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 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 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 or our accounts could be suspended or terminated, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
12
Table of Contents
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, including any phasing out (or blocking) of third-party cookies by web browsers, 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. For example, artificial intelligence could be utilized to better educate homeowners on how to perform their own home improvement projects, thereby reducing the need for our business, or artificial intelligence could eventually transform the way search engines currently work, thereby creating unknown challenges to our marketing channels.
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.
In addition, 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 or convertibility of traffic and leads do not meet the expectations of our users or Angi Leads service professionals, they could leave our network 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
13
Table of Contents
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.
Our success depends on our ability to continue to expand our pre-priced offerings, while balancing the overall mix of our service requests and directory services on Angi platforms.
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
14
Table of Contents
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.
Our ability to communicate with consumers and service professionals via email (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 email communication. Through email, 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 email (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 emails to consumers and service professionals. Recently, email providers have tightened their spam thresholds. Exceeding these more stringent spam thresholds could result in some or all of the emails from our businesses being delayed or blocked, and therefore less likely to be opened. A continued and significant erosion in our ability to communicate with consumers and service professionals via email 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 email has been historically.
Changes to certain requirements applicable to certain communications with consumers may adversely impact our ability to generate leads for our service professionals.
In connection with the marketing of our products and services and efforts to generate leads for our service professionals, we have historically relied on our ability (and the ability of our service professionals) to communicate with consumers via phone and text, in some cases using automated technology, as have third party affiliates through which we market our products and services. In an effort to reduce robocalls and robotexts, there has been an increased effort by U.S. regulatory authorities and telecommunications carriers to ensure that consumers opt in to receiving certain marketing calls and texts from businesses. For example, the FCC has adopted an amendment to the express consent requirements of the TCPA to require a 1:1 consent for a business to contact a consumer via phone or text using automated technology. This means that each business that wishes to contact a consumer for marketing purposes via phone or text using automated technology must receive its own specific express written consent from the consumer. While the amendment is not yet finalized, as proposed, it will require revisions to some of our processes and certain aspects of our product experience as well as to our third-party affiliate relationships. These revisions could result in increased expenses. Further, the increased disclosures and consent requirements under the proposed rule could adversely impact consumer engagement levels and consumer conversion in the case of our products and services, which would decrease leads generated on our platforms, as well as our ability to obtain leads through our third party affiliate relationships, which, in turn, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Independent of the proposed TCPA amendment, phone carriers increasingly dictate rules for obtaining consumers’ consent to receive text messages. This may reduce the number of consumers who opt-in to receiving both marketing and transactional texts from us and our service professionals, which could further adversely impact our ability to generate leads for our service professionals and, in turn, our business, financial condition and results of operation.
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. We continue to monitor the worker classification laws to ensure compliance with their laws. If we are required to reclassify service professionals from independent contractors to 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. See Item 8 - Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 15 - Contingencies.
General Risk Factors
Our brands and businesses operate in an especially competitive and evolving industry.
15
Table of Contents
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 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, as well as general geopolitical risks.
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 high 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 breadth of, our services offerings, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, 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.
Lastly, given the adverse financial and operational impact we experienced as a result of the coronavirus and measures designed to contain its spread, any future outbreak of a widespread health epidemic or pandemic could adversely impact our ability to conduct ordinary course business activities and employee productivity and increase operating costs. Moreover, we could also experience business disruption if the ordinary course operations of our third-party affiliates, partners and vendors are adversely affected, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operation.
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.
16
Table of Contents
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.
We may not be able to protect our systems, technology and infrastructure from cyberattacks or cyberattacks experienced by third parties may adversely affect us.
We are regularly under attack by threat actors through 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 intercept payments intended for legitimate third parties, and other similar malicious activities. The incidence of events of this nature (or any combination thereof) is on the rise worldwide. Our efforts to develop and maintain systems designed to detect and prevent events of this nature from impacting our systems, technology, infrastructure, products, services, payment processes and procedures, and users are costly and require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome preventative security measures become more sophisticated. There can be no assurance that the systems we have designed to prevent or limit the effects of cyberattacks or attacks will be sufficient to prevent or detect material consequences arising from such incidents or attacks, or to avoid a material adverse impact on our systems after such incidents or attacks do occur. Despite these efforts, some of our systems have experienced past security incidents 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 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 or be costly to remedy, as well as subject us to investigations by regulatory authorities, fines or litigation that could result in liability to third parties. Even if we do not experience such events directly, the impact of any such events experienced by third parties could have a similar effect. If we were to experience future events involving third-party service providers, the impacts could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in a significant or material manner. 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 on which we otherwise rely) 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 and subscriber information and, in the case of certain of our products and services, enable users and subscribers to share their personal information with each other. Our efforts to develop and maintain systems designed to protect the security, integrity and confidentiality of this information may not prevent inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure, and third parties may 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 that we engage to store such 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, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our insurance coverage for these matters may be insufficient to cover our losses, and in the future, we may be unable to obtain cybersecurity insurance on commercially reasonable terms.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 indirectly harm the reputation of our brands and business 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.
17
Table of Contents
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 became fully enforceable on July 1, 2023 and further restricts our ability to use personal California user and subscriber information in connection with our various products, services and operations and/or imposes 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 became effective later in 2023 and in 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 may 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 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 (or European Union member-state) 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 expenditures 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
18
Table of Contents
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 and the interruption of any of the services provided by these third parties could prevent us from accessing user and subscriber information and providing our products and services. If any third parties do not adequately or appropriately provide their services or perform their responsibilities to us or our users, such as if third-party service providers are unable to restore operations and data, fail to perform as expected, or experience other unanticipated problems, we may be subject to business disruptions, losses or costs to remediate any of the deficiencies, user dissatisfaction, reputational damage, legal or regulatory proceedings, or other adverse consequences which could harm our business. Additionally, if our third party service providers experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. While we may be entitled to damages if our third party service providers fail to satisfy their data privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. In addition, supply chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties’ infrastructure in our supply chain or our third party partners’ supply chains have not been compromised.
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) or result in the loss of critical data. Businesses that we acquire may employ cybersecurity controls or information security policies less robust than ours, which may require us to expend additional resources to integrate acquired systems into our ow, and which may expose us to heightened risk. The backup systems that we and the third parties upon whom we rely have in place for certain aspects of our respective frameworks may be insufficient for all recovery 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, 2023, 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 84.2% of our total outstanding shares of
19
Table of Contents
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;
•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 17—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.
20
Table of Contents
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;
•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
21
Table of Contents
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 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.
22
Table of Contents
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.
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, 2023, 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 84.2% 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.
23
Table of Contents
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not applicable.
Item 1C. Cybersecurity
Overview
We recognize that the safety and security of our systems, technology and infrastructure (and those of key third-party service providers upon which we rely), as well as our content and confidential or sensitive user and employee information, is critical to maintaining the trust and confidence of our users and subscribers, consumers, advertisers and investors (among other stakeholders). As a result, Company management has established programs and related processes designed to manage cybersecurity issues, including the assessment, identification and management of cybersecurity risks, together with related mitigation and recovery efforts. Our board of directors, directly and through our Audit Committee, oversees Company management in the execution of its cybersecurity responsibilities, including the assessment of the Company’s approach to cybersecurity risk management.
Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy
Overview. Our cybersecurity programs and related processes generally consist of the following key elements: (i) risk assessment and management efforts, (ii) technical safeguards and incident response and recovery efforts, (iii) third-party risk management efforts, (iv) education, training and preparedness efforts and (v) governance efforts.
Risk assessment and management efforts. We assess, identify and manage cybersecurity risks as part of a comprehensive information security program that is intended to align with standard industry frameworks, such as International Standard for Organization (ISO) 27000 and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cyber Security Framework.
As part of the ongoing refinement of our information security program, we engage (as appropriate) various third-party risk management services to assist with the identification of potential cybersecurity issues, such as those involving software vulnerabilities, configuration errors, data exposure and credential theft (among others), as well as consult with external legal counsel, third-party experts and other advisors to assist with incident response and recovery efforts, forensic investigations, extortion negotiations and crisis management or readiness for the same. We also maintain a cyber insurance policy to help manage, in part, costs associated with significant cybersecurity incidents that may occur.
In addition, as discussed in more detail below under the caption “Cybersecurity Governance,” the assessment, identification and management of cybersecurity risks have been integrated into our overall enterprise risk management (“ERM”) efforts.
Technical safeguards and incident response and recovery efforts. As part of our information security program, we have implemented a number of tools and procedures designed to identify and remediate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in our applications and infrastructure, as well as manage access and identities throughout their lifecycles. These tools and procedures are intended to be consistent with ISO and NIST frameworks. In addition, we have implemented an incident response policy that outlines established processes for addressing cybersecurity issues that leverages a cross-functional cybersecurity incident response team and outside advisors intended to allow the Company to take action in a timely and decisive manner in compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations during the response, investigation and remediation of a given cybersecurity incident.
Third-party risk managementefforts. In addition to the assessment, identification and management of our own cybersecurity related risks, we also consider and evaluate cybersecurity risks associated with certain third-party service providers upon which we rely for a wide variety of technical and business functions. Our efforts in this regard consist of (among other efforts): (i) security assessments to determine whether key third-party service provider information security procedures meet our expectations, (ii) the use of a monitoring service that detects evidence of the compromise of key third-party provider systems, technology and infrastructure, (iii) assessments designed to identify business and technical risks to our systems, technology and infrastructure posed by key third-party service providers and (iv) the development of strategies to determine the potential adverse impact of, and develop mitigation strategies for, any cybersecurity incidents experienced by key third-party service providers on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Education, training and preparedness efforts. Education, training and preparedness are an important part of our information security program. In connection with our education and training efforts, we have developed and implemented a set of Company-wide policies and procedures regarding cybersecurity matters that impose responsibility on our employees through the course of their work to: (i) protect our systems, technology, infrastructure and data from cybersecurity threats, (ii) quickly report known or suspected cybersecurity incidents or other suspicious activity through designated channels and respond effectively to such events and (iii) use Company and personal information technology in a secure manner. In addition, we generally mandate information security training for our employees and our software developers generally receive mandatory
24
Table of Contents
additional technical training, each on an annual basis. In connection with our preparedness efforts, we periodically participate in tabletop exercises with the goal of helping management effectively respond to cybersecurity incidents that may occur. We also maintain documented incident response policies to help ensure that our response activities are consistent and appropriate.
Governance. See the disclosure under the caption “Cybersecurity Governance” below.
Cybersecurity Governance
Our board of directors is responsible for overseeing Company management’s execution of its cybersecurity responsibilities, including our approach to cybersecurity risk management. Our board of directors executes this oversight in coordination with our Audit Committee, which pursuant to its charter, assists the Board with risk assessment and risk management policies as they relate to cybersecurity risk exposure (among other risk exposures), as well as part of its regularly scheduled meetings and through discussions with Company management on an as needed basis.
In addition, the assessment, identification and management of cybersecurity risks has been integrated into our ERM efforts. As part of that annual process, cybersecurity risks across our businesses are included in the risk universe that our Executive Risk Committee (consisting of members of Company senior management) evaluates to identify our top enterprise risks and develop related mitigation plans. The cybersecurity and other risks are reviewed during the year through our ERM process and discussed with our Audit Committee at least semi-annually and with our board of directors at least annually.
Our Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”) is responsible for the development and implementation of our information security program on a Company-wide basis, together with a dedicated team of experienced, Company-wide information security analysts. Our CTO has over twenty years of experience leading the development, implementation, and oversight of information security programs. Other members of our information security team are generally seasoned professionals with broad cybersecurity experience and expertise, including with respect to cybersecurity threat assessment and detection, mitigation technologies, incident response, and training on such topics.
Our CTO is also responsible for reporting on the status of our information security program and related efforts and processes to Company senior management periodically, and to the Audit Committee on a quarterly basis. In addition, our CTO reports cybersecurity matters to Company senior management and the Audit Committee on an as-needed basis. At each regularly scheduled meeting of our board of directors, the Chair of our Audit Committee provides quarterly updates regarding significant matters discussed, reviewed, considered and approved by the committee since the last regularly scheduled board meeting (including cybersecurity matters, as and if applicable), as well as timely updates outside of quarterly updates on an as needed basis. Our CTO promptly informs Company management and our Audit Committee (and IAC management) of cybersecurity incidents that meet established reporting thresholds or when otherwise determined appropriate, as well as provides ongoing updates regarding any such incidents until they have been resolved.
Cybersecurity Risks
As discussed above and under Item 1A. Risk Factors—General Risk Factors, we face a number of cybersecurity risks across our various businesses, and we have experienced threats to and unauthorized intrusions of our systems, technology and infrastructure from time to time. While to our knowledge we have not, to date, experienced a cybersecurity incident or threat that has materially and adversely affected our business, financial condition and results of operations, we cannot provide assurances that they will not be materially affected in the future by such incidents.
Item 2. Properties
We believe that the facilities for our management and operations are generally adequate for our current and near-term future needs. Our facilities, most of which are leased, consist of executive and administrative offices, sales offices and data centers. We do not anticipate any future problems renewing or obtaining suitable leases for us or any of our businesses. We currently lease approximately 152,000 square feet of office for our corporate headquarters, Angi business and administrative and sales force personnel in Denver, Colorado.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
Overview
In the ordinary course of business, the Company and its subsidiaries are (or may become) parties to claims, suits, regulatory and government investigations, and other proceedings involving property, personal injury, intellectual property, privacy, tax, labor and employment, competition, commercial disputes, consumer protection and other claims, as well as stockholder derivative actions, class action lawsuits and other matters. Such claims, suits, regulatory and government investigations, and other proceedings could result in fines, civil or criminal penalties, or other adverse consequences. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may be subject to insurance coverage. Although the results of legal proceedings
25
Table of Contents
and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, neither the Company nor any of its subsidiaries is currently a party to any legal proceedings the outcome of which, we believe, if determined adversely to us, would individually or in the aggregate have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. However, the outcome of such matters is inherently unpredictable and subject to significant uncertainties.
Rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission require the description of material pending legal proceedings (other than ordinary, routine litigation incident to the registrant’s business) and advise that proceedings ordinarily need not be described if they primarily involve damages claims for amounts (exclusive of interest and costs) not exceeding 10% of the current assets of the registrant and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. In the judgment of Company management, none of the pending litigation matters which we are defending, including those described below, involves or is likely to involve amounts of that magnitude. The matters described below involve issues or claims that may be of particular interest to our stockholders, regardless of whether they may be material to our financial position or operations based upon the standard set forth in the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Service Professional Class Action Litigation against HomeAdvisor
In July 2016, a putative class action, Airquip, Inc. et al. v. HomeAdvisor, Inc. et al., No. 1:16-cv-1849, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The complaint, as amended in November 2016, alleges that HomeAdvisor engages in certain deceptive practices affecting the service professionals (“SPs”) who join its network, including charging them for substandard customer leads and failing to disclose certain charges. The complaint sought certification of a nationwide class consisting of all HomeAdvisor SPs since October 2012, asserted claims including fraud, breach of implied contract and unjust enrichment and sought injunctive relief and damages in an unspecified amount.
In July 2018, the plaintiffs’ counsel filed a separate putative class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Costello et al. v. HomeAdvisor, Inc. et al., No. 1:18-cv-1802, on behalf of the same nine SPs proposed as new plaintiffs in the Airquip case, naming as defendants HomeAdvisor, the Company and IAC (as well as an unrelated company), and asserting 45 claims largely duplicative of those asserted in a proposed second amended complaint in the Airquip case. In November 2018, the judge presiding over the Airquip case issued an order consolidating the two cases to proceed before him under the caption In re HomeAdvisor, Inc. Litigation.
In September 2019, the court issued an order granting the plaintiffs’ renewed motion for leave to file a consolidated second amended complaint, naming as defendants, in addition to HomeAdvisor, the Company and IAC, CraftJack, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company) and two unrelated entities. In October and December 2019, the four defendants affiliated with HomeAdvisor filed motions to dismiss certain claims in the amended complaint. In September 2020, the court issued an order granting in part and denying in part the defendants’ motions to dismiss. In May 2022, the plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification; the defendants opposed the motion. On January 10, 2024, the court entered an order largely denying plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. While the court certified certain classes seeking only injunctive relief based upon alleged misappropriation of SPs’ intellectual property, the court declined to certify any of the proposed classes challenging lead quality and seeking monetary relief. On January 24, 2024, the plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration of the court’s partial denial of class certification; on February 14, 2024, the defendants opposed the motion, which remains pending. On February 26, 2024, the parties filed motions for summary judgement on the remaining class claim regarding misappropriation of SPs’ intellectual property.
The Company believes that the allegations in this lawsuit are without merit and will continue to defend vigorously against them.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters
Our Class A common stock is quoted on The Nasdaq Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) under the ticker symbol “ANGI.” There is no established public trading market for our Class B common stock.
26
Table of Contents
As of February 9, 2024, there were 26 holders of record of our Class A common stock. Because the substantial majority of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of shareholders, we are not able to estimate the total number of beneficial shareholders represented by these record holders. As of February 9, 2024, there was one holder of record and beneficial shareholder of our Class B common stock.
Dividends
We do not currently expect that any cash or other dividends will be paid to holders of our Class A or Class B common stock in the near future. Any future cash dividend or other dividend declarations are subject to the determination of the Company’s Board of Directors.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
There were no unregistered sales of our capital stock during the quarter ended December 31, 2023.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The following table sets forth purchases by the Company of its Class A common stock during the quarter ended December 31, 2023:
________________________________________
(1)Reflects repurchases made pursuant to the share repurchase authorization previously announced in March 2020.
(2)Represents the total number of shares of Class A common stock that remained available for repurchase as of December 31, 2023 pursuant to the March 2020 share repurchase authorization. The Company may repurchase shares pursuant to this share repurchase authorization over an indefinite period of time in the open market and in privately negotiated transactions, depending on those factors Company management deems relevant at any particular time, including, without limitation, market conditions, share price and future outlook.
From January 1, 2024 through February 9, 2024, the Company repurchased an additional 2.7 million shares at an average price of $2.36 per share. As of February 9, 2024, there were approximately 7.9 million shares remaining in the March 2020 share repurchase authorization.
Item 6. Reserved
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
GENERAL
Management Overview
Angi Inc. (“Angi,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) connects quality home service professionals with consumers across more than 500 different categories, from repairing and remodeling homes to cleaning and landscaping. Approximately 196,000 transacting service professionals actively sought consumer matches, completed jobs, or advertised work through Angi Inc. platforms during the three months ended December 31, 2023. Additionally, consumers turned to at least one of our brands to find a professional for approximately 23 million projects during the year ended December 31, 2023.
The Company has three operating segments: (i) Ads and Leads; (ii) Services; and (iii) International (consisting of businesses in Europe and Canada) and operates under multiple brands including Angi, HomeAdvisor, and Handy.
27
Table of Contents
Ads and Leads provides service professionals the capability to engage with potential customers, including quoting and invoicing services, and provides consumers with tools and resources to help them find local, pre-screened and customer-rated service professionals nationwide for home repair, maintenance and improvement projects. Services consumers can request household services directly through the Angi platform and Angi fulfills the request through the use of independently established home services providers engaged in a trade, occupation and/or business that customarily provides such services. The matching and pre-priced booking services and related tools and directories are provided to consumers free of charge.
In the U.S., the Company primarily markets its services to consumers through search engine marketing, affiliate agreements with third parties, and television advertising. The Company also markets its services to consumers through email, digital display advertisements, partnerships with other contextually related websites and, to a lesser extent, through relationships with certain retailers, direct mail and radio advertising. The Company markets subscription packages and time-based advertising to service professionals primarily through its sales force, as well as through search engine marketing, digital media advertising, and direct relationships with trade associations and manufacturers. We have made, and expect to continue to make, substantial investments in digital and traditional advertising (with continued expansion into new and existing digital platforms) to consumers and service professionals to promote our products and services and to drive traffic to our various platforms and service professionals.
Total Home Roofing, LLC Sale
On November 1, 2023, Angi Inc. completed the sale of 100% of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Total Home Roofing, LLC (“THR,” which comprised its Roofing segment), and has reflected it as a discontinued operation in its financial statements. The financial information for prior periods has been recast to conform to the current year presentation. For additional details, see “Note 16—Discontinued Operations” to the consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Defined Terms and Operating Metrics:
Unless otherwise indicated or as the context otherwise requires, certain terms, which include the principal operating metrics we use in managing our business, are defined below:
•Ads and Leads Revenue primarily reflects domestic consumer connection revenue for consumer matches, revenue from service professionals under contract for advertising and membership subscription revenue from service professionals and consumers.
•Services Revenue primarily reflects domestic revenue from pre-priced offerings by which the consumer requests services through a Company platform and the Company connects them with a service professional to perform the service.
•International Revenue primarily reflects revenue generated within the International segment (consisting of businesses in Europe and Canada), including consumer connection revenue for consumer matches and membership subscription revenue from service professionals and consumers.
•Corporate primarily reflects costs for corporate initiatives, shared costs, such as executive and public company costs, and other expenses not allocated to the operating segments.
•Service Requests are (i) fully completed and submitted domestic service requests for connections with Ads and Leads service professionals, (ii) contacts to Ads and Leads service professionals generated via the service professional directory from unique users in unique categories (such that multiple contacts from the same user in the same category in the same day are counted as one Service Request) and (iii) requests to book Services jobs in the period.
•Monetized Transactions are (i) Service Requests that are matched to a paying Ads and Leads service professional in the period and (ii) completed and in-process Services jobs in the period; a single Service Request can result in multiple monetized transactions.
•Transacting Service Professionals (“Transacting SPs”) are the number of (i) Ads and Leads service professionals that paid for consumer matches or advertising and (ii) Services service professionals that performed a Services job, during the most recent quarter.
28
Table of Contents
•ANGI Group Senior Notes - On August 20, 2020, ANGI Group, LLC (“ANGI Group”), a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, issued $500.0 million of its 3.875% Senior Notes due August 15, 2028, with interest payable February 15 and August 15 of each year.
Components of Results of Operations
Sources of Revenue
Ads and Leads revenue includes consumer connection revenue, which comprises fees paid by service professionals for consumer matches (regardless of whether the service professional ultimately provides the requested service), revenue from service professionals under contract for advertising, membership subscription revenue from service professionals and consumers, and revenue from other services. Consumer connection revenue varies based upon several factors, including the service requested, product experience offered, and geographic location of service. Services revenue primarily reflects revenue from pre-priced offerings by which the consumer requests services through the Company’s platform and the Company engages a service professional to perform the service. International revenue primarily comprises consumer connection revenue for consumer matches and membership subscription revenue from service professionals and consumers.
From January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022, Services recorded revenue on a gross basis. Effective January 1, 2023, we modified the Services terms and conditions so that the service professional, rather than Angi Inc., has the contractual relationship with the consumer to deliver the service and our performance obligation to the consumer is to connect them with the service professional. This change in contractual terms requires revenue to be reported as the net amount of what is received from the consumer after deducting the amounts owed to the service professional providing the service effective for all arrangements entered into after December 31, 2022. There is no impact to operating loss or Adjusted EBITDA from this change in revenue recognition. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, if Services revenue were recorded on a net basis, revenue would have been reduced by $242.6 million and $180.7 million, respectively.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit
Cost of revenue, which excludes depreciation, consists primarily of (i) payments made to independent third-party service professionals who perform work contracted under Services arrangements that were entered into prior to January 1, 2023 and the change to net revenue reporting, (ii) credit card processing fees, and (iii) hosting fees.
Gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue.
Operating Costs and Expenses:
•Selling and marketing expense - consists primarily of (i) advertising expenditures, which include marketing fees to promote the brand to consumers and service professionals with (a) online marketing, including fees paid to search engines and other online marketing platforms, partners who direct traffic to our brands, and app platforms, and (b) offline marketing, which is primarily television and radio advertising, (ii) compensation expense (including stock-based compensation expense) and other employee-related costs for our sales force and marketing personnel, (iii) service guarantee expense, (iv) software license and maintenance costs, and (v) outsourced personnel costs.
•General and administrative expense - consists primarily of (i) compensation expense (including stock-based compensation expense) and other employee-related costs for personnel engaged in executive management, finance, legal, tax, human resources and customer service functions, (ii) provision for credit losses, (iii) software license and maintenance costs, (iv) outsourced personnel costs for personnel engaged in assisting in customer service functions, (v) fees for professional services, and (vi) facilities costs. Our customer service function includes personnel who provide support to our service professionals and consumers.
•Product development expense - consists primarily of (i) compensation expense (including stock-based compensation expense) and other employee-related costs that are not capitalized for personnel engaged in the design, development, testing and enhancement of product offerings and related technology, (ii) software license and maintenance costs, and (iii) outsourced personnel costs for personnel engaged in product development.
Non-GAAP financial measure
Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA”) is a non-GAAP financial measure. See “Principles of Financial Reporting” for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net
29
Table of Contents
loss attributable to Angi Inc. shareholders to operating loss to consolidated Adjusted EBITDA for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021.
COVID-19 Update
The COVID-19 pandemic and the various responses to it created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption. Recently, there has been a return to normal societal interactions, including the way we operate our business.
As previously disclosed, the impact of COVID-19 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 we experienced a rebound in Service Requests in early 2021, Service Requests started 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. Our ability to monetize Service Requests rebounded modestly in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022; however, that improved monetization plateaued in the third quarter of 2022 returning to monetization rates similar to those experienced pre-COVID-19.
Outlook
The extent to which developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic and measures designed to curb its spread 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 the Company’s control, including the severity of resurgences of COVID-19 caused by variant strains of the virus, the effectiveness of vaccines and attitudes toward receiving them, materials and supply chain constraints, labor shortages, the scope of governmental and other restrictions on travel, discretionary services and other activity, and public reactions to these developments.
30
Table of Contents
Results of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021
The following discussion should be read in conjunction with Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. Included below are year-over-year comparisons between 2023 and 2022, as well as 2022 and 2021, reflecting our current segment structure following the sale of THR.
Revenue
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
Domestic
Ads and Leads:
International
Percentage of Total Revenue:
International 9 % 6 % 6 %
Years Ended December 31,
# % # %
(In thousands, rounding differences may occur)
Operating metrics:
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Ads and Leads revenue decreased $157.2 million, or 12%, due primarily to a decrease in consumer connection revenue of $173.6 million, or 18%, and a decrease in membership subscription revenue of $8.1 million, or 13%, due to a decline in Monetized Transactions and a decline in service professionals in the Angi network, respectively, partially offset by an increase of $25.3 million, or 10%, in advertising revenue. The decrease in Monetized Transactions was a result of an effort to rationalize sales to service professionals that are unprofitable, as well as efforts to increase lead quality, including changes to certain demand channels, to enhance the user experience for both homeowners and service professionals. The increase in advertising revenue was primarily driven by continued growth in sales and improved retention.
Services revenue decreased $263.2 million, or 69%, due primarily to the change to net revenue reporting described above under “Sources of Revenue,” a decrease of $92.4 million due to the continued shift away from complex and less profitable offerings, and lower Service Requests.
31
Table of Contents
International revenue increased $14.8 million, or 15%, due primarily to a larger service professional network and higher revenue per service professional.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Ads and Leads revenue increased $55.0 million, or 4%, due primarily to an increase in consumer connection revenue of $56.3 million, or 6%, primarily as a result of price increases implemented during the second quarter of 2022 and an increase in advertising revenue driven by a growth in sales.
Services revenue increased $91.3 million, or 31%, due primarily to an increase in average revenue per Monetized Transaction due to higher average-order-value jobs in complex service categories and an increase in Monetized Transactions in 2022 relative to 2021, as well as price increases in certain job categories.
International revenue decreased $1.3 million, or 1%, due primarily to the unfavorable impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to the Euro and the British Pound.
Cost of revenue
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 5% 19% 17%
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Services cost of revenue decreased $274.8 million, or 93%, and decreased as a percentage of revenue, due primarily to a $248.8 million decrease in payments to third-party professional service providers due primarily to the change to net revenue reporting effective January 1, 2023, described above. Additionally, payments to third-party professional service providers decreased as a result of the shift away from complex and less profitable offerings.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Ads and Leads cost of revenue decreased $1.6 million, or 4%, and decreased as a percentage of revenue, due primarily to a $6.0 million decrease resulting from the disposition of a business in the second quarter of 2021, partially offset by increases of $3.1 million in transaction processing costs, and $2.8 million in website hosting fees.
Services cost of revenue increased $64.1 million, or 28%, due primarily to a $58.1 million increase in payments to third-party professional service providers, however, cost of revenue decreased as a percentage of revenue.
International cost of revenue increased $0.2 million, or 9%, and increased as a percentage of revenue, due primarily to increased website hosting fees.
Gross profit
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
32
Table of Contents
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Angi gross profit decreased $130.8 million, or 9%, due primarily to the decrease in revenue described in the revenue discussion above.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Angi gross profit increased $82.3 million, or 6%, due primarily to the revenue growth described in the revenue discussion above, partially offset by the increased cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue described in the cost of revenue discussion above.
Selling and marketing expense
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 56% 50% 54%
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Ads and Leads selling and marketing expense decreased $81.8 million, or 11%, driven by decreases of $82.0 million in advertising expense and $4.1 million in professional fees, partially offset by an increase of $5.0 million in compensation expense. The decrease in advertising expense was primarily due to a $107.5 million decrease in online marketing spend due to increased efficiency, partially offset by a $25.3 million increase in television spend due to efforts to build awareness of the Angi brand. The decrease in professional fees is primarily due to a decrease in marketing and branding consultancy fees. The increase in compensation expense is primarily due to increased sales commissions due to the immediate expensing of commissions for certain transactions beginning October 1, 2022.
Services selling and marketing expense decreased $34.8 million, or 47%, driven by decreases of $22.1 million in professional fees and third-party wages, $17.4 million in compensation expense, and $7.1 million of advertising expense, partially offset by an increase of $14.9 million in service guarantee expense. The decrease in professional fees and third-party wages is primarily due to $12.7 million less in phone-based sales wages primarily resulting from increased reliance on more profitable digital conversion channels and $6.1 million less due to streamlined fulfillment operations, partially driven by fewer complex services. The decrease in compensation expense is primarily due to a reduction in headcount. The decrease in advertising expense is primarily due to a decrease in service professional marketing spend. The increase in service guarantee expense is due to the aforementioned change in contractual terms and conditions such that this expense is no longer a component of cost of revenue, which is where the expense was recorded prior to January 1, 2023.
International selling and marketing expense decreased $5.8 million, or 14%, driven by a $10.2 million decrease in advertising expense, partially offset by an increase in compensation expense of $3.3 million. The decrease in advertising expense is primarily due to improved online efficiency and a decrease in television advertising expense. The increase in compensation expense is primarily driven by an increase in headcount.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Ads and Leads selling and marketing expense increased $11.9 million, or 2%, driven by increases in advertising expense of $20.9 million and software maintenance costs of $3.5 million partially offset by a decrease in compensation expense of $10.3 million. The increase in advertising expense was due primarily to an increase of $23.3 million in online marketing spend. The increase in online marketing spend was primarily due to lower organic traffic and increased cost per service request. The increase in software maintenance costs was due primarily to general maintenance. The decrease in compensation is primarily due to a decrease in headcount.
Services selling and marketing expense increased $13.6 million, or 22%, driven by increases of $17.6 million in compensation expense, $3.7 million in professional fees and $1.6 million of software maintenance costs, partially offset by a $9.5 million decrease in advertising expense. The increase of compensation expense was due primarily to an increase in headcount. The increase in professional fees is primarily from an increase of $4.1 million in outsourced personnel costs for
33
Table of Contents
improving the customer service experience offset by a decrease of $0.4 million in consulting costs primarily due to fees paid in 2021 that were a part of the investment in Services in 2021. The increase in software maintenance costs was due primarily to general maintenance. The decrease in advertising expense was primarily due to a decrease of $6.7 million in service professional marketing spend and $2.7 million search engine marketing spend primarily due to high advertising costs in 2021 to promote Services.
Corporate selling and marketing expense decreased $4.9 million, or 55%, driven by a decrease in lease expense of $5.4 million. The decrease in lease expense is a result of the Company repurposing its real estate space for general and administrative functions and reducing its real estate footprint in 2021.
International selling and marketing expense decreased $1.8 million, or 4%, driven by a decrease in compensation expense of $1.6 million, which was primarily due to lower headcount.
General and administrative expense
Years Ended December 31,
$ Change % Change $ Change % Change
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 26% 25% 24%
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Ads and Leads general and administrative expense decreased $69.9 million, or 24%, due primarily to decreases of $24.5 million in provision for credit losses, $21.4 million in professional fees, $12.9 million in compensation expense, and $8.6 million in third-party wages. The decrease in the provision for credit losses is primarily due to lower revenue and improved collection rates. The decrease in professional fees is primarily due to a decrease in legal fees, including a $10.9 million benefit in 2023 related to insurance coverage for previously incurred legal fees. The decrease in compensation expense is primarily due to a reduction in headcount. The decrease in third-party wages is primarily due to a reduction in third-party providers.
Services general and administrative expense decreased $22.7 million, or 34%, due primarily to decreases of $11.1 million in compensation expense, $8.6 million in professional fees, and $4.8 million in the provision for credit losses. The decrease in compensation expense is primarily due to a reduction in headcount. The decrease in professional fees is primarily due to a reduction in legal fees. The decrease in the provision for credit losses is primarily due to lower revenue and improved collection rates.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Ads and Leads general and administrative expense increased $23.7 million, or 9%, due primarily to an increase of $16.4 million in provision for credit losses, $6.6 million in outsourced personnel costs, and $5.7 million in legal expense, partially offset by a decrease of $2.9 million in compensation expense. The increase in the provision for credit losses is due primarily to revenue growth. The increase in outsourced personnel costs is due primarily to the use of outsourced firms to support customer service needs. The increase in legal expense is primarily due to certain legal matters in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. The decrease in compensation expense is due to a $7.4 million decrease primarily due to lower headcount, offset with a $4.5 million increase in stock-based compensation.
Services general and administrative expense increased $27.8 million, or 71%, due primarily to an increase of $19.1 million in compensation expense, $5.3 million in professional fees, and $2.2 million in software license and maintenance expense. The increase in compensation expense is primarily due to an increase of $10.5 million in stock-based compensation expense and $8.6 million in wage-related expense from higher headcount. The increase in stock-based compensation expense is primarily due to management departures in the fourth quarter of 2022 and new awards granted. The increase in professional fees is due primarily to an increase in legal expense of $6.0 million due to certain legal matters in the current quarter. The increase in software license and maintenance expense is due primarily to general maintenance.
Corporate general and administrative expense increased $9.3 million, or 20%, due primarily to increases of $14.4 million in compensation expense and $1.5 million of software license and maintenance expense, partially offset by a decrease of $4.4
34
Table of Contents
million in lease expense. The increase in compensation expense is due to an increase of $12.9 million in wage-related expense from higher headcount and $1.6 million in stock-based compensation expense. The increase in stock-based compensation expense is the result of the reversal of previously recognized stock-based compensation as a result of the forfeiture of unvested awards due to management departures in the first quarter of 2021, management departures in the third quarter of 2022, and new awards granted in 2022. The increase in software license and maintenance expense is due primarily to increased spend on software to support our customer service function. The decrease in lease expense was due primarily to a decrease in impairments of right-of-use assets and related leasehold improvements, furniture, and equipment from the Company reducing its real estate footprint in 2021.
International general and administrative expense decreased $8.6 million, or 20%, due primarily to a 2021 charge of $7.0 million in compensation expense related to the acquisition of an additional interest in our MyBuilder business at a premium to fair value.
Product development expense
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 7% 4% 4%
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Product development expense increased $22.7 million, or 31%. This contrasts with a $67.7 million, or 59%, decrease in capital expenditures, which primarily comprises internally developed software. The increase in product development expense was driven by a decrease in the percentage of internally developed software that was subject to capitalization.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Product development expense increased $2.9 million, or 4%. This increase is in addition to the increase in capital expenditures.
Depreciation
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 7% 4% 4%
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Depreciation increased due primarily to investments in capitalized software which are being depreciated over an average useful life of two years.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Depreciation increased primarily due to $15.5 million in capitalized software impairments in addition to investments in capitalized software to support our employees, products, and services.
35
Table of Contents
Operating income (loss)
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue (2)% (4)% (4)%
________________________
NM = Not meaningful
Operating losses decreased for fiscal year 2023 compared to fiscal year 2022 and increased for fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021 due primarily to the factors described above in the revenue, cost of revenue, sales and marketing, general and administrative, product development, and depreciation expense discussions.
At December 31, 2023, there is $47.8 million of unrecognized compensation cost, net of estimated forfeitures, related to all equity-based awards, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of approximately 2.29 years.
Adjusted EBITDA
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
As a percentage of revenue 9% 4% 2%
For a reconciliation of net loss attributable to Angi Inc. shareholders to operating loss to consolidated Adjusted EBITDA, see “Principles of Financial Reporting.” For a reconciliation of operating income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA for the Company’s reportable segments, see “Note 9—Segment Information” to the consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Ads and Leads Adjusted EBITDA decreased $21.6 million, or 13%, to $147.4 million, and decreased as a percentage of revenue, driven by lower gross profit due to a decrease in revenue, partially offset by lower general and administrative expense due to a decrease in the provision for credit losses, legal fees, and compensation costs and lower selling and marketing expense due to improved marketing efficiency.
Services Adjusted EBITDA increased $60.2 million, from a loss of $52.1 million to income of $8.1 million, and increased as a percentage of revenue, driven by higher gross profit due to pricing and fulfillment optimization efforts over the past year and lower operating expenses due to a reduced overall cost base as a result of exiting complex and less profitable offerings.
36
Table of Contents
International Adjusted EBITDA increased $13.6 million, from a loss of $0.5 million to income of $13.1 million, driven by an increase in revenue and lower selling and marketing expense due to more efficient marketing spend.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Ads and Leads Adjusted EBITDA increased $32.7 million, or 24%, to $169.0 million, and increased as a percentage of revenue, due primarily to higher revenue of $55.0 million, partially offset by an increase in general and administrative expense of $23.7 million.
Services Adjusted EBITDA loss increased $3.9 million, or 8%, to a loss of $52.1 million, and increased as a percentage of revenue, driven by higher revenue of $91.3 million, partially offset by increases in cost of revenue of $64.1 million, general and administrative expense of $27.8 million, and selling and marketing expense of $13.6 million.
Corporate Adjusted EBITDA loss increased $3.8 million, or 8%, to $49.9 million, primarily due to an increase in compensation expense, partially offset by a decrease in lease expense.
International Adjusted EBITDA loss decreased $6.1 million, or 93%, due to a decrease in general and administrative expense of $8.6 million, which was primarily due to the 2021 charge of $7.0 million related to the acquisition of an additional interest in MyBuilder at a premium to fair value. This was partially offset by a decrease of $1.3 million in revenue and an increase of $3.1 million in product development expense.
Interest expense
Interest expense relates to interest on the ANGI Group Senior Notes.
For a detailed description of long-term debt, net, see “Note 6—Long-term Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(In thousands)
For the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022
Interest expense was flat for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022.
For the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021
Interest expense decreased primarily due to the repayment of the ANGI Group Term Loan during the second quarter of 2021.
Other income (expense), net
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(In thousands)
Other income, net in 2023 primarily includes interest income of $17.1 million and net foreign currency exchange gains of $1.2 million.
Other income, net in 2022 primarily includes interest income of $4.5 million, partially offset by net foreign currency exchange losses of $3.4 million.
37
Table of Contents
Other expense, net in 2021 primarily includes net foreign currency exchange losses of $1.7 million and the write-off of $1.1 million of deferred debt issuance costs related to the ANGI Group Term Loan, which was repaid in its entirety during the second quarter of 2021, partially offset by interest income of $0.2 million.
Income tax (provision) benefit
Years Ended December 31,
$ % $ %
(Dollars in thousands)
Effective income tax rate NM 6% 32%
In 2023, the Company recorded an income tax provision, despite pre-tax losses, due primarily to tax shortfalls generated by the vesting and exercise of stock-based awards, nondeductible executive compensation expense, and unbenefited foreign losses, partially offset by research credits.
In 2022, the effective income tax rate was lower than the statutory rate of 21% due primarily to unbenefited realized losses, foreign income subject to tax in the United States, and nondeductible stock-based compensation expense, partially offset by research credits.
In 2021, the effective income tax rate was higher than the statutory rate of 21% due primarily to excess tax benefits generated by the exercise and vesting of stock-based awards and a change in judgment about the valuation allowance at the beginning of the year, partially offset by nondeductible stock-based compensation expense and foreign income taxed at different rates.
For further details of income tax matters, see “Note 12—Income Taxes” to the consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
38
Table of Contents
PRINCIPLES OF FINANCIAL REPORTING
We report Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). This measure is one of the primary metrics by which we evaluate the performance of our businesses, and on which our internal budgets are based and may impact management compensation. We believe that investors should have access to, and we are obligated to provide, the same set of tools that we use in analyzing our results. This non-GAAP measure should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. We endeavor to compensate for the limitations of the non-GAAP measure presented by providing the comparable GAAP measure with equal or greater prominence and descriptions of the reconciling items, including quantifying such items, to derive the non-GAAP measure. We encourage investors to examine the reconciling adjustments between the GAAP and non-GAAP measure, which we discuss below.
Definition of Non-GAAP Measure
Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA”) is defined as operating income excluding: (1) stock-based compensation expense; (2) depreciation; and (3) acquisition-related items consisting of amortization of intangible assets and impairments of goodwill and intangible assets, if applicable. We believe this measure is useful for analysts and investors as this measure allows a more meaningful comparison between our performance and that of our competitors. Adjusted EBITDA has certain limitations because it excludes the impact of these expenses.
The following table reconciles net loss attributable to Angi Inc. shareholders to operating loss to consolidated Adjusted EBITDA:
Years Ended December 31,
(In thousands)
Add back:
Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests 629 468 884
Add back:
For a reconciliation of operating income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA for the Company’s reportable segments, see “Note 9—Segment Information” to the consolidated financial statements included in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Non-Cash Expenses That Are Excluded from Our Non-GAAP Measure
Stock-based compensation expense consists of expense associated with the grants, including unvested grants assumed in acquisitions, of stock appreciation rights, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), stock options, performance-based RSUs (“PSUs”) and market-based awards. These expenses are not paid in cash and we view the economic costs of stock-based awards to be the dilution to our share base; we also include the related shares in our fully diluted shares outstanding for GAAP earnings per share using the treasury stock method. PSUs and market-based awards are included only to the extent the applicable performance or market condition(s) have been met (assuming the end of the reporting period is the end of the contingency period). The Company is currently settling all stock-based awards on a net basis and remits the required tax-withholding amounts from its current funds.
39
Table of Contents
Depreciation is a non-cash expense relating to our capitalized software, leasehold improvements and equipment and is computed using the straight-line method to allocate the cost of depreciable assets to operations over their estimated useful lives, or, in the case of leasehold improvements, the lease term, if shorter.
Amortization of intangible assets and impairments of goodwill and intangible assets are non-cash expenses related primarily to acquisitions. At the time of an acquisition, the identifiable definite-lived intangible assets of the acquired company, such as service professional relationships, technology, and trade names, are valued and amortized over their estimated lives. Value is also assigned to acquired indefinite-lived intangible assets, which comprise trade names and trademarks, and goodwill that are not subject to amortization. An impairment is recorded when the carrying value of an intangible asset or goodwill exceeds its fair value. We believe that intangible assets represent costs incurred by the acquired company to build value prior to acquisition and the related amortization and impairments of intangible assets or goodwill, if applicable, are not ongoing costs of doing business.
40
Table of Contents
FINANCIAL POSITION, LIQUIDITY, AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
Financial Position
(In thousands)
Cash and cash equivalents:
Long-term debt:
Less: unamortized debt issuance costs 3,953 4,716
At December 31, 2023, all of the Company’s international cash can be repatriated without significant consequences.
Cash Flow Information
In summary, the Company’s cash flows are as follows:
Years Ended December 31,
(In thousands)
Net cash provided by (used in):
Net cash provided by operating activities attributable to continuing operations consists of earnings adjusted for non-cash items and the effect of changes in working capital. Non-cash adjustments include depreciation, provision for credit losses, stock-based compensation expense, non-cash lease expense (including impairment of right-of-use assets), amortization of intangibles, and deferred income taxes.
2023
Adjustments to net loss attributable to continuing operations consist primarily of $93.6 million of depreciation, $79.4 million of provision for credit losses, $43.4 million of stock-based compensation expense, $11.9 million of non-cash lease expense, and $8.0 million of amortization of intangibles, partially offset by $10.0 million of deferred income taxes. The decrease from changes in working capital consists primarily of an increase of $58.2 million in accounts receivable, a decrease of $20.7 million in operating lease liabilities, an increase of $13.9 million of other assets, and a decrease of $8.0 million in accounts payable and other liabilities. The increase in accounts receivable is due primarily to timing of cash receipts. The decrease in operating lease liabilities is due to cash payments on leases net of interest accretion. The increase in other assets is due primarily to a $10.9 million receivable related to insurance coverage for previously incurred legal fees. The decrease in accounts payable and other liabilities is due to a decrease in accrued advertising.
Net cash used in investing activities attributable to continuing operations includes capital expenditures of $47.8 million primarily related to investments in capitalized software to support the Company’s products and services and purchases of marketable debt securities of $12.4 million, partially offset by maturities of marketable debt securities of $12.5 million and $1.0 million of proceeds for the sale of THR.
Net cash used in financing activities attributable to continuing operations includes $10.9 million for the repurchase of 4.4 million shares of Angi Inc. Class A common stock, on a settlement date basis, at an average price of $2.50 per share and $6.0 million for the payment of withholding taxes on behalf of employees for stock-based awards that were net settled.
41
Table of Contents
2022
Adjustments to net loss attributable to continuing operations consist primarily of $104.3 million of provision for credit losses, $77.5 million of depreciation, $50.8 million of stock-based compensation expense, $13.8 million of non-cash lease expense (including impairment of right-of-use assets), and $13.8 million of amortization of intangibles, partially offset by deferred income taxes of $9.8 million. The decrease from changes in working capital consists primarily of an increase of $111.9 million in accounts receivable, a decrease of $16.7 million in operating lease liabilities, and a decrease of $3.0 million in deferred revenue, partially offset by increases of $11.6 million in accounts payable and other liabilities and $3.2 million in income taxes payable and receivable. The increase in accounts receivable is due primarily to revenue growth, primarily attributable to Services. The decrease in operating lease liabilities is due to cash payments on leases net of interest accretion. The decrease in deferred revenue is due to lower annual membership count. The increase in accounts payable and other liabilities is due primarily to increases in accrued expenses related to the 2021 brand integration initiative. The increase in income taxes payables and receivable is due primarily to accrual of taxes in excess of payments.
Net cash used in investing activities attributable to continuing operations includes $115.5 million of capital expenditures, primarily related to investments in capitalized software to support the Company’s products and services.
Net cash used in financing activities attributable to continuing operations includes $8.8 million for the payment of withholding taxes on behalf of employees for stock-based awards that were net settled and $8.1 million for the repurchase of 1.0 million shares of Angi Inc. Class A common stock, on a settlement date basis, at an average price of $7.80 per share.
2021
Adjustments to net loss attributable to continuing operations consist primarily of $86.6 million of provision for credit losses, $59.0 million of depreciation, $28.2 million of stock-based compensation expense, $20.5 million of non-cash lease expense, and $16.1 million of amortization of intangibles, partially offset by $34.2 million of deferred income taxes. The decrease from changes in working capital consists primarily of an increase of $107.0 million in accounts receivable, and a decrease of $16.6 million in operating lease liabilities, partially offset by an increase of $21.7 million in accounts payable and other liabilities. The increase in accounts receivable is due primarily to revenue growth, primarily attributable to Services. The decrease in operating lease liabilities is due to cash payments on leases net of interest accretion. The increase in accounts payable and other liabilities is due primarily to increases in accrued advertising.
Net cash used in investing activities attributable to continuing operations includes $69.9 million of capital expenditures, primarily related to investments in capitalized software to support the Company’s products and services, partially offset by proceeds of $50.0 million from the maturities of marketable debt securities.
Net cash used in financing activities attributable to continuing operations includes $220.0 million for the prepayment of the ANGI Group Term Loan, which otherwise would have matured on November 5, 2023, $61.9 million for the payment of withholding taxes on behalf of employees for stock-based awards that were net settled, $35.4 million for the repurchase of 3.2 million shares of Angi Inc. Class A common stock, on a settlement date basis, at an average price of $11.06 per share, and $27.9 million for the purchase of redeemable noncontrolling interests.
Discontinued Operations
Net cash provided by (used in) discontinued operations of $11.0 million, $(20.1) million, and $(44.0) million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively, relates to the operations for THR. The Company does not expect cash flows from discontinued operations following the sale of THR on November 1, 2023.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Share Repurchase Authorizations and Activity
During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company repurchased 4.4 million shares, on a trade date basis, of its common stock at an average price of $2.50 per share, or $11.1 million in aggregate. During the fourth quarter of 2023, Angi Inc. put in place a share repurchase plan with the intent of utilizing the remaining shares in its stock repurchase authorization. The plan will be subject to price and volume limitations. From January 1, 2024 through February 9, 2024, the Company repurchased an additional 2.7 million shares at an average price of $2.36 per share, or $6.3 million in aggregate. The Company had 7.9 million shares remaining in its share repurchase authorization as of February 9, 2024. The Company may purchase its shares pursuant to its authorization over an indefinite period of time in the open market and in privately negotiated transactions,
42
Table of Contents
depending on those factors the Company’s management deems relevant at any particular time, including, without limitation, market conditions, share price and future outlook.
Outstanding Stock-based Awards
The Company may settle equity awards on a gross or a net basis depending upon factors deemed relevant at the time, and if settledon a net basis, Angi remits withholding taxes on behalf of the employee. At IAC’s option, certain Angi stock appreciation rights can be settled in either Class A shares of Angi or shares of IAC common stock. If settled in IAC common stock, the Company reimburses IAC in either cash or through the issuance of Class A shares to IAC. The Company currently settles all equity awards on a net basis.
Pursuant to the employee matters agreement, in the event of a distribution of Angi capital stock to IAC stockholders in a transaction intended to qualify as tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the Compensation Committee of the IAC Board of Directors has the exclusive authority to determine the treatment of outstanding IAC equity awards. Such authority includes (but is not limited to) the ability to convert all or part of IAC equity awards outstanding immediately prior to the distribution into equity awards denominated in shares of Angi Class A Common Stock for no compensation, which Angi would be obligated to assume and which would be dilutive to Angi’s stockholders.
The following table summarizes the aggregate intrinsic value of all awards outstanding as of February 9, 2024;assuming these awards were net settled on that date, the withholding taxes that would be paid by the Company on behalf of employees upon exercise or vesting that would be payable (assuming these equity awards are net settled with a 50% tax rate), and the shares that would have been issued are as follows:
(In thousands)
_______________
(a)Includes stock options and subsidiary denominated equity.
(b)The number of shares ultimately needed to settle subsidiary denominated equity awards and the cash withholding tax obligation may vary significantly as a result of the determination of the fair value of the relevant award at the time of exercise. In addition, the number of shares required to settle these awards will be impacted by movement in the Company’s stock price.
Contractual Obligations
The Company enters into various contractual arrangements as a part of its continued operations.Material contractual obligations described in the accompanying notes to the financial statements within “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” includes operating leases as described in “Note 5—Leases,” and principal and interest payments on long-term as debt described in “Note 6—Long-term Debt.”
The Company has material purchase obligations which represent legally binding agreements to purchase goods and services that specify all significant terms. Future payments under these agreements at December 31, 2023 are as follows:
Amount of Commitment Expiration Per Period
Less Than1 Year 1–3Years 3–5Years More Than5 Years Total
(In thousands)
Purchase obligations include (i) $13.0 million for the final payment related to a three-year cloud computing arrangement, with the final payment expected to be made by September 2024, (ii) $8.4 million related to technology contracts spend, and (iii) $3.5 million related to media spend to be made in 2024.
43
Table of Contents
Capital Expenditures
The Company’s 2024 capital expenditures are expected to be higher than 2023 capital expenditures of $47.8 million by approximately 15% to 30% due to an increase in the capitalization rate of software development projects.
Liquidity Assessment
The Company’s liquidity could be negatively affected by a decrease in demand for its products and services due to economic or other factors.
At December 31, 2023, IAC held all Class B shares of Angi Inc., which represent 84.2% of the economic interest and 98.1% of the voting interest of the Company. As a result, IAC has the ability to control Angi’s financing activities, including the issuance of additional debt and equity securities by Angi or any of its subsidiaries, or the incurrence of other indebtedness generally. While Angi is expected to have the ability to access debt and equity markets if needed, such transactions may require the approval of IAC due to its control of the majority of the outstanding voting power of Angi’s capital stock and its representation on the Angi board of directors.
The Company believes its existing cash, cash equivalents, and expected positive cash flows generated from operations will be sufficient to fund its normal operating requirements, including capital expenditures, debt service, the payment of withholding taxes paid on behalf of employees for net-settled stock-based awards, and investing and other commitments, for the next twelve months. We may elect to raise additional capital through the sale of additional equity or debt financing to fund business activities such as strategic acquisitions, share repurchases, or other purposes beyond the next twelve months.
Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to the Company or at all, and may also be impacted by any disruptions in the financial markets. In addition, the Company’s existing indebtedness could limit its ability to obtain additional financing.
44
Table of Contents
CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES
The following disclosure is provided to supplement the descriptions of Angi’s accounting policies contained in “Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to the consolidated financial statements included “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in regard to significant areas of judgment. Management of the Company is required to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions during the preparation of its consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. These estimates, judgments and assumptions impact the reported amount of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses and the related disclosure of assets and liabilities. Actual results could differ from these estimates. Because of the size of the financial statement elements to which they relate, some of our accounting policies and estimates have a more significant impact on our financial statements than others. What follows is a discussion of some of our more significant accounting policies and estimates.
Credit Losses
The Company makes judgments as to its ability to collect outstanding receivables and provides an allowance when it has determined that all or a portion of the receivable will not be collected. The Company maintains an allowance for credit losses to provide for the estimated amount of accounts receivable that will not be collected. The allowance for credit losses is based upon a number of factors, including the length of time accounts receivable are past due, the Company’s previous loss history, the specific customer’s ability to pay its obligation to the Company and any other forward-looking data regarding customers’ ability to pay that is available. The duration of time between the Company’s issuance of an invoice and payment due date is not significant. The carrying value of the credit loss allowance is $24.7 million and $38.8 million at December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The provision for credit losses was $79.4 million, $104.3 million, and $86.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively.
Business Combinations
The Company made no acquisitions, which are generally referred to in GAAP as business combinations, in the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. The Company acquired THR in the year ended December 31, 2021, however, following its sale on November 1, 2023, it is reflected as a discontinued operation in the Company’s financial statements. The purchase price of each acquisition is attributed to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their fair values at the date of acquisition, including identifiable intangible assets that either arise from a contractual or legal right or are separable from goodwill.
Management makes two critical determinations at the time of an acquisition: (1) the reporting unit(s) that will benefit from the acquisition and to which goodwill will be assigned and (2) the allocation of the purchase price of the acquired business to the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed based upon their fair values. The reporting unit determination is important beyond the initial allocation of purchase price because future impairment assessments of goodwill, as described below, are performed at the reporting unit level. At October 1, 2023, the Company had four reporting units: Ads and Leads, Services, Roofing (subsequently sold as described above) and International. Historically, the Company’s acquisitions have been complementary to these reporting units and the goodwill has been assigned to the reporting unit.
The allocation of purchase price to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed is based upon their fair values and is complex because of the judgments involved in determining these values. The determination of purchase price and the fair value of monetary assets acquired and liabilities assumed is typically the least complex aspect of the Company’s accounting for business combinations due to management’s experience and/or the inherently lower level of judgement required. Due to the higher degree of complexity associated with the valuation of acquired intangible assets, the Company usually obtains the assistance of outside valuation experts in the allocation of purchase price to the identifiable intangible assets acquired, which can be both definite-lived, such as acquired technology, customer and contractor relationships, or indefinite lived, such as acquired trade names and trademarks. While outside valuation experts may be used, management has the ultimate responsibility for the valuation methods, models and inputs used and the resulting purchase price allocation. The excess purchase price over the value of the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired is recorded as goodwill and is assigned to the reporting unit(s) that is expected to benefit from the business combination as of the acquisition date.
Recoverability of Goodwill and Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets
The carrying value of goodwill is $886.0 million and $882.9 million at December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Indefinite-lived intangible assets, which consist of the Company’s acquired trade names and trademarks, have a carrying value of $170.8 million and $170.1 million at December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
45
Table of Contents
Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets are assessed annually for impairment as of October 1, or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would indicate that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit or the fair value of an indefinite-lived intangible asset has declined below its carrying value. In performing its annual goodwill impairment assessment, the Company has the option under GAAP to qualitatively assess whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value; if the conclusion of the qualitative assessment is that there are no indicators of impairment, the Company does not perform a quantitative test, which would require a valuation of the reporting unit, as of October 1. GAAP provides a not all-inclusive set of examples of macroeconomic, industry, market and company specific factors for entities to consider in performing the qualitative assessment described above; management considers the factors it deems relevant in making its more likely than not assessments. While the Company also has the option under GAAP to qualitatively assess whether it is more likely than not that the fair values of its indefinite-lived intangible assets are less than their carrying values, the Company’s policy is to determine the fair value of each of its indefinite-lived intangible assets annually as of October 1, in part, because the level of effort required to perform the quantitative and qualitative assessments is essentially equivalent.
If the conclusion of our qualitative assessment is that there are indicators of impairment and a quantitative test is required, the annual or interim quantitative test of the recovery of goodwill involves a comparison of the estimated fair value of the Company’s reporting unit that is being tested to its carrying value. If the estimated fair value of a reporting unit exceeds its carrying value, goodwill of the reporting unit is not impaired. If the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its estimated fair value, a goodwill impairment equal to the excess is recorded.
The Company’s annual assessment of the recovery of goodwill begins with management’s reassessment of its operating segments and reporting units. A reporting unit is an operating segment or one level below an operating segment, which is referred to as a component. This reassessment of reporting units is also made each time the Company changes its operating segments to the extent that this also results in a change in reporting units. If the goodwill of a reporting unit is allocated to newly formed reporting units, the allocation is usually made to each reporting unit based upon their relative fair values.
For the Company’s annual goodwill test at October 1, 2023, a qualitative assessment of the Ads and Leads, Services, and International reporting units was performed by the Company to evaluate whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of these reporting units was in excess of their respective carrying values. The primary factors that the Company considered in its qualitative assessment for each of these reporting units are described below:
•The Company considered the strong forecasted operating performance, in addition to actual operating results in the current year, of the Ads and Leads, Services, and International reporting units.
•The Company also considered the prior year annual valuations of the Ads and Leads, Services, and International reporting units prepared as of October 1, 2022, and valuations of the International reporting unit prepared approximate to, however, not as of, October 1, 2023, in connection with the issuance and/or settlement of equity awards that are denominated in the equity of this business.
Based on these factors we concluded that it is not more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting units is below their respective carrying amounts.
As of October 1, 2023, prior to its sale on November 1, 2023, the Roofing reporting unit had no goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible assets.