UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE |
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012 |
OR |
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE |
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from ________________ to ________________ |
Commission file number: 1-353335
Groupon, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware | 27-0903295 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of | (I.R.S. Employer | |
incorporation or organization) | Identification No.) | |
600 West Chicago Avenue, Suite 400 Chicago, Illinois | 60654 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |
312-676-5773
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class | Name of each exchange on which registered | |
Class A Common Stock, par value $0.0001 | Nasdaq Global Select Market | |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes x | No |
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.
Yes No x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Yes x No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).
Yes x No
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer
Non-accelerated filer (Do not check if a smaller reporting company) Smaller reporting company
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes No x
As of June 30, 2012, the aggregate market value of shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $3,699,527,694 based on the number of shares held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2012 and based on the last reported sale price of the registrant's Class A common stock on June 30, 2012.
As of February 25, 2013, there were 656,063,487 shares of the registrant's Class A Common Stock outstanding and 2,399,976 shares of the registrant's Class B Common Stock outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
The information required by Part III of this Report, to the extent not set forth herein, is incorporated herein by reference from the registrant's definitive proxy statement relating to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held in 2013, which definitive proxy statement shall be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this Report relates.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I | Page |
Note About Forward-Looking Statements | |
Item 1. Business | |
Item 1A. Risk Factors | |
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments | |
Item 2. Properties | |
Item 3. Legal Proceedings | |
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures | |
PART II | |
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities | |
Item 6. Selected Financial Data | |
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations | |
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure about Market Risk | |
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data | |
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure | |
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures | |
Item 9B. Other Information | |
PART III | |
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance | |
Item 11. Executive Compensation | |
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters | |
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence | |
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services | |
PART IV | |
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules | |
______________________________________________________
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PART I
FORWARD‑LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and our objectives for future operations. The words “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward looking statements largely on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other financial information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
As used herein, “Groupon,” “we,” “our,” and similar terms include Groupon, Inc. and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
ITEM 1: BUSINESS
Overview
Groupon is a global leader in local commerce, making it easy for people around the world to search and discover great businesses and merchandise. Our mission is to become the operating system for local commerce. Groupon seeks to reinvent the traditional small business world by providing merchants with a suite of products and services, including customizable deal campaigns, credit card payments processing capabilities and point-of-sale solutions to help them attract more customers and run their operations more effectively. By leveraging the company's global relationships and scale, Groupon offers consumers deals on the best things to eat, see, do, and buy in 48 countries.
We distribute our deals to customers primarily through three channels: email; our mobile platform; and our websites. We use email to deliver deals to our subscribers based on their location and personal preferences, including through our Smart Deals technology, which we currently use throughout North America and in certain International markets. We also distribute our deals through our mobile platform, which we currently offer on iPhones, iPads, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices, as well as through our websites.
Our results from 2012 include the following:
• | We grew our revenue 45.0% to $2.3 billion in 2012 from $1.6 billion in 2011. In 2012, 49.9% and 50.1% of our revenue was generated in our North America and International segments, respectively, compared to 39.4% and 60.6% in 2011. |
• | We increased the number of active customers, or customers that have purchased a Groupon within the last twelve months, from 33.7 million as of December 31, 2011 to 41.0 million as of December 31, 2012. |
• | As of December 31, 2012 we have featured more than 500,000 merchants since our inception. |
In our Groupon Goods category, through which we offer deals on merchandise, we often act as the merchant of record, particularly in deals that we run in North America.
We are a Delaware corporation, incorporated on January 15, 2008 under the name "ThePoint.com, Inc." We started Groupon in October 2008 and officially changed our name to Groupon, Inc. by filing an amended certificate of incorporation
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on June 16, 2009. Our principal executive offices are located at 600 West Chicago Avenue, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654, and our telephone number at this address is (312) 676-5773. Our website is www.groupon.com. Information contained on our website is not a part of this annual report. We completed our initial public offering in November 2011 and our Class A common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "GRPN."
GROUPON, the GROUPON logo and other GROUPON—formative marks are trademarks of Groupon, Inc. in the United States or other countries. This annual report also includes other trademarks of Groupon and trademarks of other persons.
Our Strategy
Our primary objective is to become an essential part of everyday local commerce for consumers and merchants. Key elements of our strategy include the following:
Grow the number of merchant partners we feature. Historically, our business model of offering one deal a day in each market had caused us to try to limit repeat merchants. However, as we expand our business into a complete local marketplace, a key part of this strategy is to develop deeper relationships with our merchant partners so that they will have a continuous presence on our websites and mobile applications. To drive merchant partner growth, we have expanded the number of ways in which consumers can discover deals through our marketplace, as well as offering our merchant partners the ability to offer a limited number of vouchers on a rolling basis, with varying expiration dates. Our merchant partner retention efforts are focused on providing merchant partners with a positive experience by offering targeted placement of their deals to our subscriber base, high quality customer service and tools to manage deals more effectively. We also provide merchant partners with an array of tools that they can use to run their businesses more efficiently and compete more effectively. We intend to continue to invest heavily in these efforts.
Globalize our platforms and processes. Because our international expansion was accomplished largely through acquisitions, we inherited a host of different technology platforms and business processes. During 2012, we launched a company-wide program aimed at globalizing our technology platforms and processes, and we also began rolling out a number of internal tools aimed at increasing our efficiency. For example, we recently launched a system that matches subscriber demand with our comprehensive database of merchants to maximize inventory of relevant deals and the incremental value of each call made by our merchant sales representatives. We are also continuing to automate our support functions in order to improve the efficiency of our business.
Grow our active customer base. Growing our active customer base requires that we add new customers at a rate which will offset the loss or inactivation of existing customers. Early in our existence, we focused our marketing efforts on acquiring subscribers who would sign up to receive emails alerting them to our deal. As we have matured into a more complete marketplace and expanded our delivery channels, we have also begun to focus more of our efforts toward converting subscribers into customers who purchase our deals, and retaining existing customers. We do so by providing more targeted and real-time deals, delivering high quality customer service and expanding the number and categories of deals we offer, as well as offering discounts on purchases to new and existing customers. We intend to continue investing in the development of increased relevance of our service as the number and variety of the deals we offer our subscribers increase and we gain more information about our subscribers' interests. As of December 31, 2012, we had 41.0 million active customers.
Position ourselves to benefit from, and drive, technological changes that may affect consumer behavior. During 2012, we invested significantly in expanding and improving our mobile technology in order to capitalize on the growing trend of consumers making purchases through smartphones and tablets. Our mobile channel accounted for approximately 37.5% of all purchases made in December 2012 in North America. We have launched a variety of enhancements to our marketplace in the past 12 months and we plan to make additional enhancements to increase the number of customers and merchant partners that transact business through our marketplace. For example, we have expanded our distribution of deals by including a search function in many of our markets. As an evolution of our Groupon Now! offering, our marketplace enables customers to search for products and services on their own terms, rather than being dependent on a single daily email to see which deals are available to them. As our local commerce marketplace grows, we believe consumers will use Groupon not only as a discovery tool for local merchant partners, but also as an ongoing connection point to their favorite merchants.
Expand with acquisitions and business development partnerships. Historically, the core assets we gained from acquisitions were local management teams and small subscriber and merchant partner bases, to which we then apply our expertise, resources and brand to scale the business. During 2012, our focus expanded to acquiring businesses with technology and technology talent that can help us expand our business. For example, during 2012 we acquired FeeFighters and Breadcrumb, companies that have enabled us to roll out our payments and point of sale offerings, respectively. We also acquired Savored, a yield management solution for reservation-taking restaurants. We intend to continue to expand our business
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with acquisitions and business development partnerships.
Our Business
Groupon is a local commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Traditionally, local merchants have reached consumers through a variety of methods, including online advertising, the yellow pages, direct mail, newspaper, radio, television, and promotions. By bringing the brick and mortar world of local commerce onto the Internet and mobile devices, Groupon is creating a new way for local merchant partners to attract customers and sell goods and services.
As our business has evolved, we have begun to establish a more extensive local commerce marketplace where customers can purchase discount vouchers ("Groupons") for a variety of products and services from local, national and online merchants that can be redeemed immediately upon purchase. We have also expanded beyond local commerce to provide deals on consumer goods, travel, and entertainment events. This expansion has allowed us to serve more merchant partners each day by separating our current and potential customer base, offering more relevant, targeted deals and increasing the rate at which deals are purchased.
In many of our markets, we employ an algorithmic approach to deal targeting based on data we collect about our subscribers, merchant partners and deals. In addition to targeted deals, instead of featuring one deal per city each day, we feature multiple deals per city each day matched to different groups of current and potential customers based on what we know about their personal preferences. In many of our North American markets, we now offer customers a searchable inventory of deals available across multiple categories. We intend to continue to build our international infrastructure to enable us to offer targeted deals worldwide, as targeting increases the number of deals that we can offer across our marketplace. While we will continue to offer deals with time restrictions on when the deal can be redeemed, we are phasing out the use of a separate Groupon Now! category to differentiate deals for our customers.
In our Groupon Goods category, through which we offer deals on merchandise, we often act as the merchant of record, particularly in deals that we run in North America.
Categories
Local Deals. Within Local, we offer deals for local merchant partners across multiple categories, including food and drink, events and activities, beauty and spa, fitness, health, home and auto, shopping, and education. We increasingly distribute deals using our targeting technology, which distributes deals to current and potential customers based on their location and personal preferences. Our targeting technology is also used to inform our search engine marketing and other transactional marketing spending that may attract potential customers who have not yet subscribed to our emails.
Groupon Goods. Goods offers customers the consistent ability to find deals on a rotating selection of well-known brands across multiple product lines, including electronics, sports, outdoors & fitness, toys, home, and clothing. We can sell products either directly, or as agent on behalf of the merchant. During the fourth quarter of 2012, we began offering free shipping and free returns on orders over $15, subject to size limitations and our return policy, as well as an online return center. As the Goods category continues to grow, we expect that we will continue our focus on adding new curated brands to our platform in order to increase the mix of deals, as well as continuing to streamline our order fulfillment process.
Groupon Getaways. Through Getaways, we feature personally curated offers from travel partners, including hotels, airfare and package deals covering both domestic and international travel.
GrouponLive. Live is a partnership with LiveNation whereby Groupon serves as a local resource for LiveNation events and clients of its global ticketing business, Ticketmaster. In 2012, we began offering G-Pass, currently available for events in our North American markets, which allows customers who purchase deals through Live to be able to bypass the box office and use the bar code on their voucher to enter the event. In late 2012, we also entered into an agreement to become MLB.com's official daily deals site, and Groupon will host deals from a number of Major League Baseball clubs through the Live events platform.
National Deals. National merchant partners also have used our marketplace as an alternative to traditional marketing and brand advertising. Although our primary focus continues to be on local deals, we use national deals from time to time to build our brand awareness, acquire new customers and generate additional revenue. In 2012, we featured deals from over 100 national merchant partners, including Reebok, Toys R Us, Brookstone, The Body Shop, Smashburger, and FTD across our North American markets.
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Distribution
Our primary distribution channels are email, mobile applications and our websites. We also utilize various online affiliates to display and promote Groupon deals on their websites. We also have agreements with several large online brands to distribute our deals. Other partnerships allow us to distribute daily deals to the partner's user base.
In addition, we have partnered with thousands of smaller online affiliates. Affiliates can embed our widget onto their website and earn a commission when their website visitors purchase Groupons through the affiliate link. Our commission rate varies depending on whether the customer is new or existing and the website's overall sales volume. We also offer commissions to affiliates when they refer a customer to Groupon. We expect to continue to leverage affiliate relationships to extend the distribution of our deals.
We also use various incentive programs to build brand loyalty, generate traffic to the website and provide customers with incentives to buy Groupons. When subscribers perform qualifying acts, such as providing a referral to a new subscriber or participate in certain promotional offers, we grant the subscriber credits that can applied to future purchases.
We also publish our daily deals through various social networks, and our notifications are adapted to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms. Our website and mobile application interfaces enable our consumers to push notifications of our deals to their personal social networks. To date, social networks are not a material portion of our customer acquisition.
Email. Historically, we ran one deal per day in each market, and would send out an email to all subscribers within that market describing that deal. As our business has evolved, we have targeted our subscribers based on their personal preferences. In addition, as our operations grow and the number of deals that we have available continues to expand, we are continuing to vary the timing and content of our emails. A subscriber who clicks on a deal within our email is directed to our website or mobile application to learn more about the deal and make a purchase.
Websites. Visitors are prompted to register as a subscriber when they first visit our website and thereafter use the website as a portal for our daily deals. Groupon Now!, a category that we launched in 2010, was intended to create an on demand, real time marketplace to supplement our existing daily deal model, as well as give our merchant partners control over when to run their deals. As our operations have grown, we have incorporated this concept into creating a complete local commerce marketplace where customers can purchase Groupons for a variety of products and services from local, national and online merchants that can be redeemed immediately upon purchase. This expansion has allowed us to serve more merchant partners each day by separating our current and potential customer base, offering more relevant, targeted deals and increasing the rate at which deals are purchased within each category. In many of our North American markets, our website includes featured deals of the day and also a complete, searchable local commerce marketplace, including deals organized into the following deal types: food and drink, events and activities, beauty and spa, fitness, health, home and auto, shopping, and education. In addition, we typically display separate tabs for Getaways and Goods, as well as a gift finder and seasonal offerings.
Mobile Applications. Consumers can also access our deals through our mobile applications, which are available at no cost on the iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems, as well as through their mobile browser. These applications enable consumers to browse, purchase, manage and redeem deals on their mobile devices. In addition, in our North American markets, consumers have a "Nearby" tab, which shows the deals that are closest to the consumers' location.
Marketing
While our marketing spend has decreased, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of revenue, in 2012, marketing remains an important element of our business operations. Online marketing consists of search engine marketing, display advertisements, referral programs and affiliate marketing. Our offline marketing programs include traditional television, billboard and radio advertisements, public relations as well as sponsored events to increase our visibility and build our brand.
Historically, we invested heavily in customer acquisition, which contributed to our net losses during prior years. Once acquired, subscribers have been relatively inexpensive to maintain because our interaction is largely limited to emails and our mobile applications. For example, our marketing expense during the fourth quarter of 2012 was $60.9 million, a decrease of 61% in absolute dollars compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and down 14% from the third quarter of 2012. In addition, marketing expense as a percentage of revenue was 10% in the fourth quarter of 2012, as compared to 12% in the third quarter of 2012 and 32% in the fourth quarter of 2011. We continue to shift the focus of our marketing efforts to activating customers
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and retaining existing customers, rather than customer acquisition, including through programs such as limited time discounts on purchases and referral incentives.
Our Merchant Partners
To drive merchant partner growth over the long term, we have expanded the number and variety of product and service offerings available through our marketplace and invested in our sales force. Our sales force includes over 4,500 inside and outside merchant sales representatives, as well as our sales support professionals, who build merchant partner relationships and provide local expertise. Our North American merchant sales representatives are primarily based in our offices in Chicago and our international merchant sales representatives work from our international offices. As of December 31, 2011, we employed approximately 1,000 North American merchant sales representatives and approximately 4,100 international merchant sales representatives. We slightly increased our North American sales force to approximately 1,100 merchant sales representatives and decreased our international sales force to approximately 3,500 sales representatives as of December 31, 2012.
Dec. 31, 2012 | Sept. 30, 2012 | June 30, 2012 | Mar. 31, 2012 | Dec. 31, 2011 | Sept. 30, 2011 | June 30, 2011 | Mar. 31, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||
North America | 1,151 | 1,230 | 1,139 | 1,194 | 1,062 | 1,004 | 990 | 661 | |||||||||||||||
International | 3,526 | 3,857 | 4,448 | 4,541 | 4,134 | 3,849 | 3,860 | 2,895 | |||||||||||||||
Total | 4,677 | 5,087 | 5,587 | 5,735 | 5,196 | 4,853 | 4,850 | 3,556 | |||||||||||||||
The number of sales representatives is higher as a percentage of revenue in our International segment due to the need to have separate sales organizations for most of the different countries in which we operate. Due to local economic conditions, however, the average cost of each sales representative is lower in most countries in our International segment as compared to the costs in our North America segment.
During 2012, we have continued to expand our suite of tools that we make available to merchants. For example, merchants may use our Scheduler application, which allows customers to schedule appointments directly through our website at the time that they purchase a Groupon. Our merchant partners also have access to our Merchant Center, through which they can track redemptions and view other information about Groupons sold. In addition, during 2012, we launched Payments, a low-fee credit card processing service that merchants can use through an attachment to their smartphones, and Breadcrumb, a point of sale solution for restaurants.
We routinely solicit feedback from our merchant partners to ensure their objectives are met and they are satisfied with our services. Based on this feedback, we believe our merchant partners value the profitability of the immediate deal, potential revenue generated by repeat customers and increased brand awareness for the merchant partner and the resulting revenue stream that brand awareness may generate over time. Some merchant partners view our deals as a marketing expense and may be willing to offer deals with little or no immediate profitability in an effort to gain future customers and increased brand awareness.
Our standard contractual arrangements grant us the exclusive right to feature deals for a merchant's products and services for a limited time period and provide us with the discretion as to whether or not to offer the deal during such period.
Operations
Our business operations are divided into the following core functions to address the needs of our merchant partners and customers.
City Planners. City Planners are responsible for sales inventory management, deal packaging, deal approval and deal scheduling. City Planners manage each market's deal pipeline in order to maximize deal quality and variety within our markets. They work with the sales teams to optimize each deal structure and deal pricing to satisfy our merchant partners' expectations, maximize customer engagement and optimize company revenue. City Planners also manage the category/discount/geographic mix and cadence of deals in our markets. They use deal performance historical data to analyze and identify trends and opportunities for revenue improvement.
Editorial. Our editorial department is responsible for creating the written and visual content on all the deals we offer. Each featured merchant is researched, and then a written profile is crafted and edited through a series of creative stages in order
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for the deal description to meet our standards for accuracy, clarity, vivid visual description, and our humorous "Groupon voice". Editorial staff also develop top merchant lists and other non-deal content to help engage users and capture more search engine traffic.
Merchant Services. Once a contract is signed, one of our merchant services representatives initiates the first of several communications with the merchant partner to introduce the merchant partner to the tools that we provide and plan for Groupon redemptions through expiration. Typically, a merchant services representative communicates with merchant partners before, during, and after a daily deal is featured. Before the deal is run, the representative works with the merchant partner to prepare staffing and inventory capacity in anticipation of increased customer traffic. The representative communicates with the merchant partner on the day the deal is featured to review deal performance. After the deal has closed, the representative maintains contact with the merchant partner to support the merchant partner's redemption efforts and to address any issues or questions that may arise. We also offer several merchant tools to help merchant partners manage their deals. These tools include status updates on deal performance, analytics that measure purchase traffic and demographic information of purchasers, a capacity calculator to estimate demand for the deal ahead of its feature date, and a return on investment calculator that estimates the return on investment that the merchant partner may receive from the deal. Each of these tools is accessible through an online account that is personal to the merchant partner and accessed through our website.
Customer Service. Our customer service department is responsible for answering questions from customers. They process requests via phone, email, and on our public discussion boards. The customer service team also works with our information technology team to improve the customer experience on the website and mobile applications based on customer feedback.
Technology. We employ technology to improve the experience we offer to subscribers and merchant partners, increase the rate at which our customers purchase deals, and enhance the efficiency of our business operations. A component of our strategy is to continue developing and refining our technology.
We currently use a common information technology platform across our North American operations that includes business operations tools to track internal workflow, applications and infrastructure to serve content at scale, dashboards and reporting tools to display operating and financial metrics for historical and ongoing deals, and a publishing and purchasing system for consumers. Over time, we plan to merge our North American information technology platform with our International information technology platforms and we expect this to enable greater efficiencies and consistency across our global organization.
Our websites are hosted at a U.S. data center in Santa Clara, California and international data centers in Asia and Europe. Our data centers host our public‑facing websites and applications, as well as our back-end business intelligence systems. We employ industry standard security practices to protect and maintain the systems located at our data centers. We have invested in intrusion and anomaly detection tools to try and recognize intrusions to our website. We engage independent third‑party Internet security firms to test regularly the security of our website and identify vulnerabilities. In financial transactions between our website and our customers, we use industry standard (SSL) Secure Socket Layer to provide encryption in transferring data. We have designed our websites to be available, secure and cost-effective using a variety of proprietary software and freely available and commercially supported tools. We believe we can scale to accommodate increasing numbers of subscribers by adding relatively inexpensive industry‑standard hardware or using a third‑party provider of computing resources.
We devote a substantial portion of our resources to developing new technologies and features and improving our core technologies. Our technology team is focused on the design and development of new features and products, maintenance of our websites and development and maintenance of our internal operations systems.
Competition
Since our inception, a substantial number of competing group buying sites have emerged around the world attempting to replicate our business model, from very small startups to some of the largest companies in the world. Some of our competitors offer deals as an add-on to their core business, and others have adopted a business model similar to ours. As we expand our business into additional categories such as Goods, Getaways and Live, we also compete with online and offline merchant partners offering those same products and services. We also compete with businesses that focus on particular merchant categories or markets, such as payment processing and point-of-sale products. In addition, we compete with traditional offline coupon and discount services, as well as newspapers, magazines and other traditional media companies that provide coupons and discounts on products and services. We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:
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• | breadth of active customer base and merchant partner relationships; |
• | local focus and understanding of local business trends; |
• | ability to structure deals to generate positive return on investment for merchant partners; and |
• | strength and recognition of brand. |
Although we believe we compete favorably on the factors described above, we anticipate that larger, more established companies may directly compete with us. Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to benefit from their existing customer base with lower acquisition costs or to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies, which may allow them to build a larger subscriber base or to monetize that subscriber base more effectively than we do. Our competitors may develop products or services that are similar to our products and services or that achieve greater market acceptance than our products and services. In addition, although we do not believe that merchant payment terms are a principal competitive factor in our market, they may become such a factor and we may be unable to compete effectively on such terms.
Seasonality
We believe that some of our offerings experience seasonal buying patterns mirroring that of the larger consumer and e-commerce markets, where demand declines during customary summer vacation periods and increases during the fourth quarter holiday season. We believe that this seasonality pattern has affected, and we expect will continue to affect, our business and quarterly sequential revenue growth rates.
Regulation
We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet. As a company in a new and rapidly innovating industry, we are exposed to the risk that many of these laws may evolve, or be interpreted by regulators or in the courts in ways that could materially affect our business. These laws and regulations may involve taxation, unclaimed property content, intellectual property, product liability, travel, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, consumer protection, the provision of various online payment and point of sale services, employee, merchant and customer privacy and data security.
The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the "CARD Act"), as well as the laws of most states, contain provisions governing gift cards, gift certificates, stored value or pre-paid cards or coupons (“gift cards”). Groupon vouchers may be included within the definition of “gift cards” under many laws. In addition, certain foreign jurisdictions have laws that govern disclosure and certain product terms and conditions, including restrictions on expiration dates and fees that may apply to Groupon vouchers as well as warranty requirements. There are also a number of legislative proposals pending before the U.S. Congress, various state legislative bodies and foreign governments that could affect us, and our global operations may be constrained by regulatory regimes and laws in Europe and other jurisdictions outside the United States that may be more restrictive and adversely impact our business.
Various US laws and regulations, such as the Bank Secrecy Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the CARD Act impose certain anti-money laundering requirements on companies that are financial institutions or that provide financial products and services. These laws and regulations broadly define financial institutions to include money services businesses such as money transmitters, check cashers, and sellers or issuers of stored value. Requirements imposed on financial institutions under these laws include customer identification and verification programs, record retention policies, and procedures and transaction reporting. We do not believe that we are a financial institution subject to these laws and regulations.
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Intellectual Property
We protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions. We control access to our proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with third parties.
In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, domain names and patents to protect our intellectual property. As of December 31, 2012, Groupon and its related entities owned approximately 337 trademarks and servicemarks registered or pending in approximately 68 countries, including protection of trademarks related to GROUPON, the GROUPON logo, other GROUPON‑formative marks and other marks. Groupon also uses a number of other source indicators which it believes are protectable. In addition, as of December 31, 2012, we owned a number of issued U.S. patents, had additional pending patent applications, and owned copyright registrations.
Circumstances outside our control could pose a threat to our intellectual property rights. For example, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in the United States or other countries in which we operate. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business or our ability to compete. Also, protecting our intellectual property rights is costly and time-consuming. Any unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property could make it more expensive to do business and harm our operating results.
Companies in the Internet, social media technology and other industries may own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks or other intellectual property rights and may request license agreements, threaten litigation or file suit against us based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We are currently subject to, and expect to face in the future, lawsuits and allegations that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of third parties, including our competitors and non-practicing entities. As we face increasing competition and as our business grows, we will likely face more claims of infringement, and may experience an adverse result which could impact our business and/or our operating results.
Employees
As of December 31, 2012, we had 3,212 employees in our North America segment, consisting of 1,151 sales representatives and 2,061 corporate, operational, and customer service representatives, and 8,182 employees in our International segment, consisting of 3,526 sales representatives and 4,656 corporate, operational, and customer service representatives.
Officers
The following table sets forth information about our officers as of December 31, 2012:
Name | Age | Position | ||||||||||||
Andrew D. Mason | 32 | Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director | ||||||||||||
Jason E. Child | 44 | Chief Financial Officer | ||||||||||||
Jeffrey Holden | 44 | Senior Vice President- Product Management | ||||||||||||
Kal Raman | 44 | Chief Operating Officer | ||||||||||||
David R. Schellhase | 49 | General Counsel | ||||||||||||
Brian C. Stevens | 38 | Chief Accounting Officer | ||||||||||||
Brian K. Totty | 46 | Senior Vice President-Engineering and Operations | ||||||||||||
Andrew D. Mason is a co-founder of the Company and has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a director since our inception. In 2007, Mr. Mason co‑founded ThePoint, a web platform that enables users to promote collective action to support social, educational and civic causes, from which Groupon evolved. Prior to co‑founding ThePoint, Mr. Mason worked as a computer programmer with InnerWorkings, Inc. (NASDAQ: INWK). Mr. Mason received his Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University. Mr. Mason brings to our Board the perspective and experience as one of our founders and as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Mason was elected to the Board pursuant to voting rights granted to the former holders of our common stock and preferred
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stock under our voting agreement, which terminated as a result of our initial public offering.
Jason E. Child has served as our Chief Financial Officer since December 2010. From March 1999 through December 2010, Mr. Child held several positions with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), including Vice President of Finance, International from April 2007 to December 2010, Vice President of Finance, Asia from July 2006 to July 2007, Director of Finance, Amazon Germany from April 2004 to July 2006, Director of Investor Relations from April 2003 to April 2004, Director of Finance, Worldwide Application Software from November 2001 to April 2003, Director of Finance, Marketing and Business Development from November 2000 to November 2001 and Global Controller from October 1999 to November 2000. Prior to joining Amazon.com, Mr. Child spent more than seven years as a C.P.A. and a consulting manager at Arthur Andersen. Mr. Child received his Bachelor of Arts from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.
Jeffrey Holden has served as our Senior Vice President-Product Management since April 2011. In 2006, Mr. Holden co-founded Pelago, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer until Groupon acquired Pelago in April 2011. Prior to co-founding Pelago, Mr. Holden held several positions at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), including Senior Vice President, Worldwide Discovery, from March 2005 to January 2006, Senior Vice President, Consumer Applications, from April 2004 to March 2005, Vice President, Consumer Applications, from April 2002 to April 2004, and Director, Automated Merchandising and Discovery from February 2000 to April 2002. Mr. Holden joined Amazon.com in May 1997 as Director, Supply Chain Optimization Systems. Mr. Holden received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana‑Champaign.
Kal Raman (also known as Kalyanaraman Srinivasan) joined the Company in May 2012 as its Senior Vice President, Americas, in August 2012 was promoted to Senior Vice President, Global Operations, and then subsequently had his title changed to Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Raman previously worked for Ebay, Inc., first as a consultant from December 2011 to March 2012 and then as Vice President, Global Fulfillment during April 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Raman was the Chief Executive Officer of KUE Digital, a company that was wholly owned by Knowledge Universe Education LLC, from October 2006 to February 2007, and then KUE Digital was subsequently renamed and incorporated as Global Scholar, an enterprise education software company, in February 2007 and Mr. Raman served as the Chief Executive Officer of Global Scholar from its inception until September 2011. Mr. Raman then served as a consultant to Global Scholar from September 2011 until February 2012. Mr. Raman has also served as Chief Executive Officer of Drugstore.com and as an executive at Amazon.com, Inc. earlier in his career.
David R. Schellhase has served as our General Counsel since June 2011. From March 2010 to May 2011, Mr. Schellhase served as Executive Vice President, Legal of salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM). From December 2004 to March 2010, Mr. Schellhase served as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of salesforce.com, and he served as Vice President and General Counsel of salesforce.com from July 2002 to December 2004. From December 2000 to June 2002, Mr. Schellhase was an independent legal consultant and authored a treatise entitled Corporate Law Department Handbook. Previously, he served as General Counsel at Linuxcare, Inc., The Vantive Corporation and Premenos Technology Corp. Mr. Schellhase received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from Cornell University.
Brian C. Stevens has served as our Chief Accounting Officer since September 2012. Mr. Stevens spent 16 years with KPMG LLP, most recently as an audit partner from October 2007 through August 2012. Mr. Stevens spent five years in KPMG's Department of Professional Practice (April 2003 to June 2006 and July 2008 to June 2010) and was a practice fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board from July 2006 through June 2008. Mr. Stevens received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Brian K. Totty, Ph.D., served as our Senior Vice President-Engineering and Operations since November 2010 and resigned from that position in January 2013. Dr. Totty was the Chief Executive Officer of Ludic Labs, Inc., a startup venture developing a new class of software applications from January 2006 through November 2007. We acquired Ludic Labs in November 2010. Dr. Totty also was a co-founder and Senior Vice President of Research and Development of Inktomi Corporation from February 1996 to August 2002. Dr. Totty received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana‑Champaign, his Master of Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School and his Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Available Information
The Company electronically files reports with the SEC. The public may read and copy any materials the Company has filed with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. In addition, the SEC maintains an Internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information
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regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. Copies of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are also available free of charge through the Company’s website (www.groupon.com), as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing with or otherwise furnishing such information to the SEC, and are available in print to any stockholder who requests it. The Company's Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines and committee charters are also posted on the site.
ITEM 1A: RISK FACTORS
Our business, prospects, financial condition, operating results and the trading price of our Class A common stock could be materially adversely affected by any of these risks, as well as other risks not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial. In assessing the risks described below, you should also refer to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including Part II, Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations ("MD&A") and the consolidated financial statements and the related notes in Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our revenue and operating results may continue to be volatile.
Our revenue and operating results will continue to vary from quarter to quarter due to the rapidly evolving nature of our business. We believe that our revenue growth and ability to achieve and maintain profitability will depend, among other factors, on our ability to:
• | acquire new customers and retain existing customers; |
• | attract new merchant partners and retain existing merchant partners who wish to offer deals through the sale of Groupons; |
• | effectively address and respond to challenges in international markets, particularly in Europe; |
• | expand the number, variety and relevance of products and deals we offer, particularly as we attempt to build a more complete local marketplace; |
• | increase the awareness of our brand domestically and internationally; |
• | provide a superior customer service experience for our customers and merchant partners; |
• | respond to changes in consumer and merchant access to and use of the Internet and mobile devices; and |
• | react to challenges from existing and new competitors. |
Our strategy to become a complete local commerce marketplace may not be successful and may expose us to additional risks.
One of our key objectives is to expand upon our traditional daily deals business by building out a more extensive local commerce marketplace. This strategy has required us to devote significant resources to attracting and retaining merchant partners who are willing to run deals on a continuous basis with us in order to build a significant inventory for our customers, as well as continuing management focus and attention. We have accepted, and expect to continue to accept, a lower percentage of the gross billings from some of our merchants as we expand our marketplace. If we are not successful in pursuing this objective, our business, financial position and results of operations could be harmed.
If we are unable to successfully respond to changes in the market, our business could be harmed.
Our business grew rapidly in prior periods as merchants and consumers have increasingly used our marketplace. However, this is a new market which we created in late 2008 and which has operated at a substantial scale for only a limited period of time. Given the limited history, we are constantly evolving our strategy and may not always be successful in doing so. For example, we experienced a decline in revenue from our International segment in the fourth quarter of 2012, as compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. We expect that the market will evolve in ways which may be difficult to predict. For example, we believe that in some
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of our markets, including North America, investments in new customer acquisition are less productive and the continued growth of our revenue will require more focus on increasing or maintaining the rate at which our existing customers purchase Groupons and our ability to expand the number and variety of deals that we offer. It is also possible that merchant partners or customers could broadly determine that they no longer believe in the value of our current services or marketplace. In the event of these or any other changes to the market, our continued success will depend on our ability to successfully adjust our strategy to meet the changing market dynamics. If we are unable to successfully adapt to changes in our markets, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer a material negative impact.
Our international operations are subject to increased challenges, and our inability to adapt to the varied commercial and regulatory landscapes of our international markets may adversely affect our business.
Our ability to grow our business in our international markets requires management attention and resources and requires us to localize our services to conform to a wide variety of local cultures, business practices, laws and policies. The different commercial and Internet infrastructure in other countries may make it more difficult for us to replicate our business model, as we have experienced in our European markets in particular. In many countries, we compete with local companies that understand the local market better than we do, and we may not benefit from first-to-market advantages. We are subject to risks of doing business internationally, including the following:
• | our ability to maintain merchant partner and customer satisfaction such that our marketplace will continue to attract high quality merchant partners and |
• | our ability to successfully respond to macroeconomic challenges, including by optimizing our deal mix to take into account consumer preferences at a particular point in time; |
• | strong local competitors, many of whom have been in the market longer than us; |
• | different regulatory requirements, including regulation of gift cards and coupon terms, Internet services, professional selling, distance selling, bulk emailing, privacy and data protection, banking and money transmitting, that may limit or prevent the offering of our services in some jurisdictions or limit our ability to enforce contractual obligations; |
• | difficulties in integrating with local payment providers, including banks, credit and debit card networks and electronic funds transfer systems; |
• | different employee/employer relationships and the existence of workers' councils and labor unions; |
• | shorter payment cycles, different accounting practices and greater problems in collecting accounts receivable; |
• | higher Internet service provider costs; |
• | seasonal reductions in business activity; |
• | expenses associated with localizing our products, including offering customers the ability to transact business in the local currency; and |
• | differing intellectual property laws. |
We are subject to complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations, including data privacy and protection requirements, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar local laws prohibiting certain payments to government officials, banking and payment processing regulations, and anti-competition regulations, among others. The cost of complying with these various and sometimes conflicting laws and regulations is substantial. We have implemented policies and procedures to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations, however, we cannot assure you that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. Changing laws, regulations and enforcement actions in the U.S. and the rest of the world could harm our business.
If, as we continue to expand internationally, we are unable to successfully replicate our business model due to these and other commercial and regulatory constraints in our international markets, our business may be adversely affected.
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Our financial results will be adversely affected if we are unable to execute on our marketing strategy.
We have historically focused our marketing spend on customer acquisition, and during 2012 we have begun to also focus on activating new customers and retaining existing customers. If our assumptions regarding our marketing efforts and strategies prove incorrect, our ability to generate profits from our investments in new customer acquisitions may be less than we have assumed. In such case, we may need to increase expenses or otherwise alter our strategy and our results of operations could be negatively impacted.
An increase in the costs associated with maintaining our international operations could adversely affect our results of operations.
Certain factors may cause our international costs of doing business to exceed our comparable costs in North America. For example, in some countries, expansion of our business may require a close commercial relationship with one or more local banks, a shared ownership interest with a local entity or registration as a bank under local law. Such requirements may reduce our revenue, increase our costs or limit the scope of our activities in particular countries.
Further, because our international revenue is denominated in foreign currencies, we could become subject to increased difficulties in collecting accounts receivable and repatriating money without adverse tax consequences and increased risks relating to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Further, we could be subject to the application of U.S. tax rules to acquired international operations and local taxation of our fees or of transactions on our websites.
We conduct portions of certain functions, including product development, customer support and other operations, in regions outside of North America. Any factors which reduce the anticipated benefits, including cost efficiencies and productivity improvements, associated with providing these functions outside of North America, including increased regulatory costs associated with our international operations, could adversely affect our business.
If we fail to retain our existing customers or acquire new customers, our revenue and business will be harmed.
We must continue to retain and acquire customers that purchase Groupons in order to increase revenue and achieve consistent profitability. As our customer base continues to evolve, it is possible that the composition of our customers may change in a manner that makes it more difficult to generate revenue to offset the loss of existing customers and the costs associated with acquiring and retaining customers. If customers do not perceive our Groupon offers to be attractive or if we fail to introduce new and more relevant deals, we may not be able to retain or acquire customers at levels necessary to grow our business and profitability. If we are unable to acquire new customers who purchase Groupons in numbers sufficient to grow our business and offset the number of existing active customers that cease to purchase Groupons, the revenue we generate may decrease and our operating results will be adversely affected.
Our future success depends upon our ability to retain and add high quality merchant partners.
We depend on our ability to attract and retain merchant partners that are prepared to offer products or services on compelling terms through our marketplace and provide our customers with a great experience. We do not have long-term arrangements to guarantee the availability of deals that offer attractive quality, value and variety to customers or favorable payment terms to us. In addition, if we are unsuccessful in our efforts to introduce services to merchants as part of our local commerce operating system, we will not experience a corresponding growth in our merchant pool sufficient to offset the cost of these initiatives. We must continue to attract and retain merchant partners in order to increase revenue and profitability. If new merchants do not find our marketing and promotional services effective, or if existing merchant partners do not believe that utilizing our services provides them with a long-term increase in customers, revenue or profits, they may stop making offers through our marketplace. In addition, we may experience attrition in our merchant partners in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, including losses to competitors and merchant partner closures or bankruptcies. If we are unable to attract new merchant partners in numbers sufficient to grow our business, or if too many merchant partners are unwilling to offer products or services with compelling terms through our marketplace or offer favorable payment terms to us, we may sell fewer Groupons and our operating results will be adversely affected.
If our efforts to market, advertise and promote products and services from our existing merchant partners are not successful, or if our existing merchant partners do not believe that utilizing our services provides them with a long-term increase in customers, revenue or profits, we may not be able to retain or attract merchant partners in sufficient numbers to grow our business or we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing expenses or reduce margins in order to attract new merchant partners. A significant increase in merchant partner attrition or decrease in merchant partner growth would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.
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We may incur losses in the future as we expand our business.
We had an accumulated deficit of $753.5 million as of December 31, 2012. We anticipate that our profitability will be impacted as we continue to invest in our growth, through increased spending in some areas and through accepting a lower percentage of the proceeds from our deals, as we attempt to add more merchant partners to our marketplace. These efforts may prove more difficult than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in realizing the benefits of these efforts in a short time frame, or at all. Many of our efforts to generate revenue from our business are new and unproven, and any failure to increase our revenue could prevent us from attaining or increasing our profitability. We cannot be certain that we will be able to attain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. If we are unable to effectively manage these risks and difficulties as we encounter them, our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer.
We operate in a highly competitive industry with relatively low barriers to entry, and must compete successfully in order to grow our business.
We expect competition in e-commerce generally, and group buying in particular, to continue to increase. A substantial number of group buying sites that attempt to replicate our business model have emerged around the world. In addition to such competitors, we expect to increasingly compete against other large businesses who offer deals similar to ours as an add-on to their core business. We also expect to compete against other Internet sites that serve niche markets and interests. In some of our categories, such as goods, travel and entertainment, we compete against much larger companies who have more resources and significantly larger scale. In addition, we compete with traditional offline coupon and discount services, as well as newspapers, magazines and other traditional media companies who provide coupons and discounts on products and services.
We believe that our ability to compete successfully depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, including the following:
• | the size and composition of our customer base and the number of merchant partners we feature; |
• | the timing and market acceptance of deals we offer, including the developments and enhancements to those deals offered by us or our competitors; |
• | customer and merchant service and support efforts; |
• | selling and marketing efforts; |
• | ease of use, performance, price and reliability of services offered either by us or our competitors; |
• | our ability to generate large volumes of sales, particularly with respect to goods and travel deals; |
• | our ability to cost-effectively manage our operations; and |
• | our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors. |
Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to benefit from their existing customer base with lower customer acquisition costs or to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in consumer habits. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies, which may allow them to build larger customer bases or generate revenue from their customer bases more effectively than we do. Our competitors may offer deals that are similar to the deals we offer or that achieve greater market acceptance than the deals we offer. This could attract customers away from our websites and applications, reduce our market share and adversely impact our gross margin. We also have seen that some competitors will accept lower margins, or negative margins, to attract attention and acquire new customers. If competitors engage in group buying initiatives in which merchants receive a higher percentage of the revenue than we currently offer, we may be forced to pay a higher percentage of the gross proceeds from each Groupon sold than we currently offer, which may reduce our revenue. In addition, we are dependent on some of our existing or potential competitors for banner advertisements and other marketing initiatives to acquire new customers. Our ability to utilize their platforms to acquire new customers may be adversely affected if they choose to compete more directly with us or prevent us from using their services.
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If we are unable to maintain favorable terms with our merchant partners, our revenue may be adversely affected.
The success of our business depends in part on our ability to retain and increase the number of merchant partners who use our service, particularly as we continue to grow our marketplace. Currently, when a merchant partner works with us to offer a deal for its products or services, it receives an agreed-upon percentage of the total proceeds from each Groupon sold, and we retain the rest. If merchant partners decide that utilizing our services no longer provides an effective means of attracting new customers or selling their goods and services, they may demand a higher percentage of the total proceeds from each Groupon sold. In addition, as part of our strategy to grow our merchant partner base, we have been accepting a lower percentage of the total proceeds from each Groupon sold in some instances. This could adversely affect our revenue and gross profit.
In addition, we expect to face increased competition from other Internet and technology-based businesses. We also have seen that some competitors will accept lower margins, or negative margins, to attract attention and acquire new customers. If competitors engage in group buying initiatives in which merchants receive a higher percentage of the revenue than we currently offer, or if we target merchants who will only agree to run deals if they receive a higher percentage of the proceeds, we may be forced to take a lower percentage of the gross billings.
Our operating cash flow and results of operations could be adversely impacted if we change our merchant payment terms or our revenue does not continue to grow.
Our merchant payment terms and revenue growth have provided us with operating cash flow to fund our working capital needs. Our merchant partner arrangements are generally structured such that we collect cash up front when our customers purchase Groupons and make payments to our merchant partners at a subsequent date, either on a fixed schedule or upon redemption by customers. We currently pay our merchant partners upon redemption in many deals in our International markets, but we may continue to move toward offering payments on a fixed schedule in those markets. Our accrued merchant and supplier payable balance increased from $520.7 million as of December 31, 2011 to $671.3 million as of December 31, 2012. We use the operating cash flow provided by our merchant payment terms and revenue growth to fund our working capital needs. If we offer our merchant partners more favorable or accelerated payment terms or our revenue does not continue to grow in the future, our operating cash flow and results of operations could be adversely impacted and we may have to seek alternative financing to fund our working capital needs.
We purchase and sell some products from indirect suppliers, which increases our risk of litigation and other losses.
We source merchandise both directly from brand owners and indirectly from retailers and third party distributors, and we often take title to the goods before we offer them for sale to our customers. By selling merchandise sourced from parties other than the brand owners, we are subject to an increased risk that the merchandise may be damaged or non-authentic, which could result in potential liability under applicable laws, regulations, agreements and orders, and increase the amount of returned merchandise. In addition, brand owners may take legal action against us, which even if we prevail could result in costly litigation, generate bad publicity for us, and have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to inventory management and order fulfillment risk as a result of our Goods category.
We purchase much of the merchandise that we offer for sale to our customers. The demand for products can change for a variety of reasons, including customer preference, quality, seasonality, and the perceived value from customers of purchasing the product through us. In addition, this is a new business for us, and therefore we have a limited historical basis upon which to predict customer demand for the products. If we are unable to adequately predict customer demand and efficiently manage our inventory, we could either have an excess or a shortage of inventory, either of which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Purchasing the goods ourselves prior to the sale also means that we will be required to fulfill orders on an efficient and cost-effective basis. Many other online retailers have significantly larger inventory balances and therefore are able to rely on past experience and economies of scale to optimize their order fulfillment. Delays or inefficiencies in our processes could subject us to additional costs, as well as customer dissatisfaction, which would adversely affect our business.
The integration of our international operations with our North American technology platform may result in business interruptions.
We currently use a common technology platform in our North America segment to operate our business and are in the process of migrating our operations in our International segment to the same platform. Such changes to our technology platform and related software carry risks such as cost overruns, project delays and business interruptions and delays. If we experience a material business interruption as a result of this process, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of
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operations and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.
We are involved in pending litigation and an adverse resolution of such litigation may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
We are involved in litigation regarding, among other matters, patent, securities and employment issues. Litigation can be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to normal business operations. The results of complex legal proceedings are often uncertain and difficult to predict. An unfavorable outcome with respect to any of these lawsuits could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. For additional information regarding these and other lawsuits in which we are involved, see Note 7 "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements.
An increase in our refund rates could reduce our liquidity and profitability.
Customers have the ability to receive a refund of their purchase price upon the occurrence of specified events. As we increase our revenue and expand our product offerings, our refund rates may exceed our historical levels. For example, as a result of a shift in our deal mix and higher price point offers that began in the fourth quarter of 2011, our refund rates became higher than historical levels. A downturn in general economic conditions may also increase our refund rates. An increase in our refund rates could significantly reduce our liquidity and profitability.
Because we do not have control over our merchant partners and the quality of products or services they deliver, we rely on a combination of our historical experience with each merchant partner and online and offline research of customer reviews of merchant partners for the development of our estimate for refund claims. Our actual level of refund claims could prove to be greater than the level of refund claims we estimate. If our refund reserves are not adequate to cover future refund claims, this inadequacy could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and profitability.
Our standard agreements with our merchant partners generally limit the time period during which we may seek reimbursement for customer refunds or claims. Our customers may make claims for refunds with respect to which we are unable to seek reimbursement from our merchant partners. Our inability to seek reimbursement from our merchant partners for refund claims could have an adverse effect on our liquidity and profitability.
The loss of one or more key members of our management team, or our failure to attract, integrate and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, could harm our business.
We currently depend on the continued services and performance of the key members of our management team, including Andrew Mason, our Chief Executive Officer, Jason Child, our Chief Financial Officer and Kal Raman, our Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Mason is one of our founders and his leadership has played an integral role in our growth. The loss of key personnel, including key members of management as well as our marketing, sales, product development and technology personnel, could disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our ability to grow our business. Moreover, many members of our management are new to our team or have been recently promoted to new roles.
Eric Lefkofsky is one of our founders and has served as the Executive Chairman of our Board of Directors since our inception. Although Mr. Lefkofsky historically has devoted a significant amount of his time to Groupon, he is under no contractual or other obligation to do so. The amount of time devoted by Mr. Lefkofsky to the Company has diminished substantially. Mr. Lefkofsky dedicates a considerable portion of his time to a variety of other businesses, including Lightbank LLC, a private investment firm that Mr. Lefkofsky co-founded with Bradley A. Keywell, one of our directors. Such investments may be in areas that present conflicts with, or involve businesses related to, our operations. There can be no assurance that our business will not be adversely affected as Mr. Lefkofsky devotes less time to our business in the future.
As we become a more mature company, we may find our recruiting and retention efforts more challenging. If we do not succeed in attracting, hiring and integrating excellent personnel, or retaining and motivating existing personnel, we may be not be able to manage our business effectively.
In our Payments business, we may be subject to chargeback liability if our merchants refuse or cannot reimburse chargebacks resolved in favor of their customers.
We have recently announced the launch of Payments, under which we provide payment processing for merchants. If we process a payment that is successfully disputed by the customer at a later date, the transaction is normally “charged back” to the merchant and the purchase price is credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. If we or our clearing bank is unable to collect such amounts from the merchant's account, or if the merchant refuses or is unable, due to closure, bankruptcy or other
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reasons, to reimburse us for the chargeback, we bear the loss for the amount of the refund paid to the cardholder. Any chargebacks not paid by our merchants may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if our clearing bank terminates our relationship and we are unable to secure a relationship with another clearing bank, we would be unable to process payments.
We may be subject to additional unexpected regulation which could increase our costs or otherwise harm our business.
The application of certain laws and regulations to Groupons, as a new product category, is uncertain. These include laws and regulations such as the CARD Act, and, in certain instances, potentially unclaimed and abandoned property laws. In addition, from time to time, we may be notified of additional laws and regulations which governmental organizations or others may claim should be applicable to our business. If we are required to alter our business practices as a result of any laws and regulations, our revenue could decrease, our costs could increase and our business could otherwise be harmed. In addition, the costs and expenses associated with defending any actions related to such additional laws and regulations and any payments of related penalties, judgments or settlements could adversely impact our profitability. As we expand into new lines of business and new geographies, we will become subject to additional laws and regulations.
We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
Our income tax obligations are based on our corporate operating structure, including the manner in which we develop, value, and use our intellectual property and the scope of our international operations. The tax laws applicable to our international business activities, including the laws of the United States and other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations. In addition, our future income taxes could be adversely affected by greater earnings in jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles. We are subject to regular review and audit by both U.S. federal and state and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have a negative effect on our financial position and results of operations. In addition, the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
The enactment of legislation implementing changes in the U.S. taxation of international business activities or the adoption of other tax reform policies could materially affect our financial position and results of operations.
The current administration has made public statements indicating that it has made international tax reform a priority, and key members of the U.S. Congress have conducted hearings and proposed a wide variety of potential changes. Certain changes to U.S. tax laws, including limitations on the ability to defer U.S. taxation on earnings outside of the United States until those earnings are repatriated to the United States, could affect the tax treatment of our foreign earnings, as well as cash and cash equivalent balances we currently maintain outside of the United States. Due to the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, any changes in the U.S. taxation of such activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and results of operations.
The implementation of the CARD Act and similar state and foreign laws may harm our business and results of operations.
It is not clear at this time, but Groupons may be considered gift cards, gift certificates, stored value cards or prepaid cards and therefore governed by, among other laws, the CARD Act, and state laws governing gift cards, stored value cards and coupons. Other foreign jurisdictions have similar laws in place, in particular European jurisdictions where the European E-Money Directive regulates the business of electronic money institutions. Many of these laws contain provisions governing the use of gift cards, gift certificates, stored value cards or prepaid cards, including specific disclosure requirements and prohibitions or limitations on the use of expiration dates and the imposition of certain fees. For example, if Groupons are subject to the CARD Act and are not included in the exemption for promotional programs, it is possible that the purchase value, which is the amount equal to the price paid for the Groupon, or the promotional value, which is the add-on value of the Groupon in excess of the price paid, or both, may not expire before the later of (i) five years after the date on which the Groupon was issued or the date on which the customer last loaded funds on the Groupon if the Groupon has a reloadable feature; (ii) the Groupon's stated expiration date (if any); or (iii) a later date provided by applicable state law. We and several merchant partners with whom we have partnered are currently defendants in 16 purported class actions that have been filed in federal and state court claiming that Groupons are subject to the CARD Act and various state laws governing gift cards and that the defendants have violated these laws by issuing Groupons with expiration dates and other restrictions. We are also the defendant to a purported class action in the Canadian province of Ontario in which
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similar violations of provincial legislation governing gift cards are alleged. In the event that it is determined that Groupons are subject to the CARD Act or any similar state or foreign law or regulation, and are not within various exemptions that may be available to Groupon under the CARD Act or under some of the various state or foreign jurisdictions, our liabilities with respect to unredeemed Groupons may be materially higher than the amounts shown in our financial statements and we may be subject to additional fines and penalties. In addition, if federal or state laws require that the face value of Groupons have a minimum expiration period beyond the period desired by a merchant partner for its promotional program, or no expiration period, this may affect the willingness of merchant partners to issue Groupons in jurisdictions where these laws apply.
If we are required to materially increase the estimated liability recorded in our financial statements with respect to unredeemed Groupons, our results from operations could be materially and adversely affected.
In certain states and foreign jurisdictions, Groupons may be considered a gift card. Some of these states and foreign jurisdictions include gift cards under their unclaimed and abandoned property laws which require companies to remit to the government the value of the unredeemed balance on the gift cards after a specified period of time (generally between one and five years) and impose certain reporting and record-keeping obligations. We do not remit any amounts relating to unredeemed Groupons based on our assessment of applicable laws. The analysis of the potential application of the unclaimed and abandoned property laws to Groupons is complex, involving an analysis of constitutional and statutory provisions and factual issues, including our relationship with customers and merchant partners and our role as it relates to the issuance and delivery of a Groupon. In the event that one or more states or foreign jurisdictions successfully challenges our position on the application of its unclaimed and abandoned property laws to Groupons, or if the estimates that we use in projecting the likelihood of Groupons being redeemed prove to be inaccurate, our liabilities with respect to unredeemed Groupons may be materially higher than the amounts shown in our financial statements. If we are required to materially increase the estimated liability recorded in our financial statements with respect to unredeemed gift cards, our net income could be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, a successful challenge to our position could subject us to penalties or interest on unreported and unremitted sums, and any such penalties or interest would have a further material adverse impact on our net income.
Government regulation of the Internet and e-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations.
We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet and e-commerce. Existing and future regulations and laws could impede the growth of the Internet or other online services. These regulations and laws may involve taxation, tariffs, subscriber privacy, anti-spam, data protection, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, the provision of online payment services and the characteristics and quality of services. It is not clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the Internet as the vast majority of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the Internet or e-commerce. In addition, it is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our websites and applications or may even attempt to completely block our emails or access to our websites. Adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business. In particular, in the event that we are restricted, in whole or in part, from operating in one or more countries, our ability to retain or increase our customer base may be adversely affected and we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated.
New tax treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our services and our financial results.
Due to the global nature of the Internet, it is possible that various states or foreign countries might attempt to regulate our transmissions or levy sales, income or other taxes relating to our activities. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce. New or revised international, federal, state or local tax regulations may subject us or our customers to additional sales, income and other taxes. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income or other taxes on commerce over the Internet. New or revised taxes and, in particular, sales taxes, VAT and similar taxes would likely increase the cost of doing business online and decrease the attractiveness of advertising and selling goods and services over the Internet. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data, and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Failure to comply with federal, state and international privacy laws and regulations, or the expansion of current or the enactment of new privacy laws or regulations, could adversely affect our business.
A variety of federal, state and international laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of
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consumer data. The existing privacy-related laws and regulations are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. In addition, various federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies may expand current or enact new laws regarding privacy matters. For example, recently there have been Congressional hearings and increased attention to the capture and use of location-based information relating to users of smartphones and other mobile devices. We have posted privacy policies and practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of subscriber data on our websites and applications. Several Internet companies have incurred substantial penalties for failing to abide by the representations made in their privacy policies and practices. In addition, several states have adopted legislation that requires businesses to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect sensitive personal information and to provide notice to consumers in the event of a security breach. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any data-related consent orders, Federal Trade Commission requirements or orders or other federal, state or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations or industry self-regulatory principles could result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other liabilities, which could adversely affect our business. In addition, a failure or perceived failure to comply with industry standards or with our own privacy policies and practices could result in a loss of subscribers or merchant partners and adversely affect our business. Federal, state and international governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications inherent in the use of third party web "cookies" for behavioral advertising. The regulation of these cookies and other current online advertising practices could adversely affect our business.
We may suffer liability as a result of information retrieved from or transmitted over the Internet and claims related to our service offerings.
We may be, and in certain cases have been, sued for defamation, civil rights infringement, negligence, patent, copyright or trademark infringement, invasion of privacy, personal injury, product liability, breach of contract, unfair competition, discrimination, antitrust or other legal claims relating to information that is published or made available on our websites or service offerings we make available (including provision of an application programming interface platform for third parties to access our website, mobile device services and geolocation applications). This risk is enhanced in certain jurisdictions outside the United States, where our liability for such third party actions may be less clear and we may be less protected. In addition, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending such claims, even if we ultimately are not found liable. If any of these events occurs, our net income could be materially and adversely affected.
We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our websites and applications, including consumer data, content that is produced by our editorial staff and errors or omissions related to our product offerings. Such information, whether accurate or inaccurate, may result in our being sued by our merchant partners, subscribers or third parties and as a result our revenue and goodwill could be materially and adversely affected.
Our business depends on our ability to maintain and scale the network infrastructure necessary to send our emails and operate our websites and mobile applications, and any significant disruption in service on our email infrastructure, websites or applications could result in a loss of subscribers, customers or merchant partners.
Subscribers access our deals through our websites and mobile applications. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve our subscribers and customers are dependent upon the reliable performance of our websites and mobile applications and the underlying network infrastructure. As our subscriber base and the amount of information shared on our websites and applications 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 data centers and equipment and related network infrastructure to handle the traffic on our websites and applications. The operation of these systems is expensive and complex and could result in operational failures. In the event that our subscriber base or the amount of traffic on our websites and applications grows more quickly than anticipated, we may be required to incur significant additional costs. Interruptions in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses or physical or electronic break-ins, could affect the security or availability of our websites and applications, and prevent our subscribers from accessing our services. A substantial portion of our network infrastructure is hosted by third party providers. Any disruption in these services or any failure of these providers to handle existing or increased traffic could significantly harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may adversely affect our business, and we exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. If we do not maintain or expand our network infrastructure successfully or if we experience operational failures, we could lose current and potential subscribers and merchant partners, which could harm our operating results and financial condition.
We may be subject to breaches of our information technology systems, which could harm our relationships with our customers and merchant partners, subject us to negative publicity and litigation, and cause substantial harm to our business.
Our business model requires us to obtain confidential information about our customers and merchant partners, including names, email addresses and credit card and other payment account information. Because of our high profile and the amount of
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customer information that we store, we may be at an increased risk of attacks on our system, notwithstanding the fact that we have invested heavily in systems to protect such information.
We, like other e-commerce businesses, use encryption and authentication technology to help provide the security and authentication to effectively secure transmission of confidential information, including credit card numbers. While these techniques are effective in maintaining confidentiality, we cannot guarantee that this will prevent all potential breaches of our system, including by means of technologies developed to bypass these securities measures. In addition, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, merchant partners or customers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information or our merchant partners’ or customers’ information.
Because the techniques used to gain access to, or sabotage, systems often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate the correct methods necessary to defend against these types of attacks. Any breach, or the perceived threat of a breach, could cause our customers and merchant partners to cease doing business with us, subject us to lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may not be able to adequately protect our intellectual property rights or may be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties.
We regard our subscriber list, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, trade dress, trade secrets, proprietary technology, merchant lists, subscriber lists, sales methodology and similar intellectual property as critical to our success, and we rely on trademark, copyright and patent law, trade secret protection and confidentiality and/or license agreements with our employees and others to protect our proprietary rights. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which our deals are made available. We also may not be able to acquire or maintain appropriate domain names or trademarks in all countries in which we do business. Furthermore, regulations governing domain names may not protect our trademarks and similar proprietary rights. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that are similar to, infringe upon or diminish the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights. We may be unable to prevent third parties from using and registering our trademarks, or trademarks that are similar to, or diminish the value of, our trademark in some countries.
We may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. Third parties that license our intellectual property rights also may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or reputation. The protection of our intellectual property may require the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources. Moreover, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may not adequately protect our rights or prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our proprietary rights. We are currently subject to multiple lawsuits and disputes related to our intellectual property and service offerings. We may in the future be subject to additional litigation and disputes. The costs of engaging in such litigation and disputes are considerable, and there can be no assurances that favorable outcomes will be obtained.
We are currently subject to third party claims that we infringe their proprietary rights or trademarks and expect to be subject to additional claims in the future. Such claims, whether or not meritorious, may result in the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources, injunctions against us or the payment of damages by us. We may need to obtain licenses from third parties who allege that we have infringed their rights, but such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims.
Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand, or if we receive unfavorable media coverage, our ability to expand our base of customers and merchant partners will be impaired and our business and operating results will be harmed.
We believe that the brand identity that we have developed has significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing the "Groupon" brand is critical to expanding our base of customers and merchant partners. Maintaining and enhancing our brand may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain the "Groupon" brand, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, operating results and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brand may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on our ability to be a group buying leader and to continue to provide reliable, trustworthy and high quality deals, which we may not do successfully.
We receive a high degree of media coverage around the world. Unfavorable publicity or consumer perception of our websites, applications, practices or service offerings, or the offerings of our merchant partners, could adversely affect our reputation, resulting in difficulties in recruiting, decreased revenue and a negative impact on the number of merchant partners we feature and the size of our customer base, the loyalty of our customers and the number and variety of deals we offer each day. As a result, our business,
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financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments could result in operating difficulties, dilution and other harmful consequences.
We have in the past acquired a number of companies. We expect to continue to evaluate, consider and potentially consummate a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, joint ventures, technologies, services, products and other assets and minority investments. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of any or all of our acquisitions and investments, or we may not realize them in the time frame expected. In addition, the integration of an acquisition could divert management's time and the company's resources. If we pay for an acquisition or a minority investment in cash, it would reduce our cash available for operations or cause us to incur debt, and if we pay with our stock it could be dilutive to our stockholders. Additionally, we do not have the ability to exert control over our joint ventures and minority investments, and therefore we are dependent on others in order to realize their potential benefits.
Our business may be subject to seasonal sales fluctuations which could result in volatility or have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
Our business, like that of our merchant partners, may be subject to some degree of sales seasonality. As the growth of our business stabilizes, these seasonal fluctuations may become more evident. Seasonality may cause our working capital cash flow requirements to vary from quarter to quarter depending on the variability in the volume and timing of sales. These factors, among other things, make forecasting more difficult and may adversely affect our ability to manage working capital and to predict financial results accurately, which could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Failure to deal effectively with fraudulent transactions and customer disputes would increase our loss rate and harm our business.
Groupons are issued in the form of redeemable coupons with unique identifiers. It is possible that consumers or other third parties will seek to create counterfeit Groupons in order to fraudulently purchase discounted goods and services from our merchant partners. While we use advanced anti-fraud technologies, it is possible that technically knowledgeable criminals will attempt to circumvent our anti-fraud systems using increasingly sophisticated methods. In addition, our service could be subject to employee fraud or other internal security breaches, and we may be required to reimburse customers and/or merchant partners for any funds stolen or revenue lost as a result of such breaches. Our merchant partners could also request reimbursement, or stop using Groupon, if they are affected by buyer fraud or other types of fraud.
We may incur significant losses from fraud and counterfeit Groupons. We may incur losses from claims that the customer did not authorize the purchase, from merchant partner fraud, from erroneous transmissions, and from customers who have closed bank accounts or have insufficient funds in them to satisfy payments. In addition to the direct costs of such losses, if they are related to credit card transactions and become excessive, they could potentially result in our losing the right to accept credit cards for payment. If we were unable to accept credit cards for payment, we would suffer substantial reductions in revenue, which would cause our business to suffer. While we have taken measures to detect and reduce the risk of fraud, these measures need to be continually improved and may not be effective against new and continually evolving forms of fraud or in connection with new product offerings. If these measures do not succeed, our business will suffer.
We are subject to payments-related risks.
We accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card, debit card and gift certificates. As we offer new payment options to customers, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements and fraud. For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of credit cards and debit cards and it could disrupt our business if these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, we may be subject to fines and higher transaction fees and lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from customers or facilitate other types of online payments, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
We are also subject to or voluntarily comply with a number of other laws and regulations relating to money laundering, international money transfers, privacy and information security and electronic fund transfers. If we were found to be in violation of applicable laws or regulations, we could be subject to civil and criminal penalties or forced to cease our payments services
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business.
Federal laws and regulations, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act and similar foreign laws, could be expanded to include Groupons.
Various federal laws, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act and foreign laws and regulations, such as the European Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing, impose certain anti-money laundering requirements on companies that are financial institutions or that provide financial products and services. For these purposes, financial institutions are broadly defined to include money services businesses such as money transmitters, check cashers and sellers or issuers of stored value cards. Examples of anti-money laundering requirements imposed on financial institutions include subscriber identification and verification programs, record retention policies and procedures and transaction reporting. We do not believe that we are a financial institution subject to these laws and regulations based, in part, upon the characteristics of Groupons and our role with respect to the distribution of Groupons to subscribers. However, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department tasked with implementing the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, recently proposed amendments to the scope and requirements for parties involved in stored value or prepaid access cards, including a proposed expansion of financial institutions to include sellers or issuers of prepaid access cards. In the event that this proposal is adopted as proposed, it is possible that a Groupon could be considered a financial product and that we could be a financial institution. In the event that we become subject to the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act or any other anti-money laundering law or regulation imposing obligations on us as a money services business, our regulatory compliance costs to meet these obligations would likely increase which could reduce our net income.
State and foreign laws regulating money transmission could be expanded to include Groupons.
Many states and certain foreign jurisdictions impose license and registration obligations on those companies engaged in the business of money transmission, with varying definitions of what constitutes money transmission. We do not currently believe we are a money transmitter given our role and the product terms of Groupons. However, a successful challenge to our position or expansion of state or foreign laws could subject us to increased compliance costs and delay our ability to offer Groupons in certain jurisdictions pending receipt of any necessary licenses or registrations.
We will continue to incur significant costs as a result of being a public company.
We face increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including the requirements of Section 404, as well as new rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the exchange on which our Class A common stock is listed, impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with these public company requirements has increased our costs and made some activities more time-consuming. In connection with the preparation of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2011, our independent registered accounting firm identified a material weakness in the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, and as a result we incurred additional costs remediating this material weakness. In addition, the existence of this issue could adversely affect us, our reputation or investor perceptions of us. It also may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. Advocacy efforts by stockholders and third-parties may also prompt even more changes in corporate governance and reporting requirements. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed on us by these rules and regulations has increased our legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of our related legal, accounting and administrative activities significantly. These increased costs require us to divert a significant amount of money that we could otherwise use to expand our business and achieve our strategic objectives.
Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited, and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.
We may in the future be required to raise capital through public or private financing or other arrangements. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. Additional equity financing may dilute the interests of our common stockholders, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, we may not be able to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures.
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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The trading price of our Class A common stock is highly volatile
Our Class A common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on November 4, 2011 and since that date has fluctuated from a high of $31.14 per share to a low of $2.60 per share. We expect that the trading price of our stock will continue to be volatile due to variations in our operating results and also may change in response to other factors, including factors specific to technology companies, many of which are beyond our control. Among the factors that could affect our stock price are:
• | our earnings announcements, including any financial projections that we may choose to provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure for any reason to meet these projections or projections made by research analysts; |
• | the amount of shares of our Class A common stock that are available for sale; |
• | the relative success of competitive products or services; |
• | the public's response to press releases or other public announcements by us or others, including our filings with the SEC and announcements relating to litigation; |
• | speculation about our business in the press or the investment community; |
• | future sales of our Class A common stock by our significant stockholders, officers and directors; |
• | changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities; |
• | our entry into new markets; |
• | regulatory developments in the United States or foreign countries; |
• | strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions, joint ventures or restructuring; and |
• | changes in accounting principles. |
We expect the stock price volatility to continue for the foreseeable as a result of these and other factors.
The concentration of our capital stock ownership with our founders, executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates will limit stockholders' ability to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has 150 votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of December 31, 2012, our founders, Eric Lefkofsky, Bradley Keywell and Andrew Mason control 100% of our outstanding Class B common stock and approximately 29.5% of our outstanding Class A common stock, representing approximately 54.5% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Messrs. Lefkofsky, Keywell and Mason will therefore have significant influence over management and affairs and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets, for the foreseeable future. This concentrated control will limit stockholders' ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our stockholders do not view as beneficial. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We intend to retain all of our earnings for the foreseeable future to finance the operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends. As a result, stockholders can expect to receive a return on their investment in our Class A common stock only if the market price of the stock increases.
Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as amended and restated upon the closing of this offering, may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. These provisions include the following:
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• | Our certificate of incorporation provides for a dual class common stock structure. As a result of this structure, our founders will have significant influence over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets. This concentrated control could discourage others from initiating any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transaction that other stockholders may view as beneficial. |
• | Our board of directors has the right to elect directors to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors. |
• | Special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by our Executive Chairman of the Board, our Chief Executive Officer, our board of directors or holders of not less than the majority of our issued and outstanding capital stock. This limits the ability of minority stockholders to take certain actions without an annual meeting of stockholders. |
• | Our stockholders may not act by written consent unless the action to be effected and the taking of such action by written consent is approved in advance by our board of directors. As a result, a holder, or holders, controlling a majority of our capital stock would generally not be able to take certain actions without holding a stockholders' meeting. |
• | Our certificate of incorporation prohibits cumulative voting in the election of directors. This limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates. |
• | Stockholders must provide timely notice to nominate individuals for election to the board of directors or to propose matters that can be acted upon an annual meeting of stockholders. These provisions may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquiror's own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company. |
• | Our board of directors may issue, without stockholder approval, shares of undesignated preferred stock. The ability to authorize undesignated preferred stock makes it possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to acquire us. |
ITEM 1B: UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2: PROPERTIES
Our principal executive offices in North America are located in Chicago, Illinois, and our principal international executive offices are located in Berlin, Germany and Schaffhausen, Switzerland. As of December 31, 2012, the properties listed below represented our principal executive facilities. Other facilities are located throughout the world and largely represent local operating facilities. We believe that our properties are generally suitable to meet our needs for the foreseeable future; however, we will continue to seek additional space as needed to satisfy our growth.
Description of Use | Square Footage | Operating Segment | Lease Expiration |
Corporate office facilities | 421,000 | North America | From 2013 through 2018 |
Corporate office facilities | 87,000 | International | From 2016 through 2022 |
ITEM 3: LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
For a description of our material pending legal proceedings, please see Note 7 “Commitments and Contingencies—Legal Matters” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
ITEM 4: MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
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PART II
ITEM 5: MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Our Class A common stock has been listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “GRPN” since November 4, 2011. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our Class A common stock. The following table sets forth the high and low sales price for our Class A common stock as reported by the NASDAQ Global Select Market for each of the years listed.
2011 | High | Low |
Fourth Quarter (from November 4, 2011) | $31.14 | $14.85 |
2012 | High | Low |
First Quarter | $25.84 | $16.25 |
Second Quarter | $16.57 | $8.80 |
Third Quarter | $10.50 | $4.00 |
Fourth Quarter | $5.50 | $2.60 |
2013 | High | Low |
First Quarter (through February 26) | $6.17 | $4.79 |
Holders
As of February 25, 2013, there were 182 holders of record of our Class A common stock and 3 holders of record of our Class B common stock. Each share of our Class A common stock is entitled to one vote per share. Each share of our Class B common stock is entitled to 150 votes per share and is convertible at any time into one share of Class A common stock.
Dividend Policy
We currently do not anticipate paying dividends on our Class A common stock or Class B common stock in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare cash dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.
Equity Compensation Plan Information
Information about the securities authorized for issuance under our compensation plans is incorporated by reference from the Company's Proxy Statement for the 2013 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
During the fourth quarter of 2012, we issued 508,442 shares of Class A common stock to settle certain liability-classified subsidiary stock-based compensation awards and 49,866 shares of Class A common stock to settle a contingent consideration liability related to an acquisition.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
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Date | Total Number of Shares Purchased | Average Price Paid Per Share | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | Maximum Number (or Approximate Dollar Value) of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | ||||||
October 1-31, 2012 | — | — | — | — | ||||||
November 1-30, 2012 | — | — | — | — | ||||||
December 1-31, 2012 | 69,277 | * | $ | 0.0001 | — | — | ||||
Total | 69,277 | $ | 0.0001 | — | — | |||||
*- In connection with the termination of an employee who received shares of stock in connection with an acquisition, the Company exercised its right to repurchase 69,277 shares of Class A Common from the employee for a purchase price of $.0001 per share.
Stock Performance Graph
This performance graph shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), or incorporated by reference into any filing of Groupon, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
The graph set forth below compares cumulative total return on the common stock with the cumulative total return of the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq 100 Index, resulting from an initial investment of $100 in each and assuming the reinvestment of any dividends, based on closing prices. Measurement points are Groupon's initial public offering date of November 4, 2011, the last trading day for the months of November and December, 2011 and each month of 2012.
Source: Yahoo! Finance
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ITEM 6: SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes thereto in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and the information contained in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Historical results are not necessarily indicative of future results.
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | |||||||||||||||
(in thousands, except share data) | |||||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
Revenue: | |||||||||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | $ | 1,879,729 | $ | 1,589,604 | $ | 312,941 | $ | 14,540 | $ | 5 | |||||||||
Direct revenue | 454,743 | 20,826 | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
Total revenue | 2,334,472 | 1,610,430 | 312,941 | 14,540 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
Cost of revenue: | |||||||||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | 297,739 | 243,789 | 42,896 | 4,716 | 88 | ||||||||||||||
Direct revenue | 421,201 | 15,090 | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
Total cost of revenue | 718,940 | 258,879 | 42,896 | 4,716 | 88 | ||||||||||||||
Gross profit (loss) | 1,615,532 | 1,351,551 | 270,045 | 9,824 | (83 | ) | |||||||||||||
Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||||||
Marketing | 336,854 | 768,472 | 290,569 | 5,053 | 163 | ||||||||||||||
Selling, general and administrative | 1,179,080 | 821,002 | 196,637 | 5,848 | 1,386 | ||||||||||||||
Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net | 897 | (4,537 | ) | 203,183 | — | — | |||||||||||||
Total operating expenses | 1,516,831 | 1,584,937 | 690,389 | 10,901 | 1,549 | ||||||||||||||
Income (loss) from operations | 98,701 | (233,386 | ) | (420,344 | ) | (1,077 | ) | (1,632 | ) | ||||||||||
Interest and other income, net | 6,166 | 5,973 | 284 | (16 | ) | 90 | |||||||||||||
Loss on equity method investees | (9,925 | ) | (26,652 | ) | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
Income (loss) before provision (benefit) for income taxes | 94,942 | (254,065 | ) | (420,060 | ) | (1,093 | ) | (1,542 | ) | ||||||||||
Provision (benefit) for income taxes | 145,973 | 43,697 | (6,674 | ) | 248 | — | |||||||||||||
Net loss | (51,031 | ) | (297,762 | ) | (413,386 | ) | (1,341 | ) | (1,542 | ) | |||||||||
Less: Net (income) loss attributable to noncontrolling interests | (3,742 | ) | 18,335 | 23,746 | — | — | |||||||||||||
Net loss attributable to Groupon, Inc. | (54,773 | ) | (279,427 | ) | (389,640 | ) | (1,341 | ) | (1,542 | ) | |||||||||
Dividends on preferred stock | — | — | (1,362 | ) | (5,575 | ) | (616 | ) | |||||||||||
Redemption of preferred stock in excess of carrying value | — | (34,327 | ) | (52,893 | ) | — | — | ||||||||||||
Adjustment of redeemable noncontrolling interests to redemption value | (12,604 | ) | (59,740 | ) | (12,425 | ) | — | — | |||||||||||
Net loss attributable to common stockholders | $ | (67,377 | ) | $ | (373,494 | ) | $ | (456,320 | ) | $ | (6,916 | ) | $ | (2,158 | ) | ||||
Net loss per share | |||||||||||||||||||
Basic | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (1.03 | ) | $ | (1.33 | ) | $ | (0.02 | ) | $ | (0.01 | ) | ||||
Diluted | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (1.03 | ) | $ | (1.33 | ) | $ | (0.02 | ) | $ | (0.01 | ) | ||||
Weighted average number of shares outstanding | |||||||||||||||||||
Basic | 650,214,119 | 362,261,324 | 342,698,772 | 337,208,284 | 333,476,258 | ||||||||||||||
Diluted | 650,214,119 | 362,261,324 | 342,698,772 | 337,208,284 | 333,476,258 | ||||||||||||||
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As of December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | |||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 1,209,289 | $ | 1,122,935 | $ | 118,833 | $ | 12,313 | $ | 2,966 | |||||||||
Working capital (deficit) | $ | 319,345 | $ | 328,165 | $ | (196,564 | ) | $ | 3,988 | $ | 2,643 | ||||||||
Total assets | $ | 2,031,474 | $ | 1,774,476 | $ | 381,570 | $ | 14,962 | $ | 3,006 | |||||||||
Total long-term liabilities | $ | 120,932 | $ | 78,194 | $ | 1,621 | $ | — | $ | — | |||||||||
Redeemable preferred stock | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 34,712 | $ | 4,747 | |||||||||
Cash dividends per common share | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 0.063 | $ | — | |||||||||
Total Groupon, Inc. Stockholders' Equity (Deficit) | $ | 744,040 | $ | 702,541 | $ | 8,077 | $ | (29,969 | ) | $ | (2,091 | ) | |||||||
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ITEM 7: MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included under Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements about our business and operations. Our actual results may differ materially from those we currently anticipate as a result of many factors, including those we describe under "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this Annual Report.
Overview
Our mission is to be the operating system for local commerce. As part of that vision, we act as a local commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Traditionally, local merchants have tried to reach consumers and generate sales through a variety of methods, including online advertising, the yellow pages, direct mail, newspaper, radio, television, and promotions. By bringing the brick and mortar world of local commerce onto the Internet, Groupon is helping local merchant partners to attract customers and sell goods and services. In our Goods category, through which we offer deals on merchandise, we often act as the merchant of record, particularly on deals in North America. We provide consumers with savings and help them discover what to do, eat, see, buy and where to travel.
Each day, we email our subscribers discounted offers on goods, services and travel that are targeted by location, purchase history and personal preferences. Current and potential customers also access our deals directly through our website and mobile applications. Our revenue from deals where we act as the third party marketing agent is the purchase price paid by the customer for a Groupon voucher ("Groupon") less an agreed upon portion of the purchase price paid to the featured merchant partners, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds for which the merchant's share is recoverable. Our direct revenue from deals where we act as the merchant of record is the purchase price paid by the customer for the Groupon excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. During the year ended December 31, 2012, we generated revenue of $2,334.5 million, compared to $1,610.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2011.
We have organized our operations into two principal segments: North America, which represents the United States and Canada, and International, which represents the rest of our global operations. For the year ended December 31, 2012, we derived 50.1% of our revenue from our International segment, compared to 49.9% from our North America segment.
We have an accumulated deficit of $753.5 million as of December 31, 2012. Since our inception, we have driven our growth through substantial investments in infrastructure and marketing to increase customer acquisition. In particular, our significant net losses in previous years were driven primarily by the rapid expansion of our International segment, which involved investing heavily in upfront marketing, sales and infrastructure related to the build out of our operations in early stage countries.
How We Measure Our Business
We measure our business with several financial and operating metrics. We use these metrics to assess the progress of our business, make decisions on where to allocate capital, time and technology investments and assess the long‑term performance of our marketplace. Certain of these metrics are reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") and certain of these metrics are considered non-GAAP financial measures. For further information and a reconciliation to the most applicable financial measure under U.S. GAAP, refer to our discussion under Non-GAAP Financial Measures in the "Results of Operations" section.
We have historically presented "revenue per average active customer" as one of our operating metrics, which we evaluated as an indicator of whether our average customer is purchasing deals with a higher or lower percentage of gross billings retained by Groupon. However, due to the increase in direct revenue as a percentage of total revenue in the current year, we no longer consider this metric to be as meaningful of an indication of those trends because direct revenues are presented on a gross basis.
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Financial Metrics
• | Gross billings. This metric represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. For third party revenue deals, gross billings differs from third party revenue reported in our consolidated statements of operations, which are presented net of the merchant's share of the transaction price. For direct revenue deals, gross billings are equivalent to direct revenue reported in our consolidated statements of operations. We consider this metric to be an important indicator of our growth and business performance as it is a proxy for the dollar volume of transactions through our marketplace. Tracking gross billings on third party revenue deals also allows us to track changes in the percentage of gross billings that we are able to retain after payments to our merchant partners. |
• | Revenue. We believe revenue is an important indicator for our business. Our third party revenue is derived from deals where we act as the marketing agent and is the purchase price paid by the customer for the Groupon less an agreed upon portion of the purchase price paid to the featured merchant partner, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds for which the merchant's share is recoverable. Direct revenue, when the Company is selling the product as the merchant of record, is the purchase price paid by the customer, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. |
• | Operating (loss) income excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net. Operating (loss) income excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net is a non-GAAP measure that comprises the consolidated total of the segment operating income (loss) of our two segments, North America and International. Stock‑based compensation expense and acquisition‑related expense (benefit), net are excluded from segment operating income (loss) that we report under U.S. GAAP for our segments. Stock-based compensation expense is primarily a non-cash item. Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net represents the change in the fair value of contingent consideration arrangements related to business combinations. We use consolidated operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit) to allocate resources and evaluate performance internally. For further information and a reconciliation to the most applicable financial measure under U.S. GAAP, refer to our discussion under Non-GAAP Financial Measures in the "Results of Operations" section. |
• | Free cash flow. Free cash flow is net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software. We use free cash flow, and ratios based on it, to conduct and evaluate our business because, although it is similar to cash flow from operations, we believe that it typically represents a more useful measure of cash flows because purchases of fixed assets, software developed for internal-use and website development costs are necessary components of our ongoing operations. Free cash flow is not intended to represent the total increase or decrease in Groupon's cash balance for the applicable period. For further information and a reconciliation to the most applicable financial measure under U.S. GAAP, refer to our discussion under Non-GAAP Financial Measures in the "Results of Operations" section. |
Operating Metrics
• | Active customers. We define active customers as unique user accounts that have purchased Groupons during the trailing twelve months ("TTM"). We consider this metric to be an important indicator of our business performance as it helps us to understand how the number of customers actively purchasing Groupons is trending. |
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• | Gross billings per average active customer. This metric represents the trailing twelve months gross billings generated per average active customer. This metric is calculated as the total gross billings generated in the trailing twelve months, divided by the average number of active customers in such time period. Although we believe total gross billings, not trailing twelve months gross billings per average active customer, is a better indication of the overall growth of our marketplace over time, trailing twelve months gross billings per average active customer provides an opportunity to evaluate whether our growth is primarily driven by growth in total customers or in spend per customer in any given period. |
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
Gross Billings and Operating Metrics: | ||||||||||||
Gross billings (in thousands) (1) | $ | 5,380,184 | $ | 3,985,501 | $ | 745,348 | ||||||
TTM Active customers (in thousands) (2) | 41,049 | 33,742 | 8,940 | |||||||||
TTM Gross billings per average active customer (3) | $ | 143.88 | $ | 186.75 | $ | 160.05 | ||||||
(1) | Reflects the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. |
(2) | Reflects the total number of unique accounts that have purchased Groupons during the trailing twelve months. |
(3) | Reflects the total gross billings generated in the trailing twelve months per average active customer in the applicable period. |
Factors Affecting Our Performance
Deal sourcing and quality. We consider our merchant partner relationships to be a vital part of our business model and have made significant investments in order to expand the variety of tools that we can provide to our merchant partners. We depend on our ability to attract and retain merchants that are prepared to offer products or services on compelling terms, particularly as we attempt to expand our product and service offerings in order to create a more complete online marketplace for local commerce. We generally do not have long-term arrangements to guarantee availability of deals that offer attractive quality, value and variety to consumers or favorable payment terms to us. If new merchants do not find our marketing and promotional services effective, or if our existing merchants do not believe that utilizing our services provides them with a long-term increase in customers, revenue or profit, they may stop making offers through our marketplace.
International operations. Our international operations are critical to our revenue growth and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability. For the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, 50.1% and 60.6%, respectively, of our revenue was generated from our International segment. Operating a global business requires management attention and resources and requires us to localize our services to conform to a wide variety of local cultures, business practices, laws and policies. The different commercial and Internet infrastructure in other countries may make it more difficult for us to replicate our current and future business model. The increase in direct revenue transactions in North America contributed to the decrease in International revenue as a percentage of our total revenue during 2012, as direct revenue is presented on a gross basis in our consolidated statements of operations.
Marketing costs. We must continue to acquire and retain customers who purchase Groupons in order to increase revenue and achieve profitability. If consumers do not perceive our Groupon offerings to be attractive, or if we fail to introduce new or more relevant deals, we may not be able to acquire or retain customers. In our limited operating history, we have not incurred significant marketing or other expense on initiatives designed to re-activate customers or increase the level of purchases by our existing customers. As we incur such expenditures, our business and profitability could be adversely affected.
Investment in growth. We have been a high-growth company and have aggressively invested, and intend to continue to invest, to support this growth. For example, we are developing a suite of merchant products, such as payment processing and point of sale, which require substantial investment and these products do not currently generate a material amount of revenue. We anticipate that we will make substantial investments in the foreseeable future as we continue to increase the number and variety of deals we offer each day, broaden our customer base, expand our marketing channels, expand our operations, hire additional employees and develop our technology.
Competitive pressure. Our growth and geographical expansion have drawn a significant amount of attention to our business model. As a result, a substantial number of companies that attempt to replicate our business model have emerged around the world. We expect new competitors to emerge. In addition to such competitors, we expect to increasingly compete against other large Internet and technology‑based businesses that have launched initiatives which are directly competitive to our core business as well as our other categories and our suite of merchant products, such as payment processing and point of sale. We also
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expect to compete against other Internet sites that are focused on specific communities or interests and offer coupons or discount arrangements related to such communities or interests.
Components of Results of Operations
Third Party and Other Revenue
Third party revenue arises from transactions in which we are acting as a third party marketing agent and consists of the net amount we retain from the sale of Groupons after paying an agreed upon percentage of the purchase price to the featured merchant, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds for which the merchant's share is recoverable. Other revenue primarily consists of advertising revenue.
Direct Revenue
Direct revenue arises from transactions, primarily in our Goods category, in which we are the merchant of record and consists of the gross amount we receive from the sale of Groupons, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised of direct and indirect costs incurred to generate revenue. For direct revenue transactions, cost of revenue includes the purchase price of consumer products, warehousing, shipping costs and inventory markdowns. For third party revenue transactions, cost of revenue includes estimated refunds that are not recoverable from the merchant. Other costs incurred to generate revenue, which include credit card processing fees, editorial costs, certain technology costs, web hosting, and other processing fees, are allocated to cost of third party revenue, direct revenue and other revenue in proportion to relative gross billings during the period.
Technology costs included in cost of revenue consist of a portion of the payroll and stock‑based compensation expense related to the Company's technology support personnel who are responsible for operating and maintaining the infrastructure of the Company's existing website. Technology costs also include a portion of amortization expense from internal-use software related to website development. Remaining technology costs included within cost of revenue include email distribution costs. Editorial costs consist of a portion of the payroll and stock‑based compensation expense related to the Company's editorial personnel, as these staff members are primarily dedicated to drafting and promoting deals.
Marketing
Marketing expense consists primarily of targeted online marketing costs, such as sponsored search, advertising on social networking sites, email marketing campaigns, affiliate programs and, to a lesser extent, offline marketing costs such as television, radio and print advertising. Marketing payroll costs, including related stock‑based compensation expense, are also classified as marketing expense. We record these costs within "Marketing" on the consolidated statements of operations when incurred. Discounts provided to subscribers, which are a component of our subscriber activation marketing activities, are classified as reductions to revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. Marketing is the primary method by which we acquire customers, and as such, is a critical part of our growth strategy.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling expenses reported within "Selling, general and administrative" on the consolidated statements of operations consist of payroll and sales commissions for inside and outside sales representatives, as well as costs associated with supporting the sales function such as technology, telecommunications and travel. General and administrative expenses consist of payroll and related expenses for employees involved in general corporate functions, including accounting, finance, tax, legal and human resources, among others. Additional costs included in general and administrative include subscriber service and operations, depreciation and amortization expense, rent, professional fees, litigation costs, travel and entertainment, stock-based compensation expense, charitable contributions, recruiting, office supplies, maintenance and other general corporate costs.
Acquisition‑Related
Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, represents the change in the fair value of contingent consideration arrangements related to business combinations, see Note 13 "Fair Value Measurements."
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Interest and Other Income
Interest and other income, net, generally consists of interest income on our cash and cash equivalents and foreign currency gains and losses resulting from foreign currency transactions, which are denominated in currencies other than our functional currencies. During the year ended December 31, 2012, interest and other income also included a $50.6 million impairment of a cost method investment and a gain of $56.0 million resulting from the E-Commerce transaction, which is described in Note 6, "Investments."
Results of Operations
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Revenue: | ||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | $ | 1,879,729 | $ | 1,589,604 | $ | 312,941 | ||||||
Direct revenue | 454,743 | 20,826 | — | |||||||||
Total revenue | 2,334,472 | 1,610,430 | 312,941 | |||||||||
Cost of revenue: | ||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | 297,739 | 243,789 | 42,896 | |||||||||
Direct revenue | 421,201 | 15,090 | — | |||||||||
Total cost of revenue | 718,940 | 258,879 | 42,896 | |||||||||
Gross profit | 1,615,532 | 1,351,551 | 270,045 | |||||||||
Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||
Marketing | 336,854 | 768,472 | 290,569 | |||||||||
Selling, general and administrative | 1,179,080 | 821,002 | 196,637 | |||||||||
Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net | 897 | (4,537 | ) | 203,183 | ||||||||
Total operating expenses | 1,516,831 | 1,584,937 | 690,389 | |||||||||
Income (loss) from operations | 98,701 | (233,386 | ) | (420,344 | ) | |||||||
Interest and other income, net | 6,166 | 5,973 | 284 | |||||||||
Loss on equity method investees | (9,925 | ) | (26,652 | ) | — | |||||||
Income (loss) before provision (benefit) for income taxes | 94,942 | (254,065 | ) | (420,060 | ) | |||||||
Provision (benefit) for income taxes | 145,973 | 43,697 | (6,674 | ) | ||||||||
Net loss | (51,031 | ) | (297,762 | ) | (413,386 | ) | ||||||
Less: Net (income) loss attributable to noncontrolling interests | (3,742 | ) | 18,335 | 23,746 | ||||||||
Net loss attributable to Groupon, Inc. | (54,773 | ) | (279,427 | ) | (389,640 | ) | ||||||
Dividends on preferred stock | — | — | (1,362 | ) | ||||||||
Redemption of preferred stock in excess of carrying value | — | (34,327 | ) | (52,893 | ) | |||||||
Adjustment of redeemable noncontrolling interests to redemption value | (12,604 | ) | (59,740 | ) | (12,425 | ) | ||||||
Net loss attributable to common stockholders | $ | (67,377 | ) | $ | (373,494 | ) | $ | (456,320 | ) | |||
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Classification of stock-based compensation within cost of revenue and operating expenses
Cost of revenue and operating expenses include stock-based compensation as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Statement of Operations line item | Stock-based compensation included in line item | Statement of Operations line item | Stock-based compensation included in line item | Statement of Operations line item | Stock-based compensation included in line item | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total cost of revenue | $ | 718,940 | $ | 2,928 | $ | 258,879 | $ | 1,130 | $ | 42,896 | $ | 157 | ||||||||||||
Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Marketing | $ | 336,854 | $ | 3,570 | $ | 768,472 | $ | 2,531 | $ | 290,569 | $ | 129 | ||||||||||||
Selling, general and administrative | 1,179,080 | 97,619 | 821,002 | 89,929 | 196,637 | 35,882 | ||||||||||||||||||
Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net | 897 | — | (4,537 | ) | — | 203,183 | — | |||||||||||||||||
Total operating expenses | $ | 1,516,831 | $ | 101,189 | $ | 1,584,937 | $ | 92,460 | $ | 690,389 | $ | 36,011 | ||||||||||||
Foreign exchange rate neutral operating results
The effect on the Company's consolidated statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011 from changes in exchange rates versus the U.S. dollar was as follows:
Year Ended December 31 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
At Avg. | Exchange | At Avg. | Exchange | |||||||||||||||||||||
2011 | Rate | As | 2010 | Rate | As | |||||||||||||||||||
Rates (1) | Effect (2) | Reported | Rates (1) | Effect (2) | Reported | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Revenue | $ | 2,408,588 | $ | (74,116 | ) | $ | 2,334,472 | $ | 1,566,450 | $ | 43,980 | $ | 1,610,430 | |||||||||||
Cost of revenue and operating expenses | 2,302,486 | (66,715 | ) | 2,235,771 | 1,786,847 | 56,969 | 1,843,816 | |||||||||||||||||
Income (loss) from operations | $ | 106,102 | $ | (7,401 | ) | $ | 98,701 | $ | (220,397 | ) | $ | (12,989 | ) | $ | (233,386 | ) | ||||||||
(1) | Represents the financial statement balances that would have resulted had exchange rates in the reporting period been the same as those in effect in the comparable prior year period for operating results. |
(2) | Represents the increase or decrease in reported amounts resulting from changes in exchange rates from those in effect in the comparable prior year period for operating results. |
Gross Billings
Gross billings represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds. For third party revenue deals, gross billings differs from third party revenue reported in our consolidated statements of operations, which are presented net of the merchant's share of the transaction price. For direct revenue deals, gross billings are equivalent to direct revenue reported in our consolidated statements of operations. For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, our gross billings were $5,380.2 million, $3,985.5 million and $745.3 million, reflecting growth rates of 35.0% and 434.7% in 2012 and 2011, respectively. Gross billings have increased due to an increase in the volume of transactions as we continue to grow our business. We have experienced growth in our traditional Local deals category in addition to our Goods, Travel and Live categories.
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Gross Billings by segment for each of the years was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | % of total | 2011 | % of total | 2010 | % of total | ||||||||||||||||
(dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Gross Billings: | |||||||||||||||||||||
North America | $ | 2,373,153 | 44.1 | % | $ | 1,561,927 | 39.2 | % | $ | 475,003 | 63.7 | % | |||||||||
International | 3,007,031 | 55.9 | % | 2,423,574 | 60.8 | % | 270,345 | 36.3 | % | ||||||||||||
Total Gross Billings | $ | 5,380,184 | 100.0 | % | $ | 3,985,501 | 100.0 | % | $ | 745,348 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||
2012 compared to 2011
North America
North America segment gross billings increased by $811.2 million to $2,373.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $1,561.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in gross billings was largely attributable to an increase in active customers and growth in our direct revenue.
International
International segment gross billings increased by $583.5 million to $3,007.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $2,423.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in gross billings was largely attributable to an increase in active customers.
2011 compared to 2010
North America
North America segment gross billings increased by $1,086.9 million to $1,561.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $475.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The increase in gross billings reflected growth in our daily deals business, which was largely attributable to expanding the scale of our business through entering into new domestic markets and increasing active customers.
International
International segment gross billings increased by $2,153.2 million to $2,423.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $270.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The main driver of the increase was that for the year ended December 31, 2010, we only had a partial year of operations in the segment due to the timing of our international acquisitions.
Revenue
We generate revenue from third party revenue deals, direct revenue deals and other transactions. Revenue for each of the years was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Revenue: | ||||||||||||
Third party revenue | $ | 1,859,310 | $ | 1,583,871 | $ | 312,941 | ||||||
Direct revenue | 454,743 | 20,826 | — | |||||||||
Other revenue | 20,419 | 5,733 | — | |||||||||
Total revenue | $ | 2,334,472 | $ | 1,610,430 | $ | 312,941 | ||||||
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2012 compared to 2011
Revenue increased by $724.0 million to $2,334.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $1,610.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The most significant drivers of this increase were the $433.9 million increase in direct revenue from transactions, primarily in our Goods category, where we are the merchant of record and for which revenue is reported on a gross basis and from increases in active customers during 2012. In addition, several other initiatives have driven revenue growth over the recent period. Through our daily emails, we have been increasingly targeting customers by sending them deals for specific locations and personal preferences, which we believe contributed to revenue growth. We also increased the number of merchant partner relationships and the volume of deals we offer on a daily basis to our customers. The unfavorable impact on revenue from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates for the year ended December 31, 2012 was $74.1 million.
Third Party Revenue
Third party revenue increased by $275.4 million to $1,859.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $1,583.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. Several initiatives have driven third party revenue growth during this year. We added to our sales force in early 2012, allowing us to increase the number of merchant partner relationships and the volume of deals we offer on a daily basis to our customers on our websites and mobile applications. The launch of our Goods category in the second half of 2011 also contributed to the growth in third party revenue during 2012, because Goods transactions where the Company is acting as a marketing agent of the merchant are reported on a net basis within third party revenue.
Direct Revenue
Direct revenue was $454.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $20.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 due to the launch of Goods in the second half of 2011. We are often the merchant of record for transactions in the Goods category, such that the resulting revenue is reported on a gross basis within direct revenue. Direct revenue deals have continued to grow, both overall and as a percentage of our revenue, through the continued growth of our Goods category and we expect that trend to continue. In addition, we expect that any growth in direct revenue will result in a smaller percentage increase in income from operations than growth in third party revenue because direct revenue includes the entire amount of gross billings, before deducting the cost of the related inventory, while third party revenue is net of the merchant's share of the transaction price. Additionally, our Goods category has lower margins than our Local category.
Other Revenue
Other revenue increased by $14.7 million to $20.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. Other revenue is primarily comprised of non-merchant advertising, which has increased with the growth of our business. Other revenue also includes revenue from payment processing, which the Company launched in 2012. Payment processing revenue was not significant for the year ended December 31, 2012, and we do not expect it to be significant for the foreseeable future.
2011 compared to 2010
Revenue increased by $1,297.5 million to $1,610.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $312.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. In addition to expanding the scale of our business domestically and internationally through acquiring businesses and entering new markets, several other initiatives drove revenue growth in 2011. We increased our total marketing spend significantly, focusing on acquiring customers through online channels such as social networking websites and search engines. We also added substantially to our sales force, allowing us to increase the number of merchant partner relationships, the volume of deals we offer on a daily basis on our websites and the quality of deals we offer to our customers. The favorable impact on revenue from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates for December 31, 2011 was $44.0 million.
Third party revenue increased by $1,270.9 million to $1,583.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $312.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. Direct revenue was $20.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, primarily due to the launch of deals in the second half of 2011 where we acted as the merchant of record. Other revenue was $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011.
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Revenue by Segment
Revenue by segment for each of the periods was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | % of total | 2011 | % of total | 2010 | % of total | ||||||||||||||||
(dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
North America: | |||||||||||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | $ | 762,424 | 32.7 | % | $ | 634,980 | 39.4 | % | $ | 200,412 | 64.0 | % | |||||||||
Direct revenue | 403,276 | 17.3 | % | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
Total segment revenue | $ | 1,165,700 | 49.9 | % | $ | 634,980 | 39.4 | % | $ | 200,412 | 64.0 | % | |||||||||
International: | |||||||||||||||||||||
Third party and other revenue | $ | 1,117,305 | 47.9 | % | $ | 954,624 | 59.3 | % | $ | 112,529 | 36.0 | % | |||||||||
Direct revenue | 51,467 | 2.2 | % | 20,826 | 1.3 | % | — | — | |||||||||||||
Total segment revenue | $ | 1,168,772 | 50.1 | % | $ | 975,450 | 60.6 | % | $ | 112,529 | 36.0 | % | |||||||||
Total revenue | $ | 2,334,472 | 100.0 | % | $ | 1,610,430 | 100.0 | % | $ | 312,941 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||
2012 compared to 2011
North America
North America segment revenue increased by $530.7 million to $1,165.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $635.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in revenue was largely attributable to an increase in active customers and strong growth in our direct revenue. Direct revenue, which is recorded on a gross basis, is derived primarily from selling products through the Company's Goods category where the Company is the merchant of record.
International
International segment revenue increased by $193.3 million to $1,168.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $975.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. While we grew our International revenue for the year ended December 31, 2012 as compared to 2011, revenue declined 15.9% for the three months ended December 31, 2012, as compared to the corresponding period of the prior year. This decline was largely attributable to reductions in the percentage of gross billings that we retained from sales in our Local category.
2011 compared to 2010
North America
North America segment revenue increased by $434.6 million to $635.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $200.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The increase in revenue reflected strong growth in our daily deals business domestically, which was largely attributable to an increase in active customers.
International
International segment revenue increased by $862.9 million to $975.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as we had only a partial year of operations for much of our International segment for the year ended December 31, 2010, due to the timing of our international acquisitions. As of December 31, 2011, we had operations in 47 international countries, an increase from 38 international countries as of December 31, 2010. As a result of our entry into new international markets during 2010 and 2011 and due to growth in existing markets, we were able to grow our daily deals business significantly from 2010 to 2011.
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Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue on third party, other and direct revenue deals for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010 was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Cost of revenue: | ||||||||||||
Third party revenue | $ | 297,574 | $ | 243,709 | $ | 42,896 | ||||||
Direct revenue | 421,201 | 15,090 | — | |||||||||
Other revenue | 165 | 80 | — | |||||||||
Total cost of revenue | $ | 718,940 | $ | 258,879 | $ | 42,896 | ||||||
Cost of revenue is comprised of direct and indirect costs incurred to generate revenue. For direct revenue transactions, cost of revenue includes the purchase price of consumer products, warehousing, shipping costs and inventory markdowns. For third party revenue transactions, cost of revenue includes estimated refunds for which the merchant's share is not recoverable. Other costs incurred to generate revenue, which include credit card processing fees, editorial costs, certain technology costs, web hosting and other processing fees, are allocated to cost of third party revenue, direct revenue, and other revenue in proportion to relative gross billings during the period. As a result of the significant growth we have experienced in 2012 from direct revenue transactions relative to our total gross billings, an increased share of those allocable costs has been allocated to cost of direct revenue on our consolidated statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2012.
2012 compared to 2011
Cost of revenue increased by $460.1 million to $718.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $258.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 and was attributable to the growth in direct revenue, primarily from the Company's Goods category. The increase in cost of revenue was primarily driven by cost of merchandise and the related outbound freight costs on direct revenue deals, which was not a significant cost during the year ended December 31, 2011, and, to a lesser extent, refunds for which the merchant's share is not recoverable related to our third party revenue deals. In addition, there were increases in shipping costs driven by higher transaction volume in our Goods category and increases in processing fees directly related to higher overall transaction volumes. Cost of revenue also increased due to increased email distribution costs as a result of our larger subscriber base.
2011 compared to 2010
Cost of revenue increased by $216.0 million to $258.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $42.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The increase in cost of revenue was primarily driven by an increase in credit card processing fees, editorial salary costs, Internet processing fees and refunds for which the merchant's share is not recoverable. Increases in credit card processing fees, refunds for which the merchant's share is not recoverable, and Internet processing fees were driven by higher transaction volumes. Cost of revenue also increased due to significant additions to our editorial staff and increased email distribution costs as a result of our larger subscriber base.
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Cost of Revenue by Segment
Cost of revenue by segment for each of the periods was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | % of total | 2011 | % of total | 2010 | % of total | ||||||||||||||||
(dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
North America: | |||||||||||||||||||||
Cost of third party and other revenue | $ | 145,212 | 20.2 | % | $ | 139,954 | 54.1 | % | $ | 31,495 | 73.4 | % | |||||||||
Cost of direct revenue | 365,179 | 50.8 | % | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
Total segment cost of revenue | $ | 510,391 | 71.0 | % | $ | 139,954 | 54.1 | % | $ | 31,495 | 73.4 | % | |||||||||
International: | — | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cost of third party and other revenue | $ | 152,527 | 21.2 | % | $ | 103,835 | 40.1 | % | $ | 11,401 | 26.6 | % | |||||||||
Cost of direct revenue | 56,022 | 7.8 | % | 15,090 | 5.8 | % | — | — | |||||||||||||
Total segment cost of revenue | $ | 208,549 | 29.0 | % | $ | 118,925 | 45.9 | % | $ | 11,401 | 26.6 | % | |||||||||
Total cost of revenue | $ | 718,940 | 100.0 | % | $ | 258,879 | 100.0 | % | $ | 42,896 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||
` 2012 compared to 2011
North America
North America segment cost of revenue increased by $370.4 million to $510.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $140.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in cost of revenue was primarily driven by the cost of merchandise and freight related to direct revenue deals.
International
International segment cost of revenue increased by $89.6 million to $208.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $118.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. We have continued to grow our business related to both our third party and direct revenue deals in our International markets, and as a result of this growth, cost of revenue increased for the year.
2011 compared to 2010
North America
North America segment cost of revenue increased by $108.5 million to $140.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $31.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The increase was due to general business growth of third party revenue deals.
International
International segment cost of revenue increased by $107.5 million to $118.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $11.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, as we had only a partial year of operations for much of our International segment for the year ended December 31, 2010, due to the timing of our international acquisitions. The increase was also due to general business growth of third party revenue deals in addition to the introduction of direct revenue deals in 2011. Business growth is attributable to both international expansion and organic revenue growth.
Gross Profit
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011, and 2010, gross profit was $1,615.5 million, $1,351.6 million and $270.0 million, respectively. These increases in gross profit were attributable to the increases in revenue during each of those years, partially offset by the increases in cost of revenue.
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2012 compared to 2011
Gross profit increased by $264.0 million to $1,615.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $1,351.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. This increase in gross profit resulted from the $724.0 million increase in revenue during 2012, partially offset by the $460.1 million increase in cost of revenue. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue decreased to 69.2% for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to 83.9% for the year ended December 31, 2011. The decrease in gross profit as a percentage of revenue during 2012 as compared to the prior year was primarily attributable to the increase in direct revenue. Direct revenue primarily relates to deals in our Goods category that have lower margins than deals in our Local category. Additionally, direct revenue and the related cost of revenue are presented on a gross basis in our consolidated statements of operations, which contributes to lower gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
Gross profit on third party revenue deals and other revenue increased by $236.2 million to $1,582.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $1,345.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. This increase in gross profit resulted from the $960.8 million increase in gross billings on third party revenue deals and other revenue to $4,925.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $3,964.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, partially offset by a reduction in the percentage of billings that we retained from third party revenue deals during 2012. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue on third party revenue deals and other revenue was 84.2% for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to 84.7% for the year ended December 31, 2011.
Gross profit on direct revenue deals increased by $27.8 million to $33.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. This increase in gross profit resulted from the $433.9 million increase in direct revenue to $454.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $20.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, partially offset by the $406.1 million increase in cost of revenue on direct revenue deals to $421.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $15.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue on direct revenue deals was 7.4% for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to 27.5% for the year ended December 31, 2011. The comparison of gross profit as a percentage of revenue on direct revenue deals in 2012 as compared to 2011 is not meaningful due to the limited volume of direct revenue transactions in 2011. The Goods category, which comprises the majority of our direct revenue in 2012, was not launched until the second half of 2011.
2011 compared to 2010
Gross profit increased by $1,081.5 million to $1,351.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $270.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. This increase resulted from the $1,297.5 million increase in revenue during 2012, partially offset by the $216.0 million increase in cost of revenue. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue decreased to 83.9% for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to 86.3% for the year ended December 31, 2010.
Marketing
For the years ended December 31 2012, 2011 and 2010 marketing expense was $336.9 million, $768.5 million and $290.6 million, respectfully. Marketing expense by segment as a percentage of segment revenue for each of the periods was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | % of Segment Revenue | 2011 | % of Segment Revenue | 2010 | % of Segment Revenue | ||||||||||||||||
(dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
North America | $ | 105,914 | 9.1 | % | $ | 254,746 | 40.1 | % | $ | 123,590 | 61.7 | % | |||||||||
International | 230,940 | 19.8 | % | 513,726 | 52.7 | % | 166,979 | 148.4 | % | ||||||||||||
Marketing | $ | 336,854 | 14.4 | % | $ | 768,472 | 47.7 | % | $ | 290,569 | 92.9 | % | |||||||||
We evaluate our marketing expense as a percentage of revenue because it gives us an indication of how well our marketing spend is driving the volume of transactions. Marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2012 has decreased from the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 due to efficiencies we have realized from building a subscriber base and shifting our marketing spend to customer activation. In 2010, we began our international expansion and subsequently made significant marketing investments related to customer acquisition in our International segment to accelerate growth and establish our presence in new markets. We continued to invest heavily in customer acquisition in the year ended December 31, 2011, specifically in our International segment. Additionally, the increase in revenue, including direct revenue that is reported on a gross basis, contributed to the decline in marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2012.
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Marketing expense by segment as a percentage of total marketing expense for each of the periods was as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
2012 | % of total | 2011 | % of total | 2010 | % of total | ||||||||||||||||
(dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
North America | $ | 105,914 | 31.4 | % | $ | 254,746 | 33.1 | % | $ | 123,590 | 42.5 | % | |||||||||
International | 230,940 | 68.6 | % | 513,726 | 66.9 | % | 166,979 | 57.5 | % | ||||||||||||
Marketing | $ | 336,854 | 100.0 | % | $ | 768,472 | 100.0 | % | $ | 290,569 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||
2012 compared to 2011
Our marketing expense decreased by $431.6 million to $336.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $768.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2011, customer acquisition still comprised the primary portion of our marketing spend, particularly in our international markets as we were still in the early phases of building our customer base in those markets. As our markets have developed over the last twelve months, we have begun to shift our marketing spend from customer acquisition marketing to activation, which has contributed to lower marketing expense during 2012.
North America
North America segment marketing expense decreased by $148.8 million to $105.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $254.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2012, marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the North America segment was 9.1%, as compared to 40.1% for the year ended December 31, 2011. The decreases were primarily attributable to a decrease in online marketing spend. This reflects the continued shift in focus from customer acquisition marketing to activation, which has contributed to lower marketing expense during 2012.
International
International segment marketing expense decreased by $282.8 million to $230.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $513.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. For the year ended December 31, 2012, marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the International segment was 19.8%, as compared to 52.7% for the year ended December 31, 2011. The decreases were primarily attributable to a decrease in online marketing spend. This reflects the continued execution against our plan to move from customer acquisition marketing to activation, which has contributed to lower marketing expense in 2012.
2011 compared to 2010
Our marketing expense increased by $477.9 million to $768.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $290.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. Marketing expense increased as we continued to focus on customer acquisition. For the year ended December 31, 2011, customer acquisition costs still represented the primary portion of our marketing spend. Through the course of the year an increasing portion of marketing was incurred for customer activation, which includes conversion of subscribers that were not previously paying customers, as well as customer acquisitions outside of our email subscriber base.
North America
North America segment marketing expense increased by $131.2 million to $254.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $123.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. For the year ended December 31, 2011, marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the North America segment was 40.1%, as compared to 61.7% for the year ended December 31, 2010. The marketing expense increase was attributable to an increase in online marketing spend, particularly on display advertising networks as part of our customer acquisition strategy. Our customer incentive programs also contributed to our increase in marketing expense as we continued to implement these programs in new markets that we entered into in 2011. In addition, we continued to increase our marketing resources to support our strategy.
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International
International segment marketing expense increased by $346.7 million to $513.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $167.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. For the year ended December 31, 2011, marketing expense as a percentage of revenue for the International segment was 52.7%, as compared to 148.4% for the year ended December 31, 2010. Online marketing spend contributed to 73.0% of the marketing expense increase, particularly spend on display advertising networks as part of our new customer acquisition strategy. Our customer incentive programs contributed to 17.6% of the increase in marketing expense as we continued to implement these programs in new markets that we entered into in 2011. In addition, we continued to increase our marketing resources to support our strategy, which contributed to 5.6% of the increase.
Selling, General and Administrative
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, our selling general and administrative expenses were $1,179.1 million, $821.0 million and $196.6 million, respectively. The increases in selling, general and administrative expense were primarily related to the build out of our global sales force, investments in technology and investments in our corporate infrastructure necessary to support our current and anticipated growth as well as the activities of a public company. For the year ended December 31, 2012, selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue was 50.5%, as compared to 51.0% for the year ended December 31, 2011. Selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue has remained relatively unchanged from the previous year as the growth in those expenses was consistent with our revenue growth. We are continuing to refine our sales management and selling processes, including through automation, in order to generate increased operating efficiencies.
2012 compared to 2011
Selling, general and administrative expense increased by $358.1 million to $1,179.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $821.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in selling, general and administrative expense was primarily due to increases in wages and benefits, consulting and professional fees, depreciation and amortization expense, rent expense and system maintenance expenses. Additionally, selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue for our international segment of 60.3% was significantly higher than for our North America segment, which was 40.7%. This was primarily a result of the build out of our international operations, including both sales force and administrative personnel.
Wages and benefits (excluding stock‑based compensation) within selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $220.2 million to $653.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as we added sales force, technology and administrative personnel to support our business. Stock‑based compensation costs within selling, general and administrative expenses also increased to $97.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2012 from $89.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 due to the addition of certain key personnel to the Company. Our consulting and professional fees increased by $22.9 million in 2012, primarily related to higher legal and accounting-related costs. Depreciation expense increased by $19.7 million and rent expense increased by $17.5 million for the year primarily due to our expansion during 2011 and 2012. There was a $34.6 million increase in system maintenance expenses in 2012 as a result of investments in technology and our corporate infrastructure.
2011 compared to 2010
In 2011, our selling, general and administrative expense increased by $624.4 million to $821.0 million, an increase of 317.5%. The increase in selling, general and administrative expense for the year ended December 31, 2011 compared to the year ended December 31, 2010 was due to increases in wages and benefits, consulting and professional fees and depreciation and amortization expenses. Additionally, selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue for our International segment was significantly higher than for our North America segment, which contributed to larger operating losses in our International segment. This was primarily a result of the build out of our international operations, including our salesforce.
Wages and benefits (excluding stock‑based compensation) increased by $354.9 million to $433.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2011 as we continued to add sales force and administrative staff to support our business. Stock‑based compensation costs also increased to $89.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 from $35.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 due to awards issued to retain key employees and awards issued in connection with our acquisitions. Our consulting and professional fees increased in 2011 primarily related to higher legal and technology‑related costs. Depreciation and amortization expense increased in 2011 primarily because we recorded $9.9 million of intangible assets in connection with our acquisitions in 2011, resulting in an increase of amortization expense of $2.8 million. In addition, recognizing a full year of amortization for intangibles recorded in 2010 in connections with acquisitions resulted in an additional $10.5 million of amortization.
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Acquisition‑Related Expense (Benefit), Net
2012 compared to 2011
For the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, we incurred net acquisition-related expenses of $0.9 million and benefits of $4.5 million, respectively, representing changes in the fair value of contingent consideration liabilities from business acquisitions. See Note 13 "Fair Value Measurements." The expense incurred in 2012 is net of a $3.8 million benefit recognized for the current year declines in the fair value of certain of our contingent consideration arrangements.
2011 compared to 2010
For the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010, our acquisition-related expense (benefit) was a $4.5 million net benefit and a $203.2 million net expense, respectively. The fluctuation in the costs were directly related to changes in the fair value of contingent consideration arrangements, as well as realized gains and losses on those arrangements, for acquisitions in the respective periods.
During 2011, we acquired several companies that were either technology‑based companies or other group buying companies in an effort to increase our competitive advantage both domestically and internationally. As part of the overall consideration paid in connection with these acquisitions, we were obligated to issue additional shares of our Class A common stock and make cash payments if certain financial and performance earn-out targets were achieved. We recorded liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet of $17.8 million as of the original acquisition dates for these contingent consideration arrangements and subsequently remeasured the liabilities to fair value, with changes in fair value reported in earnings. As a result of this remeasurment, we recorded a net gain of $4.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2011.
In May 2010, we acquired CityDeal, a European‑based collective buying power business similar to ours. As part of the overall consideration paid, we were obligated to issue additional shares of our common stock in December 2010 due to the achievement of financial and performance earn-out targets. We recorded a liability in our consolidated balance sheet as of the original acquisition date for this consideration and subsequently remeasured the liability to its fair value on a periodic basis until final settlement. As a result of this remeasurement, we recorded a total expense of $204.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2010 as acquisition‑related expenses, which was partially offset by other nominal acquisition‑related items. This liability is settled and is no longer subject to future remeasurement.
Income (Loss) from Operations
We earned $98.7 million of income from operations for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to losses from operations for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 of $233.4 million and $420.3 million, respectively. The change to income from operations from loss from operations in the comparable years of 2011 and 2010 is primarily due to increased revenue and reduced marketing expenses in 2012, partially offset by increased selling, general and administrative expenses. Additionally, a significant driver of the loss from operations in 2010 was the $203.2 million acquisition-related expense. This was primarily related to the contingent consideration arrangement on the City Deal acquisition, which was settled in late 2010. The unfavorable impact on income from operations from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates for the year ended December 31, 2012 was $7.4 million.
2012 compared to 2011
Income from operations increased by $332.1 million to $98.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to a loss from operations of $233.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. We recognized income from operations for the year ended December 31, 2012 due to the increase in revenue and decrease in marketing expense, partially offset by increases in cost of revenue and selling, general and administrative expense.
North America
Segment operating income in our North America segment, which excludes stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, increased by $134.9 million to $139.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $4.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. The increase in the segment operating income was primarily attributable to our increased revenues within North America, particularly from our Goods category.
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International
Segment operating income in our International segment, which excludes stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, increased by $213.1 million to $64.0 million of segment operating income for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $149.1 million of segment operating loss for the year ended December 31, 2011. The International segment operating loss in the year ended December 31, 2011 was driven by our rapid expansion in the segment during that year. In the year ended December 31, 2012, we have generated segment operating income as result of increased revenue, partially offset by increased cost of revenue and operating expenses.
2011 compared to 2010
Loss from operations decreased by $187.0 million to $233.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $420.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The most significant driver of this improvement was a reduction in acquisition-related expense (benefit) from a $203.2 million expense in 2010, primarily related to the contingent consideration arrangement on the City Deals acquisition, to a $4.5 million benefit in 2011.
North America
Segment operating income for our North America segment, which excludes stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, increased by $15.2 million to $4.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 as compared to a segment operating loss of $10.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The increase in the segment operating income was primarily attributable to our expansion within North America. We invested heavily in upfront marketing, sales and infrastructure related to the build out of our operations.
International
Segment operating loss for our International segment, which excludes stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, decreased by $21.4 million to $149.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2011 as compared to $170.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2010. The International segment operating loss was driven by our rapid expansion in the segment during the year. In 2011, we made significant marketing investments in our International segment to accelerate growth and establish our presence in new markets. As a result, we experienced operating losses for our International segment as compared to operating income for our North America segment.
Interest and Other Income, Net
Interest and other income, net, consists of foreign currency transaction gains or losses, interest earned on cash and cash equivalents and other non-operational gains and losses.
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, we recorded interest and other income, net, of $6.2 million, $6.0 million and $0.3 million, respectively.
Our interest and other income, net was $6.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to $6.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011. In addition to interest income and foreign currency transaction gains and losses, activity during 2012 included a $56.0 million gain recognized as a result of the exchange of our 49.8% interest in E-Commerce King Limited ("E-Commerce") and payment of $25.0 million for a 19% interest in Life Media Limited ("F-tuan") in the second quarter of 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2012, this gain was partially offset by an impairment of our cost method investment in F-tuan of $50.6 million. F-tuan is incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands with operations in China.
Our interest and other income, net was $6.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to $0.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2011, we recognized approximately $4.9 million in other income related to the return of 400,000 shares of non-voting common stock from a former executive officer in connection with a separation agreement.
Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, we recorded income tax expense (benefit) of $146.0 million, $43.7 million and $(6.7) million, respectfully.
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2012 compared to 2011
The effective tax rate was 153.7% for the year ended December 31, 2012, as compared to (17.2)% for the year ended December 31, 2011. The most significant drivers of our effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2012 included the impact of unrecognized tax benefits related to income tax uncertainties in certain foreign jurisdictions, losses in jurisdictions that we were not able to benefit due to valuation allowances, amortization of the tax effects of intercompany sales of intellectual property and nondeductible stock-based compensation expense. The most significant drivers of our effective rate for the year ended December 31, 2011 included the impact of losses in jurisdictions that we were not able to benefit due to valuation allowances and nondeductible stock-based compensation expense. As of December 31, 2012, unamortized tax effects of intercompany transactions of $37.6 million and $46.3 million are included within “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” and “Other non-current assets,” respectively, on the consolidated balance sheet. As of December 31, 2011, unamortized tax effects of intercompany transactions of $33.3 million and $78.4 million are included within “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” and “Other non-current assets,” respectively, on the consolidated balance sheet. We expect that our consolidated effective tax rate in future periods will continue to differ significantly from the U.S. federal income tax rate as a result of our tax obligations in jurisdictions with profits and valuation allowances in jurisdictions with losses. Our consolidated effective tax rate in future periods will also be adversely impacted by the amortization of the tax effects of intercompany transactions, including intercompany sales of intellectual property that we expect to undertake in the future.
2011 compared to 2010
The effective tax rate was (17.2)% for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to 1.6% for the year ended December 31, 2010. The most significant drivers of our effective tax rate for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 included the impact of losses in jurisdictions that we were not able to benefit due to valuation allowances and nondeductible stock-based compensation expense. We recorded deferred charges during 2011 related to income taxes on intercompany sales of certain intellectual property rights, including intellectual property that was acquired in 2011, between various subsidiaries within the Company's international structure. The deferred charges are amortized as a component of income tax expense over the life of the intellectual property. As of December 31, 2011, unamortized tax effects of intercompany transactions of $33.3 million and $78.4 million are included within “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” and “Other non-current assets,” respectively, on the consolidated balance sheet.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to financial results reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we have provided the following non-GAAP financial measures: operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, free cash flow and foreign exchange rate neutral operating results. These non-GAAP financial measures are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, these measures are not intended to be a substitute for those reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies.
Operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net. Operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net is a non-GAAP measure that comprises the consolidated total of the segment operating income (loss) of our two segments, North America and International. Stock‑based compensation expense and acquisition‑related (benefit) expense, net are excluded from segment operating income (loss) that we report under U.S. GAAP for our segments. Stock-based compensation expense is primarily a non-cash item. Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net represents the change in the fair value of contingent consideration arrangements related to business combinations. We use consolidated operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net to allocate resources and evaluate performance internally.
We consider operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net to be an important measure for management to evaluate the performance of our business as it excludes changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to business combinations and stock-based compensation expenses. We believe it is important to view operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net as a complement to our entire consolidated statements of operations. When evaluating our performance, you should consider operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net as a complement to other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and our other U.S. GAAP results.
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The following is a reconciliation of operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measure, ‘‘Income (loss) from operations,’’ for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010.
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Income (loss) from operations | $ | 98,701 | $ | (233,386 | ) | $ | (420,344 | ) | ||||
Adjustments: | ||||||||||||
Stock-based compensation(1) | 104,117 | 93,590 | 36,168 | |||||||||
Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net(2) | 897 | (4,537 | ) | 203,183 | ||||||||
Total adjustments | 105,014 | 89,053 | 239,351 | |||||||||
Operating income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net | $ | 203,715 | $ | (144,333 | ) | $ | (180,993 | ) | ||||
(1) | Represents stock-based compensation expense recorded within "Selling, general and administrative," "Cost of revenue," and "Marketing" on the consolidated statements of operations. |
(2) | Represents changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to acquisitions made by the Company. |
Free cash flow. Free cash flow is "Net cash provided by operating activities" less "Purchases of property, equipment and software, net." We use free cash flow, and ratios based on it, to conduct and evaluate our business because, although it is similar to cash flow from operations, we believe that it typically represents a more useful measure of cash flows because purchases of fixed assets, software developed for internal-use and website development costs are necessary components of our ongoing operations. Free cash flow is not intended to represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the applicable period.
Free cash flow has limitations due to the fact that it does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures. For example, free cash flow does not include the cash payments for business acquisitions. In addition, free cash flow reflects the impact of the timing difference between when we are paid by customers and when we pay merchant partners and suppliers. Therefore, we believe it is important to view free cash flow as a complement to our entire consolidated statements of cash flows.
The following is a reconciliation of free cash flow to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measure, "Net cash provided by operating activities," for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 266,834 | $ | 290,447 | $ | 86,885 | ||||||
Less: purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software | (95,836 | ) | (43,811 | ) | (14,681 | ) | ||||||
Free cash flow | $ | 170,998 | $ | 246,636 | $ | 72,204 | ||||||
Net cash used in investing activities | $ | (194,979 | ) | $ | (147,433 | ) | $ | (11,879 | ) | |||
Net cash provided by financing activities | $ | 12,095 | $ | 867,205 | $ | 30,445 | ||||||
Foreign exchange rate neutral operating results. Foreign exchange rate neutral operation results show current period operating results as if foreign currency exchange rates had remained the same as those in effect in the comparable prior year period. These measures are intended to facilitate comparisons to our historical performance. For a reconciliation of foreign exchange rate neutral operating results to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measure, see “Results of Operations" above.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2012, we had $1,209.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, which primarily consisted of cash, money market accounts and overnight securities.
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Since our inception, we have funded our working capital requirements and expansion primarily with cash flows from operations and through public and private sales of common and preferred stock, which have yielded net proceeds of approximately $1,857.1 million. We generated positive cash flow from operations for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, and we expect cash flow from operations to remain positive in the foreseeable future. We generally use this cash flow to fund our operations, make additional acquisitions, purchase capital assets and meet our other cash operating needs. Cash flow from operations was $266.8 million, $290.4 million and $86.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.
We consider the undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries as of December 31, 2012 to be indefinitely reinvested and, accordingly, no U.S. income taxes have been provided thereon. As of December 31, 2012, the amount of cash and cash equivalents held in jurisdictions for which we have indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings was approximately $366.1 million. We have not, nor do we anticipate the need to, repatriate funds to the United States to satisfy domestic liquidity needs arising in the ordinary course of business.
Although we can provide no assurances, we believe that our available cash and cash equivalents balance and cash generated from operations should be sufficient to meet our working capital requirements and other capital expenditures for the next twelve months.
Anticipated Uses of Cash
Our priority in 2013 is to continue to aggressively invest in the business by making additional investments in technology and innovations and by continuing to shift our marketing spend from customer acquisition to customer activation in both our North America and International segments. In addition, we plan to continue to acquire or make strategic minority investments in complementary businesses that add to our customer base or provide incremental technology or talent or both.
In order to support our overall global expansion, we expect to continue to make significant investments in our corporate facilities and technology development during 2013. During the year ended December 31, 2012, we acquired 10 businesses for an aggregate purchase price of $54.9 million, of which $46.9 million was paid for in cash (net of cash acquired), and we expect to continue to use cash to make strategic acquisitions.
We currently plan to fund these investments in our North America and International segments with our available cash and cash equivalents balance and cash flows generated from the respective operations. We do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future.
Cash Flow
Our net cash flow from operating, investing and financing activities for the years below were as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | ||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Cash provided by (used in): | ||||||||||||
Operating activities | $ | 266,834 | $ | 290,447 | $ | 86,885 | ||||||
Investing activities | (194,979 | ) | (147,433 | ) | (11,879 | ) | ||||||
Financing activities | 12,095 | 867,205 | 30,445 | |||||||||
Effect of changes in exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents | 2,404 | (6,117 | ) | 1,069 | ||||||||
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents | $ | 86,354 | $ | 1,004,102 | $ | 106,520 | ||||||
Cash Provided By Operating Activities
Cash provided by operating activities primarily consists of our net loss adjusted for certain items, including depreciation and amortization, gain on E-Commerce transaction, loss on impairment of the F-tuan cost method investment, stock‑based compensation, deferred income taxes and the effect of changes in working capital and other items.
Our current merchant partner arrangements are structured as either a redemption payment model or a fixed payment model defined as follows:
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Redemption payment model - Under our redemption merchant partner payment model, we collect payments at the time our customers purchase Groupons and make payments to our merchant partners at a subsequent date. Using this payment model, merchant partners are not paid until the customer redeems the Groupon that has been purchased. If a customer does not redeem the Groupon under this payment model, we retain all of the gross billings from the unredeemed Groupon. The redemption model generally improves our overall cash flow because we do not pay our merchant partners until the customer redeems the Groupon.
Fixed payment model - Under our fixed merchant partner payment model, we generally pay our merchant partners in installments over a period of sixty days for third party revenue deals. However, for third party revenue deals in which the merchant partner has a continuous presence on our websites and mobile applications by offering vouchers on a rolling basis for an extended period of time, we generally remit payments to the merchant on an ongoing basis throughout the term of the offering. For direct revenue deals, we generally have net 60-day payment terms with our suppliers. Under the fixed payment model, merchant partners are paid regardless of whether the Groupon is redeemed.
We experience swings in merchant and supplier payables associated with our normal revenue-generating activities, including both third party and direct revenue sales transactions, that can cause volatility in working capital levels and impact cash balances more or less than our operating income or loss would indicate. In the current year, we have offered certain merchant partners more favorable and accelerated payment terms, which has reduced our overall cash flow benefits from the timing differences between when we receive cash from customers and remit payments to our merchant partners. We expect that trend to continue in the future.
For the year ended December 31, 2012, our net cash provided by operating activities was $266.8 million, which consisted of $51.0 million of net loss, a $187.3 million net increase related to changes in working capital and other assets and liabilities and a $130.6 million net increase for certain non-cash items and items that do not relate to our operating activities. The net adjustments for non-cash and non-operating items include $104.1 million of stock-based compensation, $55.8 million of depreciation and amortization expense and $50.6 million for the impairment of the F-tuan cost method investment, partially offset by $56.0 million for the gain recognized on the E-Commerce transaction.
The increase in cash resulting from changes in working capital activities primarily consisted of a $149.9 million change in merchant and supplier payables and a $47.7 million change in accrued expenses and other current liabilities, due to the continued growth in the business. Liabilities included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities are primarily the reserve for customer refunds, accrued payroll and benefits, costs associated with subscriber credits and VAT and sales taxes payable. Changes in accrued expenses and other current liabilities primarily reflect the significant increase in the number of employees, vendors, and customers resulting from our internal growth and global expansion. In addition, there was an increase in cash related to changes in accounts payable of $18.7 million due to general business growth. These increases in cash flows were partially offset by a $70.9 million change in prepaid expenses and other current assets as a result of business growth and increases in inventory relating to our Goods category.
For the year ended December 31, 2011, our net cash provided by operating activities of $290.4 million consisted of net loss of $297.8 million, offset by $164.9 million in adjustments for non-cash items and $423.3 million in cash provided by changes in working capital and other activities. Adjustments for non-cash items primarily consisted of $93.6 million in stock‑based compensation expense as we continued to offer stock compensation to our employees in 2011, $32.2 million of deferred income taxes, and $32.1 million of depreciation and amortization expense. The increase in cash resulting from changes in working capital activities primarily consisted of a $380.1 million increase in our merchant payables, due to continued growth in the daily deals business and a $189.1 million increase in accrued expenses and other current liabilities. Liabilities included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities are primarily online marketing costs incurred to acquire and retain customers, the reserve for customer refunds, accrued payroll and benefits, subscriber credits and VAT and sales taxes payable. Increases in accrued expenses and other current liabilities primarily reflect the significant increase in the number of employees, vendors, and customers resulting from our internal growth and global expansion through recent acquisitions. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in operating cash flow due to a $70.4 million increase in accounts receivable, primarily attributable to an increase in revenue for the year ended December 31, 2011, and an increase of $36.3 million in prepaid expenses and other assets as a result of business growth. The accounts receivable due from payment processors related to our International segment represents a significant portion of total accounts receivable.
For the year ended December 31, 2010, our net cash provided by operating activities of $86.9 million consisted of a net loss of $413.4 million, offset by $245.1 million in adjustments for non-cash items and $255.2 million in cash provided by changes in working capital and other activities. Adjustments for non-cash items primarily consisted of $203.2 million in acquisition‑related expenses, $36.2 million in stock‑based compensation expense, $1.9 million in depreciation expense on property and equipment and $11.0 million in amortization of intangible assets, partially offset by $7.3 million in deferred income taxes. The increase in
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cash resulting from changes in working capital activities primarily consisted of a $149.0 million increase in our merchant payable, due to the growth in the number of Groupons sold, a $94.6 million increase in accrued expenses and other current liabilities primarily related to online marketing costs incurred to acquire customers, payroll and benefits, the reserve for customer refunds and subscriber credits, and a $50.8 million increase in accounts payable. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in operating cash flow due to a $34.9 million increase in accounts receivable, a $2.5 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets and a $1.5 million increase in other assets and liabilities. Our accounts receivable at December 31, 2010 primarily relate to amounts due from credit card processors. The increase in accounts receivable at December 31, 2010 was attributable to the increase in gross billings and the timing of receipt of cash from the credit card processors. The accounts receivable related to our International segment represent a significant portion of total accounts receivable. Increases in accrued expenses, accounts payable, accounts receivable and other current assets primarily reflect the significant increase in the number of employees, vendors, and customers resulting from our internal growth and global expansion through acquisitions.
Cash Used In Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities primarily consists of capital expenditures, additional investments in subsidiaries, minority investments and acquisitions of businesses.
For the year ended December 31, 2012, our net cash used in investing activities of $195.0 million primarily consisted of $51.7 million invested in subsidiaries, equity method and cost method investments, $95.8 million in capital expenditures, including capitalized internal-use software, and $46.9 million in net cash paid for business acquisitions.
For the year ended December 31, 2011, our net cash used in investing activities of $147.4 million primarily consisted of $74.7 million invested in subsidiaries and equity method investments, $43.8 million in purchases of capital expenditures, including capitalized internal-use software, $14.5 million in purchases of intangible assets and $14.4 million in net cash paid for business acquisitions. Intangible assets purchased in 2011 relate primarily to domain names.
For the year ended December 31, 2010, our net cash used in investing activities of $11.9 million was primarily comprised of $14.7 million in capital expenditures, partially offset by $3.8 million in net cash received from acquisitions. The capital expenditures reflect the significant growth of the business domestically and internationally. We received net cash from our acquisitions in 2010, as a significant portion of the purchase price paid consisted of stock and contingent consideration.
Cash Used in Financing Activities
For the year ended December 31, 2012, our net cash provided by financing activities of $12.1 million was driven primarily by the excess tax benefits on stock-based compensation of $27.0 million, partially offset by tax withholdings related to net share settlements of restricted stock units of $13.0 million.
For the year ended December 31, 2011, our net cash provided by financing activities of $867.2 million was driven primarily by net cash proceeds from the issuance of common and preferred stock of $1,266.4 million. We used $353.8 million of these proceeds to repurchase our common stock, $35.0 million to redeem shares of our preferred stock and $14.4 million to pay our related party loans incurred in connection with the CityDeal acquisition.
For the year ended December 31, 2010, our net cash provided by financing activities of $30.4 million was driven primarily by net cash proceeds from the issuance of preferred stock of $584.7 million. We used $503.2 million of the proceeds to repurchase our common stock, $55.0 million to redeem shares of our preferred stock, and $1.3 million to pay dividends to our preferred stockholders. In addition, we received $5.0 million from related party loans throughout 2010.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
The following table summarizes our future contractual obligations and commitments as of December 31, 2012. The table below excludes $10.2 million of current liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits and $77.6 million of noncurrent liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits, including interest and penalties, as of December 31, 2012. We cannot make a reasonable estimate of the period of cash settlement for the tax positions classified as noncurrent liabilities.
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Payments due by period | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | 2013 | 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||