Marin Software (MRIN) Risk Factors

We operate in a dynamic market characterized by rapidly changing technologies and industry and legal standards. The introduction of new advertising platform solutions by our competitors, the market acceptance of solutions based on new or alternative technologies, or the emergence of new industry standards could render our platform obsolete. Our ability to compete successfully, attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing cross-channel, cross-device, enterprise marketing software platform and to continually introduce or acquire new features that are in demand by the market we serve. We also must update our software to reflect changes in publishers' application programming interfaces, or APIs, and terms of use. We have deployed our latest platform, MarinOne, and are in the process of deploying new features and services, including Marin budget pacing and dynamic allocation tools. In connection with the restructuring plan that we commenced in October 2024, we are focusing our business and product development efforts in more specific projects and initiatives. The success of these projects or any other enhancement or new solution depends on several factors, including timely completion, adequate quality testing, effective migration of existing customers with minimal disruption and appropriate introduction and market acceptance. Any new platform or feature that we develop or acquire may not be introduced in a timely manner, may contain defects, may be more costly to compete than we anticipate or may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue. Our ability to develop new products and features successfully and on a timely basis may be adversely affected by the restructuring plan that we commenced in October 2024. If we are unable to upgrade our software platform and features effectively or in a timely manner, or to anticipate or timely and successfully develop or acquire new offerings or features or enhance our existing platform to meet customer requirements, our business and operating results will be adversely affected.

In the ordinary course of our business, we maintain sensitive data on our networks, including our intellectual property and proprietary or confidential business information relating to our business and that of our customers and business partners. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our business and reputation. Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current and any future third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to breakdown or other damage or interruption from service interruptions, system malfunction, computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet (including harmful attachments to emails, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information), by persons inside our organization, or by persons with access to systems inside our organization. Any of the foregoing may compromise our system infrastructure, or that of our third-party partners and other contractors and consultants, or lead to data leakage. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments, and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, and we may not be able to implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Third parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords or other information in order to gain access to our customers' data or our data, including intellectual property and other confidential business information. Moreover, our employees, service providers and third parties work more frequently on a remote basis, which may involve relying on less secure systems and may increase the risk of, and susceptibility to, cybersecurity related incidents. We cannot guarantee these private work environments and electronic connections to our work environment have the same robust security measures deployed in our physical offices. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, we could lose potential sales and existing customers or we could incur other liabilities, which could adversely affect our business. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be material, and although we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and information technology systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If the information technology systems of our third-party partners and other contractors and consultants become subject to disruptions or security breaches, we may have insufficient recourse against such third parties and we may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event, and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. We and our third-party service providers regularly defend against and respond to data security incidents, and we cannot assure you that our data protection efforts and our investment in information technology will prevent significant breakdowns, data leakages, breaches in our systems, or those of our third-party partners and other contractors and consultants, or other cyber incidents that could have a material adverse effect upon our reputation, business, operations, or financial condition. If such an event were to occur that causes interruptions in our operations, or those of our third-party vendors and other contractors and consultants, it could result in a material disruption or delay of our product development programs. Furthermore, significant disruptions of our internal information technology systems or those of our third-party vendors and other contractors and consultants, or security breaches could result in the loss, misappropriation, and/or unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of, or the prevention of access to, confidential information (including trade secrets or other intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personal information), which could result in financial, legal, business, and reputational harm to us. If any such event, including a computer security breach, results in the unauthorized access, use or release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws (and other similar non-U.S. laws), subject us to mandatory corrective action, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. For example, data breaches frequently result in regulatory actions and commercial and class action litigation based on a variety of laws and legal duties, such as the CCPA, which provides for a private right of action in the event of certain data security breaches. Such actions could result in significant legal and financial exposure and reputational damages that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, prospects and financial condition. In addition, our insurance may not cover all costs from a security incident or breach. The assertion of a claim against our insurance policies could result in premium increases, imposition of a large deductible or other adverse circumstances.

The overall market for advertising cloud solutions is rapidly evolving, highly competitive, complex, fragmented, and subject to changing technology and shifting customer needs. We face significant competition in this market and we expect competition to intensify in the future. We currently compete with large, well-established public companies, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated and Google Inc., and privately held companies, such as Skai.io. We also compete with channel-specific offerings, in-house proprietary tools, tools from publishers and custom solutions, including spreadsheets. We believe that our most significant competition comes from the SA360 product that is offered by Google and from other digital ad management tools offered by Google and other publishers. Increased competition may result in reduced pricing for our solutions, longer sales cycles or a decrease of our market share, any of which could negatively affect our revenue and future operating results and our ability to grow our business. A number of competitive factors could cause us to lose potential sales or to sell our solutions at lower prices or at reduced margins, including, among others: - Google and other publishers generally offer their tools for free, or at a reduced price, as their primary compensation is via the sale of advertising on their own or syndicated websites;- some of our competitors, such as Adobe, Meta and Google, have greater financial, marketing and technical resources than we do, allowing them to leverage a larger installed customer base, adopt more aggressive pricing policies, and devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products and services than we can;- channel-specific competitors, such as Skai.io and Smartly.io, may devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their channel-specific products and services than we can;- companies may enter our market by expanding their platforms or acquiring a competitor; and - potential customers may choose to develop or continue to use internal solutions rather than paying for our solutions or may choose to use a competitor's solution that has different or additional technical capabilities. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors. If we cannot compete successfully, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.

In order for us to improve our operating results, it is important that our customers continue to manage their advertising spend on our platform, increase their usage and also purchase additional solutions from us. In the case of our direct advertiser customers, we offer our solutions primarily through subscription contracts and generally bill customers over the related subscription period, which is generally one year or longer. During the term of their contracts, our direct advertiser customers generally have no obligation to maintain or increase their advertising spend on our platform beyond a specified minimum monthly platform fee, which is typically set at the time the contract is signed and is generally greater than half of the monthly amount we anticipate the customer will spend. Our direct advertiser customers generally have no renewal obligation after the initial or then-current renewal subscription period expires, and even if customers renew contracts, they may decrease the level of their digital advertising spend managed through our platform, resulting in lower revenue from that customer. Some customers, including some of our largest customers, have contractual rights to terminate their agreements with us in some circumstances. Advertisers that we serve through our arrangements with our advertising agencies generally do not have any contractual commitment to use our platform. Our customers' usage may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including, but not limited to, their satisfaction with our platform and our customer support, the frequency and severity of outages, the pricing of our, or competing, solutions, the effects of global economic conditions and reductions in spending levels or changes in our customers' strategies regarding digital advertising. We may not be able to accurately predict future usage trends. If our customers renew on less favorable terms or reduce their advertising spend on our platform, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected or decline.

Legislation enacted in the future could dampen the growth in web and mobile usage and decrease its acceptance as a medium of communications and commerce or result in increased adoption of new modes of communication and commerce that may not be serviced by our products. In addition, government agencies or private organizations may begin to impose taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the Internet, which could result in slower growth or a decrease in eCommerce, use of social media and/or use of mobile devices. Any of these outcomes could cause demand for our platform to decrease, our costs to increase, and our results of operations and financial condition to be harmed.

In 2020, U.S. federal and state and foreign governments and regulatory agencies initiated lawsuits or investigations against Google and Meta related to certain of their anticompetitive business practices and conduct in the digital advertising and social media industries and we cannot be certain as to how such lawsuits and investigations might affect Google or Meta or otherwise affect the digital advertising industry. We are not a party to any such lawsuits or investigations. As a participant in the digital advertising industry and having business relationships with Google and Meta, certain governmental authorities and Google and have requested us to provide information to them in connection with such lawsuits and investigations, and responding to such requests has caused us to incur, and may cause us to incur in the future from time to time, professional fees and other expenses in connection with responding to such requests.

Our success depends upon the continued service of our talented management, operational and key technical employees, as well as our ability to continue to attract additional highly qualified talent. We have experienced employee attrition and have conducted restructuring actions. In October 2024, we commenced implementing the 2024 Restructuring Plan, an organizational restructuring and reduction-in-force plan to reduce our operating costs, and in July 2023, we implemented and completed the 2023 Restructuring Plan, each as described in Note 1 of our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements under the heading "Liquidity and Going Concern." We expect to complete the 2024 Restructuring Plan by the end of 2024. These changes, and any future changes, in our operations and management team could be disruptive to our operations. Our restructuring actions, any future restructuring actions or employee attrition resulting from concerns about our future prospects or other reasons could have an adverse effect on our business as a result of operational and administrative inefficiencies and added costs, decreases in employee morale and the failure to meet operational targets due to the loss of employees. If key employees leave, we may not be able to fully integrate new personnel or replicate the prior working relationships, which could adversely affect our results of operations, stock price and customer relationships, and could make recruiting for future management and other positions more difficult. In addition, changes in other key positions may temporarily affect our financial performance and results of operations as new employees become familiar with our business. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees. Each of our executive officers, key technical personnel and other employees could terminate his or her relationship with us at any time. Our business also requires skilled technical, sales and other personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. If we expand into additional geographic markets, we will require personnel with expertise in these new areas. Competition for qualified employees is particularly intense in our industry and particularly in San Francisco, California. An inability to retain, attract, relocate and motivate employees required for our business could delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives and could materially harm our business and our customer relationships. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, most of our employees have been working remotely. In addition, the lease for our largest office, in San Francisco, California, expired in July 2022. As a result of these developments, we have transitioned to a more hybrid working environment with a larger number of employees dispersed remotely, which may present challenges to maintaining our corporate culture or employee productivity. We expect that most of our employees will work remotely for most of the time for the foreseeable future. Any failure to preserve our culture or productivity could negatively affect our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives.

Potential revenue growth and profitability of our business depends on digital advertising spend by advertisers in the markets we serve. Our operating results may vary based on changes in the market for digital advertising or the global economy. To the extent that weak economic conditions cause our customers and potential customers to freeze or reduce their advertising budgets, particularly digital advertising, demand for our solution may be negatively affected. Historically, economic downturns have resulted in overall reductions in advertising spend. If general macroeconomic conditions deteriorate or the rise of geopolitical instability and military hostilities or global health emergencies and pandemics such as COVID-19 causes economic uncertainty, our customers and potential customers may elect to decrease their advertising budgets or defer or reconsider software and service purchases, which would limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our operating results.

We currently have personnel and/or customers in China, England, France, Ireland, Japan and Singapore, as well as the U.S. Due to our international exposure, our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations. Managing our business and operations internationally requires considerable management attention and resources and is subject to particular challenges of supporting a rapidly growing business in an environment of diverse cultures, languages, customs, tax laws, legal systems, alternate dispute systems and regulatory systems. In 2020, we restructured our international corporate structure to address changes in international tax laws and regulations, and completion of such restructuring may cause us to incur some additional expense. The risks and challenges associated with international expansion include: - the need to support and integrate with local publishers and partners;- continued localization of our platform, including translation into foreign languages and associated expenses;- competition with companies that have greater experience in the local markets than we do or who have pre-existing relationships with potential customers in those markets;- compliance with multiple, potentially conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including employment, tax, privacy and data protection laws and regulations and legal and operational changes resulting from the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union;- compliance with anti-bribery laws, including compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;- difficulties in invoicing and collecting in foreign currencies and associated foreign currency exposure;- difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations and the increased travel, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with international operations;- different or lesser protection of our intellectual property rights;- difficulties in enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable, longer payment cycles and other collection difficulties;- restrictions on repatriation of earnings; and - regional economic and political conditions. We have limited experience in marketing, selling and supporting our subscription services internationally, which increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake will not be successful.

We currently have foreign sales denominated in Australian Dollars, British Pound Sterling, Chinese Yuan, Euros, Japanese Yen and Singaporean Dollars. In addition, we incur a portion of our operating expenses in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. We face exposure to adverse movements in currency exchange rates, which may cause our revenue and operating results to differ materially from expectations. In addition, the continued uncertainty around the full impact of Brexit and the exact trade arrangements upon exit has adversely impacted global markets, including currencies, and resulted in a decline and volatility in the value of the British Pound Sterling and the Euro, as compared to the U.S. Dollar and other currencies. Volatility in exchange rates and global financial markets may continue due to a number of factors, including political and economic uncertainty. If the U.S. Dollar strengthens relative to foreign currencies, as it has from time to time in the past, our non-U.S. revenue would be adversely affected. Conversely, a decline in the U.S. Dollar relative to foreign currencies would increase our non-U.S. revenue when translated into U.S. Dollars. Our operating results could be negatively impacted depending on the amount of expense denominated in foreign currencies. As exchange rates vary, revenue, cost of revenue, operating expenses and other operating results, when translated, may differ materially from expectations. In addition, our revenue and operating results are subject to fluctuation if our mix of U.S. and foreign currency-denominated transactions or expenses changes in the future because we do not currently hedge our foreign currency exposure. Even if we were to implement hedging strategies to mitigate foreign currency risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expertise, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications.