(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)

Explanatory Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements- Certain Defined Terms

References in this document to the “Registrant,” “DMS Inc.,” “DMS,” the “Company,” “we,” “management,” “us” or “our” refers to Digital Media Solutions, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, except where the context otherwise requires or indicates.

This Annual Report, particularly Part I. Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) and Part II. Item 1A. Risk Factors, and the documents we incorporate into this Annual Report contain certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and are made in reliance upon the protections provided by such acts for forward-looking statements and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1955.1995. These forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “assume,” “likely,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, DMS’sour expectations with respect to its and ClickDealer’sour future performance and itsour ability to implement its strategy, and are based on the beliefs and expectations of our management team from the information available at the time such statements are made. These forward-looking statements involve significanta number of judgments, risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside DMS’sour control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) DMS’s

Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report. There may be additional risks that we consider immaterial or which are unknown, and it is not possible to predict or identify all such risks.

DMS cautionsWe caution that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. In addition, DMS cautionswe caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. DMS doesWe do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Item 1. Business.Business

Recent Developments

On March 30, 2023, the Company acquired certain assets of G.D.M. Group Holding Limited, a company organized under the laws of Cyprus (“ClickDealer Cyprus”), ClickDealer Asia Pte., Ltd., a company organized in Singapore (“ClickDealer Singapore”), GDMgroup Asia Limited, a company organized in Hong Kong (“ClickDealer HongKong”) and ClickDealer Europe BV, a company organized in the Netherlands (“ClickDealer Netherlands”, and collectively with ClickDealer Cyprus, ClickDealer Singapore, ClickDealer Hong Kong, and any other related entity “ClickDealer”). The, with a purchase price of $35 million, of which the Company paid cash consideration of $35$33 million plus net working capital adjustments through August 22, 2023, with the remaining balance as holdbacks payable to the sellers upon closingthe completion of the transaction.certain deliverables through 2025. The transaction also includes up to $10 million in contingent consideration, subject to the achievement of certain milestones, to be paid two years after the acquisition date, subject to the operation of the acquired assets reaching certain milestone. The contingent consideration may be paid in cash or the Company’s Class A Common Stock, to be mutually agreed by DMS and the applicable recipients. For further information, refer to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 10, 2023.

Private Placement of Convertible Preferred Stock and Warrants

At the Reverse Stock Split Effective Time, every 15 issued and outstanding shares of the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. Effective on that same date, the Company dismissed Ernst & Young (“EY”) from that role. For further information, refer toClass A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock were converted automatically into one share of the Company’s CurrentClass A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock, respectively, without any change in the par value per share. The Reverse Stock Split reduced the number of shares of Class A Common Stock issued and outstanding from approximately 41.0 million to approximately 2.7 million and Class B Common Stock issued and outstanding from approximately 25.1 million to approximately 1.7 million.

No fractional shares were issued in connection with the Reverse Stock Split. Shareholders who otherwise would have been entitled to receive a fractional share instead became entitled to receive one whole share of common stock in lieu of such fractional share. All historical share amounts disclosed in this Annual Report on Form 8-K10-K have been retroactively restated to reflect the Reverse Stock Split.

On October 10, 2023, NYSE filed a Form 25 with the SEC to delist the Company’s Class A common stock from NYSE. The deregistration of the common stock under Section 12 of Exchange Act was effective on August 19, 2022.January 8, 2024. As of April 12, 2024, the Company’s Class A common stock were traded on the OTCQB Market under the trading symbol “DMSL.”

Our people are vital to our success in the digital marketing services industry. As a human-capital business, the long-term success of our firm depends on our people. We strive to make our employees feel as though they are a number one priority before other interests of the Company.highly prioritized. Our goal is to ensure that we have the right talent, in the right place, at the right time. We do that through our commitment to attracting, developing and retaining our associates.

We strive to attract individuals who are people-focused and share our values. We have competitive programs dedicated to selecting new talent and enhancing the skills of our associates. In our recruiting efforts, we strive to have a diverse group of candidates to consider for our roles. To that end, we have strong relationships with a variety of industry associations that represent diverse professionals and with diversity groups on university and college campuses where we recruit.

We have designed a compensation structure, including an array of benefit plans and programs, that we believe is attractive to our current and prospective associates. We also offer our associates the opportunity to participate in a variety of professional and leadership development programs. Our program includes a variety of industry, product, technical, professional, business development, and leadership trainings.

We seek to retain our associates by using their feedback to create and continually enhance programs that support their needs. We have formal annual goal setting and performance review processes for our employees. We have a values-based culture, an important factor in retaining our associates, which is memorialized in a culture “blueprint” that is communicated to all associates. Our training to share and communicate our culture to all associates plays an important part in this process. We are committed to having a diverse workforce, and an inclusive work environment is a natural extension of our culture. We have recently renewed our commitment to ensuring that all our associates feel welcomed, valued, respected and heard so that they can fully contribute their unique talents for the benefit of clients, their careers, our firm and our communities.

We take a proactive approach to philanthropy and driving meaningful change in the world, holding ourselves accountable to leading by example. On an individual level, we provide paid time-off opportunities for volunteering or donating to a cause that matters to each person. We monitor and evaluate various turnover and attrition metrics throughout our management teams. Our annualized voluntary turnover is relatively low, as is the case for turnover of our top performers, a record which we attribute to our strong values-based culture, commitment to career development, and attractive compensation and benefit programs.

Since our technologies can be securely accessed remotely, duringafter feedback as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have transitioned to a fully remote workforce.so that nearly all of our workforce operates remotely. Ongoing feedback from employee surveys indicate that our talent has embraced, and prefers to continue, working in a remote environment. We have prioritized virtual communications, wellness programs, and work-life balance adaptation that has increased engagement and supports our trust-first mentality. Recognizing safety as a priority, once safe to return, our people will have the opportunity to work at our headquarters.

The Company is headquartered in Clearwater, Florida with approximately 454337 employees as of December 31, 2022.2023.

Disaggregation of Revenue

The Company has three material revenue streams, which represents disaggregation of services for: (1) customer acquisition, (2) managed services and (3) software services (“SaaS”).

Segments Revenue

We classify our operations into three reportable segments: Brand Direct, Marketplace and Technology Solutions.

Under the Brand Direct reportable segment, revenues arerevenue is earned from fees we charge to our customers when we advertise directly for them under their brand name. In servicing our customers under this reportable segment, the end consumer of our customer interacts directly with our customer and does not interface with the Company’s brands at any point during the transaction process. Consumer journeys inside the Brand Direct reportable segment utilize the Company’s propriety tool set of Data, Process and Technology which operates in the background of these journeys.

Under the Marketplace reportable segment, we earn revenuesrevenue from fees we charge to our customers when we advertise their business under our brand name. The end consumer interfaces directly with our brand and may be redirected to our customer based on information obtained during the transaction process. The Marketplace reportable segment utilizes the Company’s same propriety tool set of Data, Process and Technology as Brand Direct which operates in the background of these journeys.

Under the Technology Solutions reportable segment, we earn revenuesrevenue from fees for other services provided to our customers such as the management of digital media services on behalf of our customers as well as our SaaS offering. Revenue in this segment is recognized when control of goods or services is transferred to customers, in amounts that reflect the consideration the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods and services. Upon satisfaction of the associated performance obligation, the Company recognizes revenue.

Industry Overview

The Company operates as a digital performance marketing engine for companies across numerous industries, including insurance, consumer finance, e-commerce, home services, brand performance, health and wellness and education & career placements. We also operate in managed services that provide better access and control over the advertising spend of our customers, including marketing automation and SaaS. The vertical agnostic brand direct solutions approach allows the number of verticals we serve to expand the Total Addressable Market (“TAM”), and the balance of business across these industries protects our revenue stream from unpredictable market shifts, which we believe, in comparison, is a significant risk faced by vertical-specific, marketplace only companies.

Business Strategies

Competition

The Company is a brand-direct solutions provider that offers a diversified set of advertising and customer acquisition solutions to a wide variety of industries, most comparable to adtech firms such as The TradeDesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) and LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RAMP). As a complement to our industry-agnostic offerings, the Company has also developed marketplace solutions that are more vertically oriented to key markets such as insurance, finance, education, health and wellness, which are most comparable to marketplaces offered by EverQuote, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVER), SelectQuote, Inc. (NYSE: SLQT), LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE), QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), CarGurus, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARG), and eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) but with less risk exposure to a single industry.

Customer Concentration

For the years ended December 31, 20222023 and 2021,2022, one advertising customer within the Marketplace segment accounted for approximately 23.2%14.1% and 13.5%23.2% of our total revenues,revenue, respectively. We market for advertisers on our platform primarily through utilizing impressions, ad clicks, direct messaging to consumers, leads, and email to sales conversions, directly measuring results and providing accountability. Our initial contract terms for customer acquisition are typically one to three months. Managed services are typically signed for one-month terms with auto-renewal for subsequent period and revenue by licensing the Software to customers under SaaS-based contracts, which is typically one-month with auto-renewal for subsequent months. The large majority of our customers pay on a monthly basis. Our services are billed on a monthly basis for the services provided in the previous month. Our pricing method reflects the price and quantities for the service provided, which is driven by the volume of customer acquisition, includes access to our direct service, technical support and managed services infrastructure. We generally recognize revenuesrevenue from our leads, services and software platform ratably over the contractual term of the arrangement. We do not charge third-

Our Business

Management of high-quality targeted media sources

In the digital marketing solutions industry, it is essential that advertising service providers are able to acquire and retain high quality media sources that attract targeted users for advertiser customers on a large scale at low cost. This can be particularly challenging given the dynamic nature of the media resources available to advertising service providers. Frequent updates in search engine algorithms and consolidation of media sources result in high costs of retaining high quality media sources. This, combined with high levels of competition by a large number of service providers, drives up costs within the advertising industry.

To combat this challenge, we have built out a channel-agnostic media team that leverages our proprietary first party data asset to buy media, on both the Brand Direct and Marketplace solutions we offer, to connect ad units with consumers who have probability and intent to interact with those ad units. Additionally, we have formed strategic partnerships through acquisitions with other advertising and proprietary media marketing software providers to increase our access to high quality targeted media. Our acquisition of Traverse provide us access to proprietary software to drive meaningful engagement with advertising targets.

Regulation

Our domestic business is subject to a significant number of federal, state and local laws and regulations and our international operations are regulated by various foreign governments and international bodies. We conduct marketing activities, directly and indirectly, via telephone, email and/or through other online and offline marketing channels, which activities are governed by numerous federal and state regulations, such as the Telemarketing Sales Rule, state telemarketing laws, federal and state privacy laws, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, or CAN-SPAM Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, and the Federal Trade Commission Act and its accompanying regulations and guidelines, among others. We are also subject to regulation as a licensed insurance agency for Medicare insurance policies in certain states. In addition, we are subject to laws, rules and regulations regarding data collection, privacy and data security, charitable fundraising, and sweepstakes and promotions, among others. Some of our clients operate in regulated industries, such as financial services, credit repair, consumer and mortgage lending, healthcare and medical services and secondary education, and, to the extent applicable, we must comply with the laws, rules and regulations applicable to marketing activities in those industries.

Macroeconomic conditions

During 2020 and 2021, the U.S. economy increasingly suffered the adverse effects of the COVID-19 economic and health crisis. Macroeconomic factors, such as the level of interest rates, credit availability and the level of unemployment, including during economic downturns and global pandemics, all had an adverse impact on our customers’ costs of services and their demand for our services and our revenues.revenue. By late 2021, the auto insurance industry began to experience significant economic macro headwinds which resulted in 14 of the 20 largest private auto insurers experiencing double-digit declines in loss ratios.

Additionally, in 2022 and 2023, persistent inflationary pressures leading to rising costs across all goods and services continued to intensify recessionary fears. Exceptional inflation and supply chain issues have continued to plaguesuppress the insurance market as we experience unparalleledit experienced relatively extreme market volatility. Specifically, within the auto insurance industry, increased claims costs continue to suppress insurance carrier marketing spend extending the expected recovery as carriers remain cautious.

These and other difficulties faced by our customers have magnified due to hardships in the economy which could causecaused a reduction in their advertising budgets as they seek to manage expenses in general. Conversely, to an extent, we believe that the digital media advertising industry is also counter-cyclical to macroeconomic conditions since some customers increase their advertising and

promotion efforts in times where consumers are more difficult to acquire. This enables us to ease the downward impact on our revenuesrevenue during a downturn in the economy.

Role of Board of Directors in Risk Oversight Process

Our board of directors has responsibility for the oversight of our risk management and, either as a whole or through its audit committee, regularly discusses with management our risk management processes and major risk exposures, including their potential impact on our business and the steps we take to manage them. The risk oversight process includes receiving regular reports from members of senior management to enable our board of directors to understand our risk identification, risk management and risk mitigation strategies with respect to areas of potential material risk, including operations, finance, legal, regulatory, cybersecurity, strategic and reputational risk.

Available Information

Item 1A. Risk Factors.Factors

Summary of Risk Factors

The following summarizes the significant factors, events and uncertainties that could create risk with an investment in our securities. The events and consequences discussed in these risk factors could, in circumstances we may not be able to accurately predict, recognize or control, have a material adverse effect on our business, growth, strategy, financial condition, operating results, cash flows, liquidity, and stock price. These risk factors do not identify all risks that we face; our operations could also be affected by factors, events or uncertainties that are not presently known to us or that we currently do not consider to present significant risks to our operations. We group these risk factors into four categories:five categories and some of the more significant risks include the following:

Risks Related to Our Business

A substantial majority of our revenue is derived from sales of consumer engagements in the forms of referrals to our advertisers clients. Our relationships with advertisers are dependent on our ability to deliver quality engagements and referrals in the form of clicks, leads, calls and customers at attractive volumes and prices. If advertisers are not able to acquire their preferred engagements and referrals in our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions, they may stop buying engagements and referrals from us or may decrease the amount they are willing to spend for engagements and referrals. Our agreements with advertisers are almost entirely short-term agreements, and advertisers can stop participating in our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions at any time with no notice. As a result, we cannot guarantee that advertisers will continue to work with us or, if they do, the number of engagements and referrals they will purchase from us, the price they will pay per engagement and referral or their total spend with us. In addition, we may not be able to attract new advertisers to our marketplaces and our brand direct solutions or increase the amount of revenue we earn from advertisers over time.

If we are unable to maintain existing relationships with advertisers in our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions or are unable to add new advertisers, we may be unable to offer our consumers the experience they expect. This deficiency could reduce consumers’ confidence in our services, making us less popular with consumers. As a result, consumers could cease to use us or use us at a decreasing rate.

For the years ended December 31, 20222023 and 2021,2022, one advertising customer within the Marketplace segment accounted for approximately 23.2%14.1% and 13.5%23.2% of our total revenues,revenue, respectively. We expect that sales to this advertising customer will continue to be a significant contributor to our Net revenue. Certain parts of our business may continue to have a high customer concentration and depend disproportionately on a few large customers. To the extent that such a large customers fail to meet their purchase commitments, change their ordering patterns or business strategies, or otherwise reduce their purchases or stop purchasing our products, or if we experience difficulty in meeting the high demand by these larger customers for our products, our revenuesrevenue and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our success depends on our ability to attract online consumers to our websites, marketplaces or through our brand direct solutions and convert those consumers into sales for our advertisers. We depend, in part, on search engines, display advertising, social media, email, content-based online advertising and other online sources for our website traffic. We are included in search results as a result of both paid search listings, where we purchase specific search terms that result in the inclusion of our advertisement and, separately, organic searches that depend upon the content on our sites.

Search engines, social media platforms and other online sources often revise their algorithms and introduce new advertising products. If one or more of the search engines or other online sources on which we rely for website traffic were to modify its general methodology for how it displays our advertisements, resulting in fewer consumers clicking through to our websites, our business could suffer. In addition, if our online display advertisements are no longer effective or are not able to reach certain consumers due to consumers’ use of ad-blocking software, our business could suffer.

If one or more of the search engines or other online sources on which we rely for purchased listings modifies or terminates its relationship with us, our expenses could rise, we could lose consumer traffic to our websites, and a decrease in consumer traffic to our websites, for any reason, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Consumer traffic to our websites and the volume of sales generated by consumer traffic varies and can decline from to time. Additionally, even if we are successful in generating traffic to our websites, we may not be able to convert these visits into consumer sales.

their greater capital or diversification in a manner that adversely affects our competitive position. In addition, other newcomers, including major search engines and content aggregators, may be able to leverage their existing products and services to our disadvantage. We may be forced to expend significant resources to remain competitive with current and potential competitors. If any of our competitors are more successful than we are at attracting and retaining consumers, or if we are unable to effectively convert visits into consumer sales, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We compete for advertising spend with traditional offline media such as television, billboards, radio, magazines and newspapers, as well as online sources such as websites, social media and websites dedicated to providing information comparable to that provided in our websites, marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions. Our ability to attract and retain advertisers, and to generate advertising revenue from them, depends on a number of factors, including:

We may not succeed in retaining or capturing a greater share of our advertisers’ advertising spending compared to alternative channels. If our current advertisers reduce or end their advertising spending with us and we are unable to increase the spending of our other advertisers or attract new advertisers, our revenue and business and financial results would be materially adversely affected.

In addition, advertising spend remains concentrated in traditional offline media channels. Some of our current or potential advertisers have little or no experience using the internet for advertising and marketing purposes and have allocated only limited portions of their advertising and marketing budgets to the internet. The adoption of online marketing may require a cultural shift among advertisers as well as their acceptance of a new way of conducting business, exchanging information and evaluating new advertising and marketing technologies and services. This shift may not happen at all or at the rate we expect, in which case our business could suffer. Furthermore, we cannot assure you that the market for online marketing services will continue to grow. If the market for online marketing services fails to continue to develop or develops more slowly than we anticipate, the success of our business may be limited, and our revenue may decrease.

If we fail to provide a compelling experience to our consumers through our web platforms (i.e., our desktop and mobile experiences which include both tablets and phones), the number of consumer engagements or referrals purchased from us will decline, and advertisers may terminate their relationships with us or reduce their spending with us. If advertisers stop offering products in our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions, we may not be able to maintain and grow our consumer traffic, which may cause other advertisers to stop using our marketplaces and our brand direct solutions. We believe that our ability to provide a compelling web platform experience is subject to a number of factors, including:

web platform experience we provide for consumers. If we are unable to maintain or grow the data provided to us, the value that we provide to consumers and advertisers using our marketplaces and our brand direct solutions may be limited. In addition, the quality, accuracy and timeliness of this information may suffer, which may lead to a negative experience for consumers using our marketplaces and our brand direct solutions and could materially adversely affect our business and financial results.

If email providers or internet service providers, or ISPs, implement new or more restrictive email or content delivery or accessibility policies, including with respect to net neutrality, it may become more difficult to deliver emails to consumers or for consumers to access our websites and services. For example, certain email providers, including Google, may categorize our emails as “promotional,” and these emails may be directed to an alternate, and less readily accessible, section of a consumer’s inbox. If email providers materially limit or halt the delivery of our emails, or if we fail to deliver emails to consumers in a manner compatible with email providers’ email handling or authentication technologies, our ability to contact consumers through email could be significantly restricted. In addition, if we are placed on “spam” lists or lists of entities that have been involved in sending unwanted, unsolicited emails, our operating results and financial condition could be substantially harmed. Further, if ISPs prioritize or provide superior access to our competitors’ content, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Because generally we do not have exclusive relationships with advertisers, consumers may purchase products from them without having to use our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Advertisers can attract consumers directly through their own marketing campaigns or other traditional methods of distribution, such as referral arrangements, physical storefront operations or broker agreements. Advertisers also may offer information to prospective customers online directly, through one or more online competitors of our business, or both. If our advertisers determine to compete directly with us or choose to favor one or more of our competitors, they could cease providing us with information and terminate any direct interactions we have with their online workflows, customer relationship management systems and internal platforms, which would reduce the breadth of the information available to us and could put us at a competitive disadvantage against their direct marketing efforts or our competitors that retain such access. If consumers seek products directly from advertisers or through our competitors, or if advertisers cease providing us with access to their systems or information, the number of consumers searching for products on our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions may decline, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our success depends on our continued innovation to provide product and service offerings that make our marketplaces, brand direct and technology solutions useful for consumers. These new offerings must be widely adopted by consumers in order for us to continue to attract advertisers to our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Accordingly, we must continually invest resources in product, technology and development in order to improve the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions and their related product and service offerings and effectively incorporate new internet technologies into them. These product, technology and development expenses may include costs of hiring additional personnel and of engaging third-party service providers and other research and development costs.

Without innovative marketplaces and brand direct solutions and related product and service offerings, we may be unable to attract additional consumers or retain current consumers, which could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain advertisers who want to participate in our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions, which could, in turn, harm our business and financial results. In addition, while we have historically concentrated our efforts on the home and auto insurance, consumer finance, education, home services and health and wellness markets, we will need to penetrate additional vertical markets, such as health insurance, life insurance and charitable giving / nonprofits, in order to achieve our long-term growth goals. Our success in the home and auto insurance, consumer finance, education, home services and health and wellness markets depends on our deep understanding of these industries. In order to penetrate new vertical markets, we will need to develop a similar understanding of those new markets and the associated business challenges faced by participants in them. Developing this level of understanding may require substantial investments of time and resources and we may not be successful. In addition, these new vertical markets may have specific risks associated with them. If we fail to penetrate new vertical markets successfully, our revenue may grow at a slower rate than we anticipate and our financial condition could suffer.

Our future success depends upon our ability to create and maintain brand recognition and a reputation for delivering easy, efficient and personal solutions. A failure by us to build our brand and deliver on these expectations could harm our reputation and damage our ability to attract and retain consumers, which could adversely affect our business. If consumers do not perceive our marketplaces and brand direct solutions as a better web platform experience, our reputation and the strength of our brand may be adversely affected.

Some of our competitors have more resources than we do and can spend more advertising their brands and services. As a result, we are required to spend considerable money and other resources to create brand awareness and build our reputation. Should the need or competition for top-of-mind awareness and brand preference increase, we may not be able to build brand awareness, and our efforts at building, maintaining and enhancing our reputation could fail. Even if we are successful in our branding efforts, such efforts may not be cost-effective. If we are unable to maintain or enhance consumer awareness of our brand cost-effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Complaints or negative publicity about our business practices, our marketing and advertising campaigns, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations, the integrity of the data that we provide to consumers, data privacy and security issues, and other aspects of our business, whether valid or not, could diminish confidence and participation in our marketplaces and brand direct solutions and could adversely affect our reputation and business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain or enhance our brand, and failure to do so would harm our business growth prospects and operating results.

We currently rely on performance marketing channels that must deliver on metrics that are selected by our advertisers and are subject to change at any time. We are unable to control how our advertisers evaluate our performance. Certain of these metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and adversely affect our business. In addition, the metrics we provide may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similar metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. If our advertisers do not perceive our metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, it could adversely affect our online marketing efforts and business.

We have at times experienced rapid growth and anticipatecontinue to have plans for further growth. This growth has placed significant demands on management and our operational infrastructure. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees, while maintaining the beneficial aspects of our company culture. If we do not manage the growth of our business and operations effectively, the quality of our services and efficiency of our operations could suffer and we may not be able to execute on our business plan, which could harm our brand, results of operations and overall business.

We face significant competition from companies that provide information and services designed to help consumers shop for products comparable to those offered through our websites, marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions and to enable advertisers to reach these consumers. Our competitors offer various products and services that compete with us. Some of these competitors include: companies that operate, or could develop, insurance search websites, consumer finance search websites, educational / career enhancement search websites, home services search websites, and other comparison search type websites in the verticals in which we compete with marketplace and brand direct solutions; media sites, including websites dedicated to providing multiple quote insurance information and financial services information generally; internet search engines; and individual insurance providers, including through the operation of their own websites, physical storefront operations and broker arrangements. We compete with these and other companies for a share of advertisers’ overall budget for online and offline media marketing and referral spend. To the extent that advertisers view alternative marketing and media strategies to be

We also expect that new competitors will enter the industries in which we operate with competing marketplaces and brand direct solutions, products and services, which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.

Our competitors could significantly impede our ability to maintain or expand the number of consumers and advertisers using our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Our competitors also may develop and market new technologies that render our marketplaces and brand direct solutions less competitive, unmarketable or obsolete. In addition, if our competitors develop marketplaces and brand direct solutions with similar or superior functionality to ours, and our web traffic declines, we may

need to decrease our consumer engagement and referral and advertising fees. If we are unable to maintain our current pricing structure due to competitive pressures, our revenue would likely be reduced and our financial results would be adversely affected.

Our existing and potential competitors may have significantly more financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we have, and the ability to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and support of their marketplaces and brand direct solutions, products and services. In addition, they may have more extensive industry relationships than we have, longer operating histories and greater name recognition. As a result, these competitors may be able to respond more quickly with new technologies and to undertake more extensive marketing or promotional campaigns than we can. In addition, to the extent that any of our competitors have existing relationships with advertisers for marketing or data analytics solutions, those advertisers may be unwilling to partner with us. If we are unable to compete with these competitors, the demand for our marketplaces and brand direct solutions and related products and services could substantially decline.

In addition, if one or more of our competitors were to merge or partner with another of our competitors, the change in the competitive landscape could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors, and competitive pressures may harm our business and financial results.

Our ability to provide consumers with a high quality and compelling web platform experience depends, in part, on consumers receiving competitive prices, convenience, customer service and responsiveness from advertisers with whom they are matched on our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions. If these providers do not meet or exceed consumer expectations with competitive levels of convenience, customer service, price and responsiveness, the value of our brand may be harmed, our ability to attract consumers to our marketplaces and brand direct solutions may be limited and the number of consumers matched through our marketplaces and brand direct solutions may decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our brand, reputation and ability to attract consumers and advertisers depend on the reliable performance of our technology infrastructure and content delivery. We use messages to attract consumers to our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Our systems may not be adequately designed with the necessary reliability and redundancy to avoid performance delays or outages that could be prolonged and harmful to our business. If our websites are unavailable when users attempt to access them, or if they do not load as quickly as expected, users may not return as often in the future, or at all. As our user base and the amount of information shared on our websites continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of network capacity and computing power. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts on our infrastructure and services to handle the traffic on our websites and to help shorten the length of or prevent system interruptions. The operation of these systems is expensive and complex and we could experience operational failures. Interruptions, delays or failures in these systems, whether due to earthquakes, adverse weather conditions, other natural disasters, power loss, computer viruses, cybersecurity attacks, physical break-ins, terrorism, errors in our software, architecture flaws or performance defects in our proprietary technology or otherwise, could be prolonged and could affect the security or availability of our websites and applications, and prevent consumers from accessing our services. Such interruptions also could result in third-parties accessing our confidential and proprietary information, including our intellectual property or consumer information. Problems with the reliability or security of our systems could harm our reputation, our ability to protect our confidential and proprietary information, result in a loss of users of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions or result in additional costs. If we do not maintain or expand our network infrastructure successfully or if we experience operational failures or prolonged disruptions or delays in the availability of our

Substantially all of the communications, network and computer hardware used to operate our websites are located in the United States in Amazon Web Services data centers and other colocation hosting providers. We do not own or control the operation of these facilities. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorist attacks, acts of war, electronic and physical break-ins, computer viruses, earthquakes and similar events. The occurrence of any of these events could result in damage to our systems and hardware or could cause them to fail. In addition, we may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in certain circumstances.

Problems faced by our third-party web hosting providers could adversely affect the experience of users of our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions. Our third-party web hosting providers could close their facilities without adequate notice.

Any financial difficulties, up to and including bankruptcy, faced by our third-party web hosting providers or any of the service providers with whom they contract may have adverse effects on our business, the nature and extent of which are difficult to predict. If our third-party web hosting providers are unable to keep up with our growing capacity needs, our business could be harmed.

Any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance or reliability problems with our network operations could cause interruptions in access to our marketplaces and brand direct solutions as well as delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities and services and could harm our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition. Although we carry business interruption insurance, it may not be sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses, including the potential harm to the future growth of our business that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of system failures.

A portion of our revenue is attributable to visitors originating from advertising placements that we purchase on third-party websites. In some instances, website publishers may change the advertising inventory they make available to us at any time and, therefore, impact our revenue. In addition, website publishers may place restrictions on our offerings. These restrictions may prohibit advertisements from specific clients or specific industries, or restrict the use of certain creative content. If a website publisher decides not to make advertising inventory available to us, or decides to demand a higher revenue share or places significant restrictions on the use of such inventory, we may not be able to find advertising inventory from other websites that satisfy our requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, the number of competing online marketing service providers and advertisers that acquire inventory from websites continues to increase. Consolidation of website publishers could eventually lead to a concentration of desirable inventory on a small number of websites or networks, which could limit the supply of inventory available to us or increase the price of inventory to us. If any of the foregoing occurs, our revenue could decline or our operating costs may increase.

While our business has grown rapidly as consumers and advertisers have increasingly accessed our marketplaces and brand direct solutions, we expect that our business will evolve in ways that may be difficult to predict. For example, we anticipate that over time we may reach a point when investments in new user traffic are less productive and the continued growth of our revenue will require more focus on developing new product and service offerings for consumers and advertisers, expanding our marketplaces and brand direct solutions into new international markets and new industries to attract new advertisers, and increasing our customer engagement and referral and advertising fees. It is also possible that consumers and advertisers could broadly determine that they no longer believe in the efficiency and effectiveness of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Our continued success will depend on our ability to successfully adjust our strategy to meet the changing market dynamics. If we are unable to do so, our business could be harmed and our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Our revenue and results of operations could vary significantly from period to period and may fail to match expectations as a result of a variety of factors, some of which are outside of our control. Our results may vary as a result of fluctuations in the number of consumers and advertisers using our marketplaces and brand direct solutions and the size and seasonal variability of the marketing budgets of our advertisers. In addition, our advertisers’ industries are each subject to their own cyclical trends and uncertainties. Fluctuations and variability across these different verticals may affect our revenue. As a result of the potential variations in our revenue and results of operations, period-to-period comparisons may not be meaningful and the results of any

Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy, including conditions that are outside of our control, such as the impact of health and safety concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic or escalating military conflicts, which may result in various economic sanctions and regulations. The most recent global financial crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in extreme volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets. In addition, the recent conflicts between Russia and Ukraine have resulted in significant sanctions and other regulations and changes that have impacted global trade. While these events may not have direct material impacts on our business, they can result in disruptions in the capital and credit markets, changing regulation, changes in trade agreements, reduced alternatives or failures of

Additionally, our business relies heavily on people, and adverse events such as health-related concerns about working in our call centers, the inability to travel and other matters affecting the general work environment could harm our business. While we do not anticipate any material impact to our business operations as a result of COVID-19 or the conflict in Ukraine, inIn the event of a major disruption caused by such global events, we may lose the services of a number of our employees or experience system interruptions, which could lead to diminishment of our regular business operations, inefficiencies and reputational harm. We are also unsure what actions our advertisers and other partners may take in response to such events. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all the ways in which such events could adversely impact our business.

Our sales cycle, from initial contact to contract execution and implementation can take significant time. Our sales efforts involve educating our advertisers about the use, technical capabilities and benefits of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. Some of our advertisers undertake an evaluation process that frequently involves not only our marketplaces and brand direct solutions but also the offerings of our competitors. As a result, it is difficult to predict when we will obtain new advertisers and begin generating revenue from these new advertisers. Even if our sales efforts result in obtaining a new advertiser, under our usage-based pricing model, the advertiser controls when and to what extent it uses our marketplaces and brand direct solutions. As a result, we may not be able to add advertisers, or generate revenue, as quickly as we may expect, which could harm our revenue growth rates.

Our Company’s operations and their related revenuesrevenue and results of operations have significantly changed over the last several years. This change may not be indicative of our future growth, if any, and we will not be able to grow as expected, or at all, if we do not accomplish the following:

Our revenue growth rates may also be limited if we are unable to achieve high market penetration rates as we experience increased competition. If our revenue or revenue growth rates decline, investors’ perceptions of our business may be adversely affected and the market price of our common stock could decline.

Use of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions involves the storage and transmission of consumers’ information, including personal information, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss or exposure of this information which could result in potential liability, litigation and remediation costs, as well as reputational harm, all of which could materially adversely affect our business and financial results. For example, unauthorized parties could steal our users’ names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and other information that we collect when providing consumer engagements and referrals. While we use encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties designed to effect secure transmission of such information, we cannot guarantee the security of the transfer and storage of the personal information we collect from advertisers.

Like all information systems and technology, our websites and information systems may be subject to computer viruses, break-ins, phishing, impersonation attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks, ransomware and similar incidents or disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems, as well as unintentional incidents causing data

leakage, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays or website shutdowns, or could cause loss of critical data or the unauthorized disclosure, access, acquisition, alteration or use of personal or other confidential information. Although we have a chief information officerChief Information Officer who coordinates our cybersecurity measures, policies and procedures, and our chief information officerChief Information Officer reports to the Board regarding these matters at least quarterly, we cannot be certain that our efforts will be able to prevent breaches of the security of our information systems and technology. In addition, although we have cybersecurity insurance, we may not be able to retain such insurance on economic terms in the future or at all, and we cannot be certain that our insurance will cover us fully for any losses that we may experience, including with respect to any potential ransomware attacks we may experience. If we experience compromises to our security that result in websites performance or availability problems, the complete shutdown of our websites or the loss or unauthorized disclosure, access, acquisition, alteration or use of confidential information, consumers and advertisers may lose trust and confidence in us, and consumers and advertisers may decrease the use of our website or stop using our website entirely. Further, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, consumers or advertisers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information or consumers’ or advertisers’ information. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently, often are not recognized until launched against a target, and may originate from less regulated and remote areas around the world, we may be unable to proactively address these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures.

Any or all of the issues above could adversely affect our ability to attract new users and increase engagement by existing users, cause existing users to curtail or stop use of our marketplaces and brand direct solutions, cause existing advertisers to cancel their contracts or subject us to governmental or third-party lawsuits, investigations, regulatory fines or other actions or liability, thereby harming our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although we are not aware of any material information security incidents to date, we have detected common types of attempts to attack our information systems and data using means that have included viruses and phishing.

There are numerous federal, state and local laws in the United States and around the world regarding privacy and the collection, processing, storing, sharing, disclosing, using, cross-border transfer and protecting of personal information and other data, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and which may be costly to comply with, may result in regulatory fines or penalties, and may be inconsistent between countries and jurisdictions or conflict with other rules.

We are subject to the terms of our privacy policies and privacy-related obligations to third parties. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, policies, legal obligations and industry codes of conduct relating to privacy and data protection, to the extent possible. However, it is possible that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in new ways or in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices or that new regulations could be enacted. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to consumers or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of sensitive information, which could include personally identifiable information or other user data, may result in governmental investigations, enforcement actions, regulatory fines, litigation or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others, and could cause consumers and advertisers to lose trust in us, all of which could be costly and have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, new and changed rules and regulations regarding privacy, data protection and cross-border transfers of consumer information could cause us to delay planned uses and disclosures of data to comply with applicable privacy and data protection requirements. Moreover, if third parties that we work with violate applicable laws or our policies, such violations also may put consumer or advertiser information at risk and could in turn harm our reputation, business and operating results. This risk exists both with respect to our vendors and partners (who may employ less rigorous compliance standards than our own) and our clients (who may have expectations on their legal right to freely make use of consumer data which we may provide them).

From time to time, 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 in our marketplaces and brand direct solutions and attempt to imitate our brand or the functionality of our website. If we become aware of such websites, we intend to employ technological or legal measures in an attempt to halt their operations. However, we may be unable to detect all such websites in a timely manner and, even if we could, technological and legal measures may be insufficient to halt their operations. In some cases, particularly in the case of websites operating outside of the United States, our available remedies may not be adequate to protect us against the effect of the operation of such websites. 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, which could harm our business, results of operations or financial

condition. In addition, to the extent that such activity creates confusion among consumers or advertisers, our brand and business could be harmed.

We sometimes accept payments from advertisers through credit and debit card transactions. For credit and debit card payments, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time. An increase in those fees may require us to increase the prices we charge and would increase our operating expenses, either of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We currently rely on multiple third-party vendors to provide payment processing services, including the processing of payments from credit cards and debit cards, and our business may be disrupted if these vendors become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us and we are unable to find a suitable replacement on a timely basis. If our processing vendors fail to maintain adequate systems for the authorization and processing of credit card transactions, it could cause one or more of the major credit card companies to disallow our continued use of their payment products. In addition, if these systems fail to work properly and, as a result, we do not charge our advertisers’ credit cards on a timely basis or at all, our business, revenue, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.

With the acquisition of ClickDealer, we have expanded our brand direct business outside of the U.S. and its territories, which exposes us to certain challenges and risks, many of which are outside of our control, and which could materially reduce our revenuesrevenue or profits, materially increase our costs, result in significant liabilities or sanctions, significantly disrupt our business, or significantly damage our reputation. These challenges and risks include: (1) compliance with complex and changing laws, regulations, and government policies, including sanctions, that could have a material negative impact on our operations or our ability to pursue development opportunities, cause reputational damage, or otherwise affect us; (2) the difficulties involved in managing an organization doing business in many different countries; (3) uncertainties regarding the interpretation of local laws and the enforceability of contract and intellectual property rights under local laws; and (4) rapid changes in government policy, political or civil unrest, acts of terrorism, war, pandemics or other health emergencies, border control measures or other travel restrictions, or the threat of international boycotts or U.S. anti-boycott legislation. Due to our lack of experience with international operations and developing and managing sales and distributions channels in international markets, our international expansion may not be successful.

We may require additional capitalhave operations in Ukraine following our acquisition of ClickDealer in April 2023. As a result of the ongoing conflict against Russia, negative or uncertain political climates in Ukraine, including but not limited to, pursuemilitary activities or civil hostilities, criminal activities and other acts of violence, infrastructure disruption, natural disasters or other conditions could adversely affect our business objectives and respondoperations in Ukraine or cause us to business opportunities, challenges or unforeseen circumstances. If capital is not available to us,exit the Ukrainian market. Additionally, some of our business, operating results and financial conditionUkraine-based team members may be harmed.

We may be involved from time to time in various additional legal proceedings, including, but not limited to, actions relating to breach of contract, breach of federal and state privacy laws, and intellectual property infringement that might necessitate changes to our business or operations. Regardless of whether any claims against us have merit, or whether we are ultimately held liable or subject to payment of damages, claims may be expensive to defend and may divert management’s time away from our operations. If any legal proceedings were to result in an unfavorable outcome, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations. Any adverse publicity resulting from actual or potential litigation may also materially and adversely affect our reputation, which in turn could adversely affect our results.

We conduct marketing activities, directly and indirectly, via telephone, email and/or through other online and offline marketing channels, which general marketing activities are governed by numerous federal and state regulations, such as the Telemarketing Sales Rule, state telemarketing laws, federal and state privacy laws, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, or CAN-SPAM Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, and the Federal Trade Commission Act and its accompanying regulations and guidelines, among others. In addition to being subject to action by regulatory agencies, some of these laws, like the TCPA, allow private individuals to bring litigation against companies for breach of these laws. We are also dependent on our third-party partners to comply with applicable laws. For example, we often depend upon our third-party partners to obtain consent from consumers to receive telemarketing calls in compliance with the

Companies in the internet, technology and media industries are frequently subject to allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We plan to vigorously defend our intellectual property rights and our freedom to operate our business; however, regardless of the merits of the claims, intellectual property claims are often time consuming and extremely expensive to litigate or settle and are likely to continue to divert managerial attention and resources from our business objectives. Successful infringement claims against us could result in significant monetary liability or prevent us from operating our business or portions of our business. Resolution of claims may require us to obtain licenses to use intellectual property rights belonging to third parties, which may be expensive to procure, or we may be required to cease using intellectual property of third-parties altogether. Many of our contracts require us to provide indemnification against third-party intellectual property infringement claims, which would increase our defense costs and may require that we pay damages if there were an adverse ruling in any such claims. Any of these events may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

With the acquisition of ClickDealer, we have expanded our business internationally and therefore may encounter additional risks, including different, uncertain or more stringent laws relating to intellectual property rights and protection.

We offer third-party products and we provide marketing services with respect to other products. Certain of these products, by their nature, involve a transfer of risk. If risk is not transferred in the way the customer expects, our reputation may be harmed and we may become a target for litigation. In addition, if these products do not generate competitive risk-adjusted returns that satisfy clients in a variety of asset classes, we will have difficulty maintaining existing business and attracting new business. This risk may be heightened during periods when credit, equity or other financial markets are deteriorating in value or are particularly volatile, or when clients or investors are experiencing losses. Significant declines in the performance of these third-party products could subject us to reputational damage and litigation risk.

We believe our success has depended, and continues to depend, on the efforts and talents of our executives and employees. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. Qualified individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain them. Experienced information technology personnel, who are critical to the success of our business, are in particularly high demand. Since 2020, most of our employees have worked remotely. The loss of any of our executive officers or key employees could materially adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and strategy, and we may not be able to find adequate replacements on a timely basis, or at all. Many of our executive officers and other employees are at-will employees, which means they may terminate their employment relationships with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace. We cannot ensure that we will be able to retain the services of any members of our senior

Operating in international markets, including after our acquisition of ClickDealer, requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to regulatory, economic and political risks that are different from those in the United States. Due to our management team’s limited experience with international operations and developing and managing sales and distribution channels in international markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful. Our management’s lack of experience and failure to successfully manage the various risks could harm our international operations and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. Most members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the

increasingly complex laws, rules and regulations that govern public companies. Following the completion of the Business Combination, we are now subject to significant obligations relating to reporting, procedures and internal controls, and our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage such obligations. These obligations and scrutiny require significant attention from our management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have experienced and may continue to experience rapid expansion of our employee ranks. We believe our corporate culture has been a key element of our success. However, as our organization grows, it may be difficult to maintain our culture, which could reduce our ability to innovate and operate effectively. The failure to maintain the key aspects of our culture as our organization grows could result in decreased employee satisfaction, increased difficulty in attracting top talent, increased turnover and could compromise the quality of our client service, all of which are important to our success and to the effective execution of our business strategy. In the event we are unable to maintain our corporate culture as we grow, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.

Since our ClickDealer acquisition, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk with respect to our sales, profits, assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. As a result, the fluctuation in the value of the U.S.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our business depends on our intellectual property, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright law and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information by requiring our employees and consultants to enter into confidentiality and assignment of inventions agreements and third parties to enter into nondisclosure agreements as we deem appropriate. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our website and market features, software and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider proprietary.

We may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use or infringement or violation of our intellectual property or proprietary rights. Third-parties also may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or our reputation. The protection of our intellectual property may require the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others or to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management, result in a diversion of resources, the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. These steps may be inadequate to protect our intellectual property. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to use information that we regard as proprietary to create product offerings that compete with ours. We also cannot be certain that others will not independently develop or otherwise acquire equivalent or superior technology or other intellectual property rights, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

an active market in desirable domain names and our ability to purchase such domains would be subject to market conditions. As a result, we may not be able to acquire or maintain all domain names that use the name Digital Media Solutions.

We currently operate primarily in the United States. To the extent that we determine to expand our business has expanded internationally due to the acquisition of ClickDealer, we will encounter additional risks, including different, uncertain or more stringent laws relating to intellectual property rights and protection.

From time to time, third parties may allege that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights, including from our competitors or non-practicing entities. Such claims, regardless of their merit, could result in litigation or other proceedings and could require us to expend significant financial resources and attention by our management and other personnel that otherwise would be focused on our business operations, result in injunctions against us that prevent us from using material intellectual property rights, or require us to pay damages to third parties. Patent and other intellectual property litigation may be protracted and expensive, and the results are difficult to predict and may result in significant settlement costs or require us to stop offering some features, or purchase licenses or modify our products and features while we develop non-infringing substitutes, but such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all, which would require us to develop alternative intellectual property. Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our

As our business expands, we may be subject to intellectual property claims against us with increasing frequency, scope and magnitude. This may include claims originating with entities who have held the name “Digital Media Solutions” for a substantial period of time. We may also be obligated to indemnify affiliates or other partners who are accused of violating third parties’ intellectual property rights by virtue of those affiliates or partners’ agreements with us, and this could increase our costs in defending such claims and our damages. For example, many of our agreements with advertisers and other partners require us to indemnify these entities against third-party intellectual property infringement claims. Furthermore, such advertisers and partners may discontinue their relationship with us either as a result of injunctions or otherwise. The occurrence of these results could harm our brand or materially adversely affect our business, financial position and operating results.

In order to protect our technologies and processes, we rely in part on confidentiality agreements with our employees, independent contractors and other advisors. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information, including trade secrets, and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases, we may not be able to assert our trade secret rights against such parties. To the extent that our employees, contractors or other third parties with whom we do business use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights to related or resulting know-how and inventions. The loss of confidential information or intellectual property rights, including trade secret protection, could make it easier for third parties to compete with our products. In addition, any changes in, or unexpected interpretations of, intellectual property laws may compromise our ability to enforce our trade secret and intellectual property rights. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain protection of our trade secrets or other proprietary information could harm our business, results of operations, reputation and competitive position.

We use open source software in connection with our software development. From time to time, companies that use open source software have faced claims challenging the use of open source software and/or compliance with open source license terms. We could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming non-compliance with open source licensing terms. Some open source licenses require users who distribute software containing open source to make available all or part of such software, which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code of the user. While we monitor our use of open source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose our proprietary source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open source agreement, such use could inadvertently occur, in part because open source license terms are often ambiguous. Any requirement to disclose our proprietary source code or pay damages for breach of contract could be harmful to our business, results of operations or financial condition, and could help our competitors develop services that are similar to or better than ours.

Risks Related to Government Regulation

Our activities are subject to extensive regulation under the laws of the United States and its various states and the other jurisdictions in which we operate. We are currently subject to a variety of, and may in the future become subject to additional, international, federal, state and local laws that are continuously evolving and developing, including laws regarding internet-based businesses and other businesses that rely on advertising, as well as privacy and consumer protection laws, including the TCPA, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the CAN-SPAM Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act and employment laws, including those governing wage and hour requirements. In addition, there is increasing attention by state and other jurisdictions to regulation in this area. These laws are complex and can be costly to comply with, require significant management time and effort, and could subject us to claims, government enforcement actions, civil and criminal liability or other remedies, including suspension of business operations. These laws may conflict with each other, further complicating compliance efforts.

If we are alleged not to comply with these laws or regulations, we may be required to modify affected products and services, which could require a substantial investment and loss of revenue, or cease providing the affected product or service altogether. If we are found to have violated laws or regulations, we may be subject to significant fines, penalties and other losses.

We currently operate primarily in the United States. To the extent that we determine to expand our business has expanded internationally due to the acquisition of ClickDealer, we will encounter additional risks, including different, uncertain or more stringent regulations and laws relating to our business operations.

This legislation and regulation are generally intended to protect individual privacy and the privacy and security of personal information. We could be adversely affected if government regulations require us to significantly change our business practices with respect to this type of information or if the advertisers who use our marketplaces and brand direct solutions violate applicable laws and regulations.

Changes in applicable laws and regulations may materially increase our direct and indirect compliance and other expenses of doing business, having a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If there were to be changes to statutory or regulatory requirements, we may be unable to comply fully with or maintain all required licenses and approvals. Regulatory authorities have relatively broad discretion to grant, renew and revoke licenses and approvals. If we do not have all requisite licenses and approvals, or do not comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, the regulatory authorities could preclude or temporarily suspend us from carrying on some or all of our activities or monetarily penalize us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We cannot predict whether any proposed legislation or regulatory changes will be adopted, or what impact, if any, such proposals or, if enacted, such laws could have on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If we are alleged to have failed to comply with applicable laws and regulations, we may be subject to investigations, criminal penalties or civil remedies, including fines, injunctions, loss of an operating license or approval, increased scrutiny or oversight by regulatory authorities, the suspension of individual employees, limitations on engaging in a particular business or redress to customers. The cost of compliance and the consequences of non-compliance could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, a finding that we have failed to comply with applicable laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition by exposing us to negative publicity and reputational damage or by harming our customer or employee relationships.

In most jurisdictions, regulatory authorities have the power to interpret and amend applicable laws and regulations, and have discretion to grant, renew and revoke the various licenses and approvals we need to conduct our activities. Such authorities may require us to incur substantial costs in order to comply with such laws and regulations. Regulatory statutes are broad in scope and subject to differing interpretation. In some areas of our businesses, we act on the basis of our own or the industry’s interpretations of applicable laws or regulations, which may conflict from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the event those interpretations eventually prove different from the interpretations of regulatory authorities, we may be penalized or precluded from carrying on our previous activities.

We, and the advertisers using our marketplaces and brand direct solutions, make telephone calls and send messages to consumers who request information through our marketplaces and through our brand direct solutions. The United States regulates marketing by telephone and messaging, including email, SMS and push messaging. The TCPA prohibits companies from making certain telemarketing calls to numbers listed in the Federal Do-Not-Call Registry and imposes other obligations and limitations on making phone calls and sending text messages to consumers. The CAN-SPAM Act regulates commercial email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that do not comply with certain requirements, such as providing an opt-out mechanism for stopping future emails from senders. We and the advertisers who use our marketplaces and brand direct solutions may need to comply with such laws and any associated rules and regulations. States and other countries have similar laws related to telemarketing and commercial emails.

Additional or modified laws and regulations, or interpretations of existing, modified or new laws, regulations and rules, could prohibit or increase the cost of engaging with consumers and impair our ability to expand the use of our products, including our demand response solution, to more users. Alleged failure to comply with obligations and restrictions related to telephone, text message and email marketing could subject us to lawsuits, fines, statutory damages, consent decrees, injunctions, adverse publicity and other losses that could harm our business. Moreover, over the past several years there has been a sustained

Laws, rules and regulations governing internet communications, advertising and e-commerce are dynamic and the extent of future government regulation is uncertain. Federal and state regulations govern various aspects of our online business, including intellectual property ownership and infringement, trade secrets, the distribution of electronic communications, marketing and advertising, user privacy and data security, search engines and internet tracking technologies. In addition, changes in laws or regulations that adversely affect the growth, popularity or use of the internet, including potentially the recent repeal in the United States of net neutrality, could decrease the demand for our offerings and increase our cost of doing business. Future taxation on the use of the internet or e-commerce transactions could also be imposed. Existing or future regulation or taxation could hinder growth in or adversely affect the use of the internet generally, including the viability of e-commerce, which could reduce our revenue, increase our operating expenses and expose us to significant liabilities.

U.S. (state and federal) and foreign governments are considering enacting additional legislation related to privacy and data protection and we expect to see an increase in, or changes to, legislation and regulation in this area. For example, in the United States, a federal privacy law is the subject of active discussion and several bills have been introduced. Additionally, industry groups in the United States and their international counterparts have self-regulatory guidelines that are subject to periodic updates. High profile incidents involving breaches of personal information or misuse of consumer information may increase the likelihood of new U.S. federal, state, or international laws or regulations in addition to those set out above, and such laws and regulations may be inconsistent across jurisdictions.

Changes in data residency and cross-border transfer restrictions may also impact our operations. As the advertising industry evolves, and new ways of collecting, combining and using data are created, governments may enact legislation in response to technological advancements and changes that could result in our having to re-design features or functions of our platforms, therefore incurring unexpected compliance costs.

These laws and other obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our platforms. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits and other claims, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our products, which could have an adverse effect on our business. We may be unable to make such changes and modifications in a commercially reasonable manner or at all, and our ability to develop new products and features could be limited. All of this could impair our or our

advertisers’ ability to collect, use, or disclose information relating to consumers, which could decrease demand for our platforms, increase our costs, and impair our ability to maintain and grow our client base and increase our revenue.

Risks Related to our Capital Stock and Warrants and Other Business Risks

We are a holding company with no material assets other than our ownership of equity interests of Blocker Corp (our wholly owned subsidiary). Blocker Corp is a holding company with no material assets other than its ownership of DMS Units.Units, the equity interests of our indirect subsidiary. As a result, we have no independent means of generating revenue or cash flow. Our ability to pay taxes, make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and pay dividends will depend on the financial results and cash flows of DMS and its subsidiaries and the distributions we receive (via Blocker Corp) from DMS. Deterioration in the financial condition, earnings or cash flow of DMS and its subsidiaries for any reason could limit or impair DMS’ ability to pay such distributions. Additionally, to the extent that we need funds and DMS and/or any of its subsidiaries are restricted from making such distributions under applicable law or regulation or under the terms of any financing arrangements, or DMS is otherwise unable to provide such funds, it could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.

DMS is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, generally will not be subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax. Instead, taxable income will be allocated to holders of DMS Units (including Blocker Corp). We will include Blocker Corp as a corporate member on our consolidated corporate U.S. federal income tax returns. Accordingly, we will be required to pay income taxes on Blocker Corp’s allocable share of any net taxable income of DMS. In addition to tax expenses, we will also incur expenses related to our operations, including payment obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement (and the cost of administering such payment obligations), which could be significant. The Amended Partnership Agreement requires, and we intend to cause, DMS to make “tax distributions” pro rata to holders of DMS Units (including Blocker Corp) in amounts sufficient for us and Blocker Corp to cover all applicable taxes (calculated at assumed tax rates), relevant operating expenses, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and dividends, if any, declared by us. However, as discussed below, DMS’ ability to make such distributions may be subject to various limitations and restrictions, including, but not limited to, restrictions on distributions that would either violate any contract or agreement to which DMS is then a party, including debt agreements, or any applicable law, or that would have the effect of rendering DMS insolvent. If our cash resources are insufficient to pay taxes, meet our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement and to fund our other obligations, we may be required to incur additional indebtedness from lenders to provide the liquidity needed to make such payments, which could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition and subject us to various restrictions imposed by any such lenders. To the extent that we are unable to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement for any reason, such payments generally will be deferred and will accrue interest until paid; however, nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the Tax Receivable Agreement and therefore accelerate payments due under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

Additionally, although DMS generally will not be subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax, it may be liable under U.S. federal tax law for adjustments to its tax return, absent an election to the contrary. In the event DMS’ calculations of taxable income are incorrect, its members, including Blocker Corp, may be subject in later years to material liabilities pursuant to this law and its related guidance.

We anticipate that the distributions Blocker Corp will receive from DMS may, in certain periods, exceed our and Blocker Corp’s actual tax liabilities and obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. The Board, in its sole discretion, will make determinations from time to time with respect to the use of any such excess cash so accumulated. We have no obligation to distribute such cash (or other available cash other than any declared dividend) to our stockholders. To the extent that we do not distribute such excess cash as dividends on DMS Class A Common Stock or otherwise undertake ameliorative actions between DMS Units and shares of DMS Class A Common Stock and instead, for example, hold such cash

balances, holders of DMS Units other than Blocker Corp may benefit from any value attributable to such cash balances as a result of their ownership of shares of DMS Class A Common Stock following an exchange of their DMS Units, notwithstanding that such holders may previously have participated as holders of DMS Units in distributions by DMS that resulted in such excess cash balances. We also expect, if necessary, to undertake ameliorative actions, which may include pro rata or non-pro rata reclassifications, combinations, subdivisions or adjustments of outstanding DMS Units, to maintain one-for-one parity between DMS Units and shares of DMS Class A Common Stock.

Dividends on DMS Class A Common Stock, if any, will be paid at the discretion of the Board, which will consider, among other things, our business, operating results, financial condition, current and expected cash needs, plans for expansion and any legal or contractual limitations on our ability to pay such dividends. Financing arrangements may include restrictive covenants that restrict our ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to our stockholders. In addition, DMS is generally prohibited under Delaware law from making a distribution to a member to the extent that, at the time of the distribution, after giving effect to the distribution, liabilities of DMS (with certain exceptions) exceed the fair value of its assets. DMS’ subsidiaries are generally subject to similar legal limitations on their ability to make distributions to DMS. If DMS does not have sufficient funds to make distributions, our ability to declare and pay cash dividends may also be restricted or impaired.

Pursuant to the Amended Partnership Agreement, the Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties may redeem their DMS Units from DMS for cash, or, at our option, we may acquire such DMS Units in exchange for shares of DMS Class A Common Stock, subject to certain conditions and transfer restrictions as set forth therein and in the Investor Rights Agreement. DMS Units acquired by us are expected to be contributed to Blocker Corp. These redemptions and exchanges are expected to result in increases in Blocker Corp’s allocable share of the tax basis of the tangible and intangible assets of DMS. These increases in tax basis may increase (for income tax purposes) depreciation and amortization deductions of Blocker Corp and therefore reduce the amount of income (or, if applicable, franchise) tax that we and Blocker Corp would otherwise be required to pay in the future had such exchanges never occurred.

In connection with the Business Combination, we entered into the Tax Receivable Agreement, pursuant to which we are required to pay the Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties (i) 85% of the amount of savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local income tax

Any payments made by us under the Tax Receivable Agreement will generally reduce the amount of overall cash flow that might have otherwise been available to us. To the extent that we are unable to make timely payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement for any reason, the unpaid amounts generally will be deferred and will accrue interest until paid; however, nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the Tax Receivable Agreement and therefore accelerate payments due under the Tax Receivable Agreement, as further described below. Furthermore, our future obligation to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement could make us a less attractive target for an acquisition, particularly in the case of an acquirer that cannot use some or all of the tax benefits that may be deemed realized under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

Payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement will be based on the tax reporting positions that we or Blocker Corp determine, and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) or another taxing authority may challenge all or any part of the tax basis increases, as well as other tax positions that we or Blocker Corp take, and a court may sustain such a challenge. In the event that any tax benefits initially claimed by us or Blocker Corp are disallowed (for example, due to adjustments resulting from

examinations by taxing authorities), the Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties will not be required to reimburse us for any excess payments that may previously have been made under the Tax Receivable Agreement. Rather, excess payments made to such Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties will be netted against any future cash payments otherwise required to be made by us, if any, after the determination of such excess. However, a challenge to any tax benefits initially claimed by us or Blocker Corp may not arise for a number of years following the initial time of such payment or, even if a challenge arises earlier, such excess payment may be greater than the amount of future cash payments that we might otherwise be required to make under the terms of the Tax Receivable Agreement and, as a result, there might not be future cash payments against which to net. As a result, in certain circumstances we could make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement in excess of our and Blocker Corp’s actual income (or, if applicable, franchise) tax savings, which could materially impair our financial condition.

Moreover, the Tax Receivable Agreement provides that, in the event that (i) we exercise our early termination rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement, (ii) the Tax Receivable Agreement is rejected in a bankruptcy or similar proceeding, (iii) certain changes of control of us occur (as described in the Tax Receivable Agreement) or (iv) we are more than three months late in making of a payment due under the Tax Receivable Agreement (unless we have insufficient funds to make such payment), our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement could accelerate and we could be required to make an immediate lump-sum cash payment to the Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties equal to the present value of all forecasted future payments that would have otherwise been made under the Tax Receivable Agreement, which lump-sum payment would be based on certain assumptions, including those relating to our future taxable income. The lump-sum payment to the Majority ShareholdersShareholder TRA Parties could be substantial and could exceed the actual tax benefits that we or Blocker Corp realize subsequent to such payment.

There may be a material negative effect on our liquidity if the payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement exceed the actual income (or, if applicable, franchise) tax savings that we or Blocker Corp realize. Furthermore, our obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement could also have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combinations or other changes of control. We may need to incur additional indebtedness to finance payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement to the extent our cash resources are insufficient to meet our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement as a result of timing discrepancies or otherwise. Such indebtedness may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition.

As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal control. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and provide a management report on our internal control over financial reporting.

Our platform system applications are complex, multi-faceted and include applications that are highly customized in order to serve and support our advertisers, advertising inventory and data suppliers, as well as support our financial reporting obligations. We regularly make improvements to our platforms to maintain and enhance our competitive position. In the future, we may implement new offerings and engage in business transactions, such as acquisitions, reorganizations or implementation of new information systems. These factors will require us to develop and maintain our internal controls, processes and reporting systems, and we expect to incur ongoing costs in this effort. We may not be successful in developing and maintaining effective internal controls, and any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods.

As previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, we identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting related to revenues and accounts receivable, including the allowance for doubtful accounts.revenue. Management assessed our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 20222023 and concluded that a material weakness continues to exist related to revenues. revenue.

In response, management has implemented and plans to continue to implement additional procedures to ensure the accuracy and completeness of financial results impacted by control deficiencies. WhileRelated to the material weakness identified in 2023, management intends to implement additional controls surrounding formalization of the review process for supporting documentation used in the impairment calculations in cases where external valuations have been performed. Related to the material weakness identified in 2021, during the course of 2023, the Company took steps to remediate the 2021 material weakness, including enhancement of recurring detective controls, and will continue to execute remediation steps as they relate to contract review and effective technology general controls until the material weakness is remediated. We believe we have addressed issues related to accounts receivable andare making progress toward achieving the allowance for doubtful accounts, the risk remains that our ongoing control weaknesses may adversely affect the accuracy and reliabilityeffectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. The actions that we are taking are subject to ongoing senior management review, as well as Audit Committee oversight. We may also conclude that additional measures may be required to remediate the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which may necessitate additional changes to the design and implementation of controls.

We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date and may take in the future, will be sufficient to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting or that they will prevent or avoid potential future material weaknesses. The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting is subject to various inherent limitations, including cost limitations, judgments used in decision making, assumptions about the likelihood of future events, the possibility of human error and the risk of fraud. Any failure to remediate the material weaknesses or otherwise develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in material misstatements of our annual or interim financial statements.

Further, the identified material weaknessweaknesses could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and any annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we may be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock and warrants. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to maintainPublic Warrants. For additional information regarding our common stock listedmaterial weaknesses, see “Item 9A. Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures—Management’s Report on NYSE.

We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We will be an emerging growth company until December 31, 2023. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.

These characteristics may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growthnot a smaller reporting company difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.

Our Class A Common Stock and Public Warrants are listedtrade on the NYSE.over-the-counter markets. The following factors could cause the market price of Class A Common Stock and the Public Warrants in the public market to fluctuate significantly:

As of the date of this Annual Report, we have Public Warrants, the warrants purchased privately by the Sponsor simultaneously with the consummation of the Company’s initial public offering and privateissued in exchange for previously held warrants in Leo (“Private Placement Warrants”) and Preferred Warrants outstanding to purchase up to an aggregate of 28,443,5221,896,235 shares of Class A Common Stock. We also have the ability to initially issue additional shares under our 2020 Omnibus Incentive Plan (the “2020 Plan”). We may issue additional shares of Class A Common Stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, future acquisitions or repayment of outstanding indebtedness, without stockholder approval, in a number of circumstances.

Our issuance of additional shares of Common Stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank would have the following effects:

We account for our private placement warrantsPrivate Placement Warrants as derivative liabilities whereby we are required to remeasure the fair value of such liabilities at each balance sheet date, with a resulting non-cash gain or loss related to the change in the fair value being recognized in earnings in the statement of operations. As a result of the recurring fair value measurement, our consolidated financial statements and results of operations may fluctuate quarterly, based on factors which are outside of our control. Due to the recurring fair value measurement, we expect that we will recognize non-cash gains or losses on our private placement warrantsPrivate Placement Warrants each reporting period and that the amount of such gains or losses could be material.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties.Properties

Our corporate office is located in a leased premise at 4800 140th Avenue N., Suite 101, Clearwater, Florida. We lease real property where appropriate to support our business, and we believe our leased properties are not material to our business. In addition, we believe our facilities are suitable and adequate for our current and near-term needs, and that we will be able to locate additional facilities as needed.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.Proceedings

From time to time, we are involved in various disputes and litigation that arise in the ordinary course of business. However, separate from such matters, to the best of our knowledge, outside of those described below, there are no material pending or threatened legal proceedings to which we are a party, either individually or in the aggregate,aggregate.

On October 28, 2022, the Company received notice from the Office of the Ohio Attorney General (“OH OAG”) that it was reviewing certain of DMS’s business practices pursuant to which weits authority under the Consumer Sales Practices Act, Ohio Revised Code Section 1345.06, and the Telephone Solicitation Sales Act, Ohio Revised Code Sections 4719.11; 109.87(C). While the Company believes that its practices are in compliance with applicable law, the Company and the OH OAG have entered into discussions regarding the terms of a party.potential resolution to the OH AG’s review. It is uncertain whether a mutually acceptable resolution can be reached and the terms thereof, and, accordingly, the Company is unable to predict the impact of any such resolution to the Company’s business operations or financial results.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.Securities

OurOn October 10, 2023, NYSE filed a Form 25 with the SEC to delist the Company’s Class A Common Stock tradescommon stock from NYSE. The deregistration of the common stock under Section 12 of Exchange Act was effective on January 8, 2024. As of April 15, 2024, the Company’s Class A common stock were traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) usingOTCQB Market under the tickertrading symbol “DMS.” “DMSL”.

Our common stock began trading on April 20, 2018; no cash dividends have been declared since that time, and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As of March 29, 2023,April 15, 2024, there were 3249 holders of record.

None.

Item 6. Reserved.Reserved

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.Operations

This MD&A should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes thereto contained in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this Annual Report, as well as Item 1. Business of this Annual Report, for an overview of our operations and business environment.

Results of Operations

The following table presents our consolidated results of operations as a percentage of net revenue:

The following table presents the consolidated results of operations for the years ended December 31, 20222023 and 20212022 and the changes from the prior periods (in thousands):

The following table presents revenue by type for each segment and the changes from the prior periods:periods (in thousands):

Our Brand Direct segment experienced a decreasean increase in Customer acquisition revenue of $46.1$1.7 million or 19%1% during the year ended December 31, 2022.2023. Customer acquisition revenue for Marketplace decreased by $7.8$66.6 million or 4%31% for the year ended December 31, 2022.2023. The changesincrease in both the Brand Direct was driven primarily by the acquisition of ClickDealer, however this was offset by softness within our core business. The decline in Brand Direct core and Marketplace segmentssegment performance were primarily dueboth attributed to industry macro challenges within the insurance industry which continuecontinued to apply downward pressure on cost per click (“CPC”) and cost per lead (“CPL”) pricing. Additionally, extraordinary inflationinflationary effects and supply chain challenges have contributed to the insurance market volatility as increased claims costs continue to suppress insurance carrier marketing spend further delaying the expected market recovery. We also observed an uptick in aggressive competitive activities within our publisher portfolio, as well as an adjustment in the health insurance model shifting non-enrollment ad spend which impacted our performance since Q2.the second quarter.