Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains “forward-looking statements,” including statements about our beliefs and expectations. There are many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated under the heading “Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements” at the end of this Item 2, “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of our 2023 Form 10-K and "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of Part II of this Report, as well as those described from time to time in our filings with the SEC.
All forward-looking statements are based on information available to us on the date of this filing, and we assume no obligation to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our 2023 Form 10-K, our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC and the condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes included in this Report.
Overview
CoStar Group, founded in 1987, is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the U.S. and U.K., based on the fact that we own and operate leading online marketplaces for commercial real estate and apartment listings in the U.S., based on the numbers of unique visitors and site visits per month; provide more information, analytics and marketing services than any of our competitors; offer the most comprehensive commercial real estate database available; and have the largest commercial real estate research department in the industry. We have created and compiled a standardized platform of information, analytics and online marketplace services where industry professionals and consumers of commercial real estate, including apartments, and the related business communities, can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently accessing and exchanging accurate and standardized real estate-related information. Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, retail, industrial, multifamily, land, mixed-use and hospitality. We also offer online platforms that manage workflow and marketing for residential real estate agents and brokers and provide portals for homebuyers to view residential property listings.
We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being North America, which includes the U.S. and Canada, and International, which primarily includes Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Our services are typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that typically renew automatically, a majority of which have a term of at least 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 services rather than charging fees based on actual platform usage or number of paid clicks. Depending on the type of service, contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, the client's geographic location, the number of properties reported on or analyzed, the number and types of services to which a client subscribes, the number of properties a client advertises and the prominence and placement of a client's advertised properties in the search results. 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 transaction-based services primarily consist of auction fees from our Ten-X online auction platform for commercial real estate, which are generally calculated as a percentage of the final sales price for the commercial real estate property sold and recognized as revenue upon the successful closure of an auction. Other transaction-based services are described by service offering below.
Services
Our portfolio of information, analytics and online marketplaces is branded and marketed to our customers and marketplace end users under the primary brands of CoStar®, LoopNet®, Apartments.com®, Homes.com®,Ten-X®, BizBuySell®, Land.com®, and OnTheMarket. Our services are accessible via the internet and through our mobile applications. 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 have enhanced and expanded, and we expect to continue to enhance and expand, our existing information, analytics and online marketplace services. We have developed and we expect to continue to develop additional services leveraging our database to meet the needs of our existing customers as well as potential new categories of customers.
Our principal information, analytics and online marketplace services are described in the following paragraphs by type of services:
CoStar
CoStar is our subscription-based integrated platform for commercial real estate intelligence, which includes information about office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality and student housing properties, properties for sale, comparable sales, tenants, space available for lease, industry professionals and their business relationships, industry news and market status and provides benchmarking for the hospitality industry, lease analytical capabilities and risk management capabilities. CoStar's revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2024 decelerated compared to the revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2023 due to lower inflation-based price increases in 2023 relative to 2022. We expect CoStar's revenue growth rate for the year ending December 31, 2024 to be consistent with the revenue growth rate for the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar based benchmarking product offsetting lower inflation-based price adjustments.
Information Services
We provide real estate and lease management technology solutions, including lease administration, lease accounting and abstraction services, through our CoStar Real Estate Manager service offerings, as well as portfolio and debt analysis, management and reporting capabilities through our CoStar Risk Analytics service offerings. We also provide data and reports on an ad hoc basis to customers in the hospitality industry. We earn revenue on ad hoc transactions as reports or data are delivered to customers. We provide information services internationally, through our Business Immo, Belbex and Thomas Daily businesses in France, Spain and Germany, respectively. Information Services' revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2024 decelerated compared to the revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2023 as a result of the Business Immo Acquisition in April of 2022. We expect the Information Services revenue growth rate for the year ending December 31, 2024 to decrease compared to the revenue growth rate for the year ended December 31, 2023 as a result of converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar-based benchmarking product.
Multifamily
Apartments.com is the flagship brand of our apartment marketing network of subscription-based advertising services and provides property management companies and landlords with a comprehensive advertising destination for their available rental units and offers renters a platform for searching for available rentals. This network also earns transaction-based revenue primarily from providing online tenant applications, including background and credit checks and rental payment processing. Multifamily's revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was consistent with the revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2023. We expect the Multifamily revenue growth rate for the year ending December 31, 2024 to moderate compared to the revenue growth rate for the year ended December 31, 2023 due to lower inflation-based price adjustments.
LoopNet
Our LoopNet network of commercial real estate websites offers subscription-based, online marketplace services that enable commercial property owners, landlords and real estate agents working on their behalf to advertise properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings. Commercial real estate agents, buyers and tenants use the LoopNet network of online marketplace services to search for available property listings that meet their criteria. LoopNet's revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2024 decelerated compared to the revenue growth rate for the three months ended March 31, 2023 due to lower inflation-based price increases. We expect LoopNet's revenue growth rate for the year ended December 31, 2024 to decelerate compared to the revenue growth rate for the year ended December 31, 2023 as a result of disruptions related to transitioning sales and service activities to a dedicated LoopNet field sales team.
Residential
Our Homes.com Network and the acquisition of OnTheMarket have enabled us to expand our offerings to the residential for sale market. Homes.com is a homes-for-sale listings site that combines our proprietary research with listing information to allow homebuyers an informative and collaborative experience finding homes for sale or lease. Homes.com provides residential real estate professionals subscription-based access to applications that manage residential real estate agent workflow and receives transaction-based revenue for marketing campaigns delivered on third-party platforms. In February 2024, we began selling Homes.com memberships, on a subscription basis, which promote an agent's profile and listings on our website. OnTheMarket is a property portal in the U.K., which primarily offers subscriptions-based advertising services to agents. Residential's revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2024 increased compared to the three months ended March 31,
2023 due to the OnTheMarket Acquisition and the launch of our new Homes.com product, partially offset by lost revenue due to the discontinuation of certain products and services that were inconsistent with our long-term business strategy. We expect Residential's revenues for the year ending December 31, 2024 to increase compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 due to the OnTheMarket Acquisition and the launch of our new Homes.com product.
Other Marketplaces
Our other marketplaces include Ten-X, an online auction platform for commercial real estate, our BizBuySell network of sites and our Land.com Network of sites. The BizBuySell network provides online marketplaces for businesses and franchises for sale, and our Land.com Network provides online marketplaces for rural lands for sale. Other Marketplaces' revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was consistent with the three months ended March 31, 2023. We expect other marketplaces revenue for the year ending December 31, 2024 to be consistent with the year ended December 31, 2023.
Subscription-based Services
The majority of our revenue is generated from service offerings that are distributed to our clients under subscription-based agreements that typically renew automatically and have a term of at least one year. We recognize subscription revenues on a straight-line basis over the life of the contract.
For the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, our annualized net new bookings of subscription-based services on all contracts were $86 million and $80 million, respectively. Net new bookings is calculated based on the annualized amount of change in our sales bookings resulting from new subscription-based contracts, changes to existing subscription-based contracts and cancellations of subscription-based contracts for the period reported. Net new bookings is calculated on all subscription-based contracts without regard to contract term. Net new bookings is considered an operating metric that is an indicator of future subscription revenue growth and is also used as a metric of sales force productivity by us and investors. However, information regarding net new bookings is not comparable to, nor should it be substituted for, an analysis of our revenues over time. Revenues from our subscription-based contracts were approximately 96% and 95% of total revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase was due to increased sales in our multifamily subscription products.
For both the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, our contract renewal rates for existing company-wide CoStar Group subscription-based services for contracts with a term of at least one year were approximately 90%, and, therefore, our cancellation rates for those services for the same periods were approximately 10%. Contract renewal rates are calculated on all subscription-based contracts with a term of at least one year. Our contract renewal rate is a quantitative measurement that is typically closely correlated with our revenue results. As a result, we believe that the rate may be a reliable indicator of short-term and long-term performance absent extraordinary circumstances. Our trailing 12-month contract renewal rate may decline as a result of negative economic conditions, consolidations among our clients, reductions in customer spending or decreases in our customer base. Revenues from our subscription-based contracts with a term of at least one year were approximately 81% and 80% of total revenues for the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase was primarily due to increased sales of CoStar and multifamily subscription products.
Development, Investments and Expansion
We plan to continue to invest in our business and our services, evaluate strategic growth opportunities and pursue our key priorities as described below. We are committed to supporting, improving and enhancing our information, analytics and online marketplace solutions, including expanding and improving our offerings for our client base and site users, including property owners, property managers, buyers, commercial tenants and residential renters and buyers. We expect to continue our software development efforts to improve existing services, introduce new services, integrate and cross-sell services, integrate recently completed acquisitions and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research, sales and marketing organizations. We may reevaluate our priorities as economic conditions continue to evolve.
Our key priorities for the remainder of 2024 currently include:
*•*Continuing to develop and invest in our residential marketplaces. For Homes.com we are creating additional content for neighborhoods, parks, schools and condos. In February 2024, we launched Homes.com memberships which promote an agent's profile and listings on our website. We intend to create an expanded, dedicated sales force, to supplement the efforts of our sales team already in place. We have launched a brand campaign plan to increase our residential marketing investment to raise brand awareness and drive users to our website.
For OnTheMarket, we are integrating OnTheMarket into the Company’s operations including additional investment in
marketing, content creation and enhancing OnTheMarket’s website to improve performance and facilitate better search engine optimization.
- Continuing to enhance our facilities. We are expanding our research and technology center in Richmond, Virginia. We broke ground on the expansion in November 2022 and expect construction to be substantially completed in the first half of 2026. The expansion includes construction of two new buildings spanning 750,000 square feet and will bring our campus footprint to over 1 million square feet when completed. We plan to increase our research, technology, operations, software development, marketing and sales teams in this location.
In February 2024, we closed on the purchase of a building in Arlington, Virginia, and we plan to build out a space for our employees. The lease on our current Washington, DC headquarters ends in 2025.
We expect our investment in these priorities will increase our research, selling and marketing and facilities expenses, including potential impairments of assets associated with the acquired building, and increase in our cash spent on capital expenditures. Each of the increased expenses will reduce our net income, and the increase in these expenses and the capital expenditures are expected to reduce our cash on hand for the year ending December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. We intend to continue to assess the need for additional investments in our business to develop and distribute new services and functionality within our current platform or expand the reach of, or otherwise improve, our current service offerings. Any future product development or expansion of services, combination and coordination of services or elimination of services or corporate expansion, development or restructuring efforts could reduce our profitability and increase our capital expenditures. Any new investments, changes to our service offerings or other unforeseen events could cause us to experience reduced revenues or generate losses and negative cash flow from operations in the future. Any development efforts must comply with our credit facility, which contains restrictive covenants that restrict our operations and use of our cash flow and may prevent us from taking certain actions that we believe could increase our profitability or otherwise enhance our business.
Impacts of Current Economic Conditions
In response to the concerns over inflation risk, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates over the recent two years. It is currently unclear how the commercial real estate industry will ultimately be impacted by the current economic conditions. Rising interest rates or a period of elevated interest rates may reduce demand for all types of real estate. If the demand for office space or other real estate decreases significantly, there could be a downturn in the commercial real estate market that may materially adversely affect many of our clients. A depressed commercial real estate market would have a negative impact on our core customer base, which could impact our customers’ ability to subscribe and pay for our services and reduce demand for our services. Reduced demand and increased cancellations could cause our revenues or our revenue growth rates to decline and reduce our profitability.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We prepare and publicly release quarterly unaudited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. We also disclose and discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in our public releases, investor conference calls and filings with the SEC. The non-GAAP financial measures that we may disclose include EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share. EBITDA is our net income before interest income or expense, net, other income or expense, net, loss on debt extinguishment, income taxes, depreciation and amortization.We typically disclose EBITDA on a consolidated and an operating segment basis in our earnings releases, investor conference calls and filings with the SEC. Adjusted EBITDA is different from EBITDA because we further adjust EBITDA for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs and settlements and impairments incurred outside our ordinary course of business. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents adjusted EBITDA divided by revenues for the period. Non-GAAP net income is determined by adjusting our net income for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business and loss on debt extinguishment, as well as amortization of acquired intangible assets and other related costs, and then subtracting an assumed provision for income taxes. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share is a non-GAAP financial measure that represents non-GAAP net income divided by the number of diluted shares outstanding for the period used in the calculation of GAAP net income per diluted share.
We may disclose adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share on a consolidated basis in our earnings releases, investor conference calls and filings with the SEC. The non-GAAP financial measures that we use may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Also, in the future, we may disclose different non-GAAP financial measures in order to help our investors meaningfully evaluate and compare our results of operations to our previously reported results of operations or to those of other companies in our industry.
We view EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share as operating performance measures. We believe that the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income is net income. We believe the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures to non-GAAP net income per diluted share and adjusted EBITDA margin are net income per diluted share and net income divided by revenues, respectively. In calculating EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share, we exclude from net income the financial items that we believe should be separately identified to provide additional analysis of the financial components of the day-to-day operation of our business. We have outlined below the type and scope of these exclusions and the material limitations on the use of these non-GAAP financial measures as a result of these exclusions. EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share are not measurements of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as a measure of liquidity, as an alternative to net income or as an indicator of any other measure of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Investors and potential investors in our securities should not rely on EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share as a substitute for any GAAP financial measure, including net income and net income per diluted share. In addition, we urge investors and potential investors in our securities to carefully review the GAAP financial information included as part of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q that are filed with the SEC, as well as our quarterly earnings releases, and compare the GAAP financial information with our EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share.
EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share may be used by management internally to measure our operating and management performance and may be used by investors as supplemental financial measures to evaluate the performance of our business. We believe that these non-GAAP measures, when viewed with our GAAP results and accompanying reconciliations, provide additional information to investors that is useful to understand the factors and trends affecting our business without the impact of certain acquisition-related items. We have spent more than 30 years building our database of commercial real estate information and expanding our markets and services partially through acquisitions of complementary businesses. Due to these acquisitions, our net income has included significant charges for amortization of acquired intangible assets, depreciation and other amortization, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs and loss on debt extinguishment. Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share exclude these charges and provide meaningful information about the operating performance of our business, apart from charges for amortization of acquired intangible assets, depreciation and other amortization, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business. We believe the disclosure of non-GAAP measures can help investors meaningfully evaluate and compare our performance from quarter to quarter and from year to year without the impact of these items. We also believe the non-GAAP measures we disclose are measures of our ongoing operating performance because the isolation of non-cash charges, such as amortization and depreciation, and other items, such as interest income or expense, net, other income or expense, net, income taxes, stock-based compensation expenses, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring costs, loss on debt extinguishment and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business, provides additional information about our cost structure, and, over time, helps track our operating progress. In addition, investors, securities analysts and others have regularly relied on EBITDA and may rely on adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income or non-GAAP net income per diluted share to provide a financial measure by which to compare our operating performance against that of other companies in our industry.
Set forth below are descriptions of financial items that have been excluded from net income to calculate EBITDA and the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income:
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Amortization of acquired intangible assets in cost of revenues may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the diminishing value of any acquired trade names and other intangible assets and the use of our acquired technology, which is one of the sources of information for our database of commercial real estate information. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.
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Amortization of acquired intangible assets in operating expenses may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the estimated attrition of our acquired customer base. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.
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Depreciation and other amortization may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent the wear and tear on our property and equipment used in our operations. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.
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The amount of interest income or expense, net and other income or expense, net we generate and incur may be useful for investors to consider and may result in current cash inflows and outflows. However, we do not consider the amount of interest income or expense, net and other income or expense, net, to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
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Income tax expense may be useful for investors to consider because it generally represents the taxes which may be payable for the period and the change in deferred income taxes during the period and may reduce the amount of funds otherwise available for use in our business. However, we do not consider the amount of income tax expense to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
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The amount of loss on our debt extinguishment may be useful for investors to consider because it generally represents losses from the early extinguishment of debt. However, we do not consider the amount of the loss on debt extinguishment to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
Set forth below are descriptions of additional financial items that have been excluded from EBITDA to calculate adjusted EBITDA and the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income:
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Stock-based compensation expense may be useful for investors to consider because it represents a portion of the compensation of our employees and executives. Determining the fair value of the stock-based instruments involves a high degree of judgment and estimation and the expenses recorded may bear little resemblance to the actual value realized upon the future exercise or termination of the related stock-based awards. Therefore, we believe it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of our core business.
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The amount of acquisition- and integration-related costs incurred may be useful for investors to consider because such costs generally represent professional service fees and direct expenses related to acquisitions. Because we do not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle, we do not consider the amount of acquisition- and integration-related costs to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
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The amount of settlement and impairment costs incurred outside of our ordinary course of business may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent gains or losses from the settlement of litigation matters, charges related to terminations of contracts or impairments of acquired intangible assets. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.
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The amount of restructuring costs incurred may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent costs incurred in connection with a change in a contract or a change in the makeup of our properties or personnel. Because we do not carry out restructuring activities on a predictable cycle, we do not consider the amount of restructuring-related costs to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.
The financial items that have been excluded from our net income to calculate non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share are amortization of acquired intangible assets and other related costs, stock-based compensation, acquisition- and integration-related costs, restructuring and related costs and settlement and impairment costs incurred outside our ordinary course of business. These items are discussed above with respect to the calculation of adjusted EBITDA together with the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income. In addition to these exclusions from net income, we subtract an assumed provision for income taxes to calculate non-GAAP net income. In both 2024 and 2023, we assume a 26% tax rate, which approximates our historical long-term statutory corporate tax rate, excluding the impact of discrete items.
We compensate for the above-described limitations of using non-GAAP measures by using a non-GAAP measure only to supplement our GAAP results and to provide additional information that is useful to investors to understand the factors and trends affecting our business.
See Note 13 of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I of this Report for the reconciliation of our net income to our EBITDA.
Results of Operations
Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 Compared to Three Months Ended March 31, 2023
The following table compares our selected consolidated results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 (in millions, except percentages):
| Three Months Ended March 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | Increase (Decrease) ($) | Increase (Decrease) (%) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenues: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| CoStar | $ | 250.3 | $ | 225.0 | $ | 25.3 | 11 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Information Services | 33.0 | 41.6 | (8.6) | (21) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Multifamily | 254.8 | 210.7 | 44.1 | 21 | |||||||||||||||||||
| LoopNet | 69.1 | 63.3 | 5.8 | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Residential | 18.6 | 13.2 | 5.4 | 41 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Other Marketplaces | 30.6 | 30.6 | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| Total revenues | 656.4 | 584.4 | 72.0 | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenues | 141.2 | 119.2 | 22.0 | 18 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | 515.2 | 465.2 | 50.0 | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Selling and marketing (excluding customer base amortization) | 366.1 | 226.3 | 139.8 | 62 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Software development | 82.4 | 66.6 | 15.8 | 24 | |||||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | 98.5 | 89.5 | 9.0 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Customer base amortization | 11.0 | 10.6 | 0.4 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 558.0 | 393.0 | 165.0 | 42 | |||||||||||||||||||
| (Loss) income from operations | (42.8) | 72.2 | (115.0) | (159) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income, net | 56.2 | 43.5 | 12.7 | 29 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Other (expense) income, net | (1.9) | 0.6 | (2.5) | NM | |||||||||||||||||||
| Income before income taxes | 11.5 | 116.3 | (104.8) | (90) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Income tax expense | 4.8 | 29.2 | (24.4) | (84) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Net income | $ | 6.7 | $ | 87.1 | $ | (80.4) | (92) | ||||||||||||||||
| __________________________ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| NM - Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues. Revenues increased $72 million, or 12%, to $656 million. The increase in our revenues included:
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an increase in Multifamily revenues of $44 million, or 21%, due to higher sales volume driven by an increase in the number of properties listed on our network and increases in pricing on renewals,
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an increase in CoStar revenues of $25 million, or 11%, due to higher sales volume driven by an increase in subscribers, as well as, converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar-based benchmarking product,
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an increase in LoopNet revenues of $6 million, or 9%, due to an increase in the average price per listing,
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an increase in Residential revenues of $5 million, or 41%, due to the OnTheMarket Acquisition and the launch of the new Homes.com membership subscriptions, partially offset by the discontinuation of certain products and services that were inconsistent with our long-term business strategy, and
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a decrease in Information Services revenues of $9 million, or 21%, primarily attributable to converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar-based benchmarking product,
Gross Profit and Cost of Revenues. Gross profit increased $50 million, or 11%, to $515 million, and the gross profit margin decreased from 80% to 78%. The increase in gross profit was due to higher revenues, partially offset by an increase in cost of revenues. Cost of revenues increased $22 million, or 18%, to $141 million and, as a percentage of revenues, increased from 20% to 22%. The increase in cost of revenues included:
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an increase in personnel costs of $12 million related to rising headcount to support our residential research efforts, and increases in salaries and benefits costs for our existing employees and
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an increase of $6 million in equipment costs to support our research efforts.
Selling and Marketing Expenses (excluding customer base amortization). Selling and marketing expenses (excluding customer base amortization) increased $140 million, or 62%, to $366 million and, as a percentage of revenues, increased from 39% to 56%. The increase primarily included:
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an increase in marketing expenses of $125 million for advertising our brands and
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an increase in personnel costs of $12 million related to rising headcount in our sales force and in commissions expense due to increased sales volumes.
Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses increased $16 million, or 24%, to $82 million and, as a percentage of revenues, increased from 11% to 13%. The increase primarily included:
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an increase in personnel costs of $11 million related to increases in salaries, stock-based compensation and benefits costs for our existing employees and
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an increase of $3 million in software and equipment costs.
General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased $9 million, or 10%, to $99 million and, as a percentage of revenues, was consistent at 15%. The increase included:
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an increase in professional services of $4 million,
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an increase of $3 million in credit loss expense, primarily due to our expectations that the downturn in the commercial real estate market will increase delinquent trade receivables, and
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an increase in personnel costs of $2 million related to increases in salaries and stock-based compensation for our existing employees and rising headcount.
Customer Base Amortization Expense. Customer base amortization expense was consistent for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023.
Interest Income, Net. Interest income, net increased $13 million, or 29%, to $56 million. The increase was primarily due to an increase in interest earned on our cash equivalents.
Other (Expense) Income, Net. Other (expense) income, net, was insignificant for both the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023.
Income Tax Expense. Income tax expense decreased $24 million, or 84%, to $5 million and the effective tax rate increased 17% to 42% of income before income taxes. The decrease in income tax expense was primarily attributable to lower income before income taxes.
Business Segment Results for Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 Compared to Three Months Ended March 31, 2023
We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being North America, which includes the U.S. and Canada, and International, which primarily includes Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Management relies on an internal management reporting process that provides revenue and operating segment EBITDA. Management believes that operating segment EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operational performance of our operating segments. EBITDA is used by management internally to measure our operating and management performance and to evaluate the performance of our business. However, this measure should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, (loss) income from operations or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for further information regarding our segment operating results.
Segment Revenues. North America revenues increased $60 million, or 11%, to $623 million and included:
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an increase in Multifamily revenues of $44 million due to higher sales volume driven by an increase in the number of properties listed on our network and increases in pricing on renewals,
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an increase in CoStar revenues of $20 million due to higher sales volume driven by an increase in subscribers, as well as, converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar based benchmarking product,
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an increase in LoopNet revenues of $5 million due to an increase in the average price for listings,
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a decrease in Information Services revenues of $5 million primarily attributable to converting legacy STR customers to our new CoStar based benchmarking product and
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a decrease in Residential revenues of $5 million due to the discontinuation of certain products and services that were inconsistent with our long-term business strategy, partially offset by revenue from the launch of the new Homes.com membership subscriptions.
The $12 million, or 59%, increase in International revenues was primarily attributable to the impact of the OnTheMarket Acquisition, as well as, as an increase in CoStar sales driven by an increase in subscribers.
Segment EBITDA. North America EBITDA decreased $93 million, or 97%, to $3 million. The decrease in North America EBITDA was primarily due to increases in personnel costs, marketing costs and credit loss expense, partially offset by increases in revenues described above. International EBITDA decreased $17 million to a loss of $16 million. The decrease included an increase of $24 million of operating expense from the OnTheMarket Acquisition and an increase in personnel costs associated with the expansion of our international research team.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
We believe the balance of cash and cash equivalents, which was $5.0 billion as of March 31, 2024, along with cash generated by ongoing operations and continued access to capital markets, will be sufficient to satisfy our cash requirements over the next 12 months and beyond. Other than the construction commitments and pending acquisition discussed below, our cash requirements have not changed materially from what is described in the 2023 Form 10-K.
Construction Commitments. We are expanding our Richmond, Virginia campus, which is expected to result in a material cash requirement in 2024 and beyond. We broke ground on the expansion in November 2022 and expect construction to be substantially completed in the first half of 2026. We negotiated various tax incentives with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Richmond, including the allowance to use market-based income apportionment for income taxes and partial reimbursements of property tax assessments related to the value of the campus expansion. These incentives are conditional upon achieving job creation and capital expenditure targets from 2022 to 2029. Failure to meet these targets could result in a reduction of the value of the tax incentives and repayment of previous tax reductions. The value of the incentives is dependent on our taxable income.
We expect the total cost of construction, net of the estimated value of the tax incentives from 2023 to 2032, to be in the range of $450 – $600 million. We have engaged a project manager, architects and a general contractor on terms that generally require payments as services are provided or construction is performed. As of March 31, 2024, we have paid $156 million and we have committed to spend an additional $460 million as further work is performed under these contracts. We plan to amend these contracts to include additional commitments as construction progresses. Total cash expenditures for 2024 are expected to be approximately $385 million. We expect to fund the expansion with cash on hand.
Pending Acquisition*.* On April 21, 2024, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization (the “Merger Agreement”) with Matterport, Merger Sub I, and Merger Sub II, pursuant to which, among other things, and subject to its terms, (i) Merger Sub I will merge with and into Matterport (the “First Merger”), with Matterport surviving the First Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (the “Surviving Corporation”) and (ii) in the event that the Threshold Percentage (as defined in the Merger Agreement) is at least 40%, immediately following the First Merger and as part of a single integrated transaction, the Surviving Corporation will merge with and into Merger Sub II (the “Second Merger” and, together with the First Merger, the “Mergers”), with Merger Sub II surviving the Second Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
Subject to the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement, each share of Matterport Common Stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the First Merger (the “First Effective Time”) (other than any cancelled shares or Dissenting Shares (as defined in the Merger Agreement)) will be converted into (i) a number of CoStar Group Shares equal to the Merger Exchange Ratio (such consideration, the “Per Share Stock Consideration”) and (ii) $2.75 in cash per share, without interest (the “Per Share Cash Consideration”). Holders of Matterport Common Stock will receive cash in lieu of fractional CoStar Group Shares (the “Fractional Share Consideration” and, together with the Per Share Stock Consideration and the Per Share Cash Consideration, collectively, the “Merger Consideration”).
Consummation of the Mergers is subject to certain customary conditions, including, among others, the required approval of the Matterport stockholders, expiration or termination of the applicable waiting periods under the HSR Act and the Antitrust Laws (each as defined in the Merger Agreement) of certain other jurisdictions, the absence of any law, injunction, order or award restraining, enjoining or otherwise prohibiting or making illegal the consummation of the Mergers, the CoStar Shares to be issued in the Mergers being approved for listing on Nasdaq Global Select Market, and the registration statement registering the Merger Consideration becoming effective. Each party’s obligation to consummate the Mergers is subject to certain other conditions, including the accuracy of the representations and warranties of the other party, compliance in all material respects by the other party with its obligations under the Merger Agreement, and the absence of a material adverse effect related to the other party. Consummation of the Mergers is not subject to approval by the stockholders of the Company or to any financing condition.
The Company intends to fund the cash consideration with cash on hand and expects the transaction to close in 2024. The cash consideration is estimated to be $940 million, not considering Fractional Share Consideration.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including, among others, our operating results, expansion and integration efforts, and our level of acquisition activity or other strategic transactions. To date, we have grown in part by acquiring other companies, and we expect to continue to make acquisitions.
Cash and cash equivalents decreased to approximately $5.0 billion as of March 31, 2024, compared to cash and cash equivalents of approximately $5.2 billion as of December 31, 2023. The decrease in cash and cash equivalents for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was primarily due to $380 million of cash used in investing activities and cash used in financing activities of $23 million primarily related to repurchases of restricted stock to satisfy tax withholding obligations, partially offset by cash provided by operating activities of $140 million.
Net cash provided by operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $140 million compared to $123 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The $16 million increase in cash provided by operating activities was primarily driven by an increase in working capital of $76 million, offset by a decrease in net income.
Net cash used in investing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $380 million compared to $20 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, primarily driven by the purchase of assets related to the purchase of an office building in Arlington, VA to relocate our DC based employees of $343 million and the expansion of our campus in Richmond, Virginia.
Net cash used in financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $23 million compared to net cash used in financing activities of $16 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The increase was primarily driven by repurchases of restricted stock to satisfy tax withholding obligations.
Critical Accounting Estimates
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and revenues and expenses during the period reported. The following accounting policies involve a “critical accounting estimate” because they are particularly dependent on estimates and assumptions made by management about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the accounting estimates are made. In
addition, while we have used our best estimates based on facts and circumstances available to us at the time, different acceptable assumptions would yield different results. Changes in the accounting estimates are reasonably likely to occur from period to period, which may have a material impact on the presentation of our financial condition and results of operations. We review these estimates and assumptions periodically and reflect the effects of revisions in the period that they are determined to be necessary. We consider policies relating to the following matters to be critical accounting policies:
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Intangible assets and goodwill;
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Income taxes;
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Revenue recognition and
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Business combinations.
For an in-depth discussion of each of our significant accounting policies, including the related critical accounting estimates and further information regarding estimates and assumptions involved in their application, see the 2023 Form 10-K and Note 2 of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I of this Report. During the three months ended March 31, 2024, there were no material changes to our critical accounting estimates from those described in the 2023 Form 10-K.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2 of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I of this Report.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
We have made forward-looking statements in this Report and will make forward-looking statements in our press releases, investor conference calls, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, other Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include information that is not purely historic fact and include, without limitation, statements concerning our financial outlook for 2024 and beyond, our possible or assumed future results of operations generally, and other statements and information regarding assumptions or expectations about our revenues, revenue growth rates, gross margin percentage, net income, net income per share, fully diluted net income per share, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted share, weighted-average outstanding shares, cash flow from operating activities, operating costs, capital and other expenditures, the impact of current economic conditions on our revenues, revenue growth rates and profitability, key priorities for 2024, trends in customer behavior, legal proceedings and claims, legal costs, effective tax rate, the anticipated benefits of completed, pending or proposed acquisitions, the anticipated timing for integration of completed acquisitions, the anticipated benefits of cross-selling efforts, geographic and product expansion, planned service enhancements, expansion and development of our sales forces, planned sales and marketing activities and investments, the impact or results of sales and marketing initiatives, product integrations, elimination and de-emphasizing of services, investments in residential marketplace services and our residential marketplace strategy, net new bookings, contract renewal rates, use of proceeds from equity and debt offerings, the use of proceeds from any draws under our $750 million credit facility provided by the 2020 Credit Agreement, expectations regarding our compliance with financial and restrictive covenants in the 2020 Credit Agreement, employee relations, management’s plans, goals and objectives for future operations, sources and adequacy of liquidity and growth and markets for our stock. Sections of this Report that contain forward-looking statements include the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes, “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk,” “Controls and Procedures,” “Legal Proceedings” and “Risk Factors.”
Our forward-looking statements are also identified by words such as “hope,” “anticipate,” “may,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “estimate,” “predict,” “continue” and “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. You should understand that these forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting our judgment, beliefs and expectations, not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The following important factors, in addition to those discussed or referred to under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other unforeseen events or circumstances, could affect our future results and could cause those results or other outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements:
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our inability to attract and retain new clients;
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our inability to successfully develop and introduce new or updated information, analytics and online marketplace services;
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our inability to compete successfully against existing or future competitors in attracting advertisers and in general;
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competition;
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the effects of fluctuations and market cyclicality;
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the effects of global economic uncertainties and downturns or a downturn or consolidation in the real estate industry;
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our inability to hire qualified persons for, or retain and continue to develop, our sales force, or unproductivity of our sales force;
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our inability to retain and attract highly capable management and operating personnel;
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the downward pressure that our internal and external investments may place on our operating margins;
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our inability in increasing brand awareness;
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our inability to maintain or increase internet traffic to our marketplaces, and the risk that the methods, including Google Analytics, that we use to measure unique visitors to our portals may misstate the actual number of unique persons who visit our network of mobile applications and websites for a given month or may differ from the methods used by competitors;
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our inability to attract new advertisers;
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our inability to successfully identify, finance, integrate and/or manage costs related to acquisitions;
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the effects of cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities, and technical problems or disruptions;
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the risks related to a large infrastructure project to build out our campus in Richmond, Virginia;
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our inability to generate increased revenues from our current or future geographic expansion plans;
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the risks related to acceptance of credit cards and debit cards and facilitation of other customer payments;
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the effects of climate change and other events beyond our control;
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the effects related to increased attention to ESG matters;
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our inability to obtain and maintain accurate, comprehensive or reliable data;
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our ability to enforce or defend our ownership and use of intellectual property;
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our inability to successfully halt the operation of websites that aggregate our data, data from other companies or “copycat” websites that may misappropriate our data;
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our inability to defend against potential legal liability for collecting, displaying or distributing information;
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our inability to obtain or retain listings from real estate brokers, agents, property owners and apartment property managers;
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our ability to maintain or establish relationships with third-party listing providers;
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our ability to comply with the rules and compliance requirements of MLSs;
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the risks related to international operations;
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the effects of foreign currency fluctuations;
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the effects of Brexit;
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our indebtedness;
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the effects of a lowering or withdrawal of the ratings assigned to our debt securities by rating agencies;
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the effects of any actual or perceived failure to comply with privacy or data protection laws, regulations or standards;
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the effects of changes in tax laws, regulations or fiscal and tax policies;
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the effects of third-party claims, litigation, regulatory proceedings or government investigations and
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risks related to return on investment;
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risks associated with the ability to consummate the Mergers and the timing of the closing of the Mergers;
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the ability to successfully integrate operations and employees following the closing of the Mergers;
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the ability to realize anticipated benefits and synergies of the Mergers as rapidly as or to the extent anticipated by financial analysts or investors;
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the potential impact of the announcement of the Mergers or the consummation of the Mergers on business relationships, including with employees, customers, suppliers and competitors;
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the potential unfavorable outcomes of any legal proceedings that have been or may be instituted against the Company or Matterport;
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the ability to retain key personnel and
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costs, fees, expenses and charges related to the Mergers.
Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of, and are based on information available to us on, the date of this Report. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events or circumstances after the date of this Report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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