Item 1. Business

In this report, the words “we,” “our,” “us,” “CoStar” or the “Company” refer to CoStar Group, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries. This report also refers to our websites, but information contained on those sites is not part of this report.

CoStar Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, founded in 1987, is the number one provider of information, analytics and marketing services to the commercial real estate industry in the United States ("U.S.") and United Kingdom ("U.K.") based on the fact that we offer the most comprehensive commercial real estate database available; have the largest research department in the industry; own and operate the leading online marketplace for commercial real estate in the U.S. based on the number of unique visitors per month; provide more information, analytics and marketing services than any of our competitors and believe that we generate more revenues than any of our competitors. Our integrated suite of online service offerings includes information about space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, information about properties for sale, internet marketing services, analytical capabilities, information for clients' websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, data integration and industry news. Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, industrial, retail, land, mixed-use, hospitality and multifamily. We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France.

Strategy

Since our founding, CoStar’s strategy has been to provide commercial real estate professionals with critical knowledge to explore and complete transactions by offering the most comprehensive, timely and standardized information on U.S. commercial real estate. We have extended our offering of comprehensive commercial real estate information to include London and other parts of the U.K. and parts of France, through acquisitions and internal growth and development. Information about CoStar’s revenues from, and long-lived assets located in, foreign countries is included in Notes 2 and 12 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. CoStar’s revenues, EBITDA, assets and liabilities, broken out by segment are set forth in Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements. Information about risks associated with our foreign operations is included in “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.”

We deliver our content to our U.S. customers primarily via an integrated suite of online service offerings that includes information about space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, information about properties for sale, internet marketing services, analytical capabilities, information for clients’ websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, data integration and industry news. Our subsidiary, LoopNet, Inc. (“LoopNet”), operates an online marketplace that enables property owners, landlords, and commercial real estate agents working on their behalf to list properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings. Commercial real estate agents, buyers and tenants also use LoopNet's online marketplace to search for available property listings that meet their criteria. We also provide market research and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (“PPR”) service offerings; portfolio and debt management and reporting capabilities through our Resolve Technology, Inc. (“Resolve Technology”) service offerings; and real estate and lease management solutions, including lease administration and abstraction services, through our Virtual Premise, Inc. (“Virtual Premise”) service offerings. We have created and are continually improving our standardized information, analytics and marketing platform where members of the commercial real estate and related business community can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently exchanging accurate and standardized commercial real estate information.

Our standardized platform includes the most comprehensive proprietary database in the industry; the largest research department in the industry; proprietary data collection, information management and quality control systems; a large in-house product development team; a broad suite of web-based information, analytics and marketing services; a large team of analysts and economists; and a large base of clients. Our database has been developed and enhanced for more than 25 years by a research department that makes thousands of daily database updates. In addition to our internal efforts to grow the database, we have obtained and assimilated approximately 80 proprietary databases.

Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar Property Professional®, CoStar Tenant®, CoStar COMPS Professional® and FOCUS™ services. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and through our mobile application, CoStarGo, and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. Additionally, we introduced CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professional, CoStar Tenant and CoStarGo in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Our subscription-based services consist primarily of similar services offered over the Internet to commercial real estate industry and related professionals. Our services are typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that renew automatically, a majority of which have a term of one year. Upon renewal, many of the subscription contract rates may change in accordance with contract provisions or as a result of contract renegotiations. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client's business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.

Expansion and Growth

Acquisitions

We have continually expanded the geographical coverage of our existing information services and developed new information, analytics and marketing services. In addition to internal growth, we have grown our business through strategic acquisitions. Most recently, in April 2012, we acquired LoopNet; the LoopNet acquisition is described below under "LoopNet Acquisition."

Historically, our expansion includes the acquisitions of Chicago ReSource, Inc. in Chicago in 1996 and New Market Systems, Inc. in San Francisco in 1997. In August 1998, we expanded into the Houston region through the acquisition of Houston-based real estate information provider C Data Services, Inc. In January 1999, we expanded further into the Midwest and Florida by acquiring LeaseTrend, Inc. and into Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth by acquiring Jamison Research, Inc. In February 2000, we acquired COMPS.COM, Inc., a San Diego-based provider of commercial real estate information. In November 2000, we acquired First Image Technologies, Inc., a California-based provider of commercial real estate software. In September 2002, we expanded further into Portland, Oregon through the acquisition of certain assets of Napier Realty Advisors (doing business as REAL-NET). In January 2003, we established a base in the U.K. with our acquisition of London-based FOCUS Information Limited. In May 2004, we expanded into Tennessee through the acquisition of Peer Market Research, Inc., and in June 2004, we extended our coverage of the U.K. through the acquisition of Scottish Property Network. In September 2004, we strengthened our position in Denver, Colorado through the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of RealComp, Inc., a local comparable sales information provider.

In January 2005, we acquired National Research Bureau, a Connecticut-based provider of U.S. shopping center information. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S. (“Grecam”), a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited (“Propex”), a provider of commercial property information and operator of an electronic platform that facilitates the exchange of investment property located in London, England. In April 2008, we acquired the assets of First CLS, Inc. (doing business as the Dorey Companies and DoreyPRO), an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information. In July 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based PPR, a provider of real estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analytics to the commercial real estate industry, and its wholly owned U.K. subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., and in October 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Resolve Technology, a provider of business intelligence and portfolio management software serving the institutional real estate investment industry. In October 2011, we acquired Virtual Premise, a Software as a Service, or on-demand software, provider of real estate and lease management solutions located in Atlanta, Georgia.

LoopNet Acquisition

On April 30, 2012, we completed the acquisition of LoopNet. The acquisition combines the research capabilities of CoStar with the marketing solutions offered by LoopNet. We expect the acquisition will create efficiencies in operations and provide greater tools for the combined company's customers. To acquire LoopNet, we paid stock and cash consideration with an aggregate value of approximately $883.4 million as of the closing date.

In connection with the LoopNet acquisition, we agreed to the terms of a consent order issued by the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”). The consent order, which is publicly available on the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov, requires us to maintain certain business practices that the FTC believes will promote competition. For example, the consent order requires us to maintain our customary practice of selling our products separately and on a market-by-market basis. It also requires us to license our products to customers who have bought our competitors' products on a non-discriminatory basis, which we have always done in the past. In addition, we are required to maintain our customary licensing practices with respect to the length of our contracts, to allow customers with multi-year contracts to cancel with one year's advance notice, and to agree to reduce the cost of any litigation with customers by offering to arbitrate certain disputes.

We funded the cash portion of the consideration payable to LoopNet stockholders in the merger through a combination of cash on hand, including the net proceeds of approximately $247.9 million from an equity offering we completed in June 2011 and the proceeds of a $175.0 million term loan facility available to us under a credit agreement (as amended, the “Credit Agreement”), dated February 16, 2012, by and among CoStar, as borrower, CoStar Realty Information, Inc. (“CoStar Realty”), as co-borrower, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“J.P. Morgan Bank”), as administrative agent, and the other lenders thereto.

Development

We expect to continue to develop and distribute new services, improve existing services, integrate products and services, cross-sell existing services, and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research, sales and marketing organizations. We are also committed to supporting and improving our existing core information, analytic and marketing services.

Examples of new tools and services that we are currently developing and expect to introduce to customers in the near future include upgrades to our suite of online service offerings – CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant and CoStar COMPS Professional. These upgrades are expected to include improvements to the search functionality as well as improvements to the reporting capabilities of the system. We also plan improvements to property type specific searches included as part of CoStar Property Professional.

We continue to improve our mobile application, CoStarGo®, which was launched in the U.S. on August 15, 2011 and introduced in the U.K. on November 5, 2012. CoStarGo is an iPad application that integrates and provides mobile access to subscribers of our comprehensive property, tenant and comparable sales information in our suite of online service offerings - CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant and CoStar COMPS Professional. Planned improvements for CoStarGo include a multifamily search function and enhanced analytic capabilities.

We are integrating, developing and cross-selling the services offered by the companies we acquired most recently, including LoopNet, Virtual Premise, Resolve Technology and PPR. Our sales and marketing efforts are and will continue to be focused on cross-selling and marketing our services. After the acquisition of LoopNet, we launched a sales and marketing campaign directed at cross-selling CoStar's information services to LoopNet customers and LoopNet's marketing services to CoStar customers. We have incurred increased expenses associated with this marketing and sales campaign and expect to continue to incur additional expenses for the campaign during the first quarter of 2013. We anticipate that these initiatives will position the company for revenue growth in 2013 and beyond. Our investments in LoopNet, Virtual Premise, Resolve Technology, and PPR have increased, and may continue to increase; however our revenues have also increased as a result of these acquisitions, due to revenue from the acquired businesses, as well as our ability to take advantage of cross-selling opportunities among the customers of CoStar and the acquired companies.

In addition, we expect to continue our efforts to integrate the combined capabilities of CoStar's property and market-level information and PPR's analytics and forecasting expertise with Resolve Technology's real estate investment software expertise. We plan to continue efforts to integrate CoStar's business with Virtual Premise's real estate and lease management solutions. These integration efforts include providing additional tools that make our research and analytics even more valuable to subscribers. In order to implement these initiatives, we have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, additional costs. We also expect to continue to offer our core products and services individually.

International Expansion and Development

We also intend to continue to expand the coverage of our service offerings within our International segment. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S., a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services, located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited, a provider of commercial property information and operator of an electronic platform that facilitates the exchange of investment property located in London, England. As part of our integration efforts, in 2007, we introduced the “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our international operations, and in early 2010, we launched Showcase, our internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals high quality internet lead generation, in the U.K. Our July 2009 acquisition of PPR and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. (“PPR UK”), also expanded the market research capabilities of our U.K. operations.

We have recently begun to research commercial properties in Toronto, Canada and plan to introduce services covering this area in late 2013 or early 2014. In addition, we intend to continue to upgrade our platform of services and to integrate our international operations more fully with those in the U.S. In furtherance of these initiatives, in the U.K. during the fourth quarter of 2012, we introduced a consistent international platform of service offerings, consisting of CoStarGo, our iPad application, CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professional, and CoStar Tenant. We believe the product launch was well received and a significant marketing and sales effort is currently underway. Additionally, we have upgraded our back-end research operations, fulfillment and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) systems to support these new U.K. services. In order to implement these services in the U.K., we incurred increased development costs through 2012. We expect that development expenses incurred by the International segment will decrease in 2013. We believe that our continued investments in U.S. and international products, internationalization of our U.S. products and integration efforts have created and will continue to build upon a platform for long-term revenue growth. We expect these investments to result in further penetration of our international subscription-based information services and the successful cross-selling of our services to customers in existing markets due to the release of our upgraded international platform and expansion of coverage of our international service offerings.

Industry Overview

The market for commercial real estate information and analysis is vast based on the variety, volume and value of transactions related to commercial real estate. Each transaction has multiple participants and multiple information requirements, and in order to facilitate transactions, industry participants must have extensive, accurate and current information and analysis. Members of the commercial real estate and related business community require daily access to current data such as space availability, properties for sale, rental rates, vacancy rates, tenant movements, sales comparables, supply, new construction, absorption rates and other important market developments to carry out their businesses effectively. Market research (including historical and forecast conditions) and applied analytics have also become instrumental to the success of commercial real estate industry participants operating in the current economic environment. There is a strong need for an efficient marketplace, where commercial real estate professionals can exchange information, evaluate opportunities using standardized data and interpretive analyses, and interact with each other on a continuous basis.

A large number of parties involved in the commercial real estate and related business community make use of the services we provide in order to obtain information they need to conduct their businesses, including:

•	Sales and leasing brokers	•	Government agencies
•	Property owners	•	Mortgage-backed security issuers
•	Property managers	•	Appraisers
•	Design and construction professionals	•	Pension fund managers
•	Real estate developers	•	Reporters
•	Real estate investment trust managers	•	Tenant vendors
•	Investment bankers	•	Building services vendors
•	Commercial bankers	•	Communications providers
•	Mortgage bankers	•	Insurance companies’ managers
•	Mortgage brokers	•	Institutional advisors
•	Retailers	•	Investors and asset managers

The commercial real estate and related business community generally has operated in an inefficient marketplace because of the fragmented approach to gathering and exchanging information within the marketplace. Various organizations, including hundreds of brokerage firms, directory publishers and local research companies, collect data on specific markets and develop software to analyze the information they have independently gathered. This highly fragmented methodology has resulted in duplication of effort in the collection and analysis of information, excessive internal cost and the creation of non-standardized data containing varying degrees of accuracy and comprehensiveness, resulting in a formidable information gap.

The creation of a standardized information platform for commercial real estate requires an infrastructure including a standardized database, accurate and comprehensive research capabilities, experienced analysts, easy to use technology and intensive participant interaction. By combining our extensive database, approximately 1,108 researchers and outside contractors, our experienced team of analysts and economists, technological expertise and broad customer base, we believe that we have created such a platform.

CoStar’s Comprehensive Database

CoStar has spent more than 25 years building and acquiring a database of commercial real estate information, which includes information on leasing, sales, comparable sales, tenants, and demand statistics, as well as digital images.

As of January 31, 2013, our database of real estate information covered the U.S., London, England and other parts of the U.K., and contained information about:

•	Approximately 1.6 million sale and lease listings;

•	Approximately 4.2 million total properties;

•	Approximately 9.0 billion square feet of sale and lease listings;

•	Approximately 5.8 million tenants;

•	Approximately 1.9 million sales transactions valued in the aggregate at approximately $4.5 trillion; and

•	Approximately 13.8 million digital attachments, including building photographs, aerial photographs, plat maps and floor plans.

This highly complex database is comprised of hundreds of data fields, tracking such categories as:

•	Location	•	Mortgage and deed information
•	Site and zoning information	•	For-sale information
•	Building characteristics	•	Income and expense histories
•	Space availability	•	Tenant names
•	Tax assessments	•	Lease expirations
•	Ownership	•	Contact information
•	Sales and lease comparables	•	Historical trends
•	Space requirements	•	Demographic information
•	Number of retail stores	•	Retail sales per square foot

CoStar Research

We have developed a sophisticated data collection organization utilizing a multi-faceted research process. In 2012, our full time researchers and contractors drove millions of miles, conducted hundreds of thousands of on-site building inspections, and conducted millions of interviews of brokers, owners and tenants.

Research Department. As of January 31, 2013, we had approximately 1,108 commercial real estate research professionals and outside contractors performing research. Our research professionals undergo an extensive training program so that we can maintain consistent research methods and processes throughout our research department. Our researchers collect and analyze commercial real estate information through millions of phone calls, e-mails, internet updates and faxes each year, in addition to field inspections, public records review, news monitoring and direct mail. Each researcher is responsible for maintaining the accuracy and reliability of database information. As part of their update process, researchers develop cooperative relationships with industry professionals that allow them to gather useful information. Because of the importance commercial real estate professionals place on our data and our prominent position in the industry, many of these professionals routinely take the initiative and proactively report available space and transactions to our researchers.

CoStar has an extensive field research effort that includes physical inspection of properties in order to research new markets, find additional inventory, photograph properties and verify existing information.

CoStar utilizes 137 high-tech, field research vehicles in 39 states, Canada and the U.K. Of these vehicles, 120 are customized energy efficient hybrid cars that are equipped with computers, proprietary Global Positioning System tracking software, high resolution digital cameras and handheld laser instruments to help precisely measure buildings, geo-code them and position them on digital maps. Some of our researchers also use custom-designed trucks with the same equipment as well as pneumatic masts that extend up to an elevation of twenty-five feet to allow for unobstructed building photographs from “birds-eye” views. Each CoStar vehicle uses wireless technology to track and transmit field data. A typical site inspection consists of photographing the building, measuring the building, geo-coding the building, capturing “For Sale” or “For Lease” sign information, counting parking spaces, assessing property condition and construction, and gathering tenant information. Certain researchers canvass properties, interviewing tenants suite by suite. In addition, many of our field researchers are photographers who take photographs of commercial real estate properties to add to CoStar’s database of digital images.

Data and Image Providers. We license a small portion of our data and images from public record providers and third party data sources. Licensing agreements with these entities provide for our use of a variety of commercial real estate information, including property ownership, tenant information, demographic information, maps and aerial photographs, all of which enhance various CoStar services. These license agreements generally grant us a non-exclusive license to use the data and images in the creation and supplementation of our information, analytics and marketing services and include what we believe are standard terms, such as a contract term ranging from one to five years, automatic renewal of the contract and fixed periodic license fees or a combination of fixed periodic license fees plus additional fees based upon our usage.

Management and Quality Control Systems. Our research processes include automated and non-automated controls to ensure the integrity of the data collection process. A large number of automated data quality tests check for potential errors, including occupancy date conflicts, available square footage greater than building area, typical floor space greater than land area and expired leases. We also monitor changes to critical fields of information to ensure all information is kept in compliance with our standard definitions and methodology. Our non-automated quality control procedures include:

•	calling our information sources on recently updated properties to re-verify information;

•	performing periodic research audits and field checks to determine if we correctly canvassed buildings;

•	providing training and retraining to our research professionals to ensure accurate data compilation; and

•	compiling measurable performance metrics for research teams and managers for feedback on data quality.

Finally, one of the most important and effective quality control measures we rely on is feedback provided by the commercial real estate professionals using our data every day.

Proprietary Technology

As of January 31, 2013, CoStar had a staff of 295 product development, database and network professionals. CoStar’s information technology professionals focus on developing new services for our customers, integrating our current services, and delivering research automation tools that improve the quality of our data and increase the efficiency of our research analysts.

Our information technology team is responsible for developing and maintaining CoStar services, including but not limited to CoStar Property Professional®, CoStar COMPS Professional®, CoStar Tenant®, CoStar Showcase®, CoStarGo®, CoStar Connect®, LoopNet Premium Lister, LoopNet Premium Searcher, FOCUS™, PPR products and services, Resolve Portfolio Maximizer® and Resolve Request™, and Virtual Premise products and services. On August 15, 2011, we launched CoStarGo in the U.S.; CoStarGo is an iPad application that integrates and provides mobile access to subscribers of our comprehensive property, tenant and comparable sales information in our suite of online service offerings – CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant and CoStar COMPS Professional. Most recently, on November 5, 2012, we introduced CoStar Suite and CoStarGo in the U.K.

Our information technology team is responsible for developing the infrastructure necessary to support CoStar’s business processes, our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, analytics and marketing services and our extensive image library. The team implements technologies and systems that introduce efficient workflows and controls that increase the production capacity of our research teams and improve the quality of our data. Over the years, the team has developed data collection and quality control mechanisms that we believe are unique to the commercial real estate industry. The team continues to develop and modify our enterprise information management system that integrates CoStar sales, research, field research, customer support and accounting information. We use this system to maintain our commercial real estate research information, manage contacts with the commercial real estate community, provide research workflow automation and conduct daily automated quality assurance checks. In addition, our information technology team has also developed fraud-detection technology to detect and prevent unauthorized access to our services.

Our information technology professionals also maintain the servers and network components necessary to support CoStar services and research systems. Our encrypted virtual private network provides remote researchers and salespeople secure access to CoStar applications and network resources. CoStar maintains a comprehensive data protection policy that provides for use of encrypted data fields and off-site storage of all system backups, among other protective measures. CoStar’s services are continually monitored in an effort to ensure our customers fast and reliable access.

Services

Our suite of information, analytics and marketing services is branded and marketed to our customers. Our services are primarily derived from a database of building-specific information and offer customers specialized tools for accessing, analyzing and using our information. Over time, we expect to continue to enhance our existing information, analytics and marketing services and develop additional services that make use of our comprehensive database to meet the needs of our existing customers as well as potential new categories of customers.

Our principal information, analytics and marketing services as of January 31, 2013 are described in the following paragraphs:

CoStar Property Professional® CoStar Property Professional, or “CoStar Property,” is the Company’s flagship service. It provides subscribers a comprehensive inventory of office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties and land in markets throughout the U.S. and U.K., including for-lease and for-sale listings, historical data, building photographs, maps and floor plans. Commercial real estate professionals use CoStar Property to identify available space for lease, evaluate leasing and sale opportunities, value assets and position properties in the marketplace. Our clients also use CoStar Property to analyze market conditions by calculating current vacancy rates, absorption rates or average rental rates, and forecasting future trends based on user selected variables. CoStar Property provides subscribers with powerful map-based search capabilities as well as a user controlled, password protected extranet (or electronic “file cabinet”) where brokers may share space surveys and transaction-related documents online, in real time, with team members. When used together with CoStar Connect, CoStar Property enables subscribers to share space surveys and transaction-related documents with their clients, accessed through their corporate website. CoStar Property, along with all of CoStar’s other core information, analytics and marketing services, is delivered solely via the Internet.

CoStar COMPS Professional® CoStar COMPS Professional, or “COMPS Professional,” provides comprehensive coverage of comparable sales information in the U.S. and U.K. commercial real estate industries. It is the industry’s most comprehensive database of comparable sales transactions and is designed for professionals who need to research property comparables, identify market trends, expedite the appraisal process and support property valuations. COMPS Professional offers subscribers numerous fields of property information, access to support documents (e.g., deeds of trust) for new comparables, demographics and the ability to view for-sale properties alongside sold properties in three formats – plotted on a map, aerial image or in a table.

CoStar Tenant® CoStar Tenant is a detailed online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool providing commercial real estate professionals with the most comprehensive commercial real estate-related U.S. and U.K. tenant information available. CoStar Tenant profiles tenants occupying space in commercial buildings across the U.S. and provides updates on lease expirations - one of the service’s key features - as well as occupancy levels, growth rates and numerous other facts. Delivering this information via the Internet allows users to target prospective clients quickly through a searchable database that identifies only those tenants meeting certain criteria.

CoStarGo® CoStarGo is an iPad application that integrates and provides mobile access to subscribers of our comprehensive property, tenant and comparable sales information in our suite of online service offerings – CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant and CoStar COMPS Professional. CoStarGo provides a single, location-centric mobile interface that allows users to access and display comprehensive information on millions of properties and gain instant access to analytic data and demographic information from the field.

CoStar Advertising® CoStar Advertising offers property owners and brokers a highly targeted and cost effective way to market a space for lease or a property for sale directly to the CoStar subscribers looking for that type of space through interactive advertising. Our advertising model is based on varying levels of exposure, enabling the advertiser to target as narrowly or broadly as its budget permits. With the CoStar Advertising program, when the advertiser’s listings appear in a results set, they receive priority positioning and are enhanced to stand out. The advertiser can also purchase exposure in additional submarkets, or the entire market area so that this ad will appear even when this listing would not be returned in a results set.

PPR® Our subsidiary, PPR, and its U.K. subsidiary, PPR UK, offer products and services designed to meet the research needs of commercial real estate investors and lenders. PPR covers metropolitan areas throughout the U.S., the U.K., and Europe, with offerings including historical and forecast market data and analysis by market and property type, and services including access to PPR’s analysts, economists, and strategists to develop and deliver custom research solutions. Key tools include analysis of underlying property data, assessment of current market fundamentals, forecasts of future market performance, and credit default models.

PPR Portal™ is PPR’s primary delivery platform for research, forecasts, analytics, and granular data surrounding a specific address and property type. Information is organized around clearly defined tabs, for ease of access. The information is presented in written, table data, graphic, and map formats, and can easily be downloaded by the user for integration into its own analytical framework. PPR’s Portal is used by lenders, investors, and owners to identify and price investment opportunities, manage assets and portfolios, and source and service capital.

PPR COMPASS™ is PPR’s premier commercial real estate risk management tool. It allows users to calculate Probability of Default, Loss Given Default, Expected Loss, and Confidence Interval (of Expected Loss) results for a loan or a portfolio. It provides direct comparisons of credit risk and refinance risk across Time, Market, Property Type, and Loan Structure for all macroeconomic forecast scenarios. COMPASSCRE is used by lenders, issuers, ratings agencies, and regulators to estimate required loss reserves and economic capital, target lending opportunities, set pricing strategy, objectively compare/price loans, more effectively allocate capital, and manage refinance risk.

Resolve Portfolio Maximizer® Resolve Portfolio Maximizer is an industry leading real estate portfolio management software solution. Resolve Portfolio Maximizer allows users to model partnership structures, calculate waterfall distributions and fees, model and analyze debt obligations, and create multiple “what if” scenarios for alternative investment decisions.

Resolve Request™ Request is the first business intelligence software solution built specifically for managing commercial real estate investments. Request helps users eliminate some of the difficulties of consolidating real estate investment data from disparate sources and facilitates standardization of information presentation and reporting across an organization. Request also provides a platform for users to develop business intelligence and reporting capabilities.

VP Corporate Edition™ Our subsidiary, Virtual Premise, offers VP Corporate Edition, a real estate management software solution designed for corporate real estate managers, company executives, business unit directors, brokers and project managers. VP Corporate Edition helps users connect real estate initiatives with company strategic goals, streamline portfolio operations, automate the process for collecting and managing space requests, reduce occupancy costs with analytics that track location performance against targets, and maximize location performance through proactive portfolio management. Virtual Premise also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.

VP Retail Edition™ VP Retail Edition is a real estate management software solution designed for company executives, real estate dealmakers and store planning and construction managers. VP Retail Edition helps users to utilize comprehensive and real-time data to establish goals and store strategies, manage the execution of real estate strategies, summarize critical portfolio data to drive cost-saving decisions, and benchmark prerequisite store-level information and metrics for maximizing location performance through proactive portfolio management. Virtual Premise also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.

LoopNet® Basic and Premium Membership Our subsidiary, LoopNet, offer two types of memberships on the LoopNet marketplace, basic and premium. Basic membership is available free-of-charge to anyone who registers at our LoopNet website and enables members to experience some of the benefits of the LoopNet offering, with limited functionality. As of January 31, 2013, LoopNet had approximately 6.8 million registered members, of which 82,915 were premium members.

LoopNet® Premium Lister LoopNet Premium Lister is designed for commercial real estate professionals and other customers who seek the broadest possible exposure for their listings, access to leads lists, and advanced marketing and searching tools. LoopNet Premium Lister provides subscribers with the ability to market their listings to all LoopNet.com visitors, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Lister is available for a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription.

LoopNet® Premium Searcher LoopNet Premium Searcher is designed for members searching for commercial real estate who need unlimited marketplace searching access, professional-quality reports and advanced searching tools. LoopNet Premium Searcher provides subscribers with full access to all LoopNet property listings, including both Premium and Basic Listings, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Searcher is also available for a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription.

LoopLink® LoopLink is an online real estate marketing and database services suite that enables commercial real estate firms to showcase their available properties both on the LoopNet marketplace and on the brokerage firm’s own website using hosted search software. Within LoopNet, each LoopLink listing is branded with the client’s logo and is hyperlinked to the client’s website. Additionally, the LoopLink service provides customizable, branded property search and results screens that can be integrated into the client’s website. The LoopNet import service offers the opportunity to simplify the process of submitting listings to LoopNet from the client’s internal databases, and features advanced data matching and data integrity rules and file conversion capabilities. LoopNet charges a monthly subscription fee to commercial real estate firms for the LoopLink service. Key features of LoopLink include comprehensive reporting and listing administration tools, a searchable and seamlessly integrated professional directory, property mapping for geographic and feasibility analysis, thumbnail photos and expanded property descriptions in search results.

LandsofAmerica® and LandAndFarm™ LandsofAmerica and LandAndFarm are leading online marketplaces for rural land for sale. Sellers pay a fee to list their land for sale, and interested buyers can search LoopNet's listings for free.

BizBuySell®and BizQuest® BizBuySell and BizQuest are leading online marketplaces for operating businesses for sale. Business sellers pay a fee to list their operating businesses for sale, and interested buyers can search LoopNet's listings for free. The BizBuySell and BizQuest Franchise Directories allow interested business buyers to search hundreds of franchise opportunities, and franchisors can list their availabilities in the directory on a cost per lead basis.

FOCUS™ Our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar U.K. Limited, offers several services; its primary service is FOCUS. FOCUS is a digital online service offering information on the U.K. commercial real estate market. This service seamlessly links data on individual properties and companies across the U.K., including comparable sales, available space, requirements, tenants, lease deals, planning information, socio-economics and demographics, credit ratings, photos and maps.

Grecam™ Our French subsidiary, Grecam S.A.S., provides commercial real estate information throughout the Paris region through its Observatoire Immobilier D’ Entreprise (“OIE”) service offering. The OIE service provides commercial property availability and transaction information to its subscribers through both an online service and market reports.

Clients

We draw clients from across the commercial real estate and related business community. Commercial real estate brokers have traditionally formed the largest portion of CoStar clients, however, we also provide services to owners, landlords, financial institutions, retailers, vendors, appraisers, investment banks, governmental agencies, and other parties involved in commercial real estate. The following chart lists U.S. and U.K. clients that are well known or have the highest annual subscription fees in each of the various categories, each as of January 31, 2013:

Brokers		Lenders, Investment Bankers		Institutional Advisors, Asset Managers
Binswanger		AEGON USA Realty Advisors, Inc.		AEW Capital Management LP
BNP Paribas — U.K.		Bank of America, N.A.		BlackRock
Carter		Capital One Bank		Hartford Investment Management Company
Cassidy Turley		Citibank		ING Investment Management
CB Richard Ellis		Deutsche Bank		Manulife Financial
CB Richard Ellis — U.K.		JP Morgan Chase Bank		MetLife Real Estate Investment
Charles Dunn Company, Inc.		Key Bank		NorthMarq Capital
Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT		Q10 Capital LLC		Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.
Colliers		Suntrust		Prudential
Colliers International UK — U.K.		TD Bank		Prudential — U.K.
CRESA		Wells Fargo		USAA Real Estate Company
Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield — U.K.
DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services
Drivers Jonas Deloitte — U.K.
DTZ, a UGL company		Owners, Developers		Appraisers, Accountants
Gerald Eve — U.K.		Hines		Deloitte
GVA Grimley — U.K.		Industrial Developments International		Integra
HFF		LNR Property Corp		KPMG
Jones Lang LaSalle		Shorenstein Company, LLC		Marvin F. Poer
Jones Lang LaSalle — U.K.		Tishman Speyer		Price Waterhouse Coopers
Kidder Mathews		Transport for London — U.K.		Ryan LLC
Knight Frank LLP — U.K.
Lambert Smith Hampton — U.K.
Marcus & Millichap
Mohr Partners
NAI Global		Retailers		Government Agencies
NB Real Estate — U.K.		Dollar General Corporation		City of Chicago
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank		Herman Miller		Cook County Assessor’s Office
Re/Max		Jos. A Bank		County of Los Angeles
Savills Commercial — U.K.		Massage Envy		Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Sperry Van Ness		Petco		Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Studley		Rent-A-Center		Internal Revenue Service
Transwestern		Sony		Transportation Security Administration
U.S. Equities Realty		Spencer Gifts LLC		U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
USI Real Estate Brokerage Services		Starbucks		U.S. General Services Administration
Weichert Commercial Brokerage		Walgreens		Valuation Office Agency — U.K.
REITs		Property Managers		Vendors
Boston Properties		Asset Plus Corporation		ADT Security
Brandywine Realty Trust		Leggat McCall Properties		Comcast Corporation
Duke Realty Corporation		Lincoln Property Company		Cox Communications, Inc.
KBS Realty Advisors		Navisys Group		Kastle Systems
Kimco Realty Corporation		Osprey Management Company		Time Warner Cable, Inc.
Simon Property Group, Inc.		PM Realty Group		Turner Construction Company
Vornado/Charles E. Smith		Transwestern Commercial Services		Verizon Communications, Inc.

For the years ended December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012, no single client accounted for more than 5% of our revenues.

Sales and Marketing

As of January 31, 2013, we had 502 sales, marketing and customer support employees, with the majority of our direct sales force located in field sales offices. Our sales teams are primarily located in 30 field sales offices throughout the U.S. and in offices located in London, England; Manchester, England; Glasgow, Scotland and Paris, France. Our inside sales teams are located in our Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; and Glendora, California offices. These teams prospect for new clients and perform service demonstrations exclusively by telephone and over the Internet to support the direct sales force. A portion of the inside sales teams are also responsible for selling some of our services.

Our local offices typically serve as the platform for our in-market sales, customer support and field research operations for their respective regions. The sales force is responsible for selling to new prospects, training new and existing clients, providing ongoing customer support, renewing existing client contracts and identifying cross-selling opportunities. In addition, the sales force has primary front line responsibility for customer care.

Our sales strategy is to aggressively attract new clients, while providing ongoing incentives for existing clients to subscribe to additional services. We actively manage client accounts in order to retain clients by providing frequent service demonstrations as well as company-client contact and communication. We place a premium on training new and existing client personnel on the use of our services so as to promote maximum client utilization and satisfaction with our services. Our strategy also involves entering into multi-year, multi-market license agreements with our larger clients.

We seek to make our services essential to our clients’ businesses. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates for subscription-based services are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.

Our customer service and support staff is charged with ensuring high client satisfaction by providing ongoing customer support.

Our primary marketing methods include: service demonstrations; face to face networking; web-based marketing; direct marketing; communication via our corporate website and news services; participation in trade show and industry events; Company-sponsored events; print advertising in trade magazines and other business publications; client referrals; and CoStar Advisor™, the Company’s newsletter, which is distributed via email to our clients and prospects. We currently offer dozens of webinars each year aimed at helping customers learn more about the commercial real estate industry and how to use our services. The webinars are available both as live presentations and as on-demand programs hosted on our website. On a monthly basis, we issue the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sales Index ("CCRSI"), a comprehensive set of benchmarks that investors and other market participants can use to better understand commercial real estate price movements. The Index is produced using our underlying data and is publicly distributed by CoStar through the news media and made available online at www.costar.com/ccrsi.

Web-based marketing and direct marketing are the most cost-effective means for us to find prospective clients. Our web-based marketing efforts include search engine optimization, paid advertising with major search engines and commercial real estate news sites and our direct marketing efforts include direct mail, email and telemarketing, and make extensive use of our unique, proprietary database. Once we have identified a prospective client, our most effective sales method is a service demonstration. We use various forms of advertising to build brand identity and reinforce the value and benefits of our services. We also sponsor and attend local association activities and events, including industry-leading events for commercial brokers and retail and financial services institutions, and attend and/or exhibit at industry trade shows and conferences to reinforce our relationships with our core user groups.

Competition

The market for information, analytics and marketing services generally is competitive and rapidly changing. In the commercial real estate industry, the principal competitive factors for commercial real estate information, analytics and marketing services and providers are:

•	quality and depth of the underlying databases;

•	ease of use, flexibility, and functionality of the software;

•	timeliness of the data;

•	breadth of geographic coverage and services offered;

•	client service and support;

•	perception that the service offered is the industry standard;

•	price;

•	effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts;

•	proprietary nature of methodologies, databases and technical resources;

•	vendor reputation;

•	brand loyalty among customers; and

•	capital resources.

We compete directly and indirectly for customers with the following categories of companies:

•

online marketing services or websites targeted to commercial real estate brokers, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate properties, insurance companies, mortgage brokers and lenders, such as commercialsearch.com, PropertyLine.com, Reed Business Information Limited, officespace.com, MrOfficeSpace.com, TenantWise, Inc., www.propertyshark.com, WorkplaceIQ, RealPoint LLC and estatesgazette.com;

•	publishers and distributors of information, analytics and marketing services, including regional providers and national print publications, such as Xceligent, Inc., eProperty Data, CBRE Economic Advisors, Marshall & Swift, Yale Robbins, Inc., Reis, Inc., Real Capital Analytics, Inc. and The Smith Guide, Inc.;

•	locally controlled real estate boards, exchanges or associations sponsoring property listing services and the companies with whom they partner, such as Xceligent, Inc., eProperty Data, Catalyst, the National Association of Realtors, CCIM Institute, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors the Commercial Association of Realtors Data Services and the Association of Industrial Realtors;

•	real estate portfolio management software solutions, such as Cougar Software, Yardi Systems, MRI Software, Altus and Intuit Inc.;

•	real estate lease management and administration software solutions, such as Accruent, Tririga, Manhattan Software and AMT;

•	in-house research departments operated by commercial real estate brokers; and

•	public record providers.

As the commercial real estate information, analytics and marketing services marketplace develops, additional competitors (including companies which could have greater access to data, financial, product development, technical, analytic or marketing resources than we do) may enter the market and competition may intensify. A company like Bloomberg L.P. has the resources and has previously announced an intention to move into the commercial real estate information business. Further, a company like Google, which has a far-reaching web presence and substantial data aggregation capabilities, could easily enter the commercial real estate marketing arena. While we believe that we have successfully differentiated ourselves from existing competitors, current or future competitors could materially harm our business.

Proprietary Rights

To protect our proprietary rights in our methodologies, database, software, trademarks and other intellectual property, we depend upon a combination of:

•	trade secret, copyright, trademark, database protection and other laws;

•	nondisclosure, noncompetition and other contractual provisions with employees and consultants;

•	license agreements with customers;

•	patent protection; and

•	technical measures.

We seek to protect our software’s source code, our database and our photography as trade secrets and under copyright law. Although copyright registration is not a prerequisite for copyright protection, we have filed for copyright registration for many of our databases, photographs, software and other materials. Under current U.S. copyright law, the arrangement and selection of data may be protected, but the actual data itself may not be. In addition, with respect to our U.K. databases, certain database protection laws provide additional protections of these databases. We license our services under license agreements that grant our clients non-exclusive, non-transferable licenses. These agreements restrict the disclosure and use of our information and prohibit the unauthorized reproduction or transfer of the information, analytics and marketing services we license.

We also attempt to protect the secrecy of our proprietary database, our trade secrets and our proprietary information through confidentiality and noncompetition agreements with our employees and consultants. Our services also include technical measures designed to discourage and detect unauthorized copying of our intellectual property. We have established an internal antipiracy team that uses fraud-detection technology to continually monitor our services to detect and prevent unauthorized access, and we actively prosecute individuals and firms that engage in this unlawful activity.

We have filed trademark applications to register trademarks for a variety of names for CoStar services and other marks, and have obtained registered trademarks for a variety of our marks, including without limitation “CoStar,” “COMPS,” “CoStar Property,” “CoStar Tenant,” “CoStarGo,” “CoStar Showcase,” "LoopNet" and “CoStar Group.” Depending upon the jurisdiction, trademarks are generally valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained and they have not been found to become generic. We consider our trademarks in the aggregate to constitute a valuable asset. In addition, we have filed several patent applications covering certain of our methodologies and software and currently have one patent in the U.K. which expires in 2021 covering, among other things, certain of our field research methodologies, and six patents in the U.S. which expire in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (2 patents) and 2025, respectively, covering, among other things, critical elements of CoStar’s proprietary field research technology and mapping tools. We regard the rights under our patents as valuable to our business but do not believe that our business is materially dependent on any single patent or on our portfolio of patents as a whole.

Employees

As of January 31, 2013, we employed 1,965 employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union. We have experienced no work stoppages. We believe that our employee relations are excellent.

Available Information

Our investor relations internet website is http://www.costar.com/investors.aspx. The reports we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report, quarterly reports and current reports, are available free of charge on our internet website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may review and copy any of the information we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Commission's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information regarding the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the Commission at http://www.sec.gov.