PART I
In this report,, the words “we,” “our,” “us,” “CoStar” or the “Company” refer to CoStar Group, Inc. and its direct and indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. This report also refers to our websites, but information contained on those sites is not part of this report.
CoStar Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, founded in 1987, is the number one provider of information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services to the commercial real estate industry in the United States (U.S.("U.S.") and United Kingdom (U.K.("U.K.") based on the fact that we offer the most comprehensive commercial real estate database available,available; have the largest research department in the industry,industry; own and operate the leading online marketplace for commercial real estate in the U.S. based on the number of unique visitors per month; provide more information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services than any of our competitors and believe that we generate more revenues than any of our competitors. CoStar’s integrated suiteWe have created and compiled our standardized information, analytics and marketing platform where members of services offers customers online access to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, which has been researched and verifiedrelated business community can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by our team of researchers, currently covering the U.S., as well as Londonefficiently exchanging accurate and other parts of the U.K.standardized commercial real estate information. Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, industrial, retail, land, mixed-use, hospitality and parts of France.multifamily. We man agemanage our business geographically in two operating segments;segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making arebeing the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France.
Strategy
Since our founding, in 1987, CoStar’sour strategy has been to provide commercial real estate professionals with critical knowledge to explore and complete transactions by offering the most comprehensive, timely and standardized information on U.S. commercial real estate. As a result of our January 2003 acquisition of Focus Information Limited (now, CoStar U.K. Limited), June 2004 acquisition of Scottish Property Network, December 2006 acquisition of Grecam S.A.S., February 2007 acquisition of Property Investment Exchange Limited, and July 2009 acquisition of Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (“PPR”) and its wholly owned U.K. subsidiary, Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. (“PPR UK”), weWe have extended our offering of comprehensive commercial real estate information to include London and other parts of the U.K. and parts of France.France, through acquisitions and internal growth and development. Information about CoStar’s revenues from, and long-lived assets and total assets located in, foreign countries is included in Notes 2 and 1112 of the Notes to our consolidated financial statements. CoStar’s revenues,Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The revenues; net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA"); and total assets and liabilities broken out by segmentfor each of our segments are set forth in Note 1112 to our consolidated financial statements. Information about risks associated with our foreign operations is included in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.”
We deliver our content to our U.S. customers primarily via an integrated suite of online service offerings that includes information about space available for lease, tenant information, comparable sales information, tenant information, information about properties for sale, internet marketing services, propertyanalytical capabilities, information for clients’ websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, analytic information, data integration and industry news. LoopNet, our subsidiary, operates an online marketplace that enables property owners, landlords, and commercial real estate agents working on their behalf to list properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings. Commercial real estate agents, buyers and tenants also use LoopNet's online marketplace to search for available property listings that meet their criteria. We also provide market research and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our PPRProperty and Portfolio Research (“PPR”) service offerings, and portfolio and debt management and reporting capabilities through our Resolve Technology Inc. (“Resolve Technology”)service offerings; and real estate and lease management solutions, including lease administration and abstraction services, through our Virtual Premise service offerings. We have created and are continually improving aour standardized information, analytics and marketing platform where th emembers of the commercial real estate industry and related businessesbusiness community can continuously interact and easily facilitate transactions due to the efficient exchange ofby efficiently exchanging accurate information we supply.and standardized commercial real estate information.
We have a number of assets that provide a unique foundation for ourOur standardized platform includingincludes the most comprehensive proprietary database in the industry; the largest research department in the industry; proprietary data collection, information management and quality control systems; a large in-house product development team; a broad suite of web-based information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services; a large team of analysts and economistseconomists; and a large base of clients. Our database has been developed and enhanced for more than 2326 years by a research department that makes thousands of daily database updates. In addition to our internal efforts to grow the database, we have obtained and assimilated over 52approximately 80 proprietary databases.
We intend to continue to grow our standardized platform of commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services. In 2004, we began research for a 21-market U.S. expansion effort. By the end of the first quarter of 2006, we had successfully launched service in each of those 21 markets. In addition, following our acquisition of National Research Bureau in January 2005, we launched various research initiatives as part of our expansion into real estate information for retail properties. We launched the new retail component of our flagship product, CoStar Property Professional, in May 2006. In July 2006, we announced our intention to commence actively researching commercial properties in approximately 81 new Core Based Statistical Areas (“CBSAs”) across the U.S. in an e ffort to expand the geographical coverage of our service offerings, including our new retail service. In the fourth quarter of 2007, we released our CoStar Property Professional service in the 81 new CBSAs across the U.S. In 2008, we released CoStar Showcase, an internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings accessible to all visitors to our public websites, www.CoStar.com and www.showcase.com.
During the second half of 2009, as part of our strategy for providing subscribers with tools for conducting primary research and analysis on commercial real estate, we expanded subscribers’ capabilities to use our database of research-verified commercial property information to conduct in-depth analysis and generate online reports of trends in sales and leasing activity. Furthermore, in July 2009, we added analytic and market forecasting services to our platform of research and marketing services with our acquisition of PPR, and in October 2009 we acquired Resolve Technology’s business intelligence and portfolio management software used by institutional real estate investment companies.
We also intend to continue to expand the coverage of our service offerings within our International segment. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S., a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services, located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited, a provider of commercial property information and operator of an online investment property exchange located in London, England. Our July 2009 acquisition of PPR and PPR UK also expanded the market research capabilities of our U.K. operations. Further information about CoStar’s acquisitions is included in Note 3 to our consolidated financial statements.
CoStar intends to integrate its U.K. and French operations more fully with its U.S. operations and eventually to introduce a consistent international platform of service offerings. In 2007, we introduced the “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our worldwide operations.
Following our acquisitions of PPR and Resolve Technology in 2009, we began integrating their respective product and service offerings with our own, including the services we have successfully integrated following prior acquisitions. We believe that our recent U.S. and International expansion and integration efforts have created a platform for long-term growth.
Our subscription-based information services consistingconsist primarily of CoStar Property Professional,SuiteTM and FOCUSTM services. CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional and FOCUS services, currently generate more than 94% of our total revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generallySuite is sold as a suiteplatform of similar services service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional®, CoStar COMPS Professional®and compriseCoStar Tenant® and through our mobile application, CoStarGo®. CoStar Suite is our primary service offering in ourthe U.S. operating segment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in ourthe International operating segment. TheAdditionally, we introduced CoStar Suite in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of 2012 and no longer offered FOCUS to new clients beginning in 2013.
Our subscription-based services consist primarily of similar services offered over the Internet to commercial real estate industry and related professionals. Our services are typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that renew automatically, a majority of our contracts for our subscription-based information services typicallywhich have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically.year. Upon renewal, many of the subscription contract rates may change in accordance with contract provisions or as a result of contract renegotiations. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than charging fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’sclient's business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.
Expansion and Growth
Acquisitions
We have continually expanded the geographical coverage of our existing information services and developed new information, analytics and marketing services. In addition to internal growth, we have grown our business through strategic acquisitions.
Historically, our expansion includes the acquisitions of Chicago ReSource in Chicago in 1996 and New Market Systems in San Francisco in 1997. In August 1998, we expanded into the Houston region through the acquisition of Houston-based real estate information provider C Data Services In January 1999, we expanded further into the Midwest and Florida by acquiring LeaseTrend and into Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth by acquiring Jamison Research. In February 2000, we acquired COMPS.COM, a San Diego-based provider of commercial real estate information. In November 2000, we acquired First Image Technologies, a California-based provider of commercial real estate software. In September 2002, we expanded further into Portland, Oregon through the acquisition of certain assets of Napier Realty Advisors (doing business as REAL-NET). In January 2003, we established a base in the U.K. with our acquisition of London-based FOCUS Information Limited. In May 2004, we expanded into Tennessee through the acquisition of Peer Market Research, and in June 2004, we extended our coverage of the U.K. through the acquisition of Scottish Property Network. In September 2004, we strengthened our position in Denver, Colorado through the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of RealComp, a local comparable sales information provider.
In January 2005, we acquired National Research Bureau, a Connecticut-based provider of U.S. shopping center information. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S. (“Grecam”), a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited (“Propex”), a provider of commercial property information and operator of an electronic platform that facilitates the exchange of investment property located in London, England. In April 2008, we acquired the assets of First CLS (doing business as the Dorey Companies and DoreyPRO), an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information. In July 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based PPR, a provider of real estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analytics to the commercial real estate industry, and its wholly owned U.K. subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., and in October 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Resolve Technology, a provider of business intelligence and portfolio management software serving the institutional real estate investment industry. In October 2011, we acquired Virtual Premise, a Software as a Service, or on-demand software provider of real estate and lease management solutions located in Atlanta, Georgia. More recently, on April 30, 2012, we completed the acquisition of LoopNet, an online marketplace that enables property owners, landlords, and commercial real estate agents working on their behalf to list properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings.
Development
We expect to continue software development to improve existing services, introduce new services, integrate products and services, cross-sell existing services, and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research, sales and marketing organizations. We are committed to supporting and improving our existing core information, news, analytic and marketing services.
In October 2013, we introduced technology enhancements to CoStar Suite, our platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professionaland CoStar Tenant. The enhancements improve Costar Suite's user interface, search functionality and analytic capabilities. The newly introduced CoStar MultifamilyTM information search allows access to our extensive multifamily property database. In addition, we introduced CoStar Lease AnalysisTM, an integrated workflow tool that provides users a simple way to produce understandable cash flows for any proposed or existing lease. We expect to continue software development on our new Lease Analysis workflow tool throughout 2014.
Further, in October 2013, we released CoStarGo® 2.0, the next generation of our mobile application, which was launched in the U.S. on August 15, 2011 and introduced in the U.K. on November 5, 2012. CoStarGo is our iPad application that integrates and provides CoStar Suite subscribers mobile access to our comprehensive property, tenant and comparable sales information. CoStarGo 2.0 adds powerful analytic capabilities to our comprehensive mobile solution.
We have introduced enhancements to our flagship marketing platform, LoopNet.com. For example, we added a broker advertising service that allows brokers to purchase advertisements based on geographic and property type criteria. Additionally, we introduced ProVideo, a service that enables owners and brokers to enhance their listings with high quality videos of interior spaces, amenities and exterior features. We expect to continue software development to improve the LoopNet marketing platform in 2014.
We continue to integrate, develop and cross-sell the services offered by the companies we acquired most recently, including LoopNet, Virtual Premise, Resolve Technology and PPR. In some cases, when integrating and coordinating our services and assessing industry needs, we may decide, or may have previously decided, to combine, shift focus from, de-emphasize, phase out, or eliminate a service that overlaps or is redundant with other services we offer.
International Expansion and Development
We continue to integrate our international operations more fully with those in the U.S. As part of our integration efforts, in 2007 we introduced “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our international operations, and in early 2010 we launched Showcase, our internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals high quality internet lead generation, in the U.K. In addition, we intend to continue to upgrade the platform of services and expand the coverage of our service offerings within our International segment. To further develop those initiatives, we introduced CoStar Suite in the U.K. during the fourth quarter of 2012 and no longer offered FOCUS to new clients beginning in 2013. CoStar Suite is sold as a consistent international platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professionaland CoStar Tenant and through the Company's mobile application, CoStarGo. CoStarGo 2.0 was released in the U.K. in October 2013 simultaneous with the release in the U.S. Additionally, we have upgraded our back-end research operations, fulfillment and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) systems to support these new U.K. services. In order to implement these services in the U.K., we incurred increased development costs through 2012; however, development costs incurred by the International segment decreased in 2013. The International operating segment continues to experience improved financial performance and most recently, during the three months ended December 31, 2013, International EBITDA increased to a positive amount as a result of increased revenue and decreased operating expenses.
In 2014, we expect to expand further internationally by offering our services in Toronto, Canada. We believe that our integration efforts and continued investments in our services, including expansion of our existing service offerings internationally, have created a platform for long-term revenue growth. We expect these investments to result in further penetration of our international subscription-based information services and the successful cross-selling of our services to customers in existing markets.
Industry Overview
The market for commercial real estate information and analysis is vast based on the variety, volume and value of transactions related to commercial real estate. Each transaction has multiple participants and multiple information requirements, and in order to facilitate transactions, industry participants must have extensive, accurate and current information and analysis. Members of the commercial real estate and related business community require daily access to current data such as space availability, properties for sale, rental rates, vacancy rates, tenant movements, sales comparables, supply, new construction, absorption rates and other important market developments to carry out their businesses effectively. Market research (including historical and forecast conditions) and applied analytics have also become instrumental to the suc cesssuccess of commercial real estate industry participants operating in the current economic environment. There is a strong need for an efficient marketplace, where commercial real estate professionals can exchange information, evaluate opportunities using standardized data and interpretive analyses, and interact with each other on a continuous basis.
A large number of parties involved in the commercial real estate and related business community make use of the services we provide in order to obtain information they need to conduct their businesses, including:
The commercial real estate and related business community generally has operated in an inefficient marketplace because of the fragmented approach to gathering and exchanging information within the marketplace. Various organizations, including hundreds of brokerage firms, directory publishers and local research companies, collect data on specific markets and develop software to analyze the information they have independently gathered. This highly fragmented methodology has resulted in duplication of effort in the collection and analysis of information, excessive internal cost and the creation of non-standardized data containing varying degrees of accuracy and comprehensiveness, resulting in a formidable information gap.
This highly complex database is comprised of hundreds of data fields, tracking such categories as:
We have developed a sophisticated data collection organization utilizing a multi-faceted research process. In 2010,2013, our full time researchers and contractors drove millions of miles, conducted hundreds of thousands of on-site building inspections, and conducted millions of interviews of brokers, owners and tenants.
Finally, one of the most important and effective quality control measures we rely on is feedback provided by the commercial real estate professionals using our data every day.
Our information technology team is responsible for developing the infrastructure necessary to support CoStar’s business processes, our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services and our extensive image library. The team implements technologies and systems that introduce efficient workflows and controls that increase the production capacity of our research teams and improve the quality of our data. Over the years, the team has developed data collection and quality control mechanisms that we believe are unique to the commercial real estate industry. The team continues to develop and modify our enterprise information management system that integrates CoStar sales, research, field research, customer support and accounting information. We use this system to main tainmaintain our commercial real estate research information, manage contacts with the commercial real estate community, provide research workflow automation and conduct daily automated quality assurance checks. In addition, our information technology team has also developed fraud-detection technology to detect and prevent unauthorized access to our services.
Our information technology professionals also maintain the servers and network components necessary to support CoStar services and research systems. Our encrypted virtual private network provides remote researchers and salespeople secure accessCoStar's core services are served from multiple data centers to CoStar applications and network resources. CoStar maintains a comprehensive data protection policy that providessupport uninterrupted service for use of encrypted data fields and off-site storage of all system backups, among other protective measures.our customers. CoStar’s services are continually monitored in an effort to ensure our customers fast and reliable access.
CoStar Connect® CoStar Connect allows commercial real estate firms to license CoStar’s technology and information to market their U.S. property listings on their corporate websites. Customers enhance the quality and depth of their listing information through access to CoStar’s database of content and digital images. The service automatically updates via the CoStar Property database and manages customers’ online property information, providing comprehensive listings coverage and significantly reducing the expense of building and maintaining their websites’ content and functionality.
CoStar Commercial MLS® CoStar Commercial MLS is the industry’s most comprehensive collection of researched for sale listings. CoStar Commercial MLS draws upon CoStar’s large database of digital images and includes office, industrial, multifamily and retail properties, as well as shopping centers and raw land. CoStar Commercial MLS represents an efficient means for sellers to market their properties to a large audience and for buyers to easily identify target properties.
CoStar Advertising®CoStar Advertising offers property owners and brokers a highly targeted and cost effective way to market a space for lease or a property for sale directly to the individualsCoStar subscribers looking for that type of space through interactive advertising. Our advertising model is based on varying levels of exposure, enabling the advertiser to target as narrowly or broadly as its budget permits. With the CoStar Advertising program, when the advertiser’s listings appear in a results set, they receive priority positioning and are enhanced to stand out. The advertiser can also purchase exposure in additional submarkets, or the entire market area so that this ad will appear even when this listing would not be returned in a results set.
CoStar Professional Directory® CoStar Professional Directory, a service available exclusively to CoStar Property Professional subscribers, provides detailed contact information for approximately 1.4 million commercial real estate professionals, including specific information about an individual’s current and prior activities such as completed transactions, current landlord representation assignments, sublet listings, major tenants and owners represented and local and national affiliations. Commercial real estate brokers can input their biographical information and credentials and upload their photo to create personal profiles. Subsc ribers use CoStar Professional Directory to network with their peers, identify and evaluate potential business partners, and maintain accurate mailing lists of other industry professionals for their direct mail marketing efforts.10
CoStar Market Report™ The CoStar Market Report provides in-depth current and historical analytical information covering office, industrial and retail properties across the U.S. Published quarterly, each market report includes details such as absorption rates, vacancy rates, rental rates, average sales prices, capitalization rates, existing inventory and current construction activity. This data is presented using standard definitions and calculations developed by CoStar, and offers real estate professionals critical and unbiased information necessary to make intelligent commercial real estate decisions. CoStar Market Reports are available to CoStar Property Professional subscribers at no additional charge.
Metropolis™ The Metropolis service is a single interface that combines commercial real estate data from multiple information providers into a comprehensive resource. The Metropolis service allows a user to input a property address and then view detailed information on that property from multiple information providers, including CoStar services. This technology offers commercial real estate professionals a simple and convenient solution for integrating a wealth of third party information and proprietary data, and is currently available for the Southern California markets.
PPRPPR®® Our subsidiary, PPR, and its U.K. subsidiary, PPR UK, offer products and services designed to meet the research needs of commercial real estate investors and lenders. PPR covers metropolitan areas throughout the United States,U.S., the U.K., and Europe, with offerings including historical and forecast market data and analysis by market and property type, and services including access to PPR’s analysts, economists, and strategists to develop and deliver custom research solutions. Key tools include analysis of underlying property data, assessment of current market fundamentals, forecasts of future market performance, and credit default models.
•PPR Portal™PortalTM is PPR’s primary delivery platform for research, forecasts, analytics, and granular data surrounding a specific address and property type. Information is organized around clearly defined tabs, for ease of access. The information is presented in written, table data, graphic, and map formats, and can easily be downloaded by the user for integration into theirits own analytical framework. PPR’sThe PPR Portal is used by lenders, investors, and owners to identify and price investment opportunities, manage assets and portfolios, and source and service capital.
•PPR COMPASS™COMPASSTM is PPR’s premier commercial real estate risk management tool. It allows users to calculate Probability of Default, Loss Given Default, Expected Loss, and Confidence Interval (of Expected Loss) results for a loan or a portfolio. It provides direct comparisons of credit risk and refinance risk across Time, Market, Property Type, and Loan Structure for all macroeconomic forecast scenarios. COMPASSCRE is used by lenders, issuers, ratings agencies, and regulators to estimate required loss reserves and economic capital, target lending opportunities, set pricing strategy, objectively compare/price loans, more effectively allocate capital, and manage re financerefinance risk.
Resolve Portfolio MaximizerMaximizer® ®Resolve Portfolio Maximizer is an industry leading real estate portfolio management software solution. Resolve Portfolio Maximizer allows users to model partnership structures, calculate waterfall distributions and fees, model and analyze debt obligations, and create multiple “what if” scenarios for alternative investment decisions.
Resolve RequestRequest™TM Resolve Request is the first business intelligence software solution built specifically for managing commercial real estate investments. Resolve Request helps users eliminate some of the difficulties of consolidating real estate investment data from disparate sources and facilitates standardization of information presentation and reporting across an organization. Resolve Request also provides a platform for users to develop business intelligence and reporting capabilities.
VP Corporate EditionFOCUS™ TMCoStar’s Our subsidiary, Virtual Premise, offers VP Corporate Edition, a real estate management software solution designed for corporate real estate managers, company executives, business unit directors, brokers and project managers. VP Corporate Edition helps users connect real estate initiatives with company strategic goals, streamline portfolio operations, automate the process for collecting and managing space requests, reduce occupancy costs with analytics that track location performance against targets, and maximize location performance through proactive portfolio management. Virtual Premise also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.
VP Retail EditionTM VP Retail Edition is a real estate management software solution designed for company executives, real estate dealmakers and store planning and construction managers. VP Retail Edition helps users to utilize comprehensive and real-time data to establish goals and store strategies, manage the execution of real estate strategies, summarize critical portfolio data to drive cost-saving decisions, and benchmark prerequisite store-level information and metrics for maximizing location performance through proactive portfolio management. Virtual Premise also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.
LoopNet® Basic and Premium Membership Our subsidiary, LoopNet, offers two types of memberships on the LoopNet marketplace, basic and premium. Basic membership is available free-of-charge to anyone who registers at our LoopNet website and enables members to experience some of the benefits of the LoopNet offering, with limited functionality. As of January 31, 2014, LoopNet had approximately 8.2 million registered members, of which 83,277 were premium members.
•LoopNet®Premium Lister LoopNet Premium Lister is designed for commercial real estate professionals and other customers who seek the broadest possible exposure for their listings, access to leads lists, and advanced marketing and searching tools. LoopNet Premium Lister provides subscribers with the ability to market their listings to all LoopNet.com visitors, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Lister is available for a quarterly or annual subscription.
•LoopNet® Premium Searcher LoopNet Premium Searcher is designed for members searching for commercial real estate who need unlimited marketplace searching access, reports and advanced searching tools. LoopNet Premium Searcher provides subscribers with full access to all LoopNet property listings, including Premium and Basic Listings, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Searcher is available for a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription.
LoopLink® LoopLink is an online real estate marketing and database services suite that enables commercial real estate firms to showcase their available properties both on the LoopNet marketplace and on the brokerage firm’s own website using hosted search software. Within LoopNet, each LoopLink listing is branded with the client’s logo and is hyperlinked to the client’s website. Additionally, the LoopLink service provides customizable, branded property search and results screens that can be integrated into the client’s website. The LoopNet import service offers the opportunity to simplify the process of submitting listings to LoopNet from the client’s internal databases, and features advanced data matching and data integrity rules and file conversion capabilities. LoopNet charges a monthly subscription fee to commercial real estate firms for the LoopLink service. Key features of LoopLink include comprehensive reporting and listing administration tools, a searchable and seamlessly integrated professional directory, property mapping for geographic and feasibility analysis, thumbnail photos and expanded property descriptions in search results.
LandsofAmericaTM and LandAndFarmTMLandsofAmerica and LandAndFarm are leading online marketplaces for rural land for sale. Sellers pay a fee to list their land for sale, and interested buyers can search LoopNet's listings for free.
BizBuySell® and BizQuest® BizBuySell and BizQuest are leading online marketplaces for operating businesses for sale. Business sellers pay a fee to list their operating businesses for sale, and interested buyers can search LoopNet's listings for free. The BizBuySell and BizQuest Franchise Directories allow interested business buyers to search hundreds of franchise opportunities, and franchisors can list their availabilities in the directory on a cost per lead basis.
FOCUSTMOur U.K. subsidiary, CoStar U.K. Limited, offers several services; its primary service is FOCUS. FOCUS is a digital online service offering information on the U.K. commercial real estate market. This service seamlessly links data on individual properties and companies across the U.K., including comparable sales, available space, requirements, tenants, lease deals, planning information, socio-economics and demographics, credit ratings, photos and maps.
GrecamShowcase.co.ukTM Showcase.co.uk offers commercial real estate professionals a simple way to get their for-sale and for-lease listings in front of a broad internet audience who search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Showcase.co.uk to find commercial properties. When customers sign up for Showcase.co.uk, their listings become accessible to visitors to www.Showcase.co.uk and other CoStar URLs who can search those listings for free. To drive traffic to Showcase.co.uk subscriber listings, CoStar UK Limited invests in Google, Yahoo and Bing keyword based pay-per-click advertising to capture the high volume traffic of users actively searching for commercial properties on those search engines. As part of their Showcase.co.uk subscription, subscribers also re ceive customized websites for each of their brokers that displays their bio, photo, contact information and updated listings that they can use to promote their services. Showcase.co.uk is available as a firm-wide annual subscription by firms who want all of their brokers to be able to access the service or can be purchased by a single location of a national firm on an annual subscription basis.
SPN™ SPN provides users online access to a comprehensive database of information for properties located in Scotland, including available space, comparable sales and lease deals.
Propex™ Propex gives users access to the commercial property investment market. It is used by U.K. investment agencies and professional investors and is a secure online exchange through which investment deals may be introduced. It is a primary channel for the distribution of live transaction data and property research data in the U.K. investment market. Propex also provides private investors with a gateway into the commercial property investment market. It is a free-access listing website, which provides details of commercial property investments. It is used by U.K. agencies to sell investments suitable for the private investor.
Shopproperty.co.uk™ Shopproperty is a listing database of available retail units across the U.K. on a free-access website. Shopproperty.co.uk is the only specialist listing website with fully licensed Goad street-trader plans.
Grecam™ Our French subsidiary, Grecam S.A.S., provides commercial real estate information throughout the Paris region through its Observatoire Immobilier D’ Entreprise (“OIE”) service offering. The OIE service provides commercial property availability and transaction information to its subscribers through both an online service and market reports.
Clients
We draw clients from across the commercial real estate and related business community. Commercial real estate brokers have traditionally formed the largest portion of CoStar clients, however, we also provide services to owners, landlords, financial institutions, retailers, vendors, appraisers, investment banks, governmental agencies, and other parties involved in commercial real estate. The following chart lists U.S. and U.K. clients that are well known or have the highest annual subscription fees in each of the various categories, each as of January 31, 2011.
2014:
|
| | | | |
| Brokers | | Lenders, Investment Bankers | | Institutional Advisors, Asset Managers |
Binswanger | | AEGON USA Realty Advisors | | Aberdeen Asset Management — U.K. |
| BNP Paribas — U.K. | | Bank of America, N.A. | | AEW Capital Management LP |
| Carter | | Capital One Bank | | BlackRock |
| Cassidy Turley | | Citibank | | Hartford Investment Management Company |
| CB Richard Ellis | | Deutsche Bank
Citigroup Global Markets — U.K. | | BlackRock
ING Investment Management |
CB Richard Ellis — U.K. | | Wells Fargo
Deutsche Bank | | Prudential
M&G Real Estate — U.K. |
Colliers
Charles Dunn Company | | JP Morgan Chase Bank | | Prudential — U.K.
Manulife Financial |
Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT | | Key Bank | | MetLife Real Estate Investment |
| Colliers | | Q10 Capital LLC | | NorthMarq Capital |
| Colliers International UK — U.K. | | Key Bank
Suntrust | | Metropolitan Life
Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. |
CRESA | | TD Bank | | Prudential |
| Cushman & Wakefield | | TD Bank
Wells Fargo | | ING Clarion Partners
Standard Life Investments — U.K. |
Cushman & Wakefield — U.K. | | Citibank
Wells Fargo — U.K. | | Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.
|
Weichert Commercial Brokerage
| | AEGON USA Realty Advisors, Inc.
| | USAA Real Estate Company |
Jones Lang LaSalle
| | Bank of America, N.A.
| | NorthMarq Capital
|
Jones Lang LaSalle — U.K.
| | East West Bank
| | AEW Capital Management LP
|
Grubb & Ellis
| | Q10 Capital LLC
| | Manulife Financial
|
Drivers Jonas Deloitte — U.K.
| | GE Capital
| | Hartford Investment Management Company
|
King Sturge — U.K.
DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services | | | | |
Lambert Smith HamptonDrivers Jonas Deloitte — U.K.
| | | | |
Charles Dunn Company, Inc.
| | Owners, Developers
| | Appraisers, Accountants
|
Marcus & Millichap
| | Hines
| | Integra |
Mohr Partners
| | LNR Property Corp
| | Deloitte |
Newmark Knight Frank
| | Shorenstein Company, LLC
| | Marvin F. Poer
|
CRESA Partners
| | Tishman Speyer
| | KPMG
|
Studley
| | The British Land Company - UK
| | Thomson Reuters
|
Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT
| | Industrial Developments International (IDI)
| | FirstService PGP Valuation
|
DTZ, a UGL Services company | | | | |
NAI Global
Gerald Eve — U.K. | | Owners, Developers | | Appraisers, Accountants |
| GVA Grimley — U.K. | | Grosvenor Estate Holdings — U.K. | | Deloitte |
| HFF | | Hines | | Integra |
| Jones Lang LaSalle | | Industrial Developments | | KPMG |
| Jones Lang LaSalle — U.K. | | LNR Property Corp | | Marvin F. Poer |
| Kidder Mathews | | Shorenstein Properties, LLC | | Price Waterhouse Coopers |
| Knight Frank LLP — U.K. | | Tishman Speyer | | Ryan LLC |
| Lambert Smith Hampton — U.K. | | | | |
Cassidy Turley
Marcus & Millichap | | | | |
Binswanger
Mohr Partners | | | | |
Re/Max
| | | | |
Carter
NAI Global | | Retailers | | GovernmentAgencies |
NB Real Estate — U.K. | | Carter's | | City of Chicago |
| Newmark Grubb Knight Frank | | Dollar General Corporation | | Cook County Assessor’s Office |
| Re/Max | | Jos. A Bank | | County of Los Angeles |
| Savills Commercial — U.K. | | Massage Envy | | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation |
| Sperry Van Ness | | Petco | | Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Studley | | Rent-A-Center | | Internal Revenue Service |
| Transwestern | | Sony | | Transportation Security Administration |
| U.S. Equities Realty | | Spencer Gifts LLC | | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development |
| USI Real Estate Brokerage Services | | Starbucks | | U.S. General Services Administration |
DAUMWeichert Commercial Real Estate Services
| | In-N-Out Burger
| | County of Los Angeles
|
HFF
| | Taco Bell
| | Internal Revenue Service
|
U.S. Equities Realty
| | Massage Envy
| | City of Chicago
|
Sperry Van Ness
| | 7-Eleven
| | Cook County Assessor’s Office
|
DTZ — U.K.
| | Dollar General Corporation
| | U.S. Department of Housing and
|
Savills Commercial — U.K.
| | Walgreens
| | Urban Development
|
Capita Symonds — U.K.
| | Denny’s
| | Scottish Enterprise — U.K.
|
GVA Grimley — U.K.
| | Rent-A-Center
| | Federal Reserve Bank of New York
|
BNP Paribas — U.K.
| | Spencer Gifts LLC
| | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
|
Avision Young Commercial Real Estate
Brokerage | | Walgreens | | Transportation Security Administration
Valuation Office Agency — U.K. |
| | | | | |
| REITs | | Property Managers | | Vendors |
| Boston Properties | | AP Commercial | | Comcast Corporation |
REITs
Brandywine Realty Trust | | Property Managers
Elliott Associates | | Vendors
Cox Communications |
Simon Property Group, Inc.
Duke Realty Corporation | | Transwestern Commercial Services
| | Turner Construction Company
|
Brandywine Realty Trust
| | Lincoln Property Company
Leggat McCall Properties | | Kastle Systems |
Brookfield Properties
| | PMKBS Realty Group
Advisors | | Comcast Corporation |
Boston Properties
Lincoln Property Company | | Navisys Group
Regus |
| Kimco Realty Corporation | | ADT Security
|
Duke Realty Corporation
Navisys Group | | Time Warner Cable |
| Simon Property Group | | Osprey Management Company | | Cox Communications, Inc.
Turner Construction Company |
Kimco Realty Corporation
| | Leggat McCall Properties
| | Time Warner Cable, Inc.
|
Vornado/Charles E. Smith | | Asset Plus Corporation
| | Verizon Communications, Inc.
|
| | PM Realty Group | | Verizon Communications |
For the years ended December 31, 2008, 20092011, 2012 and 2010,2013, no single client accounted for more than 5% of our revenues.
Sales and Marketing
As of January 31, 2011,2014, we had 262559 sales, marketing and customer support employees, with the majority of our direct sales force located in field sales offices. Our sales teams are primarily located in 2330 field sales offices throughout the U.S. and in offices located in London, England; Manchester, England; Glasgow, ScotlandScotland; Paris, France and Paris, France.Toronto, Canada. Our inside sales team isteams are located in our downtown Washington, DC. office. This team prospectsDC; San Francisco, California; and Glendora, California offices. These teams prospect for new clients and performsperform service demonstrations exclusively by telephone and over the internetInternet to support the direct sales force. A portion of the inside sales teams are also responsible for selling some of our services.
Our local offices typically serve as the platform for our in-market sales, customer support and field research operations for their respective regions. The sales force is responsible for selling to new prospects, training new and existing clients, providing ongoing customer support, renewing existing client contracts and identifying cross-selling opportunities. In addition, the sales force has primary front line responsibility for customer care.
Our sales strategy is to aggressively attract new clients, while providing ongoing incentives for existing clients to subscribe to additional services. We actively manage client accounts in order to retain clients by providing frequent service demonstrations as well as company-client contact and communication. We place a premium on training new and existing client personnel on the use of our services so as to promote maximum client utilization and satisfaction with our services. Our strategy also involves entering into multi-year, multi-market license agreements with our larger clients.
We seek to make our services essential to our clients’ businesses. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates for subscription-based services are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.
Our customer service and support staff is charged with ensuring high client satisfaction by providing ongoing customer support.
Our primary marketing methods include: service demonstrations; face to face networking; web-based marketing; direct marketing; communication via our corporate website and news services; participation in trade show and industry events; Company-sponsored events; print advertising in trade magazines and other business publications; client referrals; CoStar AdvisorTM, LoopNewsTMand CoStar Advisor™, the Company’s newsletter, which isother company newsletters distributed via email to our clients and prospects. We currently offer dozens of webinars each year aimed at helping customers learn more about the commercial real estate industry and how to use our services. The webinars are available both as live presentations and as on-demand programs hosted on our website. On a monthly basis, we issue the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sales Index (CCRSI)("CCRSI"), a comprehensive set of benchmarks that investors and other market participants can use to better understand commercial real estate price movements. The Index is produced using our underlying data and is publicly distributed by CoStar through the news media and made available online at www.costar.com/ccrsi.
Web-based marketing and direct marketing are the most cost-effective means for us to find prospective clients. Our web-based marketing efforts include search engine optimization, paid advertising with major search engines and display advertising on commercial real estate news sitesand business websites and mobile applications, and our direct marketing efforts include direct mail, email and telemarketing, and make extensive use of our unique, proprietary database. Once we have identified a prospective client, our most effective sales method is a service demonstration. We use various forms of advertising to build brand identity and reinforce the value and benefits of our services. We also sponsor and attend local association activities and events, including industry-leading events for commercial real estate brokers, owner/investors and retail and financial services institutions, and attend and/or exhibit at industry trade shows and conferences to reinforce our relationships with our core user groups.
Our sales and marketing efforts have focused and will continue to focus on cross-selling and marketing our services. For example, after the acquisition of LoopNet, we launched a sales and marketing campaign to cross-sell CoStar's information services to LoopNet customers and cross-sell LoopNet's marketing services to CoStar customers. We recently implemented an automatic cross-selling initiative within the LoopNet marketplace. As searchers view properties within the LoopNet marketplace, a message may appear indicating that there are additional listings available within CoStar Suite with the same search criteria that they are not able to access under their current subscription. The message provides contact information, so that the customer can reach their customer service or sales representative and review the most appropriate service for their needs. Our goal is to upsell clients to the services that best meet their needs and to create further cross-selling revenue synergies. In addition, we have added a comparison feature to CoStarGo, which allows our sales force to demonstrate how many more properties a prospect could see with respect to a particular search area if that prospect were using CoStar rather than the prospect’s current subscription with LoopNet.
Competition
The market for information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services generally is competitive and rapidly changing. In the commercial real estate industry, the principal competitive factors for commercial real estate information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services and providers are:
quality and depth of the underlying databases;
ease of use, flexibility, and functionality of the software;
breadth of geographic coverage and services offered;
client service and support;
perception that the service offered is the industry standard;
effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts;
proprietary nature of methodologies, databases and technical resources;
brand loyalty among customers; and
We compete directly and indirectly for customers with the following categories of companies:
online marketing services or websites targeted to commercial real estate brokers, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate properties, insurance companies, mortgage brokers and lenders, such as LoopNet, Inc., Cityfeet.com, Inc.,commercialsearch.com, PropertyLine.com, Reed Business Information Limited, officespace.com, MrOfficeSpace.com, TenantWise, Inc.,www.propertyshark.com, Rofo, BuildingSearch.com, CIMLS, CompStak, Rightmove, WorkplaceIQ, RealPoint LLC and RealUp;
estatesgazette.com;
publishers and distributors of information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services, including regional providers and national print publications, such as Black’s Guide,Xceligent, eProperty Data, CBRE Economic Advisors, Marshall & Swift, Yale Robbins, Inc., Reis, Inc., Real Capital Analytics Inc. and The Smith Guide, Inc.;
Guide;
locally controlled real estate boards, exchanges or associations sponsoring property listing services and the companies with whom they partner, such as Xceligent, eProperty Data, Catalyst, the National Association of Realtors, CCIM Institute, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, (SIOR) the Commercial Association of Realtors Data Services and the Association of Industrial Realtors (AIR);
Realtors;
real estate portfolio management software solutions, such as Cougar Software, Yardi Systems, MRI Software, Argus SoftwareAltus and Intuit Inc.;
Intuit;
real estate lease management and administration software solutions, such as Accruent, Tririga, Manhattan Software and AMT;
in-house research departments operated by commercial real estate brokers; and
As the commercial real estate information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services marketplace develops, additional competitors (including companies which could have greater access to data, financial, product development, technical, analytic or marketing resources than we do) may enter the market and competition may intensify. A company like Bloomberg L.P. has the resources and has previously announced an intention to move into the commercial real estate information business. Further, a company like Google, which has a far-reaching web presence and substantial data aggregation capabilities, could easily enter the commercial real estate marketing arena. While we believe that we have successfully differentiated ourselves from existing competitors, current or future competitors could materially harm our business.
Proprietary Rights
To protect our proprietary rights in our methodologies, database, software, trademarks and other intellectual property, we depend upon a combination of:
trade secret, misappropriation, copyright, trademark, computer fraud, database protection and other laws;
registration of copyrights and trademarks;
nondisclosure, noncompetition and other contractual provisions with employees and consultants;
license agreements with customers;
We seek to protect our software’s source code, our database and our photography as trade secrets and under copyright law. Although copyright registration is not a prerequisite for copyright protection, we have filed for copyright registration for many of our databases, photographs, software and other materials. Under current U.S. copyright law, the arrangement and selection of data may be protected, but the actual data itself may not be. In addition, with respect to ourCertain U.K. databases, certain database protection laws provide additional protections of thesefor our U.K. databases. We license our services under license agreements that grant our clients non-exclusive, non-transferable licenses.rights. These agreements restrict the disclosure and use of our information and prohibit the unauthorized reproduction or transfer of theany of our proprietary information, marketin g and analytic services we license.methodologies or analytics.
We also attempt to protect the secrecy of our proprietary database,databases, our trade secrets and our proprietary information through confidentiality and noncompetition agreements with our employees and consultants. Our services also include technical measures designed to detect, discourage and detectprevent unauthorized copying of our intellectual property. We have established an internal antipiracy team that uses fraud-detection technology to continually monitor use of our services to detect and prevent unauthorized access, and we actively prosecute individuals and firms that engage in this unlawful activity.
We have filedmaintain U.S. and international trademark registrations for CoStar’s core service names and proactively file U.S. and international trademark applications to register trademarks for a variety of names for CoStar servicescovering our new and other marks, and have obtainedplanned service names. Our federally registered trademarks for a variety of our marks, including “CoStar,” “COMPS,” “CoStar Property,” “CoStar Tenant,” “CoStar Showcase”include CoStar®, CoStar Property®, COMPS®, CoStarGo®, CoStar Showcase®, and “CoStar Group.” Depending uponLoopNet®, among many others. In the jurisdiction,U.S., trademarks are generally valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained and they have not been found to becomebe generic. We consider our trademarks in the aggregate to constitute a valuable asset. In addition, we have filed severalmaintain a patent applications coveringportfolio that protects certain of our methodologiessystems and software andmethodologies. We currently have one granted patent in the U.K., which expires in 2021, covering, among other thi ngs,things, certain of our field research methodologies and six granted patents in the U.S. which expire in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (2 patents) and 2025, respectively, covering, among other things, critical elements of CoStar’s proprietary field research technology and mapping tools. We regard the rights underprotected by our patents as valuable to our business, but do not believe that our business is materially dependent on any single patent.patent or on our portfolio of patents as a whole.
Employees
As of January 31, 2011,2014, we employed 1,3892,046 employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union. We have experienced no work stoppages. We believe that our employee relations are excellent.
Available Information
Our investor relations internet website is http://www.costar.com/investors.aspx. The reports we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report, quarterly reports and current reports, as well as amendments to those reports, are available free of charge on our internet website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may review and copy any of the information we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Commission's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information regarding the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SECSecurities and Exchange Commission at 1-800-SEC-0330. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the Commission at http://www.sec.gov.
We have made forward-looking statements in this Report and make forward-looking statements in our press releases and conference calls that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include information that is not purely historic fact and include, without limitation, statements concerning our financial outlook for 20112014 and beyond, our possible or assumed future results of operations generally, and other statements and information regarding assumptions about our revenues, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per share, net income per share, fully diluted net income per share, weighted-average outstanding shares, taxable income, cash flow from operating activities, available cash, operating costs, amortization expense, intangible asset recovery, net income per share, diluted net income per share, weighted-average outstanding shares, capital and other expenditures, effective tax rate, equity compensation charges, future taxable income, purchase amortization, the anticipated benefits of completed acquisitions, the anticipated benefits of cross-selling efforts, the timing of future payments of principal under our $175.0 million term loan facility available to us under a credit agreement (as amended, the “Credit Agreement”), expectations regarding our compliance with financial and restrictive covenants in our Credit Agreement, acquisitions, financing plans, geographic expansion, acquisitions,product development and release, sales and marketing campaigns, product integrations, elimination and de-emphasizing of services, contract renewal rate, capital structure, contractual obligations, legal proceedings and claims, our database, database growth, services and facilities, employee relations, future economic performance, our ability to
liquidate or realize our long-term investments, management’s plans, goals and objectives for future operations, and growth and markets for our stock. Sections of this Report which contain forward-looking statements include “Business,” “Risk Factors,” “Properties,” “Legal Proceedings,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk,” “Controls and Procedures” and the Financial Statements and related Notes.
Our forward-looking statements are also identified by words such as “believes,“hope,” “expects,“anticipate,” “thinks,“may,” “anticipates,“believe,” “intends,“expect,” “estimates”“intend,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “estimate,” “predict,” “continue” and “potential” or similar expressions.the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should understand that these forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting our judgment, beliefs and expectations, not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The following important factors, in addition to those discussed or referred to under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other unforeseen events or circumstances, could affect our future results and could cause those results or other outcomes to diffe rdiffer materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements: commercial real estate market conditions; the pace of recovery in the commercial real estate market; general economic conditions; our ability to identify, acquire and integrate acquisition candidates; our ability to realize the expected benefits, cost savings or other synergies from acquisitions on a timely basis or at all; our ability to combine the acquired businesses successfully or in a timely and cost-efficient manner; business disruption relating to integration of acquired businesses; the amount of investment for sales and marketing related to cross-selling services of acquired businesses, the amount of investment for sales and marketing initiatives with respect to product enhancements and releases, and/or the amount of investment in CoStarGo or other marketing initiatives; the time and resources required to develop upgraded services and expansion of service offerings; changes or consolidations within the commercial real estate industry; customer retention; our ability to attract new clients; our ability to sell additional services to existing clients; our ability to integrate our U.S. and international product offerings; our ability to successfully introduce new products or upgraded services in U.S. and foreign markets; our ability to effectively and strategically combine, eliminate or de-emphasize service offerings; competition; foreign currency fluctuations; our ability to identify, acquire and integrate acquisition candidates; our ability to obtain any required financing on favorable terms; global credit market conditions affecting investments; our ability to continue to expand successfully;successfully, timely and in a cost-efficient manner, including internationally; our ability to effectively penetrate the market for retail real estate information and gain acceptance in that market; our ability to control costs; litigation; changes in accounting policies or practices; release of new and upgraded services or entry into new markets by us or our competitors; data quality; growth and development of our sales force; employee retenti on;retention; technical problems with our services; managerial execution; changes in relationships with real estate brokers and other strategic partners; legal and regulatory issues; and successful adoption of and training on our services.
Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of, and are based on information available to us on, the date of this Report. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events or circumstances after the date of this Report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Risk Factors
Risks Related to our Business
Our revenues and financial position will be adversely affected if we are not able to attract and retain clients. Our success and revenues depend on attracting and retaining subscribers to our information, analytics and marketing services. Our subscription-based information, analytics and marketing services generate the largest portion of our revenues. However, we may be unable to attract new clients, and our existing clients may decide not to add, not to renew or to cancel subscription services. In addition, in order to increase our revenue, we must continue to attract new customers, continue to keep our cancellation rate low and continue to sell new services to our existing customers. We may not be able to continue to grow our customer base, keep the cancellation rate for customers and services low or sell new services to existing customers as a result of several factors, including without limitation: economic pressures; the business failure of a current client or clients; a decision that customers have no need for our services; a decision to use alternative services; customers’ and potential customers’ pricing and budgetary constraints; consolidation in the real estate and/or financial services industries; data quality; technical problems; or competitive pressures. If clients cancel services or decide not to renew their subscription agreements, and we do not sell new services to our existing clients or attract new clients, then our renewal rate and revenues may decline.
A downturn or consolidation in the commercial real estate industry may decrease customer demand for our services. A reversal of recent improvements in the commercial real estate industry’s leasing activity and absorption rates or a renewed downturn in the commercial real estate market may affect our ability to generate revenues and may lead to more cancellations by our current or future customers, either of which could cause our revenues or our revenue growth rate to decline and reduce our profitability. A depressed commercial real estate market has a negative impact on our core customer base, which could decrease demand for our information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services. Also, companies in this industry are consolidating, often in order to reduce expenses. Consolidation, , or other cost-cutting measures by our customers, may lead to more cancellations of our information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services by our customers, reduce the number of our existing clients, reduce the size of our target market or increase our clients’ bargaining power, all of which could cause our revenues to decline and reduce our profitability.
Negative general economic conditions could increase our expenses and reduce our revenues. Our business and the commercial real estate industry are particularly affected by negative trends in the general economy. The success of our business depends on a number of factors relating to general global, national, regional and local economic conditions, including perceived and actual economic conditions, recessions, inflation, deflation, exchange rates, interest rates, taxation policies, availability of credit, employment levels, and wage and salary levels. Negative general economic conditions could adversely affect our business by reducing our revenues and profitability. If we experience greater cancellations or reductions of services and failures to timely pay, and we do n otnot acquire new clients or sell new services to our existing clients, our revenues may decline and our financial position would be adversely affected. Adverse national and global economic events, as well as any significant terrorist attack, are likely to have a dampening effect on the economy in general, which could negatively affect our financial performance and our stock price. Market disruptions may also contribute to extreme price and volume fluctuations in the stock market that may affect our stock price for reasons unrelated to our operating performance. In addition, a significant
increase in inflation could increase our expenses more rapidly than expected, the effect of which may not be offset by corresponding increases in revenue. Conversely, deflation resulting in a decline of prices could reduce our revenues. In the current economic environment, it is difficult to predict whether we will experience significant inflation or deflation in the near future. A significant increase in either could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Our revenues and financial position will be adversely affected if we are not able to attract and retain clients. Our success and revenues depend on attracting and retaining subscribers to our information, marketing and analytic services. Our subscription-based information, marketing and analytic services generate the largest portion of our revenues. However, we may be unable to attract new clients, and our existing clients may decide not to add, not to renew or to cancel subscription services. In addition, in order to increase our revenue, we must continue to attract new customers, continue to keep our cancellation rate low and continue to sell new services to our existing customers. We may not be able to continue to grow our customer base, keep the cancellation rate for custome rs and services low or sell new services to existing customers as a result of several factors, including without limitation: economic pressures, a decision that customers have no need for our services; a decision to use alternative services; customers’ and potential customers’ pricing and budgetary constraints; consolidation in the real estate and/or financial services industries; data quality; technical problems; or competitive pressures. If clients decide to cancel services or not to renew their subscription agreements, and we do not sell new services to our existing clients or attract new clients, then our renewal rate, and revenues may decline.
If we are unable to hire qualified persons for, or retain and continue to develop, our sales force, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues could be adversely affected. In order to support revenues and future revenue growth, we need to continue to develop, train and retain our sales force. Our ability to build and develop a strong sales force may be affected by a number of factors, including: our ability to attract, integrate and motivate sales personnel; our ability to effectively train our sales force; the ability of our sales force to sell an increased number and different types of services; our ability to manage effectively an outbound telesales group; the length of time it takes new sales personnel to become productive; the competition we face from other companies in hiring and retaining sales personnel; our ability to effectively structure our sales force; and our ability to effectively manage a multi-location sales organization. If we are unable to hire qualified sales personnel and develop and retain the members of our sales force, including sales force management, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues or growth rate could decline and our expenses could increase.
Our current or future geographic expansion plans may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into new markets and investing resources towards increasing the depth of our coverage within existing markets imposes additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general managerial resources. During 2014, we plan to continue to increase the depth of our coverage in the U.S. and U.K., and we expect to expand into additional geographies including Toronto, Canada. If we are unable to manage our expansion efforts effectively, if our expansion efforts take longer than planned or if our costs for these efforts exceed our expectations, our financial position could be adversely affected. In addition, if we incur significant costs to improve data quality within existing markets, or are not successful in marketing and selling our services in these markets or in new markets, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.
If we are not able to successfully identify, finance and/or integrate acquisitions, our business operations and financial position could be adversely affected. We have expanded our markets and services in part through acquisitions of complementary businesses, services, databases and technologies, and expect to continue to do so in the future. Our strategy to acquire complementary companies or assets depends on our ability to identify, and the availability of, suitable acquisition candidates. We may incur costs in the preliminary stages of an acquisition, but may ultimately be unable or unwilling to consummate the proposed transaction for various reasons. In addition, acquisitions involve numerous risks, including the ability to realize or capitalize on synergy created through combinations; managing the integration of personnel and products; potential increases in operating costs; managing geographically remote operations, such as SPN in Scotland, Grecam S.A.S. in France, CoStar U.K. Limited, Propex and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. in the U.K.;operations; the diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;concerns and potential disruptions in ongoing operations during integration; the inherent risks in entering markets and sectors in which we have either limited or no direct experience; and the potential loss of key employees, clients or clientsvendors and other business partners of the acquired companies. We may not successfully integrate acquired businesses or assets and may not achieve anticipated benefits of an acquisition, including expected synergy.synergies. Acquisitions could result in dilutive issuances of equity securities, the incurrence of debt, one-time write-offs of goodwill and substantial amortization expenses of other intangible assets. We may be unable to obtain financing on favorable terms, or at all, if necessary to finance future acquisitions making it impossible or more costly to acqui reacquire complementary businesses. If we are able to obtain financing, the terms may be onerous and restrict our operations. Further, certain acquisitions may be subject to regulatory approval, which can be time consuming and costly to obtain, and the terms of such regulatory approvals may impose limitations on our ongoing operations or require us to divest assets or lines of business.
If we are not able to obtain and maintain accurate, comprehensive or reliable data, we could experience reduced demand for our information, analytics and marketing services. Our success depends on our clients’ confidence in the comprehensiveness, accuracy and reliability of the data and analysis we provide. The task of establishing and maintaining accurate and reliable data and analysis is challenging. If our data, including the data we obtain from third parties, or analysis is not current, accurate, comprehensive or reliable, we could experience reduced demand for our services or legal claims by our customers, which could result in lower revenues and higher expenses. Our U.S. researchers use integrated internal research processes to update our database. Any inefficiencies, errors, or technical problems with this application could reduce the quality of our data, which could result in reduced demand for our services, lower revenues and higher costs.
We may not be able to successfully introduce new or upgraded information, analytics and marketing services or combine or shift focus from services with less demand, which could decrease our revenues and our profitability. Our future business and financial success will depend on our ability to continue to anticipate the needs of, and to introduce new and upgraded services into the marketplace. To be successful, we must adapt to changes in the industry, as well as rapid technological changes by continually enhancing our information, analytics and marketing services. Developing new services and upgrades to services, as well as integrating and coordinating current services, imposes heavy burdens on our systems department, management and researchers. The processes are costly, and our efforts to develop, integrate and enhance our services may not be successful. As we continue to combine our operations with those that we have acquired, we must continue to assess the purposes for which various services may be used alone or together, and how we can best address those uses through stand-alone services or combinations or coordinating applications thereof. In addition, successfully launching and selling a new or upgraded service puts pressure on our sales and marketing resources. If we are unable to hire qualified persons for,develop new or retainupgraded services or decide to combine, shift focus from, or phase out a service that overlaps or is redundant with other services we offer, then our customers may choose a competitive service over ours and continue to develop, our sales force, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues could be adversely affected. In order to support revenues and future revenue growth, we need to continue to develop, train and retain our sales force. Our ability to build and develop a strong sales force may be affected by a number of factors, including: our ability to attract, integrate and motivate sales personnel; our ability to effectively train our sales force; the ability of our sales force to sell an increased number of services; our ability to manage effectively an outbound telesales group; the length of time it takes new sales personnel to become productive; the competition we face from other companies in hiring and ret aining sales personnel; and our ability to effectively manage a multi-location sales organization. If we are unable to hire qualified sales personnel and develop and retain the members of our sales force, including sales force management, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues or growth rate could decline and our expensesprofitability may be reduced. In addition, if we incur significant costs in developing new or upgraded services or combining and coordinating existing services, are not successful in marketing and selling these new services or upgrades, or our customers fail to accept these new or combined and coordinating services, it could increase.have a material adverse effect on our results of operations by decreasing our revenues and reducing our profitability.
Competition could render our services uncompetitive. The market for information systems and services in general is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Competition in this market may increase further as a result of current recessionary economic conditions, as customer bases and customer spending have decreased and service providers are competing for fewer customer resources. Our existing competitors, or future competitors, may have greater name recognition, larger customer bases, better technology or data, lower prices, easier access to data, greater user traffic or greater financial, technical or marketing resources than we have. Our competitors may be able to undertake more effective marketing campaigns, obtain more data, adopt more aggressive pricing policies, make more attractive offers to potential employees, subscribers, distribution partners and content providers or may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies or changes in user requirements. If we are unable to retain customers or obtain new customers, our revenues could decline. Increased competition could result in lower revenues and higher expenses, which would reduce our profitability.
Our focus on internal and external investments may place downward pressure on our operating margins. Over the past few years, we have increased the rate of investments in our business, including internal investments in product development and sales and marketing, to expand the breadth and depth of services we provide to our customers. Our investment strategy is intended to increase our revenue growth in the future as activity in the commercial real estate industry shows signs of economic recovery. Our operating margins may experience downward pressure in the short term as a result of investments. Furthermore, if the industry fails to stabilize or deteriorates further in 2014 and beyond, our investments may not have their intended effect. For instance, our external investments may lose value and we may incur impairment charges with respect to such investments. Such impairment charges may negatively impact our profitability. If we are unable to successfully execute our investment strategy or if we fail to adequately anticipate and address potential problems, we may experience decreases in our revenues and operating margins.
If we are unable to enforce or defend our ownership and use of intellectual property, our business, competitive position and operating results could be harmed. The success of our business depends in large part on the intellectual property involved in our methodologies, database, services and software. We rely on a combination of trade secret, patent, copyright and other laws, nondisclosure and noncompetition provisions, license agreements and other contractual provisions and technical measures to protect our intellectual property rights. However, current law may not provide for adequate protection of our databases and the actual data. In addition, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of proprietary rights in internet related businesses are uncertain and evolving, and changes in these standards may adversely impact the viability or value of our proprietary rights. Our business could be significantly harmed if we are not able to protect our content and our other intellectual property. The same would be true if a court found that our services infringe other persons’ intellectual property rights. Any intellectual property lawsuits or threatened lawsuits in which we are involved, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant, could cost us a significant amount of time and money and distract management’s attention from operating our business. In addition, if we do not prevail on any intellectual property claims, this could result in a change to our methodology or information, analytics and marketing services and could reduce our profitability.
We may not be able to successfully halt the operation of websites that aggregate our data, as well as data from other companies, such as copycat websites that may misappropriate our data. Third parties may misappropriate our data through website scraping, robots or other means and aggregate this data on their websites with data from other companies. In addition, “copycat” websites may misappropriate data on our website and attempt to imitate our brand or the functionality of our website. We may not be able to detect all such websites in a timely manner and, even if we could, technological and legal measures may be insufficient to stop their operations. In some cases, particularly in the case of websites operating outside of the U.S., our available remedies may not be adequate to protect us against the misappropriation of our data. Regardless of whether we can successfully enforce our rights against the operators of these websites, any measures that we may take could require us to expend significant financial or other resources.
Litigation or government investigations in which we become involved may significantly increase our expenses and adversely affect our stock price. Currently and from time to time, we are a party to various lawsuits. Any lawsuits, threatened lawsuits or government investigations in which we are involved could cost us a significant amount of time and money to defend, could distract management’s attention away from operating our business, could result in negative publicity and could adversely affect our stock price. In addition, if any claims are determined against us or if a settlement requires us to pay a large monetary amount or take other action that materially restricts or impedes our operations, our profitability could be significantly reduced and our financial position could be adversely affected. Our insurance may not be sufficient to cover any losses we incur in connection with litigation claims.
If we fail to protect confidential information against security breaches, or if customers or potential customers are reluctant to use our services because of privacy concerns, we might face additional costs and could lose customers or potential customers. We collect, use and disclose personally identifiable information, including among other things names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. In certain circumstances, we also collect and use credit card information. Our policies concerning the collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information are described on our websites. While we believe that our policies are appropriate and that we are in compliance with our policies, we could be subject to legal claims, government action or harm to our reputation if our practices fail, or are seen as failing, to comply with our policies or with applicable laws concerning personally identifiable information.
We may be subject to legal liability for collecting, displaying or distributing information. Because the content in our database is collected from various sources and distributed to others, we may be subject to claims for breach of contract, defamation, negligence, unfair competition or copyright or trademark infringement or claims based on other theories. We could also be subject to claims based upon the content that is accessible from our website through links to other websites or information on our website supplied by third parties. We could also be subject to claims that the collection or provision of certain information breached laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection. Even if these claims do not result in liability to us, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending against any claims. Our potential liability for information distributed by us to others could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us to expend substantial resources and limit the attractiveness of our information, analytics and marketing services to users.
Concern of prospective customers regarding our use of the personal information collected on our websites could keep prospective customers from subscribing to our services. Industry-wide incidents or incidents with respect to our websites, including misappropriation of third-party information, security breaches, or changes in industry standards, regulations or laws, could deter people from using the Internet or our websites to conduct transactions that involve the transmission of confidential information, which could harm our business. Under various state laws, if there is a breach of our computer systems and we know or suspect that unencrypted personal customer data has been stolen, we are required to inform any customers whose data was stolen, which could result in significant costs and harm our reputation and business.
In addition, certain state laws require businesses that maintain personal information in electronic databases to implement reasonable measures to keep that information secure. Various states have enacted different and sometimes contradictory requirements for protecting personal information collected and maintained electronically. Compliance with numerous and contradictory requirements of the different states is particularly difficult for an online business such as ours which collects personal information from customers in multiple jurisdictions.
We may face adverse publicity and loss of consumer confidence if we are not able to comply with laws requiring us to take adequate measures to assure the confidentiality of the personally identifiable information that our customers had given to us. This could result in a loss of customers and revenue that could jeopardize our success. Even if we are in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, we may face liability or disruption of business if we do not comply in every instance or if the security of the customer data that we collect is compromised, regardless of whether our practices comply or not. If we were required to pay any significant amount of money in satisfaction of claims under these laws, or if we were forced to suspend operations for any length of time due to our inability to comply fully with any such laws, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our business depends on retaining and attracting highly capable management and operating personnel. Our success depends in large part on our ability to retain and attract management and operating personnel, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Florance, and our other officers and key employees. Our business requires highly skilled technical, sales, management, web development, marketing and research personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. To retain and attract key personnel, we use various measures, including employment agreements, awards under a stock incentive plan and incentive bonuses for key executive officers. These measures may not be enough to retain and attract the personnel we need or to offset the impact on our business of the loss of the services of Mr. Florance or other key officers or employees.
An impairment in the carrying value of goodwill could negatively impact our consolidated results of operations and net worth. Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets not subject to amortization are tested annually by each reporting unit on October 1 of each year for impairment and are tested for impairment more frequently based upon the existence of one or more indicators. We consider our operating segments, U.S. and International, as our reporting units under Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) authoritative guidance for consideration of potential impairment of goodwill. We assess the impairment of long-lived assets, identifiable intangibles and goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Judgments made by management relate to the expected useful lives of long-lived assets and our ability to realize undiscounted cash flows of the carrying amounts of such assets. The accuracy of these judgments may be adversely affected by several factors, including the factors listed below:
Significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results;
Significant changes in the manner of our use of acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business;
Significant negative industry or economic trends; or
Significant decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period.
These types of events or indicators and the resulting impairment analysis could result in goodwill impairment charges in the future, which would reduce our profitability. Impairment charges could negatively affect our financial results in the periods of such charges, which may reduce our profitability. As of December 31, 2013, we had $718.6 million of goodwill, $692.6 million in our U.S. segment and $26.0 million in our International segment.
As a result of the consolidation of certain of our facilities, we may incur additional costs. We have taken, and may continue to take, actions that may increase our cost structure in the short-term but are intended to reduce certain portions of our long-term cost structure, such as consolidation of office space. As a result of consolidation of office space, we may reduce our long-term occupancy costs, but incur restructuring charges. If our long-term cost reduction efforts are ineffective or our estimates of cost savings are inaccurate, our profitability could be negatively impacted. Expected savings from relocating facilities can be highly variable and uncertain. Further, we may not be successful in achieving the operating efficiencies or operating cost reductions expected from these efforts in the amounts or at the times we anticipate.
If we are unable to obtain or retain listings from commercial real estate brokers, agents, and property owners, our commercial real estate ("CRE") marketplace services, including but not limited to the LoopNet marketplace, CoStar Showcase, LandandFarm.com and Lands of America, could be less attractive to current or potential customers, which could reduce our revenues. The value of our CRE marketplace services to our customers depends on our ability to increase the number of property listings provided and searches conducted. The success of our CRE marketplace services depends substantially on the number of commercial real estate property listings submitted by brokers, agents and property owners. This is because an increase in the number of listings increases the utility of the online service and of its associated search, listing and marketing services. If agents marketing large numbers of property listings, such as large brokers in key real estate markets, choose not to continue their listings with us, or choose to list them with a competitor, our CRE marketplace services could be less attractive to other real estate industry transaction participants, resulting in reduced revenue. Similarly, the value and utility of our other marketplaces, including BizBuySell and BizQuest, are also dependent on attracting and retaining listings.
If we are unable to convince commercial real estate professionals that our CRE marketplace services are superior to traditional methods of listing, searching, and marketing commercial real estate, they could choose not to use those services, which could reduce our revenues or increase our expenses. The primary source of new customers for our CRE marketplace services is participants in the commercial real estate community. Many commercial real estate professionals are used to listing, searching and marketing real estate in traditional and off-line ways, such as by distributing print brochures, sharing written lists, placing signs on properties, word-of-mouth, and newspaper advertisements. Commercial real estate and investment professionals may prefer to continue to use traditional methods or may be slow to adopt and accept our online products and services. If we are not able to persuade commercial real estate participants of the efficacy of our online products and services, they may choose not to use our CRE marketplace services, which could negatively impact our business. Similarly, if we are unable to convince the business and investment community to utilize our online business for sale marketplaces rather than traditional methods of listing and marketing businesses for sale, our revenues could be negatively affected.
The number of LoopNet's registered members is higher than the number of actual members. The number of registered members in LoopNet's network is higher than the number of actual members because some members have multiple registrations or others may have registered under fictitious names. Given the challenges inherent in identifying these accounts, we do not have a reliable system to accurately identify the number of actual members, and thus we rely on the number of registered members as a measure of the size of the LoopNet marketplace. If the number of LoopNet's actual members does not continue to grow and those members do not convert to premium members, then the LoopNet marketplace business may not grow as fast as we expect, which could harm our operating and financial results.
If we are unable to increase our revenues or our operating costs are higher than expected, our profitability may continue to decline and our operating results may fluctuate significantly. We may not be able to accurately forecast our revenues or future revenue growth rate. Many of our expenses, particularly personnel costs and occupancy costs, are relatively fixed. As a result, we may not be able to adjust spending quickly enough to offset any unexpected increase in expenses or revenue shortfall. We may experience higher than expected operating costs, including increased personnel costs, occupancy costs, selling and marketing costs, investments in geographic expansion, acquisition costs, communications costs, travel costs, software development costs, professional fees and other costs. If operating costs exceed our expectations and cannot be adjusted accordingly, our profitability may be reduced and our results of operations and financial position will be adversely affected. Additionally, we may not be able to sustain our historic revenue growth rates, and our percentage revenue growth rates may decline. Our ability to increase our revenues and operating profit will depend on increased demand for our services. Our sales are affected by, among other things, general economic and commercial real estate conditions. Reduced demand, whether due to changes in customer preference, a further weakening of the U.S. or global economy, competition or other reasons, may result in decreased revenue and growth, adversely affecting our operating results.
International operations expose us to additional business risks, which may reduce our profitability. Our international operations and expansion subject us to additional business risks, including: currency exchange rate fluctuations; adapting to the differing business practices and laws in foreign countries; difficulties in managing foreign operations; limited protection for intellectual property rights in some countries; difficulty in collecting accounts receivable and longer collection periods; costs of enforcing contractual obligations; impact of recessions in economies outside the U.S.; and potentially adverse tax consequences. In addition, international expansion imposes additional burdens on our executive and administrative personnel, systems development, research and sales departments, and general managerial resources. If we are not able to manage our international operations successfully, we may incur higher expenses and our profitability may be reduced. Finally, the investment required for additional international expansion could exceed the profit generated from such expansion, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.
Fluctuating foreign currencies may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial positionposition. . Due to our acquisitions of CoStar U.K. Limited (formerly FOCUS Information Limited), SPN, Grecam S.A.S., Propex, and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., a portion of our business is denominated in the British Pound and Euro andEuro. If we expand into Canada as expected, a portion of our business will be denominated in Canadian dollars. As a result, fluctuations in foreign currencies may have an impact on our business, results of operations and financial position. Foreign currency exchange rates have fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate. Significant foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations may negatively impact our international revenue, which in turn affects our consolidated revenue. Currencies may be affected by internal factors, gen eralgeneral economic conditions and external developments in other countries, all of which can have an adverse impact on a country’s currency. Currently, we are not party to any hedging transactions intended to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. We may seek to enter into hedging transactions in the future, but we may be unable to enter into these transactions successfully, on acceptable terms or at all. We cannot predict whether we will incur foreign exchange losses in the future. Further, significant foreign exchange fluctuations resulting in a decline in the British Pound or Eurorespective, local currency may decrease the value of our foreign assets, as well as decrease our revenues and earnings from our foreign subsidiaries, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.
Our expansion into the commercial real estate analytics sector may not be successful or may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into the commercial real estate market research and forecasting sector has imposed and may continue to impose additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general management resources. During 2014, we expect to continue to expand our presence in the commercial real estate analytics sector. If we are unable to manage this expansion effectively or if our costs for this effort exceed our expectations, our financial position could be adversely affected. In addition, if we incur additional costs to expand our analytics services and we are not successful in marketing or selling these expanded services, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.
Our indebtedness could adversely affect us, including by decreasing our business flexibility and increasing our costs.On February 16, 2012, we entered into a Credit Agreement by and among CoStar, as borrower, CoStar Realty Information, Inc., as co-borrower, the lenders from time to time party thereto and J.P. Morgan Bank, as administrative agent. The Credit Agreement provides for a $175.0 million term loan facility and a $50.0 million revolving credit facility, each with a term of five years. On April 30, 2012, we used the proceeds of the $175.0 million term loan facility to fund a portion of the merger consideration and transaction costs for the LoopNet acquisition. The Credit Agreement contains customary restrictive covenants imposing operating and financial restrictions on us, including restrictions that may limit our ability to engage in acts that we believe may be in our long-term best interests. These covenants restrict our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries (i) to incur additional indebtedness, (ii) to create, incur, assume or permit to exist any liens, (iii) to enter into mergers, consolidations or similar transactions, (iv) to make investments and acquisitions, (v) to make certain dispositions of assets, (vi) to make dividends, distributions and prepayments of certain indebtedness, and (vii) to enter into certain transactions with affiliates.
The operating restrictions and financial covenants in the Credit Agreement and any future financing agreements may limit our ability to finance future operations or capital needs, to engage in other business activities or to respond to changes in market conditions. Our ability to comply with any financial covenants could be materially affected by events beyond our control. If we fail to comply with these covenants, we may need to seek waivers or amendments of such covenants, seek alternative or additional sources of financing or reduce our expenditures. We may be unable to obtain such waivers, amendments or alternative or additional financing on a timely basis or at all, or on favorable terms.
We are required to make periodic principal and interest payments pursuant to the terms of the Credit Agreement. If an event of default occurs, the lenders under the Credit Agreement may declare all outstanding borrowings, together with accrued interest and other fees, to be immediately due and payable and may exercise remedies in respect of the collateral. We may not be able to repay all amounts due under the Credit Agreement in the event these amounts are declared due upon an event of default.
Negative conditions in the global credit markets may affect the liquidity of a portion of our long-term investments. Currently, our long-term investments include mostly AAA ratedAAA-rated auction rate securities (“ARS”), which are primarily student loan securities supported by guarantees from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”) of the U.S. Department of Education. Continuing negative conditions in the global credit markets have prevented some investors from liquidating their holdings of auction rate securities because the amount of securities submitted for sale has exceeded the amount of purchase orders for such securities. As of December 31, 2010,2013, we held $32.2$24.3 million par value of ARS, all of which failed to settle at auctions. When an auction fails for ARS in which we have invested, we may be unable to liquidate some or all of these securities at par. In the event we need or desire to immediately access these funds, we will not be able to do so until a future auction on these investments is successful, a buyer is found outside the auction process or an alternative action is determined. If a buyer is found but is unwilling to purchase the investments at par, we may incur a loss, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.
Our ARS investments are not currently actively trading and therefore do not currently have a readily determinable market value. Accordingly, theThe estimated fair value of the ARS no longer approximates par value. We have used a discounted cash flow model to determine the estimated fair value of our investment in ARS as of December 31, 2010.2013. The assumptions used in preparing the discounted cash flow model include estimates for interest rates, credit spreads, timing and amount of cash flows, liquidity risk premiums, expected holding periods and default risk of the ARS. We update the discounted cash flow model on a quarterly basis to reflect any changes in the assumptions used in the model and settlements of ARS investments that occurred during the period. Based on this assessment of fair value, as of December 31, 2010,2013, we determined there was a decline in the fair value of our ARS investments of approximately $3.0 million.$1.5 million. The decline was deemed to be a temporary impair mentimpairment and was recorded as an unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity. If the issuers of these ARS are unable to successfully close future auctions and/or their credit ratings deteriorate, we may be required to record additional unrealized losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss or an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings on these investments, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.
We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to determine the fair value of the ARS. We do not expect any material changes in the near term to the underlying assumptions used to determine the unobservable inputs used to calculate the fair value of the ARS as of December 31, 2010.2013. However, if changes in these assumptions occur, and, should those changes be significant, we may be required to record additional unrealized losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss or an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings on these investments.
U.S. political, credit and financial market conditions may negatively impact or impair the value of our current portfolio of cash, cash equivalents and investments, including U.S. Treasury securities and U.S.-backed investments, as well as our access to credit.Our cash, cash equivalents and investments are held in a variety of common financial instruments, including U.S. treasury securities. Deterioration in the U.S. credit and financial markets may result in losses or deterioration in the fair value of our cash, cash equivalents, or investments. On August 5, 2011, Standard & Poor’s lowered its long term sovereign credit rating on the U.S. from AAA to AA+. This downgrade, and any future downgrades of the U.S. credit rating, could impact the stability of future U.S. treasury auctions, affect the trading market for U.S. government securities, result in increased interest rates and impair access to credit. These factors could negatively impact the liquidity or valuation of our current portfolio of cash, cash equivalents, and investments, which may affect our ability to fund future obligations. Further, these factors may result in an increase in interest rates and borrowing costs and make it more difficult to obtain credit on acceptable terms, which may affect our ability to fund future obligations and increase the costs of obtaining financing for future obligations.
Technical problems that affect either our customers’ ability to access our services, or the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services, could lead to reduced demand for our information, analytics and marketing services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our currentbusiness increasingly depends upon the satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our website, the Internet and our service providers. Problems with our website, the Internet or future geographic expansion plansthe services provided by our local exchange carriers or internet service providers could result in slower connections for our customers or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, analytics and marketing services. If we experience technical problems in distributing our services, we could experience reduced demand for our information, analytics and marketing services. In addition, the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services are complex and may not resultbe efficient or error-free. Our careful development and testing may not be sufficient to ensure that we will not encounter technical problems when we attempt to enhance our software, internal applications and systems. Any inefficiencies, errors or technical problems with our software, internal applications and systems could reduce the quality of our services or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, analytics and marketing services, which could reduce the demand for our services, lower our revenues and increase our costs.
Temporary or permanent outages of our computers, software or telecommunications equipment could lead to reduced demand for our information, analytics and marketing services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our operations depend on our ability to protect our databases, computers and software, telecommunications equipment and facilities against damage from potential dangers such as fire, power loss, security breaches, computer viruses and telecommunications failures. Any temporary or permanent loss of one or more of these systems or facilities from an accident, equipment malfunction or some other cause could harm our business. If we experience a failure that prevents us from delivering our information, analytics and marketing services to clients, we could experience reduced demand for our information, analytics and marketing services, lower revenues and increased costs.
Our operating results and revenues are subject to fluctuations and our quarterly financial results may be subject to seasonality and market cyclicality, each of which could cause our stock price to be negatively affected. The commercial real estate market may be influenced by general economic conditions, economic cycles, annual seasonality factors and many other factors, which in increased revenues, whichturn may negatively impact our business, resultsfinancial results. The market is large and fragmented. The different sectors of operationsthe industry, such as office, industrial, retail, multi-family, and financial position. Expanding into new marketsothers, are influenced differently by different factors, and investing resources towards increasinghave historically moved through economic cycles with different timing. As such, it is difficult to estimate the depthpotential impact of our coverage within existing markets imposes additional burdenseconomic cycles and conditions or seasonality from year-to-year on our research, systems development, sales, marketingoverall operating results. In addition, our results may be impacted by seasonality. The timing of widely observed holidays and general managerial resources. During 2011, we plan to continue to increasevacation periods, particularly slow downs during the depthend-of-year holiday period, and availability of real estate agents and related service providers during these periods, could significantly affect our coverage in the U.S., U.K and France, and we may expand into additional geographies.quarterly operating results during that period. If we are unable to manage our expansion efforts effectively, if our expansion efforts take longer than plannedadequately respond to economic, seasonal or if our costs for these efforts exceed our expectations, our financial position could be advers ely affected. In addition, if we incur significant costs to improve data quality within existing markets, or are not successful in marketing and selling our services in these markets or in new markets, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasingcyclical conditions, our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.
We may be subject to legal liability for collecting, displaying or distributing information. Because the content in our database is collected from various sources and distributed to others, we may be subject to claims for breach of contract, defamation, negligence, unfair competition or copyright or trademark infringement or claims based on other theories. We could also be subject to claims based upon the content that is accessible from our website through links to other websites or information on our website supplied by third parties. Even if these claims do not result in liability to us, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending against any claims. Our potential liability for information distributed by us to others could require us to implement measures t o reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us to expend substantial resources and limit the attractiveness of our information, marketing and analytic services to users.
Litigation or government investigations in which we become involved may significantly increase our expenses and adversely affect our stock price. Currently andoperating results may fluctuate from timequarter to time, we are a party to various lawsuits. Any lawsuits, threatened lawsuits or government investigations in which we are involved could cost us a significant amount of time and money to defend, could distract management’s attention away from operating our business, could result in negative publicity and could adversely affect our stock price. In addition, if any claims are determined against us or if a settlement requires us to pay a large monetary amount or take other action that materially restricts or impedes our operations, our profitability could be significantly reduced and our financial position could be adversely affected. We cannot make assurances that we will have any or sufficient insurance to cover any litigation claims.
An impairment in carrying value of goodwill could negatively impact our consolidated results of operations and net worth. Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets not subject to amortization are tested annually by each reporting unit on October 1st of each year for impairment and are tested for impairment more frequently based upon the existence of one or more indicators. We consider our operating segments, U.S. and International, as our reporting
units under Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) authoritative guidance for consideration of potential impairment of goodwill. We assess the impairment of long-lived assets, identifiable intangibles and goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. The existence of one or more of the following indicators could cause us to test for impairment prior to the annual assessment:
Significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results;
Significant changes in the manner of our use of acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business;
Significant negative industry or economic trends; or
Significant decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period.
These types of events or indicators and the resulting impairment analysis could result in goodwill impairment charges in the future, which would reduce our profitability. Impairment charges could negatively affect our financial results in the periods of such charges, which may reduce our profitability. As of December 31, 2010, we had $79.6 million of goodwill, $55.3 million in our U.S. segment and $24.3 million in our International segment.
Our stock price may be negatively affected by fluctuations in our financial results.quarter. Our operating results, revenues and expenses may fluctuate as a result of changes in general economic conditions and also for many other reasons, manyincluding those described below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K:
Rates of which are outsidesubscriber adoption and retention;
Timing of our control, such as: cancellationssales conference or non-renewalssignificant marketing events;
A slow-down during the end-of-year holiday period;
Changes in our pricing strategy and timing of changes;
The timing and success of new service introductions and enhancements;
The shift of focus from, or phase out of services that overlap or are redundant with other services we offer;
The amount and timing of our services; competition; ouroperating expenses and capital expenditures;
Our ability to control expenses; loss
The amount and timing of clientsnon-cash stock-based charges;
Costs related to acquisitions of businesses or revenues; technical problemstechnologies or impairment charges associated with our services; changessuch investments and acquisitions;
Competition;
Changes or consolidation in the real estate industry; our
Our investments in geographic expansion and to increase coverage in existing markets; interest
Interest rate fluctuations; the timing and success of new service introductions and enhancements; successful
Successful execution of our expansion and integration plans; data quality; the
The development of our sales force; managerial exe cution; employee retention; foreign
Foreign currency and exchange rate fluctuations; inflation; successful adoption of
Inflation; and training on our services; litigation; acquisitions of other companies or assets; sales, brand enhancement and marketing promotional activities; client support activities; changes
Changes in client budgets;budgets.
These fluctuations or seasonality effects could negatively affect our investmentsresults of operations during the period in other corporate resources.question and/or future periods or cause our stock price to decline. In addition, changes in accounting policies or practices may affect our level of net income. Fluctuations in our financial results, revenues and expenses may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
The consent order approved by the Federal Trade Commission in connection with the LoopNet merger imposes conditions that could have an adverse effect on us and our business, and failure to comply with the terms of the consent order may result in adverse consequences for the combined company.On April 26, 2012, the FTC accepted the consent order in connection with the LoopNet merger that was previously agreed to between and among the FTC staff, CoStar, and LoopNet on April 17, 2012. The consent order was subject to a 30-day public comment period, and on August 29, 2012, the FTC issued its final acceptance of the consent order.
The consent order, which is publicly available on the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov, requires CoStar to maintain certain business practices that the FTC believes are pro-competitive. For example, the consent order requires CoStar to maintain its customary practice of selling its products separately and on a market-by-market basis. It also requires CoStar to license its products to customers who have bought its competitors' products on a non-discriminatory basis. In addition, CoStar is required to maintain its customary licensing practices with respect to the length of its contracts, to allow customers with multi-year contracts to cancel with one year's advance notice, and to agree to reduce the cost of any litigation with customers by offering to arbitrate certain disputes. In the event that CoStar fails or is unable to comply with the terms of the consent order, CoStar could be subject to an enforcement proceeding that could result in substantial fines and/or injunctive relief. Further, the provisions of the consent order may result in unanticipated adverse effects on the combined company and, therefore, reduce our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the merger. For example, the terms of the consent order that require us to continue to sell our products separately may prohibit us from combining or eliminating certain business lines, products or services that we believe will result in a long-term positive impact on our revenue and earnings.
We have incurred and will continue to incur acquisition-related costs.We have incurred severance costs and expect to incur additional costs to integrate prior acquisitions, such as IT integration expenses and costs related to the renegotiation of redundant vendor agreements. Costs in connection with acquisitions and integrations may be higher than expected, and we may also incur unanticipated acquisition-related costs. These costs could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operation or prospects of the combined business.
Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices may affect our financial results or presentation of results, which may affect our stock price. Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices could reduce our net income, which reductions may be independent of changes in our operations. These reductions in reported net income could cause our stock price to decline. For example, in 2006, we adopted authoritative guidance for stock compensation, which required us to expense the value of granted stock options.
Market volatility may have an adverse effect on our stock price. The trading price of our common stock has fluctuated widely in the past, and we expect that it will continue to fluctuate in the future. The price could fluctuate widely based on numerous factors, including: economic factors; quarter-to-quarter variations in our operating results; changes in analysts’ estimates of our earnings; announcements by us or our competitors of technological innovations or new services; general conditions in the commercial real estate industry; developments or disputes concerning copyrights or proprietary rights or other legal proceedings; and regulatory developments. In addition, the stock market in general, and the shares of internet-related and other technology companies in particu lar,particular, have experienced extreme price fluctuations. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to the operating performance of the specific companies and may have the same effect on the market price of our common stock.
We may not be able to successfully introduce new or upgraded information, marketing and analytic services, which could decrease our revenues and our profitability. Our future business and financial success will depend on our ability to continue to introduce new and upgraded services into the marketplace. To be successful, we must adapt to rapid technological changes by continually enhancing our information, marketing and analytic services. Developing new services and upgrades to services imposes heavy burdens on our systems department, management and researchers. This process is costly, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully develop and enhance our services. In addition, successfully launching and selling a new service puts pressure on our sales and market ing resources. If we are unable to develop new or upgraded services, then our customers may choose a competitive service over ours and our revenues may decline and our profitability may be reduced. In addition, if we incur significant costs in developing new or upgraded services, are not successful in marketing and selling these new services or upgrades, or our customers fail to accept these new services, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations by decreasing our revenues and reducing our profitability.
Our expansion into the commercial real estate analytics sector may not be successful or may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into the commercial real estate market research and forecasting arena imposes additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general management resources. During 2011, we expect to continue to expand our presence in the commercial real estate analytics sector. If we are unable to manage this expansion effectively or if our costs for this effort exceed our expectations, our financial position could be
adversely affected. In addition, if we incur additional costs to expand our analytics services and we are not successful in marketing or selling these expanded services, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.
As a result of consolidation of facilities, we may incur additional costs. We have taken, and may continue to take, actions that may increase our cost structure in the short-term but are intended to reduce certain portions of our long-term cost structure, such as consolidation of office space. As a result of consolidation of office space, we may reduce our long-term occupancy costs, but incur restructuring charges. If our long-term cost reduction efforts are ineffective or our estimates of cost savings are inaccurate, our profitability could be negatively impacted. Expected savings from relocating facilities can be highly variable and uncertain. For instance, we may not meet the requirements necessary to receive the full property tax a batement provided by the District of Columbia as incentive for us to relocate our headquarters to downtown Washington, DC and may incur greater property taxes than anticipated in connection with the move to our new headquarters. Further, we may not be successful in achieving the operating efficiencies or operating cost reductions expected from these efforts in the amounts or at the times we anticipate.
If we are unable to enforce or defend our ownership and use of intellectual property, our business, competitive position and operating results could be harmed. The success of our business depends in large part on the intellectual property involved in our methodologies, database, services and software. We rely on a combination of trade secret, patent, copyright and other laws, nondisclosure and noncompetition provisions, license agreements and other contractual provisions and technical measures to protect our intellectual property rights. However, current law may not provide for adequate protection of our databases and the actual data. In addition, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of proprietary rights in internet related businesses are uncertain and evolving, and we cannot assure you of the future viability or value of any of our proprietary rights. Our business could be significantly harmed if we are not able to protect our content and our other intellectual property. The same would be true if a court found that our services infringe other persons’ intellectual property rights. Any intellectual property lawsuits or threatened lawsuits in which we are involved, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant, could cost us a significant amount of time and money and distract management’s attention from operating our business. In addition, if we do not prevail on any intellectual property claims, this could result in a change to our methodology or information, marketing and analytic services and could reduce our profitability.
Technical problems that affect either our customers’ ability to access our services, or the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services, could lead to reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our business increasingly depends upon the satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our website, the internet and our service providers. Problems with our website, the internet or the services provided by our local exchange carriers or internet service providers could result in slower connections for our customers or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, marketing and analytic services. If we experience technical problems in distributing our services, we co uld experience reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. In addition, the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services are complex and may not be efficient or error-free. Our careful development and testing may not be sufficient to ensure that we will not encounter technical problems when we attempt to enhance our software, internal applications and systems. Any inefficiencies, errors or technical problems with our software, internal applications and systems could reduce the quality of our services or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, marketing and analytic services, which could reduce the demand for our services, lower our revenues and increase our costs.
If we are not able to obtain and maintain accurate, comprehensive or reliable data, we could experience reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. Our success depends on our clients’ confidence in the comprehensiveness, accuracy and reliability of the data and analysis we provide. The task of establishing and maintaining accurate and reliable data and analysis is challenging. If our data, including the data we obtain from third parties, or analysis is not current, accurate, comprehensive or reliable, we could experience reduced demand for our services or legal claims by our customers, which could result in lower revenues and higher expenses. Our U.S. researchers use integrated internal research processes to update our database. Any inef ficiencies, errors, or technical problems with this application could reduce the quality of our data, which could result in reduced demand for our services, lower revenues and higher costs.
Temporary or permanent outages of our computers, software or telecommunications equipment could lead to reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our operations depend on our ability to protect our database, computers and software, telecommunications equipment and facilities against damage from potential dangers such as fire, power loss, security breaches, computer viruses and telecommunications failures. Any temporary or permanent loss of one or more of these systems or facilities from an accident, equipment malfunction or some other cause could harm our business. If we experience a failure that prevents us from delivering our information, marketing and analytic services to clients, we could experience reduced deman d for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs.
Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices may affect our financial results or presentation of results, which may affect our stock price. Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices could reduce our net income, which reductions may be independent of changes in our operations. These reductions in reported net income could cause our stock price to decline. For example, in 2006, we adopted authoritative guidance for stock compensation, which required us to expense the value of granted stock options.
Our business depends on retaining and attracting highly capable management and operating personnel. Our success depends in large part on our ability to retain and attract management and operating personnel, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Florance, and our other officers and key employees. Our business requires highly skilled technical, sales, management, web development, marketing and research personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. To retain and attract key personnel, we use various measures, including employment agreements, awards under a stock incentive plan and incentive bonuses for key executive officers. These measures may not be enough to retain and attract the personnel we need or to offset the impact on o ur business of the loss of the services of Mr. Florance or other key officers or employees.
| |
| Item 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments |
None.
On February 5, 2010, we purchased an office buildingOur headquarters is located at 1331 L Street, NW, in downtown Washington, DC, through our wholly owned subsidiary, 1331 L Street Holdings, LLC (“Holdings”), for use as our new headquarters and have since relocated to this location. This facility is used primarily by our U.S. segment. Thewhere we occupy approximately 149,500 square feet of office space. Our lease for our previous headquarters in Bethesda, MD expired on October 15, 2010.
On February 2, 2011, Holdings and GLL L-Street 1331, LLC (“GLL”), an affiliate of Munich-based GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH, entered into a purchase and sale agreement pursuant to which (i) Holdings agreed to sell to GLL its interest in the 169,429 square-foot office building located at 1331 L Street, NW, in downtown Washington, DC, and (ii) CoStar Realty Information, Inc. (“CoStar Realty”), our wholly owned subsidiary, agreed to enter into a lease expiringexpires May 31, 2025 (with two 5-year renewal options) with GLL to lease back 149,514 square feet of the office space located in this building, which we will continue to use as our corporate headquarters. The closing of the sale took place on February 18, 2011.
. Our principal facility in the U.K. is located in London, England, where we occupy approximately 11,0007,000 square feet of office space. Our lease for this facility has a maximum term ending October 20, 2018,July 8, 2023, with early termination at our option on October 18, 2013,July 9, 2018, with advance notice. This facility is used primarily by our International segment.
In addition to our two downtown Washington, DC leased facilities and our London, England facilities,facility, our research operations are principally run out of leased spaces in San Diego, California; Columbia, Maryland; White Marsh, Maryland;Atlanta, Georgia; Glasgow, Scotland; and Paris, France. Additionally, we lease office space in a variety of other metropolitan areas, which generally house our field sales offices.areas. These locations include, without limitation, the following: New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; San Francisco; Sacramento; Boston; Manchester, England; Orange County, California; Philadelphia; Houston; Atlanta; Phoenix; Detroit; Pittsburgh; Fort Lauderdale;Miami; Orlando; Denver; Dallas; Kansas City; Cleveland; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Austin; Salt Lake City; Las Vegas; Seattle; Portland; St. Louis; Glendora, California; San Luis Obispo, California; Charlotte; Durham, North Carolina; Manchester, England and St. Louis. Our subsidiaries, PPR and Resolve Technology, share space with CoStar in one facility leased in Boston, Mas sachusetts.Toronto, Canada.
We believe these facilities are suitable and appropriately support our business needs.
Currently,, and from time to time, we are involved in litigation incidental to the conduct of our business. Certain pending legal proceedings are discussed in Note 11 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We are not a party to any lawsuit or proceeding that, in the opinion of our management based on consultations with legal counsel, is likely to have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations.
| |
| Item 4. | Mine Safety Disclosures |
Not Applicable.
PART II
| |
| Item 5. | Market for the Registrant’s Common Stock, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities |
Price Range of Common Stock.Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “CSGP.” The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low daily closing prices per share of our common stock, as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
| | | High | | | Low | | |
| Year Ended December 31, 2009 | | | | | | | |
| | | | High | | Low |
| Year Ended December 31, 2012 | | | | |
| First Quarter | | $ | 35.93 | | | $ | 24.23 | | $ | 69.86 |
| | $ | 56.67 |
|
| Second Quarter | | $ | 40.09 | | | $ | 31.10 | | $ | 81.20 |
| | $ | 67.26 |
|
| Third Quarter | | $ | 41.57 | | | $ | 33.97 | | $ | 85.40 |
| | $ | 77.79 |
|
| Fourth Quarter | | $ | 44.43 | | | $ | 38.35 | | $ | 89.54 |
| | $ | 77.06 |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, 2010 | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, 2013 | | |
| | |
|
| First Quarter | | $ | 42.97 | | | $ | 38.22 | | $ | 109.46 |
| | $ | 89.28 |
|
| Second Quarter | | $ | 45.95 | | | $ | 38.80 | | $ | 129.51 |
| | $ | 105.73 |
|
| Third Quarter | | $ | 49.53 | | | $ | 37.66 | | $ | 170.09 |
| | $ | 131.03 |
|
| Fourth Quarter | | $ | 57.75 | | | $ | 48.86 | | $ | 186.62 |
| | $ | 161.29 |
|
As of February 3, 2011,2014, there were 438797 holders of record of our common stock.
Dividend Policy.We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock. Our Credit Agreement includes covenants that, subject to certain exceptions, restrict our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or distributions. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors, subject to applicable limitations under Delaware law, and will be dependent upon our results of operations, financial position and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors. We do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock during the foreseeable future, but intend to retain any earnings for future growth of our business.
Recent Issues of Unregistered Securities.We did not issue any unregistered securities during the year ended December 31, 2010.2013.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities. The following table is a summary of our repurchases of common stock during each of the three months in the quarter ended December 31, 2010:2013:
ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
| Month, 2010 | | Total Number of Shares Purchased | | | Average Price Paid per Share | | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | | | Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | |
| October 1 through 31 | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| November 1 through 30 | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| December 1 through 31 | | | 30,400 | (1) | | $ | 55.70 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| Total | | | 30,400 | | | $ | 55.70 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
|
| | | | | | | | | |
| Month, 2013 | | Total Number of Shares Purchased | | | Average Price Paid per Share | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | | Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs |
| October 1 through 31 | | — | | | — | | — | | — |
| November 1 through 30 | | — | | | — | | — | | — |
| December 1 through 31 | | 4,948 | | | $183.12 | | — | | — |
| Total | | 4,948 | (1) | | $183.12 | | — | | — |
(1)(1) The number of shares purchased consists of shares of common stock tendered by employees to the Company to satisfy the employees’ minimum tax withholding obligations arising as a result of vesting of restricted stock grants under the Company’s 1998 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, and the Company’s 2007 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, which shares were purchased by the Company based on their fair market value on the vesting date. None of these share purchases were part of a publicly announced program to purchase common stock of the Company.
Stock Price Performance Graph
The stock performance graph below shows how an initial investment of $100 in our common stock would have compared to:
· | An equal investment in the Standards & Poor's Stock 500 (“S&P 500”) Index. |
An equal investment in the Standards & Poor's Stock 500 (“S&P 500”) Index;
· | An equal investment in the S&P 500 Application Software Index. |
An equal investment in the S&P 500 Internet Software & Services Index; and
The comparison covers the period beginning December 31, 2005,2008, and ending on December 31, 2010,2013, and assumes the reinvestment of any dividends. You should note that this performance is historical and is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Company / Index | | 12/31/08 | | 12/31/09 | | 12/31/10 | | 12/31/11 | | 12/31/12 | | 12/31/13 |
| CoStar Group, Inc. | | 100 |
| | 126.81 |
| | 174.74 |
| | 202.58 |
| | 271.31 |
| | 560.35 |
|
| S&P 500 Index | | 100 |
| | 126.46 |
| | 145.51 |
| | 148.59 |
| | 172.37 |
| | 228.19 |
|
| S&P 500 Internet Software & Services Index | | 100 |
| | 184.67 |
| | 189.39 |
| | 199.35 |
| | 238.88 |
| | 355.42 |
|
Company / Index | | 12/31/05 | | | 12/31/06 | | | 12/31/07 | | | 12/31/08 | | | 12/31/09 | | | 12/31/10 | |
CoStar Group, Inc. | | | 100 | | | | 124.07 | | | | 109.45 | | | | 76.30 | | | | 96.76 | | | | 133.33 | |
S&P 500 Index | | | 100 | | | | 115.79 | | | | 122.16 | | | | 76.96 | | | | 97.33 | | | | 111.99 | |
S&P 500 Application Software Index | | | 100 | | | | 105.33 | | | | 117.00 | | | | 63.96 | | | | 102.21 | | | | 137.37 | |
| |
| Item 6. | SelectedSelected Consolidated Financial and Operating Data |
Selected Consolidated Financial and Operating Data
(in thousands, except per share data and other operating data)
The following table provides selected consolidated financial and other operating data for the five years ended December 31, 2010.2013. The consolidated statement of operations data shown below for each of the three years ended December 31, 2008, 2009,2011, 2012, and 20102013 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 20092012 and 20102013 are derived from audited consolidated financial statements that are included in this report. The consolidated statement of operations data for each of the years ended December 31, 20062009 and 20072010 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2006, 2007,2009, 2010, and 20082011 shown below are derived from audited consolidated financial statements for those years that are not included in this report.
| | | Year Ended December 31, | |
| Consolidated Statement of Operations Data: | | 2006 | | | 2007 | | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| Revenues | | $ | 158,889 | | | $ | 192,805 | | | $ | 212,428 | | | $ | 209,659 | | | $ | 226,260 | |
| Cost of revenues | | | 56,136 | | | | 76,704 | | | | 73,408 | | | | 73,714 | | | | 83,599 | |
| Gross margin | | | 102,753 | | | | 116,101 | | | | 139,020 | | | | 135,945 | | | | 142,661 | |
| Operating expenses | | | 88,672 | | | | 98,249 | | | | 99,232 | | | | 104,110 | | | | 119,886 | |
| Income from operations | | | 14,081 | | | | 17,852 | | | | 39,788 | | | | 31,835 | | | | 22,775 | |
| Interest and other income, net | | | 6,845 | | | | 8,045 | | | | 4,914 | | | | 1,253 | | | | 735 | |
| Income before income taxes | | | 20,926 | | | | 25,897 | | | | 44,702 | | | | 33,088 | | | | 23,510 | |
| Income tax expense, net | | | 8,516 | | | | 9,946 | | | | 20,079 | | | | 14,395 | | | | 10,221 | |
| Net income | | $ | 12,410 | | | $ | 15,951 | | | $ | 24,623 | | | $ | 18,693 | | | $ | 13,289 | |
Net income per share - basic | | $ | 0.66 | | | $ | 0.84 | | | $ | 1.27 | | | $ | 0.95 | | | $ | 0.65 | |
Net income per share - diluted | | $ | 0.65 | | | $ | 0.82 | | | $ | 1.26 | | | $ | 0.94 | | | $ | 0.64 | |
Weighted average shares outstanding - basic | | | 18,751 | | | | 19,044 | | | | 19,372 | | | | 19,780 | | | | 20,330 | |
Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted | | | 19,165 | | | | 19,404 | | | | 19,550 | | | | 19,925 | | | | 20,707 | |
| | | As of December 31, | |
| Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: | | 2006 | | | 2007 | | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| Cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments | | $ | 158,148 | | | $ | 187,426 | | | $ | 224,590 | | | $ | 255,698 | | | $ | 239,316 | |
| Working capital | | | 154,606 | | | | 167,441 | | | | 183,347 | | | | 203,660 | | | | 184,247 | |
| Total assets | | | 275,437 | | | | 321,843 | | | | 334,384 | | | | 404,579 | | | | 439,648 | |
| Total liabilities | | | 25,327 | | | | 40,038 | | | | 30,963 | | | | 45,573 | | | | 58,146 | |
| Stockholders’ equity | | | 250,110 | | | | 281,805 | | | | 303,421 | | | | 359,006 | | | | 381,502 | |
| | | As of December 31, | |
| Other Operating Data: | | 2006 | | | 2007 | | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| Number of subscription client sites | | | 13,257 | | | | 14,467 | | | | 15,920 | | | | 16,020 | | | | 16,781 | |
| Millions of properties in database | | | 2.1 | | | | 2.7 | | | | 3.2 | | | | 3.6 | | | | 4.0 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Year Ended December 31, |
| Consolidated Statement of Operations Data: | 2009 | | 2010 | | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Revenues | $ | 209,659 |
| | $ | 226,260 |
| | $ | 251,738 |
| | $ | 349,936 |
| | $ | 440,943 |
|
| Cost of revenues | 73,714 |
| | 83,599 |
| | 88,167 |
| | 114,866 |
| | 129,185 |
|
| Gross margin | 135,945 |
| | 142,661 |
| | 163,571 |
| | 235,070 |
| | 311,758 |
|
| Operating expenses | 104,110 |
| | 119,886 |
| | 141,800 |
| | 207,630 |
| | 257,604 |
|
| Income from operations | 31,835 |
| | 22,775 |
| | 21,771 |
| | 27,440 |
| | 54,154 |
|
| Interest and other income | 1,253 |
| | 735 |
| | 798 |
| | 526 |
| | 326 |
|
| Interest and other expense | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | (4,832 | ) | | (6,943 | ) |
| Income before income taxes | 33,088 |
| | 23,510 |
| | 22,569 |
| | 23,134 |
| | 47,537 |
|
| Income tax expense, net | 14,395 |
| | 10,221 |
| | 7,913 |
| | 13,219 |
| | 17,803 |
|
| Net income | $ | 18,693 |
| | $ | 13,289 |
| | $ | 14,656 |
| | $ | 9,915 |
| | $ | 29,734 |
|
| Net income per share — basic | $ | 0.95 |
| | $ | 0.65 |
| | $ | 0.63 |
| | $ | 0.37 |
| | $ | 1.07 |
|
| Net income per share — diluted | $ | 0.94 |
| | $ | 0.64 |
| | $ | 0.62 |
| | $ | 0.37 |
| | $ | 1.05 |
|
| Weighted average shares outstanding — basic | 19,780 |
| | 20,330 |
| | 23,131 |
| | 26,533 |
| | 27,670 |
|
| Weighted average shares outstanding — diluted | 19,925 |
| | 20,707 |
| | 23,527 |
| | 26,949 |
| | 28,212 |
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | As of December 31, |
| Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: | 2009 | | 2010 | | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments | $ | 255,698 |
| | $ | 239,316 |
| | $ | 573,379 |
| | $ | 177,726 |
| | $ | 277,943 |
|
| Working capital | 203,660 |
| | 188,279 |
| | 521,401 |
| | 97,925 |
| | 196,913 |
|
| Total assets | 404,579 |
| | 439,648 |
| | 771,035 |
| | 1,165,139 |
| | 1,256,982 |
|
| Total long-term liabilities | 1,826 |
| | 7,252 |
| | 50,076 |
| | 237,158 |
| | 217,567 |
|
| Stockholders’ equity | 359,006 |
| | 381,502 |
| | 659,177 |
| | 826,343 |
| | 927,862 |
|
| |
| Item 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains “forward-looking statements,” including statements about our beliefs and expectations. There are many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated above in Item 1A. under the headings “Risk Factors ¾- Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements” and “¾“- Risk Factors,” as well as those described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All forward-looking statements are based on information available to us on the date of this filing and we assume no obligation to update such statements.statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Overview
CoStar Group, Inc. (“CoStar”(the “Company” or “CoStar”) is the number one provider of information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services to the commercial real estate industry in the United States ("U.S.") and the United Kingdom ("U.K.") based on the fact that we offer the most comprehensive commercial real estate database available,available; have the largest research department in the industry,industry; own and operate the leading online marketplace for commercial real estate in the U.S. based on the number of unique visitors per month; provide more information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services than any of our competitors and believe that we generate more revenues than any of our competitors. We have created aand compiled our standardized information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing platform where members of the commercial real estate and related business community can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently exchanging accurate and standardized commercial real estate information. Our integrated suite of online service offerings includes informati oninformation about space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, information about properties for sale, tenant information, internet marketing services, analytical capabilities, information for clients' websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, data integration and industry news.
LoopNet, our subsidiary, operates an online marketplace that enables property owners, landlords, and commercial real estate agents working on their behalf to list properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings. Commercial real estate agents, buyers and tenants also use LoopNet's online marketplace to search for available property listings that meet their criteria.
We also provide market research and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our PPRProperty and Portfolio Research (“PPR”) service offerings, and portfolio and debt management and reporting capabilities through our Resolve Technology service offerings, and real estate and lease management solutions, including lease administration and abstraction services, through our Virtual Premise service offerings.
Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, industrial, retail, land, mixed-use, hospitality and multifamily.
Since 1994,Subscription-Based Services
Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar SuiteTM and FOCUSTM services. CoStar Suite is sold as a platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional®, CoStar COMPS Professional®and CoStar Tenant® and through our mobile application, CoStarGo®. CoStar Suite is our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. Additionally, we have expanded the geographical coverage of our existing information and marketing services and developed new information, marketing and analytic services. In addition to internal growth, this expansion included the acquisitions of Chicago ReSource, Inc. in Chicago in 1996 and New Market Systems, Inc. in San Francisco in 1997. In August 1998, we expanded into the Houston region through the acquisition of Houston-based real estate information provider C Data Services, Inc. In January 1999, we expanded further into the Midwest and Florida by acquiring LeaseTrend, Inc. and into Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth by acquiring Jamison Research, Inc. In February 2000, we acquired COMPS.COM, Inc., a San Diego-based provider of commercial real estate information. In November 2000, we acquired First Image Technologies, Inc., a California-based provider of commercial real estate software. In September 2002, we expanded further into Portland, Oregon through the acquisition of certain assets of Napier Realty Advisors (doing business as REAL-NET). In January 2003, we established a baseintroduced CoStar Suite in the U.K. with our acquisitionin the fourth quarter of London-based2012 and no longer offered FOCUS Information Limited. In May 2004, we expanded into Tennessee through the acquisition of Peer Market Research, Inc., andto new clients beginning in September 2004, we extended our coverage of the U.K. through the acquisition of Scottish Property Network. In September 2004, we strengthened our position in Denver, Colorado through the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of RealComp, Inc., a local comparable sales information provider.2013.
In January 2005, we acquired National Research Bureau, a Connecticut-based providerOur subscription-based services consist primarily of U.S. shopping center information. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S. (“Grecam”), a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consultingsimilar services located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited (“Propex”), a provider of commercial property information and operator of an electronic platform that facilitatesoffered over the exchange of investment property located in London, England. In April 2008, we acquired the assets of First CLS, Inc. (doing business as the Dorey Companies and DoreyPRO), an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information. Most recently, in July 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (“PPR”), a provider of real estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analyticsInternet to the commercial real estate industry and its wholly ownedrelated professionals. Our services are typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that renew automatically, a majority of which have a term of one year. Upon renewal, many of the subscription contract rates may change in accordance with contract provisions or as a result of contract renegotiations. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than charging fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client's business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.
As of December 31, 2012 and 2013, our annualized net new sales of subscription-based services on annual contracts were approximately $10.9 million and $15.8 million, respectively, calculated based on the annualized amount of change in our sales resulting from new annual subscription-based contracts or upsales on existing annual subscription-based contracts, less write downs and cancellations, for the period reported. We recognize subscription revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of the contract. Annual and quarterly advance payments result in deferred revenue, substantially reducing the working capital requirements generated by accounts receivable.
For the twelve months ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, our contract renewal rate for existing CoStar subscription-based services was approximately 94% and 93%, respectively, and therefore our cancellation rate for those services was approximately 6% and 7%, respectively, for the same time periods. Our contract renewal rate is a quantitative measurement that is typically closely correlated with our revenue results. As a result, management also believes that the rate may be a reliable indicator of short-term and long-term performance. Our trailing twelve-month contract renewal rate may decline if, among other reasons, negative economic conditions lead to greater business failures and/or consolidations among our clients, reductions in customer spending, or decreases in our customer base.
Expansion and Development
We expect to continue software development to improve existing services, introduce new services, integrate products and services, cross-sell existing services, and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research, sales and marketing organizations. We are committed to supporting and improving our existing core information, news, analytic and marketing services.
In October 2013, we introduced technology enhancements to CoStar Suite, our platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professionaland CoStar Tenant. The enhancements improve CoStar Suite's user interface, search functionality and analytic capabilities. The newly introduced CoStar MultifamilyTM information search allows access to our extensive multifamily property database. In addition, we introduced CoStar Lease AnalysisTM, an integrated workflow tool that provides users a simple way to produce understandable cash flows for any proposed or existing lease. We will continue software development on our new Lease Analysis workflow tool throughout 2014. We believe this greater functionality will make our services valuable to an even broader audience and help us increase sales of our services to brokers, banks, owners and institutional investors. Further, these technology enhancements are expected to drive continued revenue growth in 2014 and for the foreseeable future. We expect additional selling and marketing activities to promote our new service enhancements will result in increased expenses in 2014.
In October 2013, we also released CoStarGo® 2.0, the next generation of our mobile application, which was launched in the U.S. on August 15, 2011 and introduced in the U.K. subsidiary Propertyon November 5, 2012. CoStarGo is our iPad application that integrates and Portfolio Research Ltd.,provides CoStar Suite subscribers mobile access to our comprehensive property, tenant and in October 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Resolve Technology, a provider of business intelligence and portfolio management software serving the institutional real estate investment industry. The PPR and Resolve Technology acquisitions are discussed later in this section under the heading “Recent Acquisitions.”comparable sales information. CoStarGo 2.0 adds powerful analytic capabilities to our comprehensive mobile solution.
We have consistently workedintroduced enhancements to expand our flagship marketing platform, LoopNet.com. For example, we added a broker advertising service offerings, boththat allows brokers to purchase advertisements based on geographic and property type criteria. Additionally, we introduced ProVideo, a service that enables owners and brokers to enhance their listings with high quality videos of interior spaces, amenities and exterior features. We expect to continue software development to improve the LoopNet marketing platform in terms2014.
We continue to integrate, develop and cross-sell the services offered by the companies we acquired, including LoopNet, Virtual Premise, Resolve Technology and PPR. In some cases, when integrating and coordinating our services and assessing industry needs, we may decide, or may have previously decided, to combine, shift focus from, de-emphasize, phase out, or eliminate a service that overlaps or is redundant with other services we offer.
Our sales and marketing efforts have focused and will continue to focus on cross-selling and marketing our services. We recently implemented an automatic cross-selling initiative within the LoopNet marketplace. As searchers view properties within the LoopNet marketplace, a message may appear indicating that there are additional listings available within CoStar Suite with the same search criteria that they are not able to access under their current subscription. The message provides contact information, so that the customer can reach their customer service or sales representative and review the most appropriate service for their needs. Our goal is to upsell clients to the services that best meet their needs and to create further cross-selling revenue synergies. In addition, we have added a comparison feature to CoStarGo, which allows our sales force to demonstrate how many more properties a prospect could see with respect to a particular search area if that prospect were using CoStar Suite rather than the prospect’s current subscription with LoopNet.
Our revenues have increased as a result of geographical coveragethe LoopNet merger and prior acquisitions, due to revenue from the acquired businesses and from cross-selling opportunities among the customers of CoStar and the scopeacquired companies. As a result of cross selling CoStar's and LoopNet's complementary services, offered,we began to achieve increased revenue synergies in order2013. We also incurred increased expenses associated with the related marketing and sales campaign in 2012 and during the first half of 2013. These initiatives resulted in revenue growth, and we expect they will continue to position the company for future revenue growth. In 2004, we began our expansion into 21 new metropolitan markets throughoutgrowth during 2014 and for the U.S. and began expanding the geographical coverage of many of our existing U.S. and U.K. markets. We completed our expansion into the 21 new markets in the first quarter of 2006. In early 2005, in conjunction with the acquisition of National Research Bureau, we launched a major effort to expand our coverage of retail real estate information. The retail component of our flagship product, CoStar Property Professional, was unveiled in May 2006 at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ convention in Las Vegas.foreseeable future.
During the second half of 2006, in order to expand the geographical coverage of our service offerings, we began actively researching commercial properties in 81 new Core Based Statistical Areas (“CBSAs”) in the U.S., we increased our U.S. field research fleet by adding 89 vehicles and we hired researchers to staff these vehicles. We released our CoStar Property Professional service in the 81 new CBSAs across the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2007. Throughout our recent expansion efforts, we have remained focused on ensuring that CoStar continues to provide the quality of information our customers expect. As such, in 2010 we expanded our research operations, and we plan to continue to grow our research operations slightly in 2011 in order to continue to meet customer expectations.
During the second half of 2009, as a part of our strategy to provide subscribers with tools for conducting primary research and analysis on commercial real estate, we expanded subscribers’ capabilities to use CoStar’s database of research-verified commercial property information to conduct in-depth analysis and generate reports on trends in sales and leasing activity online. Further, in July 2009, we acquired PPR and its wholly owned subsidiary, providers of real estate investment analysis and market forecasting services.
In connection with our acquisitions of Propex, Grecam and PPR’s wholly owned subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., we intend to expand the coverage of our service offerings within the U.K. and to integrate our international operations more fully with those in the U.S. We have gained operational efficiencies as a resultintend to continue to upgrade the platform of consolidating a majorityservices and expand the coverage of our service offerings within our International segment. To further develop those initiatives, we introduced CoStar Suite in the U.K. research operationsduring the fourth quarter of 2012 and no longer offered FOCUS to new clients beginning in one location in Glasgow and combining the majority of our remaining U.K. operations in one central location in London.
We intend to eventually introduce2013. CoStar Suite is sold as a consistent international platform of service offerings. In 2007, we introducedofferings consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professionaland CoStar Tenant and through the “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our international operations, and in early 2010 we launched Showcase, our Internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings accessible to all visitors to our public websites,Company's mobile application, CoStarGo. CoStarGo 2.0 was released in the U.K. in October 2013 simultaneous with the release in the U.S. Additionally, we have upgraded our back-end research operations, fulfillment and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) systems to support these new U.K. services. In order to implement these services in the U.K., we incurred increased development costs through 2012; however, development costs incurred by the International segment decreased in 2013. The International operating segment continues to experience improved financial performance and most recently, during the three months ended December 31, 2013, International EBITDA increased to a positive amount as a result of increased revenue and decreased operating expenses.
In 2014, we expect to expand further internationally by offering our services in Toronto, Canada. We believe that our recent U.S.integration efforts and internationalcontinued investments in our services, including expansion and integration effortsof our existing service offerings internationally, have created a platform for long-term growth, which werevenue growth. We expect these investments to result in further penetration of our international subscription-based information services and the successful cross-selling of our services to customers in existing markets.
We intend to continue to develop, investassess the need for additional investments in and expand.
We expectour business, in addition to continuethe investments discussed above in order to develop and distribute new services expand existing services within our current platform, and expand and develop our sales and marketing organization. For instance, in July 2009, we expanded subscribers’ analytic capabilities to use our online database to conduct in-depth analysis and generate reports on sales and leasing activity through our acquisition of PPR and in October 2009, we acquired Resolve Technology, which enabled us to provide our customers with additional tools for analyzing commercial real estate markets.platform. Any future product development or expansion including expansion through acquisitionsof services, combination and expansion internationally,coordination of services or elimination of services could reduce our profitability and increase our capital expenditures. Therefore, while we expect current service offerings to remain profitable, driving overall earnings throughout 2011in 2014 and pro vidingproviding substantial cash flow for our business, it is possible that any new investments, changes to our service offerings or other unforeseen events could cause us to generate losses and negative cash flow from operations in the future. Further, our credit facilities contain restrictive covenants that restrict our operations and use of our cash flow, which may prevent us from taking certain actions that we believe could increase our profitability or otherwise enhance our business.
Our goal is to provide additional tools that make our researchMarket Conditions
In general, the current economic recovery has been slower than past economic recoveries. Job growth, in particular, has recovered more slowly than in past economic recoveries, and analytics even more valuable to subscribers. For example, we are currently focusing on integration and further development of the PPR and Resolve Technology service offerings. We have launched an initiative to develop a discounted cash flow (DCF) forecasting and valuation solution that effectively integrates the combined capabilities of CoStar’s market and property information and PPR’s analytics and forecasting expertise with Resolve Technology’s real estate investment software expertise. In order to implement this initiative, we have incurred, and expect to continue to incur additional costs, including costs of hiring additional personnel. While our investments in PPR and Resolve Technology have resulted a nd may continue to result in an increase in expenses, our revenues have also increased as a result, the improvement in the commercial real estate industry has been slower, especially with respect to the rental rate growth. Continuing near-term risks related to lower-than-expected job growth, government fiscal challenges, and uncertainty over U.S. and global economic issues may impede the ability and willingness of these acquisitions, and we have experienced increased cross-selling opportunities among CoStar and the acquired companies.
In some cases, the business operationsclients to purchase services from us or result in reductions of someservices purchased. Additionally, since many of our clients continueuse debt to be negatively affected by challenging economic conditionsfinance a portion of their real estate purchases, material changes in interest rates and risk premiums could harm their ability to complete transactions, especially if the change was relatively rapid and unexpected.
As is typical of this point in the U.S. and the world, resulting at times ineconomic cycle, business consolidations, and in some circumstances, business failure.failures, continue to occur. If cancellations, reductions of services, and failures to pay continue at the current rate or increase, and we are unable to offset the resulting decrease in revenue by increasing sales to new or existing customers, our revenues may decline or grow at reducedlower rates. Additionally, current economic conditions may cause customers to reduce expenses, and customers may be forced to purchase fewer services from us or cancel all services. We compete against many other commercial real estate information, marketinganalytics, and analyticmarketing service providers for busine ss.business, including competitors that offer rapidly changing methods of delivering real estate information. If customers choose to cancel our services for cost-cuttingbecause of cost cutting, desire to access real estate information through other delivery methods, or other reasons, our revenue could decline.
There are clear signs of improving conditions in the commercial real estate industry, including heightened leasing activity and positive net absorption of office space, resulting from modest office-related job growth and recent business expansions in the U.S. The extent and duration of continued improvement of the economy and the commercial real estate industry is unknown, as is the extent and duration of any benefits resulting from any of the governmental or private sector initiatives designed to strengthen the economy. Because of these uncertainties and any resulting impact on our business, we may not be able to accurately forecast our revenue or earnings. Based on current economic conditions, we believe that the Company is positioned to generate continued, sustained earnings from current operations in 2011 and for the foreseeable future.33
Financial Matters
Our financial reporting currency is the U.S. dollar. Changes in exchange rates can significantly affect our reported results and consolidated trends. We believe that our increasing diversification beyond the U.S. economy through our international businesses benefits our stockholders over the long term. We also believe it is important to evaluate our operating results before and after the effect of currency changes, as it may provide a more accurate comparison of our results of operations over historical periods. Currency exchange rate volatility may continue, which may impact (either positively or negatively) our reported financial results and consolidated trends and period-to-period comparisons of our consolidated operations.
We currently issue stock options and/or restricted stock to our officers, directors and employees, and as a result we record additional compensation expense in our consolidated statements of operations. The amount and timing of the compensation expense that we record depends on the amount and types of equity grants made. We plan to continue theto use of stock-based compensation for our officers, directors and employees, which may include, among other things, restricted stock, restricted stock units or stock option grants that typically will require us to record additional compensation expense in our consolidated statements of operations and reduce our net income.
We recently decided to take advantage of favorable market conditions to lower our long-term occupancy costs as a tenant. As part of our overall strategy to consolidate our London office locations and reduce occupancy costs, we relocated our London offices and in July 2010 entered into a settlement pursuant to which we terminated our lease for our former London offices. In addition, in September 2010, we consolidated our three facilities located inFebruary 2012, the Boston, Massachusetts area, including the facilities used by CoStar, PPR and Resolve Technology, into one facility. We recorded a lease restructuring charge of approximately $1.3 million in general and administrative expense in the third quarter of 2010 as a resultCompensation Committee (the “Committee”) of the Boston office consolidation. In December 2010, we consolidated our New York and Isel in, New Jersey offices into one facility. The consolidationBoard of these facilities did not result in a lease restructuring charge.
On February 5, 2010, we took advantageDirectors approved grants of favorable market conditions and purchased an office building in downtown Washington, DC for $41.25 million for use as our new headquarters and have since relocated to this location. The lease for our previous headquarters in Bethesda, MD expired on October 15, 2010; therefore, we incurred overlapping occupancy costs through the end of the Bethesda lease term as we transitionedrestricted common stock to our new headquarters. We were able to create value through our occupancy of the building in Washington, DC and on February 18, 2011 sold the building for aggregate consideration of $101.0 million, $15.0 million of which is being held in escrow to fund additional build-out and planned improvements at the building. As part of the sale, we entered into a long-term lease with the buye r to lease back approximately 88% of the office space, where our corporate headquarters will remain. We expectexecutive officers that the lease-back arrangement will result in additional expense of approximately $4.5 million to $5.0 million in 2011.
Our subscription-based information services, consisting primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, and FOCUS services currently generate more than 94% of our total revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. The majority of our contracts for our subscription-based information services typically have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically. Upon renewal, many of the subscription contract rates may change in accordance with contract provisions or as a result of contract renegotiations. To encourage clients to use our services regu larly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generallyvest based on the numberachievement of sites, numberCoStar performance conditions. Specifically, these shares of users, organization size,performance-based restricted common stock vest upon our achievement of $90.0 million of cumulative net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") over a period of four consecutive calendar quarters, and are subject to forfeiture in the client’s business focus, geographyevent the foregoing performance condition is not met by March 31, 2017. These awards support the Committee’s goals of aligning executive incentives with long-term stockholder value and ensuring that executive officers have a continuing stake in the numberlong-term success of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract feesCoStar. In May and December of 2012, we granted additional shares of restricted common stock that vest based on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis. We recognize this revenue on a straight-line basis over the lifeachievement of the contract. Annual and quarterly advance payments result in deferred revenue, substantially reducingsame performance conditions to other key employees. We granted a total of 399,413 shares of performance-based restricted common stock during the working capital requirements generated by accounts receivable.
Foryear ended December 31, 2012. There was no performance-based restricted common stock granted during the twelve monthsyear ended December 31, 20102013. All of the awards were made under the CoStar Group, Inc. 2007 Stock Incentive Plan and 2009,pursuant to our contract renewal ratestandard form of restricted stock grant agreement. The number of shares granted was based on the fair market value of CoStar’s common stock on the grant date. As of March 31, 2013, we initially determined that it was probable that the performance condition for subscription-based servicesthese performance-based restricted common stock awards would be met by the March 31, 2017 forfeiture date. As of December 31, 2013, we reassessed the probability of achieving this performance condition and determined that it was still probable that the performance condition for these awards would be met by the March 31, 2017 forfeiture date, subject to certain approvals under the CoStar Group, Inc. 2007 Stock Incentive Plan. As a result,we recorded a total of approximately 90% and 85%, respectively, and therefore our cancellation rate was approximately 10% and 15%, respectively,$21.8 million of stock-based compensation expense related to performance-based restricted common stock for the same periodsyear ended December 31, 2013. There was no stock-based compensation expense related to performance-based restricted common stock recorded for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2012.
Property Developments
As in the past, we expect to continue to identify new facilities and consolidate existing facilities to better accommodate the changing demands of time. Our contract renewal rate is a quantitative measurement that is typically closely correlated with our revenue results.business and employees. As a result, management also believes thatwe may incur additional lease restructuring charges for the rate may be a reliable indicatorabandonment of short-termcertain lease space and long-term performance. Our trailing twelve-month contract renewal rate may decline if negative economic conditions lead to greater business failures and/or consolidations among our clients, further reductions in customer spending, or decreases in our customer base.the impairment of leasehold improvements.
Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and revenues and expenses during the period reported. The following accounting policies involve a “critical accounting estimate” because they are particularly dependent on estimates and assumptions made by management about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the accounting estimates are made. In addition, while we have used our best estimates based on facts and circumstances available to us at the time, different acceptable assumptions would yield different result s.results. Changes in the accounting estimates we use are reasonably likely to occur from period to period, which may have a material impact on the presentation of our financial condition and results of operations. We review these estimates and assumptions periodically and reflect the effects of revisions in the period that they are determined to be necessary.
Fair Value of Auction Rate Securities
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received in the sale of an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants. There is a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which categorizes assets and liabilities by the inputs used in measuring fair value. These tiers include: Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets; Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable; and Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs infor which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions. Our Level 3 assets consist of auction rate securities (“ARS”), whose underlying assets are primarily student loan securities supported by guarantees from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”) of the U.S. Department of Education.
Our ARS investments are not currently actively trading and therefore do not currently have a readily determinable market value. Accordingly, theThe estimated fair value of the ARS no longer approximates par value. We have used a discounted cash flow model to determine the estimated fair value of our investment in ARS as of December 31, 2010.2013. The assumptions used in preparing the discounted cash flow model include estimates for interest rates, credit spreads, timing and amount of contractual cash flows, liquidity risk premiums, expected holding periods and default risk of the ARS. We update the discounted cash flow model on a quarterly basis to reflect any changes in the assumptions used in the model and settlements of ARS investments that occurred during the period.
The only significant unobservable input in the discounted cash flow model is the discount rate. The discount rate used represents our estimate of the yield expected by a market participant from the ARS investments. The weighted average discount rate used in the discounted cash flow model as of December 31, 2012 and 2013 was approximately 5.1% and 4.9%, respectively. Selecting another discount rate within the range used in the discounted cash flow model would not result in a significant change to the fair value of the ARS.
Based on this assessment of fair value, as of December 31, 2010,2013, we determined there was a decline in the fair value of our ARS investments of approximately $3.0 million.$1.5 million. The decline was deemed to be a temporary impair mentimpairment and recorded as an unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity. If the issuers of these ARS are unable to successfully close future auctions and/or their credit ratings deteriorate, we may be required to record additional unrealized losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss or an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings on these investments, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.
We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to determine the fair value of the ARS. We do not expect any material changes in the near term to the underlying assumptions used to determine the unobservable inputs used to calculate the fair value of the ARS as of December 31, 2010.2013. However, if changes in these assumptions occur, and, should those changes be significant, we may be exposed to additional unrealized losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss or an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings on these investments.
Fair Value of Deferred Consideration
Our Level 3 liabilities consist of a $3.2 million liability as of December 31, 2010 for deferred consideration related to the October 19, 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology. The deferred consideration is for (i) a potential deferred cash payment two years after closing based on the incremental growth of Resolve Technology’s revenue, and (ii) other potential deferred cash payments for successful completion of operational and sales milestones during the period from closing through October 31, 2013, which period may be extended by the parties to a date no later than December 31, 2014.
We used a discounted cash flow model to determine the estimated fair value of our Level 3 liabilities as of December 31, 2010. The significant assumptions used in preparing the discounted cash flow model include the discount rate, estimates for future incremental revenue growth and probabilities for completion of operational and sales milestones.
We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to determine the fair value of the deferred consideration. We do not expect any material changes in the near term to the underlying assumptions used to determine the unobservable inputs used to calculate the fair value of the deferred consideration as of December 31, 2010. However, if changes in these assumptions occur, and, should those changes be significant, we may be required to recognize additional liabilities related to this deferred consideration.
Stock-Based Compensation
We account for equity instruments issued in exchange for employee services using a fair-value based method and we recognize the fair value of such equity instruments as an expense in the consolidated statements of operations. We estimated the fair value of each option granted on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which requires us to estimate the dividend yield, expected volatility, risk-free interest rate and expected life of the stock option. These assumptions and the estimation of expected forfeitures are based on multiple factors, including historical employee behavior patterns of exercising options and post-employment termination behavior, expected future employee option exercise patterns, and the historical volatility of the Company’sour stock price. For equity instruments that vest based on performance, we assess the probability of the achievement of the performance conditions at the end of each reporting period, or more frequently based upon the occurrence of events that may change the probability of whether the performance conditions would be met. If our initial estimates of the achievement of the performance conditions change, the related stock-based compensation expense and timing of recognition may fluctuate from period to period based on those estimates. If the performance conditions are not met, no stock-based compensation expense will be recognized, and any previously recognized stock-based compensation expense will be reversed.
We do not expect any material changes in the near term to the underlying assumptions used to calculate stock-based compensation expense for the twelve monthsyear ended December 31, 2010.2013. However, if changes in these assumptions occur, and, should those changes be significant, they could have a material impact on our stock-based compensation expense.
Valuation of Long-Lived and Intangible Assets and Goodwill
We assess the impairment of long-lived assets, identifiable intangibles and goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Judgments made by management relate to the expected useful lives of long-lived assets and our ability to realize any undiscounted cash flows of the carrying amounts of such assets. The accuracy of these judgments may be adversely affected by several factors, including the factors listed below:
Significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results;
Significant changes in the manner of our use of the acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business;
Significant negative industry or economic trends; or
Significant decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period.
When we determine that the carrying value of long-lived and identifiable intangible assets may not be recovered based upon the existence of one or more of the above indicators, we test for impairment.
Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets that are not subject to amortization are tested annually for impairment by each reporting unit on October 1 of each year and are also tested for impairment more frequently based upon the existence of one or more of the above indicators. We consider our operating segments, U.S. and International, as our reporting units under FASBFinancial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") authoritative guidance for consideration of potential impairment of goodwill.
TheTo determine whether it is necessary to perform the two-step goodwill impairment test, we may first assess qualitative factors to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If we conclude that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount or if we elect not to assess qualitative factors, then we perform the two-step process. The first step is to determine the fair value of each reporting unit. We estimate the fair value of each reporting unit based on a projected discounted cash flow model that includes significant assumptions and estimates including our discount rate, growth rate and future financial performance andperformance. Assumptions about the discount rate are based on a weighted average cost of capital. capital for comparable companies. Assumptions about the growth rate and future financial performance of a reporting unit are based on our forecasts, business plans, economic projections and anticipated future cash flows. Our assumptions regarding the future financial performance of the International reporting unit reflect our expectation as of October 1, 2013, that revenues will increase as a result of further penetration of our international subscription-based information services and the successful cross-selling of our services to our customers in existing markets due to the release of our upgraded international platform and expansion of coverage of our international service offerings. These assumptions are subject to change from period to period and could be adversely impacted by the uncertainty surrounding global market conditions, commercial real estate conditions, and the competitive environment in which we operate. Changes in these or other factors could negatively affect our reporting units' fair value and potentially result in impairment charges. Such impairment charges could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
The fair value of each reporting unit is compared to the carrying amount of the reporting unit. If the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds the fair value, then the second step of the process is performed to measure the impairment loss. We measure impairment loss based on a projected discounted cash flow method using a discount rate determined by our management to be commensurate with the risk in our current business model. As of October 1, 2010,2013, the date of our most recent impairment analysis, the estimated fair value of each of our reporting units substantially exceeded the carrying value of our reporting units. There have been no events or changes in circumstances since the date of our impairment analysis on October 1, 20102013 that would indicate that the carrying value of each reporting unit may not be recoverable.
To determine whether it is necessary to perform the quantitative impairment test for indefinite-lived intangible assets, we may first assess qualitative factors to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of the indefinite-lived intangible assets is less than the carrying amount. If we conclude that it is more likely than not that the fair value of the indefinite-lived intangible assets is less than the carrying amount or if we elect not to assess qualitative factors, then we perform the quantitative impairment test similar to the test performed on goodwill discussed above.
As of October 1, 2013, the date of our most recent impairment analysis, the estimated fair value of our indefinite-lived intangible assets substantially exceeded the carrying value. There have been no events or changes in circumstances since the date of our impairment analysis on October 1, 2013 that would indicate that the carrying value of the indefinite-lived intangible asset may not be recoverable.
Accounting for Income Taxes
As part of the process of preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to estimate our income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. This process requires us to estimate our actual current tax exposure and assess the temporary differences resulting from differing treatment of items, such as deferred revenue or deductibility of certain intangible assets, for tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included within our consolidated balance sheets. We must then also assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be recovered from future taxable income, and, to the extent we believe that it is more-likely-than not that some portion or all of our deferred tax assets will not be realized, we must establish a valuation allowance. ; To the extent we establish a valuation allowance or change the allowance in a period, we must reflect the corresponding increase or decrease within the tax provision in the consolidated statements of operations.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We prepare and publicly release quarterly unaudited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. We also disclose and discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in our public releases, investor conference calls and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The non-GAAP financial measures that we may disclose include EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share.share (also referred to as "non-GAAP EPS"). EBITDA is our net income (loss) before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. We typically disclose EBITDA on a consolidated and an operating segment basis in our earnings releases, investor conference calls and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Adjusted EBITDA is different from EBITDA because we further adjust EBITDA for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition re latedacquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, headquarters acquisition and transition related costs and settlements and impairments incurred outside our ordinary course of business. Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share are similarly adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition relatedacquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, headquarters acquisition and transition related costs and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business as well as purchase amortization and other related costs. We may disclose adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share on a consolidated basis in our earnings releases, investor conference calls and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The non-GAAP financial measures that we use may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Also, in the future, we may disclose different non-GAAP financial measures in order to help our investors more meaningfully evaluate and compare our results of operations to our previously reported results of operations or to those of other companies in our industry.
We view EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share as operating performance measures and as such we believe that the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is net income (loss).income. In calculating EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share, we exclude from net income (loss) the financial items that we believe should be separately identified to provide additional analysis of the financial components of the day-to-day operation of our business. We have outlined below the type and scope of these exclusions and the material limitations on the use of these non-GAAP financial measures as a result of these exclusions. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share are not measurements of financial performance u nderunder GAAP and should not be considered as a measure of liquidity, as an alternative to net income (loss) or as an indicator of any other measure of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Investors and potential investors in our securities should not rely on EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share as a substitute for any GAAP financial measure, including net income (loss).income. In addition, we urge investors and potential investors in our securities to carefully review the GAAP financial information included as part of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as our quarterly earnings releases, and compare the GAAP financial information with our EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share.
EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share may be used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and may be used by investors as supplemental financial measures to evaluate the performance of our business. We believe that these non-GAAP measures, when viewed with our GAAP results and the accompanying reconciliation, provide additional information that is useful to understand the factors and trends affecting our business. We have spent more than 2326 years building our database of commercial real estate information and expanding our markets and services partially through acquisitions of complementary businesses. Due to the expansion of our information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services, which has included acquisitions, our net income (loss) has inclu dedincluded significant charges for purchase amortization, depreciation and other amortization, acquisitionacquisition- and integration-related costs and restructuring costs. EBITDA, adjustedAdjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share exclude these charges and provide meaningful information about the operating performance of our business, apart from charges for purchase amortization, depreciation and other amortization, acquisitionacquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business. We believe the disclosure of these non-GAAP measures can help investors meaningfully evaluate and compare our performance from quarter to quarter and from year to year. We also believe thesethe non-GAAP measures we disclose are measures of our ongoing operating performance because the isolation of non-cash charges, such as amortization and depreciation, and other items, such as interest, income taxes, stock-based compensation expenses, acquisition costs, headquarters acquisitionacquisition- and transition relatedintegration-related costs, restructuring costs and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business, provides additional information about our cost structure, and, over time, helps track our operating progress. In addition, investors, securities analysts and others have regularly relied on EBITDA and may rely on adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income or non-GAAP net income per diluted share to provide a financial measure by which to compare our operating performance against that of other companies in our industry.
Set forth below are descriptions of the financial items that have been excluded from our net income (loss) to calculate EBITDA and the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income (loss):income:
| · | Purchase amortization in cost of revenues may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the use of our acquired database technology, which is one of the sources of information for our database of commercial real estate information. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure. |
| · | Purchase amortization in operating expenses may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the estimated attrition of our acquired customer base and the diminishing value of any acquired trade names. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure. |
| · | Depreciation and other amortization may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent the wear and tear on our property and equipment used in our operations. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure. |
| · | The amount of net interest income we generate may be useful for investors to consider and may result in current cash inflows or outflows.The amount of interest income we generate may be useful for investors to consider and may result in current cash inflows. However, we do not consider the amount of net interest income to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business. |
| · | Income tax expense (benefit) may be useful for investors to consider because it generally represents the taxes which may be payable for the period and the change in deferred income taxes during the period and may reduce the amount of funds otherwise available for use in our business. However, we do not consider the amount of income tax expense (benefit) to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business. |
The amount of interest expense we incur may be useful for investors to consider and may result in current cash outflows. However, we do not consider the amount of interest expense to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
Income tax expense may be useful for investors to consider because it generally represents the taxes which may be payable for the period and the change in deferred income taxes during the period and may reduce the amount of funds otherwise available for use in our business. However, we do not consider the amount of income tax expense to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
Set forth below are descriptions of the financial items that have been excluded from our net income (loss) to calculate adjusted EBITDA and the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income (loss):income:
| · | Purchase amortization in cost of revenues, purchase amortization in operating expenses, depreciation and other amortization, interest income, net,Purchase amortization in cost of revenues, purchase amortization in operating expenses, depreciation and other amortization, interest income, interest expense, and income tax expense (benefit) as previously described above with respect to the calculation of EBITDA. |
| · | Stock-based compensation expense may be useful for investors to consider because it represents a portion of the compensation of our employees and executives. Determining the fair value of the stock-based instruments involves a high degree of judgment and estimation and the expenses recorded may bear little resemblance to the actual value realized upon the future exercise or termination of the related stock-based awards. Therefore, we believe it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of our core business. |
| · | The amount of acquisition relatedThe amount of acquisition- and integration-related costs incurred may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent professional service fees and direct expenses related to the acquisition. Because we do not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle we do not consider the amount of acquisition related to the acquisition. Because we do not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle we do not consider the amount of acquisition- and integration-related costs to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business. |
| · | The amount of restructuring costs incurred may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent costs incurred in connection with a change in the makeup of our properties or personnel. We do not consider the amount of restructuring related costs to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business. |
| · | The amount of headquarters acquisition and transition related costs incurred may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent the overlapping rent and building carrying costs, legal costs and other related costs incurred to relocate our headquarters.The amount of material settlement and impairment costs incurred outside of our ordinary course of business may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent gains or losses from the settlement of litigation matters. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure. |
| · | The amount of material settlement and impairment costs incurred outside of our ordinary course of business may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent gains or losses from the settlement of litigation matters. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure. |
The financial items that have been excluded from our net income (loss) to calculate non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share are purchase amortization and other related costs, stock-based compensation, acquisition relatedacquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, headquarter acquisition and transition related costs and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business. These items are discussed above with respect to the calculation of adjusted EBITDA alongtogether with the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income (loss).income. We subtract an assumed provision for income taxes to calculate non-GAAP net income. We assumeIn 2011, we assumed a 40% tax rate, and in 2012 and 2013, we assumed a 38% tax rate in order to approximate our long-term effective corporate tax rate.
Non-GAAP net income per diluted share is a non-GAAP financial measure that represents non-GAAP net income divided by the number of diluted shares outstanding for the period used in the calculation of GAAP net income per diluted share.
Management compensates for the above-described limitations of using non-GAAP measures by using a non-GAAP measure only to supplement our GAAP results and to provide additional information that is useful to understand the factors and trends affecting our business.
The following table shows our EBITDA reconciled to our net income and our net cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities for the indicated periods (in thousands):
| | | Year Ended December 31, | |
| | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
Net income | | $ | 24,623 | | | $ | 18,693 | | | $ | 13,289 | |
Purchase amortization in cost of revenues | | | 2,284 | | | | 2,389 | | | | 1,471 | |
Purchase amortization in operating expenses | | | 4,880 | | | | 3,412 | | | | 2,305 | |
Depreciation and other amortization | | | 9,637 | | | | 8,875 | | | | 9,873 | |
Interest income, net | | | (4,914 | ) | | | (1,253 | ) | | | (735 | ) |
Income tax expense, net | | | 20,079 | | | | 14,395 | | | | 10,221 | |
EBITDA | | $ | 56,589 | | | $ | 46,511 | | | $ | 36,424 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Net cash flows provided by (used in) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Operating activities | | $ | 40,908 | | | $ | 38,445 | | | $ | 39,269 | |
Investing activities | | $ | 52,430 | | | $ | 4,532 | | | $ | (40,504 | ) |
Financing activities | | $ | 11,475 | | | $ | 2,172 | | | $ | 2,042 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Year Ended December 31, |
| | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Net income | $ | 14,656 |
| | $ | 9,915 |
| | $ | 29,734 |
|
| Purchase amortization in cost of revenues | 1,353 |
| | 8,634 |
| | 11,883 |
|
| Purchase amortization in operating expenses | 2,237 |
| | 13,607 |
| | 15,183 |
|
| Depreciation and other amortization | 9,262 |
| | 10,511 |
| | 12,992 |
|
| Interest income | (798 | ) | | (526 | ) | | (326 | ) |
| Interest expense | — |
| | 4,832 |
| | 6,943 |
|
| Income tax expense, net | 7,913 |
| | 13,219 |
| | 17,803 |
|
| EBITDA | $ | 34,623 |
| | $ | 60,192 |
| | $ | 94,212 |
|
| | | | | | |
| Net cash flows provided by (used in) | |
| | |
| | |
|
| Operating activities | $ | 27,785 |
| | $ | 86,126 |
| | $ | 108,298 |
|
| Investing activities | $ | 58,366 |
| | $ | (640,398 | ) | | $ | (18,966 | ) |
| Financing activities | $ | 252,680 |
| | $ | 164,941 |
| | $ | 10,405 |
|
Consolidated Results of Operations
The following table provides our selected consolidated results of operations for the indicated periods (in thousands of dollars and as a percentage of total revenue):
| | | Year Ended December 31, | |
| | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| Revenues | | $ | 212,428 | | | | 100.0 | % | | $ | 209,659 | | | | 100.0 | % | | $ | 226,260 | | | | 100.0 | % |
| Cost of revenues | | | 73,408 | | | | 34.6 | | | | 73,714 | | | | 35.2 | | | | 83,599 | | | | 36.9 | |
| Gross margin | | | 139,020 | | | | 65.4 | | | | 135,945 | | | | 64.8 | | | | 142,661 | | | | 63.1 | |
| Operating expenses: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Selling and marketing | | | 41,705 | | | | 19.6 | | | | 42,508 | | | | 20.3 | | | | 52,455 | | | | 23.2 | |
| Software development | | | 12,759 | | | | 6.0 | | | | 13,942 | | | | 6.6 | | | | 17,350 | | | | 7.7 | |
| General and administrative | | | 39,888 | | | | 18.8 | | | | 44,248 | | | | 21.1 | | | | 47,776 | | | | 21.1 | |
| Purchase amortization | | | 4,880 | | | | 2.3 | | | | 3,412 | | | | 1.6 | | | | 2,305 | | | | 1.0 | |
| Total operating expenses | | | 99,232 | | | | 46.7 | | | | 104,110 | | | | 49.7 | | | | 119,886 | | | | 53.0 | |
| Income from operations | | | 39,788 | | | | 18.7 | | | | 31,835 | | | | 15.2 | | | | 22,775 | | | | 10.1 | |
| Interest and other income, net | | | 4,914 | | | | 2.3 | | | | 1,253 | | | | 0.6 | | | | 735 | | | | 0.3 | |
| Income before income taxes | | | 44,702 | | | | 21.0 | | | | 33,088 | | | | 15.8 | | | | 23,510 | | | | 10.4 | |
| Income tax expense, net | | | 20,079 | | | | 9.5 | | | | 14,395 | | | | 6.9 | | | | 10,221 | | | | 4.5 | |
| Net income | | $ | 24,623 | | | | 11.6 | % | | $ | 18,693 | | | | 8.9 | % | | $ | 13,289 | | | | 5.9 | % |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Year Ended December 31, |
| | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Revenues | $ | 251,738 |
| | 100.0 | % | | $ | 349,936 |
| | 100.0 | % | | $ | 440,943 |
| | 100.0 | % |
| Cost of revenues | 88,167 |
| | 35.0 |
| | 114,866 |
| | 32.8 |
| | 129,185 |
| | 29.3 |
|
| Gross margin | 163,571 |
| | 65.0 |
| | 235,070 |
| | 67.2 |
| | 311,758 |
| | 70.7 |
|
| Operating expenses: | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|
| Selling and marketing | 61,164 |
| | 24.3 |
| | 84,113 |
| | 24.0 |
| | 98,708 |
| | 22.4 |
|
| Software development | 20,037 |
| | 8.0 |
| | 32,756 |
| | 9.4 |
| | 46,757 |
| | 10.6 |
|
| General and administrative | 58,362 |
| | 23.2 |
| | 77,154 |
| | 22.0 |
| | 96,956 |
| | 22.0 |
|
| Purchase amortization | 2,237 |
| | 0.9 |
| | 13,607 |
| | 3.9 |
| | 15,183 |
| | 3.4 |
|
| Total operating expenses | 141,800 |
| | 56.4 |
| | 207,630 |
| | 59.3 |
| | 257,604 |
| | 58.4 |
|
| Income from operations | 21,771 |
| | 8.6 |
| | 27,440 |
| | 7.9 |
| | 54,154 |
| | 12.3 |
|
| Interest and other income | 798 |
| | 0.3 |
| | 526 |
| | 0.2 |
| | 326 |
| | 0.1 |
|
| Interest and other expense | — |
| | — |
| | (4,832 | ) | | (1.4 | ) | | (6,943 | ) | | (1.6 | ) |
| Income before income taxes | 22,569 |
| | 8.9 |
| | 23,134 |
| | 6.7 |
| | 47,537 |
| | 10.8 |
|
| Income tax expense, net | 7,913 |
| | 3.1 |
| | 13,219 |
| | 3.9 |
| | 17,803 |
| | 4.1 |
|
| Net income | $ | 14,656 |
| | 5.8 | % | | $ | 9,915 |
| | 2.8 | % | | $ | 29,734 |
| | 6.7 | % |
Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 20102013 and Year Ended December 31, 20092012
Revenues. Revenues increased to $440.9 million in 2013, from $349.9 million in 2012. The $91.0 millionincrease was primarily attributable to increased to $226.3 million in 2010, from $209.7 million in 2009. The increase in revenuesrevenue of approximately $16.6$52.8 million is primarily due to additional revenue from our July 2009April 30, 2012 acquisition of PPR. Our subscription-based information services consist primarilyLoopNet as well as the further penetration of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, FOCUS services and Propex services. As of December 31, 2010, our subscription-based information services represented more than 94%and successful cross-selling of our total revenues.services to our customers in existing markets, combined with continued high renewal rates.
Gross Margin. Gross margin increased to $142.7$311.8 million in 2010,2013, from $135.9$235.1 million in 2009.2012. The gross margin percentage increased to 70.7% in 2013, from 67.2% in 2012. The increase in the amount of gross margin amount and percentage was principally due to a $16.6 millionan increase in revenue partially offset by an increase in cost of revenues. The gross margin percentage decreased to 63.1% in 2010, from 64.8% in 2009. The decrease in the percentagerevenues of gross margin was principally$14.3 million primarily due to an increase in the costresearch personnel costs of revenues. Costapproximately $6.4 million and an increase of revenues increased to $83.6approximately $3.5 million in 2010,purchase amortization from $73.7 million in 2009. The increase in cost of revenues was principally due to additional cost of revenues of approximately $7.4 million included as a result of our July 2009April 30, 2012 acquisition of PPR and our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology.LoopNet.
Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses increased to $52.5$98.7 million in 2010,2013, from $42.5$84.1 million in 2009,2012, and increaseddecreased as a percentage of revenues to 23.2%22.4% in 2010,2013, from 20.3%24.0% in 2009.2012. The increase in the amount and percentage of selling and marketing expenses was primarily due to increased costs of approximately $6.1 million due to increased sales personnel costs, as well asthe additional selling and marketing expenses of approximately $1.7 million included as a result offrom our July 2009April 30, 2012 acquisition of PPR and our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology.LoopNet.
Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses increased to $17.4$46.8 million in 2010,2013, from $13.9$32.8 million in 2009,2012, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 7.7%10.6% in 2010,2013, from 6.6%9.4% in 2009.2012. The increase in the amount and percentage of software development expense was primarily due to additional software development expenses included as a result ofincreased personnel costs to support enhancements and upgrades to our July 2009 acquisition of PPR and our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology.services.
General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $47.8$97.0 million in 2010,2013, from $44.2$77.2 million in 2009,2012, and remained relatively constant as a percentage of revenues at 21.1%approximately 22.0% in 20102013 and 2009.2012. The increase in the amount of general and administrative expenses was principally due to $2.8an increase in stock-based compensation expense.
Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization increased to approximately $15.2 million recorded in 2013, from $13.6 million in 2012, and decreased as a percentage of revenue to 3.4% in 2013, compared to 3.9% in 2012. The increase in the amount of purchase amortization expense was due to additional purchase amortization expenses from our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet.
Interest and Other Income. Interest and other income decreased to approximately $326,000 in 2013 compared to approximately $526,000 in 2012. The decrease was primarily due to our lower cash and cash equivalent balance in 2013 resulting from the net cash paid for our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet.
Interest and Other Expense. Interest and other expense increased to $6.9 million in 2013 compared to $4.8 million in 2012. The increase was due to the additional interest expense incurred in 2013 compared to 2012, resulting from the $175.0 million borrowed under the term loan facility on April 30, 2012 and used to fund a portion of the merger consideration and transaction costs for the settlement of two litigation mattersLoopNet acquisition.
Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net increased to $17.8 million in June 2010, the 2010 lease restructuring charge of approximately $1.32013, from $13.2 million and additional general and administrative expense of approximately $2.0 million included in 2012. This increase was primarily due to higher income before income taxes in 2013 as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR and our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology,increased profitability, partially offset by a decreaselower effective tax rate in bad debt expense of approximately $3.0 million.
Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization decreased to $2.3 million2013. The higher effective tax rate in 2010, from $3.4 million in 2009, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 1.0% in 2010, from 1.6% in 2009. The decrease in purchase amortization expense is due to the completion of amortization for certain identifiable intangible assets in 2010.
Interest and Other Income, Net. Interest and other income, net decreased to approximately $700,000 in 2010, from $1.3 million in 2009, primarily due to lower short-term investment balances.
Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net decreased to $10.2 million in 2010, from $14.4 million in 2009. This decrease2012 was primarily due to lowercosts related to the LoopNet acquisition that reduced income before income taxes.from operations but were not deductible for tax purposes.
Comparison of Business Segment Results for Year Ended December 31, 20102013 and Year Ended December 31, 20092012
We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France. Management relies on an internal management reporting process that provides revenue and operating segment EBITDA, which is our net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Management believes that operating segment EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operational performance of our operating segments. EBITDA is used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and to evaluate the performance of our business. However, this measure should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, income from operations or other measures of financial performance p reparedprepared in accordance with GAAP.
SegmentSegment Revenues. CoStar Suite is sold as a platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professional and CoStar Tenant and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar servicesthrough our mobile application, CoStarGo, and compriseis our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. U.S. revenues increased to $420.8 million from $330.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 respectively. This increase in U.S. revenue was primarily due to increased revenue of approximately $52.8 million from our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet as well as further penetration of our subscription-based information services and successful cross-selling of our services to our customers in existing markets, combined with continued high renewal rates. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. Additionally, we introduced CoStar Suite in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of 2012 and no longer offered FOCUS to new clients beginning in 2013. International revenues increased to $20.1 million from $19.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. This increase was primarily due to further penetration of our subscription-based information services resulting from sales of CoStar Suite. Intersegment revenue decreased to $339,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013, compared to $1.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012. Intersegment revenue is attributable to services performed for our wholly owned subsidiary, PPR, by Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of PPR. Intersegment revenue is recorded at an amount we believe approximates fair value. Intersegment revenue is eliminated from total revenues.
Segment EBITDA. U.S. EBITDA increased to $97.3 million from $70.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The increase in U.S. EBITDA was due primarily to an increase in revenues in 2013 compared to 2012, partially offset by an increase in personnel costs, including the stock-based compensation expense we recorded in 2013. International EBITDA increased to a lower loss of $3.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 from a $10.0 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2012. This lower loss was primarily due to a decrease in personnel costs. The International operating segment continues to experience improved financial performance and most recently, during the three months ended December 31, 2013, International EBITDA increased to $208.5a positive amount as a result of increased revenue and decreased operating expenses. U.S. EBITDA includes an allocation of approximately $800,000 and $0 for the years ended 2013 and 2012, respectively. This allocation represents costs incurred for International employees involved in development activities of the Company's U.S. operating segment. International EBITDA includes a corporate allocation of approximately $400,000 and $5.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. This allocation represents costs incurred for U.S. employees involved in management and expansion activities of our International operating segment. The corporate allocation for the year ended December 31, 2012 consists primarily of development costs incurred for services of U.S. employees to upgrade the international platform of services and expand the coverage of service offerings within the International reporting unit.
Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 2012 and Year Ended December 31, 2011
Revenues. Revenues increased to $349.9 million in 2012, from $251.7 million in 2011. The $98.2 increase is primarily attributable to additional revenue of approximately $60.0 million from $191.6our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet as well as the further penetration of our subscription-based information services and successful cross-selling of our services to our customers in existing markets, combined with continued high renewal rates.
Gross Margin. Gross margin increased to $235.1 million in 2012, from $163.6 million in 2011. The gross margin percentage increased to 67.2% in 2012, from 65.0% in 2011. The increase in the gross margin amount and percentage was principally due to an increase in revenue partially offset by an increase in cost of revenues of $26.7 million primarily due to the additional cost of revenues from our 2011 and 2012 acquisitions.
Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses increased to $84.1 million in 2012, from $61.2 million in 2011, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 24.0% in 2012, from 24.3% in 2011. The increase in the amount of selling and marketing expenses was primarily due to the additional selling and marketing expenses from our 2011 and 2012 acquisitions.
Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses increased to $32.8 million in 2012, from $20.0 million in 2011, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 9.4% in 2012, from 8.0% in 2011. The increase in the amount and percentage of software development expense was primarily due to the additional software development expenses from our 2011 and 2012 acquisitions.
General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $77.2 million in 2012, from $58.4 million in 2011, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 22.0% in 2012, from 23.2% in 2011. The increase in the amount of general and administrative expenses was principally due to the additional general and administrative expenses from our 2011 and 2012 acquisitions.
Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization increased to $13.6 million in 2012, from $2.2 million in 2011, and increased as a percentage of revenue to 3.9% in 2012, compared to 0.9% in 2011. The increase in the amount and percentage of purchase amortization expense was due to additional purchase amortization expenses from our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet.
Interest and Other Income. Interest and other income decreased to approximately $526,000 in 2012 compared to approximately $798,000 in 2011. The decrease was primarily due to our lower cash and cash equivalent balance in 2012 resulting from the net cash paid for our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet.
Interest and Other Expense. Interest and other expense increased to $4.8 million in 2012 compared to $0 in 2011. The increase was due to the interest expense incurred in 2012 for the term loan facility used to fund a portion of the merger consideration and transaction costs for the LoopNet acquisition.
Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net increased to $13.2 million in 2012, from $7.9 million in 2011. This increase was primarily due to the impact of costs related to the LoopNet acquisition that are not deductible for tax purposes.
Comparison of Business Segment Results for Year Ended December 31, 2012 and Year Ended December 31, 2011
SegmentRevenues. U.S. revenues increased to $330.8 million from $233.4 million for the years ended December 31, 20102012 and 2009,2011 respectively. This increase in U.S. revenue was primarily due to additional revenuesrevenue of approximately $60.0 million from our April 30, 2012 acquisition of LoopNet, as a resultwell as further penetration of our July 2009 acquisitionsubscription-based information services, and successful cross-selling of PPR. FOCUS is our primary service offeringservices to our customers in our International operating segment.existing markets, combined with continued high renewal rates. International revenues decreased approximately $300,000increased to $19.1 million from $18.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively. This increase was primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations, offset by intersegment revenuesfurther penetration of approximately $1.3our subscription-based information services. Intersegment revenue increased to $1.5 million attrib utablefor the year ended December 31, 2012, compared to $1.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. Intersegment revenue is attributable to services performed for the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, PPR, by Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. for, a wholly owned subsidiary of PPR. PPR and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. were acquired in July 2009. Intersegment revenues arerevenue is recorded at an amount we believe approximates fair value. Intersegment revenue is eliminated from total revenues.
Segment EBITDA. U.S. EBITDA decreasedincreased to $39.6$70.2 million from $47.7$38.1 million for the years ended December 31, 20102012 and 2009,2011, respectively. The decreaseincrease in U.S. EBITDA was due primarily to additional personnel cost of approximately $8.1 million, increased legal settlement charges of approximately $800,000, and a lease restructuring charge of approximately $1.3 million relatedan increase in revenues in 2012 compared to the consolidation of our three facilities located in Boston, Massachusetts, partially offset by a decrease in bad debt expense of approximately $2.2 million.2011. International EBITDA increaseddecreased to a higher loss of $3.2$10.0 million for the year ended December 31, 20102012 from a $1.2$3.5 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2009.2011. This increasedhigher loss was primarily due to approximately $2.0 million paidincreased corporate allocation in connection with the settlement of our litigation with Nokia U.K. Limited.2012 compared to 2011. International EBITDA includes a corporate allocation of approximately $400,000$5.3 million and $500,000$800,000 for the years ended December 31, 20102012 and 2009,2011, respectively. The corporate allocation represents costs incurred for U.S. employees involved in international management and expansion activities.
Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 2009 and Year Ended December 31, 2008
Revenues. Revenues decreased to $209.7 million in 2009, from $212.4 million in 2008. Revenues from customers in our International operations decreased $4.3 million primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations. The decrease in International revenues was partially offset by an increase in U.S. revenues of approximately $1.5 million. The increase in U.S. revenues is primarily due to additional revenue of approximately $8.5 million from our July 2009 acquisition of PPR partially offset by decreased sales resulting from a difficult commercial real estate and economic environment. Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, FOCUS services and Propex services. As of December 31, 20 09, our subscription-based information services represented more than 95% of our total revenues.
Gross Margin. Gross margin decreased to $135.9 million in 2009, from $139.0 million in 2008. The gross margin percentage decreased to 64.8% in 2009, from 65.4% in 2008. The decrease in the amount and percentage of gross margin was principally due to a $2.8 million decrease in revenue in 2009.
Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses increased to $42.5 million in 2009, from $41.7 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 20.3% in 2009, from 19.6% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of selling and marketing expenses was primarily due to additional selling and marketing expenses of approximately $1.7 million incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR. The increase was offset by an approximately $900,000 decrease due to foreign currency fluctuations.
Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses increased to $13.9 million in 2009, from $12.8 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 6.6% in 2009, from 6.0% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of software development expenses was due to additional software development expenses of approximately $600,000 incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR as well as additional development expenses of approximately $400,000 incurred by Resolve Technology, and included as a result of our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology.
General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $44.2 million in 2009, from $39.9 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 21.1% in 2009, from 18.8% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of general and administrative expenses was principally a result of an increase of acquisition and deal related costs of approximately $700,000, an increase in legal fees of $2.0 million and additional general and administrative expenses of approximately $1.1 million incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR.
Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization decreased to $3.4 million in 2009, from $4.9 million in 2008, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 1.6% in 2009, from 2.3% in 2008. The decrease in purchase amortization expense is due to the completion of amortization for certain identifiable intangible assets in 2009.
Interest and Other Income, Net. Interest and other income, net decreased to $1.3 million in 2009, from $4.9 million in 2008. Interest and other income, net decreased due to lower average interest rates in 2009 compared to 2008.
Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net decreased to $14.4 million in 2009, from $20.1 million in 2008. This decrease was due to lower income before income taxes as a result of our decreased profitability.
Comparison of Business Segment Results for Year Ended December 31, 2009 and Year Ended December 31, 2008
We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France. Management relies on an internal management reporting process that provides operating segment revenue and EBITDA, which is our net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Management believes that operating segment EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operational performance of our segments. EBITDA is used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and to evaluate the performance of our business. However, this measure should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, income from operations or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Segment Revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. U.S. revenues increased to $191.6 million from $190.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. This increase in U.S. revenue is due to additional revenues of approximately $8.5 million included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR, partially offset by a decrease of approximately $7.0 million in U.S. revenues due to decreased sales resulting from a difficult commercial real estate and economic environment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operatin g segment. International revenues decreased approximately $4.3 million primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations, partially offset by intersegment revenues of approximately $900,000 attributable to services performed by Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. for PPR. Intersegment revenues are eliminated from total revenues.
Segment EBITDA. U.S. EBITDA decreased to $47.7 million from $58.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The decrease in U.S. EBITDA was due primarily to additional costs incurred by PPR, which we acquired in July of 2009 and increased legal fees. International EBITDA decreased to a loss of $1.2 millioncorporate allocation for the year ended December 31, 2009 from a $2.2 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2008. This decreased loss is2012 consists primarily due to a lower corporate allocation in 2009 as compared to 2008. International EBITDA includes a corporate allocation of approximately $500,000 and $1.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The corporate allocation representsdevelopment costs incurred for services of U.S. employees involved into upgrade the international m anagementplatform of services and expansion activities.expand the coverage of service offerings within the International reporting unit.
Consolidated Quarterly Results of Operations
The following tables summarize our consolidated results of operations on a quarterly basis for the indicated periods (in thousands, except per share amounts, and as a percentage of total revenues):. Certain previously reported amounts in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations have been reclassified to conform to our current presentation:
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | 2012 | | 2013 |
| | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 | | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 |
| Revenues | $ | 68,629 |
| | $ | 85,223 |
| | $ | 96,001 |
| | $ | 100,083 |
| | $ | 104,033 |
| | $ | 108,999 |
| | $ | 112,301 |
| | $ | 115,610 |
|
| Cost of revenues | 24,334 |
| | 28,172 |
| | 30,882 |
| | 31,478 |
| | 33,606 |
| | 32,101 |
| | 31,724 |
| | 31,754 |
|
| Gross margin | 44,295 |
| | 57,051 |
| | 65,119 |
| | 68,605 |
| | 70,427 |
| | 76,898 |
| | 80,577 |
| | 83,856 |
|
| Operating expenses | 35,693 |
| | 57,064 |
| | 56,173 |
| | 58,700 |
| | 73,025 |
| | 61,615 |
| | 60,807 |
| | 62,157 |
|
| Income (loss) from operations | 8,602 |
| | (13 | ) | | 8,946 |
| | 9,905 |
| | (2,598 | ) | | 15,283 |
| | 19,770 |
| | 21,699 |
|
| Interest and other income | 250 |
| | 131 |
| | 59 |
| | 86 |
| | 104 |
| | 83 |
| | 52 |
| | 87 |
|
| Interest and other expense | — |
| | (1,200 | ) | | (1,822 | ) | | (1,810 | ) | | (1,755 | ) | | (1,758 | ) | | (1,736 | ) | | (1,694 | ) |
| Income before income taxes | 8,852 |
| | (1,082 | ) | | 7,183 |
| | 8,181 |
| | (4,249 | ) | | 13,608 |
| | 18,086 |
| | 20,092 |
|
| Income tax expense (benefit), net | 3,720 |
| | 5,628 |
| | 404 |
| | 3,467 |
| | (1,839 | ) | | 5,315 |
| | 7,034 |
| | 7,293 |
|
| Net income (loss) | $ | 5,132 |
| | $ | (6,710 | ) | | $ | 6,779 |
| | $ | 4,714 |
| | $ | (2,410 | ) | | $ | 8,293 |
| | $ | 11,052 |
| | $ | 12,799 |
|
| Net income (loss) per share — basic | $ | 0.20 |
| | $ | (0.25 | ) | | $ | 0.25 |
| | $ | 0.17 |
| | $ | (0.09 | ) | | $ | 0.30 |
| | $ | 0.40 |
| | $ | 0.46 |
|
| Net income (loss) per share — diluted | $ | 0.20 |
| | $ | (0.25 | ) | | $ | 0.24 |
| | $ | 0.17 |
| | $ | (0.09 | ) | | $ | 0.29 |
| | $ | 0.39 |
| | $ | 0.45 |
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | 2012 | | 2013 |
| | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 | | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 |
| Revenues | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % | | 100.0 | % |
| Cost of revenues | 35.5 |
| | 33.1 |
| | 32.2 |
| | 31.5 |
| | 32.3 |
| | 29.5 |
| | 28.2 |
| | 27.5 |
|
| Gross margin | 64.5 |
| | 66.9 |
| | 67.8 |
| | 68.5 |
| | 67.7 |
| | 70.5 |
| | 71.8 |
| | 72.5 |
|
| Operating expenses | 52.0 |
| | 67.0 |
| | 58.5 |
| | 58.7 |
| | 70.2 |
| | 56.5 |
| | 54.1 |
| | 53.7 |
|
| Income (loss) from operations | 12.5 |
| | (0.1 | ) | | 9.3 |
| | 9.8 |
| | (2.5 | ) | | 14.0 |
| | 17.7 |
| | 18.8 |
|
| Interest and other income | 0.4 |
| | 0.2 |
| | 0.1 |
| | 0.1 |
| | 0.1 |
| | 0.1 |
| | — |
| | 0.1 |
|
| Interest and other expense | — |
| | (1.4 | ) | | (1.9 | ) | | (1.8 | ) | | (1.7 | ) | | (1.6 | ) | | (1.5 | ) | | (1.5 | ) |
| Income before income taxes | 12.9 |
| | (1.3 | ) | | 7.5 |
| | 8.1 |
| | (4.1 | ) | | 12.5 |
| | 16.2 |
| | 17.4 |
|
| Income tax expense (benefit), net | 5.4 |
| | 6.6 |
| | 0.4 |
| | 3.4 |
| | (1.8 | ) | | 4.9 |
| | 6.4 |
| | 6.3 |
|
| Net income (loss) | 7.5 | % | | (7.9 | )% | | 7.1 | % | | 4.7 | % | | (2.3 | )% | | 7.6 | % | | 9.8 | % | | 11.1 | % |
| | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| | | Mar. 31 | | | Jun. 30 | | | Sep. 30 | | | Dec. 31 | | | Mar. 31 | | | Jun. 30 | | | Sep. 30 | | | Dec. 31 | |
| Revenues | | $ | 51,370 | | | $ | 50,064 | | | $ | 53,590 | | | $ | 54,635 | | | $ | 55,093 | | | $ | 55,838 | | | $ | 57,144 | | | $ | 58,185 | |
| Cost of revenues | | | 16,894 | | | | 16,744 | | | | 19,149 | | | | 20,927 | | | | 21,200 | | | | 20,360 | | | | 20,762 | | | | 21,277 | |
| Gross margin | | | 34,476 | | | | 33,320 | | | | 34,441 | | | | 33,708 | | | | 33,893 | | | | 35,478 | | | | 36,382 | | | | 36,908 | |
| Operating expenses | | | 23,735 | | | | 25,129 | | | | 27,490 | | | | 27,756 | | | | 28,791 | | | | 30,987 | | | | 30,247 | | | | 29,861 | |
| Income from operations | | | 10,741 | | | | 8,191 | | | | 6,951 | | | | 5,952 | | | | 5,102 | | | | 4,491 | | | | 6,135 | | | | 7,047 | |
| Interest and other income, net | | | 442 | | | | 322 | | | | 263 | | | | 226 | | | | 238 | | | | 196 | | | | 156 | | | | 145 | |
| Income before income taxes | | | 11,183 | | | | 8,513 | | | | 7,214 | | | | 6,178 | | | | 5,340 | | | | 4,687 | | | | 6,291 | | | | 7,192 | |
| Income tax expense, net | | | 5,077 | | | | 3,897 | | | | 2,889 | | | | 2,532 | | | | 2,451 | | | | 1,436 | | | | 2,909 | | | | 3,425 | |
| Net income | | $ | 6,106 | | | $ | 4,616 | | | $ | 4,325 | | | $ | 3,646 | | | $ | 2,889 | | | $ | 3,251 | | | $ | 3,382 | | | $ | 3,767 | |
Net income per share - basic | | $ | 0.31 | | | $ | 0.24 | | | $ | 0.22 | | | $ | 0.18 | | | $ | 0.14 | | | $ | 0.16 | | | $ | 0.17 | | | $ | 0.18 | |
Net income per share - diluted | | $ | 0.31 | | | $ | 0.24 | | | $ | 0.22 | | | $ | 0.18 | | | $ | 0.14 | | | $ | 0.16 | | | $ | 0.16 | | | $ | 0.18 | |
| | | | 2009 | | 2010 |
| | | | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 | | Mar. 31 | | Jun. 30 | | Sep. 30 | | Dec. 31 |
| Revenues | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100.0 | % | | | 100. | % |
| Cost of revenues | | | 32.9 | | | | 33.4 | | | | 35.7 | | | | 38.3 | | | | 38.5 | | | | 36.5 | | | | 36.3 | | | | 36.6 | |
| Gross margin | | | 67.1 | | | | 66.6 | | | | 64.3 | | | | 61.7 | | | | 61.5 | | | | 63.5 | | | | 63.7 | | | | 63.4 | |
| Operating expenses | | | 46.2 | | | | 50.2 | | | | 51.3 | | | | 50.8 | | | | 52.3 | | | | 55.5 | | | | 52.9 | | | | 51.3 | |
| Income from operations | | | 20.9 | | | | 16.4 | | | | 13.0 | | | | 10.9 | | | | 9.3 | | | | 8.0 | | | | 10.7 | | | | 12.1 | |
| Interest and other income,net | | | 0.9 | | | | 0.6 | | | | 0.5 | | | | 0.4 | | | | 0.4 | | | | 0.4 | | | | 0.3 | | | | 0.2 | |
| Income before income taxes | | | 21.8 | | | | 17.0 | | | | 13.5 | | | | 11.3 | | | | 9.7 | | | | 8.4 | | | | 11.0 | | | | 12.4 | |
| Income tax expense, net | | | 9.9 | | | | 7.8 | | | | 5.4 | | | | 4.6 | | | | 4.4 | | | | 2.6 | | | | 5.1 | | | | 5.9 | |
| Net income | | | 11.9 | % | | | 9.2 | % | | | 8.1 | % | | | 6.7 | % | | | 5.2 | % | | | 5.8 | % | | | 5.9 | % | | | 6.5 | % |
Recent Acquisitions
LoopNetPPR. On July 17, 2009,April 30, 2012, we acquired all100% of the issuedoutstanding stock of LoopNet pursuant to an Agreement and outstandingPlan of Merger dated April 27, 2011, as amended May 20, 2011 (the “Merger Agreement”). We paid approximately $746.4 million in cash and approximately $137.1 million in equity, securitiesfor a total consideration of PPR,$883.4 million.
Accounting Treatment. We have applied the acquisition method to account for the LoopNet transaction which requires that, among other things, assets acquired and its wholly owned subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., providers of real estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analytics to the commercial real estate industry. We acquired PPR from DMG Information, Inc. (“DMGI”) in exchange for 572,999 shares of CoStar common stock, which had an aggregate value of approximately $20.9 millionliabilities assumed be recorded at their fair values as of the closingacquisition date. On July 17, 2009, we issued 433,667 shares of our common stock to DMGI, and we issued the remaining 139,332 shares to DMGI on September 28, 2009 after taking into account post-closing purchase price adjustments.
Resolve Technology. On October 19, 2009, we acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Resolve Technology, a Delaware corporation, for approximately $4.5 million, consisting of approximately $3.4 million in cash and 25,886 shares of CoStar common stock, which had an aggregate value of approximately $1.1 million as of the closing date. The shares are subject to a three-year lockup, pursuant to which one-third were released in October 2010. The purchase price is subject to certain post-closing adjustments. Additionally, the seller may be entitled to receive (i) a potential deferred cash payment due approximately two years after closing based on the incremental growth of Resolve Technology’s revenue as of September 2011 over its revenue as of September 2009, and (ii) other potential deferred cash payments for successful completion of operational and sales milestones during the period from closing through no later than October 31, 2013, which period may be extended by the parties to a date no later than December 31, 2014.
Accounting Treatment. These acquisitions were accounted for as purchase business combinations. For each of the PPR and Resolve Technology acquisitions, the purchase price was allocated to various working capital accounts, developed technology,trade names, customer base, trademarks, non-competition agreementsdatabase technology, goodwill and goodwill.various other asset and liability accounts. The acquired trade names recorded in connection with the LoopNet acquisition have an indefinite estimated useful life and are not amortized, but are subject to annual impairment tests. The acquired customer base for the acquisitions,acquisition, which consists of one distinct intangible asset for each acquisition and is composed of acquired customer contracts and the related customer relationships, is being amortized on a 125% declining balance methodan accelerated basis related to the expected economic benefit of the intangible asset over ten years. The identified intangibles are amortized over theirthe estimated useful lives.life. The acquired database technology for the acquisition is amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life. Goodwill for these acquisitionsthe acquisition is not amortized, but is subject to annual impairment tests. The results of operations of PPR and Resolve TechnologyLoopNet have been consolidated with those of the Company since the respective datesdate of the acquisitions and are not considered material to our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, pro forma financial information has not been presented for anyacquisition. See Note 3 of the acquisitions.Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further details on the LoopNet acquisition.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.debt from our term loan and revolving credit facility. Total cash and cash equivalents were $256.0 million at December 31, 2013 compared to cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $210.1of $156.1 million at December 31, 2010 compared to $226.0 million at December 31, 2009.2012. The decreaseincrease in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments for the year ended December 31, 20102013 was primarily due to the purchase of a 169,429 square-foot office building located at 1331 L Street, NW in downtown Washington, DC for a purchase price of $41.25 million in cash, and approximately $1.7 million in acquisition costs, as well as other purchases of property and equipment of approximately $14.4 million, partially offset by net cash flows fromprovided by operating and financing activities of $41.3 million.$108.3 million.
Changes in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments are dependent upon changes in, among other things, working capital items such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, various accrued expenses and deferred revenues, as well as changes in our capital structure due to stock option exercises, purchases and sales of short-term investments and similar events.
Net cash provided by operating activities for the year ended December 31, 20102013 was $39.3$108.3 million compared to $38.5$86.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2009.2012. The $800,000 $22.2 millionincrease in net cash provided by operating activities is primarily due to an increase of approximately $12.5 million from net income plus non-cash items as well as a $4.4 million net increase of approximately $9.7 million in changes in operating assets and liabilities due to differences in timing of collection of receipts and payments of disbursements partially offset by a decrease of approximately $3.6 million from net income plus non-cash items. The $4.4 million net increasedisbursements.
Net cash used in changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily related to an increase in changes in accounts payable and other liabilities of approximately $5.2 million and approximately $3.0 million in increased change in deferred revenue primarily associated with cash received for annual bill ings. The increase in the change in accounts payable and other liabilities of approximately $5.2 million includes increased changes in accruals of deferred rent of approximately $2.6 million, $800,000 accrued in June 2010 in anticipation of the settlement of a litigation matter, $900,000 remaining in the lease restructuring charge associated with our Boston lease consolidation in September 2010 and increased accruals associated with the operations of our recent acquisitions and new headquarters. These increases in changes in operating assets and liabilities were partially offset by a decrease in the changes in income tax receivable of approximately $4.9 million, as the tax legislation enacted during the fourth quarter of 2010 allowed us to deduct 100% of qualifying assets purchased after September 8, 2010, resulting in an income tax receivable recorded investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2010.
Net cash used in investing activities2013 was $40.5$19.0 million compared to $640.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, compared to2012. This $621.4 milliondecrease in net cash provided byused in investing activities in 2013 was primarily due to $640.9 millionof $4.5cash used for the acquisition of LoopNet on April 30, 2012, partially offset by a decrease in the proceeds from the sale and settlements of investments of approximately $15.3 million.
Net cash provided by financing activities was $10.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2009.2013, compared to $164.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2012. This $45.0$154.5 million increased changedecrease in net cash used in investingprovided by financing activities was primarily due to the February 2010 purchaseproceeds of our new headquarters$175.0 million received from the term loan facility on April 30, 2012 less payments of debt issuance costs of $11.5 million associated with the debt which did not occur in downtown Washington, DC, as well as capital improvements for our facilities in 2010, partially offset by the $3.2 million in net cash payments for acquisitions.2013.
Net cash provided by financing activities was relatively consistent at $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 compared to $2.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2009.
Contractual Obligations. The following table summarizes our principal contractual obligations at December 31, 20102013 and the effect such obligations are expected to have on our liquidity and cash flows in future periods (in thousands):
| | | Total | | | 2011 | | | | 2012-2013 | | | | 2014-2015 | | | 2016 and thereafter | |
| Operating leases | | $ | 47,453 | | | $ | 8,691 | | | $ | 13,105 | | | $ | 6,908 | | | $ | 18,749 | |
Purchase obligations(1) | | | 6,763 | | | | 2,797 | | | | 3,366 | | | | 600 | | | | ¾ | |
| Total contractual principal cash obligations | | $ | 54,216 | | | $ | 11,488 | | | $ | 16,471 | | | $ | 7,508 | | | $ | 18,749 | |
| (1)Amounts do not include (i) contracts with initial terms of twelve months or less, or (ii) multi-year contracts that may be terminated by a third party or us. Amounts do not include unrecognized tax benefits of $1.8 million due to uncertainty regarding the timing of future cash payments.
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Total | | 2014 | | 2015-2016 | | 2017-2018 | | 2019 and thereafter |
| Operating leases | $ | 143,944 |
| | $ | 17,004 |
| | $ | 29,232 |
| | $ | 28,233 |
| | $ | 69,475 |
|
Long-term debt obligations(1) | 153,125 |
| | 24,063 |
| | 94,062 |
| | 35,000 |
| | — |
|
Purchase obligations(2) | 7,364 |
| | 6,499 |
| | 792 |
| | 73 |
| | — |
|
| Total contractual principal cash obligations | $ | 304,433 |
| | $ | 47,566 |
| | $ | 124,086 |
| | $ | 63,306 |
| | $ | 69,475 |
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In 2010, we purchased our new headquarters(1)Long-term debt obligations include scheduled principal payments and exclude interest payments, which are based on a variable rate of interest as defined in downtown Washington, DC, and made capital expenditures of approximately $14.4 million. We expect to make total capital expenditures in 2011 of approximately $7.0 million to $10.0 million.the Credit Agreement.
On February 2, 2011, 1331 L Street Holdings, LLC (“Holdings”), our wholly owned subsidiary, and GLL L-Street 1331, LLC (“GLL”), an affiliate(2)Amounts do not include (i) contracts with terms of Munich-based GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH, entered intotwelve months or less, or (ii) multi-year contracts that may be terminated by a purchase and sale agreement pursuantthird party or us. Amounts do not include unrecognized tax benefits of $4.8 million due to which (i) Holdings agreed to sell to GLL its interest inuncertainty regarding the 169,429 square-foot office building located at 1331 L Street, NW, in downtown Washington, DC, and (ii) CoStar Realty Information, Inc. (“CoStar Realty”), our wholly owned subsidiary, agreed to enter into a lease expiring May 31, 2025 (with two 5-year renewal options) with GLL to lease back 149,514 square feettiming of the office space located in this building, which we will continue to use as our corporate headquarters. The closing of the sale took place on February 18, 2011. The aggregate consid eration paid by GLL to Holdings pursuant to the purchase and sale agreement was $101.0 million infuture cash $15.0 million of which is being held in escrow to fund additional build-out and planned improvements at the building.payments.
The lease is effective as of June 1, 2010 and will expire May 31, 2025. The initial base rent is $38.50 per square foot of occupied space, escalating 2.5% per year commencing June 1, 2011. Our obligation to pay rent increases proportionately over the course of the first year of the lease as certain scheduled completion dates for our build out, on a floor-by-floor basis, are reached. Our occupied space under the lease will consist of the entire rented premises as of June 1, 2011, from and after which we will owe rent on the entire leased premises. Annual lease payments for 2011 will be approximately $5.0 million. This obligation is not included in the above December 31, 2010 contractual obligation table.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including, among others, our operating results, expansion and integration efforts, and our level of acquisition activity or other strategic transactions.
During 2013, we incurred capital expenditures of approximately $19.0 million. We expect to make aggregate capital expenditures in 2014 of approximately $18.0 million to $23.0 million, primarily related to the build out of leased office space.
To date, we have grown in part by acquiring other companies and we may continue to make acquisitions. Our acquisitions may vary in size and could be material to our current operations. We may use cash, stock, debt or other means of funding to make these acquisitions.
On April 30, 2012, we acquired LoopNet pursuant to the Merger Agreement. Prior to completion of the LoopNet acquisition on April 26, 2012 the FTC accepted a consent order in connection with the LoopNet merger that was previously agreed to by CoStar and LoopNet. The consent order, which is publicly available on the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov, required, among other things, that CoStar and LoopNet divest LoopNet's minority interest in Xceligent. On March 28, 2012, CoStar and LoopNet entered into a Purchase Agreement to sell LoopNet's interest in Xceligent to DMGI. The parties closed the sale of LoopNet's interest in Xceligent to DMGI on May 3, 2012. We received $4.2 million in proceeds from the sale, which reflected the fair value of the investment at the time of sale and did not result in any gain on the sale of the investment.
We funded the cash portion of the consideration payable to LoopNet stockholders in the merger through a combination of cash on hand, including the net proceeds of approximately $247.9 million from an equity offering we completed in June 2011, and $175.0 million in proceeds from a term loan facility pursuant to the Credit Agreement, dated February 16, 2012, by and among CoStar, as borrower, CoStar Realty, as co-borrower, J.P. Morgan Bank, as administrative agent, and the other lenders thereto. In addition to the third quarter$175.0 million term loan facility, the Credit Agreement provides for a $50.0 million revolving credit facility, each with a term of 2009,five years. We made principal payments of approximately $4.4 million and $17.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively. As of December 31, 2013, maturities of our borrowings under the Credit Agreement for each of the next four years ended December 31, 2014 to 2017, are expected to be $24.1 million, $32.8 million, $61.3 million and $35.0 million, respectively.
The Credit Agreement requires us to maintain a Debt Service Coverage Ratio (as defined in the Credit Agreement) of at least 1.5 to 1.0 and a Total Leverage Ratio (as defined in the Credit Agreement) that does not exceed 2.75 to 1.00 during each of the three months ending December 31, 2013, March 31, 2014 and June 30, 2014; and 2.50 to 1.00 thereafter. The Credit Agreement also includes other covenants that were effective as of April 30, 2012, including covenants that, subject to certain exceptions, restrict our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries (i) to incur additional indebtedness, (ii) to create, incur, assume or permit to exist any liens, (iii) to enter into mergers, consolidations or similar transactions, (iv) to make investments and acquisitions, (v) to make certain dispositions of assets, (vi) to make dividends, distributions and prepayments of certain indebtedness, and (vii) to enter into certain transactions with affiliates. We were in compliance with the covenants in the Credit Agreement as of December 31, 2013.
Commencing with the fiscal year ending December 31, 2012, the Credit Agreement requires us to make an annual prepayment of the term loan facility equal to a percentage of Excess Cash Flow (as defined in the Credit Agreement) to reduce the principal amount outstanding under the term loan facility. The prepayment percentage is 50% when the Total Leverage Ratio exceeds 3.00 to 1.00; 25% when the Total Leverage Ratio is greater than 2.50 to 1.00 but equal to or less than 3.00 to 1.00; and 0% when the Total Leverage Ratio is equal to or less than 2.50 to 1.00. This prepayment requirement is reduced by the amount of prior voluntary prepayments during the respective fiscal year, subject to certain exceptions set forth in the Credit Agreement. The Excess Cash Flow payment, if required, is due within ten business days of the date on which the annual financial statements are delivered or required to be delivered to the lenders pursuant to the Credit Agreement. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, we issued 572,999were not required to make an Excess Cash Flow payment.
In connection with obtaining the term loan facility, we incurred approximately $11.5 million in debt issuance costs, which were capitalized and are being amortized as interest expense over the term of the Credit Agreement using the effective interest method. The debt issuance costs are comprised of approximately $9.2 million in underwriting fees and approximately $2.3 million primarily related to legal fees associated with the debt issuance.
As of December 31, 2012 and 2013, no amounts were outstanding under the revolving credit facility. Total interest expense for the term loan facility was approximately $0, $4.8 million and $6.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Interest expense included amortized debt issuance costs of approximately $0, $2.0 million and $3.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Pursuant to the terms of the Credit Agreement, we are required to make interest payments on the term loan facility at a variable rate of interest and during interest periods selected by us as described in Note 9 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Total interest paid for the term loan facility was approximately $0, $2.5 million and $4.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
In 2012, we granted a total of 399,413 shares ofpursuant to performance-based restricted common stock to DMGI, Inc. for allawards with a forfeiture date of March 31, 2017. Upon vesting of these awards, consistent with tax minimum withholding requirements, a portion of the issued and outstanding capital stockshares subject to the awards will be remitted by the employees for payment of PPR and its wholly owned subsidiary. In October 2009, we acquired Resolve Technology for approximately $3.4 million ($2.9 million was paid upon acquisition and $450,000 was deferred until February 2010) in cash and 25,886 shares of CoStar common stock, which had an aggregate value of approximately $1.1 million as of the closing date.their individual income tax obligations. The shares are subjectremitted will be canceled and we will make a cash tax payment equivalent to a three-year lockup, pursuant t o which one-third were released in October 2010. Additionally, the seller maycanceled shares, currently estimated to be entitled to receive (i) a potential deferredapproximately $30.0 million. This amount is based on several assumptions, including the estimated stock price at the time of vesting as well as the individual minimum withholding rates for the employees. If the actual stock price and individual tax rates differ from these estimates, the cash payment due approximately two years after closing based on the incremental growth of Resolve Technology’s revenue as of September 2011 over its revenue as of September 2009, and (ii) other potential deferred cash payments for successful completion of additional operational and sales milestones during the period from closing through October 31, 2013, which period may be extended by the parties to a date no later than December 31, 2014.change.
Based on current plans, we believe that our available cash combined with positive cash flow provided by operating activities should be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months.
As of December 31, 2010,2013, we had $32.2$24.3 million par value of long-term investments in student loan ARS, which failed to settle at auctions. The majority of these investments are of high credit quality with AAA credit ratings and are primarily securities supported by guarantees from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”)FFELP of the U.S. Department of Education. While we continue to earn interest on these investments, the investments are not liquid in the short term.short-term. In the event we need to immediately access these funds, we may have to sell these securities at an amount below par value. Based on our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents and other short-term investments and our expected operating cash flows, we do not anticipate having to sell these inv estmentsinvestments below par value in order to operate our business in the foreseeable future.
As more fully described in Note 11 of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, on January 3, 2012, LoopNet, our wholly owned subsidiary, was sued by CIVIX-DDI, LLC (“Civix”) for alleged patent infringement, and on or about May 14, 2012, Civix filed a motion for leave to amend its complaint against LoopNet seeking to add CoStar as a defendant, alleging that our products also infringe Civix's patents. The complaint seeks unspecified damages, attorneys' fees and costs. On June 21, 2012, we filed an action seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement and invalidity against Civix; we amended this complaint on August 14, 2012 to assert an affirmative claim against Civix for breach of contract, alleging Civix violated its license agreement and covenant not to sue with one of our technology licensors. On November 25, 2013, Civix submitted its expert’s report of damages, which estimated the payment it deemed appropriate in the event that we are found liable of infringement. We believe that Civix’s calculation of damages is based on improper assumptions and miscalculations, and is otherwise unsupported. We submitted our own expert’s report of damages, which concluded that the appropriate payment to be made in the event that we are found liable of infringement is significantly less than Civix’s estimate of appropriate damages. Moreover, our expert's report of damages concluded that while Civix’s calculation of damages was fundamentally flawed and should not be used to determine damages, simply applying certain necessary adjustments to Civix's calculation as outlined in our expert's report resulted in a significant reduction in Civix’s calculation of damages to approximately $3.7 million. On November 5, 2013 we offered to settle all outstanding litigation with Civix for $600,000. At this time we cannot predict the outcome of the litigation with Civix, but we intend to vigorously defend against Civix’s claims. While we believe we have meritorious defenses against Civix’s claims, we estimate that, based on our adjusted calculation of Civix’s alleged damages, the matter could result in a loss of up to $3.1 million in excess of the amount accrued.
On December 8, 2009, a former employee filed a lawsuit against us in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and California state wage-and-hour laws and is seeking unspecified damages under those laws. The complaint also seeks to declare a class of all similarly situated employees to pursue similar claims. In May 2010, the parties reached a preliminary agreement to settle this lawsuit, and in June 2010, we accrued approximately $800,000 in anticipation of making a settlement payment that will formally resolve this litigation. We anticipate the payment will be due during the second quarter of 2011.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In April 2008,July 2012, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on existing intangibles or expected future cash flows from those intangibles, whichto simplify how companies test indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment. The guidance permits a company to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is effectivemore likely than not that an indefinite-lived intangible asset is impaired as a basis for all fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2008. Early adoption of this guidance is not permitted. This guidance requires additional footnote disclosures about the impact of our ability or intent to renew or extend agreements related to existing intangibles or expected future cash flows from those intangibles, how we account for costs incurred to renew or extend such agreements, the time until the next renewal or extension period by asset class, and the amount of renewal or extension costs capitalized, if any. For any intangibles acquired after December 31, 2008, this guidance requires that we consider our experience regarding renewal and extensions of similar arrangements in determining the useful life of such intangibles. If we do not have experience with similar arrangements, this guidance requires that we use the assumptions of a market participant putting the intangible to its highest and best use in determining the useful life. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.
In June 2008, the FASB issued authoritative guidance related to determining whether instruments granted in share-based payment transactions are participating securities. This guidance clarifies that unvested share-based payment awards with a rightit is necessary to receive non-forfeitable dividends are participating securities.perform the quantitative impairment test. This guidance is effective for all annual and interim periodsimpairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after DecemberSeptember 15, 2008. Adoption of this standard will require the two-class method of calculating basic earnings per share to the extent that unvested share-based payments have the right to receive non-forfeitable dividends. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009. The2012, with early adoption of thispermitted. This guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.
In April 2009,February 2013, the FASB issued authoritative guidance related to improve the initial recognition, measurement and subsequent accounting for assets and liabilities arising from pre-acquisition contingencies in a business combination. It requires that such assets acquired or liabilities assumed be initially recognized at fair value at the acquisition date if fair value can be determined during the measurement period. When fair value cannot be determined, companies should typically account for the acquired contingencies using existing guidance.reporting of reclassifications out of accumulated other comprehensive income. This guidance requires that companies expense acquisition and deal-related costs that were previously alloweda company to present, either on the consolidated statements of operations or in the notes to the consolidated financial statements, significant amounts reclassified out of accumulated other comprehensive income by the respective line items of net income, but only if the amount reclassified is required under GAAP to be capitalized. This guidance also requiresreclassified in its entirety to net income. For other amounts that a systematic and rational basis for subsequently measuring and accounting forare not required under GAAP to be reclassified in their entirety to net income in the assets or liabilities be developed depending on the ir nature. This guidance was effective for contingent assets or liabilities arising from business combinations withsame reporting period, an acquisition date on or after January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance changes the accounting treatment and disclosure for certain specific items in a business combination with an acquisition date subsequententity is required to December 31, 2008. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009, and expensed acquisition and deal-related costs associated primarily with the acquisitions of PPR and Resolve Technology.
In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance for determining whether a market is active or inactive, and whether a transaction is distressed.cross-reference other disclosures required under GAAP that provide additional detail about those amounts. This guidance is applicable to all assetseffective prospectively for financial statements issued for interim and liabilities (financial and non-financial) and will require enhanced disclosures. We adopted this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of thisannual periods beginning after December 15, 2012. This guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did requirewe provided additional disclosures in our financial statements.
In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance requiring disclosures in interim reporting periods concerning the fair value of financial instruments that were previously only required in the annual financial statements. We adopted the provisions of this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did require additional disclosures in our financial statements.
In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that redefines what constitutes an other-than-temporary impairment, defines credit and non-credit components of an other-than-temporary impairment, prescribes their financial statement treatment, and requires enhanced disclosures relating to such impairments. We adopted this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did require additional disclosures in our financial statements.
In May 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which establishes general standards of accounting for and disclosure of events that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are issued. This guidance was effective for all interim and annual reporting periods ending after June 15, 2009. This guidance has not and is not expected to result in significant changes in the subsequent events that we report, either through recognition or disclosure, in our financial statements.
In June 2009,July 2013, the FASB issued authoritative guidance to amendimprove the mannerreporting of an unrecognized tax benefit when a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward exists. This guidance requires a company to present an unrecognized tax benefit, or a portion of an unrecognized tax benefit, in which entities evaluate whether consolidationthe financial statements as a reduction to a deferred tax asset for a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward. If a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward is required for variable interest entities (VIE). Previously, variable interest holders were required to determine whether they had a controlling financial interest in a VIE based on a quantitative analysisnot available at the reporting date or the tax law of the expected gains and/or losses ofapplicable jurisdiction does not require a company to use, and a company does not intend to use, the entity. The new guidance requires an enterprise with a variable interest in a VIE to qualitatively assess whether it has a controlling financial interestdeferred tax asset for such purpose, the unrecognized tax benefit should be presented in the entity,financial statements as a liability and if so, whether it is the primary beneficiary. This guidance also requires that companies continually evaluate VIEs for consolidation, rather than assessing whether consolidation is required based upon the occurrence of triggering events. This guidance enhan ces disclosures to provide financial statement usersshould not be combined with greater transparency about transfers of financial assets and a transferor’s continuing involvement with transferred financialdeferred tax assets. This guidance will beis effective for the first annual reporting period beginning after November 15, 2009. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations, financial position or related disclosures.
In June 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which replaced the previous hierarchy of U.S. GAAP and establishes the FASB Codification as the single source of authoritative U.S. GAAP recognized by the FASB to be applied by nongovernmental entities. This guidance is effectiveprospectively for financial statements issued for interim and annual periods endingbeginning after SeptemberDecember 15, 2009. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations or financial position, but did require changes to our disclosures in our financial statements.
In July 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance to improve the consistency2013 with which companies apply fair value measurements guidance to liabilities.early adoption and retrospective application permitted. This guidance is effective for interim and annual periods beginning after September 30, 2009. This guidance did not materiallyexpected to have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position or related disclosures.
In October 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends existing guidance for identifying separate deliverables in a revenue-generating transaction where multiple deliverables exist, and provides guidance for measuring and allocating revenue to one or more units of accounting. In addition, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on arrangements that include software elements. Under this guidance, tangible products containing software components and non-software components that are essential to the functionality of the tangible product will no longer be within the scope of the software revenue recognition guidance. This guidance is effective using the prospective application or the retrospective application for revenue arrangements entered into or materially modified in fiscal years beginning on or afte r June 15, 2010 with earlier application permitted. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations or financial position.
In January 2010, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends the disclosure requirements related to recurring and nonrecurring fair value measurements. This guidance requires new disclosures on the transfers of assets and liabilities between Level 1 (assets and liabilities measured using observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets) and Level 2 (assets and liabilities measured using inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable) of the fair value measurement hierarchy, including the amount and reason of the transfers. Additionally, this guidance requires a roll forward of activities on purchases, sales, issuance, and settlements of the assets and liabilities measured using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3 fair value measurements). This guidance is effect ive for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2009, with the exception of the additional disclosure for Level 3 assets and liabilities, which is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2010, and for interim periods within those fiscal years. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations or financial position, but did require changes to our disclosures in our interim and annual financial statements.
In February 2010, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends the disclosure requirements related to subsequent events. This guidance includes the definition of a Securities and Exchange Commission filer, removes the definition of a public entity, redefines the reissuance disclosure requirements and allows public companies to omit the disclosure of the date through which subsequent events have been evaluated. This guidance is effective for financial statements issued for interim and annual periods ending after February 2010. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations or financial position, but did require changes to our disclosures in our financial statements.
In April 2010, the FASB issued authoritative guidance related to the criteria that should be met for determining whether the milestone method of revenue recognition is appropriate. A vendor can recognize consideration that is contingent upon achievement of a milestone in its entirety as revenue in the period in which the milestone is achieved if the milestone is: (a) commensurate with either the vendor’s performance to achieve the milestone or the enhancement of the value of the item delivered; (b) relates solely to past performance; and (c) is reasonable relative to all deliverables and payment terms in the arrangement. This guidance is effective on a prospective basis for financial statements issued for interim and annual periods ending after June 15, 2010 with early adoption permitted. The ado ption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.
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| Item 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk |
We provide information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services to the commercial real estate and related business community in the U.S., U.K. and France. Our functional currency for our operations in the U.K. and France is the local currency. As such, fluctuations in the British Pound and Euro may have an impact on our business, results of operations and financial position. For the year ended December 31, 2010,2013, revenue denominated in foreign currencies was approximately 8.4%4.6% of total revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2010,2013, our revenue would have decreased by approximately $1.9$2.0 million if the U.S. dollar exchange rate used strengthened by 10%. In addition, we have assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. A 10% strengthening of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against all currenc iescurrencies with which we have exposure at December 31, 20102013 would have resulted in an increase of approximately $900,000$3.6 million in the carrying amount of net assets. For the year ended December 31, 2010,2013, our revenue would have increased by approximately $1.9$2.0 million if the U.S. dollar exchange rate used weakened by 10%. In addition, we have assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. A 10% weakening of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against all currencies with which we have exposure at December 31, 20102013 would have resulted in a decrease of approximately $900,000$3.6 million in the carrying amount of net assets. We currently do not use financial instruments to hedge our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations with respect to our foreign subsidiaries. We may seek to enter hedging transactions in the future to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations, but we may be unable to enter into hedging transactions successfully, on acceptable terms or at all. As of December 31, 2010,2013, accumulated other c omprehensivecomprehensive loss included a loss from foreign currency translation adjustments of approximately $5.9 million.$4.0 million.
We do not have material exposure to market risks associated with changes in interest rates related to cash equivalent securities held as of December 31, 2010.2013. As of December 31, 2010,2013, we had $210.1$256.0 million of cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments.equivalents. If there is an increase or decrease in interest rates, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease in the amount of interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments.equivalents.
As of December 31, 2013, we had $153.1 million of long-term debt bearing interest at a variable rate of LIBOR plus 2.00%. If there is an increase or decrease in interest rates, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease in the amount of interest expense on our long-term debt. Based on our outstanding borrowings as of December 31, 2013, an increase in the interest rate by 25 basis points would result in an increase of approximately $400,000 in interest expense annually. Based on our outstanding borrowings as of December 31, 2013, a decrease in the interest rate by 25 basis points would result in a decrease of approximately $400,000 in interest expense annually. Based on our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and our expected operating cash flows, we do not believe that increases or decreases in interest rates will impact our ability to operate our business in the foreseeable future.
Included within our long-term investments are investments in mostly AAA ratedAAA-rated student loan ARS. These securities are primarily securities supported by guarantees from the FFELP of the U.S. Department of Education. As of December 31, 2010,2013, auctions for $32.2$24.3 million of our investments in auction rate securities failed. As a result, we may not be able to sell these investments at par value until a future auction on these investments is successful. In the event we need to immediately liquidate these investments, we may have to locate a buyer outside the auction process, who may be unwilling to purchase the investments at par, resulting in a loss. Based on an assessment of fair value of these investments in ARS as of December 31, 2010,2013, we determined that there was a decline in the fair value of our ARS investments of approximately $3.0$1.5 million, which was deemed to be a temporary impairment and recorded as an unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity. If the issuers are unable to successfully close future auctions andand/or their credit ratings deteriorate, we may be required to adjust the carrying value of these investments as a temporary impairment and recognize a greater unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss or as an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings. Based on our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and our expected operating cash flows, we do not anticipate having to sell these securities below par value in order to operate our business in the foreseeable future. See Note 2Notes 4 and 5 to the consolidated financial statementsNotes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further discussion.
We have approximately $98.4$863.1 million in intangible assets as of December 31, 2010.2013. As of December 31, 2010,2013, we believe our intangible assets will be recoverable, however, changes in the economy, the business in which we operate and our own relative performance could change the assumptions used to evaluate intangible asset recoverability. In the event that we determine that an asset has been impaired, we would recognize an impairment charge equal to the amount by which the carrying amount of the assets exceeds the fair value of the asset. We continue to monitor these assumptions and their effect on the estimated recoverability of our intangible assets.
Financial Statements meeting the requirements of Regulation S-X are set forth beginning at page F-1. Supplementary data is set forth in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” under the caption “Consolidated Results of Operations” and "Consolidated Quarterly Results of Operations.”"
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| Item 9. | Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
None.
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow for timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.
As of December 31, 2010,2013, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures. Based on the foregoing, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective and were operating at the reasonable assurance level.
Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Management of CoStar is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for the assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. As defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or supervised by, the Company’s principal executive and principal financial officers, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.GAAP.
The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is supported by written policies and procedures, that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the Company’s assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles,GAAP, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of the Company’s management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In connection with the preparation of the Company's annual financial statements, management of the Company has undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 20102013 based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (1992 framework) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“the COSO Framework”). Management's assessment included an evaluation of the design of the Company's internal control over financial reporting and testing of the operational effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting.
Based on this assessment, management did not identify any material weakness in the Company's internal control, and management has concluded that the Company's internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2010.2013.
Ernst & Young LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the Company's financial statements included in this report, has issued an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, a copy of which is included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during our most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
None.
PART III
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| Item 10. | Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance |
CoStar has adopted a Code of Conduct for its directors. In addition, CoStar has adopted a separate Code of Conduct for its officers and employees, including its principal executive, financial and accounting officers, or persons performing similar functions. Copies of each of these codes may be found in the “Investors” section of the Company’s website at www.CoStar.com/Investors/Corpgovernance.aspx. We intend to disclose future amendments to certain provisions of our Codes, or waivers of such provisions granted to executive officers and directors, as required by SEC rules on the website within four business days following the date of such amendment or waiver.
The remaining information required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement for our 20112014 annual meeting of stockholders.
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement for our 20112014 annual meeting of stockholders.
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| Item 12. | Security OwnershipOwnership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters |
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement for our 20112014 annual meeting of stockholders.
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| Item 13. | Certain RelationshipsRelationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence |
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement for our 20112014 annual meeting of stockholders.
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| Item 14. | Principal AccountantAccountant Fees and Services |
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference to our Proxy Statement for our 20112014 annual meeting of stockholders.
PART IV
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| Item 15. | Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules |
(a)(1) The following financial statements are filed as a part of this report: CoStar Group, Inc. Consolidated Financial Statements.
(a)(2) Financial statement schedules:
Schedule II – Valuation and Qualifying Accounts
Years Ended December 31, 2008, 2009,2011, 2012, and 20102013 (in thousands):
Allowance for doubtful accounts and billing adjustments (1) | | Balance at Beginning of Year | | | Charged to Expense | | | Write-offs, Net of Recoveries | | | Balance at End of Year | |
Year ended December 31, 2008 | | $ | 2,959 | | | $ | 4,042 | | | $ | 3,788 | | | $ | 3,213 | |
Year ended December 31, 2009 | | $ | 3,213 | | | $ | 4,172 | | | $ | 4,522 | | | $ | 2,863 | |
Year ended December 31, 2010 | | $ | 2,863 | | | $ | 1,471 | | | $ | 1,919 | | | $ | 2,415 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Allowance for doubtful accounts and billing adjustments (1) | | Balance at Beginning of Year | | Charged to Expense | | Charged to Other Accounts (2) | | Write-offs, Net of Recoveries | | Balance at End of Year |
| Year ended December 31, 2011 | | $ | 2,415 |
| | $ | 1,525 |
| | $ | — |
| | $ | 1,416 |
| | $ | 2,524 |
|
| Year ended December 31, 2012 | | $ | 2,524 |
| | $ | 1,456 |
| | $ | 475 |
| | $ | 1,520 |
| | $ | 2,935 |
|
| Year ended December 31, 2013 | | $ | 2,935 |
| | $ | 2,317 |
| | $ | — |
| | $ | 1,855 |
| | $ | 3,397 |
|
| |
(1) | Additions to the allowance for doubtful accounts are charged to bad debt expense. Additions to the allowance for billing adjustments are charged against revenues. |
| |
(2) | Amounts represent opening balances from acquired businesses. |
Additional financial statement schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or not required or because the required information is incorporated herein by reference or included in the financial statements or related notes included elsewhere in this report.
(a)(3) The documents required to be filed as exhibits to this Report under Item 601 of Regulation S-K are listed in the Exhibit Index included elsewhere in this report, which list is incorporated herein by reference.
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 of the Securities Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, on the 2420th day of February 2011.2014.
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| | |
| | COSTAR GROUP, INC. |
| | | |
| | By: | /s/ Andrew C. Florance |
| | | Andrew C. Florance |
| | | President and Chief Executive Officer |
KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each individual whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Andrew C. Florance and Brian J. Radecki, and each of them individually, as their true and lawful attorneys-in-fact and agents, with full power of substitution, for him and in his name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this report, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto and to all documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as he might or could do in person, herein by ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact and agents or any of them, or his or their substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1934, as amended, this report has been signed by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
|
| | | | |
| Signature | | Capacity | | Date |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ Michael R. Klein | | Chairman of the Board | | February 24, 201120, 2014 |
| Michael R. Klein | | | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ Andrew C. Florance | | Chief Executive Officer and | | February 24, 201120, 2014 |
| Andrew C. Florance | | President and a Director | | |
| | | (Principal Executive Officer) | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ Brian J. Radecki | | Chief Financial Officer | | February 24, 201120, 2014 |
| Brian J. Radecki | | (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ David Bonderman | | Director | | February 24, 201120, 2014 |
| David Bonderman | | | | |
| | | | |
| /s/ Michael J. Glosserman | | Director | | February 20, 2014 |
| Michael J. Glosserman | | | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ Warren H. Haber | | Director | | February 24, 201118, 2014 |
| Warren H. Haber | | | | |
| | | | | |
/s/ Josiah O. Low, IIIJohn W. Hill | | Director | | February 24, 201119, 2014 |
Josiah O. Low, IIIJohn W. Hill | | | | |
| | | | | |
| /s/ Christopher J. Nassetta | | Director | | February 18, 201117, 2014 |
| Christopher J. Nassetta | | | | |
| | | | | |
/s/ MichaelDavid J. GlossermanSteinberg | | Director | | February 21, 201117, 2014 |
MichaelDavid J. GlossermanSteinberg | | | | |
|
| | |
| Exhibit No. | | Description |
| | |
| 2.1 | | Offer DocumentAgreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of April 27, 2011, by and among CoStar Limited for the share capital of Focus Information LimitedGroup, Inc., Lonestar Acquisition Sub, Inc. and LoopNet, Inc. (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 2.1 to Amendment No. 2 to the Registration StatementRegistrant’s Current Report on Form S-3 of the Registrant (Reg. No. 333-106769)8-K filed with the Commission on August 14, 2003)April 28, 2011). |
| 2.2 | | Amendment No. 1 to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of May 20, 2011, among LoopNet, Inc., the Registrant and Lonestar Acquisition Sub, Inc. (Incorporated by referenced to Exhibit 2.1 to Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed May 23, 2011). |
| 3.1 | | Restated Certificate of Incorporation (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 the Registration Statement on Form S-1 of the Registrant (Reg. No. 333-47953) filed with the Commission on March 13, 1998 (the “1998 Form S-1”)). |
3.2 | | Certificate of Amendment ofThird Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the Registrant’sRegistrant's Current Report on Form 10-Q for8-K filed with the quarter endedCommission on June 30, 1999)6, 2013). |
3.33.2 | | Third Amended and Restated By-Laws (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.33.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 10-K for8-K filed with the year ended December 31, 2008)Commission on September 24, 2013). |
| 4.1 | | Specimen Common Stock Certificate (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Registrant’s ReportRegistration Statement on Form 10-K forS-4 of the year ended December 31, 1999)Registrant (Reg. No. 333-174214) filed with the Commission on June 3, 2011). |
| *10.1 | | CoStar Group, Inc. 1998 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005). |
| *10.2 | | CoStar Group, Inc. 2007 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 8, 2010)2012). |
| *10.3 | | CoStar Group, Inc. 2007 Stock Incentive Plan French Sub-Plan (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007). |
| *10.4 | | Form of Stock Option Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers, directors and employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.8 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004). |
| *10.5 | | Form of Stock Option Agreement between the Registrant and Andrew C. Florance (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.8.1 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004). |
| *10.6 | | Form of Restricted Stock Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers, directors and employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.9 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004). |
| *10.7 | | Form of 2007 Plan Restricted Stock Grant Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers, directors and employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 99.1 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 8-K filed June 22, 2007). |
| *10.8 | | Form of 2007 Plan Restricted Stock Unit Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers and employees (filed herewith). |
| *10.9 | | Form of 2007 Plan Incentive Stock Option Grant Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers and employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.8 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.910.10 | | Form of 2007 Plan Incentive Stock Option Grant Agreement between the Registrant and Andrew C. Florance (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.9 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.1010.11 | | Form of 2007 Plan Nonqualified Stock Option Grant Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its officers and employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.10 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.1110.12 | | Form of 2007 Plan Nonqualified Stock Option Grant Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its directors (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.11 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.1210.13 | | Form of 2007 Plan Nonqualified Stock Option Grant Agreement between the Registrant and Andrew C. Florance (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.12 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.1310.14 | | Form of 2007 Plan French Sub-Plan Restricted Stock Agreement between the Registrant and certain of its employees (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.10 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007). |
INDEX TO EXHIBITS ¾ (CONTINUED)
Exhibit No.*10.15 | | DescriptionCoStar Group, Inc. 2011 Incentive Bonus Plan (Incorporated by referenced to Exhibit 99.1 to the Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed June 8, 2011). |
*10.1410.16 | | CoStar Group, Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan, as amended (filed herewith)(Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.14 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010). |
*10.1510.17 | | Summary of Non-Employee Director Compensation (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant's Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013). |
INDEX TO EXHIBITS — (CONTINUED)
|
| | |
| Exhibit No. | | Description |
| *10.18 | | Employment Agreement for Andrew C. Florance (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to Amendment No. 1 to the Registration Statement on Form S-1 of the Registrant (Reg. No. 333-47953) filed with the Commission on April 27, 1998). |
*10.1610.19 | | First Amendment to Andrew C. Florance Employment Agreement, effective January 1, 2009 (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.16 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008). |
*10.1710.20 | | Executive Service Contract dated February 16, 2007, between Property Investment Exchange Limited and Paul Marples (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.14 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007). |
*10.1810.21 | | Leaving Agreement dated February 27, 2013, between CoStar U.K. Limited and Paul Marples (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.19 to the Registrant's Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012). |
| *10.22 | | Separation Agreement and General Release dated October 6, 2013, between CoStar Realty Information, Inc. and Jennifer Kitchen (filed herewith). |
| 10.23 | | Form of Indemnification Agreement between the Registrant and each of its officers and directors (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2004). |
10.1910.24 | | Agreement for Lease between CoStar UK Limited and Wells Fargo & Company, dated August 25, 2009 (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.26 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009). |
10.2010.25 | | Sub-Underlease between CoStar UK Limited and Wells Fargo & Company, dated November 18, 2009 (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.28 to the Registrant’s Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009). |
10.2110.26 | | PurchaseDeed of Office Lease by and Sale Agreement between GLL L-Street 1331, L Street LLC and 1331 L Street Holdings, LLC,CoStar Realty Information, Inc., dated January 20,February 18, 2011, and made effective as of June 1, 2010 (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant’s Report on form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2011). |
| 10.27 | | Credit Agreement dated February 16, 2012, by and among the Registrant, as Borrower, CoStar Realty Information, Inc., as Co-Borrower, the Lenders from time to time party thereto and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as Administrative Agent (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Registrant's Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2010)2012).
|
| 10.28 | | First Amendment dated as of April 25, 2012, to the Credit Agreement dated as of February 16, 2012, among the Registrant, CoStar Realty Information, Inc., the Lenders from time to time party thereto and JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., as Administrative Agent (Incorporated by referenced to Exhibit 10.2 to the Registrant's Current Report on Form 8-K filed April 30, 2012).
|
| 21.1 | | Subsidiaries of the Registrant (filed herewith). |
| 23.1 | | Consent of Ernst & Young LLP, Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (filed herewith). |
| 31.1 | | Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (filed herewith). |
| 31.2 | | Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (filed herewith). |
| 32.1 | | Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (filed herewith). |
| 32.2 | | Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (filed herewith). |
| 101 | | The following materials from CoStar Group, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, formatted in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language): (i) Consolidated Statement of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively; (ii) Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively; (iii) Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2012 and December 31, 2013, respectively; (iv) Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively; (v) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively; (vi) Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements that have been detail tagged; and (vii) Schedule II – Valuation and Qualifying Accounts (submitted electronically with this report). |
* Management Contract or Compensatory Plan or Arrangement.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
|
| |
| Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm | |
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2008, 20092011, 2012 and 20102013 | |
| Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013 | |
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 20092012 and 20102013 | F-5 |
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2008, 20092011, 2012 and 20102013 | F-6 |
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2008, 20092011, 2012 and 20102013 | F-7 |
| Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements | F-8 |
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and ShareholdersStockholders of CoStar Group, Inc.
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of CoStar Group, Inc. as of December 31, 20102013 and 2009,2012, and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2010.2013. Our audits also included the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a). These.These financial statements and schedule are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and schedule based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of CoStar Group, Inc. at December 31, 20102013 and 2009,2012, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2010,2013, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also, in our opinion, the related financial statement schedule, when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, presents fairly in all material respects the information set forth therein.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), CoStar Group, Inc.’s's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2010,2013, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (1992 framework) and our report dated February 24, 201120, 2014 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
McLean, Virginia
February 24, 201120, 2014
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and ShareholdersStockholders of CoStar Group, Inc.
We have audited CoStar Group, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2010,2013, based on criteria established in Internal Control—IntegratedControl-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (1992 framework) (the COSO criteria). CoStar Group, Inc.’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, CoStar Group, Inc.maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2010,2013, based on the COSO criteria.criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheets of CoStar Group, Inc. as of December 31, 20102013 and 2009,2012, and the related consolidated statements of operations, stockholders’comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2010 of CoStar Group, Inc.2013 and our report dated February 24, 201120, 2014 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
McLean, Virginia
February 24, 201120, 2014
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in thousands, except per share data)
| | | Year Ended December 31, | |
| | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Revenues | | $ | 212,428 | | | $ | 209,659 | | | $ | 226,260 | |
Cost of revenues | | | 73,408 | | | | 73,714 | | | | 83,599 | |
Gross margin | | | 139,020 | | | | 135,945 | | | | 142,661 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Operating expenses: | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Selling and marketing | | | 41,705 | | | | 42,508 | | | | 52,455 | |
Software development | | | 12,759 | | | | 13,942 | | | | 17,350 | |
General and administrative | | | 39,888 | | | | 44,248 | | | | 47,776 | |
Purchase amortization | | | 4,880 | | | | 3,412 | | | | 2,305 | |
| | | | 99,232 | | | | 104,110 | | | | 119,886 | |
Income from operations | | | 39,788 | | | | 31,835 | | | | 22,775 | |
Interest and other income, net | | | 4,914 | | | | 1,253 | | | | 735 | |
Income before income taxes | | | 44,702 | | | | 33,088 | | | | 23,510 | |
Income tax expense, net | | | 20,079 | | | | 14,395 | | | | 10,221 | |
Net income | | $ | 24,623 | | | $ | 18,693 | | | $ | 13,289 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net income per share ¾ basic | | $ | 1.27 | | | $ | 0.95 | | | $ | 0.65 | |
Net income per share ¾ diluted | | $ | 1.26 | | | $ | 0.94 | | | $ | 0.64 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Weighted average outstanding shares ¾ basic | | | 19,372 | | | | 19,780 | | | | 20,330 | |
Weighted average outstanding shares ¾ diluted | | | 19,550 | | | | 19,925 | | | | 20,707 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Year Ended December 31, |
| | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| | | | | | |
| Revenues | $ | 251,738 |
| | $ | 349,936 |
| | $ | 440,943 |
|
| Cost of revenues | 88,167 |
| | 114,866 |
| | 129,185 |
|
| Gross margin | 163,571 |
| | 235,070 |
| | 311,758 |
|
| | | | | | |
| Operating expenses: | |
| | |
| | |
|
| Selling and marketing | 61,164 |
| | 84,113 |
| | 98,708 |
|
| Software development | 20,037 |
| | 32,756 |
| | 46,757 |
|
| General and administrative | 58,362 |
| | 77,154 |
| | 96,956 |
|
| Purchase amortization | 2,237 |
| | 13,607 |
| | 15,183 |
|
| | 141,800 |
| | 207,630 |
| | 257,604 |
|
| Income from operations | 21,771 |
| | 27,440 |
| | 54,154 |
|
| Interest and other income | 798 |
| | 526 |
| | 326 |
|
| Interest and other expense | — |
| | (4,832 | ) | | (6,943 | ) |
| Income before income taxes | 22,569 |
| | 23,134 |
| | 47,537 |
|
| Income tax expense, net | 7,913 |
| | 13,219 |
| | 17,803 |
|
| Net income | $ | 14,656 |
| | $ | 9,915 |
| | $ | 29,734 |
|
| | | | | | |
| Net income per share — basic | $ | 0.63 |
| | $ | 0.37 |
| | $ | 1.07 |
|
| Net income per share — diluted | $ | 0.62 |
| | $ | 0.37 |
| | $ | 1.05 |
|
| | | | | | |
| Weighted average outstanding shares — basic | 23,131 |
| | 26,533 |
| | 27,670 |
|
| Weighted average outstanding shares — diluted | 23,527 |
| | 26,949 |
| | 28,212 |
|
See accompanying notes.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
(in thousands)
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | Year Ended December 31, |
| | | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Net income | | $ | 14,656 |
| | $ | 9,915 |
| | $ | 29,734 |
|
| Other comprehensive income, net of tax | | | | | | |
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | | 25 |
| | 1,277 |
| | 610 |
|
| Net decrease in unrealized loss on investments | | 113 |
| | 773 |
| | 378 |
|
| Total other comprehensive income | | 138 |
| | 2,050 |
| | 988 |
|
| Total comprehensive income | | $ | 14,794 |
| | $ | 11,965 |
| | $ | 30,722 |
|
See accompanying notes.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands, except per share data)
|
| | | | | | | |
| | December 31, |
| | 2012 | | 2013 |
| ASSETS | | | |
| Current assets: | | | |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 156,027 |
| | $ | 255,953 |
|
| Short-term investments | 37 |
| | — |
|
| Accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtful accounts of approximately $2,935 and $3,397 as of December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively | 16,392 |
| | 20,761 |
|
| Deferred income taxes, net | 9,256 |
| | 22,506 |
|
| Income tax receivable | 5,357 |
| | — |
|
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 9,560 |
| | 6,597 |
|
| Debt issuance costs, net | 2,934 |
| | 2,649 |
|
| Total current assets | 199,563 |
| | 308,466 |
|
| | | | |
| Long-term investments | 21,662 |
| | 21,990 |
|
| Property and equipment, net | 46,308 |
| | 57,719 |
|
| Goodwill | 718,078 |
| | 718,587 |
|
| Intangibles and other assets, net | 170,632 |
| | 144,472 |
|
| Deposits and other assets | 2,274 |
| | 1,855 |
|
| Debt issuance costs, net | 6,622 |
| | 3,893 |
|
| Total assets | $ | 1,165,139 |
| | $ | 1,256,982 |
|
| LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY | |
| | |
|
| Current liabilities: | |
| | |
|
| Current portion of long-term debt | $ | 17,500 |
| | $ | 24,063 |
|
| Accounts payable | 6,234 |
| | 4,939 |
|
| Accrued wages and commissions | 23,831 |
| | 20,104 |
|
| Accrued expenses | 19,002 |
| | 23,200 |
|
| Deferred gain on the sale of building | 2,523 |
| | 2,523 |
|
| Income taxes payable | — |
| | 2,362 |
|
| Deferred revenue | 32,548 |
| | 34,362 |
|
| Total current liabilities | 101,638 |
| | 111,553 |
|
| | | | |
| Long-term debt, less current portion | 153,125 |
| | 129,062 |
|
| Deferred gain on the sale of building | 28,809 |
| | 26,286 |
|
| Deferred rent | 17,305 |
| | 22,828 |
|
| Deferred income taxes, net | 34,071 |
| | 34,582 |
|
| Income taxes payable | 2,818 |
| | 4,809 |
|
| Other long-term liabilities | 1,030 |
| | — |
|
| Total liabilities | 338,796 |
| | 329,120 |
|
| | | | |
| Commitments and contingencies |
|
| |
|
|
| | | | |
| Stockholders’ equity: | |
| | |
|
| Preferred stock, $0.01 par value; 2,000 shares authorized; none outstanding | — |
| | — |
|
| Common stock, $0.01 par value; 60,000 shares authorized; 28,348 and 28,848 issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively | 283 |
| | 288 |
|
| Additional paid-in capital | 792,988 |
| | 863,780 |
|
| Accumulated other comprehensive loss | (6,518 | ) | | (5,530 | ) |
| Retained earnings | 39,590 |
| | 69,324 |
|
| Total stockholders’ equity | 826,343 |
| | 927,862 |
|
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 1,165,139 |
| | $ | 1,256,982 |
|
| | | December 31, | |
| | | 2009 | | | 2010 | |
| ASSETS | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| Current assets: | | | | | | |
Cash and cash equivalents | | $ | 205,786 | | | $ | 206,405 | |
Short-term investments | | | 20,188 | | | | 3,722 | |
| Accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtful accounts of $2,863 and $2,415 as of December 31, 2009 and 2010, respectively | | | 12,855 | | | | 13,094 | |
Deferred income taxes, net | | | 3,450 | | | | 5,203 | |
Income tax receivable | | | ¾ | | | | 4,940 | |
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | | | 5,128 | | | | 5,809 | |
Total current assets | | | 247,407 | | | | 239,173 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Long-term investments | | | 29,724 | | | | 29,189 | |
Deferred income taxes, net | | | 1,978 | | | | ¾ | |
Property and equipment, net | | | 19,162 | | | | 69,921 | |
Goodwill | | | 80,321 | | | | 79,602 | |
Intangibles and other assets, net | | | 23,390 | | | | 18,774 | |
Deposits and other assets | | | 2,597 | | | | 2,989 | |
Total assets | | $ | 404,579 | | | $ | 439,648 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| Current liabilities: | | | | | | | | |
Accounts payable | | $ | 3,667 | | | $ | 3,123 | |
Accrued wages and commissions | | | 9,696 | | | | 12,465 | |
Accrued expenses | | | 14,167 | | | | 18,411 | |
Deferred revenue | | | 14,840 | | | | 16,895 | |
Deferred rent | | | 1,377 | | | | 4,032 | |
Total current liabilities | | | 43,747 | | | | 54,926 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Deferred income taxes, net | | | ¾ | | | | 1,450 | |
Income taxes payable | | | 1,826 | | | | 1,770 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Commitments and contingencies | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| Stockholders’ equity: | | | | | | | | |
| Preferred stock, $0.01 par value; 2,000 shares authorized; none outstanding | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| Common stock, $0.01 par value; 30,000 shares authorized; 20,617 and 20,773 issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2009 and 2010, respectively | | | 206 | | | | 208 | |
Additional paid-in capital | | | 364,635 | | | | 374,981 | |
Accumulated other comprehensive loss | | | (7,565 | ) | | | (8,706 | ) |
Retained earnings | | | 1,730 | | | | 15,019 | |
Total stockholders’ equity | | | 359,006 | | | | 381,502 | |
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | | $ | 404,579 | | | $ | 439,648 | |
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
(in(in thousands)
| | | | | | | | | | | | Accumulated | | | Retained | | | | |
| | | | | | | | Additional | | | | Other | | | Earnings | | | Total | |
| | | Comprehensive | | | Common Stock | | Paid-In | | | | Comprehensive | | | (Accumulated | | | Stockholders’ | |
| | | Income | | | Shares | | | | Amount | | Capital | | | | Income (Loss) | | | Deficit) | | | Equity | |
| Balance at December 31, 2007 | | | | | | 19,474 | | | $ | 195 | | | $ | 317,570 | | | $ | 5,626 | | | $ | (41,586 | ) | | $ | 281,805 | |
| Net income | | $ | 24,623 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 24,623 | | | | 24,623 | |
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | | | (14,061 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (14,061 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (14,061 | ) |
| Net unrealized loss on investments | | | (5,361 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (5,361 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (5,361 | ) |
| Comprehensive income | | $ | 5,201 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Exercise of stock options | | | | | | | 198 | | | | 2 | | | | 6,555 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 6,557 | |
| Restricted stock grants | | | | | | | 102 | | | | 1 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 1 | |
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | | | | | | | (49 | ) | | | (1 | ) | | | (695 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (696 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 4,907 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 4,907 | |
| ESPP | | | | | | | 8 | | | | ¾ | | | | 329 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 329 | |
| Excess tax benefit for exercised stock options | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 5,317 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 5,317 | |
| Balance at December 31, 2008 | | | | | | | 19,733 | | | | 197 | | | | 333,983 | | | | (13,796 | ) | | | (16,963 | ) | | | 303,421 | |
| Net income | | | 18,693 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 18,693 | | | | 18,693 | |
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | | | 3,671 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 3,671 | | | | ¾ | | | | 3,671 | |
| Net unrealized gain on investments | | | 2,560 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 2,560 | | | | ¾ | | | | 2,560 | |
| Comprehensive income | | $ | 24,924 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Exercise of stock options | | | | | | | 85 | | | | ¾ | | | | 2,232 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 2,232 | |
| Restricted stock grants | | | | | | | 237 | | | | 2 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 2 | |
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | | | | | | | (44 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (672 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (672 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 6,438 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 6,438 | |
| ESPP | | | | | | | 7 | | | | ¾ | | | | 230 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 230 | |
| Consideration for PPR | | | | | | | 573 | | | | 6 | | | | 20,897 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 20,903 | |
| Consideration for Resolve Technology | | | | | | | 26 | | | | 1 | | | | 1,124 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 1,125 | |
| Excess tax benefit for exercised stock options | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 403 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 403 | |
| Balance at December 31, 2009 | | | | | | | 20,617 | | | | 206 | | | | 364,635 | | | | (7,565 | ) | | | 1,730 | | | | 359,006 | |
| Net income | | | 13,289 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 13,289 | | | | 13,289 | |
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | | | (1,064 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (1,064 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (1,064 | ) |
| Net unrealized loss on investments | | | (77 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (77 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (77 | ) |
| Comprehensive income | | $ | 12,148 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Exercise of stock options | | | | | | | 138 | | | | 2 | | | | 3,720 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 3,722 | |
| Restricted stock grants | | | | | | | 113 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | |
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | | | | | | | (103 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | (2,906 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (2,906 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 8,270 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 8,270 | |
| ESPP | | | | | | | 8 | | | | ¾ | | | | 360 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 360 | |
| Excess tax benefit for exercised stock options | | | | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 902 | | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | 902 | |
| Balance at December 31, 2010 | | | | | | | 20,773 | | | $ | 208 | | | $ | 374,981 | | | $ | (8,706 | ) | | $ | 15,019 | | | $ | 381,502 | |
| | |
| See accompanying notes. | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Common Stock | | Additional Paid-In Capital | | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) | | Retained Earnings | | Total Stockholders’ Equity |
| | Shares | | Amount | | | | |
| Balance at December 31, 2010 | 20,773 |
| | $ | 208 |
| | $ | 374,981 |
| | $ | (8,706 | ) | | $ | 15,019 |
| | $ | 381,502 |
|
| Net income | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 14,656 |
| | 14,656 |
|
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 25 |
| | — |
| | 25 |
|
| Net decrease in unrealized loss on investments | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 113 |
| | — |
| | 113 |
|
| Exercise of stock options | 198 |
| | 2 |
| | 6,212 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 6,214 |
|
| Restricted stock grants | 197 |
| | 1 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 1 |
|
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | (63 | ) | | — |
| | (2,307 | ) | | — |
| | — |
| | (2,307 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | — |
| | — |
| | 8,056 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 8,056 |
|
| Stock issued for equity offering | 4,313 |
| | 43 |
| | 247,881 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 247,924 |
|
| Employee stock purchase plan | 8 |
| | — |
| | 452 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 452 |
|
| Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation | — |
| | — |
| | 2,541 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 2,541 |
|
| Balance at December 31, 2011 | 25,426 |
| | 254 |
| | 637,816 |
| | (8,568 | ) | | 29,675 |
| | 659,177 |
|
| Net income | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 9,915 |
| | 9,915 |
|
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 1,277 |
| | — |
| | 1,277 |
|
| Net decrease in unrealized loss on investments | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 773 |
| | — |
| | 773 |
|
| Exercise of stock options | 273 |
| | 2 |
| | 9,194 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 9,196 |
|
| Restricted stock grants | 855 |
| | 8 |
| | (8 | ) | | — |
| | — |
| | — |
|
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | (96 | ) | | — |
| | (4,204 | ) | | — |
| | — |
| | (4,204 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | — |
| | — |
| | 12,207 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 12,207 |
|
| Employee stock purchase plan | 10 |
| | — |
| | 749 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 749 |
|
| Consideration for LoopNet, Inc. | 1,880 |
| | 19 |
| | 137,036 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 137,055 |
|
| Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation | — |
| | — |
| | 198 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 198 |
|
| Balance at December 31, 2012 | 28,348 |
| | 283 |
| | 792,988 |
| | (6,518 | ) | | 39,590 |
| | 826,343 |
|
| Net income | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 29,734 |
| | 29,734 |
|
| Foreign currency translation adjustment | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 610 |
| | — |
| | 610 |
|
| Net decrease in unrealized loss on investments | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 378 |
| | — |
| | 378 |
|
| Exercise of stock options | 409 |
| | 3 |
| | 16,820 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 16,823 |
|
| Restricted stock grants | 238 |
| | 2 |
| | (2 | ) | | — |
| | — |
| | — |
|
| Restricted stock grants surrendered | (158 | ) | | — |
| | (8,469 | ) | | — |
| | — |
| | (8,469 | ) |
| Stock compensation expense, net of forfeitures | — |
| | — |
| | 41,403 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 41,403 |
|
| Employee stock purchase plan | 11 |
| | — |
| | 1,455 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 1,455 |
|
| Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation | — |
| | — |
| | 19,585 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 19,585 |
|
| Balance at December 31, 2013 | 28,848 |
| | $ | 288 |
| | $ | 863,780 |
| | $ | (5,530 | ) | | $ | 69,324 |
| | $ | 927,862 |
|
See accompanying notes.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(in thousands)
| | | | | Year Ended December 31, | | Year Ended December 31, |
| | | 2008 | | | 2009 | | | 2010 | | 2011 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
| Operating activities: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net income | | $ | 24,623 | | | $ | 18,693 | | | $ | 13,289 | | $ | 14,656 |
| | $ | 9,915 |
| | $ | 29,734 |
|
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
|
Depreciation | | | 8,360 | | | | 7,583 | | | | 8,607 | | 8,435 |
| | 10,053 |
| | 12,495 |
|
Amortization | | | 8,441 | | | | 7,093 | | | | 5,042 | | 4,417 |
| | 22,699 |
| | 27,563 |
|
Deferred income tax expense, net | | | 2,148 | | | | (2,428 | ) | | | 1,675 | | |
| Amortization of debt issuance costs | | — |
| | 1,989 |
| | 3,014 |
|
| Property and equipment write-off | | 628 |
| | 122 |
| | 104 |
|
| Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation | | (2,541 | ) | | (198 | ) | | (19,585 | ) |
| Stock-based compensation expense | | 8,103 |
| | 12,282 |
| | 41,549 |
|
| Deferred consideration settlement | | (1,207 | ) | | — |
| | — |
|
| Deferred income tax expense (benefit), net | | (17,104 | ) | | 13,643 |
| | (12,740 | ) |
Provision for losses on accounts receivable | | | 4,042 | | | | 4,172 | | | | 1,471 | | 1,525 |
| | 1,456 |
| | 2,317 |
|
Excess tax benefit from stock options | | | (5,317 | ) | | | (403 | ) | | | (902 | ) | |
Stock-based compensation expense | | | 4,940 | | | | 6,460 | | | | 8,306 | | |
Fixed asset write-off | | | ¾ | | | | 603 | | | | 674 | | |
| Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
|
Accounts receivable | | | (6,196 | ) | | | (1,610 | ) | | | (1,776 | ) | (4,573 | ) | | 1,295 |
| | (6,607 | ) |
Interest receivable | | | 533 | | | | 97 | | | | 70 | | |
| Income tax receivable | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | | | (4,940 | ) | |
| Income taxes payable | | 7,992 |
| | 7,598 |
| | 29,295 |
|
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | | | 1,464 | | | | (1,521 | ) | | | (714 | ) | 1,046 |
| | (3,316 | ) | | 2,934 |
|
Deposits and other assets | | | 652 | | | | (1,013 | ) | | | (385 | ) | (154 | ) | | 1,172 |
| | 399 |
|
Accounts payable and other liabilities | | | (3,044 | ) | | | 1,531 | | | | 6,690 | | 2,228 |
| | 1,629 |
| | (3,882 | ) |
Deferred revenue | | | 262 | | | | (812 | ) | | | 2,162 | | 4,334 |
| | 5,787 |
| | 1,708 |
|
Net cash provided by operating activities | | | 40,908 | | | | 38,445 | | | | 39,269 | | 27,785 |
| | 86,126 |
| | 108,298 |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Investing activities: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
| | |
|
Purchases of investments | | | (4,839 | ) | | | ¾ | | | | ¾ | | |
Sales of investments | | | 63,949 | | | | 17,159 | | | | 16,854 | | |
| Proceeds from sale and settlement of investments | | 4,911 |
| | 15,365 |
| | 76 |
|
| Proceeds from sale of building, net | | 83,553 |
| | — |
| | — |
|
| Purchases of property and equipment and other assets | | | (3,656 | ) | | | (9,420 | ) | | | (57,358 | ) | (15,013 | ) | | (14,834 | ) | | (19,042 | ) |
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired | | | (3,024 | ) | | | (3,207 | ) | | | ¾ | | (15,085 | ) | | (640,929 | ) | | — |
|
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | | | 52,430 | | | | 4,532 | | | | (40,504 | ) | 58,366 |
| | (640,398 | ) | | (18,966 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Financing activities: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
| | |
|
Excess tax benefit from stock options | | | 5,317 | | | | 403 | | | | 902 | | |
| Proceeds from long-term debt | | — |
| | 175,000 |
| | — |
|
| Payments of long-term debt | | — |
| | (4,375 | ) | | (17,500 | ) |
| Payments of debt issuance costs | | — |
| | (11,546 | ) | | — |
|
| Payments of deferred consideration | | (2,100 | ) | | — |
| | (1,344 | ) |
| Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation | | 2,541 |
| | 198 |
| | 19,585 |
|
| Repurchase of restricted stock to satisfy tax withholding obligations | | | (695 | ) | | | (672 | ) | | | (2,904 | ) | (2,307 | ) | | (4,204 | ) | | (8,469 | ) |
Proceeds from exercise of stock options and ESPP | | | 6,853 | | | | 2,441 | | | | 4,044 | | |
| Proceeds from equity offering, net of transaction costs | | 247,924 |
| | — |
| | — |
|
| Proceeds from exercise of stock options and employee stock purchase plan | | 6,622 |
| | 9,868 |
| | 18,133 |
|
Net cash provided by financing activities | | | 11,475 | | | | 2,172 | | | | 2,042 | | 252,680 |
| | 164,941 |
| | 10,405 |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Effect of foreign currency exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents | | | (2,616 | ) | | | 655 | | | | (188 | ) | 44 |
| | 78 |
| | 189 |
|
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents | | | 102,197 | | | | 45,804 | | | | 619 | | |
| Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents | | 338,875 |
| | (389,253 | ) | | 99,926 |
|
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year | | | 57,785 | | | | 159,982 | | | | 205,786 | | 206,405 |
| | 545,280 |
| | 156,027 |
|
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year | | $ | 159,982 | | | $ | 205,786 | | | $ | 206,405 | | $ | 545,280 |
| | $ | 156,027 |
| | $ | 255,953 |
|
See accompanying notes.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
December 31, 20102013
1. ORGANIZATION
CoStar Group, Inc. (the “Company” or “CoStar”) has created aprovides information, analytics and marketing services to the commercial real estate and related business community through its comprehensive, proprietary database of commercial real estate information covering the United States (“U.S.”), as well as and parts of the United Kingdom ("U.K.") and France. Based onFrance, as well as its unique database, the Company provides information, marketing and analytic services to thecomplementary online marketplace of commercial real estate and related business community andlistings. The Company operates within two operating segments, U.S. and International. The Company’s information, marketingInternational, and analyticits services are typically distributed to its clients under subscription-based license agreements that renew automatically, a majority of which typically have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically..
2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
| |
| 2. | SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES |
Basis of Presentation
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. Accounting policies are consistent for each operating segment.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Reclassifications
Certain previously reported amounts in Note 9 and the Consolidated Statementsconsolidated statements of Cash Flowscash flows have been reclassified to conform to the Company’s current presentation.
Revenue Recognition
The Company primarily derives revenues by providing access to its proprietary database of commercial real estate information. The Company generally charges a fixed monthly amount for its subscription-based services. Subscription contract rates are based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Subscription-basedA majority of the subscription-based license agreements typically have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically.
Revenue is recognized when (1) there is persuasive evidence of an arrangement, (2) the fee is fixed and determinable, (3) services have been rendered and payment has been contractually earned and (4) collectability is reasonably assured.
Revenues from subscription-based services are recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the agreement. Deferred revenue results from advance cash receipts from customers or amounts billed in advance to customers from the sales of subscription licenses and is recognized over the term of the license agreement.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues principally consists of salaries and related expenses for the Company’s researchers who collect and analyze the commercial real estate data that is the basis for the Company’s information, marketinganalytics and analyticmarketing services. Additionally, cost of revenues includes the cost of data from third party data sources, credit card and other transaction fees relating to processing customer transactions, which isare expensed as incurred, and the amortization of acquired trade names and database technology.
COSTAR GROUP, INC.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ¾— (CONTINUED)
| |
| 2. | SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES —2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES ¾ (CONTINUED)
Significant Customers
No single customer accounted for more than 5% of the Company’s revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
|
Foreign Currency Translation
The Company’s functional currency in its foreign locations is the local currency. Assets and liabilities are translated into U.S. dollars as of the balance sheet date.dates. Revenues, expenses, gains and losses are translated at the average exchange rates in effect during each period. Gains and losses resulting from translation are included in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). Net gains or losses resulting from foreign currency exchange transactions are included in the consolidated statements of operations. There were no material gains or losses from foreign currency exchange transactions for the years ended December 31, 2008, 20092011, 2012 and 2010.2013.
Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
The components of accumulated other comprehensive loss were as follows (in thousands):
| | | | Year Ended December 31, | | Year Ended December 31, |
| | 2009 | | 2010 | | 2012 | | 2013 |
Foreign currency translation adjustment | | $ | (4,850 | ) | | $ | (5,914 | ) | $ | (4,613 | ) | | $ | (4,003 | ) |
| Accumulated net unrealized loss on investments, net of tax | | | (2,715 | ) | | | (2,792 | ) | (1,905 | ) | | (1,527 | ) |
Total accumulated other comprehensive loss | | $ | (7,565 | ) | | $ | (8,706 | ) | $ | (6,518 | ) | | $ | (5,530 | ) |
Net income per share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period on a basic and diluted basis. The Company’s potentially dilutive securities include stock options and restricted stock. Diluted net income per share considers the impact of potentially dilutive securities except in periods in which there is a net loss, as the inclusion of the potentially dilutive common shares would have an anti-dilutive effect.
Equity instruments issued in exchange for employee services are accounted for using a fair-value based method and the fair value of such equity instruments is recognized as expense in the consolidated statements of operations.
