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 June 30, 2024

OR

☐	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 001-34628

 

QuinStreet, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Delaware	77-0512121
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

950 Tower Lane, 12th Floor

Foster City, California 94404

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(650) 587-7700

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

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

 

Title of Each Class	Trading Symbol	Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share	QNST	The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (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 ☐ No ☒

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

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

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

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

 

Large accelerated filer	☒		Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☐		Smaller reporting company	☐
Emerging growth company	☐

 

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. Yes ☒ No ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

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

As of December 31, 2023, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing sale price of the Company’s common stock as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market on such date, was $675,599,058. For purposes of calculating the aggregate market value of shares held by non-affiliates, we have assumed that all outstanding shares are held by non-affiliates, except for shares owned by each of our executive officers, directors and 5% or greater stockholders. In the case of 5% or greater stockholders, we have not deemed such stockholders to be affiliates unless there are facts and circumstances indicating that such stockholders exercise any control over our company. The determination of executive officer or affiliate status is not a conclusive determination for other purposes.

Number of shares of common stock outstanding as of August 12, 2024: 55,976,094

Documents Incorporated by Reference:

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2024 annual stockholders’ meeting are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. Such proxy statement will 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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QUINSTREET, INC.

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

		Page
	PART I.
Item 1.	Business	4
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	10
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	34
Item 1C.	Cybersecurity	34
Item 2.	Properties	35
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	35
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	35
	PART II.
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	36
Item 6.	[Reserved]	37
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	38
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	51
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	52
Item 9.	Changes In and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	81
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	81
Item 9B.	Other Information	82
Item 9C.	Disclosures Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspection	82
	PART III.
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	83
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	83
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	83
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	83
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	83
	PART IV.
Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	84
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	87
	Signatures	88

 

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PART I

CAUTIONARY NOTE ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding our future financial condition, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Terminology such as “believe,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “expect,” “predict,” “potential,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions is intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown 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 listed in Part 1, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and elsewhere in this report, such as but not limited to:

Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, and we qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

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Item 1. Business

Our Company

We are a leader in performance marketplaces and technologies for the financial services and home services industries. Our approach to proprietary performance marketing technologies allows clients to engage high-intent digital media or traffic from a wide range of device types (e.g., mobile, desktop, tablet), in multiple formats or types of media (e.g., search engines, large and small media properties or websites, email), and in a wide range of cost-per-action, or CPA, forms. These forms of contact are the primary “products” we sell to our clients, and include qualified clicks, leads, calls, applications and customers. We specialize in customer acquisition for clients in high value, information-intensive markets, or “verticals,” including financial services and home services. Our clients include some of the world’s largest companies and brands in those markets. The majority of our operations and revenue are in North America.

We generate revenue by delivering measurable online marketing results to our clients. The benefits to our clients include cost-effective and measurable customer acquisition costs, as well as management of highly targeted but also highly fragmented online media sources and access to our world-class proprietary technologies. We are predominantly paid on a negotiated or market-driven “per click,” “per lead,” or other “per action” basis that aligns with the customer acquisition cost targets of our clients. We bear the cost of paying Internet search companies, third-party media sources, strategic partners and other online media sources to generate qualified clicks, leads, calls, applications or customers for our clients.

Our competitive advantages include our media buying power, proprietary technologies, extensive data and experience in performance marketing, and significant online media market share in the markets or verticals we serve. Our advantage in online media buying is key to our business model and comes from our ability to effectively segment and match high-intent, unbranded media or traffic – one of the largest sources of traffic for customer acquisition – to as many as hundreds of clients or client offerings and, in most cases, to match those visitors to multiple clients, which also satisfies the visitor’s desire to choose among alternatives and to shop multiple offerings. Together, the ability to match more visitors in any given flow of traffic or media to a client offering, and to do so multiple times, adds up to a significant media buying advantage compared to individual clients or other buyers for these types of media.

Our proprietary technologies have been developed over the past 25 years to allow us to best segment and match media or traffic, to deliver optimized results for our clients and to operate our high volume and highly complex channel cost-efficiently.

Our extensive data and experience in performance marketing reflect the execution, knowledge and learning from billions of dollars of media spend on these campaigns over time. This is a steep and expensive learning curve. These learnings address millions of permutations of media sources, mix and order of creative and content merchandising, and approaches to the matching and segmentation of Internet visitors to optimize their experience and the results for clients. Together, these learnings allow us to run thousands of campaigns simultaneously and cost-effectively for our clients at acceptable media costs and margins to us.

Because of our deep expertise and capabilities in running financially successful performance marketing programs, we are able to effectively compete for sources and partners of high-intent, unbranded media, and our market share in our client verticals of this media is significant. Our media sources include owned-and-operated organic or search engine optimization (“SEO”) websites, targeted search engine marketing (“SEM”) or pay-per-click (“PPC”) campaigns, social media and mobile programs, internal email databases, call center operations, partnerships with large and small online media companies, and more. Our collective media presence results in engagement with a significant share of online visitors in those markets or verticals, which leads us to be included in client online media buys.

We were incorporated in California on April 16, 1999 and reincorporated in Delaware on December 31, 2009. We have been a pioneer in the development and application of measurable marketing on the Internet. Clients pay us for the actual opt-in actions by visitors or customers that result from our marketing activities on their behalf, versus traditional impression-based advertising and marketing models in which an advertiser pays for a broad audience’s exposure to an advertisement.

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Market Opportunity

Change in marketing strategy and approach

We believe that marketing approaches are changing as budgets shift from offline, analog advertising media to digital advertising media such as Internet marketing. These changing approaches require a shift to fundamentally new competencies, including:

From qualitative, impression-driven marketing to analytic, data-driven marketing

Growth in Internet marketing enables a more data-driven approach to advertising. The measurability of online marketing allows marketers to collect a significant amount of detailed data on the performance of their marketing campaigns, including the effectiveness of ad format and placement and user responses. This data can then be analyzed and used to improve marketing campaign performance and cost-effectiveness on substantially shorter cycle times than with traditional offline media.

From account management-based client relationships to results-based client relationships

Marketers are becoming increasingly focused on strategies that deliver specific, measurable results. For example, marketers are attempting to better understand how their marketing spending produces measurable objectives such as meeting their target marketing cost per new customer. As marketers adopt more results-based approaches, the basis of client relationships with their marketing services providers is shifting from being more account management-based to being more results-oriented.

From marketing messages pushed on audiences to marketing messages pulled by self-directed audiences

Traditional marketing messages such as television and radio advertisements are broadcast to a broad audience. The Internet enables more self-directed and targeted marketing. For example, when Internet visitors click on PPC search advertisements, they are expressing an interest in and proactively engaging with information about a product or service related to that advertisement. The growth of self-directed marketing, primarily through online channels, allows marketers to present more targeted and potentially more relevant marketing messages to potential customers who have taken the first step in the buying process, which can in turn increase the effectiveness of marketers’ spending.

From marketing spending focused on large media buys to marketing spending optimized for fragmented media

We believe that media is becoming increasingly fragmented and that marketing strategies are changing to adapt to this trend. There are millions of Internet websites, tens of thousands of which have significant numbers of visitors. While this fragmentation can create challenges for marketers, it also allows for improved audience segmentation and the delivery of highly targeted marketing messages, but innovative technologies and approaches are necessary to effectively manage marketing given the increasing complexity resulting from more media fragmentation.

Increasing complexity of online marketing

Online marketing is a dynamic and increasingly complex advertising medium. There are numerous online channels for marketers to reach potential customers, including search engines, Internet portals, vertical content websites, affiliate networks, display and contextual ad networks, email, video advertising, and social media. We refer to these and other marketing channels as media. Each of these channels may involve multiple ad formats and different pricing models, amplifying the complexity of online marketing. We believe that this complexity increases the demand for our vertical marketing and media services due to our capabilities and to our experience managing and optimizing online marketing programs across multiple channels. Also, marketers and agencies often lack our ability to aggregate offerings from multiple clients in the same industry vertical, an approach that allows us to cover a wide selection of visitor segments and provide more potential matches to visitor needs. This approach can allow us to convert more Internet visitors into qualified clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers from targeted media sources, giving us an advantage when buying or monetizing that media.

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Our Business Model

We deliver measurable and cost-effective marketing results to our clients, typically in the form of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. Clicks, leads, calls, and applications can then convert into a customer or sale for clients at a rate that results in an acceptable marketing cost to them. We are typically paid by clients when we deliver qualified inquiries in the form of clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers, as defined by our agreements with them. References to the delivery of customers means a sale or completed customer transaction (e.g., funded loans or customer appointments with clients). Because we bear the costs of media, our programs must result in attractive marketing costs to our clients at media costs and margins that provide sound financial outcomes for us. To deliver clicks, leads, calls, applications, and customers to our clients, generally we:

Media cost, or the cost to attract targeted Internet visitors, is the largest cost input to producing the measurable marketing results we deliver to clients. Balancing our clients’ customer acquisition cost and conversion objectives — or the rate at which the clicks, leads, calls, or applications that we deliver to them convert into customers — with our media costs and yield objectives, represents the primary challenge in our business model. We have been able to effectively balance these competing demands by focusing on our media sources and creative capabilities, developing proprietary technologies and optimization capabilities, and working to constantly improve segmentation and matching of visitors to clients through the application of our extensive data and experience in performance marketing. We also seek to mitigate media cost risk by working with third-party publishers and media owners predominantly on a revenue-share basis, which makes these costs variable and provides for risk management. Media purchased on a revenue-share basis has represented the majority of our media costs and of the Internet visitors we convert into qualified clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers for clients, contributing significantly to our ability to maintain profitability.

Media and Internet visitor mix

We are a client-driven organization. We seek to be one of the largest providers of measurable marketing results on the Internet in the client industry verticals we serve by meeting the needs of clients for results, reliability and volume. Meeting those client needs requires that we maintain a diversified and flexible mix of Internet visitor sources due to the dynamic nature of online media. Our media mix changes with changes in Internet visitor usage patterns. We adapt to those changes on an ongoing basis, and also proactively adjust our mix of vertical media sources to respond to client- or vertical-specific circumstances and to achieve our financial objectives. Generally, our Internet visitor sources include:

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Our Strategy

Our goal is to continue to be one of the largest and most successful performance marketing companies on the Internet, and eventually in other digitized media forms. We believe that we are in the early stages of a very large and long-term market opportunity. Our strategy for pursuing this opportunity includes the following key components:

Clients

In fiscal years 2024 and 2023, we had one client that accounted for 12% and 20% of net revenue. No other client accounted for 10% or more of net revenue in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Our top 20 clients accounted for 46% and 52% of net revenue in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Since our service was first offered in 2001, we have developed a broad client base with many multi-year relationships. We enter into Internet marketing contracts with our clients, most of which are cancelable with little or no prior notice. In addition, these contracts do not contain penalty provisions for cancellation before the end of the contract term.

Sales and Marketing

We have an internal sales team that consists of employees focused on signing new clients and account managers who maintain and seek to increase our business with existing clients. Our sales people and account managers are each focused on a particular client vertical so that they develop an expertise in the marketing needs of our clients in that particular vertical.

Technology and Infrastructure

We have developed a suite of technologies to manage, improve and measure the results of the marketing programs we offer our clients. We use a combination of proprietary and third-party software as well as hardware from established technology vendors. We use specialized software for client management, building and managing websites, acquiring and managing media, managing our third-party media sources, and using data and optimization tools to best match Internet visitors to our marketing clients. We have invested significantly in these technologies and plan to continue to do so to meet the demands of our clients and Internet visitors, to increase the scalability of our operations, and enhance management information systems and analytics in our operations. Our development teams work closely with our marketing and operating teams to develop applications and systems that can be used across our business. In fiscal years 2024 and 2023, we spent $30.0 million and $28.9 million on product development.

Our data centers are at third-party co-location centers in San Francisco, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. All of the critical components of the system are redundant. We have implemented these backup systems and redundancies to minimize the risk associated with earthquakes, fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, and other events beyond our control.

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Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright laws in the United States and other jurisdictions together with confidentiality agreements and technical measures to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary rights. To protect our trade secrets, we control access to our proprietary systems and technology and enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and confidentiality agreements with other third-parties. QuinStreet is a registered trademark in the United States and other jurisdictions. We also have registered and unregistered trademarks for the names of many of our websites, and we own the domain registrations for many of our website domains.

Our Competitors

Our primary competition falls into two categories: advertising and direct marketing services agencies, and online marketing and media companies. We compete for business on the basis of a number of factors including return on marketing expenditures, price, access to targeted media, ability to deliver large volumes or precise types of customer prospects, and reliability.

Advertising and direct marketing services agencies

Online and offline advertising and direct marketing services agencies control the majority of the large client marketing spending for which we primarily compete. So, while they are sometimes our competitors, agencies are also often our clients. We compete with agencies to attract marketing budget or spending from offline forms to the Internet or, once designated to be spent online, to be spent with us versus the agency or by the agency with others. When spending online, agencies spend with us and with portals, other websites and ad networks.

Online marketing and media companies

We compete with other Internet marketing and media companies, in many forms, for online marketing budgets. Most of these competitors compete with us in one client vertical. Examples include LendingTree and MediaAlpha in the financial services client vertical. Some of our competition also comes from agencies or clients spending directly with larger websites or portals, including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Facebook.

Government Regulation

We provide services through a number of different online and offline channels. As a result, we are subject to many federal and state laws and regulations, including restrictions on the use of unsolicited commercial email, such as the CAN-SPAM Act and state email marketing laws, and restrictions on the use of marketing activities conducted by telephone, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the “TCPA”). Our business is also subject to federal and state laws and regulations regarding unsolicited commercial email, telemarketing, user privacy, search engines, Internet tracking technologies, direct marketing, data security, data privacy, pricing, sweepstakes, promotions, intellectual property ownership and infringement, trade secrets, export of encryption technology, acceptable content and quality of goods, and taxation, among others.

In addition, we provide services to a number of our clients that operate in highly regulated industries. In our financial services client vertical, our websites and marketing services are subject to various federal, state and local laws, including state licensing laws, federal and state laws prohibiting unfair acts and practices, and federal and state advertising laws. In addition, we are a licensed insurance agent in all fifty states. The costs of compliance with these regulations and new laws may increase in the future and any failure on our part to comply with such laws may subject us to significant liabilities.

Human Capital Resources

Our business success depends on our people. We are committed to the development, attraction and retention of our employees. We are dedicated to our core principles and values which include: leading and taking ownership of results and growth, embracing new ideas and approaches as opportunities to improve our performance, striving to better understand and anticipate the needs of all stakeholders, and holding ourselves to high standards of performance and excellence. We strive to invest in professional learning and personal development opportunities that would develop talent and support personal, career and leadership growth. We hold ourselves accountable and we are committed to pay equity and parity. Our compensation philosophy is designed with both short- and long-term incentives. We prioritize the health, safety and wellness of our employees and strive to create an environment where our employees are productive and also physically and mentally healthy, safe and well. The health of our workforce remains our top priority while we work to ensure a safe work environment in our offices around the world.

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As of June 30, 2024, we had 899 employees, which consisted of 506 in operations, 291 employees in product development, 58 in sales and marketing and 44 in general and administration. None of our employees are represented by a labor union.

Diversity

We are committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity and inclusion. We not only embrace diversity but also seek to build a culture that attracts, retains, and develops a diverse set of employees. We have demonstrated this commitment by: (1) adding Diversity as one of our core values, (2) producing our annual gender and race demographic report, and (3) matching employee contributions to approved national associations and organizations ranging from legal advocacy to domestic support. We have also formed a Culture Committee to create inclusive and diverse events.

Employee Compensation

We provide comprehensive and competitive compensation packages to attract, reward and retain talented employees. Our employees’ total compensation package includes market-competitive salary, bonuses or sales incentives, and equity awards, including restricted stock units and an employee stock purchase plan. We strive to be as transparent as possible about our compensation principles. We hold ourselves accountable and we are committed to pay equity and parity. Our compensation philosophy is designed with both short- and long-term incentives.

Development and Learning

We invest in the professional development and growth of all our employees and are strongly committed to our responsibility of providing development and growth opportunities to our employees through greater emphasis on internal mobility and fair and equitable talent practices.

Available Information

We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other filings required by the SEC. We make these reports and filings available free of charge on our website via the investor relations page on www.quinstreet.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. We also webcast our earnings calls and certain events we host with members of the investment community on our investor relations page at http://investor.quinstreet.com. The content of our website is not intended to be incorporated by reference into this report or in any other report or document we file, and any reference to this website and others included in this report is intended to be an inactive textual reference only.

The public may read and copy any materials we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below and the other information in this periodic report. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. In those cases, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Summary of Risks Associated with Our Business

The following is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. These risks, and others, are described in further detail below this summary.

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Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We operate in an industry that is still developing and have a relatively new business model that is continually evolving, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects.

We derive all of our revenue from the sale of online marketing and media services, which is still a developing industry that has undergone rapid and dramatic changes in its relatively short history and which is characterized by rapidly-changing online media and advertising technology, evolving industry standards, regulatory uncertainty, and changing visitor and client demands. In addition, our business model and product offerings continue to evolve. We believe that our implementation of our enhanced products and media strategies across our business in a relatively early stage. As a result, we face risks and uncertainties such as but not limited to:

If we are unable to address these risks, our business, results of operations and prospects could suffer.

A reduction in online marketing spend by our clients, a loss of clients or lower advertising yields may seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, a substantial portion of our revenue is generated from a limited number of clients and if we lose a major client our revenue will decrease and our business and prospects may be harmed.

We rely on clients’ marketing spend on our owned and operated websites and on our network of third-party publisher and strategic partner websites. We have historically derived, and we expect to continue to derive, the majority of our revenue through the delivery of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications and customers. One component of our platform that we use to generate client interest is our system of monetization tools, which is designed to match content with client offerings in a manner that optimizes revenue yield and end-user experience. Clients will reduce or stop spending their marketing funds on our owned and operated websites or our third-party publisher and strategic partner websites if their investments do not generate marketing results and ultimately users or if we do not deliver advertisements in an appropriate and effective manner. The failure of our yield-optimized monetization technology to effectively match advertisements or client offerings with our content in a manner that results in increased revenue for our clients could have an adverse impact on our ability to maintain or increase our revenue from client marketing spend.

 

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Even if our content is effectively matched with advertisements or client offerings, our current clients may not continue to place marketing spend or advertisements on our websites or our third-party publisher or strategic partner websites. For example, macroeconomic conditions such as an economic downturn, a recession in the United States or other countries, a public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine military conflict and the Israel-Hamas war have impacted, and may continue to impact, our clients’ marketing spend in the short-term and potentially in the long-term. If any of our clients decide not to continue to place marketing spend or advertisements on our owned and operated websites or on our third-party publisher or strategic partner websites, we could experience a rapid decline in our revenue over a relatively short period of time. Any factors that limit the amount our clients are willing to and do spend on marketing or advertising with us, or to purchase marketing results from us, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

Furthermore, a substantial portion of our revenue is generated from a limited number of clients, including one client that accounted for 12% of our net revenue for fiscal year 2024. Our clients can generally terminate their contracts with us at any time or pause marketing spending without contract termination, and they do not have minimum spend requirements. Clients may also fail to renew their contracts or reduce their level of business with us, leading to lower revenue.

In addition, reductions in business by one or more significant clients has in the past triggered, and may in the future trigger, price reductions for other clients whose prices for certain products are determined in whole or in part by client bidding or competition which may reduce our ability to monetize media, further decreasing revenue. Any such future price or volume reductions, or drop in media monetization, could result in lower revenue or margin which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. We expect that a limited number of clients will continue to account for a significant percentage of our revenue, and the loss of any one of these clients, or a material reduction in their marketing spending with us, could decrease our revenue and harm our business.

We depend on third-party media sources, including strategic partners, for a significant portion of our visitors. Any decline in the supply of media available through these third-party publishers’ websites (including via regulatory action specific to those websites or to third-party media sources generally), or increase in the price of this media, could cause our revenue to decline or our cost to reach visitors to increase.

A significant portion of our revenue is attributable to visitor traffic originating from third-party publishers (including strategic partners). In many instances, third-party publishers can change the media inventory they make available to us whether due to regulatory action affecting specific publishers or to third-party media generally at any time in ways that could impact our results of operations. In addition, third-party publishers may place significant restrictions on our offerings. These restrictions may prohibit advertisements from specific clients or specific industries, or restrict the use of certain creative content or formats. If a third-party publisher decides not to make its media channel or inventory available to us, decides to demand a higher revenue share or places significant restrictions on the use of such inventory, we may not be able to find media inventory from other websites that satisfies our requirements in a timely and cost-effective manner. Consolidation of Internet advertising networks and third-party publishers could eventually lead to a concentration of desirable inventory on websites or networks owned by a small number of individuals or entities, which could limit the supply or impact the pricing of inventory available to us. In the past, we have experienced declines in our financial services client vertical primarily due to volume declines caused by losses of available media from third-party publishers acquired by competitors, changes in search engine algorithms which reduced or eliminated traffic from some third-party publishers and increased competition for quality media. We cannot assure you that we will be able to acquire media inventory that meets our clients’ performance, price and quality requirements, in which case our revenue could decline or our operating costs could increase. For more information on our risks related to third-party publishers and search engines, please see the risk factor below titled “We depend upon Internet search companies to direct a significant portion of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites. Changes in search engine algorithms have in the past harmed, and may in the future harm, the websites’ placements in both paid and organic search result listings, which may reduce the number of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites and as a result, cause our revenue to decline.”

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We are exposed to data privacy and security risks, particularly given that we gather, transmit, store and otherwise process personal information and implement artificial intelligence technology in certain products. If we fail to maintain adequate safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of personal information, including any failure to develop, implement and support our technology infrastructure and assessment processes, we may be in breach of our commitments to our clients and consumers. Unauthorized or accidental access to, or disclosure or use of, confidential or proprietary data (including personal information) in our network systems, including via ransomware attacks, may cause us to incur significant expenses and may negatively affect our reputation and business.

Nearly all of our products and services are web-based, and online performance marketing is data-driven. As a result, the amount of data stored on our servers is substantial. We gather, transmit, store and otherwise process confidential and proprietary information about our users and marketing and media partners, including personal information. This information may include social security numbers, credit scores, credit card information, and financial and health information, some of which is held, managed or otherwise processed by our third-party vendors. As a result, we are subject to certain contractual terms, including third-party security reviews, as well as federal, state and foreign laws and regulations designed to protect personal information. Complying with these contractual terms and various laws and regulations is expensive and could cause us to incur substantial additional costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business. In addition, cybersecurity incidents, cyber-attacks and other breaches have been occurring globally at a more frequent and severe level, are evolving in nature and will likely continue to increase in frequency and severity in the future. Additionally, some actors are using artificial intelligence technology to launch more automated, targeted and coordinated attacks. Our existing security measures may not be successful in preventing security breaches, cyber-attacks or other similar incidents. As we grow our business, we expect to continue to invest in technology services, hardware and software, such as our QRP product. Creating the appropriate security support for our technology platforms is expensive and complex, and our execution could result in inefficiencies or operational failures and increased vulnerability to security breaches, cyber-attacks and other similar incidents. We may also make commitments to our clients regarding our security practices in connection with clients’ due diligence. If we do not adequately implement and enforce these security policies to the satisfaction of our clients, we could be in violation of our commitments to our clients and this could result in a loss of client confidence, damage to our reputation and loss of business. Despite our implementation of security measures and controls, our information technology and infrastructure are susceptible to circumvention by an internal party or third-party, such as electronic or physical computer break-ins, security breaches, attacks, malware, ransomware, viruses, social engineering (including phishing attacks), denial of service or information, fraud, employee error and other disruptions or similar incidents, including those perpetrated by criminals or nation state actors, that could result in, among other things, third parties gaining unauthorized access to our systems and data (including confidential, proprietary and personal information). Moreover, retaliatory acts by Russia in response to economic sanctions or other measures taken by the international community against Russia arising from the Russia-Ukraine military conflict could include an increased number or severity of cyber-attacks from Russia or its allies. We may be unable to anticipate all our vulnerabilities and implement adequate preventative measures and, in some cases, we may not be able to immediately detect a security breach, cyber-attack or other similar incident. In the past, we have experienced security incidents involving access to our databases. Any future security incidents could result in the compromise of such data and subject us to liability or remediation expense or result in cancellation of client contracts. Any actual or alleged security breach, cyber-attack or other similar incident may result in a misappropriation of our confidential or proprietary information (including personal information) or that of our users, clients and third-party publishers, which could result in legal and financial liability, remediation expense, cancellation of client contracts, regulatory intervention, and harm to our reputation. Any compromise of our security could limit the adoption of our products and services and have an adverse effect on our business.

We also face risks associated with security breaches, cyber-attacks and other similar incidents affecting third parties conducting business online. Consumers generally are concerned with data privacy and security on the Internet, and any publicized data privacy or security problems could negatively affect consumers’ willingness to provide private information on the Internet generally, including through our services. Some of our business is conducted through third parties, which may gather, transmit, store and otherwise process information (including confidential, proprietary and personal information) about our users and marketing and media partners, through our infrastructure or through other systems. While we perform data privacy and security assessments on such third parties, it is important to note that if any such third party fails to adopt or adhere to adequate security procedures, or if despite such procedures its networks or systems are breached, information relating to our users and marketing and media partners may be lost or improperly accessed, used or disclosed. A security breach, cyber-attack or other similar incident experienced by any such third party could be perceived by consumers as a security breach of our systems and in any event could result in negative publicity, damage our reputation, expose us to risk of loss or litigation and possible liability and subject us to regulatory penalties and sanctions. In addition, such third-parties may not comply with applicable disclosure or contractual requirements, which could expose us to liability.

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Security concerns relating to our technological infrastructure, data privacy concerns relating to our data collection and processing practices and any perceived or public disclosure of any actual unauthorized or accidental access to or disclosure or use of personal information, whether through breach of our network or that of third parties with which we engage, by an unauthorized party or due to employee theft, misuse, or error, could harm our reputation, impair our ability to attract website visitors and to attract and retain our clients, result in a loss of confidence in the security of our products and services, or subject us to claims or litigation arising from damages suffered by consumers, and thereby harm our business and results of operations. In recent years, several major companies have experienced high-profile security breaches, cyber-attacks and other similar incidents that exposed their customers’ personal information. In addition, we could incur significant costs for which our insurance policies may not adequately cover us and may be required to expend significant resources in protecting against cyber-attacks, security breaches and other similar incidents and to comply with the multitude of state, federal and foreign laws and regulations regarding data privacy, security and data breach notification obligations. We may need to increase our security-related expenditures to maintain or increase our systems’ security or to address problems caused and liabilities incurred by security breaches, cyber-attacks and other similar incidents.

We depend upon Internet search companies to direct a significant portion of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites. Changes in search engine algorithms have in the past harmed, and may in the future harm, the websites’ placements in both paid and organic search result listings, which may reduce the number of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites and as a result, cause our revenue to decline.

Our success depends on our ability to attract online visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites and convert them into customers for our clients in a cost-effective manner. We depend on Internet search companies to direct a substantial share of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites. Search companies offer two types of search results: organic and paid listings. Organic listings are displayed based solely on formulas designed by the search companies. Paid listings are displayed based on a combination of the advertiser’s bid price for particular keywords and the search engines’ assessment of the website’s relevance and quality. If one or more of the search engines or other online sources on which we rely for purchased listings modifies or terminates its relationship with us, our expenses could rise, we could lose consumers, and traffic to our websites could decrease. Changes in how search engines elect to operate, including with respect to the breadth of keyword matching, could also have an adverse impact on our campaigns. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to maintain or grow the number of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites from search companies is not entirely within our control. Search companies frequently revise their algorithms and changes in their algorithms have in the past caused, and could in the future cause, our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites to receive less favorable placements. We have experienced fluctuations in organic rankings for a number of our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites and some of our paid listing campaigns have also been harmed by search engine algorithmic changes. Search companies could determine that our or our third-party publishers’ websites’ content is either not relevant or is of poor quality. Additionally, search engines may incorporate artificial intelligence into their platforms in ways that we cannot predict. Such changes have adversely affected, and may continue to adversely affect, the placement of our search result page ranking, which could reduce traffic to our websites.

In addition, we may fail to optimally manage our paid listings, or our proprietary bid management technologies may fail. To attract and retain visitors, we use search engine optimization (“SEO”) which involves developing content to optimize ranking in search engine results. Our ability to successfully manage SEO efforts across our owned and operated websites and our third-party publishers’ websites depends on our timely and effective modification of SEO practices implemented in response to periodic changes in search engine algorithms and methodologies and changes in search query trends. If we fail to successfully manage our SEO strategy, our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites may receive less favorable placement in organic or paid listings, which would reduce the number of visitors to our sites, decrease conversion rates and repeat business and have a detrimental effect on our ability to generate revenue. If visits to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites decrease, we may need to use more costly sources to replace lost visitors, and such increased expense could adversely affect our business and profitability. Even if we succeed in driving traffic to our owned and operated websites, our third-party publishers’ websites and our clients’ websites, we may not be able to effectively monetize this traffic or otherwise retain users. Our failure to do so could result in lower advertising revenue from our owned and operated websites as well as third-party publishers’ websites, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, changes in the usage and functioning of search engines or decreases in consumer use of search engines, for example, as a result of the continued development of artificial intelligence technology, could negatively impact our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites.

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Negative changes in the economic conditions and the regulatory environment have had in the past, and may in the future have, a material and adverse impact on our revenue, business and growth.

Adverse macroeconomic conditions could cause decreases or delays in spending by our clients in response to consumer demand and could harm our ability to generate revenue and our results of operations. Changes in the macroeconomic or market conditions and changes in the regulatory environment have in the past affected, and may continue to negatively affect, our clients’ businesses, marketing practices and budgets and, therefore, impact our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

Worldwide economic conditions remain uncertain due to various global disruptions, including geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war (including collateral damage from cyberwarfare and targeted security attacks), terrorist activity, natural disasters, climate change and extreme-weather related events, power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics, and significant local, national, or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population, which could prevent or hinder our, our third-party publishers’ or our clients’ ability to do business, increase our costs, and negatively affect our stock price. Adverse consequences resulting from increasing economic or political conflicts between the United States and China, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., NATO and other countries, the Israel-Hamas war and the possible expansion of such conflict in the surrounding areas, and various other market issues may have broader implications on economies outside of their respective regions, including increased instability in the worldwide financial markets and economy, increases in inflation, recessionary economic cycles, and enhanced volatility in foreign currency exchange rates. These uncertainties have in the past and may in the future cause our clients or potential clients to delay or reduce spending, which could negatively impact our revenue and operating results and make it difficult for us to accurately plan future business activities.

We, our third-party publishers’, and our clients’ businesses operate in highly regulated industries, subject to many laws and regulatory requirements, including federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding unsolicited commercial email, telemarketing, search engines, Internet tracking technologies, comparison shopping platforms, direct marketing, data privacy and security, advertising and consumer protection, pricing, sweepstakes, promotions, intellectual property ownership and infringement, trade secrets, use of artificial intelligence, export of encryption technology, acceptable content and quality of goods, and taxation, among others. Each of our financial services and other client verticals is also subject to various laws and regulations, and our marketing activities on behalf of our clients are regulated. Many of these laws and regulations are frequently changing and can be subject to vagaries of interpretation and emphasis, and the extent and evolution of future regulation is uncertain. Keeping our business in compliance with existing laws and regulations or bringing our business into compliance with new laws and regulations, therefore, may be costly, affect our revenue and harm our financial results.

For example, regulation in data privacy and security is rapidly evolving in the U.S. and internationally, including laws, rules and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, retention, deletion, sharing, use and other processing of personal information. At the U.S. federal level, we are subject to the laws and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates unfair or deceptive acts or practices (including with respect to data privacy and security). At the state level, we are subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, the “CCPA”). The CCPA requires covered businesses to, among other things, provide disclosures to California residents about their data collection, use, sharing and processing practices and, with limited business exceptions, the CCPA affords such individuals various rights with respect to their personal information, including to request deletion of personal information collected about them and to opt-out of certain personal information selling and sharing practices. A number of other states such as Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah have also enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business and ability to provide our products and services. Certain states also impose strict requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments, and allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. In addition, laws in all 50 U.S. states require businesses to provide notice under certain circumstances to consumers whose personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach.

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Further, foreign laws and regulations such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the “EU GDPR”), and the version thereof implemented into the laws of the United Kingdom (the “UK GDPR”), may apply to our business and marketing activities that are offered to European Union and United Kingdom users. The EU GDPR and UK GDPR include a range of compliance obligations and penalties for non-compliance are significant. Although the substantive requirements of the UK GDPR are largely aligned with those of the EU GDPR, exposing us to burdens and risks comparable to the EU GDPR, that may change over time. Preparing for and complying with existing and new data privacy and security laws and regulations requires significant time and resources to ensure we store, use, share and otherwise process personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. We also are, and in the future may become, subject to various other obligations relating to data privacy and security, including industry standards, external and internal policies, contracts and other obligations. For example, numerous jurisdictions are considering laws and regulations that would impose additional data privacy and other compliance requirements on the use of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and could require us to adjust or limit our product offerings in such jurisdictions. Violations or alleged violations of laws and regulations, or any such obligations, by us, our third-party publishers, our clients or our third-party service providers on which we rely to process personal information on our behalf, could result in enforcement actions, litigation, damages, fines, criminal prosecution, unfavorable publicity, and restrictions on our ability to operate, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, new laws or regulations (including amendments thereof or changes in enforcement of existing laws or regulations applicable to us or our clients) could affect the activities or strategies of us, our clients or our third-party service providers and, therefore, lead to reductions in their level of business with us or otherwise impact our business or our business model.

Additionally, in connection with our owned and our third-party publishers’ telemarketing campaigns to generate traffic for our clients, we are subject to various state and federal laws regulating telemarketing communications (including SMS or text messaging), including the federal TCPA, which requires prior express written consent for certain types of telemarketing calls and adherence to “do-not-call” registry requirements which, in part, mandate that callers maintain and regularly update lists of consumers who have chosen not to be called and restrict calls to consumers who are on the national do-not-call list. As currently construed, the TCPA does not distinguish between voice and data, and, as such, text and SMS/MMS messages are also “calls” for the purpose of TCPA obligations and restrictions. For violations of the TCPA, the law provides for a private right of action under which a plaintiff may recover monetary damages of $500 for each call or text made in violation of the prohibitions on certain calls made using an artificial or pre-recorded voice or an automatic telephone dialing system and certain calls made to numbers properly registered on the federal “do-not-call” list. The TCPA and other similar state laws are subject to interpretations that may change. We regularly evaluate how this may apply to our business. Our efforts to comply with the TCPA have not had a material impact on traffic conversion rates. However, depending on future traffic and product mix, it could potentially have a material effect on our revenue and profitability, including increasing our and our clients’ exposure to enforcement actions, litigation and statutory damages. The TCPA regulations have resulted in an increase in individual and class action litigation against marketing companies for alleged TCPA violations. TCPA violations can result in significant financial penalties, including penalties or criminal fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) or fines of up to $1,500 per violation imposed through private litigation or by state authorities. Additionally, we generate inquiries from users that provide a phone number, and a significant amount of revenue comes from calls made by our internal call centers as well as, in some cases, by third-party publishers’ call centers. We also purchase a portion of inquiry data from third-party publishers and cannot guarantee that these third-parties will comply with applicable laws and regulations. Any failure by us or the third-party publishers on which we rely for telemarketing, email marketing, and other performance marketing activities to adhere to or successfully implement appropriate processes and procedures in response to existing laws and regulations and changing regulatory requirements could result in legal and monetary liability, significant fines and penalties, or damage to our reputation in the marketplace, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, our clients may make business decisions based on their own experiences with the TCPA regardless of our products and the changes we implemented to comply with the new regulations. These decisions may negatively affect our revenue or profitability.

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Changes in regulations, or the regulatory environment, applicable to us or our media sources, third party publishers or clients could also have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, in December 2023, the FCC adopted new rules to further restrict the transmission of text messages. One of these rules has been appealed and is being subjected to judicial review, but generally these new rules are scheduled to take effect over the course of 2024 and early 2025 to further restrict the transmission of text messages. The rules, among other things, amend TCPA consent requirements to prohibit the practice of allowing a single consumer consent to be grounds for multiple entities to deliver automated marketing calls and text messages, thereby requiring consent for such calls and text messages to be secured and provided on a “one-to-one” basis and requiring the consent to be “logically and topically associated” with the interaction that prompted the consent. Further, the new rules allow the FCC to “red flag” certain numbers, requiring mobile carriers to block texts from those numbers. The rules also codify that the national Do-Not-Call list protections apply to text messaging, making it illegal for marketing texts to be sent to numbers on the national Do-Not-Call registry absent an applicable exception. The FCC order adopting the new rules also encourages providers to make email-to-text messages an opt-in service for end users. Except for the “one-to-one” and “logically and topically associated” consent rule and the “red flag” blocking requirements, the new rules took effect on March 26, 2024. The “one-to-one” and “logically and topically associated” consent rule, which has been appealed, is scheduled to take effect on January 27, 2025, absent judicial intervention. The “red flag” blocking requirements requiring mobile wireless providers to block texts from phone numbers on a “reasonable” do-not-originate list is effective on September 3, 2024 and a similar rule which requires mobile wireless providers to block texts from numbers identified by the FCC through its Enforcement Bureau is effective on July 24, 2024.

As another example, in February 2024, the FCC adopted new rules governing the ability of call and text message recipients to revoke consent previously given and thereby “opt-out” of receiving future calls and text messages from a sender. These new rules specify when a call or text message recipient’s consent must be considered revoked and create certain presumptions about other forms of consent revocation that a sender of a call or text message can rebut pursuant to a totality of circumstances test administered by the FCC or a court. They also require valid consent revocations to be honored within a reasonable period not to exceed ten business days from receipt of such request. Additionally, when a recipient has consented to several categories of text messages from a sender and opt-out of a text message from that sender, the new rules permit a sender to seek to clarify the scope of the opt-out request through a one-time opt-out confirmation text message. This rule permitting a sender to seek such clarification through a one-time opt-out confirmation text message took effect on April 4, 2024. The effective date for the remaining consent revocation rules has not yet been set.

The FCC rules could have a material adverse impact on our media sources and our clients, especially smaller businesses, as they may not be able to continue to participate in, or may substantially reduce their participation in, the online advertising channel due to increased costs, technological compliance challenges and additional legal risks, including potential liabilities or claims relating to compliance. Decreased participation in online advertising by our media sources or clients as a result of the rules could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operation and financial condition, as it may reduce the availability to us of qualified inquiries. Moreover, our business could be materially and adversely affected directly by the FCC’s rules, as we also generate a substantial portion of our revenue from our own operation of websites to generate qualified inquiries. While some of the rules become effective in 2025, recommendations for best practices from associations such as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (“CTIA”) may encourage mobile wireless carriers to require senders of SMS or text messages to comply with the amended rules ahead of the applicable effective dates. In addition, wireline and mobile wireless carriers or their service providers could elect to impose additional requirements, including with respect to prerecorded calls and the use of short codes and ten-digit long codes to transmit or receive text messages, which could have the effect of hindering our ability to contact consumers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. The scope and application of these rules and related industry practices may be subject to changes and uncertainties. The operation of or compliance with the rules and related industry practices may decrease our revenues or increase our costs. In addition, any failure by us or our media sources or clients to comply with such laws and practices may subject us to significant liabilities.

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An increased focus by regulatory agencies on the enforcement of certain regulations regarding comparison-shopping could have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, on February 29, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2024-01, Preferencing and steering practices by digital intermediaries for consumer financial products or services (the “Circular”). The Circular advised that operators of comparison-shopping websites may violate the prohibition against “abusive” conduct in the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”) by steering consumers to certain products or services based on how the site operators are compensated. The Circular also discusses how operators of digital comparison-shopping tools can violate the prohibition on abusive practices by virtue of receiving compensation from financial service providers in exchange for preferential treatment on comparison-shopping sites. The Circular was intended to provide guidance to other law enforcement agencies with authority to enforce the CFPA’s “abusiveness” provisions, most notably state attorneys general. Violations of the abusiveness provisions are subject to civil money penalties and possible conduct prohibitions. In connection with our owned and our third-party publishers’ email campaigns to generate traffic for our clients, we are also subject to various state and federal laws regulating commercial email communications, including the federal CAN-SPAM Act. For example, in 2012, several of our clients were named defendants in a California Anti-Spam lawsuit relating to commercial emails which allegedly originated from us and our third-party publishers. While the matter was ultimately resolved in our clients’ favor, we were nonetheless obligated to indemnify certain of our clients for the fees incurred in the defense of such matter. Further, foreign laws and regulations, such as the Canadian Anti-Spam Law, may also apply to our business activities to the extent we are doing business with or marketing to consumers in foreign jurisdictions. If we or any of our third-party publishers fail to comply with any provisions of these laws or regulations, we could be subject to regulatory investigation, enforcement actions and litigation, as well as indemnification obligations with respect to our clients. Any negative outcomes from such regulatory actions or litigation, including monetary penalties or damages, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operation and reputation.

From time to time, we are subject to audits, inquiries, investigations, claims of non-compliance and lawsuits by federal and state governmental agencies, regulatory agencies, attorneys general and other governmental or regulatory bodies, any of whom may allege violations of legal and regulatory requirements. For our dispositioned assets or businesses, we retain certain liabilities or obligations in connection with our pre-closing actions or omissions, contractual or otherwise. For example, in June 2012, we entered into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement following a civil investigation into certain of our marketing practices related to our education client vertical that was conducted by the attorneys general of a number of states; and, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, we dispositioned our education client vertical. Because our subsidiary CloudControlMedia, LLC (“CCM”) provides performance marketing agency and technology services to clients in financial services, education and other markets, we may still be subject to investigations, audits, inquiries, claims or litigation related to education. If any audits, inquiries, investigations, claims of non-compliance and lawsuits by federal and state governmental agencies, regulatory agencies, attorneys general and other governmental or regulatory bodies are unfavorable to us, we may be required to pay monetary fines or penalties or have restrictions placed on our business, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our cash and cash equivalents may be exposed to banking institution risk.

While we seek to minimize our exposure to third-party losses of our cash and cash equivalents, we hold our balances in a number of large financial institutions. Notwithstanding, those institutions are subject to risks, which may include failure or other circumstances that limit our access to deposits or other banking services. For example, on March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) was unable to continue their operations and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) was appointed as receiver for SVB. However, if further failures in financial institutions occur where we hold deposits, we could experience additional risk. Any such loss or limitation on our cash and cash equivalents would adversely affect our business.

In addition, in such circumstances we might not be able to receive timely payment from clients. We and they may maintain cash balances that are not insured or are in excess of the FDIC’s insurance limit. Any delay in ours or our clients’ ability to access funds could have a material adverse effect on our operations. If any parties with which we conduct business are unable to access funds pursuant to such instruments or lending arrangements with such a financial institution, such parties’ ability to continue to fund their business and perform their obligations to us could be adversely affected, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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If we fail to continually enhance and adapt our products and services to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and industry standards, we may not remain competitive and could lose clients or advertising inventory.

The online media and marketing industry is characterized by rapidly changing standards, changing technologies, frequent new or enhanced product and service introductions and changing user and client demands. The introduction of new technologies and services embodying new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the emergence of new industry standards and practices could render our existing technologies and services obsolete and unmarketable or require unanticipated investments in technology. We continually make enhancements and other modifications to our proprietary technologies as well as our product and service offerings. This includes expansion into new categories (e.g., health insurance). Our product changes may contain design or performance defects that are not readily apparent. Expanded category offerings may experience issues as we launch new products and services. If our proprietary technologies or our new or enhanced products and services fail to achieve their intended purpose or are less effective than the technologies or products and services used by our competitors, our business could be harmed.

In particular, we have incorporated and may continue to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning, (“AIML”), solutions into our platform, offerings, services, and features, including those based on large language models, and these applications may become more important to our operations or to our future growth over time. We expect to utilize AIML solutions to help drive future growth in our business, but there can be no assurance that we will realize the desired or anticipated benefits from AIML or properly implement or market our AIML solutions. Our competitors and other third parties may incorporate AIML into their products more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, our offerings based on AIML may expose us to additional lawsuits and regulatory investigations and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm. For example, if the content, analyses, or recommendations that AIML applications assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, or infringe on third-party intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. Regulatory uncertainty, including the lack of comprehensive federal legislation, a patchwork of existing and proposed frameworks, and emerging regulatory initiatives, may expose us to compliance challenges and uncertainties. Our failure to adapt to these changes could result in legal and reputational consequences including being required to adjust or limit our use of AI in certain jurisdictions to comply with new and evolving AI laws and regulations. Additionally, the use of AIML applications has resulted in, and may in the future result in, cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of end users of such applications. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AIML applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AIML also presents emerging ethical issues and if our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm.

We are investing in AIML. Our investments include partnering with companies to bring AIML to our platform. Our competitors are pursuing similar opportunities. These competitors may, as a result of greater resources, branding, or otherwise, adopt and implement AIML faster or more successfully than we do, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. It is also possible that our investments in AIML do not result in the benefits we anticipate, or enable us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example, we may not accurately anticipate market demand or offer AIML that improves end user experience.

Our future success will also depend in part on our ability to successfully adapt to rapidly changing online media formats and other technologies. If we fail to adapt successfully, we could lose clients or advertising inventory and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.

Our results of operations have fluctuated in the past and may do so in the future, which makes our results of operations difficult to predict and could cause our results of operations to fall short of analysts’ and investors’ expectations.

Historically, quarterly and annual results of operations have fluctuated due to changes in our business, our industry and the general economic and regulatory climate. We expect our future results of operations to vary significantly from quarter to quarter due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. For example, pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts such as the Russian-Ukraine military conflict and the Israel-Hamas war, have previously, and may over the longer term, make our results of operations difficult to predict, especially for our credit-driven businesses. Furthermore, changes in monetary or fiscal policy as the result of pandemics, military conflicts or otherwise may have consequences to our businesses, including our credit-driven businesses, which are unprecedented or otherwise difficult to predict. Our fluctuating results of operations could cause our performance and outlook to be below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, causing the price of our common stock to decline. Our business changes and evolves over time, and, as a result, our historical results of operations may not be useful to you in predicting our future results of operations. Factors that may increase the volatility of our results of operations include, but are not limited to, the following:

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As a result of changes in our business model, increased investments, increased expenditures for certain businesses, products, services and technologies, we anticipate fluctuations in our adjusted EBITDA margin.

We have invested and expect to continue to invest in new businesses, products, markets, services and technologies, including more expensive forms of media. For example, we may expend significant resources in developing new products and technologies and made strategic outlays in, among other things, partnerships, which in the short term may have the effect of reducing our adjusted EBITDA margin. If we are unsuccessful in our monetization efforts with respect to new products and investments, we may fail to engage and retain users and clients. We may have insufficient revenue to fully offset liabilities and expenses in connection with these new products and investments and may experience inadequate or unpredictable return of capital on our investments. As a result of new products and investments, we may expect fluctuations in our adjusted EBITDA margin.

To maintain target levels of profitability, from time to time, we may restructure our operations or make other adjustments to our workforce. For example, in November 2016, we announced a corporate restructuring resulting in the reduction of approximately 25% of personnel costs.

Our visitor traffic and our clients’ spend can be impacted by interest rate volatility.

Visitor traffic to our online platforms in our personal loan, home services and banking client verticals may change as interest rates change. A decrease in interest rates may lead to more consumers looking to lower their borrowing costs. These consumers may visit our websites, websites within or outside our publisher network, or our clients’ websites. To the extent consumers visit websites outside of our network, our personal loan, home services and banking client verticals may be adversely impacted. A decrease in interest rates may also reduce consumer demand for banking products. Interest rate increases may decrease demand for personal loan and related products but may not increase demand for banking products. Federal Reserve Board actions, regulations restricting the amount of interest and fees that may be charged to consumers, increased borrower default levels, tightening or uncertainty with respect to underwriting standards, and general market conditions affecting access to credit could also cause significant fluctuations in consumer behavior, as well as volatility in client spending and demand for media, each of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

If we fail to compete effectively against other online marketing and media companies and other competitors, we could lose clients and our revenue may decline.

The market for online marketing is intensely competitive, and we expect this competition to continue to increase in the future both from existing competitors and, given the relatively low barriers to entry into the market, from new competitors. We compete both for clients and for high-quality media. We compete for clients on the basis of a number of factors, including return on investment of clients’ marketing spending, price and client service.

We compete with Internet and traditional media companies for high quality media and for a share of clients’ overall marketing budgets, including:

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Finding, developing and retaining high quality media on a cost-effective basis is challenging because competition for web traffic among websites and search engines, as well as competition with traditional media companies, has resulted and may continue to result in significant increases in media pricing, declining margins, reductions in revenue and loss of market share. In addition, if we expand the scope of our services, we may compete with a greater number of websites, clients and traditional media companies across an increasing range of different services, including in vertical markets where competitors may have advantages in expertise, brand recognition and other areas. Internet search and social media companies with brand recognition have significant numbers of direct sales personnel and substantial proprietary advertising inventory and web traffic that provide a significant competitive advantage and have a significant impact on pricing for Internet advertising and web traffic. Some of these companies may offer or develop more vertically targeted products that match users with products and services and, thus, compete with us more directly. The trend toward consolidation in online marketing may also affect pricing and availability of media inventory and web traffic. Many of our current and potential competitors also have other competitive advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger client bases, greater access to advertising inventory on high-traffic websites and significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources. As a result, we may not be able to compete successfully. Competition from other marketing service providers’ online and offline offerings has affected and may continue to affect both volume and price, and, thus, revenue, profit margins and profitability. If we fail to deliver results that are superior to those that other online marketing service providers deliver to clients, we could lose clients and market share, and our revenue may decline.

Many people are using mobile devices to access the Internet. If we fail to optimize our websites for mobile access with respect to user interfaces, we may not remain competitive and could lose clients or visitors to our websites.

The number of people who access the Internet through mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets has continued to increase dramatically in the past several years. Our online marketing services and content were originally designed for desktop or laptop computers. The shift from desktop or laptop computers to mobile devices could potentially deteriorate the user experience for mobile visitors to our websites and may make it more difficult for mobile visitors to respond to our offerings. For example, a user’s experience on a mobile device with respect to user interfaces such as an online marketing website and content originally designed for desktop or laptop computers will be suboptimal unless such website and content are designed to accommodate and improve mobile access to ensure a positive user experience. It also requires us to develop new product offerings specifically designed for mobile devices, such as social media advertising opportunities. If we fail to optimize our websites cost effectively and improve the monetization capabilities of our mobile marketing services, we may not remain competitive, which may negatively affect our business and results of operations.

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Third-party publishers, strategic partners, vendors or their respective affiliates may engage in unauthorized or unlawful acts that could subject us to significant liability or cause us to lose clients and revenue.

We generate a significant portion of our web visitors from online media that we source directly from our third-party publishers’ and strategic partners’ owned and operated websites, as well as indirectly from the affiliates of our third-party publishers and strategic partners. We also rely on third-party call centers and email marketers. Some of these third-parties, strategic partners, vendors and their respective affiliates are authorized to use our clients’ brands including to gather, transmit, store or otherwise process our clients’ data in certain instances. Any activity by third-party publishers, strategic partners, vendors or their respective affiliates which violates the marketing guidelines of our clients or that clients view as potentially damaging to their brands (e.g., search engine bidding on client trademarks), whether or not permitted by our contracts with our clients, could harm our relationship with the client and cause the client to terminate its relationship with us, resulting in a loss of revenue. Moreover, because we do not have a direct contractual relationship with the affiliates of our third-party publishers and strategic partners, we may not be able to monitor the compliance activity of such affiliates. If we are unable to cause our third-party publishers and strategic partners to monitor and enforce our clients’ contractual restrictions on such affiliates, our clients may terminate their relationships with us or decrease their marketing budgets with us. In addition, we may also face liability for any failure of our third-party publishers, strategic partners, vendors or their respective affiliates to comply with regulatory requirements, as further described in the risk factor beginning, “Negative changes in the economic conditions and the regulatory environment have had in the past, and may in the future have, a material and adverse impact on our revenue, business and growth.”

The law is unsettled on the extent of liability that an advertiser in our position has for the activities of third-party publishers, strategic partners or vendors. In addition, certain of our contracts impose liability on us, including indemnification obligations, for the acts of our third-party publishers, strategic partners or vendors. We could be subject to costly litigation and, if we are unsuccessful in defending ourselves, we could incur damages for the unauthorized or unlawful acts of third-party publishers, strategic partners or vendors.

If we are unable to collect our receivables from our clients, our results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected.

We expect to obtain payment from our clients for work performed and maintain an allowance against receivables for potential losses on client accounts. Actual losses on client receivables could differ from those that we currently anticipate and, as a result, we might need to adjust our allowances. We may not accurately assess the creditworthiness of our clients. Macroeconomic conditions, such as any evolving industry standards, economic downturns, changing regulatory conditions and changing visitor and client demands, could also result in financial difficulties for our clients, including insolvency or bankruptcy. As a result, this could cause clients to delay payments to us, request modifications to their payment arrangements that could extend the timing of cash receipts or default on their payment obligations to us. For example, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019, we recorded a one-time charge of $8.7 million for bad debt expense related to a large former education client, which arose in part due to the U.S. Department of Education restricting one of its for-profit schools from participating in Title IV programs. If we experience an increase in the time to bill and collect for our services, our results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected.

We rely on certain advertising agencies for the purchase of various advertising and marketing services on behalf of their clients. Such agencies may have or develop high-risk credit profiles, which may result in credit risk to us.

A portion of our client business is sourced through advertising agencies and, in many cases, we contract with these agencies and not directly with the underlying client. Contracting with these agencies subjects us to greater credit risk than when we contract with clients directly. In many cases, agencies are not required to pay us unless and until they are paid by the underlying client. In addition, many agencies are thinly capitalized and have or may develop high-risk credit profiles. This credit risk may vary depending on the nature of an agency’s aggregated client base. If an agency were to become insolvent, or if an underlying client did not pay the agency, we may be required to write off account receivables as bad debt. Any such write-offs could have a materially negative effect on our results of operations for the periods in which the write-offs occur.

If we do not effectively manage any future growth or if we are not able to scale our products or upgrade our technology or network hosting infrastructure quickly enough to meet our clients’ needs, our operating performance will suffer and we may lose clients.

We have experienced growth in our operations and operating locations during certain periods of our history. This growth has placed, and any future growth may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. Growth, if any, may make it more difficult for us to accomplish the following:

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Our future success depends in part on the efficient performance of our software and technology infrastructure. As the numbers of websites, mobile applications and Internet users increase, our technology infrastructure may not be able to meet the increased demand. Unexpected constraints on our technology infrastructure could lead to slower website response times or system failures and adversely affect the availability of websites and the level of user responses received, which could result in the loss of clients or revenue or harm to our business and results of operations.

In addition, our personnel, systems, procedures and controls may be inadequate to support our future operations. The improvements required to manage growth may require us to make significant expenditures, expand, train and manage our employee base, and reallocate valuable management resources. We may spend substantial amounts to purchase or lease data centers and equipment, upgrade our technology and network infrastructure to handle increased traffic on our owned and operated websites and roll out new products and services. Any such expansion could be expensive and complex and could result in inefficiencies or operational failures. If we do not implement such expansions successfully, or if we experience inefficiencies and operational failures during their implementation, the quality of our products and services and our users’ experience could decline. This could damage our reputation and cause us to lose current and potential users and clients. The costs associated with these adjustments to our architecture could harm our operating results. Accordingly, if we fail to effectively manage any future growth, our operating performance will suffer, and we may lose clients, key vendors and key personnel.

Interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems could impair our ability to effectively deliver our services, which could cause us to lose clients and harm our results of operations.

Our delivery of marketing and media services depends on the continuing operation of our technology infrastructure and systems. Any damage to or failure of our systems could result in interruptions in our ability to deliver offerings quickly and accurately or process visitors’ responses emanating from our various web presences. Interruptions in our service could reduce our revenue and profits, and our reputation could be damaged if users or clients perceive our systems to be unreliable. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, or other natural disasters, climate change and extreme-weather related events, power loss, terrorist attacks, war, break-ins, hardware or software failures, telecommunications and electrical failures, security breaches, cyber-attacks and other similar security incidents, computer viruses or other attempts to harm our systems, and similar events. If the third-party data centers that we utilize were to experience a major power outage, we would have to rely on their back-up generators. These back-up generators may not operate properly through a major power outage and their fuel supply could also be inadequate during a major power outage or disruptive event. Furthermore, we do not currently have backup generators at our Foster City, California headquarters. Information systems such as ours may be disrupted by even brief power outages, or by the fluctuations in power resulting from switches to and from back-up generators. This could give rise to obligations to certain of our clients which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations for the period of time in which any disruption of utility services to us occurs.

We use two third-party colocation data centers; one in San Francisco, California and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada. We have implemented this infrastructure to minimize the risk associated with earthquakes, fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, and other events beyond our control at any single location; however, these services may fail or may not be adequate to prevent losses.

Any unscheduled interruption in our service would result in an immediate loss of revenue. If we experience frequent or persistent system failures, the attractiveness of our technologies and services to clients and third-party publishers could be permanently harmed. The steps we have taken to increase the reliability and redundancy of our systems are expensive, reduce our operating margin and may not be successful in reducing the frequency or duration of unscheduled interruptions.

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Acquisitions, investments and divestitures could complicate operations, or could result in dilution and other harmful consequences that may adversely impact our business and results of operations.

Acquisitions have historically been, and continue to be, an important element of our overall corporate strategy and use of capital. In addition, we regularly review and assess strategic alternatives in the ordinary course of business, including potential acquisitions, investments or divestitures. These potential strategic alternatives may result in a wide array of potential strategic transactions that could be material to our financial condition and results of operations. For example, we acquired Aqua Vida, LLC (“AquaVida”) in fiscal year 2024, Modernize, Inc. (“Modernize”), Mayo Labs, LLC (“Mayo Labs”) and FC Ecosystem, LLC (“FCE”) in fiscal year 2021, and AmOne Corp. (“AmOne”), CCM and MyBankTracker.com, LLC (“MBT”) in fiscal year 2019. Furthermore, we divested our education client vertical in fiscal year 2021, and we divested our B2B client vertical, our businesses in Brazil consisting of QuinStreet Brasil Online Marketing e Midia Ltda (“QSB”) and VEMM, LLC (“VEMM”) along with its interests in EDB, and our mortgage client vertical in the second half of fiscal year 2020.

Acquisitions, investments or divestitures, and the process of evaluating strategic alternatives, involves a number of risks and uncertainties. For example, the process of integrating an acquired company, business or technology has in the past created, and may create in the future, unforeseen operating challenges, risks and expenditures, including with respect to: (i) integrating an acquired company’s accounting, financial reporting, management information and information security, human resource, and other administrative systems to permit effective management, and the lack of control if such integration is delayed or not implemented; (ii) integrating the controls, procedures and policies at companies we acquire that are appropriate for a public company; and (iii) transitioning the acquired company’s operations, users and customers onto our existing platforms. The success of our acquisitions and other investments will depend in part on our ability to successfully integrate and leverage them to enhance our existing products and services or develop compelling new ones. It may take longer than expected to realize the full benefits from these acquisitions or investments, such as increased revenue, enhanced efficiencies, or increased market share, or the benefits may ultimately be smaller than we expected. Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions or investments, incur unanticipated liabilities and harm our business generally.

In addition, evaluating, negotiating and completing strategic transactions, including acquisitions, investments or divestitures, may distract management from our other businesses and result in significant expenses. Moreover, we may invest significant resources towards evaluating and negotiating strategic alternatives that do not ultimately result in a strategic transaction.

Our acquisitions or investments could also result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt or deferred purchase price obligations, contingent liabilities, amortization expense, impairment of goodwill or restructuring charges, any of which could harm our financial condition or results. For example, under our acquisition agreement with AquaVida, the purchase consideration included $4.0 million in post-closing payments and an estimated fair value of contingent consideration of $2.1 million. Under our acquisition agreement with CCM, the purchase consideration included $7.5 million in post-closing payments and an estimated fair value of contingent consideration of $3.6 million. Under our acquisition agreement with Modernize, the purchase consideration included $27.5 million in post-closing payments. Also, the anticipated benefit of many of our strategic transactions, including anticipated synergies, may not materialize. Employee retention may be adversely impacted as the result of acquisitions, and our ability to manage across multiple remote locations and business cultures could adversely affect the realization of anticipated benefits. In connection with a disposition of assets or a business, we may also agree to provide indemnification for certain potential liabilities or retain certain liabilities or obligations, which may adversely impact our financial condition or results.

We rely on call centers, Internet and data center providers, and other third-parties for key aspects of the process of providing services to our clients, and any failure or interruption in the services and products provided by these third-parties could harm our business.

We rely on internal and third-party call centers as well as third-party vendors, data centers and Internet providers. Notwithstanding disaster recovery and business continuity plans and precautions instituted to protect our clients and us from events that could interrupt delivery of services, there is no guarantee that such interruptions would not result in a prolonged interruption in our ability to provide services to our clients. Any temporary or permanent interruption in the services provided by our call centers or third-party providers could significantly harm our business.

In addition, any financial or other difficulties our third-party providers face may have negative effects on our business, the nature and extent of which we cannot predict. Other than our data privacy and security assessment processes, we exercise little control over our third-party vendors, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. We license technology and related databases from third-parties to facilitate analysis and storage of data and delivery of offerings. We have experienced interruptions and delays in service and availability for data centers, bandwidth and other technologies in the past, and may experience more in the future. Any errors, failures, interruptions or delays experienced in connection with these third-party technologies and services could adversely affect our business and could expose us to liabilities to third-parties.

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Our quarterly revenue and results of operations may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter due to fluctuations in advertising spending, including seasonal and cyclical effects.

In addition to other factors that cause our results of operations to fluctuate, results are also subject to significant seasonal fluctuation. In particular, our quarters ending December 31 (our second fiscal quarter) are typically characterized by seasonal weakness. During that quarter, there is generally lower availability of media during the holiday period on a cost-effective basis and some of our clients have lower budgets. In our quarters ending March 31 (our third fiscal quarter), this trend generally reverses with better media availability and often new budgets at the beginning of the year for our clients with fiscal years ending December 31. Moreover, our personal loans, home services and banking clients’ businesses are subject to seasonality. For example, our clients that offer home services products are historically subject to seasonal trends. Other factors affecting our clients’ businesses include macro factors such as credit availability, the strength of the economy and employment. Any of the foregoing seasonal or cyclical trends, or the combination of them, may negatively impact our quarterly revenue and results of operations.

Furthermore, advertising spend on the Internet, similar to traditional media, tends to be cyclical and discretionary as a result of factors beyond our control, including budgetary constraints and buying patterns of clients, as well as economic conditions affecting the Internet and media industry. For example, weather and other events have in the past led to short-term increases in insurance industry client loss ratios and damage or interruption in our clients’ operations, either of which can lead to decreased client spend on online performance marketing. In addition, inherent industry specific risks (e.g., insurance industry loss ratios and cutbacks) and poor macroeconomic conditions such as high interest rates, inflationary environments as well as other short-term events could decrease our clients’ advertising spending and thereby have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

If the market for online marketing services fails to continue to develop, our success may be limited, and our revenue may decrease.

The online marketing services market is relatively new and rapidly evolving, and it uses different measurements from traditional media to gauge its effectiveness. Some of our current or potential clients have little or no experience using the Internet for advertising and marketing purposes and have allocated only limited portions of their advertising and marketing budgets to the Internet. The adoption of online marketing, particularly by those companies that have historically relied upon traditional media for advertising, requires the acceptance of a new way of conducting business, exchanging information and evaluating new advertising and marketing technologies and services.

In particular, we are dependent on our clients’ adoption of new metrics to measure the success of online marketing campaigns with which they may not have prior experience. Certain of our metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business. We present key metrics such as cost-per-click, cost-per-lead and cost-per-acquisition, some of which are calculated using internal data. We periodically review and refine some of our methodologies for monitoring, gathering and calculating these metrics. While our metrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable measurements and methodologies, there are inherent challenges in deriving our metrics. In addition, our user metrics may differ from estimates published by third-parties or from similar metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. If clients or publishers do not perceive our metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, it could negatively affect our business model and current or potential clients’ willingness to adopt our metrics.

We may also experience resistance from traditional advertising agencies who may be advising our clients. We cannot assure you that the market for online marketing services will continue to grow. If the market for online marketing services fails to continue to develop or develops more slowly than we anticipate, the success of our business may be limited, and our revenue may decrease.

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We could lose clients if we fail to detect click-through or other fraud on advertisements in a manner that is acceptable to our clients.

We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks or actions on our websites or our third-party publishers’ websites, which could lead our clients to become dissatisfied with our campaigns, and in turn, lead to loss of clients and related revenue. Click-through fraud occurs when an individual clicks on an ad displayed on a website or mobile application, or an automated system is used to create such clicks, with the intent of generating the revenue-share payment to the publisher rather than viewing the underlying content. Action fraud occurs when online lead forms are completed with false or fictitious information in an effort to increase a publisher’s compensable actions. From time to time, we have experienced fraudulent clicks or actions. We do not charge our clients for fraudulent clicks or actions when they are detected, and such fraudulent activities could negatively affect our profitability or harm our reputation. If fraudulent clicks or actions are not detected, the affected clients may experience a reduced return on their investment in our marketing programs, which could lead the clients to become dissatisfied with our campaigns, and in turn, lead to loss of clients and related revenue. Additionally, from time to time, we have had to, and in the future may have to, terminate relationships with publishers whom we believed to have engaged in fraud. Termination of such relationships entails a loss of revenue associated with the legitimate actions or clicks generated by such publishers.

Limitations restricting our ability to market to users or collect and use data derived from user activities by technologies, service providers or otherwise could significantly diminish the value of our services and have an adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue.

When a user visits our websites, we use technologies, including “cookies,” to collect information such as the user’s IP address. We also have relationships with data partners that collect and provide us with user data. We access and analyze this information in order to determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign and to determine how to modify the campaign for optimization. The use of cookies is the subject of litigation, regulatory scrutiny and industry self-regulatory activities, including the discussion of “do-not-track” technologies, guidelines and substitutes to cookies. With respect to industry self-regulatory activities, the leading web browsing companies have started or announced their intent to block or phase out third-party cookies from their web browsers. Additionally, users are able to block or delete cookies from their browser. Periodically, certain of our clients and publishers seek to prohibit or limit our collection or use of data derived from the use of cookies.

Furthermore, actions by service providers could restrict our ability to deliver Internet-based advertising. For example, if email service providers (“ESPs”) categorize our emails as “promotional,” then these emails may be directed to an alternate and less readily accessible section of a consumer’s inbox. In the event ESPs materially limit or halt the delivery of our emails, or if we fail to deliver emails to consumers in a manner compatible with ESPs’ email handling or authentication technologies, our ability to contact consumers through email could be significantly restricted. In addition, if we are placed on “spam” lists or lists of entities that have been involved in sending unwanted, unsolicited emails, or if internet service providers prioritize or provide superior access to our competitors’ content, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Interruptions, failures or defects in our data collection systems, as well as data privacy and security concerns and regulatory changes or enforcement actions affecting our or our data partners’ ability to collect user data, could also limit our ability to analyze data from, and thereby optimize, our clients’ marketing campaigns. If our access to data is limited in the future, we may be unable to provide effective technologies and services to clients and we may lose clients and revenue.

Actions by operating system platform providers or application stores such as Apple or Google may affect our offerings or services or how we collect, use, and share data from end-user devices in connection with our ad campaigns. For example, Apple implemented a requirement for applications using its mobile operating system, iOS, to affirmatively (on an opt-in basis) obtain an end user’s permission to track user activity across apps or websites or access users’ device advertising identifiers for advertising and advertising measurement purposes, as well as other restrictions. In addition, Google has announced that it will cease support for advertising cookies that permit the tracking of users across sites and applications and instead will introduce new advertising targeting solutions from its Privacy Sandbox. The long-term impact of these and other privacy and regulatory changes remains uncertain and may harm our growth, business, and profitability.

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Increased scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, customers, employees, and others regarding our environmental, social and governance practices and reporting could cause us to incur additional costs, devote additional resources and expose us to additional risks, which could adversely impact our reputation, customer acquisition and retention, access to capital and employee retention.

Companies across all industries are facing increasing scrutiny related to their environmental, social and governance (“ESG”), practices and reporting. Investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders have focused increasingly on ESG practices and placed increasing importance on the implications and social cost of their investments, purchases and other interactions with companies. For example, many investment funds focus on positive ESG business practices and sustainability scores when making investments and may consider a company’s ESG or sustainability scores as a reputational or other factor in making an investment decision. In addition, investors, particularly institutional investors, use these scores to benchmark companies against their peers and if a company is perceived as lagging, these investors may engage with such company to improve ESG disclosure or performance and may also make voting decisions on this basis. With this increased focus and demand, public reporting regarding ESG practices is becoming more broadly expected. If our ESG practices and reporting do not meet investor, customer, or employee expectations, which continue to evolve, our brand and reputation may be negatively impacted. Any disclosure we make may include our policies and practices on a variety of ESG matters, including corporate governance, environmental compliance, employee health and safety practices, human capital management, and workforce inclusion and diversity. It is possible stakeholders may not be satisfied with our ESG reporting, ESG practices or speed of adoption. We could also incur additional costs and devote additional resources to monitor, report and implement various ESG practices, including resources required to comply with any final SEC rulemaking related to climate disclosures, the proposed rule for which was published by the SEC on March 21, 2022. If we fail, or are perceived to be failing, to meet the standards included in any sustainability disclosure or the expectations of our various stakeholders, it could negatively impact our reputation, access to capital and employee retention.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property rights, our competitive position and business may suffer.

Our ability to compete effectively depends upon our proprietary systems and technology. We rely on patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright law, confidentiality agreements and technical measures to protect our proprietary rights. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, independent contractors, advisors, client vendors and publishers. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or unauthorized parties from copying aspects of our services or obtaining and using our proprietary information. For example, past or current employees, contractors or agents may reveal confidential or proprietary information. Further, these agreements may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosures or uses, and we cannot assure you that our rights under such agreements will be enforceable. Effective patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark protection may not be available in all countries where we currently operate or in which we may operate in the future. Some of our systems and technologies are not covered by any copyright, patent or patent application. We cannot guarantee that: (i) our intellectual property rights will provide competitive advantages to us; (ii) our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against potential competitors or to settle current or future disputes will be effective; (iii) our intellectual property rights will be enforced in jurisdictions where competition may be intense or where legal protection may be weak; (iv) any of the patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret or other intellectual property rights that we presently employ in our business will not lapse or be invalidated, circumvented, challenged, or abandoned; (v) competitors will not design around our protected systems and technology; or (vi) that we will not lose the ability to assert our intellectual property rights against others.

We have from time to time become aware of third-parties who we believe may have infringed our intellectual property rights. Such infringement or infringement of which we are not yet aware could reduce our competitive advantages and cause us to lose clients, third-party publishers or could otherwise harm our business. Policing unauthorized use of our proprietary rights can be difficult and costly. Litigation, while it may be necessary to enforce or protect our intellectual property rights, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention and could adversely affect our business, even if we are successful defending such litigation on the merits. In addition, others may independently discover trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases we could not assert any trade secret rights against such parties.

Third-parties may sue us for intellectual property infringement, which, even if unsuccessful, could require us to expend significant costs to defend or settle.

We cannot be certain that our internally developed or acquired systems and technologies do not and will not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. In addition, we license content, software and other intellectual property rights from third-parties and may be subject to claims of infringement if such parties do not possess the necessary intellectual property rights to the products they license to us.

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In addition, we have in the past, and may in the future, be subject to legal proceedings and claims that we have infringed the patents or other intellectual property rights of third-parties. These claims sometimes involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own intellectual property rights, if any, may therefore provide little or no deterrence. For example, in December 2012, Internet Patents Corporation (“IPC”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against us in the Northern District of California alleging that some of our websites infringe a patent held by IPC. IPC is a non-practicing entity that relies on asserting its patents as its primary source of revenue. In addition, third-parties have asserted and may in the future assert intellectual property infringement claims against our clients, and we have agreed in certain circumstances to indemnify and defend against such claims. Any intellectual property-related infringement claims, whether or not meritorious and regardless of the outcome of the litigation, could result in costly litigation, could divert management resources and attention and could cause us to change our business practices. Should we be found liable for infringement, we may be required to enter into licensing agreements, if available on acceptable terms or at all, pay substantial damages, or limit or curtail our systems and technologies. Moreover, we may need to redesign some of our systems and technologies to avoid future infringement liability. Any of the foregoing could prevent us from competing effectively and increase our costs.

Additionally, the laws relating to use of trademarks on the Internet are unsettled, particularly as they apply to search engine functionality. For example, other Internet marketing and search companies have been sued for trademark infringement and other intellectual property-related claims for displaying ads or search results in response to user queries that include trademarked terms. The outcomes of these lawsuits have differed from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. We may be subject to trademark infringement, unfair competition, misappropriation or other intellectual property-related claims which could be costly to defend and result in substantial damages or otherwise limit or curtail our activities, and therefore adversely affect our business or prospects.

As a creator and a distributor of content, we face potential liability and expenses for legal claims based on the nature and content of the materials that we create or distribute, including materials provided by our clients. If we are required to pay damages or expenses in connection with these legal claims, our results of operations and business may be harmed.

We display original content and third-party content on our websites and in our marketing messages. In addition, our clients provide us with advertising creative and financial information (e.g., insurance premium or credit card interest rates) that we display on our owned and operated websites and our third-party publishers’ websites. As a result, we face potential liability based on a variety of claims, including defamation, negligence, deceptive advertising, copyright or trademark infringement. We are also exposed to risk that content provided by third-parties or clients is inaccurate or misleading, and for material posted to our websites by users and other third-parties. These claims, whether brought in the United States or abroad, could divert our management’s time and attention away from our business and result in significant costs to investigate, defend, and respond to investigative demands, regardless of the merit of these claims. In addition, if we become subject to these types of claims and are not successful in our defense, we may be forced to pay substantial damages.

Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our stock price has been volatile and may continue to fluctuate significantly in the future, which may lead to you not being able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid, delisting, securities litigation or hostile or otherwise unfavorable takeover offers.

The trading price of our common stock has been volatile since our initial public offering and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include those discussed in this “Risk Factors” section of this report and other factors such as:

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In recent years, the stock market in general, and the market for technology and Internet-based companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. As a result of this volatility, you may not be able to sell your common stock at or above the price paid for the shares. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

Moreover, a low or declining stock price may make us attractive to hedge funds and other short-term investors which could result in substantial stock price volatility and cause fluctuations in trading volumes for our stock. A relatively low stock price may also cause us to become subject to an unsolicited or hostile acquisition bid which could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management attention and resources. In the event that such a bid is publicly disclosed, it may result in increased speculation and volatility in our stock price even if our board of directors decides not to pursue a transaction.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us, our business or the industries or businesses of our clients. If any of the analysts issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock or if our actual results or forward outlook do not meet analyst estimates, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

We cannot guarantee that our stock repurchase program will be fully consummated or that our stock repurchase program will enhance long-term stockholder value, and stock repurchases could increase the volatility of the price of our stock and could diminish our cash reserves.

Our board of directors canceled the prior stock repurchase program that commenced in July 2017 and in April 2022 authorized a new stock repurchase program allowing the repurchase of up to $40.0 million worth of common stock. As of June 30, 2024, approximately $16.8 million remained available for stock repurchases pursuant to the board authorization. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors including the price, cash availability and other market conditions. The stock repurchase program, authorized by our board of directors, does not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares. The stock repurchase program could affect the price of our stock and increase volatility and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. The existence of our stock repurchase program could also cause the price of our common stock to be higher than it would be in the absence of such a program and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for our common stock. Additionally, repurchases under our stock repurchase program will diminish our cash reserves. There can be no assurance that any stock repurchases will enhance stockholder value because the market price of our common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased such shares. Any failure to repurchase shares after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our stock price. Although our stock repurchase program is intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, short-term stock price fluctuations could reduce the program’s effectiveness.

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We may be subject to short selling strategies that may drive down the market price of our common stock.

Short sellers may attempt to drive down the market price of our common stock. Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but may have borrowed with the intention of buying identical securities back at a later date. The short seller hopes to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the time the securities are borrowed and the time they are replaced. As it is in the short seller’s best interests for the price of the stock to decline, many short sellers (sometimes known as “disclosed shorts”) publish, or arrange for the publication of, negative opinions regarding the relevant issuer and its business prospects to create negative market momentum. Although traditionally these disclosed shorts were limited in their ability to access mainstream business media or to otherwise create negative market rumors, the rise of the Internet and technological advancements regarding document creation, videotaping and publication by weblog (“blogging”) have allowed many disclosed shorts to publicly attack a company’s credibility, strategy and veracity by means of so-called “research reports” that mimic the type of investment analysis performed by large Wall Street firms and independent research analysts. These short attacks have, in the past, led to selling of shares in the market. Further, these short seller publications are not regulated by any governmental, self-regulatory organization or other official authority in the U.S. and they are not subject to certification requirements imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, the opinions they express may be based on distortions, omissions or fabrications. Companies that are subject to unfavorable allegations, even if untrue, may have to expend a significant amount of resources to investigate such allegations and/or defend themselves, including shareholder suits against the company that may be prompted by such allegations. We have in the past, and may in the future, be the subject of shareholder suits that we believe were prompted by allegations made by short sellers.

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

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and significant stockholders, may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock. Additionally, the shares of common stock subject to outstanding options under our equity incentive plans and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans, as well as shares issuable upon vesting of restricted stock awards, will become eligible for sale in the public market in the future, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations.

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis or effectively prevent fraud could be impaired, which would adversely affect our ability to operate our business.

In order to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX Act”), our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. We may in the future discover areas of our internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that need improvement. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. All control systems have inherent limitations, and, accordingly, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected. If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and could result in regulatory action. If our estimates or judgements relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.

We must maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in order to accurately and timely report our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, the SOX Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of our fiscal year, and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of the SOX Act in a timely manner, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would diminish investor confidence in our financial reporting and require additional financial and management resources, each of which may adversely affect our business and operating results.

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In fiscal years 2017 and 2016, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. While no material weaknesses were identified in our internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024, we cannot assure you that we will not in the future identify material weaknesses. In addition, the standards required for a Section 404 assessment under the SOX Act may in the future require us to implement additional corporate governance practices and adhere to additional reporting requirements. Our management may not be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that are or will be applicable to us as a public company. If we fail to discover material weaknesses in our internal controls or maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, our business and reputation may be harmed and our stock price may decline.

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

We have a substantial amount of goodwill and purchased intangible assets on our consolidated balance sheet as a result of acquisitions. The carrying value of goodwill represents the fair value of an acquired business in excess of identifiable assets and liabilities as of the acquisition date. The carrying value of intangible assets with identifiable useful lives represents the fair value of relationships, content, domain names and acquired technology, among others, as of the acquisition date, and are amortized based on their economic lives. We are required to evaluate our intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill that is expected to contribute indefinitely to our cash flows is not amortized, but must be evaluated for impairment at least annually. If necessary, a quantitative test is performed to compare the carrying value of the asset to its estimated fair value, as determined based on a discounted cash flow approach, or when available and appropriate, to comparable market values. If the carrying value of the asset exceeds its current fair value, the asset is considered impaired and its carrying value is reduced to fair value through a non-cash charge to earnings. Events and conditions that could result in impairment of our goodwill and intangible assets include adverse changes in the regulatory environment, a reduced market capitalization or other factors leading to reduction in expected long-term growth or profitability.

Goodwill impairment analysis and measurement is a process that requires significant judgment. Our stock price and any estimated control premium are factors affecting the assessment of the fair value of our underlying reporting units for purposes of performing any goodwill impairment assessment. For example, our public market capitalization sustained a decline after December 31, 2012 and June 30, 2014 to a value below the net book carrying value of our equity, triggering the need for a goodwill impairment analysis. As a result of our goodwill impairment analysis, we recorded a goodwill impairment charge in those periods. Additionally, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, our stock price experienced volatility and our public market capitalization decreased to a value below the net book carrying value of our equity, triggering the need for an interim impairment test. While no impairment was recorded as a result of the interim impairment test, it is possible that in the future another event occurs that does require a material impairment charge. We will continue to conduct impairment analyses of our goodwill on an annual basis, unless indicators of possible impairment arise that would cause a triggering event, and we would be required to take additional impairment charges in the future if any recoverability assessments reflect estimated fair values that are less than our recorded values. Further impairment charges with respect to our goodwill or intangible assets could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Provisions in our charter documents under Delaware law and in contractual obligations could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions include:

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We are also subject to certain anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law. Under Delaware law, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other things, the board of directors has approved the transaction.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We have not declared or paid dividends on our common stock and we do not intend to do so in the near term. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your common stock in the near term, and capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.

General Risk Factors

We are subject to risks with respect to counterparties, and failure of such counterparties to meet their obligations could cause us to suffer losses or negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows.

We have entered into, and expect to enter into in the future, various contracts, including contracts with clients, third-party publishers and strategic partners, that subject us to counterparty risks. The ability and willingness of our counterparties to perform their obligations under any contract will depend on a number of factors that are beyond our control and may include, among other things, general economic conditions including any economic downturn, public health crises, specific industry vertical conditions and the overall financial condition of the counterparty. As a result, clients, third-party publishers or strategic partners may seek to renegotiate the terms of their existing agreements with us, terminate their agreements with us for convenience (where permitted) or avoid performing their obligations under those agreements. Should a counterparty fail to honor its contractual obligations with us or terminate its agreements with us for convenience (where permitted), we could sustain significant losses or write-offs, or we could be involved in costly litigation to defend, enforce and protect our contractual rights, both of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We rely on our management team and other key employees, and the loss of one or more key employees could harm our business.

Our success and future growth depend upon the continued services of our management team, including Douglas Valenti, Chief Executive Officer, and other key employees in all areas of our organization. From time to time, there may be changes in our key employees resulting from the hiring or departure of executives and employees, which could disrupt our business. We have, in the past, experienced declines in our business and a depressed stock price, making our equity and cash incentive compensation programs less attractive to current and potential key employees. If we lose the services of key employees or if we are unable to attract and retain additional qualified employees, our business and growth could suffer.

Damage to our reputation could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is dependent on attracting a large number of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers’ websites and providing inquiries in the form of clicks, leads, calls, applications and customers to our clients, which depend in part on our reputation within the industry and with our clients. Certain other companies within our industry have in the past engaged in activities that others may view as unlawful or inappropriate. These activities by third-parties, such as spyware or deceptive promotions, may be seen as characteristic of participants in our industry and may therefore harm the reputation of all participants in our industry, including us.

Our ability to attract visitors and, thereby, potential customers to our clients, also depends in part on our clients providing competitive levels of customer service, responsiveness and prices to such visitors. If our clients do not provide competitive levels of service to visitors, our reputation and therefore our ability to attract additional clients and visitors could be harmed.

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In addition, from time to time, we may be subject to investigations, inquiries or litigation by various regulators, which may harm our reputation regardless of the outcome of any such action. For example, in 2012 we responded to a civil investigation conducted by the attorneys general of a number of states into certain of our former education client vertical marketing and business practices resulting in us entering into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement. Negative perceptions of our business may result in additional regulation, enforcement actions by the government and increased litigation, or harm to our ability to attract or retain clients, third-party publishers or strategic partners, any of which may affect our business and result in lower revenue.

Any damage to our reputation, including from publicity from legal proceedings against us or companies that work within our industry, governmental proceedings, users impersonating or scraping our websites, unfavorable media coverage, consumer class action litigation, or the disclosure of security breaches, cyber-attacks or other similar incidents, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may need additional capital in the future to meet our financial obligations and to pursue our business objectives. Additional capital may not be available or may not be available on favorable terms and our business and financial condition could therefore be adversely affected.

While we anticipate that our existing cash and cash equivalents and cash we expect to generate from future operations will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months, we may need to raise additional capital, including debt capital, to fund operations in the future or to finance acquisitions. If we seek to raise additional capital in order to meet various objectives, including developing future technologies and services, increasing working capital, acquiring businesses, and responding to competitive pressures, capital may not be available on favorable terms or may not be available at all. Lack of sufficient capital resources could significantly limit our ability to take advantage of business and strategic opportunities. Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or debt securities with an equity component would dilute our stock ownership. If adequate additional funds are not available, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate material parts of our business strategy, including potential additional acquisitions or development of new technologies.

We may face additional risks in conducting business in international markets.

We have entered into and exited certain international markets and may enter into international markets in the future, including through acquisitions. We have limited experience in marketing, selling and supporting our services outside of the United States, and we may not be successful in introducing or marketing our services abroad.

There are risks and challenges inherent in conducting business in international markets, such as:

If we are unable to successfully expand and market our services abroad, our business and future growth may be harmed, and we may incur costs that may not lead to future revenue.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity

Risk Management and Strategy

The Company’s cybersecurity program is part of its overall risk management framework. The cybersecurity risk program includes a risk-based approach to identifying, assessing, and addressing cybersecurity threats that could impact our data, our networks, or the information provided to us by consumers and counterparties.

The Company’s Information Security team is responsible for the Company’s cybersecurity risk management program. Their Information Security policies contain processes and templates which are intended to set standards, assign specific roles and responsibilities with respect to our information security environment, and categorize threats and map them to responses as required by law and contract.

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Impact of Cybersecurity Risks on Business Strategy, Results of Operations or Financial Condition

Substantially all of the Company’s business is conducted online. Accordingly, there is a risk that a cybersecurity incident that impacts our ability to conduct business online (including any loss of confidence by consumers and counterparties in our information security practices or capabilities) could have a material adverse impact on our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. The Company’s approach to the management and mitigation of cybersecurity risks reflects the online nature of our business. To date, we have not experienced any cybersecurity incidents that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. As part of the Company’s overall risk mitigation strategy, we maintain cyber liability insurance coverage. Such coverage, however, may not be sufficient to cover us against related claims. For additional information, see “Risks Related to our Business and Industry,” in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report. 

Cybersecurity Governance

Pursuant to the Audit Committee Charter, the Audit Committee reviews management's assessments of, and plans with respect to, the Company’s cybersecurity and other enterprise risks. The Audit Committee typically receives updates from a Security Committee member quarterly with respect to Information Security team activities.

The Company’s Information Security team is responsible for identifying, assessing, and mitigating cybersecurity risks. The Information Security team reports to the head of Information Technology, who reports to the Chief Technical Officer who reports to the Chief Executive Officer. The Information Security team also briefs the Security Committee (which consists of the Chief Technical Officer, CEO, CFO and Chief Legal Officer) regularly about the cyber threat landscape, their plans to mitigate cybersecurity risks and their responses to cybersecurity incidents.

Item 2. Properties

As of June 30, 2024, our corporate headquarters are located at 950 Tower Lane, Suite No. 1200, Foster City, California 94404 and consist of approximately 22,915 square feet of office space under a lease with an expiration date in October 2028. This facility accommodates our engineering, sales, marketing, operations, finance and administrative activities.

We also lease additional facilities to accommodate our engineering, sales, marketing, and operations throughout the United States. Outside of the United States, we lease facilities to accommodate engineering and operations in India and Mexico. We believe that our existing facilities are suitable and adequate for our present purposes.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings and claims arising in the ordinary course of business. Certain of our outstanding legal matters include claims for indeterminate amounts of damages. We record a liability when we believe that it is probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Based on our current knowledge, we do not believe that there is a reasonable possibility that the final outcome of pending or threatened legal proceedings to which we are a party, either individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows. However, the outcome of such legal matters is subject to significant uncertainties.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures Item 5.

Not Applicable.

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PART II

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

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol QNST. On August 12, 2024, the closing price as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market of our common stock was $17.11 per share and we had approximately 38 stockholders of record of our common stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.

We have never declared or paid, and do not anticipate declaring or paying, any dividends on our common stock. Any future determination as to the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant.

For equity compensation plan information refer to Item 12 in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Stock Repurchase Program

In April 2022, the Board of Directors canceled the prior stock repurchase program that commenced in July 2017 and authorized a new stock repurchase program allowing us to repurchase up to $40.0 million of our outstanding shares of common stock. Repurchases under this program may take place in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions and may be made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan. There is no guarantee as to the exact number of shares that will be repurchased by us, and we may discontinue repurchases at any time.

There was no stock repurchase activity during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024. As of June 30, 2024, approximately $16.8 million remained available for stock repurchases pursuant to the board authorization.

Performance Graph

The following performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the Securities and Exchange Commission for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of QuinStreet, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

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The following performance graph shows a comparison from June 30, 2019 through June 30, 2024 of cumulative total return for our common stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the RDG Internet Composite Index. Such returns are based on historical results and are not intended to suggest future performance. Data for the Nasdaq Composite Index and the RDG Internet Composite Index assume reinvestment of dividends.

COMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN*

Among QuinStreet, Inc., the NASDAQ Composite Index

and the RDG Internet Composite Index

 

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

There were no unregistered sales of our equity securities in fiscal year 2024.

Item 6. [Reserved]

 

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

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this report. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this report, particularly in the sections titled “Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.”

Management Overview

We are a leader in performance marketplaces and technologies for the financial services and home services industries. We specialize in customer acquisition for clients in high value, information-intensive markets or “verticals,” including financial services and home services. Our clients include some of the world’s largest companies and brands in those markets. The majority of our operations and revenue are in North America.

We deliver measurable and cost-effective marketing results to our clients, typically in the form of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. Clicks, leads, calls, and applications can then convert into a customer or sale for clients at a rate that results in an acceptable marketing cost to them. We are typically paid by clients when we deliver qualified inquiries in the form of clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers, as defined by our agreements with them. References to the delivery of customers means a sale or completed customer transaction (e.g., funded loans or customer appointments with clients). Because we bear the costs of media, our programs must result in attractive marketing costs to our clients at media costs and margins that provide sound financial outcomes for us. To deliver clicks, leads, calls, applications, and customers to our clients, generally we:

Our primary financial objective has been and remains creating revenue growth from sustainable sources, at target levels of profitability. Our primary financial objective is not to maximize short-term profits, but rather to achieve target levels of profitability while investing in various growth initiatives, as we continue to believe we are in the early stages of a large, long-term market opportunity.

Our business derives its net revenue primarily from fees earned through the delivery of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. Through a vertical focus, targeted media presence and our technology platform, we are able to deliver targeted, measurable marketing results to our clients.

Our financial services client vertical represented 64% and 66% of net revenue in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Our home services client vertical represented 35% and 33% of net revenue in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Other revenue, which primarily includes our performance marketing agency and technology services, represented 1% of net revenue in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. We generated the majority of our revenue from sales to clients in the United States.

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Trends Affecting our Business

Client Verticals

Our financial services client vertical has been challenged by a number of factors in the past, including the limited availability of high quality media at acceptable margins caused by the acquisition of media sources by competitors, increased competition for high quality media and changes in search engine algorithms. These factors may impact our business in the future again. To offset this impact, we have enhanced our product set to provide greater segmentation, matching, transparency and right pricing of media that have enabled better monetization to provide greater access to high quality media sources. Moreover, we have entered into strategic partnerships and acquisitions to increase and diversify our access to quality media and client budgets.

In addition, within our financial services client vertical, we derive a significant amount of revenue from auto insurance carriers and the financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. For example, inflation, weather-related and supply chain events have led to increases in insurance industry loss ratios, which decreased our clients’ advertising spending and thereby had a material adverse effect on our business.

On July 1, 2020, we completed the acquisition of Modernize, a leading home improvement performance marketing company, to broaden our customer and media relationships in the home services client vertical. Our home services client vertical has been expanding over the past several years, primarily driven by successful execution of growth initiatives and synergies with the Modernize acquisition.

Our business also benefits from more spending by clients in digital media and performance marketing as digital marketing continues to evolve.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions have historically been, and continue to be, an important element of our overall corporate strategy and use of capital. We have completed several strategic acquisitions in the past, including the acquisitions of BestCompany and AquaVida completed in fiscal year 2024, two immaterial acquisitions in fiscal year 2022, the acquisitions of Modernize, Mayo Labs and FCE completed in fiscal year 2021, and the acquisitions of AmOne, CCM, and MBT completed in fiscal year 2019. For detailed information regarding our acquisitions, refer to Note 6, Acquisitions to our consolidated financial statements.

Development, Acquisition and Retention of High Quality Targeted Media

One of the primary challenges of our business is finding or creating media that is high quality and targeted enough to attract prospects for our clients at costs that provide a sound financial outcome for us. In order to grow our business, we must be able to find, develop, or acquire and retain quality targeted media on a cost-effective basis. Consolidation of media sources, changes in search engine algorithms and increased competition for available media has, during some periods, limited and may continue to limit our ability to generate revenue at acceptable margins. To offset this impact, we have developed new sources of media, including entering into strategic partnerships with other marketing and media companies and acquisitions. Such partnerships include takeovers of performance marketing functions for large web media properties; backend monetization of unmatched traffic for clients with large media buys; and white label products for other performance marketing companies. We have also focused on growing our revenue from call center, email, mobile and social media traffic sources.

Seasonality

Our results are subject to significant fluctuation as a result of seasonality. In particular, our quarters ending December 31 (our second fiscal quarter) are typically characterized by seasonal weakness. In our second fiscal quarters, there is generally lower availability of media during the holiday period on a cost-effective basis and some of our clients have lower budgets. In our quarters ending March 31 (our third fiscal quarter), this trend generally reverses with better media availability and often new budgets at the beginning of the year for our clients with fiscal years ending December 31.

Our results are also subject to fluctuation as a result of seasonality in our clients’ business. For example, revenue in our home services client vertical is subject to cyclical and seasonal trends, as the consumer demand for home services typically rises during the spring and summer seasons and declines during the fall and winter seasons. Other factors affecting our clients’ businesses include macro factors such as credit availability in the market, interest rates, the strength of the economy and employment.

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Regulations

Our revenue has fluctuated in part as a result of federal, state and industry-based regulations and developing standards with respect to the enforcement of those regulations. Our business is affected directly because we operate websites and conduct telemarketing and email marketing, and indirectly affected as our clients adjust their operations as a result of regulatory changes and enforcement activity that affect their industries.

Clients in our financial services vertical have been affected by laws and regulations and the increased enforcement of new and pre-existing laws and regulations. The effect of these regulations, or any future regulations, may continue to result in fluctuations in the volume and mix of our business with these clients.

An example of a regulatory change that may affect our business is the amendment of the TCPA that affects telemarketing and the consent requirements for certain types of telemarketing calls and automated messaging. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to the automated delivery of voice and text messages are continuously evolving and developing. Our clients may make business decisions based on their own experiences with the TCPA regardless of our products and compliance practices. Those decisions may negatively affect our revenue and profitability.

Basis of Presentation

Net Revenue

Our business generates revenue primarily from fees earned through the delivery of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. We deliver targeted and measurable results through a vertical focus, which includes our financial services client vertical and our home services client vertical. All remaining businesses that are not significant enough for separate reporting are included in other revenue.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue consists primarily of media and marketing costs, personnel costs, amortization of intangible assets, depreciation expense and facilities expense. Media and marketing costs consist primarily of fees paid to third-party publishers, media owners or managers, or to strategic partners that are directly related to a revenue-generating event and of pay-per-click, or PPC, ad purchases from Internet search companies. We pay these third-party publishers, media owners or managers, strategic partners and Internet search companies on a revenue-share, a cost-per-lead, or CPL, or cost-per-click, or CPC, basis. Personnel costs include salaries, stock-based compensation expense, bonuses, commissions and related taxes, and employee benefit costs. Personnel costs are primarily related to individuals associated with maintaining our servers and websites, our call center operations, our editorial staff, client management, creative team, content, compliance group and media purchasing analysts. Costs associated with software incurred in the development phase or obtained for internal use are capitalized and amortized to cost of revenue over the software’s estimated useful life.

Operating Expenses

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

Product Development. Product development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, facilities fees and professional services fees related to the development and maintenance of our products and media management platform.

Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, facilities fees and professional services fees. We are constraining expenses generally to the extent practicable.

General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs of our finance, legal, employee benefits and compliance, technical support and other administrative personnel, accounting and legal professional services fees, facilities fees and bad debt expense.

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Interest and Other (Expense) Income, Net

Interest and other (expense) income, net, consists primarily of interest expense, interest income, and other income and expense. Interest expense is related to imputed interest on post-closing payments related to our acquisitions. We have no borrowing agreements outstanding as of June 30, 2024; however interest expense could increase if, among other things, we enter into a new borrowing agreement to manage liquidity or make additional acquisitions through debt financing. Interest income represents interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, which may increase or decrease depending on market interest rates and the amounts invested. Other (expense) income, net includes impairment charge for investment in equity securities, gains and losses on foreign currency exchange, and other non-operating items.

(Provision for) Benefit from Income Taxes

We are subject to tax in the United States as well as other tax jurisdictions or countries in which we conduct business. Earnings from our limited non-U.S. activities are subject to local country income tax and may be subject to U.S. income tax.

Results of Operations

A discussion regarding our results of operations for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 is presented below. A discussion regarding our results of operations for fiscal year 2023 compared to fiscal year 2022 can be found under the heading Results of Operation in Part II, Item 7., Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2023, filed with the SEC on August 21, 2023, which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

The following table presents our consolidated statements of operations for the periods indicated:

 

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
		2024								2023								2022
		(In thousands, except percentages)
Net revenue		$	613,514				100.0	%		$	580,624				100.0	%		$	582,099				100.0	%
Cost of revenue (1)			567,268				92.5				532,101				91.6				528,368				90.8
Gross profit			46,246				7.5				48,523				8.4				53,731				9.2
Operating expenses: (1)
Product development			30,045				4.9				28,893				5.0				21,906				3.7
Sales and marketing			13,607				2.2				12,542				2.2				11,042				1.9
General and administrative			30,659				5.0				27,904				4.8				25,501				4.4
Operating loss			(28,065	)			(4.6	)			(20,816	)			(3.6	)			(4,718	)			(0.8	)
Interest income			408				0.1				296				0.1				10				—
Interest expense			(680	)			(0.1	)			(790	)			(0.2	)			(1,075	)			(0.2	)
Other (expense) income, net			(2,059	)			(0.3	)			(52	)			—				21				—
Loss before income taxes			(30,396	)			(4.9	)			(21,362	)			(3.7	)			(5,762	)			(1.0	)
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes			(935	)			(0.2	)			(47,504	)			(8.2	)			514				0.1
Net loss		$	(31,331	)			(5.1	)%		$	(68,866	)			(11.9	)%		$	(5,248	)			(0.9	)%

 

 

Cost of revenue		$	8,409				1.4	%		$	7,923				1.4	%		$	7,475				1.3	%
Product development			3,147				0.5				2,880				0.5				2,575				0.4
Sales and marketing			2,968				0.5				2,298				0.4				2,378				0.4
General and administrative			9,177				1.5				5,685				1.0				6,078				1.0

 

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Gross Profit

 

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,												2024 - 2023				2023 - 2022
		2024				2023				2022				% Change				% Change
		(In thousands)
Net revenue		$	613,514			$	580,624			$	582,099				6	%			—	%
Cost of revenue			567,268				532,101				528,368				7	%			1	%
Gross profit		$	46,246			$	48,523			$	53,731				(5	%)			(10	%)
Gross profit %			8	%			8	%			9	%

Net Revenue

Net revenue increased by $32.9 million, or 6%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023. Revenue from our financial services client vertical increased by $12.9 million, or 3%, due to an increase in revenue in our credit cards, personal loans and banking businesses due to increased media and client budgets. This was partially offset by a decrease in revenue in our insurance business associated with decreased spending by insurance carriers to address profitability concerns caused by inflation and higher costs to repair and replace vehicles. Revenue from our home services client vertical increased by $18.8 million, or 10%, primarily as a result of increased client budgets and successful execution of our growth initiatives. Other revenue increased by $1.2 million, or 16%, which primarily includes performance marketing agency and technology services.

Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit Margin

Cost of revenue increased by $35.2 million, or 7%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023. This was primarily driven by increased media and marketing costs of $20.8 million due to higher revenue volumes. Personnel costs increased by $8.3 million mainly due to higher average headcount and higher incentive compensation due to revenue growth, and increased stock-based compensation expense. Depreciation and amortization expense increased by $4.6 million mainly due to additional capitalization of internally developed software. Other costs including facilities, equipment and supplies increased by $1.3 million primarily due to increases in software license fees and maintenance contracts.

Gross profit margin, which is the difference between net revenue and cost of revenue as a percentage of net revenue, remained relatively flat at 8% in fiscal years 2024 and 2023. Our gross profit was $46.2 million for fiscal year 2024 compared to $48.5 million for fiscal year 2023, a decrease of $2.3 million, or 5%, primarily driven by higher personnel costs as a percentage of revenue to support our continued efforts to invest in long-term growth initiatives and capabilities.

Operating Expenses

 

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,												2024 - 2023				2023 - 2022
		2024				2023				2022				% Change				% Change
		(In thousands)
Product development		$	30,045			$	28,893			$	21,906				4	%			32	%
Sales and marketing			13,607				12,542				11,042				8	%			14	%
General and administrative			30,659				27,904				25,501				10	%			9	%
Operating expenses		$	74,311			$	69,339			$	58,449				7	%			19	%

Product Development Expenses

Product development expenses increased by $1.2 million, or 4%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023. This was primarily due to increased personnel costs of $1.7 million as a result of higher headcount and increased stock-based compensation, partially offset by decreased professional services costs of $0.6 million.

Sales and Marketing Expenses

Sales and marketing expenses increased by $1.1 million, or 8%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023. This was primarily due to increased personnel costs as a result of higher headcount and increased stock-based compensation.

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General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses increased by $2.8 million, or 10%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023. This was primarily due to higher stock-based compensation by $3.5 million as a result of not achieving the conditions for performance-based restricted stock in fiscal year 2023 and higher other expenses by $1.2 million primarily due to changes in business and sales tax reserves, partially offset by lower bad debt expense of $2.0 million.

Interest and Other (Expense) Income, Net

 

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,												2024 - 2023				2023 - 2022
		2024				2023				2022				% Change				% Change
		(In thousands)
Interest income		$	408			$	296			$	10				38	%			2860	%
Interest expense			(680	)			(790	)			(1,075	)			(14	%)			(27	%)
Other (expense) income, net			(2,059	)			(52	)			21				3860	%			(348	%)
Interest and other expense, net		$	(2,331	)		$	(546	)		$	(1,044	)			327	%			(48	%)

Interest income relates to interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents. Interest expense relates to imputed interest on post-closing payments related to our acquisitions. Interest expense decreased by $0.1 million, or 14%, in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 primarily due to decreased imputed interest on a lower average outstanding balance of the post-closing payments. Other (expense) income, net, increased by $2.0 million, or 3,860% in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 primarily due impairment charge for investment in equity securities of $2.0 million recorded in third quarter of fiscal year 2024.

(Provision for) Benefit from Income Taxes

 

						Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
						2024				2023				2022
						(In thousands)
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes						$	(935	)		$	(47,504	)		$	514
Effective tax rate							(3.1	%)			(222.4	%)			8.9	%

We recorded a provision for income taxes of $0.9 million in fiscal year 2024, primarily as a result of a net expense for deferred federal, state and foreign income taxes of $0.5 million and current state and foreign income taxes of $0.4 million. The net deferred tax expense is related to indefinite lived deferred tax liabilities unable to be offset with deferred tax assets. As a result of continued operating losses, the Company maintained a valuation allowance against its net deferred tax assets.

We recorded a provision for income taxes of $47.5 million in fiscal year 2023, primarily as a result of establishing a valuation allowance against the net deferred tax assets, which resulted in deferred federal and state income taxes of $47.1 million and current state and foreign income taxes of $0.4 million. We evaluated the need for a valuation allowance at year end by considering among other things, the nature, frequency and severity of current and cumulative losses, reversal of taxable temporary differences, tax planning strategies, forecasts of future profitability, and the duration of statutory carryforward periods. Based upon this analysis, we determined that the significant negative evidence associated with cumulative losses in recent periods and current results outweighed the positive evidence as of June 30, 2023 and accordingly, the near-term realization of certain of these assets was deemed not more likely than not. We recorded a one-time non-cash charge to income tax expense of $52.4 million to establish a valuation allowance against its net deferred tax assets in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023.

Our effective tax rate was (3.1%), (222.4%) and 8.9% in fiscal years 2024, 2023 and 2022. The increase in our effective tax rate for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 was primarily due to the one-time charge related to the recognition of valuation allowance in fiscal year 2023.

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Adjusted EBITDA

	Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
	2024				2023				2022
	(In thousands)
Other Financial Data:
Adjusted EBITDA (1)	$	20,365			$	16,690			$	31,030

 

We include adjusted EBITDA in this report because (i) we seek to manage our business to a level of adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue, (ii) it is used internally by management for planning purposes, including preparation of internal budgets; to allocate resources; to evaluate the effectiveness of operational strategies and capital expenditures as well as the capacity to service debt, (iii) it is a key basis upon which management assesses our operating performance, (iv) it is one of the primary metrics investors use in evaluating Internet marketing companies, (v) it is a factor in determining compensation, (vi) it is an element of certain financial covenants under our historical borrowing arrangements, and (vii) it is a factor that assists investors in the analysis of ongoing operating trends.

We use adjusted EBITDA as a key performance measure because we believe it facilitates operating performance comparisons from period to period by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact of changes in effective tax rates or fluctuations in permanent differences or discrete quarterly items), non-recurring charges and certain other items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating activities (such as acquisition related expense, contingent consideration adjustment, litigation settlement expense, tax settlement expense, restructuring costs, and other expense, net) and the non-cash impact of depreciation and amortization expense and stock-based compensation expense.

In addition, we believe adjusted EBITDA and similar measures are widely used by investors, securities analysts, ratings agencies and other interested parties in our industry as a measure of financial performance, debt-service capabilities and as a metric for analyzing company valuations. Our use of adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and it should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). Some of these limitations are:

Due to these limitations, adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business. When evaluating our performance, adjusted EBITDA should be considered alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and our other GAAP results.

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The following table presents a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net loss calculated in accordance with GAAP, the most comparable GAAP measure, for each of the periods indicated:

 

	Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
	2024				2023				2022
	(In thousands)
Net loss	$	(31,331	)		$	(68,866	)		$	(5,248	)
Depreciation and amortization		23,957				19,155				16,961
Stock-based compensation expense		23,701				18,786				18,506
Interest and other expense, net		2,331				546				1,044
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes		935				47,504				(514	)
Restructuring costs		678				212				138
Acquisition costs		94				102				519
Litigation settlement expense		—				6				34
Tax settlement expense		—				(755	)			516
Contingent consideration adjustment		—				—				(926	)
Adjusted EBITDA	$	20,365			$	16,690			$	31,030

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of June 30, 2024, our principal sources of liquidity consisted of cash and cash equivalents of $50.5 million and cash we expect to generate from future operations. Our cash and cash equivalents are maintained in highly liquid investments with remaining maturities of 90 days or less at the time of purchase. We believe our cash equivalents are liquid and accessible.

Our short-term and long-term liquidity requirements primarily arise from our working capital requirements, capital expenditures, internal software development costs, repurchases of our common stock, and acquisitions from time to time. Our acquisitions also may have deferred purchase price components and contingent consideration which requires us to make a series of payments following the acquisition closing date. Our primary operating cash requirements include the payment of media costs, personnel costs, costs of information technology systems and office facilities. Our ability to fund these requirements will depend on our future cash flows, which are determined, in part, by future operating performance and are, therefore, subject to prevailing global macroeconomic conditions and financial, business and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. Even though we may not need additional funds to fund anticipated liquidity requirements, we may still elect to obtain debt financing or issue additional equity securities for other reasons.

In April 2022, our Board of Directors canceled our prior stock repurchase program that commenced in July 2017 and authorized a new stock repurchase program allowing the repurchase of up to $40.0 million worth of common stock. In fiscal year 2024, we repurchased and retired 247,618 shares of our common stock at an average price of $8.85 per share at a total cost of $2.2 million (including a broker commission of $0.03 per share). Repurchases under this program took place in the open market and were made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan. The repurchased shares of common stock were recorded as treasury stock and were accounted for under the cost method. As of June 30, 2024, approximately $16.8 million remained available for stock repurchases pursuant to the board authorization.

We believe that our principal sources of liquidity will be sufficient to satisfy our currently anticipated cash requirements through at least the next 12 months and thereafter for the foreseeable future.

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Cash Flows

A discussion regarding our cash flows for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 is presented below. A discussion regarding our cash flows for fiscal year 2023 as compared to fiscal year 2022 can be found under the heading Liquidity and Capital Resources in Part II, Item 7., Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2023, filed with the SEC on August 21, 2023, which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:

 

						Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
						2024				2023				2022
						(In thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities						$	12,039			$	11,838			$	28,672
Net cash used in investing activities							(22,735	)			(15,125	)			(9,225	)
Net cash used in financing activities							(12,511	)			(19,459	)			(33,315	)

Net Cash provided by Operating Activities

Cash flows from operating activities are primarily the result of our net (loss) income adjusted for depreciation and amortization, provision for or benefit from sales returns and doubtful accounts receivable, stock-based compensation expense, change in the fair value of contingent consideration, non-cash lease expense, deferred income taxes, impairment of investment in equity securities and changes in working capital components. Cash provided by operating activities was $12.0 million in fiscal year 2024, compared to $11.8 million in fiscal year 2023 and $28.7 million in fiscal year 2022.

Cash provided by operating activities in fiscal year 2024 consisted of a net loss of $31.3 million, adjusted for non-cash adjustments of $50.4 million, and a net decrease in cash from changes in working capital of $7.0 million. The non-cash adjustments primarily consisted of stock-based compensation expense of $23.7 million, depreciation and amortization expense of $24.0 million, and impairment charge for investment in equity securities of $2.0 million. The changes in working capital accounts were primarily attributable to an increase in accounts receivable of $44.9 million, offset by an increase in accounts payable of $10.5 million, an increase in accrued liabilities of $25.4 million, and a decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $3.0 million. The increases in accounts receivable, accrued liabilities and accounts payable were primarily due to higher revenue levels in the two months ended June 30, 2024 as compared same period in prior year, and the timing of receipts and payments. The decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets was primarily due to decreased prepayments made to third-party publishers and lower amortization expense.

Cash provided by operating activities in fiscal year 2023 consisted of net loss of $68.9 million, adjusted for non-cash adjustments of $86.7 million and changes in working capital accounts of $6.0 million. The non-cash adjustments primarily consisted of a one-time non-cash charge of $47.2 million to establish a valuation allowance for our deferred tax assets, depreciation and amortization of $19.2 million, and stock-based compensation expense of $18.8 million. The changes in working capital accounts were primarily attributable to a decrease in accrued liabilities of $7.1 million, an increase in prepaid expenses and other assets of $4.8 million, and a decrease in accounts payable of $4.8 million, offset by a decrease in accounts receivable of $10.9 million.

Net Cash Used in Investing Activities

Cash flows from investing activities generally include capital expenditures, capitalized internal software development costs, acquisitions from time to time and investment in equity securities. Cash used in investing activities was $22.7 million in fiscal year 2024, compared to $15.1 million in fiscal year 2023 and $9.2 million in fiscal year 2022.

Cash used in investing activities in fiscal year 2024 was primarily composed of $16.7 million capital expenditures and capitalized internal software development costs, $4.5 million cash payment at the closing of business acquisitions in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, and $1.5 million of other investing activities. Cash used in investing activities in fiscal year 2023 was primarily composed of $15.0 million capital expenditures and capitalized internal software development costs.

Net Cash Used in Financing Activities

Cash flows from financing activities generally include repurchases of common stock, payment of withholding taxes related to the release of restricted stock, net of share settlement, proceeds from the exercise of stock options and issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan, and post-closing payments and contingent consideration related to business acquisitions. Cash used in financing activities was $12.5 million in fiscal year 2024, compared to $19.5 million in fiscal year 2023 and $33.3 million in fiscal year 2022.

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Cash used in financing activities in fiscal year 2024 was due to payment of post-closing payments and contingent consideration related to acquisitions of $7.0 million, payment of withholding taxes related to the release of restricted stock, net of share settlement of $6.7 million, and repurchases of common stock of $2.3 million, offset by proceeds from the issuance of common stock under the employee stock purchase plan and exercise of stock options of $3.5 million.

Cash used in financing activities in fiscal year 2023 was due to payment of post-closing payments and contingent consideration related to acquisitions of $11.6 million, repurchases of common stock of $5.6 million, and the payment of withholding taxes related to the release of restricted stock, net of share settlement of $5.4 million, offset by proceeds from the issuance of common stock under the employee stock purchase plan and exercise of stock options of $3.2 million.

Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes our payments due under our contractual obligations as of June 30, 2024:

 

		Total				Less than 1 Year				1-3 Years				3-5 Years				More than 5 Years
		(In thousands)
Operating leases (1)		$	13,921			$	3,896			$	5,631			$	4,185			$	209
Post-closing payment related to acquisitions (2)			18,143				8,416				9,727				—				—
Contingent consideration related to acquisitions (2)			2,466				956				1,510				—				—
Total		$	34,530			$	13,268			$	16,868			$	4,185			$	209

We lease various office facilities, including our corporate headquarters in Foster City, California. The terms of certain lease agreements include rent escalation provisions and tenant improvement allowances.

In February 2010, we entered into a lease agreement and into a subsequent lease amendment in April 2018 for our corporate headquarters located at 950 Tower Lane, Foster City, California. In March 2023, the lease agreement was further amended, pursuant to which the corporate headquarters will be relocated to a different floor within the same building upon the expiration of the existing lease. The amended agreement commenced in fiscal year 2024, with a lease term of five years and one option to extend the term of the lease for an additional three years.

The above table does not include approximately $2.7 million of long-term income tax liabilities as of June 30, 2024 for uncertainty in income taxes due to the fact that we are unable to reasonably estimate the timing of these potential future payments.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

We have prepared our consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP. In doing so, we are required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results may differ significantly from these estimates. Some of the estimates and assumptions we are required to make relate to matters that are inherently uncertain as they pertain to future events. We base these estimates and assumptions on historical experience or on various other factors that we believe to be reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances. On an ongoing basis, we reconsider and evaluate our estimates and assumptions.

We refer to these estimates and assumptions as critical accounting policies and estimates. We believe that the critical accounting policies listed below involve our more significant judgments, estimates and assumptions and, therefore, could have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. In addition, we believe that a discussion of these policies is necessary to understand and evaluate the consolidated financial statements contained in this report.

See Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Principles, to our consolidated financial statements for further information on our critical and other significant accounting policies.

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Revenue Recognition

We generate our revenue primarily from fees earned through the delivery of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. We recognize revenue when we transfer control of promised goods or services to our clients in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. We recognize revenue pursuant to the five-step framework contained in ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers: (i) identify the contract with a client; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract, including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the Company satisfies the performance obligations.

As part of determining whether a contract exists, probability of collection is assessed on a client-by-client basis at the outset of the contract. Clients are subjected to a credit review process that evaluates the clients’ financial position and the ability and intention to pay. If it is determined from the outset of an arrangement that the client does not have the ability or intention to pay, we will conclude that a contract does not exist and will continuously reassess our evaluation until we are able to conclude that a contract does exist.

Generally, our contracts specify the period of time as one month, but in some instances the term may be longer. However, for most of our contracts with clients, either party can terminate the contract at any time without penalty. Consequently, enforceable rights and obligations only exist on a day-to-day basis, resulting in individual daily contracts during the specified term of the contract or until one party terminates the contract prior to the end of the specified term.

We have assessed the services promised in our contracts with clients and have identified one performance obligation, which is a series of distinct services. Depending on the client’s needs, these services consist of a specified or an unlimited number of clicks, leads, calls, applications, customers, etc. (hereafter collectively referred to as “marketing results”) to be delivered over a period of time. We satisfy these performance obligations over time as the services are provided. We do not promise to provide any other significant goods or services to our clients.

Transaction price is measured based on the consideration that we expect to receive from a contract with a client. Our contracts with clients contain variable consideration as the price for an individual marketing result varies on a day-to-day basis depending on the market-driven amount a client has committed to pay. However, because we ensure the stated period of our contracts does not generally span multiple reporting periods, the contractual amount within a period is based on the number of marketing results delivered within the period. Therefore, the transaction price for any given period is fixed and no estimation of variable consideration is required.

If a marketing result delivered to a client does not meet the contractual requirements associated with that marketing result, our contracts allow for clients to return a marketing result generally within 5-10 days of having received the marketing result. Such returns are factored into the amount billed to the client on a monthly basis and consequently result in a reduction to revenue in the same month the marketing result is delivered. No warranties are offered to our clients.

We do not allocate transaction price as we have only one performance obligation and our contracts do not generally span multiple periods. Taxes collected from clients and remitted to governmental authorities are not included in revenue. We elected to use the practical expedient which allows us to record sales commissions as expense as incurred when the amortization period would have been one year or less.

We bill clients monthly in arrears for the marketing results delivered during the preceding month. Our standard payment terms are 30-60 days. Consequently, we do not have significant financing components in our arrangements.

Separately from the agreements that we have with clients, we have agreements with Internet search companies, third-party publishers and strategic partners that we engage with to generate targeted marketing results for our clients. We receive a fee from our clients and separately pay a fee to the Internet search companies, third-party publishers and strategic partners. We evaluate whether we are the principal (i.e., report revenue on a gross basis) or agent (i.e., report revenue on a net basis). In doing so, we first evaluate whether we control the goods or services before they are transferred to the clients. If we control the goods or services before they are transferred to the clients, we are the principal in the transaction. As a result, the fees paid by our clients are recognized as revenue and the fees paid to our Internet search companies, third-party publishers and strategic partners are included in cost of revenue. If we do not control the goods or services before they are transferred to the clients, we are the agent in the transaction and recognize revenue on a net basis. We have one subsidiary, CCM, which provides performance marketing agency and technology services to clients in financial services, education and other markets, recognizing revenue on a net basis. Determining whether we control the goods or services before they are transferred to the clients may require judgment.

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Stock-Based Compensation

We measure and record the expense related to stock-based transactions based on the fair values of stock-based payment awards, as determined on the date of grant. The fair value of restricted stock units with a service condition (“service-based RSU”) is determined based on the closing price of our common stock on the date of grant. To estimate the fair value of stock options and purchase rights granted under the employee stock purchase plan (“ESPP”), we selected the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The fair value of restricted stock units with a service and performance condition (“performance-based RSU”) is determined based on the closing price of our common stock on the date of grant. Grant date as defined by ASC 718 is determined when the components that comprise the performance targets have been fully established. If a grant date has not been established, the compensation expense associated with the performance-based RSUs is re-measured at each reporting date based on the closing price of our common stock at each reporting date until the grant date has been established. In applying these models, our determination of the fair value of the award is affected by assumptions regarding a number of subjective variables. These variables include, but are not limited to, the expected stock price volatility over the term of the award and the employees’ actual and projected stock option exercise and pre-vesting employment termination behaviors. We estimate the expected volatility of our common stock based on our historical volatility over the expected term of the award. We have no history or expectation of paying dividends on our common stock. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield for a term consistent with the expected term of the award.

We recognize stock-based compensation expense for options and service-based RSUs using the straight-line method, and for performance-based RSUs using the graded vesting method, based on awards ultimately expected to vest. We recognize stock-based compensation expense for the purchase rights granted under the ESPP using the straight-line method over the offering period. We estimate future forfeitures at the date of grant. On an annual basis, we assess changes to our estimate of expected forfeitures based on recent forfeiture activity. The effect of adjustments made to the forfeiture rates, if any, is recognized in the period that change is made.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes using an asset and liability approach to record deferred taxes. The Company’s deferred income tax assets represent temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amount and the tax basis of existing assets and liabilities that will result in deductible amounts in future years, including net operating loss carry forwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the currently enacted tax rates that apply to taxable income in effect for the years in which those tax assets and liabilities are expected to be realized or settled. Valuation allowances are provided when necessary to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount expected to be realized. The Company regularly assess the realizability of our deferred tax assets. Judgment is required to determine whether a valuation allowance is necessary and the amount of such valuation allowance, if appropriate. The Company considers all available evidence, both positive and negative, to determine, based on the weight of available evidence, whether it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. In evaluating the need, or continued need, for a valuation allowance The Company considers, among other things, the nature, frequency and severity of current and cumulative taxable income or losses, forecasts of future profitability, and the duration of statutory carryforward periods. Our judgment regarding future profitability may change due to future market conditions, changes in U.S. or international tax laws and other factors.

The Company recognizes tax benefits from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not, based on the technical merits of the position, that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the tax authorities. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such positions are then measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. Interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits are recognized within income tax expense.

Acquisitions and Business Combinations

In each acquisition transaction, we assess whether the transaction should follow accounting guidance applicable to an asset acquisition or a business combination. This assessment requires an evaluation of whether the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets, resulting in an asset acquisition or, if not, resulting in a business combination. An asset acquisition is an acquisition of an asset, or a group of assets, that does not meet the definition of a business.

We account for asset acquisitions using the cost accumulation and allocation model, whereby the costs of acquisition are allocated to the assets acquired on a relative fair value basis in accordance with our accounting policies.

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We account for business combinations using the acquisition method, which requires that the total consideration for each of the acquired business be allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values at the acquisition date. The excess of the purchase price over the fair values of these identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. During the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill.

In determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination, we used the income approach to value our most significant acquired assets. Significant assumptions relating to our estimates in the income approach include base revenue, revenue growth rate net of client attrition, projected gross margin, discount rates, projected operating expenses and the future effective income tax rates. The valuations of our acquired businesses have been performed by a third-party valuation specialist under our management’s supervision. We believe that the estimated fair value assigned to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates that marketplace participants would use. However, such assumptions are inherently uncertain and actual results could differ from those estimates. Future changes in our assumptions or the interrelationship of those assumptions may negatively impact future valuations. In future measurements of fair value, adverse changes in discounted cash flow assumptions could result in an impairment of goodwill or intangible assets that would require a non-cash charge to the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss and may have a material effect on our financial condition and operating results.

Acquisition related costs in a business combination are not considered part of the consideration, and are expensed as operating expenses as incurred. Contingent consideration, if any, is measured at fair value initially on the acquisition date as well as subsequently at the end of each reporting period until settlement at the end of the assessment period. We include the results of operations of the businesses acquired as of the beginning of the acquisition dates.

Goodwill

We conduct a test for the impairment of goodwill at the reporting unit level on at least an annual basis and whenever there are events or changes in circumstances that would more likely than not reduce the estimated fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying value. Application of the goodwill impairment test requires judgment, including the identification of reporting units, assigning assets and liabilities to reporting units, assigning goodwill to reporting units, and determining the fair value of each reporting unit. Significant judgments required to estimate the fair value of reporting units include estimating future cash flows and determining appropriate discount rates, growth rates, an appropriate control premium and other assumptions. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could materially affect the determination of fair value for each reporting unit which could trigger impairment.

We perform our annual goodwill impairment test on April 30 and conduct a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is necessary to perform a quantitative goodwill impairment test. In assessing the qualitative factors, we consider the impact of key factors such as changes in the general economic conditions, changes in industry and competitive environment, stock price, actual revenue performance compared to previous years, forecasts and cash flow generation. We had one reporting unit for purposes of allocating and testing goodwill for fiscal year 2024. Based on the results of the qualitative assessment completed as of April 30, 2024, there were no indicators of impairment.

Long-Lived Assets

We evaluate long-lived assets, such as property and equipment and purchased intangible assets with finite lives, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. If necessary, a quantitative test is performed that requires the application of judgment when assessing the fair value of an asset. When we identify an impairment, we reduce the carrying amount of the asset to its estimated fair value based on a discounted cash flow approach or, when available and appropriate, to comparable market values. As of April 30, 2024, we evaluated our long-lived assets and concluded there were no indicators of impairment.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, to our consolidated financial statements for information with respect to recent accounting pronouncements and the impact of these pronouncements on our consolidated financial statements.

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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. Market risk represents the risk of loss that may impact our financial position due to adverse changes in financial market prices and rates. Our market risk exposure is primarily the result of fluctuations in interest rates.

Interest Rate Risk

We invest our cash equivalents in money market funds. Cash and cash equivalents are held for working capital purposes and acquisition financing. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. We believe that we do not have material exposure to changes in the fair value of these investments as a result of changes in interest rates due to the short-term nature of our investments. Declines in interest rates may reduce future investment income. A hypothetical decline of 1% in the interest rate on our investments would not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

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Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

QUINSTREET, INC.

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

	Page
Report of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID 238)	53
Consolidated Balance Sheets	55
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss	56
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity	57
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	58
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements	59

 

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of QuinStreet, Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of QuinStreet, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2023, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, of stockholders’ equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2024, including the related notes and schedule of valuation and qualifying accounts for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2024 appearing under Item 15(a)2 (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2024 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

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Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Revenue Recognition

As described in Notes 2 and 3 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company derives revenue primarily from fees earned through the delivery of qualified inquiries such as clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers. The Company recognizes revenue when the Company transfers promised goods or services to clients in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The Company has assessed the services promised in its contracts with clients and has identified one performance obligation, which is a series of distinct services. Depending on the client’s needs, these services consist of a specified or an unlimited number of clicks, leads, calls, applications, or customers to be delivered over a period of time. The Company satisfies these performance obligations over time as the services are provided. The transaction price for any given period is fixed and no estimation of variable consideration is required. The Company does not promise to provide any other significant goods or services to its clients. The Company recorded total net revenue of $614 million for the year ended June 30, 2024.

The principal considerations for our determination that performing procedures relating to revenue recognition is a critical audit matter are a high degree of auditor effort in performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence related to the Company’s revenue recognition.

Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included testing the effectiveness of controls relating to the revenue recognition process. These procedures also included, among others (i) evaluating and recalculating, on a sample basis, the revenue recognized by obtaining and inspecting source documents, including executed contracts, invoices, delivery documents, and cash receipts, where applicable; (ii) evaluating revenue transactions by testing the issuance and settlement of invoices and credit memos, tracing transactions not settled to a detailed listing of accounts receivable, and testing the completeness and accuracy of data provided by management; and (iii) confirming, on a sample basis, outstanding customer invoice balances as of year end and obtaining and inspecting source documents, including executed contracts, invoices, delivery documents, and subsequent cash receipts, where applicable, for confirmations not returned.

/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

San Francisco, California

August 21, 2024

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2000.

 

 

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QUINSTREET, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except share and per share data)

		June 30,				June 30,
		2024				2023
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	50,488			$	73,677
Accounts receivable, net of allowances and reserves of $2,106 and $3,722 as of June 30, 2024 and 2023			111,786				67,748
Prepaid expenses and other assets			6,813				9,779
Total current assets			169,087				151,204
Property and equipment, net			19,858				16,749
Operating lease right-of-use assets			10,440				3,536
Goodwill			125,056				121,141
Intangible assets, net			38,008				38,700
Other assets, noncurrent			6,097				5,825
Total assets		$	368,546			$	337,155
Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable		$	48,204			$	37,926
Accrued liabilities			68,822				44,019
Other liabilities			9,372				7,875
Total current liabilities			126,398				89,820
Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent			7,879				1,261
Other liabilities, noncurrent			17,444				16,273
Total liabilities			151,721				107,354
Commitments and contingencies (See Note 11)
Stockholders' equity:
Common stock: $0.001 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized; 55,473,439 and 54,192,928 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2024 and 2023			55				54
Additional paid-in capital			347,449				329,093
Accumulated other comprehensive loss			(268	)			(266	)
Accumulated deficit			(130,411	)			(99,080	)
Total stockholders' equity			216,825				229,801
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity		$	368,546			$	337,155

 

See notes to consolidated financial statements

 

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QUINSTREET, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(In thousands, except per share data)

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
		2024				2023				2022
Net revenue		$	613,514			$	580,624			$	582,099
Cost of revenue (1)			567,268				532,101				528,368
Gross profit			46,246				48,523				53,731
Operating expenses: (1)
Product development			30,045				28,893				21,906
Sales and marketing			13,607				12,542				11,042
General and administrative			30,659				27,904				25,501
Operating loss			(28,065	)			(20,816	)			(4,718	)
Interest income			408				296				10
Interest expense			(680	)			(790	)			(1,075	)
Other (expense) income, net			(2,059	)			(52	)			21
Loss before income taxes			(30,396	)			(21,362	)			(5,762	)
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes			(935	)			(47,504	)			514
Net loss		$	(31,331	)		$	(68,866	)		$	(5,248	)
Comprehensive loss:
Net loss		$	(31,331	)		$	(68,866	)		$	(5,248	)
Other comprehensive loss:
Foreign currency translation adjustment			(2	)			(5	)			(6	)
Comprehensive loss		$	(31,333	)		$	(68,871	)		$	(5,254	)
Net loss per share, basic and diluted		$	(0.57	)		$	(1.28	)		$	(0.10	)
Weighted-average shares of common stock used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted			54,917				53,799				54,339

 

 

Cost of revenue		$	8,409			$	7,923			$	7,475
Product development			3,147				2,880				2,575
Sales and marketing			2,968				2,298				2,378
General and administrative			9,177				5,685				6,078

 

See notes to consolidated financial statements

 

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QUINSTREET, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

(In thousands, except share data)

																						Accumulated
																		Additional				Other								Total
		Common Stock								Treasury Stock								Paid-in				Comprehensive				Accumulated				Shareholders’
		Shares				Amount				Shares				Amount				Capital				Loss				Deficit				Equity
Balance at June 30, 2022			53,356,875			$	53			—				$	—			$	316,422			$	(261	)		$	(30,214	)		$	286,000
Issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options			109,359				—				—				—				587				—				—				587
Release of restricted stock, net of share settlement			851,241				1				—				—				(1	)			—				—				—
Issuance of common stock under the employee stock purchase plan			278,646				—				—				—				2,687				—				—				2,687
Stock-based compensation expense			—				—				—				—				18,840				—				—				18,840
Withholding taxes related to release of restricted stock, net of share settlement			—				—				—				—				(5,389	)			—				—				(5,389	)
Repurchase of common stock			—				—				(403,193	)			(4,053	)			—				—				—				(4,053	)
Retirement of treasury stock			(403,193	)			—				403,193				4,053				(4,053	)			—				—				—
Net loss			—				—				—				—				—				—				(68,866	)			(68,866	)
Other comprehensive loss			—				—				—				—				—				(5	)			—				(5	)
Balance at June 30, 2023			54,192,928			$	54				—			$	—			$	329,093			$	(266	)		$	(99,080	)		$	229,801
Issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options			217,926				—				—				—				918				—				—				918
Release of restricted stock, net of share settlement			992,809				1				—				—				(1	)			—				—				—
Issuance of common stock under the employee stock purchase plan			317,394				—				—				—				2,573				—				—				2,573
Stock-based compensation expense			—				—				—				—				23,754				—				—				23,754
Withholding taxes related to release of restricted stock, net of share settlement			—				—				—				—				(6,688	)			—				—				(6,688	)
Repurchase of common stock			—				—				(247,618	)			(2,200	)			—				—				—				(2,200	)
Retirement of treasury stock			(247,618	)			—				247,618				2,200				(2,200	)			—				—				—
Net loss			—				—				—				—				—				—				(31,331	)			(31,331	)
Other comprehensive loss			—				—				—				—				—				(2	)			—				(2	)
Balance at June 30, 2024			55,473,439			$	55				—			$	—			$	347,449			$	(268	)		$	(130,411	)		$	216,825

 

See notes to consolidated financial statements

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QUINSTREET, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)

		Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
		2024				2023				2022
Cash Flows from Operating Activities
Net loss		$	(31,331	)		$	(68,866	)		$	(5,248	)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization			23,957				19,155				16,961
Stock-based compensation			23,701				18,786				18,506
Impairment of investment in equity securities			2,000				—				—
Provision for sales returns and doubtful accounts receivable			896				2,745				581
Deferred income taxes			597				47,214				(791	)
Non-cash lease expense			(513	)			(1,081	)			(1,043	)
Change in the fair value of contingent consideration			—				—				(926	)
Other adjustments, net			(256	)			(149	)			482
Changes in assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable			(44,934	)			10,936				5,543
Prepaid expenses and other assets			2,966				(4,802	)			3,003
Other assets, noncurrent			(875	)			124				(788	)
Accounts payable			10,480				(4,770	)			(2,885	)
Accrued liabilities			25,351				(7,454	)			(4,723	)
Net cash provided by operating activities			12,039				11,838				28,672
Cash Flows from Investing Activities
Internal software development costs			(11,377	)			(11,942	)			(4,672	)
Capital expenditures			(5,348	)			(3,062	)			(2,842	)
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired			(4,510	)			—				(1,797	)
Other investing activities			(1,500	)			(121	)			86
Net cash used in investing activities			(22,735	)			(15,125	)			(9,225	)
Cash Flows from Financing Activities
Proceeds from exercise of stock options and issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan			3,491				3,219				1,854
Payment of withholding taxes related to release of restricted stock, net of share settlement			(6,688	)			(5,389	)			(7,342	)
Post-closing payments and contingent consideration related to acquisitions			(7,026	)			(11,643	)			(12,559	)
Repurchase of common stock			(2,288	)			(5,646	)			(15,268	)
Net cash used in financing activities			(12,511	)			(19,459	)			(33,315	)
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash			18				(15	)			(12	)
Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash			(23,189	)			(22,761	)			(13,880	)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period			73,692				96,453				110,333
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period		$	50,503			$	73,692			$	96,453
Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash to the consolidated balance sheets
Cash and cash equivalents		$	50,488			$	73,677			$	96,439
Restricted cash included in other assets, noncurrent			15				15				14
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash		$	50,503			$	73,692			$	96,453
Supplemental Disclosure of Cash Flow Information
Cash paid for income taxes		$	470			$	372			$	396
Supplemental Disclosure of Noncash Investing and Financing Activities
Post-closing payments unpaid at acquisition date (See Note 6)			7,161				—				2,785
Contingent consideration unpaid at acquisition date (See Note 6)			2,100				—				—
Retirement of treasury stock (See Note 12)			(2,200	)			(4,053	)			(16,950	)
Purchases of property and equipment included in accrued liabilities			846				1,228				613

 

See notes to consolidated financial statements

 

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QUINSTREET, INC.

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

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Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of June 30, 2024. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of June 30, 2024, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosures and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of internal control effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Our management has assessed the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013 Framework). Based on this evaluation, our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of June 30, 2024.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears in this annual report on Form 10-K.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the three months ended June 30, 2024 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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Item 9B. Other Information

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Arrangement

Insider Trading Policy and Clawback Policy

We have adopted insider trading policies, the Policy Against Trading on the Basis of Inside Information (filed as Exhibit 19.1), the Trading Window and Trade Pre-Clearance Policy (filed as Exhibit 19.2), and the Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan Guidelines (filed as Exhibit 19.3), governing the purchase, sale, and/or other dispositions of our securities by our directors, officers, and employees that are reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations and the Nasdaq listing standards applicable to us.

On October 27, 2023, the Board of Directors adopted a clawback policy, the Financial Restatement Compensation Recoupment Policy (filed as Exhibit 97.1), in order to comply with SEC and corresponding Nasdaq listing standards. Under that policy, the Company is required in certain situations to recoup incentive compensation paid or payable to certain current or former executive officers of the Company, including the named executive officers, in the event of an accounting restatement.

Item 9C. Disclosures Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspection Item 10.

Not applicable.

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PART III

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

The information required by this item concerning directors and executive officers is incorporated herein by reference from the sections to be titled “Election of Class III Directors,” “Board of Directors” and “Directors and Executive Officers” in our definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with our 2024 annual meeting of stockholders (the “Proxy Statement”). The Proxy Statement is expected to be filed no later than 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended June 30, 2024.

The information required by this item with respect to Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act is incorporated herein by reference from the section to be titled “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance” in our Proxy Statement.

Code of Ethics

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Ethics that applies to all of our employees, officers (including our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller, or persons performing similar functions), and directors. We will make any required disclosure of future amendments to our Code of Conduct and Ethics, or waivers of such provisions, applicable to any principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller, or persons performing similar functions or our directors on the investor relations page of our corporate website (www.quinstreet.com).

Item 11. Executive Compensation

The information required by this item will be set forth in the sections to be titled “Report of the Compensation Committee,” “Board of Directors” and “Executive Compensation” in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

The information required by this item will be set forth in the sections to be titled “Executive Compensation” and “Stock Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by this item will be included in the section to be titled “Stock Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” and “Board of Directors” in the Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services

The information required by this item will be set forth in the section to be titled “Ratification of the Selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

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PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

(a) We have filed the following documents as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K:

1. Consolidated Financial Statements

 

	Page
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID 238)	53
Consolidated Balance Sheets	55
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss	56
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity	57
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	58
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements	59

 

2. Financial Statement Schedules

The following financial statement schedule is filed as a part of this report:

(b) Exhibits

 

Exhibit Number	Description of Exhibit	Form	File Number	Exhibit	Filing Date
3.1	Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation.	S-1/A	333-163228	3.2	December 22, 2009
3.2	Bylaws.	S-1/A	333-163228	3.4	December 22, 2009
4.1	Form of QuinStreet, Inc.’s Common Stock Certificate.	S-1/A	333-163228	4.1	January 14, 2010
10.5+	QuinStreet, Inc. 2010 Equity Incentive Plan.	S-8	333-165534	99.9	March 17, 2010
10.6+	Forms of Option Agreement and Option Grant Notice under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for non-executive officer employees).	S-8	333-165534	99.10	March 17, 2010
10.7+	Forms of Option Agreement and Option Grant Notice under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for executive officers).	S-8	333-165534	99.11	March 17, 2010
10.8+	Forms of Senior Management Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for executive officers).	10-K	001-34628	10.8	August 23, 2012
10.9+	Forms of Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for non-executive officer employees).	10-K	001-34628	10.9	August 23, 2012
10.10+	Form of Restricted Stock Unit Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for non-employee directors).	10-K	001-34628	10.10	August 20, 2013
10.11+	QuinStreet, Inc. 2010 Non-Employee Directors’ Stock Award Plan.	S-8	333-165534	99.12	March 17, 2010
10.12+	Forms of Option Agreement and Option Grant Notice for Initial Grants under the 2010 Non-Employee Directors’ Stock Award Plan.	S-8	333-165534	99.13	March 17, 2010
10.13+	Forms of Option Agreement and Option Grant Notice for Annual Grants under the 2010 Non-Employee Directors’ Stock Award Plan.	S-8	333-165534	99.14	March 17, 2010
10.15+	Annual Incentive Plan.	S-1/A	333-163228	10.12	January 14, 2010
10.18	Office Lease Metro Center, dated as of February 25, 2010, between the registrant and CA-Metro Center Limited Partnership.	10-Q	001-34628	10.1	May 12, 2010
10.19+	Form of Indemnification Agreement made by and between QuinStreet, Inc. and each of its directors and executive officers.	S-1/A	333-163228	10.19	January 26, 2010
10.20	Assurance of Voluntary Compliance dated June 26, 2012 by and among QuinStreet, Inc. and the Attorneys General of the States of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.	8-K	001-34628	10.1	June 27, 2012
10.27+	Forms of Senior Management Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and	10-K	001-34628	10.27	September 12, 2014

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	Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for executive officers).
10.28+	Form of Deferred Restricted Stock Unit Agreement under 2010 Non-Employee Directors’ Stock Award Plan.	10-Q	001-34628	10.1	February 6, 2015
10.29	Third Amendment, to the Second Amended and Restated Revolving Credit and Term Loan Agreement, as amended from time to time, dated as of June 11, 2015, by and among QuinStreet, Inc., Comerica Bank, as administrative agent, and certain lenders party thereto.	8-K	001-34628	10.1	June 12, 2015
10.30+	Forms of Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for non-executive officer employees).	10-K	001-34628	10.30	August 19, 2015
10.31	Counselor Agreement dated December 31, 2015 between the Company and William Bradley.	10-Q	001-34628	10.1	February 9, 2016
10.32	Form of Change in Control Severance Agreement.	10-Q	001-34628	10.1	November 9, 2016
10.33+	Forms of Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for employees with a Change in Control Severance Agreement).	10-K	001-34628	10.33	September 8, 2017
10.34+	Forms of Option Agreement and Option Grant Notice under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan (for employees with a Change in Control Severance Agreement).	10-K	001-34628	10.34	September 8, 2017
10.35	Amended Office Lease Metro Center, dated February 25, 2010 between the registrant and CA-Metro Center Limited Partnership	10-K	001-34628	10.35	September 12, 2018
10.37+	Forms of Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan with Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Performance Metrics (for non-executive officer employees).	10-Q	001-34628	10.36	November 9, 2018
10.38+	Forms of Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan with Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Performance Metrics (for executive officer).	10-Q	001-34628	10.37	November 9, 2018
10.39+	Forms of Performance-Based Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) Grant Notice and Agreement under 2010 Equity Incentive Plan with Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Performance Metrics (for employees with a Change in Control Severance Agreement).	10-Q	001-34628	10.38	November 9, 2018
10.40+	QuinStreet, Inc. 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan	S-8	333-260769	99.1	November 4, 2021
10.41*#	Sixth Amendment to Office Lease Metro Center, dated March 16, 2023 between QuinStreet, Inc. and Hudson Metro Center, LLC
19.1*	QuinStreet, Inc. Policy Against Trading on the Basis of Inside Information
19.2*	QuinStreet, Inc. Trading Window and Trade Pre-Clearance Policy
19.3*	QuinStreet, Inc. Rule 10b5-a Trading Guidelines
21.1*	List of Subsidiaries

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23.1*	Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID 238)
24.1*	Power of Attorney (incorporated by reference to the signature page of this Annual Report on Form 10-K).
31.1*	Certification of the Chief Executive Officer of QuinStreet, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
31.2*	Certification of the Chief Financial Officer of QuinStreet, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
32.1**	Section 1350 Certifications of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
97.1*	QuinStreet, Inc. Financial Restatement Compensation Recoupment Policy
101.INS*	Inline XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the interactive data file because its XBRL tags are embedded within the inline XBRL document.
101.SCH*	Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
101.CAL*	Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
101.DEF*	Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
101. LAB*	Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
101. PRE*	Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
104*	Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as iXBRL and contained in Exhibit 101).

 

* Filed herewith.

** Furnished herewith.

+ Indicates management contract or compensatory plan.

# The schedules to this exhibit have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(b)(2) of Regulation S-K. QuinStreet, Inc. will furnish copies of such schedules to the SEC upon its request; provided, however, that QuinStreet, Inc. may request confidential treatment pursuant to Rule 24b-2 of the Exchange Act for any schedule so furnished.

Item 16.

None.

 

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SIGNATURES

Form 10-K Summary Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, on August 21, 2024.

 

QuinStreet, Inc.
By:	/s/ Douglas Valenti
	Douglas Valenti
	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Douglas Valenti and Gregory Wong, and each of them, as his true and lawful attorneys-in-fact and agents, with full power of substitution and re-substitution, for him in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission hereby ratifying and confirming that each of said attorneys-in-fact and agents, or his substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

 

Signature	Title	Date
/s/ Douglas Valenti	Chairman of the Board and	August 21, 2024
Douglas Valenti	Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer)
/s/ Gregory Wong	Chief Financial Officer	August 21, 2024
Gregory Wong	(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)
/s/ Asmau Ahmed	Director	August 21, 2024
Asmau Ahmed
	Director
Anna Fieler
/s/ Matthew Glickman	Director	August 21, 2024
Matthew Glickman
/s/ Stuart Huizinga	Director	August 21, 2024
Stuart Huizinga
/s/ David Pauldine	Director	August 21, 2024
David Pauldine
/s/ Andrew Sheehan	Director	August 21, 2024
Andrew Sheehan
/s/ James Simons	Director	August 21, 2024
James Simons

 

/s/ Hillary Smith	Director	August 21, 2024
Hillary Smith

 

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