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  • Facebook Messenger May Soon Get More Business-Friendly

    Facebook Messenger May Soon Get More Business-Friendly

    There will soon be a lot more business transactions happening within Facebook Messenger if a recent discovery buried within the app is any indication.

    text-image

    According to Forbes, a “forthcoming software release” will let users pay for goods in person or “pay directly in Messenger when you pick up the item,” effectively turning Messenger into another Wallet service.

    It sounds like rather than trying to compete with Apple Pay, Android Pay, and the like, Facebook will work to partner with such existing payment services, which could go a long way toward getting people to actually use it. If it works with services people are already using, people may be more inclined to try it out. On the other hand, it’s unclear what reason they would have to do so if they are in fact already using the other service.

    As Forbes notes, however, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said a couple months ago that the company would be willing to partner with other companies that do payments.

    Zuckerberg said during the company’s earnings conference call (via Seeking Alpha’s transcript), “On payments, the basic strategy that we have is to make it especially in products like Messenger that where the business interaction maybe a bit more transactional, to take all the friction out of making the transactions that you need. So, we don’t view ourselves as a payments business, that’s not the type of company that we are. We’ll partner with everyone who does payment. We look at the stuff that Apple is doing with Apple Pay for example as a really neat innovation in the space that takes a lot of friction out of transactions as well. And our view is that the less friction, the better the user experience, the more people can easily interact with businesses that they care about. And ultimately for our business that will drive up the amount that businesses are willing to pay to advertise to send people into those interactions because they perform well. So it’s good for everyone but that’s how we think about that.”

    During the call, Zuckerberg said with Messenger, they had been focused on two things. The first was expanding the the types of content people can share with the service. The other thing would be business.

    “But in terms of the business, the more important piece is how people can interact with businesses through Messenger,” he said. “And we started some early small tests around f8 last year where with some ecommerce services made it so that people who were buying things could follow up with the business and get customer support and buy more things. And we went through this process of integrating that and making sure that it’s integrated with all these system well. And I think everyone is really happy with that so far. So we started off pretty slowly, but that’s going to be some of the basis for how we look to make Messenger a business going forward. And we’re happy with the initial results. There is obviously a lot more there that we need to do and we’ll have more to talk about this year and beyond.”

    It was about a year ago that Facebook began allowing for P2P payments with Messenger.

    As Zuckerberg alluded to, Facebook introduced some things at F8 last year. For one, they turned Messenger into a platform, and opened it to developers to build new experiences. Secondly, they revealed business features like the ability to let your customers connect with you via Messenger and then send them personalized updates and talk to them in real time.

    In August, Facebook launched Pages Messaging, which gave customers more ways to send messages to businesses and ways for Page admins to manage and respond to them. People can send messages to Page from a local awareness ad. They’ll see a button that says “Send Message” from which they can initiate a onversation in a Messenger window that appears. For Pages, the incoming messages include an attachment that shows the ad that prompted the message. Once the user initiates the conversation, the business can respond as they like. They also started letting businesses respond via FB message to public comments.

    Late last year, Facebook announced its Request a Ride service, which let users request, track, and pay for Uber rides all within Messenger. Messenger got new Lyft integration earlier this month as well. Now, you can also check into KLM flights with Messenger.

    A December report found that Messenger is the fastest growing of the top apps in the U.S. It has 800 million people using it each month. Earlier this year, Facebook shared this infographic looking at last year’s additions to the product as well as trends for this year.

    F8 is coming back on April 12, and the company is expected to make new announcements pertaining to Messenger’s progress and plans for business. This may very well include new payment partners.

    Do you expect Messenger to be a valuable tool for business?

    Image via Facebook

  • Square Launches Register and Ecommerce APIs

    Square Launches Register and Ecommerce APIs

    Square just announced the launch of Build with Square, which is a new set of APIs being made available to sellers and the developers they work with. There’s a Register API, which enables any iOS point of sale to be customized to process payments with Square, and an ecommerce API, which lets sellers use Square to process online payments on their own self-hosted sites.

    A spokesperson for Square tells WebProNews, “With these new set of tools we’re helping sellers of all kinds join the Square ecosystem and run every part of their business in one place. Sellers can now identify what and when customers are purchasing online and in-store all in one place. Now no matter what you sell, or how you sell it, you can sell with Square.”

    “Independent businesses have been poorly served by existing commerce solutions, which require them to laboriously piece together hardware, software, and payments services from many different vendors,” the company says in a blog post announcing the news. “From payments to point of sale, financing to payroll, we believe all sellers — big or small, online or offline — should be able to start, run, and grow their entire business with one cohesive system.”

    With the Register API, developers can tell Square how much they want to charge a customer and “let Square Register to the heavy lifting” with just two API calls. Customers can pay like they would with any other Square merchant and get text, email, or printed receipts. The API supports all Square hardware, including Square Stand and the Square Contactless + Chip Reader.

    Make an API request (see code here), and Square Register comes to the foreground and completes the payment. After that, it will call your app back with the result.

    register-api-example-app-contactless-chip-reader

    Square developer platform software engineer Jianliang Zhao discusses the ecommerce API and points to documentation here.

    Jack Dorsey is pleased with it.

    “Now any developer can build solutions for their customers to take payments on a website using Square,” writes Zhao. “Whether you’re getting started selling online with Square’s Online Store; you’re growing through Square’s integrations with eCommerce platforms like Bigcommerce, Weebly, and Ecwid; or now, you’re building a custom website, any business can scale online with Square payments. What’s more, with our eCommerce API, Square takes the hassle out of PCI compliance without interfering with the design or look and feel of your website or re-directing customers off-site.”

    He notes that Square’s JavaScript library uses transparent, dynamically styled iframes to accept sensitive cardholder info so this data never touches your web site or servers.

    While only the two APIs were announced, it will be interesting to see what else Square enables developers to do in the future under the Build with Square banner.

    Images via Square

  • Square Starts Offering Loans Through Square Capital

    Square Starts Offering Loans Through Square Capital

    Square launched Square Capital in 2014 as a cash advance program for eligible businesses. The program gave businesses quick (the next business day) access to thousands of dollars, with great flexibility in payback.

    Payback came out as a percentage of daily sales, so slower days meant less and better days meant more.

    Now, rather than just providing cash advance offers, Square Capital is providing flexible loans to boost lending. Square’s Jacqueline D. Reses writes in a blog post:

    Square Capital is still as fast, simple, and transparent as ever. There is no burdensome paperwork to apply, qualified sellers can get funds as soon as the next business day, repayment happens as a fixed percentage of your daily card sales, and the cost of the loan is a fixed dollar amount that never changes.

    So you might be wondering, do I need to do anything different? Nope, just check your Square Dashboard to see if you have an outstanding offer through Square Capital.

    Square offers tips on how to get noticed by Square Capital here. It provides a list of things they take into consideration, including processing volume (at least $10K a year), activity, growth, history, recent payments, and customer mix.

    Image via Square

  • Shopify Adds Sales Channels To Help You Sell From More Places

    Shopify Adds Sales Channels To Help You Sell From More Places

    A lot of businesses are about to have a lot more ways to sell their products with Shopify. The company announced that it is giving developers tools to build new sales channels to put Shopify into more and more apps. Right off the bat, eBates, Houzz, Wanelo are getting them, and more will be on the way.

    The idea is that people are shopping in all kinds of apps, and Shopify wants to give sellers a chance to get at potential customers in more places.

    “Managing several channels should be every bit as simple as managing one,” says Shopify’s Satish Kanwar. “With Shopify, you get a single place to run your business, one, unified platform for managing all your channels, products, orders, customers, and analytics.”

    “To make selling through multiple channels even easier, we’ve made some improvements to Shopify,” he adds. “These improvements, which will be rolling out over the coming weeks, refine the channels experience and make it easier to explore new ways to grow your business.”

    You can find Sales Channels from the left navigation in Shopify.

    Expect to see many more sales channels emerge in the future. Developers can find the Sales Channel SDK and everything they need to get started here.

    Last week, Shopify launched a new WordPress plugin and some new themes. This will also be a tremendous help for a lot of businesses, making it easier to sell on WordPress sites.

    Both the themes and plugin are free. You can use them to add products to any of your pages or blogposts without leaving the content management platform.

    “As usual, you’ll still manage all of your pages and posts in WordPress, but you’ll have Shopify to manage everything else: payments, secure checkout, shipping and fulfillment, inventory, and taxes—all the hard things about selling online,” says Shopify’s Daniel Patricio.

    The themes are called Hype by Themezilla, Simple by Themify, and Pulse by Ultralinx. You can see them below in that order.

    “Installing the plugin adds the ability to easily drop products with buy buttons into any sidebar, page or blog post,” says Patricio. “Plus, you’ll get a slick pop-out shopping cart for your site, so customers can purchase multiple products at once.”

    While the plugin is free to Shopify users, it does cost $9 a month for a “lite” Shopify plan. The plan will also get you Facebook Shop, Shopify POS for iOS or Android, access to the Shopify app store, and 24/7 support.

    Last month, Shopify posted its 2015 year in Review. In this, it revealed that it currently has over 243,000 businesses in over 150 countries. They added over 98,000 merchants last year alone. This was of course when they added buy buttons for Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter as well as a mobile SDK enabling the sales of products in mobile apps and Apple Pay. They also partnered with Amazon to bring Amazon services to merchants, and with Uber on local shipping.

    Images via Shopify

  • The New  Apple iPhone SE Is Officially Launched — Here’s What You Get

    The New Apple iPhone SE Is Officially Launched — Here’s What You Get

    The new Apple iPhone model with a distinctively smaller screen finally launched on Monday. A smaller-screen iPad Pro was introduced at the same event as well.

    The 4-inch iPhone called iPhone SE may be smaller than other Apple iPhone models, but it has the features of the iPhone 6S and its casing is similar to that of the iPhone 5.

    It may be small but contains all the specs of the latest iPhone. It shares the same A9 processor as the iPhone S6, and its camera is also upgraded from 8 megapixels to 12. The Apple iPhone SE also features Siri hands-free search and Live Photos. It also has new chips that would enable the phone to work with Apple Pay, which means all of the company’s current handsets can now be used to make payments.

    The iPhone SE also comes in the same metal finish as iPhone 6S.

    Not only is the new Apple iPhone SE smaller, it is also cheaper than the other iPhone handsets. iPhone SE prices begin at $399 for the 16GB unit in the US. This makes the new phone the cheapest model Apple has ever launched, and the company says it is intended for consumers who use Apple’s smaller handsets. It will go on sale in the UK on March 31.

    The iPad Pro on the other hand, features a 9.7-inch screen, smaller than the original iPad Pro with a 12.9- inch display which came out last year. The new iPad Pro starts at $599 for the 32GB unit.

    Why did Apple launch smaller iPhones this time? According to reports, sales for larger screens have gone down. Another factor is that many people still prefer to buy the smaller iPhones than the larger phablets. “Today we welcome a new member to the iPhone family,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the event. “Many customers have asked for this and we think they’re going to love it.”

  • Denise Richards Receives $55,000 Per Month For Child Support, Charlie Sheen Fights To Reduce Payments

    Actor Charlie Sheen wants to reduce his child support payments to ex-wife Denise Richards, according to court documents he filed just recently.

    Sheen says that he cannot afford to pay the $55,000 monthly child support as his income “drastically declined,” reported to TMZ. Richards is said to have been receiving that amount since 2009, but Sheen is no longer able to pay the same amount now.

    He claims that from $613,000, he is now earning roughly $87,384 per month, pays $105,000 for monthly bills, and spends $25,000 for medical fees reportedly not covered by insurance. However, the actor, who revealed he was HIV positive late last year, admitted that he sold his Two and a Half Men rights for $26,750,000.


    “We came up with a number a long time ago and I had a great job and everybody was living large and that’s not the case right now, but there’s still that expectation to still keep paying this kind of money,” Charlie Sheen said during an interview on the The Dr. Oz Show, where he talked about his child support payments to Denise Richards.

    Sheen had also asked for his child support to Brooke Mueller, his other ex-wife and mother to his six-year-old twins Max and Bob, to be reduced for the same reasons.

    Richards has two daughters with the actor: 11-year-old Sam and 1-year-old Lola. She is currently suing Sheen for forcing her and their daughters to leave their home. Richards also claims that the actor sent unpleasant text messages to their younger daughter.

    However, Sheen’s legal representative, Martin Singer, believes that Denise Richards is just “being greedy.”

    “I’ve been representing Charlie for more than 20 years,” Singer says. “Patty [Glaser, Denise’s lawyer] is just the latest in a long string of lawyers who Denise has hired to squeeze as much money as she can out of Charlie. This motion has nothing do with their children. Denise is simply being greedy.”

  • Shopify for WordPress Launched

    Shopify for WordPress Launched

    Shopify announced the launch of new themes and a new plugin for WordPress to make it easier to sell on WordPress sites.

    Both the themes and plugin are free. You can use them to add products to any of your pages or blogposts without leaving the content management platform.

    “As usual, you’ll still manage all of your pages and posts in WordPress, but you’ll have Shopify to manage everything else: payments, secure checkout, shipping and fulfillment, inventory, and taxes—all the hard things about selling online,” says Shopify’s Daniel Patricio.

    The themes are called Hype by Themezilla, Simple by Themify, and Pulse by Ultralinx. You can see them below in that order.

    “Installing the plugin adds the ability to easily drop products with buy buttons into any sidebar, page or blog post,” says Patricio. “Plus, you’ll get a slick pop-out shopping cart for your site, so customers can purchase multiple products at once.”

    While the plugin is free to Shopify users, it does cost $9 a month for a “lite” Shopify plan. The plan will also get you Facebook Shop, Shopify POS for iOS or Android, access to the Shopify app store, and 24/7 support.

    Images via Shopify

  • You Can Now Do Banking With Amazon Echo Devices

    You Can Now Do Banking With Amazon Echo Devices

    Amazon announced that Capital One will be the first company to provide customers with the ability to interact with their financial information through Alexa-enabled devices like the Amazon Echo, Fire TV, or the new Amazon Tap or Echo Dot.

    “Starting today, customers can stay on top of their credit card account by checking their balance, reviewing recent transactions, or making payments as well as get real-time access to checking and savings account information to understand their available funds– all hands free,” a spokesperson said in an email.

    “The Alexa Skills store is quickly growing, and today we’re excited to add the Capital One skill – which is the first skill that will enable Alexa users to interact with their financial accounts,” said Alexa Direcotr Rob Pulciani. “Now Alexa can quickly provide your Capital One banking balance, latest transactions and more on Amazon Tap, Echo Dot, Amazon Echo or Fire TV devices —all conveniently with just your voice. More and more voice experiences are coming, and it’s only going to get better for our customers.”

    Capital One customers can interact with their accounts by enabling the Capital One skill in the Alexa app, and then saying things like “Alexa, ask Capital One for my Quicksilver Card balance,”…for recent transactions on my checking account,” …when is my credit payment due?,” or “pay my credit card bill.”

    The Capital One Alexa skill is available starting today.

    Image via Twitter

  • Charlie Sheen Wants Child Support Payments to Brooke Mueller Reduced

    Charlie Sheen has asked the court to reduce his child support payments he makes to Brooke Mueller in support of their six-year-old twins, Bob and Max.

    According to court documents obtained by People magazine, Charlie Sheen pays Brooke Mueller $55,000 per month for in child support.

    Sheen feels he should pay less child support than he has been paying because his income has taken a big hit since the divorce and child support agreement was made. When Charlie Sheen starred on Two and a Half Men, he brought home $613,000 per month. These days he’s bringing in about $87,384 monthly, even in light of selling his rights to Two and a Half Men for more than $26 million.

    In addition to the significant decrease in income, Charlie Sheen also maintains he spends $25,000 per month in medication–he recently revealed he is HIV positive–not covered by his medical insurance. He spends another $105,000 per month in bills and fees, and is carrying about $600,000 in credit card debt.

    It was back in 2011 that the child support agreement between him and Brooke Mueller was reached. He will return to court on April 13 to see if that amount can now be reduced.

    Brooke Mueller and her sons must be living quite well on $55,000 per month. How much does it cost to raise two six-year-olds these days?

    Of course the Hollywood set seems to think kids need a lot of luxuries they could very well live without. Do you suppose that might be the case in this scenario?

    In February, Charlie Sheen told Dr. Oz, while he was a guest on his show, that he would like to reduce child support payments paid to Denise Richards, too. He and Richards are parents to daughters Sam, who is 11, and Lola, who is 10.

    “We came up with a number a long time ago and I had a great job and everybody was living large. and that’s not the case right now, but there’s still that expectation to still keep paying this kind of money,” he told Dr. Mehmet Oz. “At some point you just can’t justify it, especially when there’s no gratitude behind it. None. I would send somebody flowers every hour if I got that kind of dough tax free.”

    Do you think the family court system will allow Charlie Sheen to pay less child support to Brooke Mueller? If so, Denise Richards had better watch out. She will no doubt be next in line for a monthly reduction.

  • Charlie Sheen Sells Profit Rights From “Two And A Half Men” To Reduce Child Support

    Charlie Sheen revealed last month that he pays $55,000 each in child support to ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.

    Charlie Sheen has two girls with Richards, Sam and Lola, and twin boys with Mueller, Max and Bob.

    During his appearance on Dr. Oz, Charlie Sheen detailed some of his financial woes, including the burdensome child support. He also seemed to feel that the ladies were ungrateful.

    He said, “We came up with a number a long time ago and I had a great job and everybody was living large. And that’s not the case right now, but there’s still that expectation to still keep paying this kind of money.”

    He added, “At some point you just can’t justify it, especially when there’s no gratitude behind it. None. I would send somebody flowers every hour if I got that kind of dough tax free.”

    Well, it seems Charlie Sheen found a way to shave off some of those child support payments.

    Charlie Sheen sold his profit earning rights from Two and a Half Men for $26,750,000. Now his monthly income is much less significant.

    Simple Math

    A photo posted by Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen) on

    According to Charlie Sheen, he earned $613,000 per month when the child support agreements were made. Now, without the rights, he earns $87,384 each month and can’t keep up with the payments.

    Charlie Sheen has asked that his payments be reduced to fit the income loss. His hearing is set for April 13th.

    What do you think of Charlie Sheen’s child support reduction tactics?

  • Google Announces New Hands Free Payment App

    Google Announces New Hands Free Payment App

    Google announced it is piloting a new payment app called Hands Free with South Bay residents. The goal is to let users pay in stores in completely hands-free fashion.

    The app is available for both Android and iOS and works at a few McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and local eatery locations in South Bay. Those lucky enough to be able to use it can even get $5 off their first Hands Free purchase.

    Senior director of product management Pali Bhat writes on the Google Commerce blog:

    Once you’ve installed and set up the app, Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, and location services on your phone to detect whether you’re near a participating store. When you’re ready to pay, you can simply tell the cashier, “I’ll pay with Google.” The cashier will ask for your initials and use the picture you added to your Hands Free profile to confirm your identity.

    At select stores, we’re also in the early stages of experimenting with visual identification so that you can breeze through checkout even faster. This process uses an in-store camera to automatically confirm your identity based on your Hands Free profile picture. All images captured by the Hands Free camera are deleted immediately.

    It’s unclear when the pilot might be opened up to more people and/or include more partners, but that probably depends on how it goes during this initial run.

    Google has averaged 1.5 million new registrations per month for Android Pay since launching it in September. Currently in the U.S. alone there are over 2 million locations that accept it. Google made it available for apps in December.

    Images via Google

  • Square Cash Adds ‘Cash Drawer’ Feature For Businesses and Individuals

    Square Cash Adds ‘Cash Drawer’ Feature For Businesses and Individuals

    Square announced a new update to its Square Cash app that lets users – businesses and individuals alike – store a cash balance like other payments services. The feature is referred to as “Cash Drawer”.

    With the feature, you can store cash you receive directly in the app or add your own from your bank account, so you can set aside funds for whatever you might need them for.

    The feature is optional, and can be toggled on or off.

    “When the Cash Drawer feature is turned on, anyone can keep all the payments they’ve received in one secure place and deduct from that stash to make payments,” the company says. “Anyone can access all funds in their Cash Drawer immediately by selecting the Cash Out button, instantly transferring the stored funds directly to their bank account.”

    “Starting today, all Square Cash customers will be able to access the Cash Drawer and in the coming weeks customers will be able to access the Add Cash button in the app as well,” it adds. “We’re thrilled to provide our customers with even more ways to use Square Cash and keep track of their personal finances with the new Cash Drawer feature.”

    TechCrunch shares comment from the company about business use:

    Notes a company spokesperson, “a business may wish to turn on the feature so that they can easily track and manage their business payments in one place, rather than have them stream into their bank account.”

    The feature is immediately available to all Square Cash users. It’s in a new update for both iOS and Android.

    In the coming weeks, they’ll add a an “Add Cash” button”.

    Last year, Square added $Cashtags for business use and an Apple Watch app.

    Images via Square

  • Etsy Gives Shareholders Something They Like

    Etsy Gives Shareholders Something They Like

    Investors weren’t thrilled with Etsy’s Q3 report when the company posted a net loss of $6.9 million ( 6 cents per share) and revenue of $65.7 million. On Tuesday, the company posted its Q4 and full-year 2015 financials with a much better reaction as shares quickly went upward.

    Etsy posted a Q4 adjusted loss of $0.04 per share and revenue of $87.8 million, which was higher than Wall Street projections.

    “We are proud of our progress in 2015. We hit many important milestones that are the building blocks for long-term, sustainable growth,” said CEO Chad Dickerson. “We executed against our strategic priorities, particularly in mobile, where we began to narrow the gap between mobile visits and mobile GMS. We also enhanced our existing seller services and continued to bring new constituents into the Etsy Economy. All of this activity allowed Etsy to generate $2.4 billion in GMS in 2015 and support approximately 1.6 million active sellers and more than 24.0 million active buyers. In 2016, we remain committed to reimagining commerce and are focused on launching more products and services that will allow us to build long-term value for our community.”

    The company provided three-year financial guidance.

    CFO Kristina Salen said, “We believe Etsy has significant opportunity ahead and we remain committed to delivering long-term, sustainable growth to all our stakeholders. One of our key values at Etsy is open and transparent communication. In that spirit, we are providing this additional long-term guidance to better demonstrate how we believe our strategic initiatives will translate to our financial results over the next three years.”

    Find the full release below:

    BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY), a marketplace where people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy unique goods, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015.

    “We are proud of our progress in 2015.  We hit many important milestones that are the building blocks for long-term, sustainable growth,” said Chad Dickerson, Etsy, Inc. CEO and Chairman. “We executed against our strategic priorities, particularly in mobile, where we began to narrow the gap between mobile visits and mobile GMS. We also enhanced our existing seller services and continued to bring new constituents into the Etsy Economy. All of this activity allowed Etsy to generate $2.4 billion in GMS in 2015 and support approximately 1.6 million active sellers and more than 24.0 million active buyers. In 2016, we remain committed to reimagining commerce and are focused on launching more products and services that will allow us to build long-term value for our community.”

     

    Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Summary

    (in thousands)

    Three Months Ended
    December 31,
    % Growth Y/Y Year Ended
    December 31,
    % Growth Y/Y
    2014 2015 2014 2015
    GMS $ 611,474 $ 741,488 21.3 % $ 1,931,981 $ 2,388,387 23.6 %
    Revenue $ 64,912 $ 87,895 35.4 % $ 195,591 $ 273,499 39.8 %
    Marketplace revenue $ 33,311 $ 39,796 19.5 % $ 108,732 $ 132,648 22.0 %
    Seller Services revenue $ 30,690 $ 47,230 53.9 % $ 82,502 $ 136,608 65.6 %
    Adjusted EBITDA $ 9,298 $ 14,049 51.1 % $ 23,081 $ 31,007 34.3 %
    Active sellers 1,353 1,563 15.5 % 1,353 1,563 15.5 %
    Active buyers 19,810 24,046 21.4 % 19,810 24,046 21.4 %
    Percent mobile visits 56 % 61 % 500 bps 54 % 60 % 600 bps
    Percent mobile GMS 38 % 44 % 600 bps 37 % 43 % 600 bps
    Percent international GMS 30.6 % 29.2 % (140) bps 30.9 % 29.8 % (110) bps

     

    For information about how we define these metrics, see our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2015 filed with the SEC on November 5, 2015.

     

    Fourth Quarter 2015 Operational Highlights

    GMS was $741.5 million, up 21.3% compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. Growth in GMS was driven by 15.5% year-over-year growth in active sellers and 21.4% year-over-year growth in active buyers.  Continuing the trend we’ve seen for multiple quarters, mobile visits once again grew faster than desktop visits and, for the second consecutive quarter, we narrowed the gap between mobile visits and mobile GMS. Percent mobile visits was approximately 61% compared with approximately 56% in the fourth quarter of 2014 and percent mobile GMS was approximately 44% compared with approximately 38% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Throughout 2015, we continued to enhance our buyer mobile apps in many ways such as adding new deeplinking functionality, integrating social sign-up and sign-in, and expanding our mobile payment and digital wallet options with Apple Pay® and Google Wallet™. We believe this work strengthened our mobile footprint and contributed to our strong year-over-year GMS growth on our buyer mobile app, which further narrowed the gap between mobile visits and mobile GMS during the fourth quarter.

    We continue to believe that we can grow international GMS, over time, to represent 50% of our total GMS and that the impact of currency exchange rates contributed to the year-over-year decline in percent international GMS, which was 29.2% in the fourth quarter of 2015. Percent international GMS was 29.3% in the third quarter of this year.

    We believe that our GMS growth and percent international GMS are impacted by currency exchange rates in two ways. First, approximately 11% of our GMS comes from goods that are not listed in U.S. dollars and, as a result, is subject to the impact of currency exchange fluctuations. The percentage of GMS from goods that are not listed in U.S. dollars is slightly higher than what we reported in the third quarter of 2015. Excluding this direct impact, on a currency-neutral basis, GMS growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 would have been 22.7%, or approximately 1.4 percentage points higher than the as-reported 21.3% growth.

    Second, we believe weaker local currencies in key international markets continued to dampen the demand for U.S. dollar-denominated goods during the fourth quarter of 2015. For example, during the fourth quarter of 2015, GMS from international buyers purchasing from U.S. sellers declined approximately 13% year-over-year, compared with an approximately 13% and 6% year-over-year decline in the third and second quarters of 2015, approximately flat year-over-year performance in the first quarter of 2015, and approximately 23% and 44% year-over-year growth in the fourth and third quarters of 2014 respectively. In contrast, excluding our French marketplace ALM, GMS from international buyers making purchases from sellers in their own country grew approximately 49% year-over-year during the fourth quarter of 2015.

    Taken together, we estimate that the impact of currency translation on goods not listed in U.S. dollars and the impact of currency exchange rates on international buyer behavior reduced our year-over-year GMS growth rate by approximately two percentage points in the fourth quarter.

    Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Highlights

    Total revenue was $87.9 million, up 35.4% year-over-year, driven by growth in both Marketplace and Seller Services revenue. Marketplace revenue grew 19.5%, primarily due to growth in transaction fee revenue and, to a lesser extent, growth in listing fee revenue. Seller Services revenue grew 53.9% year-over-year, due to growth in revenue from both Direct Checkout, which benefited from the integration of PayPal early in the fourth quarter, and Promoted Listings, which grew at a slightly lower rate than Direct Checkout. Seller Services revenue also benefited from growth in revenue from Shipping Labels, which continued to grow faster than Marketplace revenue in the fourth quarter.

    Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $57.7 million, up 36.9% year-over-year, and gross margin was 65.6%, up 70 bps compared with 64.9% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Similar to the first, second and third quarters of 2015, gross profit grew faster than revenue in the fourth quarter because of the leverage we achieved in employee-related and hosting and bandwidth-related costs as well as the continued strong growth of Promoted Listings, a higher-margin revenue stream.

    Total operating expenses were $49.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 17.5% year-over-year. Total operating expenses as a percent of revenue declined to 56.1% in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with 64.6% in the fourth quarter of 2014, as revenue growth continued to outpace operating expense growth.

    The overall increase in operating expenses was primarily driven by the planned increase in reported marketing expenses, which grew 53.8% year-over-year mostly due to increased spending on digital marketing, which is currently focused on product listing ads. The year-over-year growth rate in fourth quarter marketing expenses decelerated relative to the growth rate of marketing expenses during the fourth quarter of 2014, which was 95.5%.

    Product development expenses grew 15.3% year-over-year, primarily due to higher employee-related expenses. G&A expenses decreased 11.5% year-over-year. The year-over-year reduction in G&A expenses reflects the favorable impact of a mark-to-market adjustment related to ALM stock-based compensation and a reduction in bad debt expense.

    Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $14.0 million and grew 51.1% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.0%, up 170 bps year-over-year.

    Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $4.2 million, compared with a $5.4 million net loss in the fourth quarter of 2014. Etsy’s net loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 was impacted by a foreign exchange loss and our income tax provision. We recorded $6.0 million of foreign exchange loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 largely made up of a non-cash currency loss related to the revised global corporate structure that we implemented on January 1, 2015. We also recorded a $6.3 million tax provision in the fourth quarter of 2015 primarily driven by non-cash charges related to our revised global corporate structure.

    Net cash provided by operating activities was $10.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with $0.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. The increase in net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter was mainly due to the timing of payments to certain vendors.

    Cash, marketable securities and short-term investments were $292.9 million as of December 31, 2015.

    3-Year Financial Guidance

    “We believe Etsy has significant opportunity ahead and we remain committed to delivering long-term, sustainable growth to all our stakeholders.  One of our key values at Etsy is open and transparent communication.  In that spirit, we are providing this additional long-term guidance to better demonstrate how we believe our strategic initiatives will translate to our financial results over the next three years,” said Kristina Salen, Etsy, Inc. CFO.

    Over the next three years we believe we can deliver solid revenue growth and achieve leverage in our cost structure to expand our margins.

     

    2016-2018 CAGR Range 2016 Guidance
    GMS Growth 13-17% Mid-point of range
    Revenue Growth 20-25% High end of the range
    Gross Margin

    (by 2018)

    Mid 60s (%) 64-65%
    Adjusted EBITDA Margin

    (by 2018)

    High teens (%) 10-11%

     

    • We expect to achieve a three-year revenue CAGR in the 20-25% range and a three-year GMS CAGR in the 13-17% range. In 2016, we expect revenue growth to be at the high end of our three-year range and GMS growth to be near the mid-point of our three-year range. We anticipate that the key factors impacting revenue and GMS growth over the next three years include:
      • Further narrowing of the gap between mobile visits and mobile GMS
      • Stable percent international GMS, assuming that currency remains stable compared to average levels in December 2015
      • Continued revenue growth in our existing seller services, driven by both adoption and product enhancements
      • Modest contributions from new product launches and seller services
    • We expect to exit 2018 with a full-year gross margin that is in the mid-60s percent range, and that 2016 gross margin will be in this range as well. We anticipate that the key factors impacting our gross margin forecast over the next three years include:
      • Continued revenue growth in our existing seller services, driven by both adoption and product enhancements
      • The impact from new seller services that we intend to launch
    • We also expect to gain leverage in our operating cost structure over the next three years, particularly within marketing spend.
      • In 2016, we expect marketing expense as a percent of revenue to decline, but that overall operating expenses as a percent of revenue will increase driven by expenses associated with our new headquarters and with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
    • Finally, from an Adjusted EBITDA margin perspective, we estimate that our margin in 2016 will be comparable to 2015 in the 10-11% range and that it will expand to the high teens range by the end of 2018.

    Webcast and Conference Call Replay Information

    Etsy will host a webcast to discuss these results at 5:30 p.m. ET today. To access the live webcast, please visit the Etsy Investor Relations website, investors.etsy.com and go to the Investor Events section.

    A replay will be available following the live webcast and may be accessed on the same website. A telephonic replay will also be available through midnight ET on March 8, 2016 at (855) 859-2056 or (404) 537-3406; conference ID 44052221.

    About Etsy

    Etsy is a marketplace where millions of people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy unique goods. The Etsy community includes the creative entrepreneurs who sell on our platform, thoughtful consumers looking to buy unique goods in our marketplace, retailers and manufacturers who partner with Etsy sellers to help them grow their businesses, and Etsy employees who maintain our platform and nurture our ecosystem. Our mission is to reimagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world, and we’re committed to using the power of business to strengthen communities and empower people.

    Etsy was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

    Investor Relations Contact:
    Etsy, Jennifer Beugelmans, [email protected]

    Media Relations Contact:
    Etsy, Kelly Clausen, [email protected]

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include information related to our possible or assumed future results of operations and expenses, our financial guidance, our mission, business strategies and plans, business environment and future growth. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “plans,” “should,” “will,” “intends,”  or similar expressions and the negatives of those words.

    Forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expect. These risks and uncertainties include (i) our history of operating losses; (ii) the fluctuation of our quarterly operating results; (iii) adherence to our values and our focus on long-term sustainability, which may negatively influence our short- or medium-term financial performance; (iv) the importance to our success of the trustworthiness of our marketplace and the connections within our community; (v) our ability to expand successfully into markets outside of the United States; (vi) increases in our marketing efforts to help grow our business, which may not be effective at attracting and retaining Etsy sellers and buyers; (vii) our payments system, which depends on third-party providers and is subject to evolving laws and regulations; (viii) our ability to add new members to our community, grow our ecosystem and open new sales channels for Etsysellers; (ix) our ability to develop new offerings to respond to the changing needs of Etsy sellers and buyers; (x) the effectiveness of our mobile solutions for Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers; and (xi) our ability to compete effectively. These risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2015.

    Forward-looking statements represent our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

     

     

    Etsy, Inc.

    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

    (in thousands, unaudited)

    As of
    December 31,
    2014
    As of
    December 31,
    2015
    ASSETS
    Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents $ 69,659 $ 271,244
    Short-term investments 19,184 21,620
    Accounts receivable, net 15,404 20,275
    Prepaid and other current assets 12,241 9,521
    Deferred tax charge—current 17,132
    Funds receivable and seller accounts 10,573 19,262
    Total current assets 127,061 359,054
    Restricted cash 5,341 5,341
    Property and equipment, net 75,538 105,021
    Goodwill 30,831 27,752
    Intangible assets, net 5,410 2,871
    Deferred tax charge—net of current portion 51,396
    Other assets 2,022 1,626
    Total assets $ 246,203 $ 553,061
    LIABILITIES, CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
    Current liabilities:
    Accounts payable $ 8,231 $ 14,382
    Accrued expenses 12,852 31,253
    Capital lease obligations—current 1,755 5,610
    Funds payable and amounts due to sellers 10,573 19,262
    Deferred revenue 3,452 4,712
    Other current liabilities 4,590 4,903
    Total current liabilities 41,453 80,122
    Capital lease obligations—net of current portion 3,148 7,571
    Warrant liability 1,920
    Deferred tax liabilities 149 61,420
    Facility financing obligation 50,320 51,804
    Other liabilities 1,913 21,646
    Total liabilities 98,903 222,563
    Total convertible preferred stock 80,212
    Total stockholders’ equity 67,088 330,498
    Total liabilities, convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity $ 246,203 $ 553,061

     

     

    Etsy, Inc.

    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

    (in thousands except share and per share data, unaudited)

    Three Months Ended
    December 31,
    Year Ended
    December 31,
    2014 2015 2014 2015
    Revenue $ 64,912 $ 87,895 $ 195,591 $ 273,499
    Cost of revenue 22,779 30,196 73,633 96,979
    Gross profit 42,133 57,699 121,958 176,520
    Operating expenses:
    Marketing 14,613 22,476 39,655 66,771
    Product development 9,723 11,207 36,634 42,694
    General and administrative 17,621 15,600 51,920 68,939
    Total operating expenses 41,957 49,283 128,209 178,404
    Income (loss) from operations 176 8,416 (6,251) (1,884)
    Total other expense (2,431) (6,308) (4,009) (26,110)
    (Loss) income before income taxes (2,255) 2,108 (10,260) (27,994)
    Provision for income taxes (3,103) (6,340) (4,983) (26,069)
    Net loss $ (5,358) $ (4,232) $ (15,243) $ (54,063)
    Net loss per share—basic and diluted $ (0.12) $ (0.04) $ (0.38) $ (0.59)
    Weighted average common shares outstanding—basic and diluted 43,177,805 111,677,599 40,246,663 91,122,291

     

     

    Etsy, Inc.

    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

    (in thousands, unaudited)

    Year Ended
    December 31,
    2014 2015
    Cash flows from operating activities
    Net loss $ (15,243) $ (54,063)
    Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:
    Stock-based compensation expense 5,920 8,981
    Stock-based compensation expense-acquisitions 4,130 1,860
    Contribution of stock to Etsy.org 3,200
    Depreciation and amortization expense 17,223 18,550
    Bad debt expense 1,881 1,780
    Foreign exchange loss 3,049 21,775
    Amortization of debt issuance costs 68 167
    Net unrealized loss on warrant and other liabilities 411 3,133
    Loss on disposal of assets 79 1,319
    Amortization of deferred tax charges 17,132
    Excess tax benefit from exercise of stock options (4,877) (3,944)
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions (554) 9,321
    Net cash provided by operating activities 12,087 29,211
    Cash flows from investing activities
    Acquisition of businesses, net of cash acquired (4,688)
    Purchases of property and equipment (1,304) (11,116)
    Development of internal-use software (8,280) (9,719)
    Purchase of U.S. Government and agency bills (21,698) (26,040)
    Sale of marketable securities 20,588 23,592
    Net increase in restricted cash (5,341)
    Net cash used in investing activities (20,723) (23,283)
    Cash flows from financing activities
    Proceeds from public offering 199,467
    Proceeds from the issuance of common stock 35,000
    Proceeds from exercise of stock options 7,956 3,626
    Excess tax benefit from the exercise of stock options 4,877 3,944
    Payments on capitalized lease obligations (1,480) (3,377)
    Deferred payments on acquisition of business (75)
    Payments relating to public offering (1,041) (4,052)
    Net cash provided by financing activities 45,237 199,608
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash (3,737) (3,951)
    Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 32,864 201,585
    Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 36,795 69,659
    Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 69,659 $ 271,244

     

     

    Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    In this press release, we provide Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure that represents our net loss before interest expense, net, provision for income taxes and depreciation and amortization, adjusted to eliminate stock-based compensation expense, net unrealized loss on warrant and other liabilities, foreign exchange loss, other non-operating expense, net, contributions to Etsy.org and acquisition-related expenses. Following is a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

    We have included Adjusted EBITDA in this press release because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to evaluate our operating performance and trends, allocate internal resources, prepare and approve our annual budget, develop short- and long-term operating plans and assess the health of our business. As our Adjusted EBITDA increases, we are able to invest more in our platform. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our business as it removes the impact of certain non-cash items and certain variable charges.

    Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

    • although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not consider the impact of stock-based compensation expense or changes in the fair value of warrants;
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us;
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect acquisition-related expenses;
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not consider the impact of foreign exchange loss;
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect other non-operating expenses, net of other non-operating income, including net interest expense (income);
    • Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the impact of our contributions to Etsy.org; and
    • other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

    Because of these limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net loss and our other GAAP results.

    Etsy is not able, at this time, to provide GAAP targets for net income margin for 2016 and 2016-2018 because of the difficulty of estimating certain items that are excluded from non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin, including interest expense, net, provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, net unrealized loss on warrant and other liabilities, foreign exchange loss, other non-operating expense, net, contributions to Etsy.org and acquisition-related expenses, the effect of which may be significant.

     

    Reconciliation of Net Loss to Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA

    (in thousands, unaudited)

    Three Months Ended
    December 31,
    Year Ended
    December 31,
    2014 2015 2014 2015
    Net loss $ (5,358) $ (4,232) $ (15,243) $ (54,063)
    Excluding:
    Interest and other non-operating expense, net 224 263 549 1,202
    Provision for income taxes (1) 3,103 6,340 4,983 26,069
    Depreciation and amortization 4,731 4,509 17,223 18,550
    Stock-based compensation expense (2) 1,708 2,422 5,920 8,981
    Stock-based compensation expense—acquisitions (2) 2,334 (1,298) 4,130 1,860
    Net unrealized loss (gain) on warrant and other liabilities 172 (3) 411 3,133
    Foreign exchange loss (3) 2,035 6,048 3,049 21,775
    Acquisition-related expenses 349 2,059
    Contribution to Etsy.org (4) 3,500
    Adjusted EBITDA $ 9,298 $ 14,049 $ 23,081 $ 31,007

     

    (1) The provision for income taxes in the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2015 reflects the impact of the revised global corporate structure implemented on January 1, 2015.

    (2) Total stock-based compensation expense included in the consolidated statements of operations is as follows (in thousands):

     

    Three Months Ended
    December 31,
    Year Ended
    December 31,
    2014 2015 2014 2015
    Cost of revenue $ 382 $ 190 $ 1,113 $ 871
    Marketing 85 211 216 560
    Product development 466 879 1,461 2,860
    General and administrative 3,109 (156) 7,260 6,550
    Total stock-based compensation expense $ 4,042 $ 1,124 $ 10,050 $ 10,841

     

    (3) The majority of the foreign exchange loss in the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2015 relates to intercompany debt incurred in connection with Etsy’s revised global corporate structure.

    (4) Etsy made a one-time contribution of 188,235 shares of common stock totaling $3.2 million to Etsy.org during the first quarter of 2015. In addition, Etsy made a one-time cash contribution of$300,000 to Etsy.org during the second quarter of 2015.

     

    To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/etsy-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2015-financial-results-300224883.html

    SOURCE Etsy, Inc.

  • Yelp On Defensive Again, This Time Regarding Wages

    Yelp On Defensive Again, This Time Regarding Wages

    Yelp is no stranger to controversy, and this time it finds itself making headlines after now former employee Talia Jane wrote a lengthy open letter to CEO Jeremy Stoppelman complaining about not being compensated enough.

    Do you think Jane was right to speak out against Yelp the way she did? Let us know what you think.

    In the letter, the 25-year-old customer service worker from Yelp’s Eat24 service discussed many aspects of her personal life and how she can’t afford to keep her car maintained or keep her heat on. She claimed to not be able to buy groceries and that she only eats rice for meals. Much of the letter is about her own struggles, but she projects a similar situation upon her co-workers. Here’s an excerpt:

    Every single one of my coworkers is struggling. They’re taking side jobs, they’re living at home. One of them started a GoFundMe because she couldn’t pay her rent. She ended up leaving the company and moving east, somewhere the minimum wage could double as a living wage. Another wrote on those neat whiteboards we’ve got on every floor begging for help because he was bound to be homeless in two weeks. Fortunately, someone helped him out. At least, I think they did. I actually haven’t seen him in the past few months. Do you think he’s okay? Another guy who got hired, and ultimately let go, was undoubtedly homeless.

    None of this has been confirmed to my knowledge. She does point out some of the benefits she and her co-workers are afforded:

    Let’s talk about those benefits, though. They’re great. I’ve got vision, dental, the normal health insurance stuff — and as far as I can tell, I don’t have to pay for any of it! Except the copays. $20 to see a doctor or get an eye exam or see a therapist or get medication. Twenty bucks each is pretty neat, if spending twenty dollars didn’t determine whether or not you could afford to get to work the next week…

    You can read the whole thing from the tweet below:

    Since posting that, she has been let go from the company. According to Re/code, her post generated so much attention, it was even trending on Twitter in San Francisco.

    On Saturday, Stoppelman addressed the letter and defended himself and the company in a series of five tweets:

    Regarding the second side of the HR story, a spokesperson for Yelp told Re/code the company does not comment on personnel issues.

    In an update to her letter post, Jane confirmed that she was terminated from Yelp and told readers that any help until she finds new employment would be “extremely appreciated,” linking several payment services.

    The post generated hundreds of comments ranging across the entire spectrum of responses you would expect.

    Even since Yelp responded, the story has picked up a great deal of momentum, and throughout the week, Jane has been the subject of a great deal of criticism with people calling her “whiny” and “entitled” and others sticking up for her. It has turned into quite the internet debate of the week.

    Fox News highlighted a letter to her from freelance writer Stefanie Williams, who wrote:

    Work ethic is not something that develops from entitlement. Quite the opposite, in fact. It develops when you realize there are a million other people who could perform your job and you are lucky to have one. It comes from sucking up the bad aspects and focusing on the good and above all it comes from humility. It comes from modesty. And those are two things, based on your article, that you clearly do not possess.

    The letter mentions that Talia Jane had posted an “incredibly expensive bourbon” on her Instagram account:

    Do I like Yelp? Not particularly. Do I like that CEOs make pathetic amounts of money? Not particularly. But turning this girl’s inability to work for what she wants into a conversation about poverty (Poverty! She lives in the Bay Area alone and has a corporate job and can afford fancy bourbon! Not exactly the picture of a third world crisis!) and wage issues, it’s utter bullshit.

    Forbes ran a piece saying:

    People think she spent frivolously. I don’t see it. Maybe she had a few small indulgences, but also remember that people tend to put the shiniest picture of themselves online….Ultimately, she was still being paid minimum wage (or very close to it) so she absolutely could not have indulged much…People think she should have found a cheaper place to live or found a roommate. Look, San Francisco is expensive. Apparently the roommate she was supposed to have flaked. But bedrooms in San Francisco actually are about $1200/month. So she moved 30 miles from work instead. Maybe she could have held for a cheaper option, but then maybe doing that wasn’t an option.

    People think she should have not come to San Francisco, since it’s so expensive. She apparently had a very bad situation pre-move and needed to get out of her city. She came here to move closer to her dad (who she doesn’t have a great relationship with, but would like to). That’s a pretty reasonable decision. Minimum wage isn’t very livable anywhere (and it’s semi-adjusted to cost-of-living), and it makes sense to move somewhere near family.

    CNN used the debate to ask questions like “Are millennials ‘entitled’ or just underpaid?”, if the “American dream” is “achievable,” and “Is San Francisco too expensive?” Answers are only implied.

    It seems that just about everybody who has seen the story has weighed in with their own opinion. What’s yours? Share in the comments.

    Image via Jeremy Stoppelman (Twitter)

  • Groupon’s ‘Stronger Than Expected’ Earnings Out

    Groupon’s ‘Stronger Than Expected’ Earnings Out

    Groupon just reported its financials for Q4 with what the company calls “stronger than expected” results, including a record Black Friday and Cyber Monday period.

    Revenue grew to $917.2 million from $883.2 million in the same quarter in 2014 (up 9% YoY). As the company notes, this is above guidance of $815-865 million and above consensus of $846 million.

    Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.04 in Q4 (above guidance of -$0.01 to $0.01) and consensus of $0.00.

    In North America, the company saw its eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Billings grew 11% year-over-year while revenue grew 13% and units increased 12%. Active customers grew to 25.9 million and active deals increased to nearly 350,000 in North America. They added nearly 650,000 active customers in North America in Q4 – the most added in 5 quarters.

    Worldwide, active customers grew 3% to 48.9 million while active deals grew 97% to about 650,000. This includes the addition of about 70,000 coupons.

    Here’s the release in its entirety:

    CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2015.

    “2015 saw sustained progress toward our vision of making Groupon the daily habit in local commerce,” said CEO Rich Williams. “Following a stronger than expected fourth quarter, we enter 2016 with a continued focus on streamlining our global operations, reducing our reliance on low margin products in our shopping business and rekindling our customer acquisition efforts to set the stage for accelerated growth.”

    Fourth Quarter 2015 Summary

    • Gross billings, which reflect the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, was $1.71 billion in the fourth quarter 2015, compared with $1.72 billion in the fourth quarter 2014. Gross billings declined 1% globally, but grew 4% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter. On this F/X neutral basis, North America billings increased 11%, EMEA declined 2% and Rest of World declined 7%.
    • Revenue was $917.2 million in the fourth quarter 2015, compared with $883.2 million in the fourth quarter 2014. Revenue increased 4% globally, or 9% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter. On this F/X neutral basis, North America revenue increased 13%, EMEA increased 3% and Rest of World declined 8%.
    • Gross profit was $371.7 million in the fourth quarter 2015, compared with $378.1 million in the fourth quarter 2014. Gross profit declined 2% globally, but grew 4% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter.
    • Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $67.0 million in the fourth quarter 2015, compared with $92.9 millionin the fourth quarter 2014.
    • Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $46.5 million, or $0.08 per share. Non-GAAP earnings attributable to common stockholders was $23.3 million, or $0.04 per share.
    • Operating cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2015 was $292.1 million. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $233.5 million in the fourth quarter 2015, bringing free cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2015 to $208.1 million.
    • Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2015 was $853.4 million and we had no outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility.

    Full Year 2015 Summary

    • Gross billings was $6.3 billion in 2015, compared with $6.2 billion in 2014. Gross billings was approximately flat, but grew 8% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year. On this F/X neutral basis, North America billings increased 12%, EMEA increased 3% and Rest of World was approximately flat.
    • Revenue was $3.1 billion in 2015, compared with $3.0 billion in 2014. Revenue grew 3% globally, or 9% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year. On this F/X neutral basis,North America revenue increased 12%, EMEA increased 7% and Rest of World declined 6%.
    • Gross profit was $1.4 billion in 2015, compared with $1.5 billion in 2014. Gross profit declined 5%, but grew 2% excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year.
    • Adjusted EBITDA was $256.8 million in 2015, compared with $262.3 million in 2014.
    • Net earnings attributable to common stockholders were $20.7 million, or $0.03 per share. Earnings per share includes $0.19from discontinued operations, which was driven by the gain on our sale of a controlling stake in Ticket Monster. Non-GAAP earnings attributable to common stockholders was $91.0 million, or $0.14 per share.

    Definitions and reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures are included below in the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and in the accompanying tables.

    Highlights

    • Units: Global units, defined as vouchers and products sold before cancellations and refunds, were approximately flat year-over-year at 62 million for the fourth quarter 2015. North America units increased 12%, EMEA units declined 3% and Rest of World units declined 31%.
    • Active deals: At the end of the fourth quarter 2015, on average, active deals were approximately 650,000 globally, with nearly 350,000 in North America. Both include approximately 70,000 Coupons.
    • Active customers: Active customers, or customers that have purchased a voucher or product within the last twelve months, grew 3% year-over-year, to 48.9 million as of December 31, 2015, comprising 25.9 million in North America, 15.4 million in EMEA, and 7.6 million in Rest of World.
    • Customer spend: Fourth quarter 2015 trailing twelve month billings per average active customer was $130, compared with$137 in the fourth quarter 2014.

    Share Repurchase

    During the fourth quarter 2015, Groupon repurchased 35,326,954 shares of its Class A common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $112.5 million, as of December 31, 2015. Up to $156.8 million of Class A common stock remained available for repurchase under Groupon’s share repurchase program through August 2017. The timing and amount of any share repurchases are determined based on market conditions, share price and other factors, and the programs may be discontinued or suspended at any time.

    Outlook

    Groupon’s outlook for 2016 reflects current foreign exchange rates, as well as expected marketing investments, continued progress on increasing Shopping margins, and a reduction of our international footprint. We continue to expect revenue of between $2.75 and $3.05 billion for the full year, and we are increasing the company’s expected 2016 adjusted EBITDA range to between $80 million and $130 million. Moving forward, we are only providing annual Revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance, which we will update quarterly.

    Conference Call

    A conference call will be webcast live today at 4:00 p.m. CST / 5:00 p.m. EST, and will be available on Groupon’s investor relations website at http://investor.groupon.com. This call will contain forward-looking statements and other material information regarding the Company’s financial and operating results.

    Groupon encourages investors to use its investor relations website as a way of easily finding information about the company.Groupon promptly makes available on this website, free of charge, the reports that the company files or furnishes with the SEC, corporate governance information (including Groupon’s Global Code of Conduct), and select press releases and social media postings. Groupon uses its investor relations site (investor.groupon.com) and its blog (https://www.groupon.com/blog) as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    In addition to financial results reported in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP), we have provided the following non-GAAP financial measures in this release and the accompanying tables: foreign exchange rate neutral operating results, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders, non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow. These non-GAAP financial measures, which are presented on a continuing operations basis, are intended to aid investors in better understanding Groupon’s current financial performance and its prospects for the future as seen through the eyes of management. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures facilitate comparisons with our historical results and with the results of peer companies who present similar measures (although other companies may define non-GAAP measures differently than we define them, even when similar terms are used to identify such measures). However, non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be a substitute for those reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For reconciliations of these measures to the most applicable financial measures under U.S. GAAP, see ”Non-GAAP Reconciliation Schedules” and ”Supplemental Financial Information and Business Metrics” included in the tables accompanying this release.

    We exclude the following items from one or more of our non-GAAP financial measures:

    Stock-based compensation. We exclude stock-based compensation because it is primarily non-cash in nature and we believe that non-GAAP financial measures excluding this item provide meaningful supplemental information about our operating performance and liquidity.

    Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net. Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net is comprised of the change in the fair value of contingent consideration arrangements and external transaction costs related to business combinations, primarily consisting of legal and advisory fees. The composition of our contingent consideration arrangements and the impact of those arrangements on our operating results vary over time based on a number of factors, including the terms of our business combinations and the timing of those transactions. We exclude acquisition-related expense (benefit), net because we believe that non-GAAP financial measures excluding this item provide meaningful supplemental information about our operating performance and facilitate comparisons to our historical operating results.

    Depreciation and amortization. We exclude depreciation and amortization expenses because they are non-cash in nature and we believe that non-GAAP financial measures excluding these items provide meaningful supplemental information about our operating performance and liquidity.

    Interest and Other Non-Operating Items. Interest and other non-operating items include: interest income, interest expense, gains and losses related to minority investments, and foreign currency gains and losses. We exclude interest and other non-operating items from certain of our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that excluding these items provides meaningful supplemental information about our core operating performance and facilitates comparisons to our historical operating results.

    Items That Are Unusual in Nature or Infrequently Occurring. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2015, items that we believe to be unusual in nature or infrequently occurring were (a) charges related to our restructuring program, (b) the gain on our disposition of Groupon India, (c) the write-off of a prepaid asset related to a marketing program that was discontinued because the counterparty ceased operations and (d) the expense related to a significant increase in the contingent liability for our securities litigation matter. We exclude items that are unusual in nature or infrequently occurring because we believe that excluding those items provides meaningful supplemental information about our core operating performance and facilitates comparisons to our historical results.

    Descriptions of the non-GAAP financial measures included in this release and the accompanying tables are as follows:

    Foreign exchange rate neutral operating results show our current period operating results as if foreign currency exchange rates had remained the same as those in effect in the prior-year period. We present foreign exchange rate neutral information to facilitate comparisons to our historical operating results.

    Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net income (loss) from continuing operations excluding income taxes, interest and other non-operating items, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, acquisition-related expense (benefit), net and other items that are unusual in nature or infrequently occurring. Our definition of Adjusted EBITDA may differ from similar measures used by other companies, even when similar terms are used to identify such measures. Adjusted EBITDA is a key measure used by our management and Board of Directors to evaluate operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and Board of Directors.

    Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share adjust our net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and earnings (loss) per share to exclude the impact of:

    • stock-based compensation,
    • amortization of acquired intangible assets,
    • acquisition-related expense (benefit), net,
    • items that are unusual in nature or infrequently occurring,
    • non-operating foreign currency gains and losses related to intercompany balances and reclassifications of cumulative translation adjustments to earnings as a result of business dispositions or country exits,
    • non-operating gains and losses from minority investments that we have elected to record at fair value with changes in fair value reported in earnings,
    • income (loss) from discontinued operations and
    • the income tax effect of those items.

    We believe that excluding these items from our measures of non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share provides useful supplemental information for evaluating our operating performance and facilitates comparisons to our historical results by eliminating items that are non-cash in nature, relate to discrete events or are otherwise not indicative of the core operating performance of our ongoing business.

    Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that comprises net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from continuing operations less purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software from continuing operations. We use free cash flow to conduct and evaluate our business because, although it is similar to cash flow from operations, we believe that it typically represents a more useful measure of cash flows because purchases of fixed assets, software developed for internal-use and website development costs are necessary components of our ongoing operations. Free cash flow is not intended to represent the total increase or decrease in Groupon’s cash balance for the applicable period.

    Note on Forward-Looking Statements

    The statements contained in this release that refer to plans and expectations for the next quarter, the full year or the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed. The words ”may,” will,” should,” ”could,” ”expect,” anticipate,” ”believe,” ”estimate,” intend,” ”continue” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, volatility in our revenue and operating results; risks related to our business strategy, including our strategy to grow our local marketplaces, marketing strategy and spend and the productivity of those marketing investments and the impact of our shift away from lower margin products in our Goods category; effectively dealing with challenges arising from our international operations, including fluctuations in currency exchange rates; retaining existing customers and adding new customers, including as we increase our marketing spend and shift away from lower margin products in our Goods category; retaining and adding high quality merchants; cyber security breaches; incurring expenses as we expand our business; competing successfully in our industry; maintaining favorable payment terms with our business partners; providing a strong mobile experience for our customers; delivery and routing of our emails; product liability claims; managing inventory and order fulfillment risks; integrating our technology platforms; litigation; managing refund risks; retaining, attracting and integrating members of our executive team; difficulties, delays or our inability to successfully complete all or part of the announced restructuring actions or to realize the operating efficiencies and other benefits of such restructuring actions; higher than anticipated restructuring charges or changes in the timing of such restructuring charges; completing and realizing the anticipated benefits from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic investments; tax liabilities; tax legislation; compliance with domestic and foreign laws and regulations, including the CARD Act and regulation of the Internet and e-commerce; classification of our independent contractors; maintaining our information technology infrastructure; protecting our intellectual property; maintaining a strong brand; seasonality; customer and merchant fraud; payment-related risks; our ability to raise capital if necessary and our outstanding indebtedness; global economic uncertainty; the impact of our ongoing strategic review and any potential strategic alternatives we may choose to pursue. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties, we urge you to refer to the factors included under the headings ”Risk Factors” and ”Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the ended December 31, 2015 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained by visiting the company’s Investor Relations web site at http://investor.groupon.com or the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Groupon’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance.

    You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although Groupon believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither the company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements reflect Groupon’s expectations as of February 11, 2016. Groupon undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in its expectations.

    About Groupon

    Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) is a global leader of local commerce and the place you start when you want to buy just about anything, anytime, anywhere. By leveraging the company’s global relationships and scale, Groupon offers consumers a vast marketplace of unbeatable deals all over the world. Shoppers discover the best a city has to offer on the web or on mobile with Groupon Local, enjoy vacations with Groupon Getaways, and find a curated selection of electronics, fashion, home furnishings and more with Groupon Goods.

    Groupon is redefining how traditional small businesses attract, retain and interact with customers by providing merchants with a suite of products and services, including customizable deal campaigns, credit card payment processing capabilities, and point-of-sale solutions that help businesses grow and operate more effectively. To search for great deals or subscribe to Groupon emails, visit www.Groupon.com. To download Groupon’s top-rated mobile apps, visit www.groupon.com/mobile. To learn more about the company’s merchant solutions and how to work with Groupon, visit www.GrouponWorks.com

    Groupon, Inc.
    Summary Consolidated and Segment Results
    (in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
    (unaudited)
    The financial results of Ticket Monster, including the gain on disposition and related tax effects, are presented as discontinued operations in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements and tables for the three months and year endedDecember 31, 2015. Additionally, the assets and liabilities of Ticket Monster are presented as held for sale in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014. All prior period financial information and operational metrics have been retrospectively adjusted to reflect this presentation.
    Three Months Ended Year Ended
    December 31, December 31,
    Y/Y % Growth Y/Y % Growth
    FX Effect excluding FX Effect excluding
    2015 2014 Y/Y % Growth (2) FX (2) 2015 2014 Y/Y % Growth (2) FX (2)
    Gross Billings(1):
    North America $ 1,050,361 $ 948,579 10.7 % $ (1,511 ) 10.9 % $ 3,709,797 $ 3,303,479 12.3 % $ (5,415 ) 12.5 %
    EMEA 487,147 560,541 (13.1 ) (61,482 ) (2.1 ) 1,794,354 2,046,807 (12.3 ) (317,640 ) 3.2
    Rest of World 169,484 215,549 (21.4 ) (31,574 ) (6.7 ) 751,389 887,546 (15.3 ) (132,679 ) (0.4 )
    Consolidated gross billings $ 1,706,992 $ 1,724,669 (1.0 ) % $ (94,567 ) 4.5 % $ 6,255,540 $ 6,237,832 0.3 % $ (455,734 ) 7.6 %
    Revenue:
    North America $ 622,647 $ 550,974 13.0 % $ (408 ) 13.1 % $ 2,047,742 $ 1,824,461 12.2 % $ (1,351 ) 12.3 %
    EMEA 248,326 272,475 (8.9 ) (33,198 ) 3.3 867,880 961,130 (9.7 ) (157,892 ) 6.7
    Rest of World 46,197 59,779 (22.7 ) (8,785 ) (8.0 ) 203,894 256,532 (20.5 ) (36,932 ) (6.1 )
    Consolidated revenue $ 917,170 $ 883,228 3.8 % $ (42,391 ) 8.6 % $ 3,119,516 $ 3,042,123 2.5 % $ (196,175 ) 9.0 %
    Income (loss) from operations $ (5,423 ) $ 33,640 (116.1 ) % $ (2,742 ) (108.0 ) % $ (79,777 ) $ 30,701 (359.9 ) % $ (2,064 ) (353.1 ) %
    Income (loss) from continuing operations (32,552 ) 26,566 (89,171 ) (18,473 )
    Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax (3) (10,613 ) (15,182 ) 122,850 (45,446 )
    Net income (loss) attributable toGroupon, Inc. $ (46,528 ) $ 8,788 $ 20,668 $ (73,090 )
    Basic net income (loss) per share:
    Continuing operations $ (0.06 ) $ 0.04 $ (0.16 ) $ (0.04 )
    Discontinued operations (0.02 ) (0.03 ) 0.19 (0.07 )
    Basic net income (loss) per share $ (0.08 ) $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ (0.11 )
    Diluted net income (loss) per share:
    Continuing operations $ (0.06 ) $ 0.04 $ (0.16 ) $ (0.04 )
    Discontinued operations (0.02 ) (0.03 ) 0.19 (0.07 )
    Diluted net income (loss) per share $ (0.08 ) $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ (0.11 )
    Weighted average number of shares outstanding
    Basic 607,517,010 671,885,967 650,106,225 674,832,393
    Diluted 607,517,010 681,543,847 650,106,225 674,832,393
    (1) Represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds.
    (2) Represents the change in financial measures that would have resulted had average exchange rates in the reporting periods been the same as those in effect during the three months and year ended December 31, 2014.
    (3) The $10.6 million loss presented within income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax, for the three months endedDecember 31, 2015 represents additional income tax expense attributed to discontinued operations, which resulted from the valuation allowance that was recognized during the period against the Company’s net deferred tax assets in the United States.
    Groupon, Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
    (in thousands)
    (unaudited)
    Three Months Ended December 31, Year Ended December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    Operating activities
    Net income (loss) $ (43,165 ) $ 11,384 $ 33,679 $ (63,919 )
    Less: Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax (10,613 ) (15,182 ) 122,850 (45,446 )
    Income (loss) from continuing operations (32,552 ) 26,566 (89,171 ) (18,473 )
    Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities:
    Depreciation and amortization of property, equipment and software 28,807 25,414 113,048 94,145
    Amortization of acquired intangible assets 4,956 4,708 19,922 20,896
    Stock-based compensation 32,865 29,961 142,069 115,290
    Restructuring-related long-lived asset impairments 6,922 7,267
    Gain on disposition of business (13,710 )
    Deferred income taxes 6,267 (9,168 ) (8,985 ) (11,124 )
    Excess tax benefits on stock-based compensation (1,431 ) (3,407 ) (7,629 ) (15,980 )
    Loss on equity method investments 459
    Gain (loss) from changes in fair value of contingent consideration 508 (1,385 ) 240 (2,444 )
    Loss from changes in fair value of investments 829 2,943
    Impairments of investments 2,036
    Change in assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions:
    Restricted cash 75 (491 ) 4,630 7,195
    Accounts receivable 6,960 10,280 13,313 (16,277 )
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets 61,358 36,816 21,545 13,933
    Accounts payable 9,545 (1,073 ) 8,601 (14,046 )
    Accrued merchant and supplier payables 142,069 155,991 40,217 54,921
    Accrued expenses and other current liabilities (1,174 ) 11,117 56,040 (9,986 )
    Other, net (16,980 ) (12,057 ) (18,222 ) 31,952
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from continuing operations 249,024 273,272 292,118 252,497
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from discontinued operations (670 ) 13,550 (37,248 ) 36,327
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 248,354 286,822 254,870 288,824
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities from continuing operations (31,238 ) (35,175 ) (177,250 ) (152,818 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities from discontinued operations (714 ) 244,470 (76,638 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities (31,238 ) (35,889 ) 67,220 (229,456 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (322,166 ) (21,088 ) (508,156 ) (194,156 )
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents, including cash classified within current assets held for sale (5,147 ) (13,100 ) (32,485 ) (33,771 )
    Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents, including cash classified within current assets held for sale (110,197 ) 216,745 (218,551 ) (168,559 )
    Less: Net increase (decrease) in cash classified within current assets held for sale 11,955 (55,279 ) 55,279
    Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (110,197 ) 204,790 (163,272 ) (223,838 )
    Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 963,559 811,844 1,016,634 1,240,472
    Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 853,362 $ 1,016,634 $ 853,362 $ 1,016,634
    Groupon, Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
    (in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
    (unaudited)
    Three Months EndedDecember 31, Year Ended December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    Revenue:
    Third party and other $ 345,260 $ 367,902 $ 1,372,533 $ 1,501,011
    Direct 571,910 515,326 1,746,983 1,541,112
    Total revenue 917,170 883,228 3,119,516 3,042,123
    Cost of revenue:
    Third party and other 43,640 49,725 188,932 203,058
    Direct 501,790 455,394 1,545,519 1,373,756
    Total cost of revenue 545,430 505,119 1,734,451 1,576,814
    Gross profit 371,740 378,109 1,385,065 1,465,309
    Operating expenses:
    Marketing 83,208 59,812 254,335 241,954
    Selling, general and administrative 287,976 285,466 1,192,792 1,191,385
    Restructuring charges 5,422 29,568
    Gain on disposition of business (13,710 )
    Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net 557 (809 ) 1,857 1,269
    Total operating expenses 377,163 344,469 1,464,842 1,434,608
    Income (loss) from operations (5,423 ) 33,640 (79,777 ) 30,701
    Other income (expense), net (1) (3,393 ) (11,531 ) (28,539 ) (33,450 )
    Income (loss) from continuing operations before provision (benefit) for income taxes (8,816 ) 22,109 (108,316 ) (2,749 )
    Provision (benefit) for income taxes 23,736 (4,457 ) (19,145 ) 15,724
    Income (loss) from continuing operations (32,552 ) 26,566 (89,171 ) (18,473 )
    Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax (10,613 ) (15,182 ) 122,850 (45,446 )
    Net income (loss) (43,165 ) 11,384 33,679 (63,919 )
    Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests (3,363 ) (2,596 ) (13,011 ) (9,171 )
    Net income (loss) attributable to Groupon, Inc. $ (46,528 ) $ 8,788 $ 20,668 $ (73,090 )
    Basic net income (loss) per share:
    Continuing operations $ (0.06 ) $ 0.04 $ (0.16 ) $ (0.04 )
    Discontinued operations (0.02 ) (0.03 ) 0.19 (0.07 )
    Basic net income (loss) per share $ (0.08 ) $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ (0.11 )
    Diluted net income (loss) per share:
    Continuing operations $ (0.06 ) $ 0.04 $ (0.16 ) $ (0.04 )
    Discontinued operations (0.02 ) (0.03 ) 0.19 (0.07 )
    Diluted net income (loss) per share $ (0.08 ) $ 0.01 $ 0.03 $ (0.11 )
    Weighted average number of shares outstanding
    Basic 607,517,010 671,885,967 650,106,225 674,832,393
    Diluted 607,517,010 681,543,847 650,106,225 674,832,393
    (1) Other income (expense), net includes foreign currency losses of $1.7 million and $11.4 million for the three months endedDecember 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively, and foreign currency losses of $23.8 million and $31.5 million for the year endedDecember 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
    Groupon, Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
    December 31,
    2015 2014
    Assets
    Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents $ 853,362 $ 1,016,634
    Accounts receivable, net 68,175 90,597
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets 153,705 192,382
    Current assets held for sale 85,445
    Total current assets 1,075,242 1,385,058
    Property, equipment and software, net 198,897 176,004
    Goodwill 287,332 236,756
    Intangible assets, net 36,483 30,609
    Investments (including $163.7 million and $7.4 million at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, at fair value) 178,236 24,298
    Deferred income taxes 3,454 57,594
    Other non-current assets 16,620 16,173
    Non-current assets held for sale 301,105
    Total Assets $ 1,796,264 $ 2,227,597
    Liabilities and Equity
    Current liabilities:
    Accounts payable $ 24,590 $ 13,822
    Accrued merchant and supplier payables 776,211 772,156
    Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 402,724 341,381
    Current liabilities held for sale 166,239
    Total current liabilities 1,203,525 1,293,598
    Deferred income taxes 8,612 32,771
    Other non-current liabilities 113,540 129,531
    Non-current liabilities held for sale 6,753
    Total Liabilities 1,325,677 1,462,653
    Commitments and contingencies (see Note 10)
    Stockholders’ Equity
    Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 2,000,000,000 shares authorized, 717,387,446 shares issued and 588,919,281 shares outstanding at December 31, 2015 and 699,008,084 shares issued and 671,768,980 shares outstanding at December 31, 2014 72 70
    Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 10,000,000 shares authorized, 2,399,976 shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014
    Common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 2,010,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014
    Additional paid-in capital 1,964,453 1,847,420
    Treasury stock, at cost, 128,468,165 shares at December 31, 2015 and 27,239,104 shares atDecember 31, 2014 (645,041 ) (198,467 )
    Accumulated deficit (901,292 ) (921,960 )
    Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 51,206 35,763
    Total Groupon, Inc. Stockholders’ Equity 469,398 762,826
    Noncontrolling interests 1,189 2,118
    Total Equity 470,587 764,944
    Total Liabilities and Equity $ 1,796,264 $ 2,227,597
    Groupon, Inc.
    Segment Information
    (in thousands)
    (unaudited)
    Three Months Ended December 31, Year Ended December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    North America
    Gross billings (1) $ 1,050,361 $ 948,579 $ 3,709,797 $ 3,303,479
    Revenue 622,647 550,974 2,047,742 1,824,461
    Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses (2)(3)(4) 625,171 520,140 2,029,643 1,755,113
    Segment operating income (loss) (2) $ (2,524 ) $ 30,834 $ 18,099 $ 69,348
    Segment operating income (loss) as a percent of segment gross billings (0.2 )% 3.3 % 0.5 % 2.1 %
    Segment operating income (loss) as a percent of segment revenue (0.4 )% 5.6 % 0.9 % 3.8 %
    EMEA
    Gross billings (1) $ 487,147 $ 560,541 $ 1,794,354 $ 2,046,807
    Revenue 248,326 272,475 867,880 961,130
    Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses (2)(4)(5) 211,443 237,468 797,786 857,062
    Segment operating income (2) $ 36,883 $ 35,007 $ 70,094 $ 104,068
    Segment operating income as a percent of segment gross billings 7.6 % 6.2 % 3.9 % 5.1 %
    Segment operating income as a percent of segment revenue 14.9 % 12.8 % 8.1 % 10.8 %
    Rest of World
    Gross billings (1) $ 169,484 $ 215,549 $ 751,389 $ 887,546
    Revenue 46,197 59,779 203,894 256,532
    Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses (2)(4) 52,731 62,828 228,273 282,688
    Segment operating loss (2) $ (6,534 ) $ (3,049 ) $ (24,379 ) $ (26,156 )
    Segment operating loss as a percent of segment gross billings (3.9 )% (1.4 )% (3.2 )% (2.9 )%
    Segment operating loss as a percent of segment revenue (14.1 )% (5.1 )% (12.0 )% (10.2 )%
    (1) Represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds.
    (2) Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses and segment operating income (loss) exclude stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense (benefit), net.
    (3) Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses for North America for the year ended December 31, 2015 includes a $37.5 million expense related to an increase in the Company’s contingent liability for its securities litigation matter.
    (4) Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2015 includes restructuring charges (credits) of $9.1 million in North America, $(3.6) million in EMEA and $(0.1) million in Rest of World. Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2015 includes restructuring charges of $10.5 million inNorth America, $16.1 million in EMEA and $3.0 million in Rest of World.
    (5) Segment cost of revenue and operating expenses for EMEA for the year ended December 31, 2015 includes a $6.7 millionexpense for the write-off of a prepaid asset related to a marketing program that was discontinued because the counterparty ceased operations.
    Groupon, Inc.
    Non-GAAP Reconciliation Schedules
    (in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
    (unaudited)
    Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP earnings attributable to common stockholders and non-GAAP earnings per share are non-GAAP financial measures. The Company reconciles Adjusted EBITDA to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, “Net income (loss) from continuing operations” for the periods presented and the Company reconciles non-GAAP earnings per share to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, “Diluted net income (loss) per share,” for the periods presented.
    The following is a quarterly reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, “Income (loss) from continuing operations.”
    Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
    Income (loss) from continuing operations $ 26,566 $ (16,739) $ (15,267) $ (24,613) $ (32,552)
    Adjustments:
    Stock-based compensation (1) 29,961 35,144 38,467 35,432 32,691
    Depreciation and amortization 30,122 32,200 31,372 35,635 33,763
    Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net (809) (269) 505 1,064 557
    Restructuring charges 24,146 5,422
    Gain on disposition of business (13,710)
    Prepaid marketing write-off 6,690
    Securities litigation expense 37,500
    Non-operating expense (income), net 11,531 19,927 (2,941) 8,160 3,393
    Provision (benefit) for income taxes (4,457) 2,107 8,982 (53,970) 23,736
    Total adjustments 66,348 89,109 76,385 80,947 99,562
    Adjusted EBITDA $ 92,914 $ 72,370 $ 61,118 $ 56,334 $ 67,010
    (1) Includes stock-based compensation recorded within cost of revenue, marketing expense, and selling, general and administrative expense. Non-operating expense (income), net, includes $0.02 million, $0.1 million and $0.2 million of additional stock-based compensation for the three months ended June 30, 2015, three months ended September 30, 2015and three months ended December 31, 2015, respectively.
    The following is a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, “Net income (loss) from continuing operations” for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014:
    Year Ended December 31,
    2015 2014
    Income (loss) from continuing operations $ (89,171 ) $ (18,473 )
    Adjustments:
    Stock-based compensation (1) 141,734 115,290
    Depreciation and amortization 132,970 115,041
    Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net 1,857 1,269
    Restructuring charges 29,568
    Gain on disposition of business (13,710 )
    Prepaid marketing write-off 6,690
    Securities litigation expense 37,500
    Non-operating expense (income), net 28,539 33,450
    Provision (benefit) for income taxes (19,145 ) 15,724
    Total adjustments 346,003 280,774
    Adjusted EBITDA $ 256,832 $ 262,301
    (1) Includes stock-based compensation recorded within cost of revenue, marketing expense, and selling, general and administrative expense. Non-operating expense (income), net, includes $0.3 million of additional stock-based compensation for the year ended December 31, 2015.
    The following is a reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders to non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and a reconciliation of diluted net income (loss) per share to non-GAAP net income (loss) per share for the three months and year ended December 31, 2015:
    Three Months Ended Year Ended
    December 31, 2015 December 31, 2015
    Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders $ (46,528 ) $ 20,668
    Stock-based compensation 32,865 142,069
    Amortization of acquired intangible assets 4,956 19,922
    Acquisition-related expense (benefit), net 557 1,857
    Restructuring charges 5,422 29,568
    Gain on disposition of business (13,710 )
    Prepaid marketing write-off 6,690
    Securities litigation expense 37,500
    Intercompany foreign currency losses (gains) and reclassifications of translation adjustments to earnings (1) (400 ) 20,266
    Loss from changes in fair value of investments 829 2,943
    Income tax effect of above adjustments 14,979 (53,953 )
    Loss (income) from discontinued operations, net of tax 10,613 (122,850 )
    Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders $ 23,293 $ 90,970
    Diluted shares 607,517,010 650,106,225
    Incremental diluted shares 6,367,291 6,854,909
    Adjusted diluted shares 613,884,301 656,961,134
    Diluted net income (loss) per share (2) $ (0.08 ) $ 0.03
    Impact of stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expense (benefit), net, intercompany foreign currency losses (gains), items that are unusual in nature and infrequently occurring, income (loss) from discontinued operations and related tax effects 0.12 0.11
    Non-GAAP net income (loss) per share $ 0.04 $ 0.14
    (1) For the three months and year ended December 31, 2015, a $3.7 million net cumulative translation adjustment gain was reclassified to earnings as a result of the Company’s exit from certain countries as part of its restructuring plan. For the year ended December 31, 2015, a $4.4 million loss related to the cumulative translation adjustment from the Company’s legacy business in the Republic of Korea was reclassified to earnings as a result of the Ticket Monster disposition.
    (2) The sum of per share amounts for quarterly periods may not equal year-to-date amounts due to rounding.
    Foreign exchange rate neutral operating results are non-GAAP financial measures. The Company reconciles foreign exchange rate neutral operating results to the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures, “Gross billings,” “Revenue” and “Income (loss) from continuing operations,” respectively, for the periods presented. The Company reconciles “foreign exchange rate neutral Gross billings growth” and “foreign exchange rate neutral Revenue growth” to year-over-year growth rates for the most comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures, “Gross billings growth” and “Revenue growth,” respectively, for the periods presented.
    The effect on the Company’s gross billings, revenue and income (loss) from changes in exchange rates versus the U.S. Dollar for the three months ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Three Months Ended December 31, 2015 Three Months Ended December 31, 2015
    At Avg. Q4 2014 Exchange Rate As At Avg. Q3 2015 Exchange Rate As
    Rates (1) Effect (2) Reported Rates (3) Effect (2) Reported
    Gross billings $ 1,801,559 $ (94,567 ) $ 1,706,992 $ 1,721,580 $ (14,588 ) $ 1,706,992
    Revenue 959,561 (42,391 ) 917,170 923,903 (6,733 ) 917,170
    Income (loss) from operations $ (2,681 ) $ (2,742 ) $ (5,423 ) $ (4,620 ) $ (803 ) $ (5,423 )
    The effect on the Company’s gross billings, revenue and income (loss) from operations from changes in exchange rates versus theU.S. Dollar for the year ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Year Ended December 31, 2015 Year Ended December 31, 2015
    At Avg. Q4 At Avg. Q4’14-
    2014 YTD Exchange Rate As Q3’15 Exchange Rate As
    Rates (1) Effect (2) Reported Rates (3) Effect (2) Reported
    Gross billings $ 6,711,274 $ (455,734 ) $ 6,255,540 $ 6,346,012 $ (90,472 ) $ 6,255,540
    Revenue 3,315,691 (196,175 ) 3,119,516 3,158,228 (38,712 ) 3,119,516
    Income (loss) from operations $ (77,713 ) $ (2,064 ) $ (79,777 ) $ (78,679 ) $ (1,098 ) $ (79,777 )
    (1) Represents the financial statement balances that would have resulted had average exchange rates in the reporting periods been the same as those in effect during the three months and year ended December 31, 2014.
    (2) Represents the increase or decrease in reported amounts resulting from changes in exchange rates from those in effect in the comparable prior periods.
    (3) Represents the financial statement balances that would have resulted had average exchange rates in the reporting periods been the same as those in effect during the three and twelve months ended September 30, 2015.
    The following is a quarterly reconciliation of foreign exchange rate neutral Gross billings growth from the comparable quarterly periods of the prior year to reported Gross billings growth from the comparable quarterly periods of the prior year.
    Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
    EMEA Gross billings growth, excluding FX 8 % 7 % 9 % (1 ) % (2 ) %
    FX Effect (9 ) (18 ) (19 ) (14 ) (11 )
    EMEA Gross billings growth (1 ) % (11 ) % (10 ) % (15 ) % (13 ) %
    Rest of World Gross billings growth, excluding FX % (1 ) % 6 % % (7 ) %
    FX Effect (10 ) (11 ) (15 ) (19 ) (14 )
    Rest of World Gross billings growth (10 ) % (12 ) % (9 ) % (19 ) % (21 ) %
    Consolidated Gross billings growth, excluding FX 13 % 10 % 10 % 6 % 4 %
    FX Effect (5 ) (8 ) (8 ) (8 ) (5 )
    Consolidated Gross billings growth 8 % 2 % 2 % (2 ) % (1 ) %
    The following is a quarterly reconciliation of foreign exchange rate neutral Revenue growth from the comparable quarterly periods of the prior year to reported Revenue growth from the comparable quarterly periods of the prior year.
    Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
    EMEA Revenue growth, excluding FX 18 % 13 % 9 % 2 % 3 %
    FX Effect (10 ) (19 ) (19 ) (15 ) (12 )
    EMEA Revenue growth 8 % (6 ) % (10 ) % (13 ) % (9 ) %
    Rest of World Revenue growth, excluding FX (9 ) % (8 ) % (4 ) % (5 ) % (8 ) %
    FX Effect (10 ) (10 ) (14 ) (18 ) (15 )
    Rest of World Revenue growth (19 ) % (18 ) % (18 ) % (23 ) % (23 ) %
    Consolidated Revenue growth, excluding FX 19 % 10 % 11 % 7 % 9 %
    FX Effect (4 ) (7 ) (8 ) (7 ) (5 )
    Consolidated Revenue growth 15 % 3 % 3 % % 4 %
    The effect on North America’s gross billings by category from changes in foreign exchange rates versus the U.S. Dollar for the three months ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Exchange
    At Avg. Q4 Rate December 31, 2015 December 31, 2014 Y/Y % Y/Y% Growth
    2014 Rates (1) Effect (2) As Reported As Reported Growth excluding FX
    Local:
    Third party and other $ 532,015 $ (861 ) $ 531,154 $ 499,250 6.4 % 6.6 %
    Travel:
    Third party 89,589 (200 ) 89,389 80,296 11.3 % 11.6 %
    Total services 621,604 (1,061 ) 620,543 579,546 7.1 % 7.3 %
    Goods:
    Third party 13,401 (450 ) 12,951 8,277 56.5 % 61.9 %
    Direct 416,867 416,867 360,756 15.6 15.6
    Total 430,268 (450 ) 429,818 369,033 16.5 % 16.6
    Total gross billings $ 1,051,872 $ (1,511 ) $ 1,050,361 $ 948,579 10.7 % 10.9 %
    The effect on EMEA’s gross billings by category from changes in foreign exchange rates versus the U.S. Dollar for the three months ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Exchange
    At Avg. Q4 Rate December 31, 2015 December 31, 2014 Y/Y % Y/Y% Growth
    2014 Rates (1) Effect (2) As Reported As Reported Growth excluding FX
    Local:
    Third party and other $ 219,817 $ (22,372 ) $ 197,445 $ 242,119 (18.5 ) % (9.2 ) %
    Travel:
    Third party 68,439 $ (8,603 ) 59,836 72,710 (17.7 ) % (5.9 ) %
    Total services 288,256 (30,975 ) 257,281 314,829 (18.3 ) % (8.4 ) %
    Goods:
    Third party 92,612 (9,317 ) 83,295 99,710 (16.5 ) % (7.1 ) %
    Direct 167,761 (21,190 ) 146,571 146,002 0.4 14.9
    Total 260,373 (30,507 ) 229,866 245,712 (6.4 ) % 6.0 %
    Total gross billings $ 548,629 $ (61,482 ) $ 487,147 $ 560,541 (13.1 ) % (2.1 ) %
    The effect on Rest of World’s gross billings by category from changes in foreign exchange rates versus the U.S. Dollar for the three months ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Exchange
    At Avg. Q4 Rate December 31, 2015 December 31, 2014 Y/Y % Y/Y% Growth
    2014 Rates (1) Effect (2) As Reported As Reported Growth excluding FX
    Local:
    Third party and other $ 99,590 $ (16,160 ) $ 83,430 $ 105,420 (20.9 ) % (5.5 ) %
    Travel:
    Third party 31,010 $ (5,641 ) 25,369 32,313 (21.5 ) % (4.0 ) %
    Total services 130,600 (21,801 ) 108,799 137,733 (21.0 ) % (5.2 ) %
    Goods:
    Third party 60,357 (8,144 ) 52,213 69,248 (24.6 ) % (12.8 ) %
    Direct 10,101 (1,629 ) 8,472 8,568 (1.1 ) 17.9
    Total 70,458 (9,773 ) 60,685 77,816 (22.0 ) % (9.5 ) %
    Total gross billings $ 201,058 $ (31,574 ) $ 169,484 $ 215,549 (21.4 ) % (6.7 ) %
    The effect on consolidated gross billings by category from changes in foreign exchange rates versus the U.S. Dollar for the three months ended December 31, 2015 was as follows:
    Exchange
    At Avg. Q4 Rate December 31, 2015 December 31, 2014 Y/Y % Y/Y% Growth
    2014 Rates (1) Effect (2) As Reported As Reported Growth excluding FX
    Local:
    Third party and other $ 851,422 $ (39,393) $ 812,029 $ 846,789 (4.1) % 0.5 %
    Travel:
    Third party $ 189,038 $ (14,444) 174,594 185,319 (5.8) % 2.0 %
    Total services 1,040,460 (53,837) 986,623 1,032,108 (4.4) % 0.8 %
    Goods:
    Third party 166,370 (17,911) 148,459 177,235 (16.2) % (6.1) %
    Direct 594,729 (22,819) 571,910 515,326 11.0 15.4
    Total 761,099 (40,730) 720,369 692,561 4.0 % 9.9 %
    Total gross billings $ 1,801,559 $ (94,567) $ 1,706,992 $ 1,724,669 (1.0) % 4.5 %
    (1) Represents the financial statement balances that would have resulted had average exchange rates in the reporting period been the same as those in effect during the three months ended December 31, 2014.
    (2) Represents the increase or decrease in reported amounts resulting from changes in exchange rates from those in effect in the comparable prior year period.
    Groupon, Inc.
    Supplemental Financial Information and Business Metrics (9) (10)
    (financial data in thousands; active customers in millions)
    (unaudited)
    Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
    Segments
    North America Segment:
    Gross Billings (1):
    Local (2) Gross Billings $ 499,250 $ 512,558 $ 499,378 $ 481,608 $ 531,154
    Travel Gross Billings 80,296 96,678 102,908 101,801 89,389
    Gross Billings – Services 579,546 609,236 602,286 583,409 620,543
    Gross Billings – Goods 369,033 284,741 293,970 285,794 429,818
    Total Gross Billings $ 948,579 $ 893,977 $ 896,256 $ 869,203 $ 1,050,361
    Year-over-year growth 20 % 14 % 12 % 12 % 11 %
    % Third Party and Other 62 % 69 % 68 % 68 % 60 %
    % Direct 38 % 31 % 32 % 32 % 40 %
    Gross Billings Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) $ 3,303,479 $ 3,415,687 $ 3,513,098 $ 3,608,015 $ 3,709,797
    Revenue (3):
    Local Revenue $ 170,946 $ 180,864 $ 172,461 $ 163,786 $ 184,201
    Travel Revenue 17,165 19,989 21,958 21,394 18,390
    Revenue – Services 188,111 200,853 194,419 185,180 202,591
    Revenue – Goods 362,863 279,029 286,863 278,751 420,056
    Total Revenue $ 550,974 $ 479,882 $ 481,282 $ 463,931 $ 622,647
    Year-over-year growth 24 % 11 % 14 % 11 % 13 %
    % Third Party and Other 35 % 42 % 41 % 40 % 33 %
    % Direct 65 % 58 % 59 % 60 % 67 %
    Revenue TTM $ 1,824,461 $ 1,873,281 $ 1,930,632 $ 1,976,069 $ 2,047,742
    Gross Profit (4):
    Local Gross Profit $ 147,582 $ 154,776 $ 147,574 $ 138,798 $ 159,745
    % of North America Local Gross Billings 29.6 % 30.2 % 29.6 % 28.8 % 30.1 %
    Travel Gross Profit 14,187 15,791 18,385 17,644 15,207
    % of North America Travel Gross Billings 17.7 % 16.3 % 17.9 % 17.3 % 17.0 %
    Gross Profit – Services 161,769 170,567 165,959 156,442 174,952
    % of North America Services Gross Billings 27.9 % 28.0 % 27.6 % 26.8 % 28.2 %
    Gross Profit – Goods 34,404 23,923 30,598 34,801 44,329
    % of North America Goods Gross Billings 9.3 % 8.4 % 10.4 % 12.2 % 10.3 %
    Total Gross Profit $ 196,173 $ 194,490 $ 196,557 $ 191,243 $ 219,281
    Year-over-year growth 13 % 8 % 9 % 9 % 12 %
    % Third Party and Other 83 % 88 % 85 % 83 % 81 %
    % Direct 17 % 12 % 15 % 17 % 19 %
    % of North America Total Gross Billings 20.7 % 21.8 % 21.9 % 22.0 % 20.9 %
    EMEA Segment:
    Gross Billings:
    Local Gross Billings $ 242,119 $ 217,598 $ 198,553 $ 182,540 $ 197,445
    Travel Gross Billings 72,710 65,065 59,544 64,916 59,836
    Gross Billings – Services 314,829 282,663 258,097 247,456 257,281
    Gross Billings – Goods 245,712 176,526 175,439 167,026 229,866
    Total Gross Billings $ 560,541 $ 459,189 $ 433,536 $ 414,482 $ 487,147
    Year-over-year growth (1 ) % (11 ) % (10 ) % (15 ) % (13 ) %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX (5) 8 % 7 % 9 % (1 ) % (2 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 74 % 77 % 76 % 75 % 70 %
    % Direct 26 % 23 % 24 % 25 % 30 %
    Gross Billings TTM $ 2,046,807 $ 1,992,408 $ 1,942,689 $ 1,867,748 $ 1,794,354
    Revenue:
    Local Revenue $ 95,572 $ 82,536 $ 75,543 $ 70,781 $ 73,225
    Travel Revenue 16,321 14,717 13,100 13,561 11,681
    Revenue – Services 111,893 97,253 88,643 84,342 84,906
    Revenue – Goods 160,582 118,967 115,404 114,945 163,420
    Total Revenue $ 272,475 $ 216,220 $ 204,047 $ 199,287 $ 248,326
    Year-over-year growth 8 % (6 ) % (10 ) % (13 ) % 9 %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX 18 % 13 % 9 % 2 % 3 %
    % Third Party and Other 46 % 51 % 48 % 48 % 41 %
    % Direct 54 % 49 % 52 % 52 % 59 %
    Revenue TTM $ 961,130 $ 946,457 $ 922,814 $ 892,029 $ 867,880
    Gross Profit:
    Local Gross Profit $ 90,150 $ 77,356 $ 70,270 $ 66,288 $ 68,966
    % of EMEA Local Gross Billings 37.2 % 35.5 % 35.4 % 36.3 % 34.9 %
    Travel Gross Profit 15,226 12,400 11,939 12,323 10,732
    % of EMEA Travel Gross Billings 20.9 % 19.1 % 20.1 % 19.0 % 17.9 %
    Gross Profit – Services 105,376 89,756 82,209 78,611 79,698
    % of EMEA Services Gross Billings 33.5 % 31.8 % 31.9 % 31.8 % 31.0 %
    Gross Profit – Goods 38,154 25,481 21,878 24,905 43,026
    % of EMEA Goods Gross Billings 15.5 % 14.4 % 12.5 % 14.9 % 18.7 %
    Total Gross Profit $ 143,530 $ 115,237 $ 104,087 $ 103,516 $ 122,724
    Year-over-year growth (6 ) % (18 ) % (26 ) % (21 ) % (14 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 82 % 87 % 86 % 86 % 77 %
    % Direct 18 % 13 % 14 % 14 % 23 %
    % of EMEA Total Gross Billings 25.6 % 25.1 % 24.0 % 25.0 % 25.2 %
    Rest of World Segment:
    Gross Billings:
    Local Gross Billings $ 105,420 $ 99,735 $ 100,403 $ 92,972 $ 83,430
    Travel Gross Billings 32,313 32,946 31,263 30,709 25,369
    Gross Billings – Services 137,733 132,681 131,666 123,681 108,799
    Gross Billings – Goods 77,816 66,154 67,555 60,168 60,685
    Total Gross Billings $ 215,549 $ 198,835 $ 199,221 $ 183,849 $ 169,484
    Year-over-year growth (10 ) % (12 ) % (9 ) % (19 ) % (21 ) %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX % (1 ) % 6 % % (7 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 96 % 98 % 97 % 96 % 95 %
    % Direct 4 % 2 % 3 % 4 % 5 %
    Gross Billings TTM $ 887,546 $ 861,032 $ 840,243 $ 797,454 $ 751,389
    Revenue:
    Local Revenue $ 32,264 $ 30,281 $ 28,499 $ 26,372 $ 22,229
    Travel Revenue 5,757 6,495 6,363 6,135 5,098
    Revenue – Services 38,021 36,776 34,862 32,507 27,327
    Revenue – Goods 21,758 17,478 18,204 17,870 18,870
    Total Revenue $ 59,779 $ 54,254 $ 53,066 $ 50,377 $ 46,197
    Year-over-year growth (19 ) % (18 ) % (18 ) % (23 ) % (23 ) %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX (9 ) % (8 ) % (4 ) % (5 ) % (8 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 86 % 91 % 87 % 86 % 82 %
    % Direct 14 % 9 % 13 % 14 % 18 %
    Revenue TTM $ 256,532 $ 244,326 $ 232,802 $ 217,476 $ 203,894
    Gross Profit:
    Local Gross Profit $ 27,175 $ 26,161 $ 24,567 $ 22,568 $ 18,889
    % of Rest of World Local Gross Billings 25.8 % 26.2 % 24.5 % 24.3 % 22.6 %
    Travel Gross Profit 3,815 4,906 5,012 4,859 4,040
    % of Rest of World Travel Gross Billings 11.8 % 14.9 % 16.0 % 15.8 % 15.9 %
    Gross Profit – Services 30,990 31,067 29,579 27,427 22,929
    % of Rest of World Services Gross Billings 22.5 % 23.4 % 22.5 % 22.2 % 21.1 %
    Gross Profit – Goods 7,416 6,612 6,784 6,726 6,806
    % of Rest of World Goods Gross Billings 9.5 % 10.0 % 10.0 % 11.2 % 11.2 %
    Total Gross Profit $ 38,406 $ 37,679 $ 36,363 $ 34,153 $ 29,735
    Year-over-year growth (24 ) % (16 ) % (20 ) % (28 ) % (23 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 96 % 99 % 99 % 99 % 99 %
    % Direct 4 % 1 % 1 % 1 % 1 %
    % of Rest of World Total Gross Billings 17.8 % 18.9 % 18.3 % 18.6 % 17.5 %
    Consolidated Results of Operations:
    Gross Billings:
    Local Gross Billings $ 846,789 $ 829,891 $ 798,334 $ 757,120 $ 812,029
    Travel Gross Billings 185,319 194,689 193,715 197,426 174,594
    Gross Billings – Services 1,032,108 1,024,580 992,049 954,546 986,623
    Gross Billings – Goods 692,561 527,421 536,964 512,988 720,369
    Total Gross Billings $ 1,724,669 $ 1,552,001 $ 1,529,013 $ 1,467,534 $ 1,706,992
    Year-over-year growth 8 % 2 % 2 % (2 ) % (1 ) %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX 13 % 10 % 10 % 6 % 4 %
    % Third Party and Other 70 % 75 % 74 % 74 % 66 %
    % Direct 30 % 25 % 26 % 26 % 34 %
    Gross Billings TTM $ 6,237,832 $ 6,269,127 $ 6,296,030 $ 6,273,217 $ 6,255,540
    Year-over-year growth 8 % 7 % 6 % 3 % %
    Revenue:
    Local Revenue $ 298,782 $ 293,681 $ 276,503 $ 260,939 $ 279,655
    Travel Revenue 39,243 41,201 41,421 41,090 35,169
    Revenue – Services 338,025 334,882 317,924 302,029 314,824
    Revenue – Goods 545,203 415,474 420,471 411,566 602,346
    Total Revenue $ 883,228 $ 750,356 $ 738,395 $ 713,595 $ 917,170
    Year-over-year growth 15 % 3 % 3 % % 4 %
    Year-over-year growth, excluding FX 19 % 10 % 11 % 7 % 9 %
    % Third Party and Other 42 % 48 % 46 % 46 % 38 %
    % Direct 58 % 52 % 54 % 54 % 62 %
    Revenue TTM $ 3,042,123 $ 3,064,064 $ 3,086,248 $ 3,085,574 $ 3,119,516
    Year-over-year growth 18 % 13 % 10 % 5 % 3 %
    Gross Profit:
    Local Gross Profit $ 264,907 $ 258,293 $ 242,411 $ 227,654 $ 247,600
    % of Consolidated Local Gross Billings 31.3 % 31.1 % 30.4 % 30.1 % 30.5 %
    Travel Gross Profit 33,228 33,097 35,336 34,826 29,979
    % of Consolidated Travel Gross Billings 17.9 % 17.0 % 18.2 % 17.6 % 17.2 %
    Gross Profit – Services 298,135 291,390 277,747 262,480 277,579
    % of Consolidated Services Gross Billings 28.9 % 28.4 % 28.0 % 27.5 % 28.1 %
    Gross Profit – Goods 79,974 56,016 59,260 66,432 94,161
    % of Consolidated Goods Gross Billings 11.5 % 10.6 % 11.0 % 13.0 % 13.1 %
    Total Gross Profit $ 378,109 $ 347,406 $ 337,007 $ 328,912 $ 371,740
    Year-over-year growth % (5 ) % (8 ) % (7 ) % (2 ) %
    % Third Party and Other 84 % 89 % 87 % 85 % 81 %
    % Direct 16 % 11 % 13 % 15 % 19 %
    % of Total Consolidated Gross Billings 21.9 % 22.4 % 22.0 % 22.4 % 21.8 %
    Marketing $ 59,812 $ 52,533 $ 57,007 $ 61,587 $ 83,208
    Selling, general and administrative $ 285,466 $ 289,847 $ 288,721 $ 326,248 $ 287,976
    Adjusted EBITDA $ 92,914 $ 72,370 $ 61,118 $ 56,334 $ 67,010
    % of Total Consolidated Gross Billings 5.4 % 4.7 % 4.0 % 3.8 % 3.9 %
    % of Total Consolidated Revenue 10.5 % 9.6 % 8.3 % 7.9 % 7.3 %
    Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure. The following is a reconciliation of free cash flow to the most comparable U.S.GAAP financial measure, “Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from continuing operations.”
    Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from continuing operations $ 273,272 $ 40,711 $ 9,995 $ (7,612 ) $ 249,024
    Purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software from continuing operations (20,117 ) (18,294 ) (22,452 ) (27,735 ) (15,507 )
    Free cash flow $ 253,155 $ 22,417 $ (12,457 ) $ (35,347 ) $ 233,517
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities from continuing operations (TTM) $ 252,497 $ 307,782 $ 346,302 $ 316,366 $ 292,118
    Purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software from continuing operations (TTM) (83,560 ) (85,761 ) (79,501 ) (88,598 ) (83,988 )
    Free cash flow (TTM) $ 168,937 $ 222,021 $ 266,801 $ 227,768 $ 208,130
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities from continuing operations $ (35,175 ) $ (19,443 ) $ (28,541 ) $ (98,028 ) $ (31,238 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities $ (21,088 ) $ (32,942 ) $ (138,227 ) $ (14,821 ) $ (322,166 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities from continuing operations (TTM) $ (152,818 ) $ (105,821 ) $ (102,205 ) $ (181,187 ) $ (177,250 )
    Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (TTM) $ (194,156 ) $ (185,606 ) $ (209,080 ) $ (207,078 ) $ (508,156 )
    Other Metrics:
    Active Customers (6)
    North America 24.1 24.6 24.9 25.2 25.9
    EMEA 15.2 15.3 15.5 15.4 15.4
    Rest of World 8.1 8.2 8.2 8.0 7.6
    Total Active Customers 47.4 48.1 48.6 48.6 48.9
    TTM Gross Billings / Average Active Customer (7)
    North America $ 147 $ 147 $ 148 $ 148 $ 149
    EMEA 139 134 130 123 117
    Rest of World 105 101 98 99 96
    Consolidated 137 135 133 132 130
    Global headcount as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 was as follows:
    Q4 2014 Q4 2015
    Sales (8) 4,493 3,992
    % North America 31 % 34 %
    % EMEA 42 % 41 %
    % Rest of World 27 % 25 %
    Other 6,256 5,880
    Total Headcount 10,749 9,872
    (1) Represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds.
    (2) Local represents deals with local and national merchants and through local events. Other revenue transactions include advertising, payment processing and commission revenue.
    (3) Includes third party revenue, direct revenue and other revenue. Third party revenue is related to sales for which the Company acts as a marketing agent for the merchant. This revenue is recorded on a net basis. Direct revenue is primarily related to the sale of merchandise for which the Company is the merchant of record. These revenues are accounted for on a gross basis, with the cost of inventory included in cost of revenue. Other revenue primarily consists of commission revenue, payment processing revenue and advertising revenue.
    (4) Represents third party revenue, direct revenue and other revenue reduced by cost of revenue.
    (5) Represents the change in financial measures that would have resulted had average exchange rates in the reporting periods been the same as those in effect in the prior year periods.
    (6) Reflects the total number of unique user accounts who have purchased a voucher or product from us during the trailing twelve months.
    (7) Reflects the total gross billings generated in the trailing twelve months per average active customer over that period.
    (8) Includes merchant sales representatives, as well as sales support from continuing operations.
    (9) Financial information and other metrics have been retrospectively adjusted to exclude Ticket Monster, which has been classified as discontinued operations.
    (10) The definition, methodology and appropriateness of each of our supplemental metrics is reviewed periodically. As a result, metrics are subject to removal and/or change.

    Groupon, Inc.
    Investor Relations
    Tom Grant, 312-999-3098
    [email protected]
    or
    Public Relations
    Bill Roberts, 312-459-5191

    Source: Groupon, Inc.

    Image via Groupon

  • Companies Pay Up For Fake Yelp Reviews

    New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced settlements with Machinima, Inc. and three other companies in separate investigations regarding the companies’ role in posting fraudulent content on the Internet. This includes fake Yelp reviews.

    Machinima agrees to pay $50,000 for failure to require disclosure of payments to gaming experts endorsing Xbox on YouTube, while the other three companies (Premier Retail Group, ESIOHInternet Marketing, and Rani Spa) are also forced to pay penalties and agree to stop posting fake reviews.

    According to the AG, Premier Retail Group solicited reviewers through ads posted on Craigslist to write positive reviews in exchange for free samples, vouchers, and other compensation even if they hadn’t visited one of their locations. One such ad said, “Have a Strong Yelp account? Want to make money writing reviews?” The company paid a penalty of $50,000, $30,000 of which is suspended assuming compliance with the settlement agreement.

    ESIOHInternet Marketing, according to the AG, solicited over 50 freelance writers on Craigslist and Fiverr to write over 200 fake reviews of its small business clients for $10 to $15 per review. The company agreed to stop posting fake reviews and related deceptive trade practices and pay a $15,000 penalty.

    Finally, Rani Spa engaged in the efforts of a Candian businessman who offered to boost their online reputation by posting fake Yelp reviews. The company agreed to stop posting fake reviews and related deceptive trade practices and pay a penalty of $50,000.

    A press release from the AG’s office says:

    Ensuring honesty on the Internet is of paramount importance to consumers because of the effect that online reviews can have in influencing consumers’ purchasing decisions. According to one survey, 90% of consumers say that online reviews influence their buying decisions. Multiple studies have concluded that online reviews can make or break companies. A 2015 Nielsen Study reveals that 66% of the global consumers trust consumer opinions posted online, making it the third-most-trusted source of information about businesses after word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family. A highly-cited Harvard Business School study from 2011 estimated that a one-star rating increase on Yelp translated to an increase of 5% to 9% in revenues for a restaurant. Cornell researchers have found that a one-star swing in a hotel’s online ratings at sites like Travelocity and TripAdvisor is tied to an 11% sway in room rates, on average.

    The settlements announced today are a continuation of the Attorney General’s commitment to ensuring accurate and reliable consumer reviews. In September, 2013, AG Schneiderman announced “Operation Clean Turf,” the largest investigation into astroturfing by a law enforcement agency, resulting in settlements with 19 companies that paid over $350,000 in penalties. After an extensive undercover investigation into the reputation management industry, AG Schneiderman’s office found that companies had flooded the Internet with fake consumer reviews on websites such as Yelp, Google Local, and CitySearch; used techniques to hide their identities, such as creating fake online profiles on consumer review websites; and paid freelance writers from as far away as the Philippines, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe $1 to $10 per review.

    Yelp discusses the AG’s announcement on its blog:

    Through Yelp’s advanced recommendation software and Consumer Protection Initiative that includes undercover investigations, Consumer Alert program, and legal enforcement efforts, we’ve been able to mitigate the effect of these bad actors. We filed legal action in 2013 against James McNulty, the internet scammer paid by Rani Spa, which led to his admission that Yelp’s recommendation software had foiled his attempts to place fake reviews. ESIOH Marketing halted their services and took down their website in response to our demands in 2014, and Yelp caught Premier Retail Group (aka Infinite Beauty) soliciting reviews on Craigslist the same year, which resulted in us removing many paid reviews and closing associated user accounts.

    The sad reality is that some businesses will always be tempted to try to game the system, which is why Yelp is committed to continuing our efforts and leading the industry in an aggressive stance against astroturfers. We commend the work here of the New York Attorney General and hope to see other regulators follow their lead.

    Yelp posted its Q4 and full-year 2015 earnings earlier this week. The company reported 34% growth in cumulative reviews at about 95 million.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • PayPal Commerce Launches in Beta

    PayPal Commerce Launches in Beta

    PayPal has a new offering called PayPal Commerce in closed beta. It’s described as an ifrastructure enabling retailers to deliver open, distributed commerce experiences that “only PayPal and Braintree together can deliver.” It gives partners services to create contextual commerce experiences and tools for retailers to reach and engage consumers via email, social shares, blogs, articles, ads, in-page, and-in-app.

    The offering makes use of PayPal’s acquisition of Modest six months ago. Harper Reed writes on the Braintree blog:

    For our partners, PayPal Commerce supplies core API building blocks used in the development of their own innovative commercial applications for their users. Our earlier efforts in this area include last summer’s announcement that Braintree was powering payments for Pinterest’s launch of Buyable Pins. Later in the year, we followed up with the integration of Braintree’s sophisticated tokenization offering into Facebook Messenger for the launch of its transportation services with Uber.

    For consumers – continuing on from PayPal’s origins – PayPal Commerce also aims to make buying online more convenient and seamless for its 179 million active users and beyond.

    You can request to join the beta and get more information about PayPal Commerce here.

    Image via PayPal/Braintree

  • Nielsen Looks At What Shoppers Do (And Don’t Do) Online

    Nielsen Looks At What Shoppers Do (And Don’t Do) Online

    Nielsen recently released some findings from its Global Connected Commerce survey looking at what connected shoppers are doing (and not doing) online. One big takeaway is that shoppers are not only “showrooming” (browsing in stores to buy online), but are also “webrooming” (researching online and buying in stores).

    As Nielsen says, online shopping is a “two-way street”.

    “Conducting online research is not the only activity that is complementing the shopping experience,” the firm says. “Three online activities score consistently high, regardless of the product category being considered. They are what you likely expect: Looking up product information, checking/comparing prices and searching for deals/promotions/coupons. In the travel products or services category, for example, 63% of respondents who shopped or purchased the category in the past six months say they looked up product information, 52% checked or compared prices and 46% searched for deals or coupons. For consumable—particularly edible—products, percentages are notably lower than for durable goods, but the same online activities remain top strategies. For fresh groceries, 38% say they looked up information, 39% checked/compared prices and 30% searched for deals.”

    “Perhaps more telling is what consumers are not doing online,” Nielsen adds. “Across all categories reviewed, the online shopping activities with the lowest mentions include those that marketers often rely upon heavily to reach consumers—usage of online ads, store emails and social media. Only about one-10th of respondents say they’ve clicked an online ad or email ad to find out more in the last six months. Even fewer say they have subscribed to product or store emails or liked/tweeted/commented about a product or store on social media.”

    According to the findings, 57% say they purchased fro an online retailer outside their own country in the past six months. The most common payment method is credit card (53%) followed by digital payment systems (43%).

    49% say they shop online for grocery products they can’t find in physical stores.

    Somewhat troubling is that the majority 57% say they have doubts that ecommerce sites will keep their personal info safe.

    You can find Nielsen’s full report here.

    Image via Nielsen

  • Google Talks AMP and Paywalls

    Google Talks AMP and Paywalls

    Very soon, Google will begin sending search traffic to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). This will begin on an unspecified date later this month.

    To get webmasters and publishers prepared, they’ve been posting about how AMP’s relationship to various website elements will be carried out. They’ve discussed ads and analytics. Now, they’re talking about paywalls and subscriptions.

    “One of the great challenges to designing a paywall solution is the wide range of strategies that publishers employ to control access to their content,” says Ashwin Limaye, Product Manager for Accelerated Mobile Pages. “There are different identity and authentication systems and many approaches to user management and access control. In addition there are a host of different payment options, subscription product offerings, single sign-on solutions, geo restrictions, etc. With AMP, pages need to be able to load on any domain (e.g. a publisher.com AMP page can load on google.com) in a secure manner while preserving user privacy. The lack of commonality in how various publishers achieve these objectives today meant that it was very hard to build a unified system within AMP for addressing all of these needs.”

    They’ve been working with publishers and have devised a set of principles to guide a solution. It includes special AMP markup for paywalled and subscription content that indicates sections that are visible to different types of users.

    “When the AMP document loads, the AMP Runtime asks the Publisher for instructions on how to show the document, which the publisher typically bases on the user type,” explains Limaye. “The AMP Runtime puts together the publisher instructions with the document markup to show the user exactly what the publisher intended. For instance, this could mean showing full content to a subscriber, a metering message to an anonymous user, or a snippet followed by a subscription upsell message to a user who has exhausted their metered quota. In cases where the document asks the user to log in or sign up, the user is taken to the publisher’s website to complete this process. This keeps the publisher in control of its users’ data and any related financial transactions.”

    The solution can be found in the documentation and examples on Github.

    Check out the guiding principles as well as more comments from Google and from publishers here.

    Google his hosting a series of hangouts discussing various aspects of AMP throughout the coming weeks.

    Image via AMP

  • Yelp Earnings Out, CFO Steps Down

    Yelp just released its financials for Q4 and full year 2015 with revenue of 153.7 million (up 40% year-over-year) for the quarter.

    Cumulative reviews grew 34% to approximately 95 million. Local advertising accounts grew 32% to approximately 111,000.

    CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said, “We are pleased with the progress we made on the key initiatives we set at the beginning of 2015. We have evolved to a mobile-centric company and have successfully completed our transition to a performance-based advertising business. In 2016, our priorities are to continue to build our core local advertising business, further increase engagement and awareness and grow transactions. With our rich, relevant review content and highly engaged consumer traffic, we are well-positioned to capture the enormous opportunity ahead of us.”

    The company also announced that CFO Rob Krolik is stepping down.

    “Rob has played a crucial role in Yelp’s successful transition from startup to public company, bringing his professionalism and experience to bear in setting Yelp on a firm financial foundation and headed in the right direction,” said Stoppelman. “I am grateful for his counsel, his leadership and work on our public offerings and five acquisitions, and his efforts in opening facilities around the world to accommodate our more than 4,000 employees. I will miss his passion for Yelp and wish him continued success in his next endeavor.”

    “I am a strong believer in the power of Yelp to help consumers and local businesses alike, which is why it has been such a tremendous opportunity and privilege to serve as CFO,” said Krolik. “It’s been a rewarding experience taking Yelp public, diversifying our offerings through acquisitions, and seeing our team deliver significant and consistent revenue growth year after year. After almost five years with Yelp, I am ready to take some time off to spend more time with family, but expect us to seamlessly transition to a new chief financial officer in the meantime.”

    Here’s the release in its entirety:

    SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects consumers with great local businesses, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year endedDecember 31, 2015.

    Yelp logo. (PRNewsFoto)
    • Net revenue was $153.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, reflecting 40% growth over the fourth quarter of 2014.
    • Cash flow from operations was $3.8 million in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $17.5 million.
    • Cumulative reviews grew 34% year over year to approximately 95 million.
    • App Unique Devices grew 38% year over year to approximately 20 million on a monthly average basis1.
    • Local advertising accounts grew 32% year over year to approximately 111,000.

    Net loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 was ($22.2) million, or ($0.29) per share, compared to net income of $32.7 million, or $0.42 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2014. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 included an income tax expense of $20.3 million due to the recording of a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. Non-GAAP net income, which consists of net income excluding stock-based compensation, amortization and valuation allowance and release, was $9.0 million for the fourth quarter, or $0.11 per share, compared to $14.5 million, or $0.19 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2014.

    Net revenue for the full year ended December 31, 2015 was $549.7 million, an increase of 46% compared to $377.5 million in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2015 was $69.1 million compared to $70.9 million for the prior year. Net loss for the full year ended December 31, 2015 was ($32.9) million, or ($0.44) per share, compared to a net income of $36.5 million, or $0.48 per share, in 2014. Non-GAAP net income for the full year ended December 31, 2015 was $28.9 million, or $0.37 per share, compared to $36.3 million, or $0.47 per share in 2014.

    “We are pleased with the progress we made on the key initiatives we set at the beginning of 2015,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “We have evolved to a mobile-centric company and have successfully completed our transition to a performance-based advertising business. In 2016, our priorities are to continue to build our core local advertising business, further increase engagement and awareness and grow transactions. With our rich, relevant review content and highly engaged consumer traffic, we are well-positioned to capture the enormous opportunity ahead of us.”

    “We delivered strong topline growth of 46% year over year as we surpassed half a billion dollars of revenue in 2015,” added Rob Krolik, Yelp’s chief financial officer.

    Fourth Quarter Operating Summary

    • Local advertising revenue totaled $125.9 million, representing 35% growth compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.
    • Transactions revenue totaled $14.0 million, compared to $1.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, primarily due to the acquisition of Eat24 in the first quarter of 2015.
    • Brand advertising revenue totaled $7.1 million, representing an 18% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. Yelp has completed the phase out of its brand advertising product and will have no Brand advertising revenue in 2016.
    • Other revenue totaled $6.8 million which was flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.

    Business Highlights

    • App engagement: Approximately 20 million unique devices accessed Yelp via the mobile app on a monthly average basis in the fourth quarter of 2015, an increase of 38% compared to the same period in 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2015, Yelp app users were more than 10 times as engaged as website users based on number of pages viewed.
    • Performance-based advertising: In 2015, Yelp completed its transition to a performance-based advertising business. As of the fourth quarter of 2015, 61% of local advertising revenue came from CPC advertisers, compared to 32% in the fourth quarter of 2014.
    • Eat24 & SeatMe: In 2015, Yelp acquired leading web and app-based online food ordering service Eat24. In the fourth quarter, Eat24 revenue growth accelerated, with revenue up approximately 80% compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2015, over 15 million diners were seated through SeatMe, an increase of approximately 120% over the fourth quarter of 2014.

    CFO Transition

    The company announced that chief financial officer Rob Krolik will be stepping down and departing the company in the coming months. Krolik, who joined the company in 2011, will continue as chief financial officer until the earlier of the date a replacement is hired and December 15, 2016, and will assist in the search and transition. The company intends to immediately begin a search for a new chief financial officer.

    “Rob has played a crucial role in Yelp’s successful transition from startup to public company, bringing his professionalism and experience to bear in setting Yelp on a firm financial foundation and headed in the right direction,” said Jeremy Stoppelman. “I am grateful for his counsel, his leadership and work on our public offerings and five acquisitions, and his efforts in opening facilities around the world to accommodate our more than 4,000 employees. I will miss his passion for Yelp and wish him continued success in his next endeavor.”

    “I am a strong believer in the power of Yelp to help consumers and local businesses alike, which is why it has been such a tremendous opportunity and privilege to serve as CFO,” said Krolik. “It’s been a rewarding experience taking Yelp public, diversifying our offerings through acquisitions, and seeing our team deliver significant and consistent revenue growth year after year. After almost five years with Yelp, I am ready to take some time off to spend more time with family, but expect us to seamlessly transition to a new chief financial officer in the meantime.”

    Business Outlook

    As of today, Yelp is providing its outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2016.

    • For the first quarter of 2016, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $154 million to $157 million, representing growth of approximately 31% compared to the first quarter of 2015 at the the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $10 million to $12 million. Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $19 million to $21 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue.
    • For the full year of 2016, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $685 million to $700 million, representing growth of approximately 26% compared to full year 2015 at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $90 million to $105 million. Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $83 million to $87 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue.

    Quarterly Conference Call

    To access the call, please dial 1 (866) 776-8879, or outside the U.S. 1 (440) 996-5670, with Passcode 29597481, at least five minutes prior to the 1:30 p.m. PT start time.  A live webcast of the call will also be available at http://www.yelp-ir.com under the Events & Presentations menu.  An audio replay will be available between 4:00 p.m. PT February 8, 2016 and 11:59 p.m. PT February 15, 2016 by calling 1 (855) 859-2056 or 1 (800) 585-8367, with Passcode 29597481.  The replay will also be available on the Company’s website at http://www.yelp-ir.com.

    About Yelp

    Yelp Inc. (http://www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Franciscoin July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken hold in major metros across more than 30 countries. Approximately 20 million unique devices1 accessed Yelp via the Yelp app, approximately 75 million unique visitors visited Yelp via desktop computer2 and approximately 66 million unique visitors visited Yelp via mobile website3 on a monthly average basis during the fourth quarter of 2015. By the end of the same quarter, Yelpers had written approximately 95 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists.

    1 Calculated as the number of unique devices accessing the app on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period, according to internal Yelp logs.

    2 Calculated as the number of “users,” as measured by Google Analytics, accessing Yelp via desktop computer on an average monthly basis over a given three-month period.

    3 Calculated as the number of “users,” as measured by Google Analytics, accessing Yelp via mobile website on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    This press release includes information relating to adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share, each of which the Securities and Exchange Commission has defined as a “non-GAAP financial measure.” Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share have been included in this press release because they are key measures used by Yelp management and board of directors to understand and evaluate core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve its annual budget and to develop short- and long-term operational plans. The presentation of this financial information, which is not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”).

    Adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of Yelp’s financial results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

    • although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, Yelp’s working capital needs;
    • adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income do not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;
    • non-GAAP net income does not reflect the impact of the valuation allowance release in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the recording of the valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of 2015;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to Yelp; and
    • other companies, including those in Yelp’s industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

    Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and Yelp’s other GAAP results. Additionally, Yelp has not reconciled its adjusted EBITDA outlook for the first quarter and full year 2016 to its net income (loss) outlook because it does not provide an outlook for other income (expense) and provision for income taxes, which are reconciling items between net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA. As items that impact net income (loss) are out of Yelp’s control and cannot be reasonably predicted, Yelp is unable to provide such an outlook. Accordingly, reconciliation to net income (loss) outlook for the first quarter and full year 2016 is not available without unreasonable effort. For a reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures, see the non-GAAP reconciliations included below in this press release.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the future performance of Yelp and its consolidated subsidiaries that are based on Yelp’s current expectations, forecasts and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected financial results for the first quarter and full year 2016, Yelp’s priorities for 2016 and its ability to execute against those priorities, CFO transition and timing thereof, Yelp’s ability to improve its margins, Yelp’s ability to capture a meaningful share of the large local market, the future growth in Yelp revenue and continued investing by Yelp in its future growth, Yelp’s ability to drive daily usage and engagement (particularly on mobile), increase awareness of Yelp among consumers, and deliver value to local businesses, Yelp’s ability to increase transactions completed on its platform, Yelp’s ability to take advantage of trends toward app usage and native advertising and to become the leading destination for consumers connecting with great local businesses. Yelp’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: Yelp’s limited operating history in an evolving industry; Yelp’s ability to generate sufficient revenue to regain profitability, particularly in light of its significant ongoing sales and marketing expenses; Yelp’s ability to successfully manage acquisitions of new businesses, solutions or technologies, such as Eat24, and to integrate those businesses, solutions or technologies; Yelp’s reliance on traffic to its website from search engines like Google and Bing; Yelp’s ability to generate and maintain sufficient high quality content from its users; maintaining a strong brand and managing negative publicity that may arise; maintaining and expanding Yelp’s base of advertisers; changes in political, business and economic conditions, including any European or general economic downturn or crisis and any conditions that affect ecommerce growth; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; Yelp’s  ability to deal with the increasingly competitive local search environment; Yelp’s need and ability to manage other regulatory, tax and litigation risks as its services are offered in more jurisdictions and applicable laws become more restrictive; the competitive and regulatory environment while Yelp continues to expand geographically and introduce new products and as new laws and regulations related to Internet companies come into effect; Yelp’s ability to timely upgrade and develop its systems, infrastructure and customer service capabilities. The forward-looking statements in this release do not include the potential impact of any acquisitions or divestitures that may be announced and/or completed after the date hereof.

    More information about factors that could affect Yelp’s operating results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Yelp’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at http://www.yelp-ir.com or theSEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are based on information available to Yelp on the date hereof. Yelp assumes no obligation to update such statements.

    Investor Relations Contact Information
    Wendy Lim, Ronald Clark, Allie Dalglish
    (415) 635-2412
    [email protected]

    Media Contact Information
    Shannon Eis
    (415) 635-2478
    [email protected]

     

    Yelp Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    December 31, December 31,
    2015 2014
    Assets
    Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents $         171,613 $        247,312
    Short-term marketable securities 199,214 118,498
    Accounts receivable, net 52,755 35,593
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets 19,700 19,355
    Total current assets 443,282 420,758
    Long-term marketable securities 38,612
    Property, equipment and software, net 80,467 62,761
    Goodwill 172,197 67,307
    Intangibles, net 39,294 5,786
    Restricted cash 16,486 17,943
    Other assets 3,701 16,483
    Total assets $         755,427 $        629,650
    Liabilities  and stockholders’ equity
    Current liabilities:
    Accounts payable $             3,388 $            1,398
    Accrued liabilities 43,458 29,581
    Deferred revenue 2,931 2,994
    Total current liabilities 49,777 33,973
    Long-term liabilities 12,030 7,527
    Total liabilities 61,807 41,500
    Stockholders’ equity
    Common stock
    Additional paid-in capital 774,022 627,742
    Accumulated other comprehensive loss (13,519) (5,609)
    Accumulated deficit (66,883) (33,983)
    Total stockholders’ equity 693,620 588,150
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $          755,427 $         629,650

     

    Yelp Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
    (In thousands, except per share amounts)
    (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
    December 31, December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    Net revenue $ 153,731 $ 109,887 $ 549,711 $ 377,536
    Costs and expenses
    Cost of revenue (1) 15,000 7,286 51,015 24,382
    Sales and marketing (1) 87,535 53,580 301,764 201,050
    Product development (1) 28,970 19,076 107,786 65,181
    General and administrative (1) 20,659 16,662 80,866 58,274
    Depreciation and amortization 7,980 5,291 29,604 17,590
    Total costs and expenses 160,144 101,895 571,035 366,477
    Income (Loss) from operations (6,413) 7,992 (21,324) 11,059
    Other income (expense), net 40 38 386 221
    Income (Loss) before income taxes (6,373) 8,030 (20,938) 11,280
    Benefit (Provision) for income taxes (15,856) 24,698 (11,962) 25,193
    Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders $ (22,229) $   32,728 $ (32,900) $   36,473
    Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
    Basic $     (0.29) $       0.45 $     (0.44) $       0.51
    Diluted $     (0.29) $       0.42 $     (0.44) $       0.48
    Weighted-average shares used to compute net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
    Basic 75,372 72,645 74,683 71,936
    Diluted 75,372 77,211 74,683 76,712
    (1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
    Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
    December 31, December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    Cost of revenue $        336 $        207 $     1,117 $        729
    Sales and marketing 5,803 4,038 21,962 15,083
    Product development 6,314 4,508 23,431 14,804
    General and administrative 3,519 3,063 14,332 11,657
    Total stock-based compensation $   15,972 $   11,816 $   60,842 $   42,273

     

    Yelp Inc.
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    Twelve Months Ended
    December 31,
    2015 2014
    Operating activities
    Net income (loss) $ (32,900) $  36,473
     Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities:
      Depreciation and amortization 29,604 17,590
      Provision for doubtful accounts and sales returns 16,788 7,238
      Stock-based compensation 60,842 42,273
      Recording (Release) of valuation allowance 20,341 (28,197)
      Loss on disposal of assets and website development costs 213 4
      Premium amortization, net, on securities held-to-maturity 1,190 349
      Excess tax benefit from share-based award activity (6,583) (1,834)
      Realized (gain) on investments (4)
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
    Accounts receivable (25,279) (21,291)
    Prepaid expenses and other assets (22,703) (4,011)
    Accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities 15,894 8,927
    Deferred revenue (41) 411
    Net cash provided by operating activities 57,362 57,932
    Investing activities
    Acquisition, net of cash received (73,422) (14,340)
    Purchases of property, equipment and software (31,127) (29,054)
    Capitalized website and software development costs (11,734) (11,349)
    Change in restricted cash 1,404 (14,764)
    Purchase of intangibles (647) (1,724)
    Proceeds from sale of property and equipment 134 14
    Purchases of marketable securities (246,160) (210,459)
    Maturities of marketable securities 202,870 53,002
    Net cash used in investing activities (158,682) (228,674)
    Financing activities
    Issuance of common stock upon exercise of employee stock options 12,255
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock from share-based awards 20,164
    Proceeds from issuance of common stock for Employee Stock Purchase Plan 8,911 8,869
    Repurchase of common stock (482) (1,318)
    Excess tax benefit from stock-based award activity 6,583 1,834
    Contingent consideration payments (825)
    Net cash provided by financing activities 26,442 29,549
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (821) (1,259)
    Change in cash and cash equivalents (75,699) (142,452)
    Cash and cash equivalents – Beginning of period 247,312 389,764
    Cash and cash equivalents – End of period $ 171,613 $ 247,312

     

    Yelp Inc.
    Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
    December 31, December 31,
    2015 2014 2015 2014
    Adjusted EBITDA:
    Net income (loss) $ (22,229) $ 32,728 $ (32,900) $ 36,473
    (Benefit) provision for income taxes 15,856 (24,698) 11,962 (25,193)
    Other (income) expense, net (40) (38) (386) (221)
    Depreciation and amortization 7,980 5,291 29,604 17,590
    Stock-based compensation 15,972 11,816 60,842 42,273
    Adjusted EBITDA $  17,539 $ 25,099 $  69,122 $ 70,922
    Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) and Income (Loss) per share:
    GAAP net income (loss) $ (22,229) $ 32,728 $ (32,900) $ 36,473
       Add back: stock-based compensation 15,972 11,816 60,842 42,273
       Add back: amortization of intangible assets 1,718 550 6,475 2,448
       Less: tax effect of stock-based compensation & amortization of intangible assets  

    (6,827)

     

    (4,422)

     

    (25,853)

     

    (16,654)

       Add back: recording (release) of valuation allowance (net of tax) 20,341 (26,197) 20,341 (28,197)
    NON-GAAP NET INCOME $    8,975 $ 14,475 $  28,905 $ 36,343
    GAAP diluted shares 78,166 77,211 78,078 76,712
    NON-GAAP NET INCOME PER SHARE $      0.11 $     0.19 $      0.37 $     0.47

     

    Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150714/236436LOGO

     

    To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yelp-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2015-financial-results-300216659.html

    SOURCE Yelp Inc.

    Image via Yelp (Flickr)

  • Etsy Adds Express Checkout to iOS App

    Etsy Adds Express Checkout to iOS App

    Etsy announced that it’s rolling out Express Checkout with Apple Pay on in its iOS app. This lets buyers skip the shopping cart and check out in two steps.

    The feature became available for signed-in US users on desktop and mobile web last year, but the Apple Pay integration with the app is brand new.

    “Our strategic priorities include making Etsy an everyday experience for our users, which starts with making it easy and engaging to use Etsy on mobile devices, and enhancing our local solutions, like payments and shipping, for members around the world,” says Etsy’s Stephanie Grodin.

    “Now Express Checkout is even easier — buyers can tap the ‘Buy it Now’ button, select Apple Pay, place their thumb on Touch ID, and be on their way,” she says. “Buyers who don’t wish to use Apple Pay or who don’t have Touch ID-enabled iOS devices can simply continue to pay with their stored credit card information or PayPal.”

    Etsy also recently expanded Direct Checkout to 12 new countries. It now offers the feature in 34 countries altogether.

    Image via Etsy