Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making a decision to invest in our Class A common stock. The risks and
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uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, operating results, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business
Operational Risks
Our business is significantly affected by fluctuations in general economic conditions. There is risk that any economic recovery may be delayed, short-lived and/or uneven, and may not result in increased demand for our services.
Our business depends on the overall demand for labor and on the economic health of current and prospective employers and job seekers that use our marketplace. Demand for recruiting and hiring services is significantly affected by the general level of economic activity and employment in the United States and the other countries in which we operate. Any significant weakening of the economy in the United States or the global economy, increased unemployment, reduced credit availability, reduced business confidence and activity, decreased government spending, economic uncertainty, financial turmoil affecting the banking system or financial markets, including actual or perceived instability in the banking industry, trade wars and higher tariffs, volatility in interest rates, inflation in the cost of goods and services including labor, and other adverse economic or market conditions may adversely impact our business and operating results. Significant swings in, or periods of reduced, economic activity historically have had a disproportionately negative impact on hiring activity and related efforts to find candidates. We may also experience more pricing pressure during periods of economic downturn.
Economic recoveries are difficult to predict, and may be delayed, short-lived, and/or uneven, with some regions, or countries within a region, continuing to experience declines or weakness in economic activity while others improve. Differing economic conditions and patterns of economic growth or contraction in the geographical regions in which we operate may affect demand for our marketplace. We may not experience uniform, or any, increases in demand for our marketplace within the markets where our business is concentrated.
There has been volatility in financial markets as a result of a number of factors, including, but not limited to, banking instability, global conflict, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, inflation, changes in interest rates, and changes in laws, regulations and administrative policy, including those that impact trade agreements and tariffs. There is a risk that as a result of these macroeconomic factors, we could continue to experience declines in all, or in portions, of our business. Economic uncertainty may cause some of our current or potential employers to curtail spending in our marketplace and may ultimately result in cost challenges to our operations. For example, our employers, including those of our employers that are banks, may be adversely affected by any bank failure or other event affecting financial institutions. Any resulting adverse effects to our employers’ liquidity or financial performance could reduce the demand for our services or affect our allowance for expected credit losses and collectability of accounts receivable. In addition, any significant changes to U.S. trade policies, treaties or tariffs, or the perception that any of them could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between the impacted nations and the United States. These adverse conditions could result in reductions in revenue, increased operating expenses, longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies, and increased competition. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or any subsequent recovery generally. There is also risk that when overall global economic conditions are positive, our business could be negatively impacted by decreased demand for job postings and our services. If there is a significant or prolonged decline in economic conditions, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be adversely affected.
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Recently, the U.S. government has enacted, and continues to consider, a range of trade-related measures, including tariffs, export controls, and other policies. The President of the United States has directed various federal agencies to further evaluate key aspects of U.S. trade policy and there has been ongoing discussion and commentary regarding potential changes to trade agreements, tariff structures, and foreign investment relations. Shifts in trade policies—whether through legislation, executive action, or international negotiation—could alter the global trade landscape and affect supply chains, pricing, and demand for goods and services. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between the impacted nations and the U.S. These changes could prevent or make it difficult or more expensive for our customers to operate their businesses, which may result in a decrease in their hiring levels, which could affect our sales. Any significant changes in current U.S. trade or other policies that restrict imports or increase import tariffs could have a material adverse effect upon our results of operations.
Substantially all of our revenue is generated by our business operations in the United States. Any significant economic downturn in the United States or other countries in which we operate could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We face competition from many well-established online job sites such as Craigslist, Glassdoor, Google, Indeed, LinkedIn, and Meta. Many of our existing and potential competitors are considerably larger or more established than we are and have larger workforces and more substantial marketing and financial resources. Price competition for job marketplaces such as ours is likely to remain high, which could limit our ability to maintain or increase our market share, subscriber base, revenue and/or profitability.
We also compete with other companies that utilize emerging technologies and assets, such as large language models (LLMs), machine learning, and other types of AI. While we also may utilize such technologies, these competitors may offer products and services that may, among other things, provide automated alternatives to the services that employers or job seekers would otherwise seek from ZipRecruiter, use machine learning algorithms to connect employers with job seekers more effectively than we do, or otherwise change the way that employers engage with job seekers or the way job seekers apply to jobs or find work so as to make our marketplace less attractive. We may face increased competition from these competitors as they mature and expand their capabilities.
Many of our larger competitors have long-standing relationships or access to employers, including our Paid Employers 2 , as well as those whom we may wish to pursue. Some employers may be hesitant to use a new platform and prefer to upgrade products offered by these incumbent platforms for reasons that include price, quality, sophistication, familiarity, and global presence. These platforms could offer competing products on a standalone basis at a low price or bundled as part of a larger product sale that could be more attractive to employers than our offerings.
Many of our competitors are able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale, and support of their products and services. Furthermore, our current or potential competitors may be acquired by third parties with greater available resources and the ability to initiate or withstand substantial price competition. Our competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to enhance their product offerings and/or resources. If our competitors’ products, platforms, services or technologies maintain or achieve greater market acceptance than ours, if they are successful in bringing their products or services to market earlier than ours, or if their products, platforms or services are more technologically capable than ours, then our revenue could be adversely affected.
2 “Paid Employer(s)” means any actively recruiting employer(s) (or entities acting on behalf of employers) on a paying subscription plan or performance marketing campaign for at least one day. Paid Employer(s) excludes employers from our third-party sites or other indirect channels, employers who are not actively recruiting and employers on free trials.
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Also, some of our competitors may offer their products and services at a lower price. If we cannot optimize pricing, our operating results may be negatively affected. Pricing pressures and increased competition could result in reduced sales, reduced margins, losses or a failure to maintain or improve our competitive market position, any of which could adversely affect our business.
The number of employers distributing their job posting service purchases among a broader group of competitors may increase which may make it more difficult to retain or maintain our current share of business with existing Paid Employers. We also face the risk that employers may decide to provide similar services internally or reduce or redirect their efforts to recruit job seekers through online job advertisements. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter increased competition in the future.
Our marketplace functions on software that is highly technical and complex and if it fails to perform properly, our reputation could be adversely affected, our market share could decline.
Our marketplace functions on software that is highly technical and complex and may now or in the future contain undetected errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Some errors in our software code may be discovered only after the code has been deployed. Any errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after deployment, inability to identify the cause or causes of performance problems within an acceptable period of time, or difficulty maintaining and improving the performance of our marketplace could result in damage to our reputation or brand, loss of employers and job seekers, loss of revenue, or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
As the usage of our marketplace grows, we will need an increasing amount of technical infrastructure, including network capacity and computing power, to continue to operate our marketplace. If we cannot continue to effectively scale and grow our technical infrastructure to accommodate these increased demands, it may adversely affect our user experience. We also rely on third-party software and infrastructure, including the infrastructure of the internet, to provide our marketplace. Any failure of or disruption to this software and infrastructure, whether intentionally or unintentionally or due to our activities or those of our vendors or other third parties, could also make our marketplace unavailable to our users. If our marketplace is unavailable to our subscribers or job seekers for any period of time, our business could be adversely affected.
Our marketplace technology is constantly changing with new updates, which may contain undetected errors when first introduced or released. Any errors, defects, disruptions in service, or other performance or stability problems with our marketplace, or the insufficiency of our efforts to adequately prevent or timely remedy errors or defects, could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our marketplace, loss of competitive position, our inability to timely and accurately maintain our financial records, inaccurate or delayed invoicing of Paid Employers, delay of payment to us, claims by users for losses sustained by them, corrective action taken by gatekeepers of components integral to our marketplace, or investigation and corrective action taken by a regulatory agency. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for user relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources to help resolve the issue. Accordingly, any errors, defects, or disruptions in our marketplace could adversely impact our brand and reputation, revenue, and operating results.
Because of the large amount of data that our Paid Employers collect and manage by means of our services, it is possible that failures or errors in our systems could result in data loss or corruption, or cause the information that we or our Paid Employers collect to be incomplete or contain inaccuracies that our Paid Employers regard as significant. Furthermore, the availability or performance of our marketplace could be adversely affected by a number of factors, including users’ inability to access the internet or to send or receive email messages, the failure of our network or software systems, security breaches or variability in user traffic for our services. We may be required to issue credits or refunds for prepaid amounts related to unused services or otherwise be liable to our users for damages they may incur resulting from certain of these events. In addition to potential liability, if we experience interruptions in the
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availability of our marketplace, our reputation could be adversely affected and we could lose employers and job seekers.
Our future success depends in part on employers purchasing and renewing or upgrading subscriptions and performance-based services from us. Any decline in our user renewals or upgrades or performance-based services could harm our future operating results.
Many of our Paid Employers pay for access to our marketplace on a per-job-per-day basis, rather than entering into new longer term paid time-based job posting plans, renewing their paid time-based job posting plans when such contract terms expire, or purchasing performance-based services from us. Employers who enter into paid plans have no obligation to renew their plans after the expiration of their contract period, which typically range from one day to 12 months. In addition, employers may renew for lower subscription amounts or for shorter contract lengths. Historically, some of our Paid Employers have elected not to renew their agreements with us and as we expand into new products and markets, we have a limited ability to reliably predict future renewal rates. Our future renewal rates for both existing and potential new products may be lower, possibly significantly lower, than historical trends.
Our future success also depends in part on our ability to sell upsell services to employers who use our marketplace. If employers do not purchase upsell services from us, our revenue may decline and our operating results may be harmed.
Our Paid Employer subscription renewals, performance-based services, and upsells may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including user usage, sunsetting, changing, or removing certain products or services, user satisfaction with our services and user support, our prices, the prices of competing services, mergers and acquisitions affecting our user base, the effects of U.S. and global economic conditions, or reductions in our Paid Employers’ spending levels generally.
Significant segments of the market for job advertisement services may have hiring needs and service preferences that are subject to greater volatility than the overall economy.
The employers in the United States’ private sector are diverse across a number of business characteristics, including company size, geography, and industry, among other factors. Hiring activity may vary significantly among businesses with different characteristics and accordingly, any concentration we may have among businesses with certain characteristics may subject us to high volatility in our financial results. Smaller businesses, for example, typically have less persistent hiring needs and may experience greater volatility in their need for job advertisement services and preferences among providers of such services. Along with a relatively shorter sales cycle, smaller businesses may be more likely to change platforms based on short-term differences in perceived price, value, service level, or other factors. Difficulty in acquiring and/or retaining these employers may adversely affect our operating results.
Our efforts and ability to sell to a broad mix of businesses could adversely affect our operating results in a given period.
Our ability to increase revenue and profitability depends, in part, on widespread acceptance and utilization of our marketplace by businesses of all sizes and types. Because our customers reflect a wide variety of businesses, we face a variety of challenges, including but not limited to, pricing pressure, cost variances and marketing strategies that vary based on the business type and size, varying lengths of sales cycles, and less predictability in completing some of our sales. For example, some of our larger prospective customers may need us to provide greater levels of education regarding the use and benefits of our marketplace and services, because the prospective customer’s decision to use our marketplace and services may be a company-wide decision. We are continuously developing and refining the analytical tools that will allow us to determine how prospective customers can be most effectively directed within, and addressed by, our sales organizations. As a result, we may not always approach new opportunities in the most cost-effective manner or with the most appropriate resources. Developing and successfully implementing these tools will be important as we seek to efficiently capitalize on new and expanding market opportunities. In addition, because we are a relatively new company with a limited
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operating history when compared to some of our existing competitors, our target employers and job seekers may prefer to use offerings from more established competitors that are more tailored to their specific requirements.
Our business depends largely on our ability to attract and retain talented employees, including senior management and key personnel. In particular, if we lose the services of Ian Siegel, our Chief Executive Officer, or other members of our senior management team, we may not be able to execute on our business strategy.
Our future success depends in large part on the continued services of our senior management and other key personnel and our ability to retain and motivate them. In particular, we are dependent on the services of Ian Siegel, our Chief Executive Officer, and our technology, marketplace, future vision, and strategic direction could be compromised if he were to take another position, become ill or incapacitated, or otherwise become unable to serve as our Chief Executive Officer. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of marketing, sales, finance, support, product development, human resources, and technology. Our senior management and other key personnel are all employed on an at-will basis, which means that they could terminate their employment with us at any time, for any reason, and without notice. If we lose the services of senior management or other key personnel, or if we cannot attract, train, and retain the highly skilled personnel we need, or if we fail to implement succession plans for such key personnel, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our future success also depends on our continuing ability to attract, train, and retain highly skilled personnel, including software engineers and sales personnel. We face intense competition for qualified personnel from numerous software and other technology companies. This competition for highly skilled personnel is especially intense in the regions where we have significant operations, and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain them. We have, from time to time, experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. In addition, in a tight labor market, we may experience increased difficulty in hiring and retaining, or increased costs in attracting and retaining, highly skilled personnel, or we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies at a greater rate. To the extent we move into new geographies, we would need to attract and recruit skilled personnel in those areas. Moreover, remote work opportunities could negatively impact our ability to recruit or retain talent, particularly in light of our workforce historically being concentrated largely in the Los Angeles and Phoenix metropolitan areas.
In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment and we use equity compensation as a part of a comprehensive compensation package for our personnel. To the extent our stock price declines significantly or is highly volatile due to a variety of factors outside of our control, our equity compensation packages may not provide the retention and motivation incentive that we believe they should, which could harm our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and directors. Prospective and current employees and directors may perceive a low or declining stock price as an indication of instability, making it more difficult to recruit and retain key personnel whose contributions are critical to our success. If we cannot attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who are capable of meeting our growing technical, operational, and managerial requirements, on a timely basis or at all, our business may be adversely affected.
If internet search engines’ methodologies or other channels that we use to direct traffic to our website are modified to our disadvantage, or our search result page rankings decline for other reasons, our user growth could decline.
We depend in part on various internet search engines, such as Google, as well as other channels, such as generative AI engines, to direct a significant amount of traffic to our website. Our ability to
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maintain the number of visitors directed to our website is not entirely within our control. For example, our competitors’ search engine optimization and other efforts such as paid search may result in their websites receiving a higher search result page ranking than ours, internet search engines or other channels that we utilize to direct traffic to our website could revise their methodologies in a manner that adversely impacts traffic to our website, or we may make changes to our website that adversely impact our search engine optimization rankings and traffic. As a result, links to our website may not be prominent enough to drive sufficient traffic to our website, and we may not be able to influence the results. Additionally, the manner in which generative AI platforms decide what information to provide in response to a given user query may also result in our website receiving less attention by users of these tools.
Search engines and other channels that we use to drive employers and job seekers to our website periodically change their algorithms, policies, and technologies, sometimes in ways that cause traffic to our website to decline. These changes can also result in an interruption in their ability to access our website or a drop in our search ranking, or have other adverse impacts that negatively affect our ability to maintain and grow the number of employers and job seekers that visit our website. We may also be forced to significantly increase marketing expenditures in the event that market prices for online advertising and paid listings escalate or our organic ranking decreases. Any of these changes could have an adverse impact on our business, user acquisition, and operating results.
Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business, which makes our future results difficult to predict.
Our quarterly results of operations, including the levels of our revenue, gross margin, and profitability, may vary significantly in the future and period to period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. We also make pricing and other changes from time to time, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. As a result, you should not rely upon our past quarterly operating results as indicators of future performance.
Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly financial results include, without limitation, those listed below:
• our ability to attract new employers and job seekers;
• Paid Employer renewal rates;
• Paid Employers purchasing upsell services;
• the addition or loss of large Paid Employers, including through acquisitions or consolidations;
• the timing of recognition of revenue;
• the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure;
• network outages or security breaches;
• general economic, industry and market conditions, including inflationary pressures, a volatile interest rate environment, increasing borrowing costs, actual or perceived instability in the global banking industry and the impacts therefrom, cybersecurity incidents, changes in laws, regulations and administrative policy, including those that impact trade agreements and tariffs, and the impacts of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East;
• changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
• seasonal variations in sales of our products, which have historically been most pronounced in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year;
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• the timing and success of new product or service introductions by us or our competitors or any other change in the competitive dynamics of our industry, including consolidation among competitors or strategic partners; and
• the timing of expenses related to the development or acquisition of technologies or businesses and potential future charges for impairment of goodwill from acquired companies.
Our success depends on our ability to maintain the value and reputation of the ZipRecruiter brand.
We believe that our brand is important to attracting and retaining both employers and job seekers. Maintaining, protecting, and enhancing our brand depends largely on the success of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide a compelling job marketplace, including services, features, content, and support related to our marketplace, and our ability to successfully secure, maintain, and defend our rights to use the “ZipRecruiter” mark, our logo, and other trademarks important to our brand. While we constantly measure the expected returns of specific sales and marketing initiatives and adjust spend levels up or down accordingly, it is not certain that these and any future investments have had or will have sufficient positive impact on our brand awareness, and any reduction in our levels of investments in brand awareness may harm our brand awareness. We believe that the importance of our brand will increase as competition further intensifies and brand promotion activities may require substantial expenditures. Our brand could be harmed if we cannot achieve these objectives or if our public image were to be tarnished by negative publicity. Unfavorable publicity about us could diminish confidence in our marketplace and services. Such negative publicity also could have an adverse effect on the volume, engagement and loyalty of our employers and job seekers and could have an adverse effect on our business.
If we fail to scale our business effectively, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We experienced a period of significant growth in prior years and expect to continue to invest strategically across our company to support measured growth, while also scaling back certain areas of our business in response to changing macroeconomic conditions. Although we have experienced rapid growth historically, we may not return to prior growth rates or sustain our growth rates, nor can we assure you that our investments to support our growth or to manage expenses by scaling back other areas of our business will be successful. The effective scaling of our business will place significant demands on our management as well as on our administrative, operational, and financial resources. To manage any future growth effectively, we must continue to improve our operational, financial, and management information systems; expand, motivate, and effectively manage and train our workforce; and effectively collaborate with our third-party partners. If we cannot manage any future growth successfully, our business, operating results, financial condition, and ability to successfully advertise our marketplace and serve our employers and job seekers could be adversely affected.
Over time, we expect to expand our operations and personnel. However, from time to time, we realign our resources and talent to respond to macroeconomic changes and to streamline our organization and optimize our cost structure, including through furloughs, layoffs and reductions in force, and opening, closing, or relocating offices. For example, in May 2023, in response to current market conditions and after reducing other discretionary expenses, we reduced our workforce. If there are unforeseen expenses associated with such realignments in our business strategies, and we incur unanticipated charges or liabilities, then we may not be able to effectively realize the expected cost savings or other benefits of such actions. In addition, the loss of certain personnel, through such reduction in force or otherwise, presents significant risks including, among other things, failure to maintain adequate controls and procedures. Failure to manage any growth or any scaling back of our operations could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
In addition, our historical growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks, challenges, and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding
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these risks, challenges, and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our financial condition and operating results could differ materially from our expectations, we may be unable to effectively scale our business, and our business would be adversely impacted.
If we are not able to provide successful enhancements and new products, services, and features, our business could be adversely affected.
The market for job-posting marketplaces is characterized by frequent product and service introductions and enhancements, changing user demands, and rapid technological change. The introduction of products and services embodying new technologies can quickly make existing products and services obsolete and unmarketable. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively and timely to these changes. We invest substantial resources in researching and developing new products and services and enhancing our marketplace by incorporating additional features, improving functionality, and adding other improvements to meet our employers’ and job seekers’ evolving demands in our highly competitive industry. If we cannot provide enhancements and new features or services that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with rapid technological developments and the competitive landscape, our business could be adversely affected. The success of any enhancements or improvements to, or new features of, our marketplace or any new products and services depends on several factors, including timely completion, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with new and existing technologies in our marketplace and third-party partners’ technologies, overall market acceptance, and resulting user activity that is consistent with the intent of such products or services. We cannot be sure that we will succeed, either timely or cost effectively, in developing, marketing, and delivering enhancements or new features, products and services to our marketplace that respond to continued changes in the market for job placement services, nor can we be sure that any enhancements or new features to our existing or any new products and services will achieve market acceptance or produce the intended effect. In addition, if new technologies emerge that allow our competitors to deliver similar services at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently, or more securely, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete.
Additionally, because our marketplace operates on a variety of third-party systems and platforms, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our offerings to keep pace with changes in internet-related hardware, operating systems, cloud computing infrastructure, and other software, communication, browser and open source technologies. We may not be successful in either developing these modifications and enhancements or in bringing them to market timely. Furthermore, uncertainties about the timing and nature of new network platforms or technologies, or modifications to existing platforms or technologies, could increase our research and development expenses. Parts of the technology stack supporting our marketplace may also become difficult to maintain and service as there become fewer software engineers who are skilled with respect to the programming languages used to build such pieces of software. Any failure of our marketplace to operate effectively with future network systems and technologies could reduce the demand for our marketplace, result in user dissatisfaction and adversely affect our business.
The forecasts of growth of online recruitment may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, we cannot assure you that our business will grow at a similar rate, if at all.
Growth forecasts are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not ultimately be accurate and are not under our control. The forecasts relating to the expected growth of the online recruitment market may prove to be inaccurate. Even if the market experiences the growth we forecast, we may not grow our business at a similar rate, or at all. Our growth is subject to many factors, including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, any forecasts of market growth included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K should not be taken as indicative of our future growth.
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The growth of our marketplace depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with our Job Distribution Partners and Job Acquisition Partners.
To grow our business and the number of job seekers and employers in our marketplace, we anticipate that we will continue to depend, in part, on relationships with Job Distribution Partners and Job Acquisition Partners. Job Distribution Partners are third-party sites who have a relationship with us and advertise jobs from our marketplace, and include job boards, search engines, social networks, talent communities and resume services, while Job Acquisition Partners are third-party sites and ATSs who have a relationship with us and from whom we receive jobs for our marketplace. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to these Job Distribution Partners to favor their products or services or to prevent or reduce engagement with our marketplace. In addition, acquisitions of our Job Distribution Partners or Job Acquisition Partners by our competitors could reduce the number of our current and potential employers and job seekers as well as the number of job postings accessible by our marketplace. We cannot guarantee that the Job Distribution Partners and Job Acquisition Partners with which we have strategic relationships will continue to offer the services for which we rely on them, devote the resources necessary to expand our reach, or support an increased number of employers and job seekers and associated use cases. Further, some of our Job Distribution Partners and Job Acquisition Partners offer, or could offer, competing products and services or also work with our competitors. They may also choose to develop alternative products and services in addition to, or in lieu of, our marketplace, either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors.
While these relationships have not generated substantial revenue in recent periods and are not expected to generate substantial revenue in the future, they are strategically important in ensuring an appropriate balance of and interaction between jobs and job seekers in our marketplace. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with our Job Distribution Partners and Job Acquisition Partners, or if such Job Distribution Partners or Job Acquisition Partners choose to end their relationships with us, our ability to compete with our competitors and grow our marketplace could be impaired and our operating results may be negatively impacted.
Our corporate culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain this culture, we could lose the innovation, creativity, and teamwork fostered by our culture, and our business may be harmed.
We believe that our corporate culture has been a key contributor to our success. If we do not continue to develop our corporate culture, it could harm our ability to foster the innovation, creativity, and teamwork we believe that we need. Over time, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture, which could negatively impact our future success. Furthermore, we have instituted, and may again in the future institute, restructuring plans, such as the one enacted in May 2023, which may result in increased attrition beyond our intended reduction in force, reduce employee morale, and negatively impact employee recruiting and retention. If we fail to attract new personnel, or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and growth prospects could be harmed.
Additionally, our hybrid working environment may impede our ability to foster a creative environment and adversely affect the productivity of our team members and overall operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and future prospects. Our hybrid work approach may change at any time, and may vary among geographies.
Technological advances may significantly disrupt the labor market and weaken demand for human capital at a rapid rate.
Our success is directly dependent on our employers’ demands for talent. As technology continues to evolve, more tasks historically performed by people have been and may continue to be replaced by automation, robotics, AI, including machine learning, and other technological advances outside of our control. This trend poses a risk to the job posting and distribution industry as a whole, particularly in lower-skill job categories that may be more susceptible to such replacement.
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Our business is seasonal.
Our business is seasonal, reflecting typical behavior in hiring markets, where hiring activity tends to decelerate in the fourth quarter. Such seasonality also causes our revenue to vary from quarter to quarter depending on the variability in the overall job market. This seasonality can make forecasting more difficult and may adversely affect our ability to predict financial results accurately.
We track certain performance metrics with internal tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our performance metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We track certain performance metrics, including Quarterly Paid Employers and Revenue per Paid Employer, which are not independently verified by any third party. Our internal tools have a number of limitations and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we report. If the internal tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data (or the data that we measure) may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. While we periodically implement new or enhanced information systems in order to better manage our business operations, align our global organizations and enable future growth, implementation of new business processes and information systems requires the commitment of significant personnel, training and financial resources, and entails risks to our business operations. If we do not successfully implement information systems improvements, or if there are delays or difficulties in implementing these systems, we may not realize anticipated productivity improvements or cost efficiencies, and may experience interruptions in service and operational difficulties, including our ability to effectively aggregate financial data and report operating results, and otherwise effectively manage our business. If our performance metrics are not accurate representations of our business, user base, or traffic levels; if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics; or if the metrics we rely on to track our performance do not provide an accurate measurement of our business, our reputation may be harmed, we may be subject to legal or regulatory actions, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.
We derive substantially all of our revenue from job advertisements.
We derive substantially all of our revenue from sales of products and services related to the distribution of job advertisements to job seekers across the internet. As such, any factor adversely affecting the sale of these products and services, including market acceptance, product competition, performance and reliability, reputation, price competition, intellectual property claims, legal or regulatory restrictions, and economic and market conditions, could harm our business and operating results.
Failure to effectively expand our sales and marketing capabilities could harm our ability to increase our user base and achieve broader market acceptance of our services.
Our ability to increase our Paid Employer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our marketplace will depend significantly on our ability to continue to expand our sales and marketing operations. We plan to continue to dedicate significant and increasing resources to sales and marketing programs. We are expanding our sales and marketing capabilities to target additional potential Paid Employers, including some larger organizations, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful in attracting and maintaining these businesses as users, and even if we are successful, these efforts may divert our resources away from and negatively impact our ability to attract and maintain our current Paid Employer base. All of these efforts will require us to invest significant financial and other resources. If we cannot find efficient ways to deploy our marketing spend or to hire, develop, and retain talented sales personnel in numbers required to maintain and support our growth, if our new sales personnel cannot achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, or if our sales and marketing programs
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are not effective, our ability to increase our Paid Employer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our services could be harmed.
Paid Employers may demand more configuration and integration services, or customized features and functions that we do not offer, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our current and future Paid Employers may demand more configuration and integration services, which would increase our upfront investment in sales and deployment efforts, with no guarantee that these Paid Employers will increase their use of our services. As a result of these factors, we may need to devote a significant amount of sales support and professional services resources to individual Paid Employers, which may increase the cost and time required to complete sales. If prospective Paid Employers require customized features or functions that we do not offer, and that would be difficult for them to deploy themselves, then the market for our marketplace will be more limited and our business could suffer. As a result, we may need to devote resources to continue to develop features and technology which may impact our operating results.
Any failure to offer high-quality technical support services may adversely affect our relationships with our Paid Employers and our financial results.
Once our products and services are deployed, our Paid Employers depend on our technical support organization to assist Paid Employers with service support and optimization, and resolve technical issues. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in demand for support services. We also may be unable to modify the format of our support services to compete with changes in support services provided by our competitors. Increased demand for these services, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on our services and business reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing Paid Employers. Any failure to maintain high-quality technical support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could adversely affect our reputation, our ability to sell our services to existing and prospective Paid Employers, and our business, operating results and financial position.
We have incurred net losses in the past, anticipate increasing our operating expenses in the future, and may not regain profitability.
While we earned net income of $49.1 million and $61.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, we have also incurred significant net losses in subsequent periods, including a net loss of $33.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 and a net loss of $12.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2025, we had an accumulated deficit of $76.6 million. Additionally, we expect to make significant future expenditures related to the development and expansion of our business, including investing in our technology to improve our marketplace and investing in sales and marketing channels to enhance our brand promotion efforts. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. If our revenue declines or fails to grow at a rate faster than increases in our operating expenses, we will not be able to regain or maintain profitability in future periods. As a result, we may continue to generate losses. We cannot ensure that we will achieve profitability in the future or that we can sustain profitability.
We rely on Amazon Web Services, or AWS, to host our marketplace and other service providers for certain critical business processes, and any disruption of service from AWS or other critical service providers or material change to our arrangement with AWS or other critical service providers could adversely affect our business.
We currently host our marketplace and support most of our operations using AWS, a provider of cloud infrastructure services, and we use other service providers to provide certain critical business processes. We do not control the operations of AWS’s facilities or the facilities of our other critical service
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providers. AWS’s and other critical service providers’ facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, cyber security attacks, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures, and similar events or could be subject to break-ins, cybersecurity incidents (including unauthorized access to or other compromise of information technology systems and data stored therein), sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, and other misconduct. The occurrence of any of these events, a decision to close the facilities or cease or limit providing services to us without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems could result in interruptions to our marketplace, which may be lengthy. Our marketplace’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success and employers and job seekers may become dissatisfied by service interruption. Sustained or repeated system failures could reduce the attractiveness of our marketplace to employers and job seekers, cause employers and job seekers to decrease their use of or stop using our marketplace, and adversely affect our business. Moreover, negative publicity from disruptions could damage our reputation.
AWS and other critical service providers do not have an obligation to renew their respective agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we cannot renew our agreements or are unable to renew on commercially reasonable terms, we may experience costs or downtime in connection with the transfer to, or the addition of, new cloud infrastructure or other data center or another critical service provider. If these providers charge high costs for or increase the cost of their services, we will experience higher costs to operate our business and may have to increase the fees to use our marketplace and our operating results may be adversely impacted.
Upon expiration or termination of our respective agreement with AWS or other critical service providers, we may not be able to replace the services provided to us in a timely manner or on terms and conditions, including service levels and cost, that are favorable to us, and a transition from one vendor to another vendor could subject us to operational delays and inefficiencies until the transition is complete. Switching our operations from AWS to another cloud or other data center provider would also be technically difficult, expensive, and time consuming.
Many people are using mobile devices to access the internet. If we cannot optimize our websites for mobile access or offer a compelling mobile app, we may not remain competitive and could lose employers and job seekers.
Many employers and job seekers access our marketplace through our mobile website and job seekers also have the ability to access our marketplace through our mobile app. We must ensure that the experience for our mobile offerings is optimized to ensure a positive experience. It requires us to develop and enhance our offerings to be specifically designed for mobile devices, such as social media job postings. If we cannot optimize our websites and apps cost effectively and improve the monetization capabilities of our mobile services, we may not remain competitive, which may negatively affect our business and results of operations.
Additionally, there is no guarantee that job seekers will use our mobile app rather than competing marketplaces. We are dependent on the interoperability of our mobile app with popular third-party mobile operating systems such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android, and their placement in popular app stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and any changes in such systems that degrade our apps’ functionality or give preferential treatment or app store placement to competitive apps could adversely affect the access and usage of our apps on mobile devices. If it is more difficult for employers and job seekers to access and use our app on their mobile devices, our growth and engagement levels could be harmed.
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Legal and Regulatory Risks
If we or our third-party partners or vendors experience a security breach, such as a hacking or phishing attack, or other data privacy or security incident, our marketplace may be perceived as not being secure, our reputation may be harmed, demand for our marketplace may be reduced, our operations may be disrupted, we may incur significant legal costs or liabilities, and our business could be adversely affected.
Our business involves the storage, processing, and transmission of proprietary, confidential, and personal information, and relies on computer systems, hardware, software, technology infrastructure and online sites and networks for both internal and external operations that are critical to our business, or IT Systems. We own and manage some of these IT Systems but also rely on the use of third-party partners and vendors for a range of IT Systems, who also store, process, and transmit user information. We also maintain certain other proprietary and confidential information relating to our business and personal information of our personnel, website visitors and other individuals we interact with. We have previously experienced multiple data security incidents involving the unauthorized access to personal information of job seekers utilizing our services (including their resumes) as well as affecting our business clients’ accounts, some of which have required us to notify affected individuals and/or regulators. There are no assurances that other data security incidents will not occur in the future. These incidents and any future data security breach that we or our vendors and third-party partners experience, such as those caused through hacking, social engineering, phishing, insufficient access controls and/or end-user or customer account controls and/or security measures, including user or customer account takeovers, credential stuffing, malware (including ransomware), vulnerabilities, malfeasance by insiders, human or technological error or mistake, as a result of malicious code embedded in software, physical or electronic-break-in, weakness resulting from intentional or unintentional service provider actions, or other data privacy or security incident, whether intentionally or unintentionally caused by us or by third parties could result in: unauthorized access to, misuse of, or unauthorized acquisition of IT Systems and our, our personnel’s, our users’, or our customers’ data; the loss, corruption, or alteration of this data; interruptions in our operations; unavailability of our website and applications; damage to our computers or systems or those of our users; or other security incident, data breach, or ransomware. Moreover, we have acquired and continue to acquire companies with cybersecurity vulnerabilities and/or are similarly susceptible to the risks described above, which exposes us to significant cybersecurity, operational, and financial risks.
An increasing number of online services have also disclosed security breaches, some of which involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks. As threat actors become increasingly sophisticated in using techniques and tools (including AI) that circumvent security controls, evade detection and remove forensic evidence, we may be unable to protect the confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of our IT Systems or confidential information, and may not be able to detect, investigate, remediate or recover from future attacks or incidents, or to avoid a material adverse impact to our IT systems, confidential information or business. Further, as our profile and name recognition increase, we may be targeted more frequently. Additionally, malware, viruses, social engineering (including business email compromise), and general hacking in our industry have become more prevalent and more complex. Further, due to the shift to remote and hybrid work, there is an increased risk that we may experience cybersecurity related incidents, including breaches of IT Systems security, as a result of our employees, service providers, and third parties working remotely on less secure systems. Threat actors’ techniques change frequently and often are not foreseeable or recognized until launched against a target. As a result, we and our third-party partners and vendors may be unable to anticipate these techniques, implement adequate preventative measures, or investigate, remediate and recover from incidents. If an actual or perceived breach of our or our third-party partners’ or vendors’ security or privacy or other data privacy or security incident occurs, public perception of the effectiveness of our security measures and brand could be harmed, and we could lose users and business.
Data security breaches and other data privacy and security incidents may also result from non-technical means, for example, through human error. Any such security compromise could result in a violation of applicable data privacy, security, breach notification and other laws, regulatory or other
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governmental investigations, enforcement actions, litigation (including class action litigation), and legal and financial exposure, including potential contractual liability. We may need to expend significant resources to protect against, and to address issues created by, security breaches and other privacy and security incidents. These liabilities may exceed the amounts covered by our insurance or our insurance coverage may not extend to or be adequate for liabilities actually incurred, or our insurance may not continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Any such compromise could also result in damage to our reputation, a loss of confidence in our security measures, and an adverse impact our business.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to data privacy, the protection, collection, storage, processing, transfer, or use of personal information, the use of AI, or consumer protection, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations, our privacy policies or other obligations, could adversely affect our business.
We receive, collect, store, process, transfer, and use personal information and other user data. There are numerous federal, state, local, and international laws and regulations regarding data privacy, data protection, AI (including machine learning), information security, and the collection, storing, sharing, use, transfer, disclosure, protection, and other processing of personal information and other content, and consumer protection. The scope of these laws and regulations is changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among countries or between U.S. states, or conflict with other laws and regulations.
We are also subject to the terms of our privacy policies and obligations to third parties related to privacy, data protection, AI, and information security. The regulatory framework for privacy, data protection and AI worldwide is uncertain and complex, and these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in ways we do not anticipate or that are inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Further, any significant change to applicable laws, regulations, or industry practices regarding the collection, use, retention, security, disclosure or other processing of the data of our employers and job seekers, employees, contractors, or others, or their interpretation, or any changes regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of employers and job seekers for the collection, use, processing, retention, or disclosure of such data must be obtained, or any limitations on how we can collect, use, process, retain or disclose such data, could increase our costs, limit our development of new services or features, or the taking of new initiatives, and/or require us to modify our services and features, which may be material, limiting or not cost-effective.
We also expect that there will continue to be new laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection, AI, and information security proposed and enacted in various jurisdictions. For example, in 2018, European legislators adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, which imposes more stringent European Union, or EU, data protection requirements, and provides for significant penalties for noncompliance. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies, and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of the GDPR. Compliance with the GDPR has been and will continue to be a rigorous process that may increase our cost of doing business or require us to change our business practices, and may subject us to governmental investigations or enforcement actions, fines and penalties, claims, litigation, and reputational harm in connection with any European activities. Further, the United Kingdom, or the UK, has enacted the UK GDPR, which, together with the amended UK Data Protection Act 2018, or DPA, and the UK Data Use and Access Act 2025, retains the GDPR in UK national law. Fines for certain breaches of the GDPR and the UK data protection regime are significant (e.g., fines for certain breaches of the GDPR or the UK GDPR are up to the greater of 20 million Euros (or 17.5 million GBP under the UK GDPR) or 4% of total global annual turnover), and since we are under the supervision of relevant data protection authorities in both the EU and the UK, we may be fined under both the GDPR and the UK GDPR for the same breach.
Additionally, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which afforded new data privacy rights for consumers and new operational requirements for companies, came into force in 2020, and also
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provides for fines for noncompliance. The California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, which took effect on January 1, 2023, further expanded the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements and rights for California consumers, and established a new regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing those requirements and implementing additional rules, including in the areas of cybersecurity audits, risk assessment, and automated decision-making technology. Comprehensive privacy legislation has also been enacted and taken effect in more than one-third of U.S. states (with several states going into effect in the near future) and each imposes similar, but not identical, compliance obligations. Similar laws have been proposed in many other states and at the federal level as well, which may impose significant obligations and restrictions. The effects of these laws are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data collection or processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply, and increase our potential exposure to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation.
Moreover, several U.S. and European jurisdictions currently or will soon regulate specific uses of AI. For example, New York City currently regulates the use of automated employment decision tools by employers and employment agencies; Utah regulates disclosures for the use of generative AI; Illinois regulates AI in employment decision-making process; and Texas prohibits specific AI use cases (including those developed or deployed with the intent of unlawfully discriminating against a protected class under federal or state law). Colorado will soon regulate the use of high-risk AI (which definition includes an AI system that is a substantial factor in making a decision that has a significant effect on employment or employment opportunities). California has also enacted several new AI laws that further regulate use of AI and machine learning technologies, or AI Technologies, and provide consumers with additional protections around companies’ use of AI Technologies, such as requiring companies to disclose certain uses of generative AI, AI Technologies, and the types of data used to train such models. Relatedly, various state laws including the CCPA regulate the use of automated decision making technology that results in legal or similarly significant effects on individuals, and provide rights to individuals with respect to that automated decision making.
In the EU, the Artificial Intelligence Act, or the EU AI Act, entered into force in August 2024. The EU AI Act seeks to create a comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of AI systems across the EU. The majority of obligations under the EU AI Act are expected to take effect in August 2026. Once fully applicable, the EU AI Act will have a material impact on the way AI is regulated in the EU, including, for certain types of AI systems, requirements around transparency, conformity assessments and monitoring, risk assessments, human oversight, security, accuracy, general purpose AI and foundation models, and fines for breach of up to 7% of worldwide annual turnover. Failure to comply with such laws or regulations could subject us to legal or regulatory liability. Further, the cost to comply with such laws or regulations could be significant and would increase our operating expenses, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The regulatory framework for AI Technologies has also already shifted significantly as the technology continues to evolve. For example, in the United States, the Trump Administration in early 2025 rescinded an executive order relating to the safe and secure development of AI Technologies that was previously implemented by the Biden Administration in 2023. The Trump Administration then issued a new executive order that, among other things, requires certain agencies to develop and submit to the president action plans to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance,” and to specifically review and, if possible, rescind rulemaking taken pursuant to the rescinded Biden executive order. In July 2025, the Trump Administration further issued America’s AI Action Plan focusing on the three pillars of innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy and security in AI, and seven underlying principles. In December 2025, the Trump Administration issued another executive order establishing a federal policy favoring a uniform national AI regulatory framework designed to promote innovation and U.S. global competitiveness and directing federal agencies to identify, challenge, and potentially pre-empt state and local AI laws that are viewed as inconsistent with or burdensome to this national approach. It remains to be seen how agencies will effectuate this directive, and how states will approach AI legislation moving forward, and the Trump Administration may continue to rescind other existing federal orders and/or
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administrative policies relating to AI Technologies, or may implement new executive orders and/or other rule making relating to AI Technologies in the future. Any such changes at the federal level could require us to expend significant resources to modify our products, services, or operations to ensure compliance with old frameworks or meet new obligations.
We are also subject to different consumer protection laws, including laws that regulate the offering of automatically renewing subscription offers. For example, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, previously implemented the “Click-to-Cancel” rule that would have prohibited covered businesses from, amongst other things, impeding consumers (including in business-to-business transactions) from canceling recurring subscriptions and memberships. However, on July 8, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the entirety of the “Click-to-Cancel” rule due to a finding of flaws in the FTC’s rulemaking process. The rule may still be appealed by the FTC or the FTC may engage in further rulemaking processes. However, there are still other state laws around these topics that we may be required to comply with, and which compliance requirements may impact our business practices in ways that impact our revenues.
The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, data privacy, IA, consumer protection requirements and other laws and regulations may limit the use and adoption of our products and services and could have an adverse impact on our business. As a result, we may need to modify the way we treat, process, or store such information or offer our products and services.
Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to employers and job seekers, employees, contractors, or other third parties, or any other legal obligations or regulatory requirements relating to privacy, data protection, consumer protection, AI, or information security may result in governmental and regulatory investigations or enforcement and/or assessment notices (for a compulsory audit), orders to cease or change our processing of our data, litigation, claims (including representative actions and other class action type litigation, where individuals have suffered harm), or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our employers and job seekers to lose trust in us, and otherwise have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with such laws, regulations and policies may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our marketplace.
Our business uses AI Technologies, and the deployment, use and maintenance of these technologies involve significant technological and legal risks.
We use AI Technologies throughout our business and are making significant investments in this area. For example, we use AI Technologies within our platform to actively connect employers and job seekers, to help retrieve and appropriately display search results, to optimize job matches and recommendations, and to improve the services we provide. As with many technological innovations, there are significant risks involved in developing, maintaining and deploying these technologies and there can be no assurance that the usage of or our investments in such technologies will always enhance our products or services or be beneficial to our business, including our efficiency or profitability. In particular, if the models underlying these AI Technologies are: (i) incorrectly designed or implemented; (ii) trained or reliant on incomplete, inadequate, inaccurate, flawed, biased or otherwise poor quality data, or on data to which we do not have sufficient rights or in relation to which we and/or the providers of such data have not implemented sufficient legal compliance measures; (iii) used without sufficient oversight and governance to ensure their responsible use; (iv) providing outputs that are flawed, biased, discriminatory, inflammatory, unfair, or untruthful; and/or (v) adversely impacted by unforeseen defects, technical challenges, cybersecurity threats or material performance issues, the performance of our products, services and business, as well as our reputation, including as a result of ethical concerns, could suffer or we could incur liability resulting from the violation of laws or contracts to which we are a party or civil claims.
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We are in varying stages of development in relation to our products and internal business processes involving AI Technologies. The continuous development, maintenance and operation of our AI Technologies is expensive and complex, and may involve unforeseen difficulties including material performance problems, undetected defects or errors. We may not be successful in our ongoing development and maintenance of these technologies in the face of novel and evolving technical, reputational and market factors. Our efforts to develop proprietary AI models could increase our operating costs. Our ability to develop proprietary AI models may be limited by our access to processing infrastructure or training data, and we may be dependent on third-party providers for such resources. Further, our ability to continue to develop or use such technologies may be dependent on access to specific third-party software, services and infrastructure, such as processing hardware, and we cannot control the availability or pricing of such third-party software and infrastructure, especially in a highly competitive environment.
In addition to our proprietary AI Technologies, we use AI Technologies licensed from third parties in our technologies or internal business operations, and our ability to continue to use such technologies at the scale we need may be dependent on access to specific third-party software and infrastructure. We cannot control the availability or pricing of such third-party AI Technologies, especially in a highly competitive environment, and we may be unable to negotiate favorable economic terms with the applicable providers or unable to control the data processing, security, or other practices of these AI Technologies. If any such third-party AI Technologies become incompatible with our solutions or unavailable for use, or if the providers of such models unfavorably change the terms on which their AI Technologies are offered or terminate their relationship with us, our solutions may become less appealing to our customers and our business will be harmed. In addition, to the extent any third-party AI Technologies are used as a hosted service, any disruption, outage, loss of information, or mishandling of data through such hosted services could disrupt our operations or solutions, damage our reputation, cause a loss of confidence in our solutions, or result in legal claims or proceedings, for which we may be unable to recover damages from the affected provider.
In particular, we incorporate generative AI Technologies (i.e., AI Technologies that can produce and output new content, software code, data and information) into our services and internal business practices. There is a risk that generative AI Technologies could produce inaccurate or misleading content or other discriminatory or unexpected results or behaviors, such as hallucinatory behavior that can generate irrelevant, nonsensical, or factually incorrect results, all of which could harm our reputation, business, or customer relationships. While we take measures designed to ensure the accuracy of such AI-generated content, those measures may not always be successful, and in some cases, we may need to rely on end users to report such inaccuracies. In addition, we may experience difficulties in enforcing the intellectual property rights in output generated by generative AI Technologies. The United States Copyright Office has previously denied copyright protection for content generated by AI Technologies, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has similarly stated that an AI tool cannot be an “inventor” of a patent, rendering it impossible to obtain patent protection for inventions created solely by AI Technologies.
Further, if we are deemed to not have sufficient rights to the data we use to train our generative AI Technologies, we may be subject to litigation by the owners of the content or other materials that comprise such data, similar to the litigation that is currently pending in various U.S., UK, and EU national courts against other developers of generative AI Technologies, and in which the outcome of such litigation is uncertain.
Failure to comply with anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the United States, could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We have voluntarily implemented policies and procedures designed to allow us to comply with U.S. economic sanctions laws and prevent our marketplace from being used to facilitate business in countries or with persons or entities included on designated lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the
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Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and equivalent foreign authorities. We may be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal, state or local regulators, in the event that we engage in any conduct, intentionally or not, that facilitates money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit activity, or that violates sanctions or otherwise constitutes sanctionable activity.
Regulators continue to increase their scrutiny of compliance with these obligations, which may require us to further revise or expand our compliance program, including the procedures that we use to verify the identity of our users and to monitor our marketplace for potential illegal activity. In addition, any policies and procedures that we implement to comply with OFAC regulations may not be effective, including in preventing users from using our services within the OFAC-sanctioned countries of North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Iran, Russia, and the breakaway regions of Ukraine (which currently include Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk), or additional countries or regions that may be included from time-to-time. Given the technical limitations in developing controls to prevent, among other things, the ability of users to publish in our marketplace false or deliberately misleading information or to develop sanctions-evasion methods, it is possible that we may inadvertently and without our knowledge provide services to individuals or entities that have been designated by OFAC or are located in a country subject to an embargo by the United States that may not be in compliance with the economic sanctions regulations administered by OFAC.
Consequences for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include fines, criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us, our employers and job seekers, or payment partners with respect to applicable laws, rules, and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation and could cause us to lose existing employers and job seekers, prevent us from obtaining new employers and job seekers, cause other payment partners to terminate or not renew their agreements with us, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by violations and to avert further violations, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability, all of which may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.
We are also subject to the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, and the UK Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and sanctions laws in countries in which we conduct activities or have employers and job seekers. The FCPA prohibits providing, offering, promising, or authorizing, directly or indirectly, anything of value to non-U.S. government officials, political parties, or political candidates for the purposes of obtaining or retaining business or securing any improper business advantage. The provisions of the Bribery Act extend beyond bribery of government officials and create offenses in relation to commercial bribery including private sector recipients. The provisions of the Bribery Act also create offenses for accepting bribes in addition to bribing another person. We face significant risks if we cannot comply with the FCPA, the Bribery Act and other applicable anti-corruption laws.
Public companies listed in the United States are required to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent their transactions and have an adequate system of internal accounting controls. We maintain internal controls, policies, procedures and/or training to ensure compliance by us and our directors, officers, employees, agents, and contractors with the FCPA, the Bribery Act, and other applicable anti-corruption laws. We cannot ensure that all of our employees, employers and job seekers, and agents, as well as those contractors to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies, internal controls, procedures or agreements and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Any violation of the FCPA, the Bribery Act, other applicable anti-corruption laws, and other laws could result in investigations and actions by federal or state attorneys general or foreign regulators, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil fines and penalties or other sanctions, forfeiture of significant assets, debarment from government contracts, whistleblower complaints, and adverse media coverage, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results, and prospects. In
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addition, responding to any enforcement action or internal investigation related to alleged misconduct may result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
We are subject to a wide variety of foreign and domestic laws. As we look to expand our international footprint over time and as new domestic laws are implemented, we may become obligated to comply with additional laws and regulations of the countries or markets in which we operate or have employers and job seekers.
We and our employers and job seekers are subject to a wide variety of foreign and domestic laws. Laws, regulations, and standards governing issues that may affect us, such as employment, payments, whistleblowing and worker confidentiality obligations, intellectual property, consumer protection, content moderation practices, taxation, privacy, data security, AI, benefits, unionizing and collective action, arbitration agreements and class action waiver provisions, unfair competition, terms of service, website accessibility, modern slavery obligations, background checks, and escheatment are often complex and subject to varying interpretations, and, as a result, their application in practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory and governing bodies. Many of these laws do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the internet, mobile, and related technologies. Other laws and regulations in response to internet, mobile, and related technologies may also be adopted, implemented, or interpreted to apply to us and other online services marketplaces or our users. Likewise, these laws affect our users, and their application, or uncertainty around their application, may affect demand for our marketplace.
Further, in June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its longstanding approach under the Chevron doctrine, which provided for judicial deference to regulatory agencies. As a result of this decision, we cannot be sure whether there will be increased challenges to existing agency regulations or how lower courts will apply the decision in the context of other regulatory schemes without more specific guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision could significantly impact consumer protection, advertising, privacy, AI, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering practices and other regulatory regimes with which we are required to comply.
New approaches to policymaking and legislation may also produce unintended harms for our business, which may impact our ability to operate our business in the manner in which we are accustomed. Any of these regulations could negatively impact our users, including perceptions regarding their use of our marketplace, or have a material adverse effect on the demand for job postings in our marketplace or on how we operate our marketplace.
As we look to expand our international footprint over time, we may become obligated to comply with additional laws and regulations of the countries or markets in which we operate or have customers or job seekers. We may be harmed if we are found to be subject to new or existing laws and regulations or if those laws are interpreted and applied to us in a manner that harms our business or is inconsistent with the application of U.S. laws, including with respect to those subjects mentioned above. In addition, contractual provisions that are designed to protect and mitigate against risks, including terms of service, arbitration and class action waiver provisions, disclaimers of warranties, limitations of liabilities, releases of claims, and indemnification provisions, could be deemed unenforceable as to the application of these laws and regulations by a court, arbitrator, or other decision-making body. If we cannot comply with these laws and regulations or manage the complexity of global operations and support an international user base successfully or cost effectively, or if these laws and regulations are deemed to apply to our users or cause a decline in demand for our marketplace, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We face payment and fraud risks that could adversely impact our business.
Requirements in our marketplace relating to user authentication and fraud detection are complex. If our user authentication and fraud detection measures are not effective, our marketplace may be
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perceived as not being secure, our reputation may be harmed, and our business may be adversely impacted. In addition, bad actors use increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities involving personal information, such as unauthorized or fraudulent use of another’s identity, payment information, or other information; misrepresentation of the user’s identity or skills, including using accounts that they have purchased, sold, or leased; and acquisition or use of credit or debit card details and bank account information. This conduct in our marketplace could result in any of the following, each of which could adversely impact our business:
• bad actors may use our marketplace, including our payment processing and disbursement methods, to engage in unlawful or fraudulent conduct, such as identity theft, money laundering, terrorist financing, fraudulent sale of services, bribery, breaches of security, leakage of data, piracy or misuse of software and other copyrighted or trademarked content, and other misconduct;
• we may be held liable for the unauthorized use of an account holder’s credit card or bank account number and required by card issuers or banks to return the funds at issue and pay a chargeback or return fee, and if our chargeback or return rate becomes excessive, credit card networks may also require us to pay fines or other fees and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation may require us to hold cash reserves;
• we may be subject to additional risk and liability exposure, including for negligence, fraud, or other claims, if employees or third-party service providers fraudulently misappropriate our banking or other information or user information;
• employers and job seekers that are subjected or exposed to the unlawful or improper conduct of other employers and job seekers or other third parties, or law enforcement or administrative agencies, may seek to hold us responsible for the conduct of employers and job seekers, lose confidence in our marketplace, decrease or cease use of our marketplace, seek to obtain damages and costs, or impose fines and penalties;
• we may be subject to additional risk if employers in our marketplace cannot pay hired job seekers for services rendered, as such job seekers may seek to hold us responsible for the employers’ conduct and may lose confidence in our marketplace, decrease or cease use of our marketplace, or seek to obtain damages and costs; and
• we may suffer reputational damage as a result of the occurrence of any of the above.
Despite measures we have taken to detect, prevent, and mitigate these risks, we do not have control over the employers and job seekers in our marketplace and cannot ensure that any of our measures will stop or minimize the use of our marketplace for, or to further, illegal or improper purposes. We may receive complaints from employers, job seekers and other third parties concerning misuse of our marketplace and wrongful conduct of other employers and job seekers. We may also bring claims against employers and job seekers and other third parties for their misuse of our marketplace in the future. Even if these claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the attention and resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We plan to expand our international operations which could subject us to additional costs and risks, and our continued expansion internationally may not be successful.
We plan to expand our operations internationally in the future. Outside of the United States, we currently have operations in the United Kingdom, Israel, and Canada. There are significant costs and risks inherent in conducting business in international markets, including:
• establishing and maintaining effective controls at foreign locations and the associated costs;
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• adapting our marketplace to non-U.S. employers’ and job seekers’ preferences and customs;
• increased competition from local providers;
• longer sales or collection cycles in some countries;
• compliance with foreign laws and regulations, including data privacy frameworks like the GDPR, UK GDPR and DPA;
• adapting to doing business in other languages or cultures;
• compliance with local tax regimes, including potential double taxation of our international earnings, and potentially adverse tax consequences due to U.S. and foreign tax laws as they relate to our international operations;
• compliance with anti-bribery laws, such as the FCPA and the Bribery Act;
• currency exchange rate fluctuations and related effects on our operating results;
• economic and political instability in some countries;
• the uncertainty of obtaining and protecting intellectual property rights in some countries and practical difficulties of enforcing rights abroad;
• potential challenges arising from strained foreign relations or geopolitical tensions, which could lead to regulatory hurdles, trade barriers, or reputational harm; and
• other costs of doing business internationally.
These factors and other factors could harm our international operations and, consequently, materially impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Further, we may incur significant operating expenses as a result of any international expansion, and it may not be successful. We have limited experience with regulatory environments and market practices internationally, and we may not be able to penetrate or successfully operate in new markets. We also have more limited brand recognition in certain parts of the world, leading to delayed acceptance of our marketplace by international employers and job seekers. If we cannot continue to expand internationally and manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
Privacy concerns and laws or other domestic or foreign regulations may reduce the effectiveness of our marketplace, disrupt our communication processes, and adversely affect our business.
In order to use our marketplace, employers, job seekers, and, to a lesser extent, other third parties including advertisers, partners, and our own employees, entrust us to collect, use, and store their personal information. Our ability to leverage this information and to effectively and efficiently provide our services, including by communicating electronically and otherwise with employers and job seekers of our marketplace, is critical to our business. By way of example, our services may include the sending and receiving of emails, SMS/text messages, in-platform messages, and push notifications on mobile devices. Certain federal, state and foreign government bodies and agencies have adopted, and others are considering adopting, or may adopt in the future, laws, standards and regulations regarding the collection, use, transfer, storage and disclosure of personal information obtained from consumers, customers, employees, and other individuals, the conditions under which businesses may communicate with such individuals and other third parties. A perception or determination that we have violated laws or other legal requirements relating to our communications, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), could also result in claims against us (including class actions), which could be costly to litigate, whether or not they have merit, and could expose us to significant damage awards, fines and other penalties that
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could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. In addition, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such laws and regulations that are applicable to the businesses of our employers and job seekers may limit the use of our marketplace and reduce overall demand, or lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for any noncompliance with such privacy laws. Moreover, third-party gatekeepers and service providers and their interpretation and application of privacy and data protection laws, rules, regulations, and best practices, may limit, disrupt, or require alteration of our operations, service offerings, and ability to communicate with and among employers and job seekers, and may adversely affect our business.
From time to time, we may be subject to legal proceedings, regulatory disputes, and governmental investigations that could cause us to incur significant expenses, divert our management’s attention, and materially harm our business, financial condition, and operating results.
From time to time, we may be subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions), government investigations, arbitrations and other proceedings involving competition and antitrust, intellectual property, privacy (including claims that the collection or provision of certain information, including personal information, by us or by third parties with whom we interact breached laws or regulations relating to privacy or data protection), consumer protection, securities, tax, labor and employment, commercial disputes (including claims relating to our marketplace functionality), and other matters that could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition. The outcome of any legal proceeding, regardless of its merits, is inherently uncertain. Regardless of the merits, pending or future legal proceedings could result in a diversion of management’s attention and resources and reputational harm, and we may be required to incur significant expenses defending against these claims or pursuing claims against third parties to protect our rights. If we do not prevail in litigation, we could incur substantial liabilities. We may also determine in certain instances that a settlement may be a more cost-effective and efficient resolution for a dispute. Any applicable insurance policies may be inadequate or may not be available in the future on acceptable terms, or at all, and such policies may not cover all claims made against us.
Where we can make a reasonable estimate of the liability relating to pending litigation and determine that it is probable, we record a related liability. As additional information becomes available, we assess the potential liability and revise estimates as appropriate. However, because of uncertainties relating to litigation, the amount of our estimates could be wrong as determining reserves for pending legal proceedings is a complex, fact-intensive process that is subject to judgment calls. The results of legal and regulatory proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty, and determining reserves for pending litigation and other legal and regulatory matters requires significant judgment. There can be no assurance that our expectations will prove correct, and even if these matters are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, these matters, and the time and resources necessary to litigate or resolve them, could harm our business. Any adverse determination related to legal proceedings or a settlement agreement could require us to change our technology or our business practices in costly ways, prevent us from offering certain products or services, require us to pay monetary damages, fines, or penalties, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, and could adversely affect our operating results and cash flows, harm our reputation, or otherwise negatively impact our business.
Our failure or inability to protect our intellectual property rights, or claims by others that we are infringing upon or unlawfully using their intellectual property, could diminish the value of our brand and weaken our competitive position, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.
Our success depends in large part on our proprietary technology and other intellectual property rights, or IPR. We currently rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and unfair competition laws, as well as confidentiality agreements and procedures and licensing arrangements, to establish and protect our IPR. We have devoted substantial resources to the development and protection of our IPR. As a part of our efforts to protect our IPR, we require employees and contractors who may be involved in the creation or development of intellectual property to enter into invention assignment
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agreements assigning ownership of such IPR to us. To protect our proprietary technologies and information, we rely in part on trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements with our employees, licensees, independent contractors, commercial partners, and other third parties with whom we have a relationship. While these agreements will give us contractual remedies upon any unauthorized use or disclosure of our IPR or proprietary information, these agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure or use of our IPR or proprietary information, and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to detect such unauthorized disclosures or use.
We have filed trademark, copyright and patent applications to protect certain aspects of our IPR; however, we cannot guarantee that we will be successful in registering our trademarks, copyrights or patents. Additionally, the process of obtaining protection for trademarks, copyrights, patents and other IPR is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to successfully register all necessary or desirable trademark and other IPR applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. Moreover, intellectual property protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries where laws or law enforcement practices may not protect our IPR as fully as in the United States, and it may be more difficult for us to successfully challenge the unauthorized use of our IPR by other parties in these countries. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our IPR, and our failure or inability to obtain or maintain IPR protection or otherwise protect our IPR could adversely affect our business.
We may in the future be subject to intellectual property infringement claims and lawsuits in various jurisdictions, and we cannot be certain that our products or activities do not violate the patents, trademarks, or other IPR of third-party claimants. Companies in the technology industry and other patent, copyright, and trademark holders seeking to profit from royalties in connection with grants of licenses own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, domain names, and trade secrets and frequently commence litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. For instance, though an issued patent is presumed valid and enforceable, its issuance is not conclusive as to its validity or its enforceability and it may not provide us with adequate proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar products. Proceedings challenging our patents, trademarks, or other IPR could result in either loss of the IPR or denial of the application or loss or reduction in the scope of protection provided by such IPR.
Further, from time to time, we may receive letters from third parties alleging that we are infringing upon their IPR or inviting us to license their IPR. We could also be subject to claims based upon the content that is accessible from our website through links to other websites, or information on our website supplied by third parties or claims that our collection of information from third-party sites without consent violates certain federal or state laws or website terms of use. Successful infringement claims against us could result in significant monetary liability, prevent us from selling some of our products and services, or require us to change our branding. In addition, resolution of claims may require us to redesign our products, license rights from third parties at a significant expense, or cease using those rights altogether. As we face increasing competition and gain an increasingly high profile, the likelihood of intellectual property infringement claims against us has grown and will likely continue to grow. While it is our policy to protect and defend our IPR, we cannot predict whether steps taken by us to protect our intellectual property will be adequate to prevent infringement, misappropriation, dilution or other violations of our IPR. Additionally, we may in the future bring claims against third parties for infringing our IPR. Costs of supporting such litigation and disputes may be considerable, and there can be no assurances that a favorable outcome will be obtained. Intellectual property infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and other intellectual property claims and proceedings brought by or against us, whether successful or not, could require significant attention of our management and resources and have in the past and may in the future result in substantial costs, harm to our brand, and have an adverse effect on our business.
We use open source software in our services and will continue to use open source software in the future. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code,
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and such open source software may not be regularly maintained and updated in order to contain and patch possible security vulnerabilities. To the extent that our services depend upon the successful operation of open source software, any undetected errors or defects in this open source software could prevent the deployment or impair the functionality of our platform, delay new solutions introductions, result in a failure of our platform, and injure our reputation. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software we use, or grant other licenses to our intellectual property. If we combine our proprietary software with such open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release or license the source code of our proprietary software to the public. Although we monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our platform to conditions we do not intend, we cannot assure that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our platform will be effective.
We rely on products, technologies and intellectual property that we license from third parties for use in our services, and that may not be easily replaceable. We cannot assure that these third-party licenses, or support for such licensed products and technologies, will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. We also cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others or that our suppliers and licensors have sufficient rights to the technology in all jurisdictions in which we may operate. If we are unable to obtain or maintain rights to any of this technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our suppliers and licensors or against us, or if we are unable to continue to obtain the technology or enter into new agreements on commercially reasonable terms for use of such technology, our ability to develop and offer our products and services containing that technology could be severely limited and our business could be harmed. Additionally, if we are unable to obtain necessary technology from third parties, we may be forced to acquire or develop alternate technology, which may require significant time and effort and may be of lower quality or performance standards. This would limit and delay our ability to provide new or competitive offerings and increase our costs. If alternate technology cannot be obtained or developed, we may not be able to offer certain functionality as part of our offerings, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Adverse tax laws or regulations could be enacted or existing laws could be applied to us or our employers and job seekers, which could increase the costs of our services and adversely impact our business.
The application of federal, state, local and international tax laws to services provided electronically is evolving. New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time (possibly with retroactive effect), and could be applied solely or disproportionately to services provided over the internet. These enactments could adversely affect our sales activity due to the inherent cost increase the taxes would represent and ultimately result in a negative impact on our operating results and cash flows. For example, in July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, was enacted. The impact of the OBBBA on us will depend on many factors, including future regulatory and Internal Revenue Service guidance and other interpretations of the OBBBA. We will continue to analyze the effect of the OBBBA and such other guidance on our tax positions and to monitor developments.
In addition, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us (possibly with retroactive effect), which could require us or our employers and job seekers to pay additional tax amounts, as well as require us or our employers and job seekers to pay fines or penalties and interest for past amounts. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes from our employers and job seekers, we could be held liable for such costs, thereby adversely impacting our operating results and cash flows.
Furthermore, the Inflation Reduction Act imposes a 1% non-deductible excise tax on the fair market value of any stock repurchased by a publicly traded domestic corporation during any taxable year, with the fair market value of such repurchased stock reduced by the fair market value of certain stock issued
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by such corporation during such taxable year. As of 2023, this tax applies to our share repurchase program as described in the below risk factor titled “Our share repurchase program could affect the price of our Class A common stock and increase volatility and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of our Class A common stock.”
Other Risks Related to Our Business
Our business is subject to the risk of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, public health crises, including pandemics, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism.
Our business is vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, floods, power losses, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins, public health crises such as global pandemics, and similar events. Additionally, the third-party systems and operations, such as the data centers and online services we use in our company operations, are subject to similar risks. Our insurance policies may not cover losses from these events or may provide insufficient compensation that does not cover our total losses. To the extent a significant public health threat, or the related macroeconomic impacts, has an impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition, it is likely also to have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section. Such events have impacted, and could in the future impact, demand for products sold in our marketplace, which in turn could adversely affect our revenue and results of operations. In addition, acts of terrorism, which may be targeted at metropolitan areas that have higher population density than rural areas, could also cause disruptions in our business or the economy as a whole. Our corporate offices and our primary data center facilities are located in California, a state that frequently experiences earthquakes and wildfires, such as the wildfires which occurred in the Los Angeles area in January 2025. We may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans. As we rely heavily on our data center facilities, computer and communications systems, and the internet to conduct our business and provide high-quality user service, these disruptions could negatively impact our ability to run our business.
Our indebtedness could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.
We had $550.0 million of indebtedness (excluding intercompany indebtedness) and $287.7 million available under our credit facility as of December 31, 2025. Our indebtedness could have important consequences, including:
• making it more difficult for us to satisfy our debt obligations;
• limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements;
• requiring a portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments instead of other purposes, thereby reducing the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
• increasing our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions; and
• increasing our cost of borrowing.
In addition, the credit agreement that governs our credit facility and the indenture governing the $550.0 million aggregate principal amount of our senior unsecured notes that we issued in January 2022 contain restrictive covenants that limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our long-term best interest. Our failure to comply with those covenants could result in an event of default under the credit agreement that governs our credit facility or the indenture governing the senior unsecured notes which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of substantially all of our indebtedness.
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We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and results of operations, which in turn are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on, among other things, the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. The terms of existing or future debt instruments may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. In addition, any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit rating, which could harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In the absence of such cash flows and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations.
Further, the credit agreement governing our credit facility contains, and any future credit facility or other debt instrument may contain, provisions that will restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from any such disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
If we cannot make the scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and, as a result, the lenders under our credit facility and the holders of the senior unsecured notes could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders under our credit facility could terminate their commitments to loan money and foreclose against the assets securing the borrowings under such credit facility, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation, which could result in an adverse impact to your investment in our company.
Covenants in our debt agreements may restrict our operations, and if we do not effectively manage our business to comply with these covenants, our financial condition could be adversely impacted.
We entered into a Credit Agreement with the lenders named therein, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, in April 2021, which provides for a $290.0 million secured line of credit. We also entered into an indenture in January 2022, which governs the senior unsecured notes. The credit facility and the indenture that governs the senior unsecured notes contain various restrictive covenants, including, among other things, net leverage ratio requirements, and restrictions on our ability to dispose of assets, make acquisitions or investments, incur debt or liens, make distributions to our stockholders, or enter into certain types of related party transactions. These restrictions may restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to certain changes in our business or industry, or take future actions. Pursuant to the credit agreement, we granted the lenders thereto a security interest in substantially all of our assets. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Liquidity and Capital Resources” for additional information.
Our ability to meet these restrictive covenants can be impacted by events beyond our control and we may be unable to do so. Our credit agreement and the indenture governing the senior unsecured notes provide that our breach or failure to satisfy certain covenants constitute an event of default. Upon the
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occurrence of an event of default, the lender could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under its debt agreements to be immediately due and payable, and holders of the senior unsecured notes could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable. In addition, the lender would have the right to proceed against the assets we provided as collateral pursuant to the credit agreement. If the debt under our credit agreement or the senior unsecured notes were to be accelerated, we may not have sufficient cash on hand or be able to sell sufficient collateral to repay such debts, which would have an immediate adverse effect on our business, liquidity, and financial condition.
We may engage in merger and acquisition activities, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, consume resources that are necessary to sustain our business, and adversely affect our operating results.
As part of our business strategy, we may make investments in other companies, products, or technologies. For example, in July 2024, we acquired 100% of the outstanding share capital in Breakroom. Additionally, at any given time, we may be engaged in discussions or negotiations with respect to one or more of these types of transactions. Any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may result in unforeseen or additional operating difficulties, risks, and expenditures. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions in the future, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by employers and job seekers. In addition, if we cannot successfully integrate such acquisitions, including the Breakroom acquisition, or the assets, technologies or personnel associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may not be realized. Additionally, we may be exposed to unknown or additional risks and liabilities.
We may in the future seek to acquire or invest in additional businesses, products, technologies, or other assets. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses to expand our marketplace or our ability to provide our marketplace in foreign jurisdictions, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing, or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time consuming, difficult, and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if undertaken and announced, may not close. Acquisitions may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from their primary responsibilities, dilute our corporate culture, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses, and adversely impact our business, financial condition, operating results, and cash flows. We may not successfully evaluate or use the acquired technology and accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. We may have to pay cash, incur debt, or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition, each of which could affect our financial condition, result in dilution to our stockholders or increase our fixed obligations.
We may require additional capital to support business growth and objectives, and this capital might not be available to us on reasonable terms, if at all, and may result in stockholder dilution.
We expect that our existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for the foreseeable future. However, we intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional capital to fund our business and to respond to competitive challenges, including the need to promote and enhance our marketplace, develop new products and services, enhance our operating infrastructure, and potentially to acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. There can be no assurance that such additional funding will be available on terms attractive to us, or at all, especially during periods of negative economic conditions, which could make it more difficult or impossible for us to obtain funding to support business growth and our objectives, including making additional investments in our products and for repaying outstanding indebtedness. Our inability to obtain additional funding when needed could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of equity or convertible debt securities, holders of our Class A common stock could suffer significant dilution,
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and any new shares we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges superior to those of our Class A common stock. Additionally, a substantial number of shares of our common stock are available for future sale pursuant to stock options, restricted stock units, or RSUs, or issuance pursuant to our equity incentive plans and employee stock purchase plan. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions.
The requirements of being a public company, including maintaining adequate internal control over our financial and management systems, may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and qualified board members.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the rules subsequently implemented by the SEC, the rules and regulations of the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased our legal and financial compliance costs and strains our financial and management systems, internal controls, and employees.
The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. Moreover, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures, and internal control over financial reporting. We are required to make a formal assessment and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We have not identified any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting during 2025, 2024, and 2023. However, to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures, and internal control over financial reporting to meet the standards of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, additional and potentially significant resources and management oversight may be required.
Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our business or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on our stock price.
The rules and regulations applicable to public companies, and stockholder litigation brought against recently public companies, have made it more expensive for us to obtain and maintain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to incur substantially higher costs to obtain and maintain the same or similar coverage.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.
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If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity/deficit, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
Fluctuations in currency exchange rates could harm our operating results and financial condition.
Transactions generated in countries other than the United States as well as those incurred by our international subsidiaries are often denominated in the currencies of the local countries. As a result, our consolidated U.S. dollar financial statements are subject to fluctuations due to changes in exchange rates as the financial results of our international subsidiaries are translated from local currencies into U.S. dollars. Our financial results are also subject to changes in exchange rates that impact the settlement of transactions in non-local currencies. To date, we have not engaged in currency hedging activities to limit the risk of exchange fluctuations and, as a result, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected by such fluctuations.
Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
Market volatility may affect the value of an investment in our Class A common stock, could subject us to litigation and could adversely affect our ability to meet New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, listing requirements.
Technology stocks have historically experienced high levels of volatility. The price of our Class A common stock is volatile and also could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to the risk factors described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and others beyond our control, including:
• the number of shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock publicly owned and available for trading;
• actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition, operating results and other operating and non-GAAP metrics;
• our actual or anticipated operating performance and the operating performance of our competitors;
• changes in the projected operational and financial results we provide to the public or our failure to meet those projections;
• any major change in our board of directors, management, or key personnel;
• the impact of, including but not limited to, market volatility and macroeconomic conditions such as inflation and any recession;
• rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
• announcements by us or our competitors of significant innovations, new products, services, features, integrations or capabilities, acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
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• lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
• other events or factors, including those resulting from a pandemic, war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, or responses to these events; and
• sales or expected sales of our Class A common stock by us, and our officers, directors, and principal stockholders.
Furthermore, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies and financial services and technology companies in particular. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes, or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could harm our business.
Additionally, significant declines in our stock price could cause us to fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of the NYSE, such as the average closing price requirement, and in such case, the NYSE may take steps to delist our Class A common stock. In such event, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by us to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow our Class A common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our Class A common stock, prevent our Class A common stock from dropping below the NYSE average closing price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with the NYSE’s listing requirements.
The dual class structure of our common stock has resulted in concentration of voting control with our chief executive officer. This ownership will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters, including the election of directors and the approval of any change of control transaction.
Our Class B common stock has twenty votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of December 31, 2025, Ian Siegel, our chief executive officer and the sole holder of our outstanding Class B common stock, beneficially owned approximately 15.4% of our total outstanding common stock as a class and held approximately 78.5% of the voting power of our total outstanding common stock as a class. Because of the twenty-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the sole holder of our Class B common stock controls a substantial majority of the combined voting power of our common stock and therefore is able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval until the earliest of (1) the first business day falling on or after 180 days after the date on which Mr. Siegel beneficially owns less than 4,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, (2) the date which is (a) 90 days after the date of death or disability of Mr. Siegel or (b) such later date, not to exceed a total period of 180 days after the date of death or disability of Mr. Siegel, as may be approved prior to the date that is 90 days after the date of death or disability of Mr. Siegel by a majority of our independent directors then in office, and (3) the first business day falling on or after the date on which Mr. Siegel elects to convert all then-outstanding shares of Class B common stock into shares of Class A common stock. This concentrated control limits or precludes your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction requiring stockholder approval. In addition, this may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.
Future transfers by the holder of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain permitted transfers, including certain transfers to family members, trusts solely for the benefit of the stockholder or his family
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members, affiliates under common control with the stockholder, and partnerships, corporations, and other entities exclusively owned by the stockholder or his family members, in each case as fully described in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock has had the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of the holder of Class B common stock.
The dual class structure of our common stock may adversely affect the trading market for our Class A common stock.
Several stockholder advisory firms and large institutional investors oppose the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our common stock may cause stockholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure and may result in large institutional investors not purchasing shares of our Class A common stock. Any actions or publications by stockholder advisory firms or institutional investors critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could also adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock.
Our share repurchase program could affect the price of our Class A common stock and increase volatility and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of our Class A common stock.
As of December 31, 2025, the board of directors had authorized us to repurchase up to $750.0 million of our common stock through open market or privately negotiated transactions, block purchases, or pursuant to one or more Rule 10b5-1 plans, in compliance with applicable securities laws and other legal requirements. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors including price, market conditions, corporate and regulatory requirements, and other investment opportunities. Approximately $121.2 million remains available for future repurchases under our $750.0 million share repurchase program as of December 31, 2025.
Repurchases pursuant to our share repurchase program could affect the price of our Class A common stock and increase its volatility. The existence of our share repurchase program could also cause the price of our Class A common stock to be higher than it would be in the absence of such a program and could reduce the market liquidity for our Class A common stock. Additionally, repurchases under our share repurchase program will diminish our cash reserves, which could impact our ability to further develop our business and service our indebtedness. There can be no assurance that any repurchases will enhance stockholder value because the market price of our Class A common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased such shares. Any failure to repurchase shares after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our Class A common stock price. Although our share repurchase program is intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, short-term price fluctuations could reduce the program’s effectiveness.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, about our business or our future prospects, the price of our Class A common stock and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, our market, and our competitors. We do not have control over these securities analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Class A common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our Class A common stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or cannot publish reports on us regularly, demand for our Class A common stock could decrease, which might cause our Class A common stock price and trading volume to decline.
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We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Additionally, our ability to pay dividends on our common stock is limited by the restrictions under the terms of our credit agreement. We anticipate that for the foreseeable future we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a merger, acquisition, or other change of control of our company that the stockholders may consider favorable. In addition, because our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. Among other things, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:
• provide that our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms;
• permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;
• require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws, including provisions relating to the classified board, the size of the board, removal of directors, special meetings, actions by written consent, and designation of our preferred stock;
• authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;
• provide that only the chairman of our board of directors, our chief executive officer, our lead independent director, or a majority of our board of directors will be authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;
• eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;
• prohibit cumulative voting;
• provide that directors may only be removed “for cause” and only with the approval of two-thirds of our stockholders;
• provide for a dual class common stock structure in which holders of our Class B common stock may have the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets;
• prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
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• provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our bylaws; and
• establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.
Moreover, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporate Law, or DGCL, may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations, and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock. See the section titled “Description of Class A Common Stock” in Exhibit 4.6 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information. In addition, under the indenture governing the senior unsecured notes, if certain “change of control” events occur, each holder of the notes may require us to repurchase all of such holder’s notes at a purchase price equal to 101% of the principal amount of such notes. Additionally, our credit facility provides for an event of default upon the occurrence of certain specified “change of control” events.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and our amended and restated bylaws contain exclusive forum provisions for certain claims, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, to the fullest extent permitted by law, provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, or our amended and restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine.
Moreover, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder and our amended and restated bylaws provide that the U.S. federal district courts will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or a Federal Forum Provision. Our decision to adopt a Federal Forum Provision followed a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware holding that such provisions are facially valid under Delaware law. While there can be no assurance that federal or state courts will follow the holding of the Delaware Supreme Court or determine that the Federal Forum Provision should be enforced in a particular case, application of the Federal Forum Provision means that suits brought by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act must be brought in federal court and cannot be brought in state court. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder and neither the exclusive forum provision nor the Federal Forum Provision applies to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Accordingly, actions by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder must be brought in federal court. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in any of our securities will be deemed to have notice of and consented to our exclusive forum provisions, including the Federal Forum Provision. These provisions may limit our stockholders’ ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum they find favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, or amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an
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action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
