consequences.

We have acquired a number of businesses, and expect to continue to evaluate and consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, joint ventures, technologies, services, products and other assets and strategic investments. At any given time, we may be engaged in discussions or negotiations with respect to one or more of these types of transactions. Any of these transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations. The process of integrating any acquired business may create unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures and is itself risky. The areas where we may face difficulties include:

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For example, we have acquired businesses whose technologies are new to us and with which we did not have significant experience. We have made and are making investments of resources to support such acquisitions, which will result in ongoing operating expenses and may divert resources and management attention from other areas of our business. We cannot assure you that these investments and the integration of these acquisitions will be successful. If we fail to successfully integrate the companies we acquire, we may not realize the benefits expected from the transaction and our business may be harmed.

Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of any or all of our acquisitions or joint ventures, or we may not realize them in the time frame expected or cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities, and harm our business. Future acquisitions or joint ventures may require us to issue dilutive additional equity securities, spend a substantial portion of our available cash, incur debt or contingent liabilities, amortize expenses related to intangible assets or incur incremental operating expenses or write-offs of goodwill or impaired acquired intangible assets, which could adversely affect our results of operations and harm our business.

If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and financial performance may suffer.

We have significantly expanded our operations and anticipate expanding further to pursue our growth strategy. Through acquisitions we have added four additional offices within the last two years.  Such expansion increases the complexity of our business and places significant demands on our management, operations, technical performance, financial resources and internal control over financial reporting functions. Continued growth could strain our ability to deliver digital promotions and media on our platform, develop and improve our operational, financial, legal and management controls, and enhance our reporting systems and procedures. Failure to manage our expansion may limit our growth, damage our reputation and negatively affect our financial performance and harm our business.

To effectively manage this growth, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, and our reporting systems and procedures. If we do not effectively manage the growth of our business and operations the scalability of our business and our operating results could suffer.

Our current and planned personnel, systems, procedures and controls may not be adequate to support and effectively manage our future operations. We may not be able to hire, train, retain, motivate and manage required personnel. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees. We intend to continue to expand our research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative organizations, and over time, expand our international operations. To attract top talent, we have had to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, highly competitive compensation packages before we can validate the productivity of those employees. If we fail to effectively manage our hiring needs and successfully integrate our new hires, our efficiency and ability to meet our forecasts and our employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Providing our products and services to our CPGs, retailers and consumers is costly and we expect our expenses to continue to increase in the future as we grow our business with existing and new CPGs and retailers and develop new products and services that require enhancements to our technology infrastructure. In addition, our operating expenses, such as our sales, marketing and engineering expenses are expected to continue to grow to support our anticipated future growth. As a result of the requirements of being a public company we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses. Our expenses may grow faster than our revenues, and our expenses may be greater than we anticipate. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.

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Our sales cycle with CPGs and retailers is long and unpredictable and may require us to incur expenses before executing or renewing a customer agreement, which makes it difficult to project when, if at all, we will obtain new CPGs and retailers, or renew customer agreements with existing CPG customers and retail partners, and when we will generate additional revenues.

We market our services and products directly to CPGs and retailers. New CPG and retailer relationships typically take time to obtain and finalize. Existing CPG and retailer relationships may change and take time to re-establish due to market consolidation and personnel changes. A significant time period may pass between selection of our services and products by key decision-makers and the signing of a contract. The length of time between the initial sales call and the realization of a final contract is difficult to predict. As a result, it is difficult to predict when we will obtain new CPGs and retailers and when performance and delivery of services will be initiated with these potential CPGs and retailers. In addition, our customers typically have no obligation to renew their agreements with us after their initial term, and in order for us to maintain or improve our results of operations, it is important that our customers renew their agreements with us when the initial term expires. As part of our sales and renewal cycle, we may incur significant expenses before executing or renewing a definitive agreement with a prospective or existing CPG or retailer and before we are able to generate any revenues from such agreement or renewal. If conditions in the marketplace generally or with a specific prospective CPG or retailer change negatively, it is possible that no definitive agreement will be executed or renewed, and we will be unable to recover any expenses incurred before a definitive agreement is executed or renewed, which would in turn have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on our ability to maintain and scale the network infrastructure necessary to operate our platforms, including our websites, mobile applications and Retailer iQ platform, and any significant disruption in service could result in a loss of CPGs, retailers and consumers.

We deliver digital promotions and media via our platforms, including over our websites and mobile applications, as well as through those of our CPGs and retailers and our publishers and other third parties. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve CPGs and retailers, as well as consumers who use digital promotions or view media on our platforms are dependent upon the reliable performance of our platforms. As the number of our CPG customers, retailers and consumers and the number of digital promotions, digital media and information shared through our platforms continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of network capacity and computing power. Our technology infrastructure is hosted across two data centers in co-location facilities in California and Nevada. In addition, we use two other co-location facilities in California and Virginia to host our Retailer iQ platform. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts in our data centers and equipment and related network infrastructure to handle the traffic on our platform. The operation of these systems is expensive and complex and could result in operational failures. In the event that the number of transactions or the amount of traffic on our platforms grows more quickly than anticipated, we may be required to incur significant additional costs. In addition, as we scale, we must continually invest in our information technology, and continue to invest in information security, infrastructure and automation. Deployment of new software or processes may adversely affect the performance of our services and harm the customer experience. If we fail to support our platforms or provide a strong customer experience, our ability to retain and attract customers may be harmed. Interruptions in these systems or service disruptions, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, malware, ransomware, denial of service attacks, attempts to degrade or disrupt services, or physical or electronic break-ins, could affect the security or availability of our websites and platform, and prevent CPGs, retailers or consumers from accessing our platform. A substantial portion of our network infrastructure is hosted by third-party providers. Any disruption in these services or any failure of these providers to handle existing or increased traffic could significantly harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may adversely affect our business, and we exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. If we do not maintain or expand our network infrastructure successfully or if we experience operational failures, we could lose current and potential CPGs, retailers and consumers, which could harm our operating results and financial condition.

If our websites or those of our publishers fail to rank prominently in unpaid search results from search engines, traffic to our websites could decline and our business would be adversely affected.

Our success depends in part on our ability to attract consumers through unpaid Internet search results on search engines, such as Google. The number of consumers we attract to our websites from search engines is due in large part to how and where our websites rank in unpaid search results. These rankings can be affected by a number of factors, many of which are not in our direct control, and they may change frequently. For example, major search engines frequently modify their ranking algorithms, methodologies or design layouts. As a result, links to our websites may not be prominent enough to drive traffic to our websites or we may receive less favorable placement which could reduce traffic to our website, and we may not know how or otherwise be in a position to influence the results. In some instances, search engine companies may change these rankings in order to promote their own competing products or services or the products or services of one or more of our competitors. Our websites have experienced fluctuations in search result

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rankings in the past, and we anticipate fluctuations in the future. For example, the search result rankings of our websites have fallen relative to the same time last year. In addition, websites must comply with search engine guidelines and policies. These guidelines and policies are complex and may change at any time. If we fail to follow such guidelines and policies properly, search engines may rank our content lower in search results or could remove our content altogether from their index. Moreover, the use of voice recognition technology, such as Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri, may drive traffic away from search engines, which could reduce traffic to our website. Any reduction in the number of consumers directed to our websites could reduce the effectiveness of our coupon codes for specialty retailers and digital promotions for CPGs and retailers and could adversely impact our business and results of operations. It could also reduce our ability to sell media advertising on our sites, which would negatively impact revenues and harm our business. For example, we have seen a decline in the revenues from specialty retail and expect this trend to continue.

If we fail to continue to obtain and increase the number of high quality promotions through our platform, our revenue growth or our revenues may be harmed.

We generally generate revenues as consumers select, or activate, a digital promotions through our platform. Our business model depends upon the availability of high quality and increasing number of digital promotions. CPGs and retailers have a variety of channels through which to promote their products and services. If CPGs and retailers elect to distribute their digital promotions through other channels or not to promote digital promotions at all, or if our competitors are willing to accept lower prices than we are, our ability to obtain high quality digital promotions available on our platform may be impeded and our business, financial condition and operating results will be adversely affected. If we cannot maintain sufficient digital promotions inventory to offer through our platform, consumers may perceive our service as less relevant, consumer traffic to our websites and those of our publishers will decline and, as a result, CPGs and retailers may decrease their use of our platform to deliver digital coupons and our revenue growth or revenues may be harmed.

Our business relies in part on electronic messaging, including emails and SMS text messages, and any technical, legal or other restrictions on the sending of electronic messages or an inability to timely deliver such communications could harm our business.

Our business is in part dependent upon electronic messaging. We provide emails, mobile alerts and other messages to consumers informing them of the digital coupons on our websites, and we believe these communications help generate a significant portion of our revenues. We also use electronic messaging, in part, as part of the consumer sign-up and verification process. Because electronic messaging services are important to our business, if we are unable to successfully deliver electronic messages to consumers, if there are legal restrictions on delivering these messages to consumers, or if consumers do not or cannot open our messages, our revenues and profitability could be adversely affected. Changes in how webmail applications or other email management tools organize and prioritize email may result in our emails being delivered or routed to a less prominent location in a consumer’s inbox or viewed as “spam” by consumers and may reduce the likelihood of that consumer opening our emails. Actions taken by third parties that block, impose restrictions on or charge for the delivery of electronic messages could also harm our business. From time to time, Internet service providers or other third parties may block bulk email transmissions or otherwise experience technical difficulties that result in our inability to successfully deliver emails or other messages to consumers.

Changes in laws or regulations, or changes in interpretations of existing laws or regulations, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or the TCPA in the United States and laws regarding commercial electronic messaging in other jurisdictions, that would limit our ability to send such communications or impose additional requirements upon us in connection with sending such communications could also adversely impact our business. For example, the Federal Communications Commission amended certain of its regulations under the TCPA in recent years in a manner that could increase our exposure to liability for certain types of telephonic communication with customers, including but not limited to text messages to mobile phones. Under the TCPA, plaintiffs may seek actual monetary loss or statutory damages of $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and courts may treble the damage award for willful or knowing violations. Given the enormous number of communications we send to consumers, a determination that there have been violations of the TCPA or other communications-based statutes could expose us to significant damage awards that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. Moreover, even if we prevail, such litigation against us could impose substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources.

We also rely on social networking messaging services to send communications. Changes to these social networking services’ terms of use or terms of service that limit promotional communications, restrictions that would limit our ability or our customers’ ability to send communications through their services, disruptions or downtime experienced by these social networking services or reductions in the use of or engagement with social networking services by customers and potential customers could also harm our business.

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We rely on a third-party service for the delivery of daily emails and other forms of electronic communication, and delay or errors in the delivery of such emails or other messaging we send may occur and be beyond our control, which could damage our reputation or harm our business, financial condition and operating results. If we were unable to use our current electronic messaging services, alternate services are available; however, we believe our sales could be impacted for some period as we transition to a new provider, and the new provider may be unable to provide equivalent or satisfactory electronic messaging service. Any disruption or restriction on the distribution of our electronic messages, termination or disruption of our relationship with our messaging service providers, including our third-party service that delivers our daily emails, or any increase in our costs associated with our email and other messaging activities could harm our business.

We are dependent on technology systems and electronic communications networks that are supplied and managed by third parties, which could result in our inability to prevent or respond to disruptions in our services.

Our ability to provide services to consumers depends on our ability to communicate with CPGs, retailers and customers through the public Internet and electronic networks that are owned and operated by third parties. Our products and services also depend on the ability of our users to access the public Internet. In addition, in order to provide services promptly, our computer equipment and network servers must be functional 24 hours per day, which requires access to telecommunications facilities managed by third parties and the availability of electricity, which we do not control. A severe disruption of one or more of these networks, including as a result of utility or third-party system interruptions, could impair our ability to process information, which could impede our ability to provide digital promotions and media to consumers, harm our reputation, result in a loss of customers or CPGs and retailers and adversely affect our business and operating results.

If our security measures or information we collect and maintain are compromised or publicly exposed, CPGs, retailers and consumers may curtail or stop using our platforms and we could be subject to claims, penalties and fines.

We collect and maintain data about consumers, including personally identifiable information, as well as other confidential or proprietary information. Like all businesses that use computer systems and the Internet, our security measures, and those of companies we may acquire and our third-party service providers and partners, may not detect or prevent all attempts to gain access to our systems, denial-of-service attacks, viruses, malicious software including malware and ransomware, break-ins, phishing attacks, social engineering, human error, security breaches or other attacks and similar disruptions that may jeopardize the security of information stored in or transmitted by our systems or solutions or that we or our third-party service providers and partners otherwise maintain, including payment systems, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays, or website shutdowns, causing loss of critical data or the unauthorized disclosure or use of personally identifiable or other confidential information or proprietary data, or subject us to fines or higher transaction fees or limit or result in the termination of our access to certain payment methods. If we, or our service providers and partners, experience compromises to our security that result in performance or availability problems, the complete shutdown of one or more of our websites and mobile applications, or the misuse, loss or unauthorized access to or disclosure of confidential information, personally identifiable information, or other personal or proprietary data, CPGs, retailers, and consumers may lose trust and confidence in us and decrease their use of our platforms or stop using our platforms entirely. Further, such compromises to personal or sensitive information or proprietary data could lead to litigation or other adversarial actions by business partners such as retailers or consumers.

Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access are often sophisticated and change frequently, neither we nor third-party service providers and partners can guarantee that our systems will not be breached. In addition, consumer information including email addresses, phone numbers, transaction data, and data on consumer usage of our and our retailer partners’ websites and mobile applications could be hacked, hijacked, altered or otherwise claimed or controlled by unauthorized persons. Security breaches can also occur as a result of nontechnical issues, including intentional or inadvertent actions by our employees or by persons with whom we have commercial relationships that lead to exposure of any types of personal, sensitive or proprietary information. Any or all of these issues, or the perception that any of them has occurred, even if inaccurate, could negatively impact our reputation and our ability to attract and retain CPGs and retailers as well as consumers or could reduce the frequency with which our platforms are used, cause existing or potential CPG or retailer customers to cancel their contracts or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, and harm our business and results of operations.

Remediation of any potential cyber security breach may involve significant time, resources, and expenses, which may result in potential regulatory inquiries, litigation or other investigations, and can affect our financial and operational condition.  

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Failure to deal effectively with fraudulent or other improper transactions could harm our business.

Digital promotions are issued in the form of redeemable coupons, coupon codes with unique identifiers or cash-back rebates. It is possible that third parties may create counterfeit digital coupons or coupon codes or exceed print or use limits in order to fraudulently or improperly claim discounts or credits for redemption. It is also possible that third parties may fraudulently or improperly claim cash-back rebates causing us to pay out cash that we are not able to get reimbursement from our retailer customers. It is possible that individuals will circumvent our anti-fraud systems using increasingly sophisticated methods or methods that our anti-fraud systems are not able to counteract. Further, we may not detect any of these unauthorized activities in a timely manner. Third parties who succeed in circumventing our anti-fraud systems may sell the fraudulent or fraudulently obtained digital coupons on social networks, which would damage our brand and relationships with CPGs and harm our business. Legal measures we take or attempt to take against these third parties may be costly and may not be ultimately successful. In addition, our service could be subject to employee fraud or other internal security breaches, and we may be required to reimburse CPGs and retailers for any funds stolen or revenues lost as a result of such breaches. Our CPGs and retailers could also request reimbursement, or stop using digital coupons, if they are affected by buyer fraud or other types of fraud. We may incur significant losses from fraud and counterfeit digital coupons. If our anti-fraud technical and legal measures do not succeed, our business may suffer.

Factors adversely affecting performance marketing programs and our relationships with performance marketing networks and brand partners, or the termination of these relationships, may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain merchants and our coupon codes business.

A portion of our business is based upon consumers using coupon codes from specialty retailers in connection with the purchase of goods or services. The commissions we earn for coupon codes accessed through our platform are tracked by performance marketing networks. Third-party performance marketing networks provide publishers with affiliate tracking links that allow for revenues to be attributed to publishers. When a consumer executes a purchase on a publisher’s website as a result of a performance marketing program, most performance marketing conversion tracking tools credit the most recent link or ad clicked by the consumer prior to that purchase. This practice is generally known as “last-click attribution.” We generate revenues through transactions for which we receive last-click attribution. Risks that may adversely affect our performance marketing programs and our relationships with performance marketing networks include the following, some of which are outside our control:

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While coupon codes from specialty retailers represent a declining portion of our business, any of these risks could adversely affect our revenues in this area.

Our business is subject to complex and evolving laws, regulations and industry standards, and unfavorable interpretations of, or changes in, or failure by us to comply with these laws, regulations and industry standards could substantially harm our business and results of operations.

We are subject to a variety of foreign, federal, state, local and municipal laws, regulations and industry standards that relate to privacy, electronic communications, data protection, intellectual property, e-commerce, competition, price discrimination, consumer protection, taxation, and the use of promotions. Many of these laws, regulations, and standards are still evolving and being tested in courts and industry standards are still developing. Our business, including our ability to operate and expand, could be adversely affected if legislation, regulations or industry standards are adopted, interpreted or implemented in a manner that is inconsistent with our current business practices and that require changes to these practices or the design of our platform. Existing and future laws, regulations and industry standards could restrict our operations, and our ability to retain or increase our CPGs and retailers and consumers’ use of digital promotions delivered on our platform may be adversely affected and we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenues as anticipated.

For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) came into effect on January 1, 2020; the CCPA has already been amended once and grants consumers new rights with respect to their personal information. We believe our policies and practices comply in material respects with applicable privacy, data protection, data security, marketing and consumer protection guidelines, laws and regulations. However, if our belief is incorrect, or if these guidelines, laws or regulations or their interpretation change or new legislation or regulations are enacted, we may be compelled to provide additional disclosures to our consumers, obtain additional consents from our consumers before collecting, using, or disclosing their information or implement new safeguards or business processes to help individuals manage our use of their information, among other changes. We also cannot control our retail partners approach or interpretation of CCPA or other privacy regulations, which may impact their willingness or ability to provide us data that our platforms and solutions are dependent upon, or the terms on which they are willing or able to provide it. Changes to our data sources may restrict our ability to maintain or grow our revenues as anticipated.  

If the use of third-party cookies or other tracking technology is rejected by Internet users, restricted by third parties outside of our control, or otherwise subject to unfavorable regulation, our performance could decline and we could lose customers and revenue.

We use a number of technologies to collect information used to deliver our solutions. For instance, we use small text files (referred to as "cookies"), placed through an Internet browser on an Internet user's machine which corresponds to a data set that we keep on our servers, to gather important data to help deliver our solution. Certain of our cookies, including those that we predominantly use in delivering our solution through Internet browsers, are known as "third-party" cookies because they are delivered by third parties rather than by us. Our cookies collect anonymous information, such as when an Internet user views an advertisement, clicks on an advertisement, or visits one of our advertisers' websites. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, this information may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws. On mobile devices, we may also obtain location based information about the user's device through our cookies or other tracking technologies. We use these technologies to achieve our customers' campaign goals, to ensure that the same Internet user does not unintentionally see the same media too frequently, to report aggregate information to our customers regarding the performance of their digital promotions and marketing campaigns, and to detect and prevent fraudulent activity throughout our network. We also use data from cookies to help us decide whether and how much to bid on an opportunity to place an advertisement in a certain Internet location and at a given time in front of a particular Internet user. A lack of data associated with or obtained from third-party cookies may detract from our ability to make decisions about which inventory to purchase for an advertiser's campaign and may adversely affect the effectiveness of our solution and harm our business.

Cookies may easily be deleted or blocked by Internet users. All of the most commonly used Internet browsers (including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari) allow Internet users to prevent cookies from being accepted by their browsers. Internet users can also delete cookies from their computers at any time. Some Internet users also download "ad blocking" software that prevents cookies from being stored on a user's computer. If more Internet users adopt these settings or delete their cookies more frequently than they currently do, our business could be harmed. In addition, the Safari and Firefox browsers blocks third-party cookies by default, and other browsers may do so in the future. Unless such default settings in browsers were altered by Internet users to permit the placement of third-party cookies, we would be able to set fewer of our cookies in users’ browsers, which could adversely affect our business. In addition, companies such as Google have publicly disclosed their intention to move away from cookies to another form of persistent unique identifier, or ID, to identify individual Internet users or Internet-connected devices in the bidding process on advertising exchanges. If companies do not use shared IDs across the entire ecosystem, this could have a negative impact on our ability to find the same anonymous user across different web properties, and reduce the effectiveness of our solution.

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In addition, in the European Union, or EU, Directive 2009/136/EC, commonly referred to as the "Cookie Directive," directs EU member states to ensure that collecting information on an Internet user's computer, such as through a cookie, is allowed only if the Internet user has appropriately given his or her prior freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent. Similarly, this Directive which also contains specific rules for the sending of marketing communications, limits the use of marketing texts messages and e-mails. Additionally, an e-Privacy Regulation, which will replace the Cookie Directive with requirements that could be stricter in certain respects, apply directly to activities within the EU without the need to be transposed in each Member State’s Law, and could impose stricter requirements regarding the use of cookies and marketing e-mails and text messages and additional penalties for noncompliance, has been proposed, although at this time it is unclear whether it will be approved as it is currently drafted or when its requirements will be effective. We may experience challenges in obtaining appropriate consent to our use of cookies from consumers or to send marketing communications to consumers within the EU, which may affect our ability to run promotions and our operating results and business in European markets, and we may not be able to develop or implement additional tools that compensate for the lack of data associated with cookies. Moreover, even if we are able to do so, such additional tools may be subject to further regulation, time consuming to develop or costly to obtain, and less effective than our current use of cookies.  

Failure to comply with federal, state and international privacy, data protection, marketing and consumer protection laws, regulations and industry standards, or the expansion of current or the enactment or adoption of new privacy, data protection, marketing and consumer protection laws, regulations or industry standards, could adversely affect our business.

We and our service providers and partners are subject to a variety of federal, state and foreign laws, regulations and industry standards regarding privacy, data protection, data security, marketing and consumer protection, which address the collection, storing, sharing, using, processing, disclosure and protection of data relating to individuals, as well as the tracking of consumer behavior and other consumer data. We are also subject to laws, regulations and industry standards relating to endorsements and influencer marketing. Many of these laws, regulations and industry standards are changing and may be subject to differing interpretations, costly to comply with or inconsistent among jurisdictions. For example, the Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, expects companies like ours to comply with guidelines issued under the Federal Trade Commission Act that govern the collection, use, disclosure, and storage of consumer information, and establish principles relating to notice, consent, access and data integrity and security. The laws and regulations in many foreign countries relating to privacy, data protection, data security, marketing and consumer protection often are more restrictive than in the United States, and may in some cases be interpreted to have a greater scope. Additionally, the laws, regulations and industry standards, both foreign and domestic, relating to privacy, data protection, data security, marketing and consumer protection are dynamic and may be expanded or replaced by new laws, regulations or industry standards.

Various industry standards on privacy and data security have been developed and are expected to continue to develop, which may be adopted by industry participants at any time. We are subject to the terms of our privacy policies and obligations to third parties relating to privacy, data protection and data security, including contractual obligations relating to privacy rights, data protection, data use and data security measures. We are also required, under certain regulatory regimes and industry standards, to contractually require our service providers to meet certain privacy and security requirements. Certain of our solutions, including Quotient Promotions, Media, Audience and Analytics Cloud platforms and solutions depend in part on our ability to use data that we obtain in connection with our offerings, and our ability to use this data may be subject to restrictions in our commercial agreements and subject to the privacy policies of the entities that provide us with this data. Our, or our service providers and partners’, failure to adhere to these third-party restrictions on data use may result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by our business counterparties or other parties, or other liabilities, including loss of business, reputational damage, and remediation costs, which could adversely affect our business.

We strive to comply with applicable laws, policies, contractual and other legal obligations and certain applicable industry standards of conduct relating to privacy, data security, data protection, marketing and consumer protection. However, these obligations and standards of conduct often are complex, vague, and difficult to comply with fully, and it is possible that these obligations and standards of conduct may be interpreted and applied in new ways and/or in a manner that is inconsistent with each other or that new laws, regulations or other obligations may be enacted. It is possible that our practices may be argued or held to conflict with applicable laws, policies, contractual or other legal obligations, or applicable industry standards of conduct relating to privacy, data security, data protection, marketing or consumer protection. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any data-related consent orders, FTC, other regulatory requirements or orders or other federal, state or, as we continue to expand internationally, international privacy, data security, data protection, marketing or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, contractual obligations or self-regulatory principles or other industry standards could result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other liabilities or could result in a loss of consumers using our digital coupons or loss of CPGs and retailers. Any of these circumstances could adversely affect our business. Further, if third parties we work with violate applicable laws, our policies or other privacy-related obligations, such violations may also put our consumers’ information at risk and could in turn have an adverse effect on our business.

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In addition, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR became effective in May 2018, and includes stringent operational requirements for processors and controllers of personal data, including payment card information. The GDPR also creates rights for data subjects and authorizes significant penalties for non-compliance of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of global annual revenues. The GDPR imposes restrictions on the transfer of personal data outside of the EEA. Although we have engaged in significant efforts to implement and maintain appropriate mechanisms to transfer data outside of the EEA in compliance with the GDPR, if one or more of the mechanisms on which we rely is invalidated, we may be unable – or limited in our ability – to transfer personal data from the EEA to the US, and we may experience reluctance or refusal by European consumers, retailers or CPGs to continue to use our solutions, and we may be at risk of enforcement actions taken by a European data protection authority until we ensure that all applicable data transfers to us from the EEA are compliant with the GDPR.

Additionally, the United Kingdom has exited from the EU, commonly referred to as “Brexit,” which could also lead to further legislative and regulatory changes. While the UK Data Protection Act of 2018, that “implements” and complements the GDPR is effective in the United Kingdom, it remains unclear whether transfer of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will remain lawful under GDPR following the Brexit transition period ending on December 31, 2020. We may incur liabilities, expenses, costs, and other operational losses under GDPR and applicable EU Member States and the United Kingdom privacy laws in connection with any measures we take to comply with them .Additionally, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which became effective on January 1, 2020, creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that word is broadly defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households.  The CCPA requires covered companies to provide detailed disclosures to California consumers, provide such consumers new ways to opt-out of certain sales of personal information, and creates a new cause of action for data breaches.

We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the United States and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. For instance, with the increased focus on the use of data for advertising, the anticipation and expectation of future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations could impact us and our existing and potential business partners and delay certain business partnerships or deals until there is greater certainty. In addition, as we expand our data analytics and other data related product offerings there may be increased scrutiny on our use of data and we may be subject to new and unexpected regulations. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations could, for example, impair our ability to collect or use information that we utilize to provide targeted digital promotions and media to consumers, CPGs and retailers, thereby impairing our ability to maintain and grow our total customers and increase revenues. Future restrictions on the collection, use, sharing or disclosure of our users’ data or additional requirements for express or implied consent of users for the use and disclosure of such information could require us to modify our solutions, possibly in a material manner, and could limit our ability to develop or outright prohibit new solutions and features. Any such new laws, regulations, other legal obligations or industry standards, or any changed interpretation of existing laws, regulations or other standards may require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations.  If our measures fail to comply with current or future laws, regulations, policies, legal obligations or industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, data security, marketing or consumer protection, we may be subject to litigation, regulatory investigations, fines or other liabilities, as well as negative publicity and a potential loss of business. Moreover, if future laws, regulations, other legal obligations or industry standards, or any changed interpretations of the foregoing limit our users’, CPGs’ or retailers’ ability to use and share personally identifiable information or our ability to store, process and share personally identifiable information or other data, demand for our solutions could decrease, our costs could increase, our revenue growth could slow, and our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed.

Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses including unauthorized use or disclosure of consumer data.

Our agreements with CPGs, retailers and other third parties may include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement or other liabilities relating to or arising from our products, services or other contractual obligations including those relating to data use and consumer consent. The term of these indemnity provisions generally survives termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. Large indemnity payments could harm our business.

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We may not be able to adequately protect our intellectual property rights.

We regard our trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, trade dress, trade secrets, proprietary technology, and similar intellectual property as critical to our success.

We strive to protect our intellectual property rights in a number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and may not be successful or which we may not pursue in every location. We strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, contractual restrictions as well as rights provided under foreign laws. These laws are subject to change at any time and could further restrict our ability to protect our intellectual property rights.

We also may not be able to acquire or maintain appropriate domain names in all countries in which we do business. Furthermore, regulations governing domain names may not protect our trademarks and similar proprietary rights. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring domain names that are similar to, infringe upon, or diminish the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights.

We typically enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our proprietary information. Also, from time to time, we make our intellectual property rights available to others under license agreements. However, these contractual arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation or disclosure of our proprietary information, infringement of our intellectual property rights or deter independent development of similar technologies by others and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of such misappropriation or infringement. Third parties that license our proprietary rights also may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or reputation.

Obtaining and maintaining effective intellectual property rights is expensive, including the costs of defending our rights. Even where we have such rights, they may be later found to be unenforceable or have a limited scope of enforceability. We may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our respective trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. If we fail to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property rights, our business and operating results may be harmed.

We may be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties.

Other parties may claim that we infringe their proprietary rights. We are, have been subject to, and expect to continue to be subject to, claims and legal proceedings regarding alleged infringement by us of the intellectual property rights of third parties. Such claims, whether or not meritorious, may result in the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources, injunctions against us, or the payment of damages, including to satisfy indemnification obligations. We may need to obtain licenses from third parties who allege that we have infringed their rights, but such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. In addition, we may not be able to obtain or utilize on terms that are favorable to us, or at all, licenses or other rights with respect to intellectual property we do not own. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims.

We may be unable to continue to use the domain names that we use in our business, or prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brand or our trademarks or service marks.

We may lose significant brand equity in our “Coupons.com” domain name, our “Quotient.com” domain name, and other valuable domain names. If we lose the ability to use a domain name, whether due to trademark claims, failure to renew an applicable registration, or any other cause, we may be forced to market our products under new domain names, which could cause us substantial harm, or to incur significant expense in order to purchase rights to the domain names in question. In addition, our competitors and others could attempt to capitalize on our brand recognition by using domain names similar to ours. We also may not be able to acquire or maintain appropriate domain names or trademarks in all countries in which we do business.  Domain names similar to ours have been registered in the United States and elsewhere. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brand or our trademarks or service marks. Protecting and enforcing our rights in our domain names may require litigation, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s attention and harm our business.

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Our business depends on strong brands, and if we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, or if we receive unfavorable media coverage, our ability to retain and expand our number of CPGs, retailers and consumers will be impaired and our business and operating results will be harmed.

We believe that the brand identity that we have developed has significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing our brands are critical to expanding our base of CPGs, retailers and consumers. Maintaining and enhancing our brands may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain our brands, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business would be harmed. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brands may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend on our ability to continue to provide sufficient quantities of reliable, trustworthy and high quality digital coupons, which we may not do successfully.

Unfavorable publicity or consumer perception of our websites, platforms, practices or service offerings, or the offerings of our CPGs and retailers, could adversely affect our reputation, resulting in difficulties in recruiting, decreased revenues and a negative impact on the number of CPGs and retailers we feature and our user base, the loyalty of our consumers and the number and variety of digital coupons we offer. As a result, our business could be harmed.  

Some of our solutions contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and solutions.

We use open source software in our solutions and will use open source software in the future. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software and/or derivative works that we developed using such software (which could include our proprietary source code), or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated solutions unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business and operating results.

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

If we fail to expand effectively in international markets, our revenues and our business may be harmed.

We currently generate almost all of our revenues from the United States. We also operate to a limited extent in the United Kingdom, France and other countries in Europe. Many CPGs and retailers on our platforms have global operations and we plan to grow our operations and offerings through expansion in existing international markets and by partnering with our CPGs and retailers to enter new geographies that are important to them. Further expansion into international markets will require management attention and resources and we have limited experience entering new geographic markets. Entering new foreign markets will require us to localize our services to conform to a wide variety of local cultures, business practices, laws and policies. The different commercial and Internet infrastructure in other countries may make it more difficult for us to replicate our business model. In some countries, we will compete with local companies that understand the local market better than we do, and we may not benefit from first-to-market advantages. We may not be successful in expanding into particular international markets or in generating revenues from foreign operations. As we expand internationally, we will be subject to risks of doing business internationally, including the following:

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Changes in the U.S. taxation of international activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial condition and results of operations. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we plan to operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, including our transfer pricing, or determine that the manner in which we operate our business does not achieve the intended tax consequences, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations. Significant judgment will be required in evaluating our tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. During the ordinary course of business, there will be many transactions and calculations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. As we expand our business to operate in numerous taxing jurisdictions, the application of tax laws may be subject to diverging and sometimes conflicting interpretations by tax authorities of these jurisdictions. It is not uncommon for taxing authorities in different countries to have conflicting views. In addition, tax laws are dynamic and subject to change as new laws are passed and new interpretations of the law are issued or applied. In the United States, legislation commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (referred to herein as the “Tax Act”) was enacted on December 22, 2017, which included a number of changes, such as a reduction in the corporate tax rate, a one-time transition tax on the mandatory deemed repatriation of cumulative foreign earnings as of December 31, 2017 and provided for the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a territorial system. These changes, or future changes in tax laws applicable to us, could materially increase our future income tax expense.

Our planned corporate structure and intercompany arrangements will be implemented in a manner we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, the tax benefits which we intend to eventually derive could be undermined if we are unable to adapt the manner in which we operate our business and due to changing tax laws.

Our failure to manage these risks and challenges successfully could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The loss of one or more key members of our management team, or our failure to attract, integrate and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, could harm our business.

The loss of key personnel, including key members of management as well as our marketing, sales, product development and technology personnel, could disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our ability to grow our business.

As we become a more mature company, we may find our recruiting and retention efforts more challenging. We are seeking to continue to hire a significant number of personnel, including certain key management personnel. We may be limited in our ability to recruit global talent by U.S. immigration laws, including those related to H1-B visas. The demand for H1-B visas to fill highly-skilled IT and computer science jobs is greater than the number of H-1B visas available each year; for the U.S. government’s 2018 fiscal year, the U.S. issued 85,000 H-1B visas out of 199,000 requests.  In addition, the regulatory environment related to immigration under the current presidential administration may increase the likelihood that immigration laws may be modified to further limit the availability of H1-B visas. If a new or revised visa program is implemented, it may impact our ability to recruit, hire and retain qualified skilled personnel, which could adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition. If we do not succeed in attracting, hiring and integrating qualified personnel, or retaining and motivating existing personnel, we may be unable to grow effectively.

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If our estimates or judgements relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to business combinations, goodwill and intangible assets, treatment of our convertible senior notes, revenue recognition, promotion revenue, media revenue, gross versus net revenue reporting, arrangements with multiple performance obligations, stock-based compensation and provision for income taxes.  For example, the recognition of our revenue is governed by certain criteria that determine whether we report revenue either on a gross basis, as a principal, or net basis, as an agent, depending upon the nature of the sales transaction.  Historically, our media products revenue has generally been recognized on a gross basis.  However, in the first quarter of 2020, we announced that effective second quarter of 2020, we plan to modify the way we process and deliver certain media products to enhance the customer experience.  As a result of these changes, we expect that we will recognize certain revenue on a net basis, as compared to the prior recognition on a gross basis, and expect that this will cause a decrease in our revenue growth and impact our revenues.  We may have gross reporting for portions of our media products and other revenue in the future as a result of the evolution of our existing business practices, development of new products, acquisitions, or changes in accounting standards or interpretations, that in any case result in transactions with characteristics that dictate gross reporting. It is also possible that revenue reporting for existing businesses may change from gross to net or vice versa as a result of changes in contract terms or transaction mechanics. We may experience significant fluctuations in revenue in future periods depending upon, in part, the nature of our sales and our reporting of such revenue and related accounting treatment, without proportionate correlation to our underlying activity or net income. Any combination of net and gross revenue reporting would require us to make estimates and assumptions about the mix of gross and net-reported transactions based upon the volumes and characteristics of the transactions we think will make up the total mix of revenue in the period covered by the projection.  Those estimates and assumptions may be inaccurate when made, or may be rendered inaccurate by subsequent circumstances, such as changing the characteristics of our offerings or particular transactions in response to client demands, market developments, regulatory pressures, acquisitions, and other factors. Even apparently minor changes in transaction terms from those initially envisioned can result in different accounting conclusions from those foreseen. In addition, we may incorrectly extrapolate from revenue recognition treatment of prior transactions to future transactions that we believe are similar, but that ultimately are determined to have different characteristics that dictate different revenue reporting treatment. These factors may make our financial reporting more complex and difficult for investors to understand, may make comparison of our results of operations to prior periods or other companies more difficult, may make it more difficult for us to give accurate guidance, and could increase the potential for reporting errors.

Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our common stock.

Changes to financial accounting standards or the SEC’s rules and regulations may affect our financial statements and cause us to change our business practices.

We prepare our financial statements to conform to U.S. GAAP. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation by the FASB, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”), the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting policies. A change in those policies can have a significant effect on our reported results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before a change is announced. Changes to those rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business. For example, in February 2016, the FASB issued a new standard, Topic 842, which requires us to record most of our leases on our balance sheets beginning in our first quarter of fiscal year 2019.  

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We are currently or could be exposed in the future to fluctuations in currency exchange rates and interest rates.

To date, we have generated almost all of our revenues from within the United States. As a result, we currently do not have significant revenues or expenses in our international operations and we do not hedge our foreign currency exchange risk. However, we plan to grow our operations and offerings through expansion in existing international markets and by partnering with our existing CPGs and retailers to enter new geographies that are important to them. For example, we opened a research and development facility in Bangalore, India and acquired Shopmium, which has research and development operations in Paris, France. As we expand our business outside the United States we will face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates. We will be exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations from the conversion of collections and expenses not denominated in U.S. dollars. If the U.S. dollar weakens against foreign currencies, the conversion of these foreign currency denominated transactions will result in increased revenues, operating expenses and net income. Similarly, if the U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies, the conversion of these foreign currency denominated transactions will result in decreased revenues, operating expenses and net income. As exchange rates vary, sales and other operating results, when translated, may differ materially from expectations. Our risks related to currency fluctuations will increase as our international operations become an increasing portion of our business. In addition, we face exposure to fluctuations in interest rates which may impact our investment income unfavorably.

Our use of and reliance on international research and development resources and operations may expose us to unanticipated costs or events.

We have research and development centers in India, France, and Israel.  We expect to increase our headcount, development, and operations activity in India. There is no assurance that our reliance upon international research and development resources and operations will enable us to achieve our research and development and operational goals or greater resource efficiency. Further, our international research and development and operations efforts involve significant risks, including:

Difficulties resulting from the factors above could increase our research and development or operational expenses, delay the introduction of new products, or impact our product quality, the occurrence of any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

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Our business is subject to interruptions, delays or failures resulting from earthquakes, other natural catastrophic events or terrorism.

Our headquarters is located in Mountain View, California. Our current technology infrastructure is hosted across two data centers in co-location facilities in California and Nevada. In addition, we use two other co-location facilities in California and Virginia to host our Retailer iQ platform. Our services, operations and the data centers from which we provide our services are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, floods, public health crises such as pandemics and epidemics, power losses, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins and similar events. For example, in December 2019, a strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China, resulting in store closures and a decrease in consumer traffic in China. At this point, we do not believe the coronavirus to impact our results or operations but there is no guarantee that we may not be impacted. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or flood, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations and our insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for losses that may occur. Acts of terrorism could cause disruptions to the Internet, our business or the economy as a whole. We may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in certain circumstances, such as natural disasters affecting areas where data centers upon which we rely are located, and our business interruption insurance may be insufficient to compensate us for losses that may occur. Such disruptions could negatively impact our ability to run our websites, which could harm our business.

Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited, and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.

We may in the future be required to raise additional capital through public or private financing or other arrangements. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. Additional equity or equity-linked financing, such as our convertible senior notes, may dilute the interests of our stockholders, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, we may not be able to grow our business.

Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

In general, under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, and similar state law provisions, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses, or NOLs, to offset future taxable income. If our existing NOLs are subject to limitations arising from ownership changes, our ability to utilize NOLs could be limited by Section 382 of the Code. Future changes in our stock ownership, some of which are outside of our control, also could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. Additionally, our NOLs arising in tax years beginning prior to January 1, 2018 are subject to expiration and may expire prior to being utilized. Under the Tax Act any NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 are not subject to expiration and may be carried forward indefinitely, but in any given year such NOLs may only be used to offset a maximum of 80% of taxable income for the year, determined without regard to the application of such NOLs. There is also a risk that our NOLs could otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities due to changes in the law, including regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs or other unforeseen reasons. In addition, the Tax Act includes changes to the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, and our net operating loss carryforwards and other deferred tax assets will be revalued at the newly enacted rate. We do not expect this to have a material impact on our financials because we currently maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. deferred tax assets. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize all of our NOLs, even if we attain profitability.

State and foreign laws regulating money transmission could impact our cash-back applications.

Many states and certain foreign jurisdictions impose license and registration obligations on those companies engaged in the business of money transmission, with varying definitions of what constitutes money transmission. If our cash-back applications were to subject us to any applicable state or foreign laws, it could subject us to increased compliance costs and delay our ability to offer this product in certain jurisdictions pending receipt of any necessary licenses or registrations. If we need to make product and operational changes in light of these laws, the growth and adoption of these products may be adversely impacted, and our revenues may be harmed.

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Risks Related to Our Convertible Senior Notes

We are leveraged financially, which could adversely affect our ability to adjust our business to respond to competitive pressures and to obtain sufficient funds to satisfy our future growth, business needs and development plans.

In November 2017, we issued $200 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes (the “notes”).  Our leveraged capital structure could have negative consequences, including, but not limited to, the following:

Our ability to meet our payment obligations under our notes depends on our ability to generate significant cash flow in the future. This, to some extent, is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, and regulatory factors as well as other factors that are beyond our control. There can be no assurance that our business will generate cash flow from operations, or that additional capital will be available to us, in an amount sufficient to enable us to meet our debt payment obligations and to fund other liquidity needs. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt obligations, we may need to refinance or restructure our debt, sell assets, reduce or delay capital investments, or seek to raise additional capital. If we were unable to implement one or more of these alternatives, we may be unable to meet our debt payment obligations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

The conditional conversion feature of the notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

In the event the conditional conversion feature of the notes is triggered, holders of the notes will be entitled to convert their notes at any time during specified periods at their option. Upon conversion, we will pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of our common stock or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock, at our election. If one or more holders elect to convert their notes, (unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share)), we intend to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation in cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders of notes do not elect to convert their notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.

The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.

Under Accounting Standards Codification 470-20, Debt with Conversion and Other Options (“ASC 470-20”), an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of the convertible debt instruments (such as the notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of ASC 470-20 on the accounting for the notes is that the equity component is required to be included in the additional paid-in capital section of stockholders’ equity on our consolidated balance sheet at the issuance date and the value of the equity component would be treated as debt discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the notes. As a result, we will be required to record a greater amount of non-cash interest expense as a result of the amortization of the discounted carrying value of the notes to their face amount over the term of the notes. We will report larger net losses (or lower net income) in our financial results because ASC 470-20 will require interest to include both the amortization of the debt discount and the instrument’s nonconvertible coupon interest rate, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results, the trading price of our common stock and the trading price of the notes.

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The Company uses the treasury stock method for calculating any potential dilutive effect of the conversion spread on diluted net income per share, if applicable. The effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of such notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of such notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable or otherwise elect not to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the notes, then our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected.

Conversion of our notes will dilute the ownership interest of existing stockholders and may depress the price of our common stock.

The conversion of some or all of our notes, if such conversion occurs, will dilute the ownership interests of then-existing stockholders to the extent we deliver shares upon conversion of any of the notes.  Any sales in the public market of the common stock issuable upon such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock.  In addition, the existence of the notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the notes into shares of our common stock could depress the price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock

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.

The price of our common stock may change in response to variations in our operating results and also may change in response to other factors, including factors specific to technology companies, many of which are beyond our control. As a result, our stock price may experience significant volatility. Among other factors that could affect our stock price are:

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If any of the foregoing occurs, it could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline. 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 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.

Substantial future sales of shares by our stockholders could negatively affect our stock price.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We have approximately 89,371,199 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2019, assuming no exercise of our outstanding options or vesting of our outstanding RSUs.

Our equity incentive plans allow us to issue, among other things, stock options, restricted stock and restricted stock units and we have filed a registration statement under the Securities Act to cover the issuance of shares upon the exercise or vesting of awards granted under those plans.

The concentration of our common stock ownership with our executive officers, directors and owners of 5% or more of our outstanding common stock will limit our ability to influence corporate matters.

Our executive officers, directors and owners of 5% or more of our outstanding common stock together beneficially own approximately 52% of our outstanding common stock, based on the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2019. These stockholders therefore have significant influence over management and affairs and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets, for the foreseeable future. This concentrated control limits your ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our stockholders do not view as beneficial. This ownership could affect the value of your shares of common stock.

Our stock repurchase program could affect the price of our common stock and increase volatility and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of our common stock.

Our Board of Directors has approved programs for us to repurchase shares of our common stock. During May 2019, the 2018 repurchase program (the “2018 Program”) expired. In April 2019, our Board of Directors authorized a one-year share repurchase program (“May 2019 Program”) for us to repurchase up to $60.0 million of our common stock from May 2019 through May 2020. In August 2019, our Board of Directors authorized a one-year share repurchase program (the “August 2019 Program”) for us to repurchase up to $50.0 million of our common stock from August 2019 through August 2020. During the year ended December 31, 2019, we purchased and retired 8,088,993 shares of our common stock for an aggregate value of $85.5 million under the 2018 Program and the May 2019 Program. As of December 31, 2019, $50.0 million remained available for repurchase under the August 2019 Program. Stock repurchases may be made from time to time at prevailing market prices, subject to certain restrictions on volume, pricing and timing. The repurchases may be made in the open market, through negotiated transactions, including accelerated share repurchase agreements, and through plans designed to comply with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Act. Repurchases pursuant to our stock repurchase program could affect the price of our common stock and increase its volatility. The existence of our stock repurchase program could also cause the price of our common stock to be higher than it would be in the absence of such a program and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for our common stock. Additionally, repurchases under our stock repurchase program will diminish our cash reserves, which could impact our ability to further develop our technology, access and/or retrofit additional facilities and service our indebtedness. There can be no assurance that any stock repurchases will enhance stockholder value because the market price of our common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased such shares. Any failure to repurchase shares after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our stock price. Although our stock repurchase program is intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, short-term stock price fluctuations could reduce the program’s effectiveness.

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If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, SOX, and the rules and regulations of the New York Stock Exchange, or the NYSE. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.

SOX requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we will be required to include in our periodic reports we will file with the SEC under Section 404 of SOX. In the event that we are not able to demonstrate compliance with Section 404 of SOX, that our internal control over financial reporting is perceived as inadequate or that we are unable to produce timely or accurate financial statements, investors may lose confidence in our operating results and our stock price could decline.

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and could result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of management evaluations and independent registered public accounting firm audits of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, our common stock may not be able to remain listed on the NYSE.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is required to audit the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as we lost our status as an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, effective December 31, 2018. We are considered a large accelerated filer as the aggregate market value of our common equity held by our non-affiliates exceeded the $700 million threshold when measured as of the last business day of the end of our second quarter of 2018. If our independent registered public accounting firm concludes that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, it may issue an adverse report.

Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results, and cause a decline in the price of our common stock.

If securities analysts do not publish research or if securities analysts or other third parties publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, the price of our common stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that securities analysts and other third parties choose to publish about us. We do not control these analysts or other third parties. The price of our common stock could decline if one or more securities analysts downgrade our common stock or if one or more securities analysts or other third parties publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us or cease publishing reports about us.

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

We intend to retain all of our earnings for the foreseeable future to finance the operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock. As a result, you can expect to receive a return on your investment in our common stock only if the market price of the stock increases.

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Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and by-laws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Amongst other things, these provisions:

In addition, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder becomes an “interested” stockholder.

None.

Our principal executive office is located in Mountain View, California, totaling approximately 42,000 square feet under lease expiring December 2020. We have additional principal office space in Cincinnati, Ohio that includes two spaces totaling approximately 47,000 square feet under leases expiring from November 2023 to June 2024. We maintain additional leased spaces in Marina Del Rey, California, Pleasanton, California, New York, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, Bangalore, India, Paris, France, London, United Kingdom, and Tel Aviv, Israel. We believe our properties are generally suitable to meet our needs for the foreseeable future. In addition, to the extent we require additional space in the future, we believe that it would be readily available on commercially reasonable terms.

We are a party to litigation and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we currently believe that the final outcome of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on our business because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

None.

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PART II

Market Information

Our common stock, $0.00001 par value, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COUP” on March 7, 2014, the date of our IPO. We changed our name to Quotient Technology Inc. on October 20, 2015.  Our common stock began trading on the New York stock Exchange under the symbol “QUOT” on October 21, 2015.

Holders

As of February 18, 2020, there were 52 holders of record of our common stock. Because most of our shares of common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of beneficial stockholders represented by these record holders.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate that we will pay any dividends to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. Instead, we currently plan to retain any earnings to finance the growth of our business. Any future determination relating to dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations and capital requirements as well as other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following is a summary of stock repurchases for each month during the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Performance Graph

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

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This chart compares the cumulative total return on our common stock with that of the Russell 3000 and the S&P North American Technology Sector Index. The chart assumes $100 was invested at the close of market on December 31, 2014, in our common stock, the Russell 3000 and the S&P North American Technology Sector Index, and assumes the reinvestment of any dividends. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

Not applicable.

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You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes to consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, beliefs and expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this prospectus, particularly in “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Overview

Quotient Technology Inc. is an industry leading digital marketing company, providing technology and services that power integrated digital promotions and media programs for consumer packaged goods (“CPG”s) brands and retailers. These programs are delivered across our network, including our flagship consumer brand Coupons.com and our retail partners’ properties. This network provides Quotient with proprietary and licensed data, including online behavior, purchase intent, and retailers’ in-store point-of-sale (“POS”) shopper data, to target shoppers with the most relevant digital promotions and ads. We also deliver digital promotions and media programs to third party publishing properties outside of our network. Customers and partners use Quotient to influence shoppers via digital channels, integrate marketing and merchandising programs, and leverage shopper data and insights to drive measurable sales results.

For our retail partners, we provide a digital platform, Retailer iQ, to directly engage with shoppers across their websites, mobile, ecommerce, and social channels. This platform is generally co-branded or white-labeled through retailers’ savings or loyalty programs and uses shopper data to deliver relevant digital promotions from brand marketers and retailers to shoppers.

Our network is made up of three constituencies: over 2,000 brands from approximately 700 CPGs; retail partners across multiple classes of trade such as grocery retailers, drug, dollar, club, and mass merchandise channels; and consumers visiting our websites, mobile properties, social channels, as well as those of our CPG and retailer partners.

We primarily generate revenue by providing digital promotions and media programs to our customers and partners.

We generate revenue from promotion campaigns, in which CPGs pay us to deliver promotions to consumers through our network of publishers and retail partners. Using shopper data from our retail partners and our proprietary data and audience segments, we deliver targeted and/or personalized digital promotions to shoppers through our network, including our websites and mobile apps, as well as those of our publishers, retailers and other third-party properties. Each time a promotion is activated through our platform or, in some cases, redeemed, we are generally paid a fee. Activation of a digital promotion can include: saving it to a retailer loyalty account or printing it for physical redemption at a retailer. Campaigns are targeted to shoppers, and measured based on performance attributable to retail purchases in near real time.

As our business evolves, we will continue to experiment with different pricing models and fee arrangements with CPGs and retailers, which may impact how we monetize transactions. For example, we are continuing to experiment with ROI-based pricing strategies and service packages, some of which require us to receive fees upon redemption of digital promotions rather than activation, as further discussed below in “Risk Factors”.

Promotion revenues also include our Specialty Retail business, in which specialty stores including clothing, electronics, home improvement and many others offer coupon codes that we distribute. Each time a consumer makes a purchase using a coupon code, a transaction occurs and a distribution fee is generally paid to us.

We also generate revenues from digital media in which CPGs, retailers, and advertising agencies, use our platform to deliver digital advertising. Using shopper data from our retail partners and our proprietary data and audience segments, we target audiences with digital ad campaigns. These ads are delivered to shoppers through our network, including our websites and mobile apps, as well as those of our publishers, retailers and other third-party properties. Campaigns are measured based on optimization and performance, attributing digital ad campaigns to retail purchases in near real time. Media solutions we offer include display, targeted, social influencer, retail search and sponsored products, and audiences. A growing portion of our media campaigns are purchased as an integrated campaign which combines media advertising and promotions in a single campaign. Our media solutions help serve our customers and partners’ needs as they shift more of their marketing dollars to digital channels that can be measured based on campaign performance and attributable sales. In 2019 we purchased Ubimo, a data and media activation platform to strengthen our media solution and accelerate the development of a self-service media platform.

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We generally pay a distribution fee to retailers and publishers for activation or redemption of a digital promotion, for media campaigns, and for use of data for targeting or measurement. We also pay a fee to third-party publishers for traffic acquisition, which consists of delivering campaigns on certain networks or properties. These distribution and third-party service fees are included in our cost of revenues. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – “Non-GAAP Financial Measure and Key Operating Metrics” for more information.

Our operating expenses may increase in the future as we continue to (1) invest in (i) research and development to enhance our platform and investments in newer product offerings; (ii) sales and marketing to acquire new CPG and retailer customers and increase revenues from our existing customers; and; (iii) corporate infrastructure; (2) amortize expenses related to intangibles assets associated with acquisitions and other strategic acquisitions and partnerships; and (3) remeasure contingent consideration related to acquisitions.

For 2019, 2018 and 2017, our revenues were $436.2 million, $387.0 million, and $322.1 million, respectively. Our net loss for 2019, 2018 and 2017 was $37.1 million, $28.3 million, and $15.1 million, respectively.

Seasonality

Some of the Company’s products experience seasonal sales and buying patterns mirroring those in the CPG, retail, advertising, and e-commerce markets, including media buying patterns, back-to-school and holiday campaigns, where demand increases during the second half of the Company’s fiscal year. Seasonality may also be affected by CPG annual budget cycles, as some large CPGs have fiscal years ending in June. We believe that this seasonality pattern has affected, and will continue to affect, our business and the associated revenues during the first half and second half of our fiscal year. We recognized 54% of our annual revenue during the second half of 2019, 2018 and 2017, for each respective period.

Non-GAAP Financial Measure and Key Operating Metrics

Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA”), a non-GAAP financial measure, is a key metric used by our management and our Board of Directors to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve our annual budget, to develop short and long-term operational plans, and to determine bonus payouts. In particular, we believe that the exclusion of certain income and expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA is a key financial metric used by the compensation committee of our Board of Directors in connection with the determination of compensation for our executive officers. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and Board of Directors.

Adjusted EBITDA excludes non-cash charges, such as depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation, because such non-cash expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations and can vary significantly between periods. Additionally, it excludes the effects of interest expense, income taxes, other (income) expense net, change in fair value of escrowed shares and contingent consideration, net, impairment charges for capitalized software development costs, charges related to Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) software implementation costs, certain acquisition related costs and restructuring charges. We exclude certain items because we believe that these costs (benefits) do not reflect expected future operating expenses. Additionally, certain items are inconsistent in amounts and frequency, making it difficult to contribute to a meaningful evaluation of our current or past operating performance.

Net loss, Adjusted EBITDA and number of transactions for each of the periods presented were as follows:

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Our use of Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, for each of the periods presented is as follows:

This non-GAAP financial measure is not intended to be considered in isolation from, as substitute for, or as superior to, the corresponding financial measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because of these and other limitations, Adjusted EBITDA should be considered along with GAAP based financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net loss, and our other GAAP financial results.

Factors Affecting Our Performance

Obtaining high quality promotions and increasing the number of CPG-authorized activations.   Our ability to grow revenue will depend upon our ability to shift more dollars to our platform from our CPG customers, continue to obtain high quality promotions and increase the number of CPG-authorized activations available through our platform. If we are unable to do any of these, growth in our revenue will be adversely affected.

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Increasing revenue from CPGs on our platform.    Our ability to grow our revenue in the future depends upon our ability to continue to increase revenues from existing and new CPGs on our platform through national brand coupons, targeted media and measurement, trade promotions, and increasing the number of brands that are using our platform within each CPG.

Variability in promotional spend by CPGs.    Our revenues may fluctuate due to changes in promotional spending budgets of CPGs and retailers and the timing of their promotional spending. Decisions by major CPGs or retailers to delay or reduce their promotional and media spending, move campaigns, or divert spending away from digital promotions or media could slow our revenue growth or reduce our revenues.

Ability to scale Retail Performance Media and further integrate with Retailers.    Our ability to grow our revenues will depend upon our ability to continue to successfully implement and scale Retailer iQ and Retail Performance Media among retailers. If we are unable to continue to successfully maintain our Retailer iQ and Retail Performance Media partners, or if our retail partners do not provide sufficient support to our platforms, the growth in our revenues will be adversely affected. Our ability to grow our revenue in the future is also dependent upon our ability to further integrate digital promotions and media into retailers’ loyalty or POS systems and other channels so that CPGs and retailers can more effectively engage consumers and drive their own sales.

Growth of our consumer selection and digital offerings.    Our ability to grow our revenue in the future will depend on our ability to innovate and invest in promotion and media solutions, including Retailer iQ, Retailer Performance Media, sponsored product search, mobile solutions for consumers, including digital print, mobile solutions and digital promotion offerings for specialty/franchise retail together with cash-back offers, leverage our reach to consumers and the strength of our platform to broaden the selection and consumers use of digital coupons as well as in-lane targeted promotions, manage the transition from digital print coupons to digital paperless coupons as well as the transition from desktop to mobile platforms, and invest in solutions around our data and analytic capabilities, referred to as Quotient Analytics Cloud and Quotient Audience Cloud, for CPGs and retailers.

International Growth and Acquisitions.   Our ability to grow our revenues will also depend on our ability to grow our operations and offerings in existing international markets and expand our business through selective acquisitions, similar to our acquisitions of Ahalogy, Crisp, Elevaate, SavingStar, Shopmium and Ubimo and their integration with the core business of the Company.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenues

We generate revenues by delivering digital promotions, including coupons, rebates and coupon codes, and digital media through our platform. CPGs and retailers choose one or more of our offerings and are charged a fee for each selected offering. Our customers generally submit insertion orders that outline the terms and conditions of a campaign, including the channels through which the campaign will be run, the offerings for each selected channel, the type of content to be delivered, the timeframe of the campaign, the number of authorized activations and the pricing of the campaign. Substantially all of our revenues are generated from sales within the United States.

Coupons.    We generate revenues, as consumers select, activate, or redeem a coupon through our platform by either saving it to a retailer loyalty account for automatic digital redemption, or printing it for physical redemption at a retailer. Coupon setup fees relates to the creation of digital coupons and set up of the underlying campaign on our proprietary platform for tracking of related activations or redemptions. We recognize revenues related to coupon setup fees over time, proportionally, on a per transaction basis, using the number of authorized transactions per insertion order, commencing on the date of the first coupon transaction. Coupon transaction fees are generally determined on a per unit activation or per redemption basis, and are generally billed monthly. Insertion orders generally include a limit on the number of activations, or times consumers may select a coupon.

Coupon Codes.     We generally generate revenues when a consumer makes a purchase using a coupon code from our platform and completion of the order is reported to us. This leads to a transaction, and a distribution fee is generally paid to us. In the same period that we recognize revenues for the delivery of coupon codes, we also estimate and record a reserve, based upon historical experience, to provide for end-user cancelations or product returns which may not be reported until a subsequent date.

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Digital Media.    Our media services enable CPGs and retailers to distribute digital media to promote their brands and products on our websites, and mobile apps, and through a network of affiliate publishers and non-publisher third parties that display our media offerings on their websites or mobile apps. Revenue is generally recognized each time a digital media ad is displayed or each time a user clicks on the media ad displayed on the Company’s websites, mobile apps or on third party websites. Media pricing is generally determined on a per campaign, impression or per click basis and are generally billed monthly. Changes to the way we process and deliver media could affect whether revenue is recognized on a gross or net basis.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues includes the costs resulting from distribution fees. If we deliver a digital promotion or media on a retailer’s website or mobile apps or through its loyalty program, or the website or mobile apps of a publisher, we generally pay a distribution fee to the retailers or publisher which is included in our cost of revenues. These costs are expensed as incurred. We generally do not pay a distribution fee for a coupon or code which is offered through the website of the CPG or retailer that is offering the coupon or coupon code. From time to time, we have entered into arrangements pursuant to which we have agreed to the payment of minimum distribution or other service fees that are included in our cost of revenues.

Cost of revenues also includes personnel compensation costs, depreciation and amortization expense of equipment, software and acquired intangible assets associated with revenue producing technologies, amortization of certain exclusivity rights acquired under strategic partnerships, data center costs and third-party service fees including traffic acquisition costs which consists of payments related to delivering campaigns on certain networks or sites, and purchase of third-party data. Personnel costs related to costs of revenues include salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation and employee benefits. These costs are primarily attributable to individuals maintaining our data centers and members of our network operations group, which initiates, sets up and delivers digital promotion and media campaigns. We capitalize costs related to software that is developed or obtained for internal use. Costs incurred in connection with internal software development for revenue producing technologies are capitalized and are amortized in cost of revenues over the internal use software’s useful life. The amortization of these costs begins when the internally developed software is ready for its intended use.

Operating Expenses

We classify our operating expenses primarily into three categories: sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative. Our operating expenses consist primarily of personnel compensation costs and, to a lesser extent, professional fees and facilities expense. Personnel costs for each category of operating expenses generally include salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation and employee benefits.

Sales and marketing.    Our sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel compensation costs (including salaries and benefits, sales commissions, and stock-based compensation) provided to our sales and marketing personnel, brand marketing, amortization of acquired intangible asset costs associated with professional services, travel, trade shows and marketing materials. We expect to continue to invest in sales and marketing in order to support our growth and business objectives, while continuing to optimize our investment in promotional and advertising activities.

Research and development.    Our research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel compensation costs (including salaries and benefits, bonuses, and stock-based compensation) provided to our engineering personnel, costs of professional services associated with the ongoing development of new products and the enhancement of existing products; fees for design, testing, consulting, and other related services.

We believe that continued investment in technology, as well as business process and automation, is critical to attaining our strategic objectives. Our investment in research and development will be balanced with our continued operational and cost optimization efforts including headcount shift to low cost locations, as it provides us with the ability to invest in strategic areas, while managing growth in future periods.

General and administrative.    Our general and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel compensation costs (including salaries and benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation) provided to our executives, finance, legal, human resources, compliance and other administrative personnel, as well as facility costs and other related overheads; accounting, tax and legal professional services fees and other corporate expenses.

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We expect to continue to incur additional general and administrative expenses in future periods as we continue to invest in corporate infrastructure to support our expected growth as well as additional compliance costs associated with being a public Company.

Change in fair value of escrowed shares and contingent consideration, net.    The change in fair value of escrowed shares relates to the acquisition of certain exclusivity rights under a services and data agreement whereby a certain amount of shares were issued and placed in escrow. Those shares are subject to re-measurement until they are released from escrow. The change in fair value of contingent consideration is due to the re-measurement contingent consideration liabilities resulting from acquisitions based on the expected achievement of certain financial metrics over each acquisition’s respective contingent consideration period.

Interest expense

Interest expense consists of cash coupon interest, accretion of debt discounts and issuance costs and primarily relates to our debt obligations under our convertible senior notes issued during the fourth quarter of 2017.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Other income (expense), net, includes interest income on short-term certificate of deposits and foreign currency exchange gains and losses.

Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes

We recorded a provision for income taxes of $0.7 million and $0.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and a benefit from income taxes $0.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The provision for income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 was primarily the impact of the indefinite lived deferred tax liabilities related to tax deductible goodwill, change in the geographical mix of earnings in foreign jurisdictions and state taxes. The benefit from income taxes for the year ended December 31, 2017 was primarily attributable to the impact of the re-measurement of certain indefinite lived deferred tax liabilities related to tax deductible goodwill as a result of the Tax Act.

Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our consolidated results of operations and our consolidated results of operations as a percentage of revenues for the periods presented.

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Disaggregated Revenue

The following table presents the Company’s revenues disaggregated by type of services. The majority of the Company’s revenue is generated from sales within the United States.

Revenues

Revenues increased by $49.2 million, or 13%, during the year ended December 31, 2019, as compared to 2018. The increase was primarily due to growth in media revenue as a result of an increase in adoption of our media product offerings. During 2019, revenues from digital promotion and media campaigns were 57% and 43% of total revenues, respectively, as compared to 63% and 37% of total revenues, respectively, for 2018.

Revenues increased by $64.8 million, or 20%, during the year ended December 31, 2018, as compared to the same period in 2017. The increase was primarily due to growth in media revenue, including incremental revenue related to our acquisition of Ahalogy in the second quarter of 2018, and promotions driven by the continued growth of Retailer iQ transactions. During 2018, revenues from promotion transactions and media were 63% and 37% of total revenues, respectively, as compared to 74% and 26% of total revenues, respectively, for 2017.

We expect to see variability in our results quarter over quarter in the future as we continue to integrate our digital promotions and media solutions into retailers’ in-store and point of sale systems and consumer channels, and as we continue to manage digital print trends. We expect revenue growth in 2020 from increased media revenues as well as promotion revenues with anticipated marketing campaigns as well as adoption of our platform by consumers. During the second half of 2020, we expect revenue to be approximately 57% of our annual revenue.

Beginning the second quarter of 2020, for certain media arrangements, we will start to perform media services under the specific direction of our customers and therefore we will no longer control the media inventory before it is transferred to the customer. Accordingly, we will not be the principal in those arrangements and will recognize revenue net of certain costs resulting in reduced revenue growth.

Cost of Revenues and Gross Profit

Cost of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2019 increased by $57.4 million, or 28%, as compared to the same period in 2018. The increase was primarily due to product mix shift, as revenues from media, as a percentage of revenue, continue to increase as compared to promotion revenue (such media revenues have higher data and traffic acquisition costs related to offsite media on non-owned-and-operated properties) contributing to an increase of $52.9 million in data and traffic acquisition costs for offsite media on non-owned-and-operated properties as well as an increase in distribution fees paid to our partners for promotions and media revenues delivered through their platforms, an increase in amortization expense of $6.8 million related to acquired intangible assets as well as certain exclusivity rights acquired under strategic partnerships, an increase in compensation costs, including stock-based compensation of $1.2 million, partially offset by a decrease in data center expenses of $2.7 million, a decrease in restructuring charges of $0.5 million, and an decrease in overhead expenses related to facilities and infrastructure support of $0.3 million.

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Gross margin for the year ended December 31, 2019 decreased to 40% from 47%, as compared to the same period in 2018. The decrease was primarily due to the continued shift in our product mix as revenues from media, which have higher data and traffic acquisition costs related to offsite media, as a percentage of our total revenue, continue to increase compared to our promotion revenue. The decrease is also attributable to an increase in distribution fees paid to our partners for promotions and media revenues delivered through their platform, as well as an increase in amortization expense related to acquired intangible assets.