What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-03-07 compared with 2024-02-29 · 37 added, 24 removed, 166 unchanged (27% of the section changed)

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Through multiple branded marketplaces, LendingTree empowers consumers to shop for financial services the same way they would shop for airline tickets or hotel stays, comparing multiple offers from a nationwide network of approximately 430 partners (which we refer to as “Network Partners”) in one simple search, and choose the option that best fits their financial needs.

Services include mortgage loans, mortgage refinances, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, personal loans, student loans, small business loans, insurance quotes, sales of insurance policies and other related offerings.

Services include mortgage loans, mortgage refinances, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, personal loans, small business loans, insurance quotes, sales of insurance policies and other related offerings.

In addition, we offer tools and resources, including free credit scores, that facilitate comparison shopping for loans, deposit products, insurance and other offerings.

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Additionally, we work with our Network Partners, including providing training and other resources, to improve the consumer experience throughout the process.

Further, we have been building and improving our Spring platform (previously MyLendingTree), which provides a relationship-based consumer experience, rather than just a transaction-based experience.

Evolution and Future Growth of Our Business

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We believe that consumers with existing LendingTree-branded associations will be more likely to utilize our other service offerings than those of other providers whose brands consumers may not recognize.

Our Spring platform (previously called MyLendingTree) offers a personalized comparison-shopping experience, financial health advice and credit simulations by providing free access to credit scores and credit score analysis.

We introduced our Spring platform, which provides a relationship-based consumer experience, rather than just a transaction-based experience.

Our Spring platform offers a personalized comparison-shopping experience, financial health advice and credit simulations by providing free access to credit scores and credit score analysis.

This authenticated and secure platform enables us to monitor consumers' credit profiles, identify and alert them to changes in their financial health, and to recommend loans and other offerings on our marketplace that may be more favorable than the terms they have at a given point in time.

Customers can track the progress of their financial health over time based on actions they have taken, and see recommended credit score improvement actions, loans or other products offered by LendingTree.

By expanding our portfolio of financial services offerings, we are growing and diversifying our business and sources of revenue.

We intend to capitalize on our expertise in performance marketing, product development and technology by leveraging the widespread recognition of the LendingTree brand.

We believe the consumer and small business financial services industry is in the middle stages of a fundamental shift to online product offerings, similar to the shift that started in retail and travel many years ago and is now well established.

By expanding our portfolio of financial services offerings, we have grown and diversified our business and sources of revenue.

We intend to capitalize on our expertise in performance marketing, product development and technology by leveraging the widespread recognition of the LendingTree brand and our expanded portfolio of product offerings.

We believe the consumer and insurance industries are in the middle stages of a fundamental shift to online product offerings, similar to the shift that started in retail and travel many years ago and is now well established.

We believe that, like retail and travel, financial services consumers will continue to move towards online shopping and transactions in response to which suppliers will increasingly shift their product offerings and advertising budgets toward the online channel.

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We continue to monitor the current global economic environment, specifically inflationary pressures and interest rates, and any resulting impacts on our financial position and results of operations.

During 2022, the challenging interest rate environment and persistent inflationary pressures presented challenges for many of our mortgage lending and insurance partners.

During 2022, the challenging interest rate environment and persistent inflationary pressures presented challenges for many of our mortgage, consumer and insurance partners.

We saw the most significant impact in our Home segment as mortgage rates nearly doubled in 2022, causing a sharp decline in refinance volumes and pressure on purchase activity.

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In addition, the auto and home insurance industry was impacted in 2022 by persistent industry headwinds, supply chain issues, rising accident severity and frequency, and hurricane losses.

During 2023, the challenging interest rate environment and inflationary pressures have continued to present challenges for many of our mortgage lending and insurance partners.

During 2023, the challenging interest rate environment and inflationary pressures continued to present challenges for many of our mortgage, consumer and insurance partners.

In our Home segment, mortgage rates hit multi-decade highs of nearly 8% in October, then proceeded to drop below 7% by December, ending the year at 6.6%.

The continued high mortgage rates in 2023 and home affordability issues continued to cause declines in refinance volumes and purchase activity.

Our Consumer segment was also negatively impacted by economic conditions, with successive Federal Reserve rate increases having their intended effect of tightening financial conditions.

The availability of credit contracted and lenders were less inclined to make loans in an environment with high inflation and significantly increased cost of capital.

In our Insurance segment, demand from our carrier partners remained volatile for much of the year as they continued to deal with persistent industry headwinds.

In the last months of 2023, we began to see advertising budgets from our carrier partners increase and we are optimistic about the prospect for continued increases into 2024.

In the last months of 2023, we began to see advertising budgets from our carrier partners increase.

During 2024, the challenging interest rate environment and inflationary pressures have continued to present challenges for many of our mortgage lending partners.

In our Home segment, mortgage rates remained relatively consistent in 2024, with the annual average mortgage rate in 2024 of 6.7% compared to 6.8% in 2023.

However, these rates are more than doubled compared to the low annual average mortgage rates seen in 2021.

The increased mortgage rates continue to cause reduced refinance volumes and continue to put pressure on purchase activity.

Additionally, the restrictive lending conditions continue to pressure our Consumer segment.

In our Insurance segment, demand from our carrier partners increased significantly in 2024 and we are optimistic about maintaining the strong performance in the Insurance segment as we head into 2025.

Segment Reporting

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purchase mortgage, refinance mortgage, and home equity loans and lines of credit.

Our Consumer segment includes the following products:

credit cards, personal loans, small business loans, student loans, auto loans, deposit accounts, and other credit products such as debt settlement.

We ceased offering reverse mortgage loans on our marketplace in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Our Consumer segment includes the following products:

credit cards, personal loans, small business loans, auto loans, deposit accounts, and other credit products such as debt settlement.

We are in the process of exiting the student loan business and plan to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

We ceased offering credit repair products at the end of the second quarter of 2023 when we shut-down our Ovation business.

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LendingTree does not charge consumers for the use of our services.

Revenues from our Home products are mostly derived from upfront match fees paid by Network Partners that receive a consumer request, and in some cases upfront fees for clicks or call transfers.

Revenues from our Home products are mostly derived from upfront match fees paid by Network Partners that receive a consumer request.

Because a given consumer request form can be matched with more than one Network Partner, up to five match fees may be generated from a single consumer request form.

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Revenues from our Insurance products are primarily derived from upfront match fees, and upfront fees for website clicks or fees for calls, earned through the delivery of consumer requests, as well as commissions earned on policy sales in our agency businesses.

For the year ended December 31, 2024, two Network Partners, Progressive Casualty Insurance and Allstate Insurance Company, accounted for 22% and 11%, respectively, of total consolidated revenue, all of which was recorded within our Insurance segment.

For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, no Network Partners accounted for more than 10% of total consolidated revenue.

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Additionally, matched lenders and offers are also sent to the email address associated with the consumer request.

We also offer matches to providers of other Home lending products on our online marketplace include the following:

• Home equity loans and lines of credit, which enable home owners to borrow against the equity in their home, as measured by the difference between the market value of the home and any existing loans secured by the home.

We also offer matches to providers of other Home lending products on our online marketplace that include the following:

• Home equity loans and lines of credit, which enable homeowners to borrow against the equity in their home, as measured by the difference between the market value of the home and any existing loans secured by the home.

Home equity loans are one-time lump sum loans, whereas a home equity line of credit reflects a line of revolving credit where the borrower has flexibility to draw down and repay the line over time.

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Consumer Segment

Consumer lending products on our online marketplace include information, tools and access to multiple conditional loan offers for the following:

Consumer lending products on our online marketplace that include information, tools and access to multiple conditional loan offers for the following:

• Auto, which includes our auto refinance and purchase loan products.

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• Student loans, which includes both new loans to finance education and related expenses, as well as refinancing of existing loans.

We are in the process of exiting the student loans business, and plan to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

Non-lending Consumer products also includes information, tools and access to the following:

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Insurance Segment

Our Insurance segment includes information, tools and access to insurance quote products, including automobile, home, health and Medicare, through which consumers are matched with insurance lead aggregators to obtain insurance offers, as well as insurance policies in our agency businesses.

Our Insurance segment includes information, tools and access to insurance quote products, including automobile, home, life, health and Medicare, through which consumers are matched with insurance lead aggregators to obtain insurance offers, as well as insurance policies in our agency businesses.

Our QuoteWizard business is one of the largest insurance comparison marketplaces in the growing online insurance advertising market.

ValuePenguin, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on a variety of financial topics from insurance to credit cards, is also part of our Insurance segment.

ValuePenguin, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on a variety of financial topics related to insurance, is also part of our Insurance segment.

We intend to continue adding new offerings for consumers, small businesses and Network Partners on our online marketplace, in order to grow and diversify our sources of revenue.

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Revenue in our Home segment is subject to cyclical and seasonal trends.

Home sales (and purchase mortgages) typically rise during the spring and summer months and decline during the fall and winter months, while refinancing and home equity activity is principally driven by mortgage interest rates as well as real estate values.

Home sales (and purchase mortgages) typically rise during the spring and summer months and decline during the fall and winter months, while refinancing and home equity

activity is principally driven by mortgage interest rates as well as real estate values.

However, in certain historical periods additional factors affecting the mortgage and real estate markets, such as the current high interest rate economic period, the 2008-2009 financial crisis and related recession as well as the economic conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, have impacted customary seasonal trends.

Our insurance segment typically experiences a decline in December around the holidays and an increase in the spring around tax season.

Our personal loan product experiences less consumer demand during the fourth and first quarters of each year.

We also anticipate less consumer demand for credit cards in the fourth quarter of each year, and we anticipate higher consumer demand for deposit accounts in the first quarter of each year.

The majority of consumer demand for in-school student loan products occurs in the third quarter coinciding with collegiate enrollment in late summer.

Other factors affecting our businesses include macro factors such as credit availability in the market, interest rates, inflation, the strength of the economy and employment.

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• The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which imposes, among other things, limitations on fees charged by mortgage lenders, and requirements related to mortgage disclosures.

• Federal and state licensing laws.

• Federal and state consumer lending and insurance licensing laws.

• Federal and state laws, which impose restrictions on activities conducted through telephone, mail, email, mobile device or the Internet, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (“CAN-SPAM”) and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

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patent related to the system and method for collecting financial information over a global communications network, that expires in 2032.

We also owned one (1)

provisional U.S.

patent related to systems and methods for optimizing software development and testing that expired on January 30, 2024.

We also owned one provisional U.S.

patent related to systems for determination of fair market value of a mortgage lead that expires on July 26, 2025, at which time a non-provisional patent application may be filed.

Many of our services are offered under proprietary trademarks and service marks.

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We generally apply to register or secure by contract our principal trademarks and service marks as they are developed and used.

As of December 31, 2023, we owned 60 trademarks and service marks, 53 of which are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), and seven of which have applications pending with the USPTO but have not yet been registered.

As of December 31, 2024, we owned 58 trademarks and service marks;

15 of those marks are registered outside of the United States, and 43 are registered or in the midst of the application process with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”).

Of the 43 marks registered or pending with the USPTO, six have applications pending but have not yet been registered.

These registrations can typically be renewed at 10-year intervals.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business