TRAVELZOO - Quarter Report: 2005 September (Form 10-Q)
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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-Q
þ | QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2005
Or
o | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission File No.: 000-50171
TRAVELZOO INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
DELAWARE | 36-4415727 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of | (I.R.S. Employer | |
incorporation or organization) | Identification No.) |
590 Madison Avenue, 21st Floor, | 10022 | |
New York, New York | (Zip Code) | |
(Address of principal executive offices) |
Registrants telephone number, including area code: (212) 521-4200
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 þ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule
12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule
12b-2 of the Act). Yes o No þ
As of November 11, 2005, the registrant had outstanding 16,250,479 shares of its $0.01
par value common stock.
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TRAVELZOO INC.
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PART IFINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1. Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
TRAVELZOO INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(Unaudited)
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(Unaudited)
September 30, | December 31, | |||||||
2005 | 2004 | |||||||
ASSETS |
||||||||
Current assets: |
||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 22,734,903 | $ | 26,434,989 | ||||
Short term investments |
19,918,000 | 10,031,738 | ||||||
Accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtful accounts of $206,712 and $127,547 as of
September 30, 2005 and December 31, 2004, respectively |
8,289,900 | 5,327,279 | ||||||
Deposits |
123,215 | 163,130 | ||||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets |
375,811 | 674,208 | ||||||
Deferred income taxes |
370,559 | 390,895 | ||||||
Total current assets |
51,812,388 | 43,022,239 | ||||||
Deposits, less current portion |
91,401 | | ||||||
Deferred income taxes |
43,237 | 43,237 | ||||||
Property and equipment, net |
147,497 | 108,399 | ||||||
Intangible assets, net |
34,034 | 83,563 | ||||||
Total assets |
$ | 52,128,557 | $ | 43,257,438 | ||||
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS EQUITY |
||||||||
Current liabilities: |
||||||||
Accounts payable |
$ | 700,835 | $ | 439,425 | ||||
Accrued expenses |
3,649,336 | 2,464,269 | ||||||
Deferred revenue |
311,508 | 91,137 | ||||||
Income tax payable |
619,090 | | ||||||
Total liabilities |
5,280,769 | 2,994,831 | ||||||
Commitments and contingencies
|
||||||||
Stockholders equity: |
||||||||
Common stock |
162,505 | 162,332 | ||||||
Additional paid-in capital |
30,606,705 | 30,299,991 | ||||||
Accumulated other comprehensive income |
(30,357 | ) | | |||||
Retained earnings |
16,108,935 | 9,800,284 | ||||||
Total stockholders equity |
46,847,788 | 40,262,607 | ||||||
Total liabilities and stockholders equity |
$ | 52,128,557 | $ | 43,257,438 | ||||
See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
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TRAVELZOO INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Unaudited)
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | |||||||||||||||
September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||||
2005 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 | |||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ | 13,384,340 | $ | 9,507,188 | $ | 36,870,898 | $ | 23,170,610 | ||||||||
Cost of revenues |
225,275 | 183,542 | 628,867 | 528,977 | ||||||||||||
Gross profit |
13,159,065 | 9,323,646 | 36,242,031 | 22,641,633 | ||||||||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
7,101,026 | 4,338,518 | 18,282,597 | 11,462,392 | ||||||||||||
General and administrative |
1,878,494 | 1,657,152 | 6,613,814 | 3,873,254 | ||||||||||||
Total operating expenses |
8,979,520 | 5,995,670 | 24,896,411 | 15,335,646 | ||||||||||||
Income from operations |
4,179,545 | 3,327,976 | 11,345,620 | 7,305,987 | ||||||||||||
Other income and expense: |
||||||||||||||||
Interest income |
278,600 | 9,090 | 656,333 | 20,868 | ||||||||||||
Foreign currency gain (loss) |
(4,117 | ) | | (8,238 | ) | | ||||||||||
Income before income taxes |
4,454,028 | 3,337,066 | 11,993,715 | 7,326,855 | ||||||||||||
Income taxes |
2,155,790 | 1,371,250 | 5,685,065 | 3,018,042 | ||||||||||||
Net income |
$ | 2,298,238 | $ | 1,965,816 | $ | 6,308,650 | $ | 4,308,813 | ||||||||
Basic net income per share |
$ | 0.14 | $ | 0.13 | $ | 0.39 | $ | 0.25 | ||||||||
Diluted net income per share |
$ | 0.13 | $ | 0.11 | $ | 0.35 | $ | 0.23 | ||||||||
Shares used in computing basic
net income per share |
16,250,479 | 15,488,204 | 16,248,688 | 17,111,490 | ||||||||||||
Shares used in computing diluted
net income per share |
17,695,044 | 17,292,962 | 17,897,288 | 18,561,924 |
See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
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TRAVELZOO INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(Unaudited)
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(Unaudited)
Nine Months Ended September 30, | ||||||||
2005 | 2004 | |||||||
Cash flows from operating activities: |
||||||||
Net income |
$ | 6,308,650 | $ | 4,308,813 | ||||
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: |
||||||||
Depreciation and amortization |
126,270 | 120,686 | ||||||
Deferred income taxes |
20,336 | | ||||||
Provision for losses on accounts receivable |
79,364 | 111,519 | ||||||
Tax benefit of stock option exercises |
396,067 | 943,110 | ||||||
Accrued interest income from short-term investments |
(268,109 | ) | | |||||
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: |
||||||||
Accounts receivable |
(3,049,883 | ) | (2,586,547 | ) | ||||
Deposits |
(52,007 | ) | (22,307 | ) | ||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets |
296,373 | (154,332 | ) | |||||
Accounts payable |
266,415 | 84,256 | ||||||
Accrued expenses |
1,187,506 | 410,867 | ||||||
Deferred revenue |
220,420 | 154,580 | ||||||
Income tax payable |
619,090 | (1,105,773 | ) | |||||
Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities |
6,150,492 | 2,264,872 | ||||||
Cash flows from investing activities: |
||||||||
Purchases of property and equipment |
(116,892 | ) | (38,908 | ) | ||||
Purchase of short-term investments |
(29,691,479 | ) | | |||||
Sale of short-term investments |
20,073,326 | | ||||||
Net cash used in investing activities |
(9,735,045 | ) | (38,908 | ) | ||||
Cash flows from financing activities: |
||||||||
Issuance costs incurred in connection with 2004 issuance of common stock |
(123,732 | ) | | |||||
Proceeds from stock option exercises |
34,550 | 295,767 | ||||||
Recovery of profit from purchase and sale of stock by employees |
| 34,390 | ||||||
Net cash used in financing activities |
(89,182 | ) | 330,157 | |||||
Effect of exchange rate on cash and cash equivalents |
(26,351 | ) | | |||||
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents |
(3,700,086 | ) | 2,556,121 | |||||
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period |
26,434,989 | 3,521,637 | ||||||
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period |
$ | 22,734,903 | $ | 6,077,758 | ||||
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information: |
||||||||
Cash paid for income taxes |
$ | 4,649,572 | $ | 3,180,705 | ||||
See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
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TRAVELZOO INC.
NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)
NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)
Note 1: The Company and Basis of Presentation
Travelzoo Inc. (the Company or Travelzoo) is an Internet media company. The Companys
publications include the Travelzoo Web sites (www.travelzoo.com and www.travelzoo.co.uk), the
Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter, and the Newsflash e-mail product. The Company also operates
SuperSearch, a pay-per-click travel search engine.
Travelzoo is controlled by Ralph Bartel, who held approximately 78% of the outstanding shares
as of November 1, 2005.
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by
the Company in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC). Certain information and footnote disclosure normally included in consolidated financial
statements prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United
States of America have been condensed or omitted in accordance with such rules and regulations. In
the opinion of management, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements
reflect all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, necessary to present
fairly the financial position of the Company, and its results of operations and cash flows. These
condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Companys
audited consolidated financial statements and related notes as of and for the year ended December
31, 2004, included in the Companys Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 31, 2005.
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned
subsidiaries. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in
consolidation.
The results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 are not necessarily
indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2005 or any other
future period, and the Company makes no representations related thereto.
The Company was formed as a result of a combination and merger of entities founded by the
Companys majority stockholder, Ralph Bartel. In 1998, Mr. Bartel founded Travelzoo.com
Corporation, a Bahamas corporation, which issued 5,155,874 shares via the Internet to approximately
700,000 Netsurfer stockholders for no cash consideration. In 1998, Mr. Bartel also founded
Silicon Channels Corporation, a California corporation, to operate the Travelzoo Web site. During
2001, Travelzoo Inc. was formed as a subsidiary of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and Mr. Bartel
contributed all of the outstanding shares of Silicon Channels to Travelzoo Inc. in exchange for
8,129,273 shares of Travelzoo Inc. and options to acquire an additional 2,158,349 shares at $1.00.
The merger was accounted for as a combination of entities under common control using as-if
pooling-of-interests accounting. Under this method of accounting, the assets and liabilities of
Silicon Channels Corporation and Travelzoo Inc. were carried forward to the combined company at
their historical costs. In addition, all prior period financial statements of Travelzoo Inc. were
restated to include the combined results of operations, financial position and cash flows of
Silicon Channels Corporation.
During January 2001, the Board of Directors of Travelzoo.com Corporation proposed that
Travelzoo.com Corporation be merged with Travelzoo Inc. whereby Travelzoo Inc. would be the
surviving entity. On March 15, 2002, the stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation approved the
merger with Travelzoo Inc. On April 25, 2002, the certificate of merger was filed in Delaware upon
which the merger became effective and Travelzoo.com Corporation ceased to exist. Each outstanding
share of common stock of Travelzoo.com Corporation was converted into the right to receive one
share of common stock of Travelzoo Inc. Under and subject to the terms of the merger agreement,
stockholders were allowed a period of two years following the effective date of the merger to
receive shares of Travelzoo Inc. The records of Travelzoo.com Corporation showed that, assuming all
of the shares applied for by the Netsurfer stockholders were validly issued, there were 11,295,874
shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation outstanding. As of April 25, 2004, two years following the
effective date of the merger, 7,180,342 shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation had been exchanged for
shares of Travelzoo Inc. Prior to that date, the remaining shares which were available for issuance
pursuant to the merger agreement were included in the issued and outstanding common stock of
Travelzoo Inc. and included in the calculation of basic and diluted earnings per share. After April
25, 2004, the Company ceased issuing shares to the former stockholders of Travelzoo.com
Corporation, and no additional shares are reserved for issuance to any former stockholders, because
their right to receive shares has now expired. On April 25, 2004, the number of shares reported as
outstanding was reduced from 19,425,147 to 15,309,615 to reflect
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actual shares issued as of the expiration date. Earnings per share calculations reflect the
reduction of the number of shares reported as outstanding. As of September 30, 2005, there were
16,250,479 shares of common stock outstanding.
It is possible that claims may be asserted against the Company in the future by former
stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation seeking to receive shares in the Company, whether based
on a claim that the two-year deadline for exchanging their shares was unenforceable or otherwise.
In addition, one or more jurisdictions, including the Bahamas or the State of Delaware, may assert
rights to unclaimed shares of the Company under escheat statutes. If such escheat claims are
asserted, the Company intends to challenge the applicability of escheat rights, in that, among
other reasons, the identity, residency and eligibility of the holders in question cannot be
determined. There were certain conditions applicable to the issuance of shares to the Netsurfer
stockholders, including requirements that (i) they be at least 18 years of age, (ii) they be
residents of the U.S. or Canada and (iii) they not apply for shares more than once. The Netsurfer
stockholders were required to confirm their compliance with these conditions, and were advised that
failure to comply could result in cancellation of their shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation.
Travelzoo.com Corporation was not able to verify that the applicants met the requirements referred
to above at the time of their applications for issuance of shares. If claims are asserted by
persons claiming to be former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, the Company intends to
assert that their rights to receive their shares expired two years following the effective date of
the merger, as provided in the merger agreement. The Company also expects to take the position, if
escheat or similar claims are asserted in respect of the unissued shares in the future, that it is
not required to issue such shares. Further, even if it were established that unissued shares were
subject to escheat claims, the Company would assert that the claimant must establish that the
original Netsurfer stockholders complied with the conditions to issuance of their shares. The
Company is not able to predict the outcome of any future claims which might be asserted relating to
the unissued shares. If such claims were asserted, and were fully successful, that could result in
the Companys being required to issue up to an additional approximately 4,080,000 shares of common
stock for no additional payment.
On October 15, 2004, the Company announced a program under which it would make cash payments
to persons who establish that they were former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who
failed to submit requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. The
accompanying consolidated financial statements include a charge in general and administrative
expenses of $61,000 for these cash payments for the three months ended September 30, 2005 and
$1,191,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 of which $6,000 remains as a liability as
of September 30, 2005. The liability is based on the number of actual requests received from former
stockholders through September 30, 2005 which had not yet been processed. The total cost of this
program is not reliably estimable because it is based on the ultimate number of valid requests
received and future levels of the Companys common stock price. The Companys common stock price
affects the liability because the amount of cash payments under the program is based in part on the
recent level of the stock price at the date valid requests are received. The Company does not know
how many of the requests for shares originally received by Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 were
valid, but the Company believes that only a portion of such requests were valid. As noted above,
in order to receive payment under the program, a person is required to establish that such person
validly held shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation. Assuming 100% of the requests from 1998 were
valid, former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation holding an additional approximately
4,080,000 shares had not submitted claims under the program as of September 30, 2005.
The merger of Travelzoo.com Corporation into Travelzoo Inc. was accounted for as a combination
of entities under common control using as-if pooling-of-interests accounting. Under this method
of accounting, the assets and liabilities of Travelzoo.com Corporation and Travelzoo Inc. were
carried forward at their historical costs. In addition, all prior period financial statements of
Travelzoo Inc. were restated to include the combined results of operations, financial position and
cash flows of Travelzoo.com Corporation. The restated results of operations and cash flows of
Travelzoo Inc. are identical to the combined results of Travelzoo.com Corporation and Travelzoo
Inc.
Note 2: Revenue Recognition
All revenue consists of advertising sales. Advertising revenues are principally derived from
the sale of advertising in the U.S. on the Travelzoo Web site, in the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail
newsletter, in Newsflash, and in SuperSearch. Revenues generated from the Companys operations in
the U.K. were approximately $368,000 and $378,000 during the three months ended September 30, 2005
and the period from May 4, 2005 (inception) to September 30, 2005, respectively.
The Company recognizes revenues in accordance with Securities and Exchange Commission Staff
Accounting Bulletin No. 104, Revenue Recognition. Advertising revenues are recognized in the period
in which the advertisement is displayed, provided that evidence of an arrangement exists, the fees
are fixed or determinable and collection of the resulting receivable is reasonably assured. Where
collectibility is not reasonably assured, the revenue will be recognized upon cash collection,
provided that the other criteria for revenue recognition have been met. The Company recognizes
revenue for fixed-fee advertising arrangements ratably over the term of
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the insertion order as described below. The majority of insertion orders have terms that begin
and end in a quarterly reporting period. In the cases where at the end of a quarterly reporting
period the term of an insertion order is not complete, the Company recognizes revenue for the
period by pro-rating the total arrangement fee to revenue and deferred revenue based on a measure
of proportionate performance of its obligation under the insertion order. The Company measures
proportionate performance by the number of placements delivered and undelivered as of the reporting
date. The Company uses prices stated on its internal rate card for measuring the value of delivered
and undelivered placements. Fees for variable-fee advertising arrangements are recognized based on
the number of impressions displayed or clicks delivered during the period.
Under these policies, no revenue is recognized unless persuasive evidence of an arrangement
exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collection is deemed
reasonably assured. The Company evaluates each of these criteria as follows:
| Evidence of an arrangement. The Company considers an insertion order signed by the client or its agency to be evidence of an arrangement. | ||
| Delivery. Delivery is considered to occur when the advertising has been displayed and, if applicable, the click-throughs have been delivered. | ||
| Fixed or determinable fee. The Company considers the fee to be fixed or determinable if the fee is not subject to refund or adjustment and payment terms are standard. | ||
| Collection is deemed reasonably assured. The Company conducts a credit review for all transactions at the time of the arrangement to determine the creditworthiness of the client. Collection is deemed reasonably assured if it is expected that the client will be able to pay amounts under the arrangement as payments become due. If it is determined that collection is not reasonably assured, then revenue is deferred and recognized upon cash collection. Collection is deemed not reasonably assured when a client is perceived to be in financial distress, which may be evidenced by weak industry conditions, a bankruptcy filing, or previously billed amounts that are past due. |
The Companys standard payment terms are 30 days net. Insertion orders that include fixed-fee
advertising are invoiced upon acceptance of the insertion order and on the first day of each month
over the term of the insertion order, with the exception of Travelzoo Top 20 or Newsflash listings,
which are invoiced upon delivery. Insertion orders that include variable-fee advertising are
invoiced at the end of the month. The Companys standard terms state that in the event that
Travelzoo fails to publish advertisements as specified in the insertion order, the liability of
Travelzoo to the client shall be limited to, at Travelzoos sole discretion, a pro rata refund of
the advertising fee, the placement of the advertisements at a later time in a comparable position,
or the extension of the term of the insertion order until the advertising is fully delivered. The
Company believes that no significant obligations exist after the full delivery of advertising.
Revenues from advertising sold to clients through agencies are reported at the net amount
billed to the agency.
Note 3: Stock-based Compensation
The Company did not provide any stock-based compensation in fiscal years 2003 and 2004 or in
the nine months ended September 30, 2005. In addition, all previously issued options vested prior
to January 1, 2002. Accordingly, there would be no impact on net income due to the adoption of
Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation, as
amended, for the three or nine months ended September 30, 2005 or 2004.
Note 4: Net Income Per Share
Net income per share has been calculated in accordance with SFAS No. 128, Earnings per Share.
Basic net income per share is computed by dividing the net income by the weighted-average number of
reported common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted net income per share is computed by
dividing net income by the weighted-average number of reported common shares and potential common
shares outstanding during the period. Potential common shares included in the diluted calculation
consists of incremental shares issuable upon the exercise of outstanding stock options calculated
using the treasury stock method.
The following table sets forth the calculation of basic and diluted net income per share:
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Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | |||||||||||||||
September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||||
2005 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 | |||||||||||||
Basic net income per share: |
||||||||||||||||
Net income |
$ | 2,298,238 | $ | 1,965,816 | $ | 6,308,650 | $ | 4,308,813 | ||||||||
Weighted average common shares |
16,250,479 | 15,488,204 | 16,248,688 | 17,111,490 | ||||||||||||
Basic net income per share |
$ | 0.14 | $ | 0.13 | $ | 0.39 | $ | 0.25 | ||||||||
Diluted net income per share: |
||||||||||||||||
Net income |
$ | 2,298,238 | $ | 1,965,816 | $ | 6,308,650 | $ | 4,308,813 | ||||||||
Weighted average common shares |
16,250,479 | 15,448,204 | 16,248,688 | 17,111,490 | ||||||||||||
Effect of dilutive securities: stock options |
1,444,565 | 1,844,758 | 1,648,600 | 1,450,434 | ||||||||||||
Diluted weighted average common shares |
17,695,044 | 17,292,962 | 17,897,288 | 18,561,924 | ||||||||||||
Diluted net income per share |
$ | 0.13 | $ | 0.11 | $ | 0.35 | $ | 0.23 | ||||||||
Note 5: Commitments and Contingencies
The Company leases office space in Chicago, London (United Kingdom), Miami, Mountain View
(California), and New York. These operating leases expire on December 31, 2007, April 30, 2007,
December 31, 2006, December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2005, respectively. The future minimum rental
payments under these operating leases as of September 30, 2005, and December 31, 2004 total
$1,328,000 and $1,082,000, respectively. The future lease payments consist of $308,000 of payments
due in 2005, $570,000 of payments due in 2006, and $450,000 of payments due in 2007.
It is possible that claims may be asserted against the Company in the future by former
stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation seeking to receive shares in the Company, whether based
on a claim that the two-year deadline for exchanging their shares was unenforceable or otherwise.
In addition, one or more jurisdictions, including the Bahamas or the State of Delaware, may assert
rights to unclaimed shares of the Company under escheat statutes. If such escheat claims are
asserted, the Company intends to challenge the applicability of escheat rights, in that, among
other reasons, the identity, residency and eligibility of the holders in question cannot be
determined. There were certain conditions applicable to the issuance of shares to the Netsurfer
stockholders, including requirements that (i) they be at least 18 years of age, (ii) they be
residents of the U.S. or Canada and (iii) they not apply for shares more than once. The Netsurfer
stockholders were required to confirm their compliance with these conditions, and were advised that
failure to comply could result in cancellation of their shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation.
Travelzoo.com Corporation was not able to verify that the applicants met the requirements referred
to above at the time of their applications for issuance of shares. If claims are asserted by
persons claiming to be former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, the Company intends to
assert that their rights to receive their shares expired two years following the effective date of
the merger, as provided in the merger agreement. The Company also expects to take the position, if
escheat or similar claims are asserted in respect of the unissued shares in the future, that it is
not required to issue such shares. Further, even if it were established that unissued shares were
subject to escheat claims, the Company would assert that the claimant must establish that the
original Netsurfer stockholders complied with the conditions to issuance of their shares. The
Company is not able to predict the outcome of any future claims which might be asserted relating to
the unissued shares. If such claims were asserted, and were fully successful, that could result in
the Companys being required to issue up to an additional approximately 4,080,000 shares of common
stock for no additional payment.
On October 15, 2004, the Company announced a program under which it would make cash payments
to persons who establish that they were former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who
failed to submit requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. The
accompanying consolidated financial statements included a charge in general and administrative
expenses of $61,000 for these cash payments for the three months ended September 30, 2005 and
$1,191,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 of which $6,000 remains as a liability as
of September 30, 2005. The liability is based on the number of actual requests received from former
stockholders through the reporting date which had not yet been processed. The total cost of this
program is not reliably estimable because it is based on the ultimate number of valid requests
received and future levels of the Companys common stock price. The Companys common stock price
affects the liability because the amount of cash payments under the program is based in part on the
recent level of the stock price at the date valid requests are received. The Company does not know
how many of the requests for shares originally received by Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 were
valid, but the Company believes that only a portion of such requests were valid. As noted above,
in order to receive payment under the program, a person is required to establish that such person
validly held shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation. Assuming 100% of the requests from 1998 were
valid, former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation holding approximately 4,080,000 shares had
not submitted claims under the program.
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Note 6: Significant Customer Information and Segment Reporting
SFAS No. 131, Disclosure about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, establishes
standards for the reporting by business enterprises of information about operating segments,
products and services, geographic areas, and major customers. The method for determining what
information to report is based on the way that management organizes the operating segments within a
company for making operational decisions and assessing performance. The Company has two operating
segments: North America and Europe. North America consists of the Companys U.S. operations.
Europe consists of the Companys U.K. operations. The Company began operations in the U.K. in May
2005. However, as of September 30, 2005, European operations and assets were not material, being
less than 5% of revenues and assets, so detailed reporting has not been presented.
Significant customer information is as follows:
Percent of | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Percent of | Percent of | Accounts | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues | Revenues | Receivable | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Three Months Ended September 30, | Nine Months Ended September 30, | September 30, | December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
Customer | 2005 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||
A |
12 | % | 15 | % | 16 | % | 10 | % | 13 | % | 20 | % | ||||||||||||
B |
* | * | * | * | 13 | % | 12 | % | ||||||||||||||||
C |
* | 10 | % | * | * | * | 13 | % |
All of the above customers are located in the U.S.
* Less than 10%
Note 7: Comprehensive Income
In accordance with SFAS 130, Reporting Comprehensive Income, the Company is required to
display comprehensive income and loss and its components as part of the Companys consolidated
financial statements. Accumulated other comprehensive income of $30,000 for the nine months periods
ended September 30, 2005 is comprised entirely of foreign currency translation adjustments recorded
since the inception of Travelzoo (Europe) Ltd, formerly known as Travelzoo UK Ltd, in May 2005.
Note 8: Foreign Currency Translation
The functional currency of the Companys foreign subsidiary is deemed to be the local currency
for the subsidiary. Current assets and current liabilities recorded in foreign currencies are
translated into U.S. dollars at period-end exchange rates, and revenues and expenses are translated
at average exchange rates during the period. The effects of foreign currency translation
adjustments are included in other income (expense), net in the consolidated statements of
operations. The effects of foreign currency translation adjustments are included in accumulated
other comprehensive income (loss) within equity in the consolidated balance sheet. All
transactional gains or losses on foreign currency transactions are recognized in other income
(expense), net in the consolidated statement of operations.
Note 9: Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In December 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued SFAS 123R, Share-Based
Payment, which requires the measurement of all share-based payments to employees, including grants
of employee stock options, using a fair-value-based method and the recording of such expense in the
statement of operations. The accounting provisions of SFAS 123R are effective for fiscal years
beginning after June 15, 2005. The Company will adopt SFAS 123R on January 1, 2006. The pro forma
disclosures previously permitted under SFAS 123 no longer will be an alternative to financial
statement recognition. As of September 30, 2005, the Company had no unvested stock-based
compensation awards outstanding. Therefore, the Company does not expect the adoption of SFAS 123R
to have a material effect on the Companys consolidated statement of operations. If, however, the
Company grants stock options in future periods, these options would be valued pursuant to SFAS 123R
and would result in stock compensation expense that could be material.
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Item 2. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The information in this report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements are based upon current expectations, assumptions,
estimates and projections about Travelzoo and our industry. These forward-looking statements are
subject to the many risks and uncertainties that exist in our operations and business environment
that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Travelzoo to be different from those
expected or anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Any statements contained herein that are
not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. For example,
words such as may, will, should, estimates, predicts, potential, continue,
strategy, believes, anticipates, plans, expects, intends, and similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. Travelzoos actual results and the timing of
certain events could differ significantly from those anticipated in such forward-looking
statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such a discrepancy include, but are not
limited to, those discussed elsewhere in this Report in the section entitled Risk Factors and the
risks discussed in our other Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. The
forward-looking statements included in this report reflect the beliefs of our management on the
date of this report. Travelzoo undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking
statements.
Overview
Travelzoo Inc. (the Company or Travelzoo) is an Internet media company that publishes
travel offers from hundreds of travel companies. As the Internet is becoming consumers preferred
medium to search for travel offers, we provide airlines, hotels, cruise lines, vacation packagers,
and other travel companies with a fast, flexible, and cost-effective way to reach millions of
users. While our products provide advertising opportunities for travel companies, they also provide
Internet users with a free source of information on current sales and specials from hundreds of
travel companies.
Our publications include the Travelzoo Web sites (www.travelzoo.com and www.travelzoo.co.uk),
the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter, and the Newsflash e-mail product. The Company also operates
SuperSearch, a pay-per-click travel search engine. More than 300 travel companies purchase our
advertising services.
We have two operating segments based on geographic regions: North America and Europe. North
America consists of our U.S. operations. Europe consists of our U.K. operations which began in May
2005. As of September 30, 2005, European operations were less than 5% of revenues.
Our revenues are advertising revenues, consisting of listing fees paid by travel companies to
advertise their offers on the Travelzoo Web sites, in the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter, in
the Newsflash e-mail product, and in SuperSearch, a pay-per-click travel search engine. Revenues
are principally generated from the sale of advertising on our Travelzoo Web site and in our
Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter. Listing fees are based on placement, number of listings, number of
impressions, or number of clickthroughs. Smaller advertising agreements typically $4,000 or less
per month typically renew automatically each month if they are not terminated by the client.
Larger agreements are typically related to advertising campaigns and are not automatically renewed.
When evaluating the financial condition and operating performance of the Company, management
focuses on the following financial and non-financial indicators:
| Growth of number of subscribers of the Companys newsletters and page views of the homepages of the Travelzoo Web sites; | ||
| Growth in revenues in the absolute and relative to the growth in reach of the Companys products; | ||
| Operating margin; | ||
| Revenue per employee as a measure of productivity. |
Critical Accounting Policies
We believe that there are a number of accounting policies that are critical to understanding
our historical and future performance, as these policies affect the reported amounts of revenue and
the more significant areas involving managements judgments and estimates. These significant
accounting policies relate to revenue recognition, the allowance for doubtful accounts, and
liabilities to former stockholders. These policies, and our procedures related to these policies,
are described in detail below.
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Revenue Recognition
We recognize revenue on arrangements in accordance with Securities and Exchange Commission
Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104, Revenue Recognition. We recognize advertising revenues in the
period in which the advertisement is displayed, provided that evidence of an arrangement exists,
the fees are fixed or determinable and collection of the resulting receivable is reasonably
assured. If fixed-fee advertising is displayed over a term greater than one month, revenues are
recognized ratably over the period as described below. The majority of insertion orders have terms
that begin and end in a quarterly reporting period. In the cases where at the end of a quarterly
reporting period the term of an insertion order is not complete, the Company recognizes revenue for
the period by pro-rating the total arrangement fee to revenue and deferred revenue based on a
measure of proportionate performance of its obligation under the insertion order. The Company
measures proportionate performance by the number of placements delivered and undelivered as of the
reporting date. The Company uses prices stated on its internal rate card for measuring the value of
delivered and undelivered placements. Fees for variable-fee advertising arrangements are recognized
based on the number of impressions displayed or clicks delivered during the period.
Under these policies, no revenue is recognized unless persuasive evidence of an arrangement
exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collection is reasonably
assured. The Company evaluates each of these criteria as follows:
| Evidence of an arrangement. We consider an insertion order signed by the client or its agency to be evidence of an arrangement. | ||
| Delivery. Delivery is considered to occur when the advertising has been displayed and, if applicable, the clickthroughs have been delivered. | ||
| Fixed or determinable fee. We consider the fee to be fixed or determinable if the fee is not subject to refund or adjustment and payment terms are standard. | ||
| Collection is reasonably assured. We conduct a credit review for all transactions at the time of the arrangement to determine the creditworthiness of the client. Collection is deemed reasonably assured if we expect that the client will be able to pay amounts under the arrangement as payments become due. If we determine that collection is not reasonably assured, then we defer the revenue and recognize the revenue upon cash collection. Collection is deemed not reasonably assured when a client is perceived to be in financial distress, which may be evidenced by weak industry conditions, a bankruptcy filing, or previously billed amounts that are past due. |
Advertising sold to clients through agencies is reported at the net amount billed to the
agency.
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
We record a provision for doubtful accounts based on our historical experience of write-offs
and a detailed assessment of our accounts receivable and allowance for doubtful accounts. In
estimating the provision for doubtful accounts, management considers the age of the accounts
receivable, our historical write-offs, the creditworthiness of the client, the economic conditions
of the clients industry, and general economic conditions, among other factors. Should any of these
factors change, the estimates made by management will also change, which could impact the level of
our future provision for doubtful accounts. Specifically, if the financial condition of our clients
were to deteriorate, affecting their ability to make payments, additional provision for doubtful
accounts may be required.
Liability to Former Stockholders
On October 15, 2004, we announced a program under which we would make cash payments to persons
who establish that they were former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who failed to
submit requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. We account for the
cost of this program as an expense recorded in general and administrative expenses and a current
accrued liability. The ultimate total cost of this program is not reliably estimable because it is
based on the ultimate number of valid requests received and future levels of the Companys common
stock price. The Companys common stock price affects the liability because the amount of cash
payments under the program is based in part on the recent level of the stock price at the date
valid requests are received. We do not know how many of the requests for shares originally
received by Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 were valid. We believe that only a portion of such
requests were valid. In order to receive payment under the program, a person is required to
establish that such person validly held shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation.
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Since the total cost of the program is not reliably estimable, the amount of expense recorded
in a period is equal to the number of actual claims received during the period multiplied by (i)
the number of shares held by each individual former stockholder and (ii) the applicable settlement
price based on the recent price of our common stock at the date the claim is received as stipulated
by the program. Requests are generally paid within 30 days of receipt. Please refer to Note 5 to
our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements for further details about our liabilities
to former stockholders.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth, as a percentage of total revenues, the results of our
operations for the periods indicated.
Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | |||||||||||||||
September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||||
2005 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 | |||||||||||||
Revenues |
100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||||||||
Cost of revenues |
2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||
Gross profit |
98 | 98 | 98 | 98 | ||||||||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||||||||
Sales and marketing |
53 | 46 | 49 | 49 | ||||||||||||
General and administrative |
14 | 17 | 18 | 17 | ||||||||||||
Total operating expenses |
67 | 63 | 67 | 66 | ||||||||||||
Income from operations |
31 | 35 | 31 | 32 | ||||||||||||
Other income and expenses, net |
2 | | 2 | | ||||||||||||
Income before income taxes |
33 | 35 | 33 | 32 | ||||||||||||
Income taxes |
16 | 14 | 16 | 13 | ||||||||||||
Net income |
17 | % | 21 | % | 17 | % | 19 | % | ||||||||
For the nine months ended September 30, 2005, we reported income from operations of
approximately $11.3 million. As of September 30, 2005, we had retained earnings of approximately
$16.1 million. Our operating margin decreased to 30.8% of sales for the nine months ended September
30, 2005 from 31.5% for the same period last year.
For the three months ended September 30, 2005, we reported income from operations of
approximately $4.2 million. Our operating margin decreased to 31.2% of sales for the three months
ended September 30, 2005 from 35.0% for the same period last year. The main reason for this
decrease in our operating margin is that our sales and marketing expenses grew faster than our
revenues.
We do not know whether our marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue will continue to
increase in future periods. Increased competition in our industry and increases in the average cost
of acquiring a new subscriber (see Subscriber Acquisition below) could force us to further
increase our marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue. Further, losses from our strategy to
replicate our business model in selected foreign markets may have a material adverse impact on our
results of operations.
The increase in other income from approximately $9,000 in the three months ended September 30,
2004 to approximately $279,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2005 represents interest
earned on the Companys cash, cash equivalents, and short term investments.
Our
losses from operations in the U.K. were approximately $363,000 and $538,000 for the three
months ended September 30, 2005 and the period from May 4, 2005 (inception) to September 30, 2005,
respectively, subject to any adjustments upon completion of a third-party transfer pricing analysis
which is underway.
Reach
The following table sets forth the number of subscribers of each of our e-mail publications in
both the U.S. and the U.K. as of September 30, 2005 and 2004 and the total number of page views for
the homepage of the Travelzoo Web site in U.S. for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 and
2004. The Company does not have available information on the total number of page views for the
homepage of the Travelzoo Web site in the U.K. Management
considers the Travelzoo homepages as
indicators for the growth in
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Web site traffic. Management reviews these non-financial metrics for two reasons: First, to
monitor our progress in increasing the reach of our products. Second, to evaluate whether we are
able to convert higher reach into higher revenues.
September 30, | ||||||||||||
Year-over-Year | ||||||||||||
2005 | 2004 | Growth | ||||||||||
Subscribers: |
||||||||||||
North America
|
||||||||||||
Travelzoo Top 20 |
8,660,000 | 7,752,000 | 12 | % | ||||||||
Newsflash |
5,780,000 | 5,237,000 | 10 | % | ||||||||
Europe
|
||||||||||||
Travelzoo Top 20 |
140,000 | N/A | N/A | |||||||||
Newsflash |
70,000 | N/A | N/A |
Nine Months Ended | ||||||||||||
September 30, | ||||||||||||
Year-over-Year | ||||||||||||
2005 | 2004 | Growth | ||||||||||
Page views of homepages of Travelzoo Web sites: |
||||||||||||
North America |
29,888,000 | 22,670,000 | 32 | % | ||||||||
Europe |
N/A | N/A | N/A |
Management believes that the increase in reach of its publications in the nine months ended
September 30, 2005 was in line with its strategy.
The Companys revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 increased by 59% from the
same period last year. The number of subscribers of the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter
increased by 12% for North America. Page views of the homepage of the
Travelzoo Web site in the U.S.
increased by 32% as shown in the table above. In the nine months ended September 30, 2004, 85% of
revenues were generated from the Travelzoo Web site and the Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter. In the
nine months ended September 30, 2005, 69% of revenues were generated from the Travelzoo Web site
and the Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter. Management believes that the data for the nine months ended
September 30, 2005 and 2004 indicate that the Company was able to generate higher revenues as reach
increased.
Revenues
Our total revenues increased to $13.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2005
from $9.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2004. Our total revenues increased to
$36.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 from $23.2 million for the nine months
ended September 30, 2004. This represents an increase of 59%.
Our revenues from operations in the U.K. for the three months ended September 30, 2005, and
the period from May 4, 2005 (inception) to September 30, 2005, were approximately $368,000 and
$378,000, respectively.
67% of our revenue growth in the nine months ended September 30, 2005 compared to the nine
months ended September 30, 2004 came from our new product, SuperSearch. 3% of our revenue growth in
the nine months ended September 30, 2005 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2004 came
from our operations in the U.K. The remaining 30% came from our other products (i.e. Travelzoo
Web site in the U.S., Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter, and Newsflash) and is attributed to an increase in our
advertising rates for our other products and an increase in the number of clients and the volume
of advertising sold. Approximately 23% of the revenue growth in the nine month period ended
September 30, 2005 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2004 is attributed to an
increase in our advertising rates for our existing products. Due to the increase in the reach of
our publications, we increased the prices for advertising placements on average by approximately
15% as of January 1, 2005. Approximately 7% of our revenue growth in the period ended September
30, 2005 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2004 is attributed to an increase in the
number of clients and an increase in the volume of advertising sold to existing clients.
In the nine months ended September 30, 2005, Click Here, Inc., an advertising agency
representing Travelocity.com, accounted for 16% of our total revenues. In the three months ended
September 30, 2005, Click Here, Inc. accounted for 12% of our total revenues. In the nine months
ended September 30, 2004, Click Here, Inc. accounted for 10% of our total revenues. In the three
months ended September 30, 2004, Click Here, Inc. accounted for 15% of our total revenues and
Orbitz LLC accounted for 10% of our total revenues. No other clients accounted for 10% or more of
our total revenues during the three months and nine months ended September
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30, 2005, and the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2004. The increase in our
concentration of revenues is primarily the result of our new SuperSearch product. SuperSearch
listings are primarily purchased by large online travel agencies. There is a high concentration in
the online travel agency segment. Management expects revenue concentration to remain at the current
level in the foreseeable future.
Management believes that our ability to increase revenues in the future depends mainly on
three factors:
| Our ability to increase our advertising rates; | ||
| Our ability to sell more advertising to existing clients; and | ||
| Our ability to increase the number of clients. |
We believe that we can increase our advertising rates only if the reach of our publications
increases. We do not know if we will be able to increase the reach of our publications. We believe
that we can sell more advertising only if the market for online advertising continues to grow and
if we can maintain or increase our market share. We believe that the market for online advertising
continues to grow. We do not know if we will be able to maintain or increase our market share. We
historically increased the number of clients in every year since inception. We do not know if we
will be able to increase the number of clients in the future.
Average annualized revenue per employee increased to $824,000 for the three months ended
September 30, 2005 from $776,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2004.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues consists of network expenses, including fees we pay for co-location services,
depreciation of network equipment, salary expenses associated with network operations staff, and
fees for photos used in our publications. Our cost of revenues increased to $225,000 for the three
months ended September 30, 2005 from $184,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2004. Our
cost of revenues increased to $629,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 from $529,000
for the nine months ended September 30, 2004. As a percentage of revenue, cost of revenues
remained the same, 2%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 and for the nine months ended
September 30, 2004. The increase in cost of revenues in the nine months ended September 30, 2005
compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2004 was primarily due to an increase in headcount
of our network operations staff.
Operating Expenses
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of advertising and promotional expenses, salary
expenses associated with sales and marketing staff, conference expenses, and public relations
expenses. Sales and marketing expenses increased to $7.1 million for the three months ended
September 30, 2005 from $4.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2004. Sales and
marketing expenses increased to $18.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2005 from
$11.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2004. The increase in sales and marketing
expenses was primarily due to increases in our advertising campaigns. The goal of our advertising
was to acquire new subscribers for our e-mail products and to increase brand awareness for
Travelzoo. For the nine months ended September 30, 2005 and 2004, advertising expenses accounted
for 78% and 76%, respectively, of sales and marketing expenses. Advertising activities during these
periods consisted primarily of online advertising. The increase in sales and marketing expenses in
the nine months ended September 30, 2005 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2004 was
also due to an increase in headcount of our sales force.
Our goal is to increase our revenues from advertising sales. One important factor that drives
our revenues is our advertising rates. We believe that we can increase our advertising rates only
if the reach of our publications increases. In order to increase the reach of our publications, we
have to acquire a significant number of new subscribers in every quarter and continue to promote
our brand. Therefore, we expect our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue to remain at the current level or increase from the current level.
The main factor that impacts our advertising expenses is the average cost per acquisition of a new
subscriber. We believe that the average cost per acquisition depends mainly on the advertising
rates which we pay for media buys, our ability to manage our subscriber acquisition efforts
successfully, and the degree of competition in our industry.
In May 2005, we began operations in the U.K. The start-up of our business in the U.K. and our
plan to expand into other European countries in 2006 is expected to result in a significant
additional increase in our sales and marketing expenses in the foreseeable future.
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General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of compensation for administrative and
executive staff, fees for professional services, rent, bad debt expense, amortization of intangible
assets and general office expense. General and administrative expenses increased to $1.9 million
for the three months ended September 30, 2005 from $1.7 million for the three months ended
September 30, 2004. General and administrative expenses increased to $6.6 million for the nine
months ended September 30, 2005 from $3.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2004. In
2005, general and administrative expenses increased primarily due to expenses of $1.2 million for
cash payments made or to be made to former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation and also due
to increases in expenses for legal and professional services related to compliance with Section 404
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
In the nine months ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded expenses of $1.2 million
related to a program under which the Company intends to make cash payments to former stockholders
of Travelzoo.com Corporation, who failed to submit requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the
required time period. The expenses are based on the number of actual
valid requests received and the
Companys stock price. The Company expects expenses related to the program to decrease in future
periods due to an expected decrease in the number of valid requests
received.
We expect that we will incur significant expenses in 2005 in order to allow management to
report on, and our independent auditors to attest to, our internal controls over financial
reporting, as required by Section 404 for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. At this time, the total
cost is not reliably estimable as it will be dependent on the number of areas requiring improvement
and on remediation efforts where necessary. The Company has expensed approximately $417,000 in
third-party compliance costs in the nine months ended September 30, 2005. Currently, none of our
identified areas that need improvement have been categorized as material weaknesses or significant
deficiencies. However, we are still in the evaluation process, and we may identify conditions that
may result in significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the future.
We expect our headcount to continue to increase in the future. The Companys headcount is one
of the main drivers of general and administrative expenses. Therefore, we expect our general and
administrative expenses to continue to increase.
We expect the operations of Travelzoo UK to result in a significant additional increase in our
general and administrative expenses.
Subscriber Acquisition
The table set forth below provides for each quarter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and the first three
quarters of 2005, an analysis of our average cost for acquisition of new subscribers for our
Travelzoo Top 20 newsletter and our Newsflash e-mail alert service for our operating segments,
North America and Europe.
The table includes the following data:
| Average Cost per Acquisition of a New Subscriber: This is the quarterly costs of consumer marketing programs whose purpose was primarily to acquire new subscribers, divided by total new subscribers added during the quarter. | ||
| New Subscribers: Total new subscribers who signed up for at least one of our e-mail publications throughout the quarter. This is an unduplicated subscriber number, meaning a subscriber who signed up for two or more of our publications is only counted once. | ||
| Unsubscribes: Subscribers who were removed from our list throughout the quarter either as a result of their requesting removal, or based on periodic list maintenance after we determined that the e-mail address was likely no longer valid. | ||
| Balance: This is the number of subscribers at the end of the quarter, computed by taking the previous quarters subscriber balance, adding new subscribers during the current quarter, and subtracting unsubscribes during the current quarter. |
16
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North America:
Average Cost per | ||||||||||||||||
Acquisition of a | ||||||||||||||||
Period | New Subscriber | New Subscribers | Unsubscribes | Balance | ||||||||||||
Q1 2002 |
$ | 0.93 | 254,140 | (24,547 | ) | 1,614,130 | ||||||||||
Q2 2002 |
$ | 0.95 | 590,266 | (156,204 | ) | 2,048,192 | ||||||||||
Q3 2002 |
$ | 1.01 | 740,656 | (51,566 | ) | 2,737,282 | ||||||||||
Q4 2002 |
$ | 1.31 | 799,958 | (55,064 | ) | 3,482,176 | ||||||||||
Q1 2003 |
$ | 1.62 | 693,872 | (213,423 | ) | 3,962,625 | ||||||||||
Q2 2003 |
$ | 1.58 | 924,902 | (172,403 | ) | 4,715,124 | ||||||||||
Q3 2003 |
$ | 1.52 | 1,108,045 | (248,964 | ) | 5,574,205 | ||||||||||
Q4 2003 |
$ | 2.17 | 869,286 | (240,907 | ) | 6,202,584 | ||||||||||
Q1 2004 |
$ | 2.23 | 920,063 | (185,151 | ) | 6,937,496 | ||||||||||
Q2 2004 |
$ | 2.58 | 858,899 | (634,702 | ) | 7,161,693 | ||||||||||
Q3 2004 |
$ | 1.26 | 1,298,962 | (602,628 | ) | 7,858,027 | ||||||||||
Q4 2004 |
$ | 1.70 | 694,026 | (343,139 | ) | 8,145,737 | ||||||||||
Q1 2005 |
$ | 2.59 | 659,459 | (475,938 | ) | 8,329,258 | ||||||||||
Q2 2005 |
$ | 2.62 | 806,734 | (533,109 | ) | 8,602,883 | ||||||||||
Q3 2005 |
$ | 3.19 | 740,768 | (422,868 | ) | 8,920,783 |
Europe:
Average Cost per | ||||||||||||||||
Acquisition of a | ||||||||||||||||
Period | New Subscriber | New Subscribers | Unsubscribes | Balance | ||||||||||||
Q3 2005 |
$ | 1.65 | 127,857 | (5,577 | ) | 140,153 |
In North America, we have noted a trend of increasing cost per new subscriber over the last
few years, driven by a gradual increase in online advertising rates by our media suppliers as well
as increased activity from competitors using similar forms of online advertising for their own
marketing efforts. The decline in new subscriber acquisition costs in Q3 2004 and Q4 2004 reflects
the effect of new advertising campaigns which were tested at that time. We do not consider the
decline in new subscriber costs in Q3 2004 and Q4 2004 to be necessarily indicative of a
longer-term trend that our subscriber costs are likely to stay at this level or are likely to
decline further.
The operational impact of increased acquisition cost is higher absolute marketing expenses and
potentially higher relative marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue. Going forward we expect
continued upward pressure on online advertising rates and continued activity from competitors,
which will likely increase our cost per new subscriber over the long term. The effect on operations
is that greater absolute and relative marketing expenditure may be necessary to continue to grow
the reach of our publications. It is possible that the factors driving subscriber acquisition cost
increases can be partially or completely offset by new or improved methods of subscriber
acquisition using techniques which are under evaluation. Thus we are not able to meaningfully
predict the short-term quarterly trend in the cost of acquiring new subscribers.
Income Taxes
For the three months ended September 30, 2005, we recorded an income tax provision of $2.2
million. For the three months ended September 30, 2004, we recorded an income tax provision of
$1.4 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2005, we recorded an income tax provision of
$5.7 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2004, we recorded an income tax provision of
$3.0 million. Our income is generally taxed in the U.S. and our income tax provisions reflect
federal and state statutory rates applicable to our levels of income and expenses that are treated
as having no recognizable tax benefit. For the nine months ended September 30, 2005, our effective
tax rate was 47.4%. Expenses of $1.2 million related to a program under which the Company
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makes cash payments to former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, who failed to submit
requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period, were treated as having no
recognizable tax benefit. Further, a loss of $538,000 from our U.K. operations was treated as
having no recognizable tax benefit.
We expect that our effective tax rate in future periods may fluctuate depending on the total
amount of expenses representing payments to former stockholders, from losses or gains incurred by
our U.K. operations and related U.K. tax liability and corresponding U.S. tax credits, if any.
During the first quarter of 2005, the Company realized a tax benefit of $396,000 upon the
exercise of stock options by a director. The tax benefit reduced the Companys income tax payable
and increased additional paid-in capital by this amount.
Stockholders Equity
In January 2005, an aggregate of 17,275 shares of common stock were issued to a current
director upon the exercise of fully vested options. The options were granted in 2001 and 2002 to
the director for her services as director in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of September 30, 2005, we had $42.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and short-term
investments. Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments increased from $36.5 million on
December 31, 2004 primarily as a result of cash provided by operations as explained below. We
expect that cash on hand and cash flows generated from operations will be sufficient to provide for
working capital needs for at least the next 12 months.
Net cash provided by operating activities in the nine months ended September 30, 2005 was $6.2
million. Net cash provided by operating activities in the nine months ended September 30, 2004 was
$2.3 million. In the nine months ended September 30, 2005, net cash provided by operating
activities resulted primarily from net income and an increase in accrued expenses offset by an
increase in accounts receivable. Accounts receivable as a percentage of revenue increased primarily
because of a larger portion of insertion orders which include variable-fee advertising,
particularly advertising in our SuperSearch product. Insertion orders that include variable-fee
advertising are invoiced at the end of the month. If revenues from SuperSearch continue to increase
as a percentage of total revenue, we expect the increase of accounts receivable as a percentage of
total revenue to continue. In the nine months ended September 30, 2004, net cash provided by
operating activities resulted primarily from net income and tax benefit of stock option exercises
offset by an increase in accounts receivable and a net decrease in income tax payable.
Net cash used in investing activities was $9.7 million and $39,000 during the nine months
ended September 30, 2005 and September 30, 2004, respectively. In the nine months ended September
30, 2005, net cash used in investing activities were for the purchase of short-term investments and
for equipment purchases. In the nine months ended September 30, 2004, net cash was used in
investing activities for equipment purchases.
Net cash used in financing activities was $89,000 during the nine months ended September 30,
2005. Net cash provided by financing activities was $330,000 during the nine months ended
September 30, 2004. In the nine months ended September 30, 2005, net cash used in financing
activities resulted primarily from registration related expenses incurred during the period related
to the issuance of common stock in October 2004. In the nine months ended September 30, 2004, net
cash provided by financing activities resulted primarily from proceeds from stock option exercises.
Our capital requirements depend on a number of factors, including market acceptance of our
products and services, the amount of our resources we devote to development and launch of new
products, cash payments to former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, expansion of our
operations, and the amount of our resources we devote to promoting awareness of the Travelzoo
brand. Since the inception of the program under which we would make cash payments to persons who
establish that they were former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who failed to submit
requests for our shares within the required time period, we have incurred expenses of $2.4 million.
While future payments for this program are expected to decrease, the total cost of this program is
still undeterminable because it is dependent on our stock price and on the number of claims
ultimately received. Consistent with our growth, we have experienced a substantial increase in our
sales and marketing expenses since inception, and we anticipate that these increases will continue
for the foreseeable future. We believe cash on hand and generated during those periods will be
sufficient to pay such costs. In addition, we will continue to evaluate possible investments in
businesses, products and technologies, the consummation of any of which would increase our capital
requirements.
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Although we currently believe that we have sufficient capital resources to meet our
anticipated working capital and capital expenditure requirements beyond the next 12 months,
unanticipated events and opportunities may require us to sell additional equity or debt securities
or establish new credit facilities to raise capital in order to meet our capital requirements. If
we sell additional equity or convertible debt securities, the sale could dilute the ownership of
our existing stockholders. If we issue debt securities or establish a new credit facility, our
fixed obligations could increase, and we may be required to agree to operating covenants that would
restrict our operations. We cannot be sure that any such financing will be available in amounts or
on terms acceptable to us.
We expect that cash on hand will be sufficient to finance the expected expansion of our
European operations.
The following summarizes our principal contractual commitments as of September 30, 2005 (in
thousands):
2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | Thereafter | Total | |||||||||||||||||||
Operating leases |
$ | 308 | 570 | 451 | | | $ | 1,329 | ||||||||||||||||
Purchase obligations |
29 | 114 | 10 | | | 153 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total commitments |
$ | 337 | 684 | 461 | | | $ | 1,482 | ||||||||||||||||
As of September 30, 2005, we have recorded a liability of $6,000 for the estimated minimum
liability that is probable to be paid under a program to make cash payments to former stockholders
of Travelzoo.com Corporation. The total liability incurred under this program is not reliably
estimable because it is based on the ultimate number of valid requests received and future levels
of the Companys common stock price. The Companys common stock price affects the liability because
the amount of cash payments under the program is based in part on the recent level of the stock
price at the date valid requests are received.
RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Any or all of the risks listed
below as well as other variables affecting our operating results could have a material adverse
effect on our business, our quarterly and annual operating results or financial condition, which
could cause the market price of our stock to decline or cause substantial volatility in our stock
price, in which event the value of your common stock could decline. You should also keep these risk
factors in mind when you read forward-looking statements.
Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Business Model
Our limited operating history makes our business difficult to evaluate.
We have only a limited operating history for you to consider in evaluating our business. As a
young company, we face risks and uncertainties relating to our ability to successfully implement
our business plan. You must consider the risks, expenses and uncertainties which can materially
affect the business of a young company like ours. These risks include uncertainty whether we will
be able to:
| increase awareness of the Travelzoo brand; | ||
| attract and retain additional travel companies to list their special offers with us; | ||
| attract additional Internet users to the Travelzoo Web sites; | ||
| attract additional Internet users as subscribers to our e-mail publications; | ||
| increase the functionality of our products and services; | ||
| maintain our current, and develop new, business relationships; | ||
| respond effectively to competitive pressures; and | ||
| continue to develop and upgrade our technology. |
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We cannot assure you that we will sustain profitability.
Although we have been profitable in the past, there is no assurance that we will continue to
be profitable. We forecast our future expense levels based on our operating plans and our estimates
of future revenues. We may find it necessary to accelerate expenditures relating to our sales and
marketing efforts or otherwise increase our financial commitment to creating and maintaining brand
awareness among travel companies and Internet users. If our revenues grow at a slower rate than we
anticipate, or if our spending levels exceed our expectations or cannot be adjusted to reflect
slower revenue growth, we may not generate sufficient revenues to sustain profitability. If our new
U.K. operations and our expected expansion into other European countries in 2006 incur significant
losses, this will result in a significant negative impact on our results of operations. In this
case, the value of the shares of Travelzoo could be reduced.
Fluctuations in our operating results may negatively impact our stock price.
Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly in the future due to a variety of
factors that could affect our revenues or our expenses in any particular quarter. You should not
rely on quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations as an indication of future
performance. Factors that may affect our quarterly results include:
| mismatches between resource allocation and client demand due to difficulties in predicting client demand in a new market; | ||
| changes in general economic conditions that could affect marketing efforts generally and online marketing efforts in particular; | ||
| the magnitude and timing of marketing initiatives, including our anticipated expansion efforts in Europe during 2006; | ||
| the introduction, development, timing, competitive pricing and market acceptance of our products and services and those of our competitors; | ||
| our ability to attract and retain key personnel; | ||
| our ability to manage our anticipated growth and expansion; | ||
| our ability to attract traffic to our Web sites; | ||
| technical difficulties or system downtime affecting the Internet generally or the operation of our products and services specifically; and | ||
| payments which we make to previous stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation who failed to submit requests for shares in Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. |
In addition, we plan to significantly increase our operating expenses related to advertising
campaigns for Travelzoo and the expansion of our sales and production departments. If revenues fall
below our expectations in any quarter and we are unable to quickly reduce our spending in response,
our operating results would be lower than expected and our stock price may fall.
We depend on one client for a substantial part of our revenues.
One of our current clients represents a substantial portion of our business. For the nine
months ended September 30, 2005, Click Here, Inc., an advertising agency representing
Travelocity.com, accounted for 16% of our revenues. In the three months ended September 30, 2005,
Click Here, Inc. accounted for 12% of our revenues. The loss of this client may result in a
significant decrease in our revenues, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We have written agreements with Click Here, Inc. The agreements provide that Travelzoo will be paid
for the publication of ads on a cost-per-click basis. The Click Here, Inc. agreements are
cancelable upon 90 days written notice, and the payment terms are net 60 days with no discount for
early payment. Copies of the agreements with Click Here were previously filed as exhibits to our
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004.
We may incur a material expenses related to a bankruptcy filing from one of our customers that has
not yet been expensed.
One of our current clients, Digitas, Inc., represents Delta Air Lines. On September 14, 2005,
Delta Air Lines filed for bankruptcy. We are currently unable to determine the effect that this
filing will have on our financials. However, the total amount due to us from Digitas, Inc. related
to Delta Air Lines is $194,000. At this time, we are unable to determine how much will be paid to
us by Digitas, Inc., thus, we are unable to record a specific reserve for this account. It is
possible that we may have to record an expense up to the $194,000 in future periods because of this
bankruptcy filing.
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Our business model is unproven and may not be adaptable to a changing market.
Our current revenue model depends on advertising fees paid by travel companies. If current
clients decide not to continue advertising their offers with us and we are unable to replace them
with new clients, our business may be adversely affected. To be successful, we must provide online
marketing solutions that achieve broad market acceptance by travel companies. In addition, we must
attract sufficient Internet users with attractive demographic characteristics to our products. It
is possible that we will be required to further adapt our business model in response to changes in
the online advertising market or if our current business model is not successful. If we are not
able to anticipate changes in the online advertising market or if our business model is not
successful, our business could be materially adversely affected.
We may not be able to obtain sufficient funds to grow our business and any additional financing may
be on terms adverse to your interests.
We intend to continue to grow our business, and intend to fund our current operations and
anticipated growth from the cash flow generated from our operations and our retained earnings.
However, these sources may not be sufficient to meet our needs. We may not be able to obtain
additional financing on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.
If additional financing is not available when required or is not available on acceptable
terms, we may be unable to fund our expansion, successfully promote our brand name, develop or
enhance our products and services, take advantage of business opportunities, or respond to
competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
If we choose to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity securities, you may
experience significant dilution of your ownership interest, and holders of the additional equity
securities may have rights senior to those of the holders of our common stock. If we obtain
additional financing by issuing debt securities, the terms of these securities could restrict or
prevent us from paying dividends and could limit our flexibility in making business decisions.
Our business may be sensitive to recessions.
The demand for online advertising may be linked to the level of economic activity and
employment in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically, our business is dependent on the demand for online
advertising from travel companies. The last recession decreased consumer travel and caused travel
companies to reduce or postpone their marketing spending generally, and their online marketing
spending in particular. If the current economic recovery does not continue, our business and
financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Our operations could be significantly hindered by the occurrence of a natural disaster or other
catastrophic event.
Our operations are susceptible to outages due to fire, floods, power loss, telecommunications
failures, break-ins and similar events. In addition, a significant portion of our network
infrastructure is located in Northern California, an area susceptible to earthquakes. We do not
have multiple site capacity in the event of any such occurrence. Outages could cause significant
interruptions of our service. In addition, despite our implementation of network security measures,
our servers are vulnerable to computer viruses, physical and electronic break-ins, and similar
disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems. We do not carry business
interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur as a result of any of these
events.
Technological or other assaults on our service could harm our business.
We are vulnerable to coordinated attempts to overload our systems with data, resulting in
denial or reduction of service to some or all of our users for a period of time. We have
experienced denial of service attacks in the past, and may experience such attempts in the future.
We do not carry business interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur as a
result of any of these events. Any such event could reduce our revenue and harm our operating
results and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Markets and Strategy
We may not be able to develop awareness of our brand name.
We believe that continuing to build awareness of the Travelzoo brand name is critical to
achieving widespread acceptance of our products. Brand recognition is a key differentiating factor
among providers of online advertising opportunities, and we believe it could
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become more important as competition in our industry increases. In order to maintain and build
brand awareness, we must succeed in our marketing efforts. If we fail to successfully promote and
maintain our brand, incur significant expenses in promoting our brand and fail to generate a
corresponding increase in revenue as a result of our branding efforts, or encounter legal obstacles
which prevent our continued use of our brand name, our business could be materially adversely
affected.
Our business may be sensitive to events affecting the travel industry in general.
Events like the war with Iraq or the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001 have a negative
impact on the travel industry. We are not in a position to evaluate the net effect of these
circumstances on our business. In the longer term, our business might be negatively affected by
financial pressures on the travel industry. However, our business may also benefit if travel
companies increase their efforts to promote special offers or other marketing programs. If the
events result in a long-term negative impact on the travel industry, such impact could have a
material adverse effect on our business.
We will not be able to attract travel companies or Internet users if we do not continually enhance
and develop the content and features of our products and services.
To remain competitive, we must continually improve the responsiveness, functionality and
features of our products and services. We may not succeed in developing features, functions,
products or services that travel companies and Internet users find attractive. This could reduce
the number of travel companies and Internet users using our products and materially adversely
affect our business.
We may lose business if we fail to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and clients needs.
Our success is dependent on our ability to develop new and enhanced software, services and
related products to meet rapidly evolving technological requirements for online advertising. Our
current technology may not meet the future technical requirements of travel companies. Trends that
could have a critical impact on our success include:
| rapidly changing technology in online advertising; | ||
| evolving industry standards, including both formal and de facto standards relating to online advertising; | ||
| developments and changes relating to the Internet; | ||
| competing products and services that offer increased functionality; and | ||
| changes in travel company and Internet user requirements. |
If we are unable to timely and successfully develop and introduce new products and
enhancements to existing products in response to our industrys changing technological
requirements, our business could be materially adversely affected.
Our business and growth will suffer if we are unable to hire and retain highly skilled personnel.
Our future success depends on our ability to attract, train, motivate and retain highly
skilled employees. We may be unable to retain our skilled employees, or attract, assimilate and
retain other highly skilled employees in the future. We have from time to time in the past
experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and
retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. If we are unable to hire and
retain skilled personnel, our growth may be restricted, which could adversely affect our future
success.
We may not be able to effectively manage our expanding operations.
Since the commencement of our operations, we have experienced a period of rapid growth. In
order to execute our business plan, we must continue to grow significantly. As of September 30,
2005, we had 65 employees. We expect that the number of our employees will continue to increase for
the foreseeable future. This growth has placed, and our anticipated future growth will continue to
place, a significant strain on our management, systems and resources. We expect that we will need
to continue to improve our financial and managerial controls and reporting systems and procedures.
We will also need to continue to expand and maintain close coordination among our sales,
production, marketing, IT, and finance departments. We may not succeed in these efforts. Our
inability
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to expand our operations in an efficient manner could cause our expenses to grow
disproportionately to revenues, our revenues to decline or grow more slowly than expected and
otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our international operations are subject to increased risks which could harm our business,
operating results and financial condition.
In May 2005, we began operations in the U.K. Our plan is to expand into other European
countries in 2006. In addition to uncertainty about our ability to generate net income from our
foreign operations and expand our international market position, there are certain risks inherent
in doing business internationally, including:
| trade barriers and changes in trade regulations; | ||
| difficulties in developing, staffing and simultaneously managing foreign operations as a result of distance, language and cultural differences; | ||
| stringent local labor laws and regulations; | ||
| currency exchange rate fluctuations; | ||
| risks related to government regulation; and | ||
| potentially adverse tax consequences. |
Intense competition may adversely affect our ability to achieve or maintain market share and
operate profitably.
We compete for advertising dollars with large Internet portal sites, such as America Online,
MSN and Yahoo!, that offer listings or other advertising opportunities for travel companies. These
companies have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger
client bases. We also compete with search engines like Google and Yahoo! Search that offer
pay-per-click listings. In addition, we compete with newspapers, magazines and other traditional
media companies that provide online advertising opportunities. We expect to face additional
competition as other established and emerging companies, including print media companies, enter the
online advertising market. Competition could result in reduced margins on our services, loss of
market share or less use of Travelzoo by travel companies and consumers. If we are not able to
compete effectively with current or future competitors as a result of these and other factors, our
business could be materially adversely affected.
Loss of any of our key management personnel could negatively impact our business.
Our future success depends to a significant extent on the continued service and coordination
of our management team, particularly Ralph Bartel, our Chairman, President, Chief Executive
Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary. The loss or departure of any of our officers or key
employees could materially adversely affect our ability to implement our business plan. We do not
maintain key person life insurance for any member of our management team. In addition, we expect
new members to join our management team in the future. These individuals will not previously have
worked together and will be required to become integrated into our management team. If our key
management personnel are not able to work together effectively or successfully, our business could
be materially adversely affected.
We may not be able to access third party technology upon which we depend.
We use technology and software products from third parties including Microsoft. Technology
from our current or other vendors may not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable
terms, or at all. Our business will suffer if we are unable to access this technology, to gain
access to additional products or to integrate new technology with our existing systems. This could
cause delays in our development and introduction of new services and related products or
enhancements of existing products until equivalent or replacement technology can be accessed, if
available, or developed internally, if feasible. If we experience these delays, our business could
be materially adversely affected.
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Risks Related to the Market for our Shares
Our stock price has been volatile historically and may continue to be volatile.
The trading price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide
fluctuations. During the first nine months of 2005, the sale prices of our common stock on the
NASDAQ National Market ranged from $21.31 to $99.75 per share. Our stock price may fluctuate in
response to a number of events and factors, such as quarterly variations in operating results,
announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors, changes in
financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts, the operating and stock price
performance of other companies that investors may deem comparable to us, and news reports relating
to trends in our markets or general economic conditions.
In addition, the stock market in general, and the market prices for Internet-related companies
in particular, have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating
performance of such companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect
the price of our stock, regardless of our operating performance.
We are controlled by a principal stockholder.
Ralph Bartel, who founded Travelzoo and who is our Chairman of the Board, President, Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, is our largest stockholder, holding
approximately 78% of our outstanding shares with options to increase his percentage ownership to
81% on a fully-diluted basis. Through his share ownership, he is in a position to control Travelzoo
and to elect our entire board of directors.
Risks Related to Legal Uncertainty
We may become subject to burdensome government regulations and legal uncertainties affecting the
Internet which could adversely affect our business.
To date, governmental regulations have not materially restricted use of the Internet in our
markets. However, the legal and regulatory environment that pertains to the Internet is uncertain
and may change. Uncertainty and new regulations could increase our costs of doing business, prevent
us from delivering our products and services over the Internet or slow the growth of the Internet.
In addition to new laws and regulations being adopted, existing laws may be applied to the
Internet. New and existing laws may cover issues which include:
| user privacy; | ||
| anti-spam legislation; | ||
| consumer protection; | ||
| copyright, trademark and patent infringement; | ||
| pricing controls; | ||
| characteristics and quality of products and services; | ||
| sales and other taxes; and | ||
| other claims based on the nature and content of Internet materials. |
We may be liable as a result of information retrieved from or transmitted over the Internet.
We may be sued for defamation, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement or other legal
claims relating to information that is published or made available in our products. These types of
claims have been brought, sometimes successfully, against online services in the past. We do not
carry professional liability insurance. The fact that we distribute information via e-mail may
subject us to potential risks, such as liabilities or claims resulting from unsolicited e-mail or
spamming, lost or misdirected messages, security breaches, illegal or fraudulent use of e-mail or
interruptions or delays in e-mail service. In addition, we could incur significant costs in
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investigating and defending such claims, even if we ultimately are not liable. If any of these
events occur, our business could be materially adversely affected.
Claims may be asserted against us relating to shares not issued in our 2002 merger.
The merger of Travelzoo.com Corporation into the Company became effective on April 25, 2002.
Stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation were allowed a period of two years following the
effective date to receive our shares. After April 25, 2004, two years following the effective date,
we ceased issuing shares to the former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation. Many of the
Netsurfer stockholders, who had applied to receive shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998
for no cash consideration, did not elect to receive their shares which were issuable in the merger
prior to the end of the two-year period. A total of 4,115,532 of our shares which had been
reserved for issuance in the merger were not claimed.
It is possible that claims may be asserted against us in the future by former stockholders of
Travelzoo.com Corporation seeking to receive our shares, whether based on a claim that the two-year
deadline for exchanging their shares was unenforceable or otherwise. In addition, one or more
jurisdictions, including the Bahamas or the State of Delaware, may assert rights to unclaimed
shares under escheat statutes. If such escheat claims are asserted, we intend to challenge the
applicability of escheat rights, among other reasons, in that the identity, residency and
eligibility of the holders in question cannot be determined. There were certain conditions
applicable to the issuance of shares to the Netsurfer stockholders, including requirements that (i)
they be at least 18 years of age, (ii) they be residents of the U.S. or Canada and (iii) they not
apply for shares more than once. The Netsurfer stockholders were required to confirm their
compliance with these conditions, and were advised that failure to comply could result in
cancellation of their shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation. Travelzoo.com Corporation was not able
to verify that the applicants met the requirements referred to above at the time of their
applications for issuance of shares. If claims are asserted by persons claiming to be former
stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, we intend to assert that their rights to receive their
shares expired two years following the effective date of the merger, as provided in the merger
agreement. We also expect to take the position, if escheat or similar claims are asserted in
respect of the unissued shares in the future, that we are not required to issue such shares.
Further, even if it were established that unissued shares were subject to escheat claims, we would
assert that the claimant must establish that the original Netsurfer stockholders complied with the
conditions to issuance of their shares. We are not able to predict the outcome of any future claims
which might be asserted relating to the unissued shares. If such claims were asserted, and were
fully successful, that could result in us being required to issue up to an additional approximately
4,080,000 shares of common stock for no additional payment, which would result in substantial
dilution of the ownership interests of the other stockholders, and in the our earnings per share,
which could adversely affect the market price of the common stock.
On October 15, 2004, we announced a program under which we would make cash payments to persons
who establish that they were former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who failed to
submit requests for our shares within the required time period. The accompanying consolidated
financial statements include a charge in general and administrative expenses of $61,000 for these
cash payments for the three months ended September 30, 2005 and $1,191,000 for the nine months
ended September 30, 2005 of which $6,000 remains as a liability as of September 30, 2005. The
liability is based on the number of actual requests received from former stockholders through
September 30, 2005 for claims which had not yet been processed. The total cost of this program is
not reliably estimable because it is based on the ultimate number of valid requests received and
future levels of our common stock price. Our common stock price affects the liability because the
amount of cash payments under the program is based in part on the recent level of the stock price
at the date valid requests are received. We do not know how many of the requests for shares
originally received by Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 were valid, but we believe that only a
portion of such requests were valid. As noted above, in order to receive payment under the
program, a person is required to establish that such person validly held shares in Travelzoo.com
Corporation. Assuming 100% of the requests from 1998 were valid, former stockholders of
Travelzoo.com Corporation holding approximately 4,080,000 shares had not submitted claims under the
program as of September 30, 2005.
Our internal controls over financial reporting may not be effective, and our independent auditors
may not be able to certify as to their effectiveness, which could have a significant and adverse
effect on our business.
We are evaluating our internal controls over financial reporting in order to allow management
to report on, and our independent auditors to attest to, our internal controls over financial
reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the rules and
regulations of the SEC, which we collectively refer to as Section 404. We are currently performing
the system and process evaluation and testing required in an effort to comply with the management
assessment and auditor certification requirements of Section 404, which will initially apply to us
as of December 31, 2005. In the course of our ongoing Section 404 evaluation, we have identified
areas of internal controls that may need improvement. We are still
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in the evaluation process, and we may identify conditions that may result in significant
deficiencies or material weaknesses in the future.
We may be unable to protect our registered trademark or other proprietary intellectual property
rights.
Our success depends to a significant degree upon the protection of the Travelzoo brand name.
We rely upon a combination of copyright, trade secret and trademark laws and non-disclosure and
other contractual arrangements to protect our intellectual property rights. The steps we have taken
to protect our proprietary rights, however, may not be adequate to deter misappropriation of
proprietary information.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registered the trademark for Travelzoo on January 23,
2001. The European Community registered Travelzoo as a Community Trademark on May 11, 2004. If we
are unable to protect our rights in the mark, a key element of our strategy of promoting Travelzoo
as a brand could be disrupted and our business could be adversely affected. We may not be able to
detect unauthorized use of our proprietary information or take appropriate steps to enforce our
intellectual property rights. In addition, the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of
intellectual property in Internet-related industries are uncertain and still evolving. The laws of
other countries in which we may market our services in the future are uncertain and may afford
little or no effective protection of our intellectual property. The unauthorized reproduction or
other misappropriation of our proprietary technology could enable third parties to benefit from our
technology and brand name without paying us for them. If this were to occur, our business could be
materially adversely affected.
We may face liability from intellectual property litigation that could be costly to prosecute or
defend and distract managements attention with no assurance of success.
We cannot be certain that our products, content and brand names do not or will not infringe
valid patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We may be
subject to legal proceedings and claims from time to time relating to the intellectual property of
others in the ordinary course of our business. We may incur substantial expenses in defending
against these third party infringement claims, regardless of their merit, and such claims could
result in a significant diversion of the efforts of our management personnel. Successful
infringement claims against us may result in monetary liability or a material disruption in the
conduct of our business.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We believe that our potential exposure to changes in market interest rates is not material.
The Company has no outstanding debt and is not a party to any derivatives transactions. We invest
in highly liquid investments with short maturities. Accordingly, we do not expect any material loss
from these investments.
Our U.K. operations expose us to foreign currency risk associated with agreements being
denominated in British Sterling Pounds and Euros. Further, we are exposed to foreign currency risk
associated with fluctuations of the British Sterling Pounds as the financial position and operating
results of our U.K. subsidiary will be translated into U.S. Dollars for consolidation purposes.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
As of September 30, 2005, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the
participation of the Companys management, including the Companys President, Chief Executive
Officer and Chief Financial Officer along with the Companys Controller (Chief Accounting Officer),
of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant
to Exchange Act Rule 13a-15. Based upon that evaluation, the Companys President, Chief Executive
Officer and Chief Financial Officer along with the Companys Controller (Chief Accounting Officer)
concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective in timely alerting them to
material information relating to the Company (including its consolidated subsidiaries) required to
be included in our periodic SEC filings as of September 30, 2005.
During the quarter ended September 30, 2005, there was no change in our internal control over
financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f)) that materially affected, or is
reasonably likely to materially affect, the Companys internal control over financial reporting.
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PART IIOTHER INFORMATION
Item 6. Exhibits
The following table sets forth a list of exhibits:
Exhibit | ||
Number | Description | |
3.1
|
Certificate of Incorporation of Travelzoo Inc. (Incorporated by reference to our Pre-Effective Amendment No. 6 to our Registration Statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-55026), filed February 14, 2002) | |
3.2
|
By-laws of Travelzoo Inc. (Incorporated by reference to our Pre-Effective Amendment No. 6 to our Registration Statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-55026), filed February 14, 2002) | |
31.1*
|
Certification of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a) and Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended | |
32.1*
|
Certification of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 |
* | Filed herewith |
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to
be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of New York,
State of New York, on November 11, 2005.
TRAVELZOO INC.
(Registrant) |
||||
By: | /s/ Ralph Bartel | |||
Ralph Bartel | ||||
Chairman of the Board, | ||||
Chief Executive Officer, and | ||||
Chief Financial Officer | ||||
By: | /s/ Lisa Su | |||
Lisa Su | ||||
Controller (Chief Accounting Officer) |
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