Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This annual report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of words such as “anticipates,” “estimates,” “expects,” “plans,” and “believes,” among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements relating to: our future business, financial condition, results of operations and financial performance, our business strategy, trends in the home services industry and other similar matters. These forward-looking statements are based on the expectations
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and assumptions of our management about future events as of the date of this annual report, which are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict.
Actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, including, among others, the risk factors set forth below. Other unknown or unpredictable factors that could also adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations may arise from time to time. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking statements discussed in this annual report may not prove to be accurate. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which only reflect the views of our management as of the date of this annual report. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements.
Risk Factors
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Our success will depend, in substantial part, on the continued migration of the home services market online.
We believe that the digital penetration of the home services market remains low, with the vast majority of consumers continuing to search for, select and hire service professionals offline. While many consumers have historically been (and remain) averse to finding service professionals online, others have demonstrated a greater willingness to embrace the online shift. Service professionals must also continue to embrace the online shift, which will depend, in substantial part, on whether online products and services help them to better connect and engage with consumers relative to traditional offline efforts. The speed and ultimate outcome of the shift of the home services market online for consumers and service professionals is uncertain and may not occur as quickly as we expect, or at all. The failure or delay of a meaningful number of consumers and/or service professionals to migrate online and/or the return of a meaningful number of existing participants in the online home services market to offline solutions, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Marketing efforts designed to drive traffic to our brands and businesses may not be successful or cost-effective.
Attracting consumers and service professionals to our brands and businesses involves considerable expenditures for online and offline marketing. We have made, and expect to continue to make, significant marketing expenditures for digital marketing (primarily paid search engine marketing, display advertising and third-party affiliate agreements) and traditional offline marketing (national television and radio campaigns). These efforts may not be successful or cost-effective. Historically, we have had to increase marketing expenditures over time to attract and retain consumers and service professionals and sustain our growth.
Our ability to market our brands on any given property or channel is subject to the policies of the relevant third-party seller, publisher of advertising (including search engines, web browsers and social media platforms with extraordinarily high levels of traffic and numbers of users) or marketing affiliate. As a result, we cannot assure you that these parties will not limit or prohibit us from purchasing certain types of advertising (including the purchase by Angi of advertising with preferential placement), advertising certain of our products and services and/or using one or more current or prospective marketing channels in the future. If a significant marketing channel took such an action generally, for a significant period of time and/or on a recurring basis, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, if we fail to comply with the policies of third-party sellers, publishers and/or marketing affiliates, our advertisements could be removed without notice and/or our accounts could be suspended or terminated, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, our failure to respond to rapid and frequent changes in the pricing and operating dynamics of search engines, as well as changing policies and guidelines applicable to keyword advertising (which may unilaterally be updated by search engines without advance notice), could adversely affect our paid search engine marketing efforts (and free search engine traffic). Such changes could adversely affect paid listings (both their placement and pricing), as well as the ranking of our brands and businesses within search results, any or all of which could increase our marketing expenditures (particularly if free traffic is replaced with paid traffic). Any or all of these events could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if there are changes in the usage and functioning of search engines and/or decreases in consumer use of search engines, for example, as a result of the continued development of artificial intelligence technology, this could negatively impact our ability to drive traffic to our platforms.
Evolving consumer behavior (specifically, increased consumption of media through digital means) can also affect the availability of profitable marketing opportunities. To continue to reach and engage consumers and service professionals and grow in this environment, we will need to continue to identify and devote more of our overall marketing expenditures to newer digital advertising channels (such as online video, social media, streaming, OTT and other digital platforms), as well as target consumers and service professionals via these channels in a cost-effective manner. As these channels continue to evolve relative to traditional channels (such as television), it could continue to be difficult to assess returns on related marketing investments, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Lastly, we also enter into various arrangements with third parties to drive visitors to Angi platforms. These arrangements are generally more cost-effective than traditional marketing efforts. If we are unable to renew existing (and enter into new) arrangements of this nature, sales and marketing costs as a percentage of revenue would increase over the long-term, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the quality and convertibility of traffic and leads generated through third-party arrangements are dependent on many factors, most of which are outside our control. If the quality and/or convertibility of traffic and leads do not meet the expectations of our users and/or Angi Leads service professionals, they could leave our network and/or decrease their budgets for consumer matches or participation in pre-priced booking services, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on Internet search engines to drive traffic to our various properties. Certain operators of search services offer products and services that compete directly with our products and services. If links to websites offering our products and services are not displayed prominently in search results, traffic to our properties could decline and our business could be adversely affected.
In addition to paid marketing, we rely heavily on Internet search engines, such as Google, to drive traffic to our properties through their unpaid search results. Although search results have allowed us to attract a large audience with low organic traffic acquisition costs in the past, if they fail to continue to drive sufficient traffic to our properties, we may need to increase our marketing spend to acquire additional traffic. We cannot assure you that the value we ultimately derive from any such additional traffic would exceed the cost of acquisition, and any increase in marketing expense may in turn harm our operating results.
The amount of traffic we attract from search engines is due in large part to how and where information about our brands (and links to websites offering our products and services) are displayed on search engine results pages. The display, including rankings, of unpaid search results can be affected by a number of factors, many of which are not in our direct control, and may change frequently. Search engines have made changes in the past to their ranking algorithms, methodologies and design layouts that have reduced the prominence of links to websites offering our products and services, and negatively impacted traffic to such websites, and we expect that search engines will continue to make such changes from time to time in the future. In addition, changes in the usage and functioning of search engines and/or decreases in consumer use of search engines, for example, as a result of the continued development of artificial intelligence technology, could negatively impact our ability to drive traffic to our properties.
However, we may not know how (or otherwise be in a position) to influence actions of this nature taken by search engines. With respect to search results in particular, even when search engines announce the details of their methodologies, their parameters may change from time to time, be poorly defined or be inconsistently interpreted.
In addition, in some instances, search engines may change their displays or rankings in order to promote their own competing products or services, or the products or services of one or more of our competitors. Any such action could negatively impact the search rankings of links to websites offering our products and services, or the prominence with which such links appear in search results. Our success depends on the ability of our products and services to maintain a prominent position in search results, and in the event operators of search engines promote their own competing products in the future in a manner that has the effect of reducing the prominence or ranking of our products and services, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The Angi brand integration initiative may continue to involve substantial costs, including as a result of a continued negative impact on our organic search placement.
In March 2021, we updated one of our leading websites and brands, Angie’s List, to Angi, and since then, have concentrated our marketing investment on the Angi brand in order to focus our marketing, sales and branding efforts on a single brand. To date, we have incurred (and we expect to continue to incur) substantial costs as a result of this brand integration initiative and the Angi brand may not be able to achieve or maintain brand name recognition or status that is comparable to the recognition and status previously enjoyed by Angie’s List.
We rely heavily on free (or organic) search results from search engine optimization and paid search engine marketing efforts to drive traffic to Angi platforms. The brand integration initiative initially adversely affected the placement and ranking of our websites, particularly Angi.com , in organic search results as Angi does not have the same domain history as Angie’s List. Organic search results have continued to decline year-over-year and remain below pre-March 2021 levels. In addition, the shift of marketing support to the Angi brand (away from the HomeAdvisor brand) continues to negatively affect (and we expect that it will continue to negatively affect) the efficiency of our search engine marketing efforts. The continuing occurrence of any or all of these events and trends could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends on our ability to expand our pre-priced offerings, while balancing the overall mix of our service requests and directory services on Angi platforms.
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Our Services business provides a pre-priced offering, pursuant to which consumers can request services through Services platforms and pay for such services on the applicable platform directly. These service requests are then fulfilled by independently established home services providers engaged in a trade, occupation and/or business that customarily provide such services. Increases in pre-priced offerings (which we expect to be the case over time) could reduce the levels of service professional participation in our Ads and Leads offerings, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, in substantial part, on our ability to establish and maintain relationships with quality and trustworthy service professionals.
We must continue to attract, retain and grow the number of skilled and reliable service professionals who can provide services across our platforms. If we do not offer innovative products and services that resonate with consumers and service professionals generally, as well as provide service professionals with an attractive return on their marketing and advertising investments, the number of service professionals affiliated with our platforms would decrease. Any such decrease would result in smaller and less diverse networks and directories of service professionals, and in turn, decreases in service requests, pre-priced offerings and directory searches, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition to skill and reliability, consumers want to work with service professionals whom they can trust to work in their homes and with whom they can feel safe. While we maintain screening processes (which generally include certain, limited background checks) to try and prevent unsuitable service professionals from joining our platforms, these processes have limitations and, even with these safety measures, no assurances can be provided regarding the future behavior of any service provider on our platforms. Inappropriate and/or unlawful behavior of service professionals generally (particularly any such behavior that compromises the trustworthiness of service providers and/or of the safety of consumers), could result in decreases in service requests, bad publicity and related damage to our reputation, brands and brand-building efforts and/or actions by governmental and regulatory authorities, criminal proceedings and/or litigation. The occurrence or any of these events could, in turn, adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to develop and monetize versions of our products and services for mobile and other digital devices.
As consumers increasingly access our products and services through mobile and other digital devices (including through digital voice assistants), we will need to continue to devote significant time and resources to ensure that our products and services are accessible across these platforms (and multiple platforms generally). If we do not keep pace with evolving online, market and industry trends including the introduction of new and enhanced digital devices and changes in the preferences and needs of consumers and service professionals generally, offer new and/or enhanced products and services in response to such trends that resonate with consumers and service professionals, monetize products and services for mobile and other digital devices as effectively as our traditional products and services and/or maintain related systems, technology and infrastructure in an efficient and cost-effective manner, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
In addition, the success of our mobile and other digital products and services depends on their interoperability with various third-party operating systems, technology, infrastructure and standards, over which we have no control. Any changes to any of these things that compromise the quality or functionality of our mobile and other digital products and services could adversely affect their usage levels and/or our ability to attract consumers and service professionals, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to access, collect and use personal data about consumers.
We depend on search engines, digital app stores and social media platforms, in particular, those operated by Google, Apple and Facebook, to market, distribute and monetize our products and services. Consumers engage with these platforms directly, and as a result, these platforms generally receive personal data about consumers that we would otherwise receive if we transacted with them directly. Certain of these platforms have restricted (and continue to restrict) our access to personal data about users of our products and services obtained through their platforms. In addition, the privacy and data collection policies of certain platforms require users to opt-in to sharing their devices’ unique identifiers with our businesses, which allow them to recognize a given device and track related activity across applications and websites, primarily for marketing purposes. If these platforms continue to limit, eliminate or otherwise interfere with our ability to access, collect and use personal data about users of our products and services, our ability to identify, communicate with, and market to a meaningful portion of our user base may be adversely impacted. If so, our customer relationship management efforts, our ability to identify, target and reach new segments of our user base and the population generally, and the efficiency of our paid marketing efforts could be adversely affected. We cannot assure you that search engines, digital app stores and social media platforms upon which we rely will not continue to limit, eliminate or otherwise interfere with our ability to access, collect and use personal data about users of our products and services. To the extent that any or all of them do so, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
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Our ability to communicate with consumers and service professionals via e-mail (or other sufficient means) is critical to our success.
Historically, one of our primary means of communicating with consumers and service professionals and keeping them engaged with our products and services has been via e-mail communication. Through e-mail, we provide consumers and service professionals with service request and pre-priced offering updates, as well as present or suggest new products and services (among other things) and market our products and services in a cost-effective manner. As consumers increasingly communicate via mobile and other digital devices and messaging and social media apps, usage of e-mail (particularly among younger consumers) has declined and we expect this trend to continue. In addition, deliverability and other restrictions could limit or prevent our ability to send e-mails to consumers and service professionals. A continued and significant erosion in our ability to communicate with consumers and service professionals via e-mail could adversely impact the overall user experience, consumer and service professional engagement levels and conversion rates, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot assure you that any alternative means of communication (for example, push notifications and text messaging) will be as effective as e-mail has been historically.
There may be adverse tax, legal and other consequences if the contractor classification or employment status of the service professionals who use our platform is challenged.
We are particularly sensitive to the adoption of worker classification laws, specifically, laws that could effectively require us to change our classification of certain of our service professionals from independent contractors to employees, as well as changes to state and local laws or judicial decisions related to the definition and/or classification of independent contractors. For example, in 2019, California passed a worker classification statute (AB 5), which effectively narrowed the definition of an independent contractor, using a strict test to determine a given worker’s classification and placing the burden of proof for meeting that test on the hiring entity. AB5 also provided enforcement powers to the state and certain cities, leading the state and certain cities to initiate litigation to enforce the new law, particularly against app-based platform companies. AB 5 has been the subject of widespread national discussion, leading other jurisdictions (including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, among others) to bring enforcement action against alleged independent contractor misclassification and/or to propose legislation adopting a legal test similar to the one set forth in AB 5. At the same time, there has been a trend of the Internal Revenue Service entering into work and information sharing agreements with the U.S. Department of Labor and state taxing authorities to address worker classification issues. Since we currently treat service professionals who provide services through our business as independent contractors for all purposes, we do not withhold federal, state and local income or other employment related taxes, make federal or state unemployment tax or Federal Insurance Contributions Act payments or provide workers’ compensation insurance with respect to these individuals. If we are required to reclassify these individuals as employees and/or their classification is challenged for any reason, we could be exposed to various liabilities and additional costs for prior and future periods, including under federal, state and local tax laws, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits, minimum and overtime wage laws, and other labor and employment laws, as well as potential liability for penalties and interest. If the amounts related to such liabilities and additional costs are significant, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. As of the date of this report, we are involved in certain legal proceedings and investigations challenging the classification of these individuals as independent contractors, none of which we believe could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and may become involved in other proceedings and investigations of this nature in the future.
General Risk Factors
Our brands and businesses operate in an especially competitive and evolving industry.
The home services industry is competitive, with a consistent and growing stream of new products, services and entrants. Some of our competitors may enjoy better competitive positions in certain geographical areas, with certain consumer and service professional demographics and/or in other key areas that we currently serve or may serve in the future. Generally, we compete with search engines, online marketplaces and social media platforms that can market their products and services online in a more prominent and cost-effective manner than we can, as well as better tailor their products and services to individual users. Any of these advantages could enable these competitors to offer products and services that are more appealing to consumers and service professionals than our products and services, respond more quickly and/or cost effectively than we do to evolving market opportunities and trends, and/or display their own integrated or related home services products and services in search results and elsewhere in a more prominent manner than our products and services, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, since most of our home services products and services are offered to consumers for free, consumers can easily switch among home services offerings (or use multiple home services offerings simultaneously) at no cost to them. And while service professionals may incur additional or duplicative near-term costs, the costs for switching to a competing platform over the long term are generally not prohibitive. Low switching costs, coupled with the propensity of consumers to try new products and services generally, will most likely result in the continued emergence of new products and services, entrants and business
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models in the home services industry. Our inability to continue to innovate and compete effectively against new products, services and competitors could result in decreases in the size and level of engagement of our consumer and service professional bases, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our brands and businesses are sensitive to general economic events and trends, particularly those that adversely impact consumer confidence and spending behavior.
We have historically been, and will continue to be, particularly sensitive to events and trends that result in consumers delaying or foregoing home services projects and/or service professionals being less likely to pay for consumer matches and subscriptions. Such factors include general economic conditions and other factors, such as consumer confidence in future economic conditions, recessionary concerns, rising interest rates, increased inflation, the availability and cost of consumer credit, levels of unemployment and tax rates. As global economic conditions continue to be volatile and/or economic uncertainty remains, particularly in light of increasing inflation and interest rates, trends affecting our business also remain unpredictable. Any such event or trend could result in decreases in service requests, pre-priced bookings and directory searches. Any such decreases could adversely impact the number and quality of service professionals and/or adversely impact the reach of (and breath of services offered through) the Leads and Services and our directories, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Lastly, we have historically been, and will continue to be, sensitive to events and trends that could result in decreased marketing and advertising expenditures by service professionals. Adverse economic conditions and trends could result in service professionals decreasing and/or delaying fees paid for consumer matches, pre-priced bookings, membership subscriptions and/or time-based advertising spend, any or all of which would result in decreased revenue and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, in substantial part, on our ability to maintain and/or enhance our brands, which could be negatively impacted by various factors.
We own and operate two of the leading home services brands in the United States (Angi and HomeAdvisor), as well as leading brands in several foreign jurisdictions. In March 2021, we updated one of our leading websites and brands, Angie’s List, to Angi, and concentrated our marketing investment in the Angi brand in order to focus our marketing, sales, and branding efforts on a single brand.
We believe that our success depends, in substantial part, on our continued ability to build awareness and loyalty to our Angi brand, maintain and enhance our established brands, as well as build awareness of (and loyalty to) our newer brands. Events that could negatively impact our brands and brand-building efforts include (among others): product and service quality concerns; service professional quality concerns; consumer and service professional complaints and lawsuits; lack of awareness of our policies or confusion about how the policies are applied; a failure to respond to feedback from our service professionals and consumers; ineffective advertising; inappropriate and/or unlawful acts perpetrated by service professionals and consumers; actions or proceedings commenced by governmental or regulatory authorities; and inadequate data protection and security breaches including related bad publicity. Any factors that negatively impact the Angi and/or HomeAdvisor brand(s) could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, trust in the integrity and objective, unbiased nature of the ratings and reviews found across our various brands contributes significantly to public perception of these brands and their ability to attract consumers and service professionals. If consumer reviews are perceived as not authentic in general, the reputation and strength of the relevant brand could be materially and adversely affected. While we use, and will continue to use, filters (among other processes) to detect fraudulent reviews, the accuracy of consumer reviews cannot be guaranteed. If fraudulent or inaccurate reviews (positive or negative) increase and we are unable to effectively identify and remove such reviews, the overall quality of the ratings and reviews across our various brands could decrease and the reputation of affected brands might be harmed. This could deter consumers and service professionals from using our products and services, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
COVID-19 and other similar outbreaks could continue to adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The impact on the Company from the coronavirus ("COVID-19") and the measures designed to contain its spread continues to impact the comparability of the Company's year-over-year financial performance. As previously disclosed, the impact of COVID-19 in 2020 on our businesses initially resulted in a decline in demand for service requests, driven primarily by decreases in demand in certain categories of jobs (particularly discretionary indoor projects). While these businesses experienced a rebound in service requests from mid-2020 through early 2021, service requests did start to decline in May 2021 and continued to decline during 2022 due, in part, to COVID-19 measures that were more widely in place in prior periods. While our ability to monetize service requests rebounded modestly in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, that improved monetization rate trend plateaued in the third quarter of 2022 and is now in line with monetization rates experienced
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pre-COVID-19. No assurances can be provided that we will be able to increase service requests and continue to improve monetization rates, or that service professionals' businesses (and related revenue and profitability) will not be adversely impacted in the future.
Any future outbreak of a widespread health epidemic or pandemic (or the continuing outbreak of COVID-19) and measures designed to contain its spread could adversely impact our ability to conduct ordinary course business activities and employee productivity and increase operating costs. Moreover, we may also experience business disruption if the ordinary course operations of our contractors, vendors and/or business partners are adversely affected. Any of these measures could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The extent to which developments related to any future widespread health epidemic or pandemic (or the continuing COVID-19 pandemic) and measures designed to curb its spread could impact (or continue to impact) the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations will depend on future developments, all of which are highly uncertain and many of which are beyond our control.
We may not be able to protect our systems, technology and infrastructure from cyberattacks and cyberattacks experienced by third parties may adversely affect us.
We are regularly under attack by perpetrators of malicious technology-related events, such as the use of botnets, malware or other destructive or disruptive software, distributed denial of service attacks, phishing, attempts to misappropriate user information and account login credentials and other similar malicious activities. The incidence of events of this nature (or any combination thereof) is on the rise worldwide. We continuously develop and maintain systems designed to detect and prevent events of this nature from impacting our systems, technology, infrastructure, products, services and users. We have invested (and continue to invest) heavily in these efforts and related personnel and training and deploy data minimization strategies (where appropriate), but these efforts are costly and require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome preventative security measures become more sophisticated. Despite these efforts, some of our systems have experienced past security incidents, none of which had a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and we could experience significant events of this nature in the future.
Any event of this nature that we experience could damage our systems, technology and infrastructure and/or those of our users, prevent us from providing our products and services, compromise the integrity of our products and services, damage our reputation, erode our brands and/or be costly to remedy, as well as subject us to investigations by regulatory authorities, fines and/or litigation that could result in liability to third parties. Even if we do not experience such events firsthand, the impact of any such events experienced by third parties could have a similar effect. We may not have adequate insurance coverage to compensate for losses resulting from any of these events. If we (or any third-party with whom we do business or otherwise rely upon) experience(s) an event of this nature, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If personal, confidential or sensitive user information that we maintain and store is breached or otherwise accessed by unauthorized persons, it may be costly to mitigate and our reputation could be harmed.
We receive, process, store and transmit a significant amount of personal, confidential or sensitive user information and, in certain cases, enable users to share their personal information with each other. We cannot guarantee that inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure will not occur or that third parties will not gain unauthorized access to this information. When such events occur, we may not be able to remedy them, we may be required by law to notify regulators and impacted individuals, and it may be costly to mitigate the impact of such events and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. When breaches of security (ours or that of any third-party we engage to store information) occur, we could face governmental enforcement actions, significant fines, litigation (including consumer class actions) and the reputation of our brands and business could be harmed, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if any of the search engines, digital app stores or social media platforms through which we market, distribute and monetize our products and services were to experience a breach, third parties could gain unauthorized access to personal data about our users and subscribers, which could harm the reputation of our brands and businesses and in turn, adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal data could give rise to liabilities and increased costs.
We receive, transmit and store a large volume of personal information in connection with the provision of our products and services. The manner in which we share, store, use, disclose and protect this information is determined by the respective privacy and data security policies of our various businesses, as well as federal, state and foreign laws and regulations and evolving industry standards and practices, which are changing, and in some cases, inconsistent and conflicting and subject to differing interpretations. In addition, new laws, regulations, standards and practices of this nature are proposed and adopted from time to time.
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For example, several U.S. territories and all 50 states now have data breach laws that require timely notification to individuals, and at times regulators, the media or credit reporting agencies, if a company has experienced the unauthorized access or acquisition of personal information. Other state laws contain additional disclosure obligations for businesses that collect personal information about residents and afford those individuals additional rights relating to their personal information that may affect our ability to use personal information or share it with our business partners. For example, California’s Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) amended certain provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act which provides California residents with certain privacy rights in connection with the collection and disclosure of their personal information and requires businesses to make certain disclosures and take certain other acts in furtherance of those rights. The CPRA becomes fully enforceable on July 1, 2023 and will further restrict our ability to use personal California user and subscriber information in connection with our various products, services and operations and/or impose additional operational requirements, which could result in increased costs. Other U.S. states, such as Virginia, Utah, Connecticut, and Colorado, have passed consumer privacy laws that become effective later in 2023 and 2024. We will continue to monitor and assess the impact of these state laws, which may impose substantial penalties for violations, impose significant costs for investigations and compliance, allow private class-action litigation and carry significant potential liability for our business. Lastly, the Federal Trade Commission has also increased its focus on privacy and data security practices, and we anticipate this focus to continue.
Outside of the U.S., data protection laws also apply to some of our operations. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) in the United Kingdom and the European Union imposes, among other things, strict obligations and restrictions on the collection and use of U.K. and European Union personal data, a requirement for prompt notice of data breaches in certain circumstances, a requirement for implementation of certain approved safeguards for transfers of personal data to third countries, and possible substantial fines for any violations. Governmental authorities around the world have enacted similar types of legislative and regulatory requirements concerning data protection, and additional governments are considering similar legal frameworks.
We could be subject to claims of non-compliance with applicable privacy and data protection policies, laws and regulations and industry standards and practices that we may not be able to successfully defend and/or significant fines and penalties. Moreover, any non-compliance or perceived non-compliance by us (or any third-party we engage to store or process information) or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access to (or use or transmission of) personal information could result in a variety of claims against us, including governmental enforcement actions, significant fines, litigation (including consumer class actions), claims of breach of contract and indemnity by third parties and adverse publicity. When such events occur, our reputation could be harmed and the competitive positions of our various brands and businesses could be diminished, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, to the extent multiple U.S. state-level (or European Union member-state level) laws are introduced with inconsistent or conflicting standards and there is no federal or European Union regulation to preempt such laws, compliance could be even more difficult to achieve and our potential exposure to the risks discussed above could increase.
Lastly, ongoing compliance with existing (and compliance with future) privacy and data protection laws worldwide could be costly. The devotion of significant costs to compliance (versus the development of products and services) could result in delays in the development of new products and services, us ceasing to provide problematic products and services in existing jurisdictions and us being prevented from introducing products and services in new and existing jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Credit card data security breaches or fraud could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We accept payments (including recurring payments) from service professionals and consumers, primarily through credit and debit card transactions. The ability to access payment information on a real-time basis without having to proactively reach out to service professionals and consumers to process payments is critical to our success.
When third parties (including credit card processing companies, as well as any business that offers products and services online or offline) experience a data security breach involving credit card information, affected cardholders will often cancel their credit cards. The more sizable a given affected third-party’s customer base, the greater the number of accounts impacted and the more likely it will be that our service professionals and consumers would be impacted by such a breach. If such a breach were to impact our service professionals and consumers, we would need to contact affected service professionals and consumers to obtain new payment information. It is likely that we would not be able to reach all affected service professionals and consumers, and even if we could, new payment information for some may not be obtained and pending payments may not be processed, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Even if our service professionals and consumers are not directly impacted by a given data security breach, they may lose confidence in the ability of providers of online products and services to protect their personal information generally. As a result, they may stop using their credit cards online and choose alternative payment methods that are not as convenient for us or
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restrict our ability to process payments without significant effort, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, in part, on the integrity, quality, efficiency and scalability of our systems, technology and infrastructure, and those of third parties.
We rely on our systems, technology and infrastructure to perform well on a consistent basis. From time to time in the past we have experienced (and in the future we may experience) occasional interruptions that make some or all of this framework and related information unavailable or that prevent us from providing products and services; any such interruption could arise for any number of reasons. We also rely on third-party data center service providers and cloud-based, hosted web service providers, as well as third-party computer systems and a variety of communications systems and service providers in connection with the provision of our products and services generally, as well as to facilitate and process certain payment and other transactions with users. We have no control over any of these third parties or their operations.
The framework described above could be damaged or interrupted at any time due to fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, acts of God and other similar events or disruptions. Any event of this nature could prevent us from providing our products and services at all (or result in the provision of our products and services on a delayed or intermittent basis) and/or result in the loss of critical data. While we and the third parties upon whom we rely have certain backup systems in place for certain aspects of our respective frameworks, none of our frameworks are fully redundant and disaster recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, we may not have adequate insurance coverage to compensate us for losses from a major interruption. When such damages, interruptions or outages occur, our reputation could be harmed and the competitive positions of our various brands and businesses could be diminished, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We also continually work to expand and enhance the efficiency and scalability of our framework to improve the consumer and service professional experience, accommodate substantial increases in the number of visitors to our various platforms, ensure acceptable load times for our various products and services, and keep up with changes in technology and user preferences. If we do not do so in a timely and cost-effective manner, the user experience and demand across our brands and businesses could be adversely affected, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on our key personnel.
Our future success depends upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled, diverse and talented individuals, particularly in the case of senior leadership. Competition for well-qualified employees across our various businesses has been (and is expected to continue to be) intense, particularly in the case of senior leadership, technology and product development roles, and we must continue to attract new (and retain existing) employees to compete effectively. While we have established programs to attract new (and retain existing) key and other employees, we may not be able to do so in the future. If we fail to retain key and other employees, this could result in the loss of institutional knowledge and the disruption of our day-to-day operations, which could adversely impact the effectiveness of our internal control framework and our ability (and the ability of our various businesses) to successfully execute long term strategic initiatives and other goals. If we do not ensure the effective transfer of knowledge to successors and smooth transitions (particularly in the case of senior leadership) by way of tailored succession plans across Angi and our various businesses, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Relationship with IAC
IAC controls our company and will have the ability to control the direction of our business.
As of December 31, 2022, IAC owned all of our outstanding shares of Class B common stock, and 2,588,180 outstanding shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, in total representing approximately 84.1% of our total outstanding shares of capital stock and approximately 98.1% of the total combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock. For so long as IAC owns shares of our capital stock that represent a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, it will be able to control any corporate action that requires a stockholder vote, regardless of the vote of any other stockholder (subject to certain limited exceptions for certain class votes). As a result, IAC has (and we expect will continue to have) the ability to control significant corporate activities, including:
• the election of our board of directors (subject to certain provisions of the investor rights agreement between us and IAC) and, through our board of directors, decision-making with respect to our business direction and policies, including the appointment and removal of our officers;
• acquisitions or dispositions of businesses or assets, mergers or other business combinations;
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• issuances of shares of our Class A common stock, Class B common stock and Class C common stock and our capital structure generally;
• corporate opportunities that may be suitable for us and IAC, subject to the corporate opportunity provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (as described below);
• our financing activities, including the issuance of debt securities and/or the incurrence of other indebtedness generally;
• stock repurchases or the payment of one-time or recurring dividends; and
• the number of shares available for issuance under our equity incentive plans.
This voting control will limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that stockholders other than IAC do not view as beneficial. This voting control may also discourage transactions involving a change of control of our company, including transactions in which holders of shares of our Class A common stock might otherwise receive a premium for their shares.
Even if IAC owns shares of our capital stock representing less than a majority of the total combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, so long as IAC owns shares representing a significant percentage of our total combined voting power, IAC will have the ability to substantially influence these significant corporate activities.
In addition, pursuant to the investor rights agreement between us and IAC, IAC has the right to maintain its level of ownership in us to the extent we issue additional shares of our capital stock in the future and, pursuant to the employee matters agreement between us and IAC, IAC may receive payment for certain compensation expenses through the receipt of additional shares of our capital stock. For a more complete summary of our various agreements with IAC, see “ Note 14-Related Party Transactions with IAC ” to the consolidated financial statements included in “ Item 8-Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. ”
Until such time as IAC no longer controls or has the ability to substantially influence us, we will continue to face the risks described in this “Risk Factors” section relating to IAC’s control of us and the potential conflicts of interest between us and IAC.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation could prevent us from benefiting from certain corporate opportunities.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation has a “corporate opportunity” provision that requires us to renounce any interests or expectancy in corporate opportunities for both us and IAC. This provision also includes a disclaimer that states that we recognize that: (i) any of our directors or officers who are also officers, directors, employees or other affiliates of IAC or its affiliates (except that we and our subsidiaries are not considered affiliates of IAC or its affiliates for purposes of this provision) and (ii) IAC itself, will have no duty to offer or communicate information regarding such corporate opportunities to us. Generally, neither IAC nor any of our officers or directors who are also officers or directors of IAC or its affiliates will be liable to us or any of our stockholders for breach of any fiduciary duty by reason of the fact that any such person pursues or acquires any corporate opportunity for the account of IAC or any of its affiliates, directs or transfers such corporate opportunity to IAC or any of its affiliates or does not communicate information regarding such corporate opportunity to us. This corporate opportunity provision may exacerbate conflicts of interest between us and IAC because the provision effectively permits any of our directors or officers who also serves as a director or officer of IAC to choose to direct a corporate opportunity to IAC instead of us.
IAC’s interests may conflict with our interests and the interests of our other stockholders. Conflicts of interest between us and IAC could be resolved in a manner unfavorable to us and our other stockholders.
Various conflicts of interest between us and IAC could arise. As of the date of this report, six of our eleven directors are nominated by IAC and four of our eleven directors are current directors or executive officers of IAC. Ownership interests of these individuals and IAC in our capital stock and ownership interests of our directors and officers in IAC capital stock, or service by an individual as either a director and/or officer of both companies, could create or appear to create potential conflicts of interest when such individuals are faced with decisions relating to us. These decisions could include:
• corporate opportunities;
• the impact that operating or capital decisions (including the incurrence of indebtedness) relating to our business may have on IAC's consolidated financial statements and/or current or future indebtedness (including related covenants);
• business combinations involving us;
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• our dividend and stock repurchase policies;
• management stock ownership; and
• the intercompany agreements and services between us and IAC.
Potential conflicts of interest could also arise if we decide to enter into new commercial arrangements with IAC in the future or in connection with IAC’s desire to enter into new commercial arrangements with third parties. Additionally, IAC may be constrained by the terms of agreements relating to its indebtedness from taking actions, or permitting us to take actions, that may be in our best interest.
Furthermore, disputes may arise between us and IAC relating to our past and ongoing relationships, and these potential conflicts of interest may make it more difficult for us to favorably resolve such disputes, including those related to: tax, employee benefit, indemnification and other matters arising from the Combination; the nature, quality and pricing of services IAC agrees to provide to us; sales or other disposals by IAC of all or a portion of its ownership interest in us; and business combinations involving us.
We may not be able to resolve any potential conflicts, and even if we do, the resolution may be less favorable to us than if we were dealing with an unaffiliated third-party. While we are controlled by IAC, we may not have the leverage to negotiate amendments to our various agreements with IAC (if required) on terms as favorable to us as those we would negotiate with an unaffiliated third-party.
We rely on exemptions from certain Nasdaq corporate governance requirements that provide protection to stockholders of other companies.
Because IAC owns more than 50% of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, we are a “controlled company” under the Marketplace Rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (the “Marketplace Rules”). As a “controlled company,” we are exempt from compliance with certain Marketplace Rules related to corporate governance, including that a majority of our board of directors consists of “independent directors” (as defined in the Marketplace Rules) and that we have a nominating/governance committee composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities.
Accordingly, for so long as we are a “controlled company” and avail ourselves of these exemptions, our stockholders will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the Marketplace Rules.
IAC’s desire to maintain flexibility with respect to its ability to distribute the shares of our capital stock it holds on a tax-free basis to its stockholders, and its desire to preserve the ability to maintain tax consolidation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, may prevent us from pursuing opportunities to raise capital, acquire other businesses or provide equity incentives to our employees, or otherwise impact our ability to manage our capital structure.
Under current laws, IAC must retain beneficial ownership of at least 80% of our combined voting power and 80% of each class of our non-voting capital stock (if any is outstanding) in order to effect a tax-free distribution of our shares held by IAC to its stockholders. IAC has advised us that it does not have any present intention or plans to undertake such a tax-free distribution. However, IAC does currently intend to use its majority voting interest to retain its ability to engage in such a transaction. In addition, IAC must maintain ownership of at least 80% of our outstanding capital stock in order to maintain tax consolidation with us for U.S. federal income tax purposes. IAC has advised us that it currently intends to take such actions, or cause the Company to take such actions, as may be necessary in order to preserve tax consolidation. Each of these intentions may cause IAC not to support transactions that we wish to pursue that involve issuing shares of our capital stock, including for capital-raising purposes, as consideration for an acquisition or as equity incentives to our employees, or otherwise impact our overall capital management strategy. Our inability to pursue such transactions, or any reduced flexibility in the management of our capital structure, may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our agreements with IAC will require us to indemnify IAC for certain tax liabilities and may limit our ability to engage in desirable strategic or capital-raising transactions.
Pursuant to our tax sharing agreement with IAC, we generally will be responsible and will be required to indemnify IAC for: (i) all taxes imposed with respect to any consolidated, combined or unitary tax return of IAC or its subsidiaries that includes us or any of our subsidiaries to the extent attributable to us or any of our subsidiaries (excluding certain taxes attributable to Angi and its subsidiaries for taxable periods (or portions thereof) ending on or before the completion of the Combination), as determined under the tax sharing agreement, and (ii) all taxes imposed with respect to any consolidated, combined, unitary or separate tax returns of ours or any of our subsidiaries. To the extent IAC fails to pay taxes imposed with respect to any consolidated, combined or unitary tax return of IAC or one of its subsidiaries that includes us or any of our subsidiaries, the
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relevant taxing authority could seek to collect such taxes (including taxes for which IAC is responsible under the tax sharing agreement) from us or our subsidiaries.
IAC does not have a present plan or intention to undertake a tax-free spin-off of its interest in us. Under the tax sharing agreement, we generally will be responsible for any taxes and related amounts imposed on IAC or us (or our respective subsidiaries) that arise from the failure of a future spin-off of IAC’s retained interest in us to qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Section 368(a)(1)(D) and/or Section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), to the extent that the failure to so qualify is attributable to: (i) a breach of the relevant representations and covenants made by us in the tax sharing agreement (or any representation letter provided in support of any tax opinion or ruling obtained by IAC with respect to the U.S. federal income tax treatment of such spin-off), (ii) an acquisition of our equity securities or assets or (iii) any other action or inaction by us after any such spin-off.
To preserve the tax-free treatment of any potential future spin-off by IAC of its interest in us, the tax sharing agreement restricts us and our subsidiaries, for the two-year period following any such spin-off (except in specific circumstances), from: (i) entering into any transaction pursuant to which shares of our capital stock would be acquired above a certain threshold, (ii) merging, consolidating or liquidating, (iii) selling or transferring assets above certain thresholds, (iv) redeeming or repurchasing stock (with certain exceptions), (v) altering the voting rights of our capital stock, (vi) actions and inactions that are inconsistent with representations or covenants in any tax opinion or private letter ruling document or (vii) ceasing to engage in any active trade or business as defined in the Code. The indemnity obligations and other limitations under the tax sharing agreement could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Future sales or distributions of shares of our capital stock by IAC could depress the price of our Class A common stock.
IAC has the right to sell or distribute to its stockholders all or a portion of the shares of our capital stock that it holds. Although as of the date of this report IAC has advised us that it does not have any present intention or plans to undertake such a sale or distribution, sales by IAC in the public market or distributions to its stockholders of substantial amounts of our capital stock (shares of Class B common stock or Class A common stock) could depress the price of our Class A common stock. In addition, IAC has the right, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering the sale of the shares of our capital stock it holds or to include such shares in other registration statements that we may file. If IAC exercises these registration rights and sells all or a portion of the shares of our capital stock it holds, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.
The services that IAC provides to us may not be sufficient to meet our needs.
We expect IAC to continue to provide us with corporate and shared services related to corporate functions, such as executive oversight, risk management, information technology, accounting, audit, legal, investor relations, tax, treasury and other services in exchange for the fees specified in the services agreement between us and IAC. Since the services agreement automatically renews for one (1) year periods for as long as IAC holds a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock, we may not be able to modify these services in a manner desirable to us as a standalone public company. Although we intend to replace portions of the services currently provided by IAC, we may not be able to perform these services ourselves and/or find appropriate third parties to do so at a reasonable cost (or at costs at or below those charged by IAC), which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness.
Our ability to satisfy our debt obligations will depend upon, among other things, our future financial and operating performance, which will be affected by prevailing economic conditions and financial, business, regulatory and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flow from our operations to meet our scheduled debt obligations. If so, we could be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets or seek additional capital in a manner that complies with the terms (including certain restrictions and limitations) of our current indebtedness. If these efforts do not generate sufficient funds to meet our scheduled debt obligations, we would need to seek additional financing and/or negotiate with our bondholders to restructure or refinance our indebtedness. Our ability to do so would depend on the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any such financing, restructuring or refinancing could be on less favorable terms than those governing our current indebtedness and would need to comply with the terms (including certain restrictions and limitations) of our existing indebtedness.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The multiclass structure of our capital stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with IAC and limiting the ability of holders of our Class A common stock to influence corporate matters.
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Each share of our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and each share of our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of December 31, 2022, IAC owned all of our outstanding shares of Class B common stock, and 2,588,180 outstanding shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, in total representing approximately 84.1% of our total outstanding shares of capital stock and approximately 98.1% of the total combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Due to the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, IAC (and any future holders of our Class B common stock, collectively) will continue to control a substantial majority of the combined voting power of our capital stock. This concentrated control will significantly limit the ability of holders of our Class A common stock to influence matters submitted to our stockholders for approval.
The difference in the voting rights of our Class B common stock and Class A common stock may harm the value and liquidity of our Class A common stock.
This difference in voting rights between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock could harm the value of our Class A common stock to the extent that any investor or potential future purchaser of our Class A common stock ascribes value to the right of the holders of our Class B common stock to ten votes per share. The existence of two classes of common stock with different voting rights could result in less liquidity for our Class A common stock than if there were only one class of common stock, which could adversely affect the price of our Class A common stock.
The Delaware General Corporation Law and certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company and/or changes in our management.
The Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our Company and/or changes in our management that our stockholders may deem advantageous, including provisions that: (i) authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock, which our board of directors could issue to discourage a takeover attempt; (ii) limit the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders; and (iii) provide that our board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws.
Any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a related premium for their Class A common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
The choice of forum provision in our amended and restated bylaws could limit the ability of our stockholders to obtain the judicial forum of their choice for certain disputes.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, a state court within the State of Delaware (or, if no state court located within Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) will be the sole and exclusive forum for all of the following actions: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim for (or based on breach of) fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or to our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us or any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws, (iv) any action asserting a claim relating to or involving us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine or (v) any action asserting an “internal corporate claim” (as defined under the DGCL). This choice of forum provision may limit the ability of our stockholders to bring claims in a judicial forum that they find favorable for disputes with us or our current or former directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find our choice of forum provision to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we could incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not applicable.