EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 733269
Filing Year: 2021
Filename: 733269_10-K_2021_0000733269-21-000017.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Item 1. Business
On September 20, 2018, we implemented a holding company reorganization, as a result of which Acxiom Holdings, Inc. became the successor issuer to Acxiom Corporation. On October 1, 2018, we changed our name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. ("LiveRamp"). References to "we", "us", "our" or the "Company" for events that occurred prior to September 20, 2018 refer to Acxiom Corporation and its subsidiaries; for events that occurred from September 20, 2018 to October 1, 2018, to Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries; and for events after October 1, 2018, to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
LiveRamp is a global technology company with a vision of making it safe and easy for companies to use data effectively. We provide a best-in-class enterprise data connectivity platform that helps organizations better leverage customer data within and outside their four walls. Powered by core identity capabilities and an extensive network, LiveRamp enables companies and their partners to better connect, control, and activate data to transform customer experiences and generate more valuable business outcomes.
LiveRamp is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RAMP.” We serve a global client base from locations in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific (“APAC”) region. Our direct client list includes many of the world’s largest and best-known brands across most major industry verticals, including but not limited to financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, non-profit, and government. Through our extensive reseller and partnership network, we serve thousands of additional companies, establishing LiveRamp as a foundational and neutral enabler of the customer experience economy.
Industry
We are experiencing a convergence of several key industry trends that are shaping the future of how data is used to power the customer experience economy. Some of these key trends include:
Growing Data Usage
Advances in software and hardware and the growing use of the Internet have made it possible to collect and rapidly process massive amounts of personal data. Data vendors are able to collect user information across a wide range of offline and online properties and connected devices, and to aggregate and combine it with other data sources. With proper permissions, this data can be integrated with a company's own proprietary data and can be made non-identifiable if the use case requires it. Through the use of data, marketers and publishers can more effectively acquire customers, elevate their lifetime value, and serve their needs.
Growing Complexity
The customer experience economy has evolved significantly in recent years, driven by rapid innovation and an explosion of data, channels, devices, and applications. Historically, brands interacted with consumers through a limited number of channels, with limited visibility into the activities taking place. Today, companies interact with consumers across a growing number of touchpoints, including online, social, mobile and point-of-sale. The billions of interactions that take place each day between brands and consumers create a trove of valuable data that can be harnessed to power better interactions and experiences. However, most enterprise marketers remain unable to navigate through the complexity to effectively leverage this data.
Additionally, innovation has fueled the growth of a highly-fragmented technology landscape, forcing companies to contend with thousands of marketing technologies and data silos. To make every customer experience relevant across channels and devices, organizations need a trusted platform that can break down those silos, make data portable, and accurately recognize individuals throughout the customer journey. Marketing is becoming more audience-centric, automated, and optimized. However, several important factors still prevent data from being used effectively to optimize the customer experience:
•Identity. For organizations to target audiences at the individual level, they must be able to recognize consumers across all channels and devices, and link multiple identifiers and data elements back to a persistent identifier to create a single view of the customer. The evolving digital identity landscape further highlights the importance of authenticated, first-party identity.
•Scaled Data Assets. Quality, depth, and recency of data matters when deriving linkages between identifiers. Organizations must have access to an extensive set of data and be able to match that data with a high degree of accuracy to perform true cross-device audience targeting and measurement.
•Connectivity. The fragmented marketing landscape creates a need for a common network of integrations that make it easy and safe to connect and activate data anywhere in the ecosystem.
•Data Control. Organizations are increasingly looking to collaborate with their most important partners but do not want to give up control of their data or, in certain cases, do not want their data to leave their environment.
•Walled Gardens. Walled gardens, or marketing platforms that restrict the use of data outside of their walls, are becoming more pervasive and can result in loss of control, lack of transparency, and fragmented brand experiences. Organizations need a solution that enables an open ecosystem and ensures complete control over customer data, along with the flexibility to choose a diversified approach to meeting marketing goals.
•Data Governance. Preserving brand integrity while delivering positive customer experiences is a top priority for every company. Organizations must be able to manage large sets of complex data ethically, securely, within legal boundaries, and in a way that protects consumers from harm. Importantly, they must also honor consumer preferences and put procedures in place that enable individuals to control how, when and for what reasons companies collect and use information about them.
Increasing Fragmentation
Today, customer journeys span multiple channels and devices over time, resulting in data silos and fragmented identities. As consumers engage with brands across various touchpoints - over the web, mobile devices and applications, by email and television, and in physical stores - they may not be represented as single unique individuals with complex behaviors, appearing instead as disparate data points with dozens of different identifiers. Becky Smith who lives at 123 Main Street may appear as beckys@acme.com when she uses Facebook, becky@yahoo.com when she signs into Yahoo Finance, cookie 123 when she browses msn.com, cookie ABC when she browses aol.com, device ID 234 on Hulu and so on. As a result, enterprise marketers struggle to understand the cross-channel, cross-device habits of consumers and the different steps they take on their path to conversion. More specifically, data silos and fragmented identities prevent companies from being able to resolve all relevant data to a specific individual; this poses a challenge to the formation of accurate, actionable insights about a brand’s consumers or campaigns.
Marketing Waste
Every day, brands spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing, yet many of the messages they deliver are irrelevant, repetitive, mistimed, or simply reach the wrong audience. In addition, as the marketing landscape continues to grow and splinter across a growing array of online and offline channels, it is increasingly difficult to attribute marketing spend to a measurable outcome, such as an in-store visit or sale. Wasted marketing spend is largely driven by the fragmented ecosystem of brands, data providers, marketing applications, media providers, and agencies that are involved in the marketing process, but operate without cohesion. Without a common understanding of consumer identity to unify otherwise siloed data, brands are unable to define accurate audience segments and derive insights that would enable better decision making.
Heightened Privacy and Security Concerns
In the era of regulation such as the European General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), diligence in the areas of consumer privacy and security is and will continue to be paramount. Consumer understanding of the benefits of marketing technology often lags the pace of innovation, giving rise to new demands from government agencies and consumer advocacy groups across the world. These factors challenge the liability every company faces when managing and activating consumer data.
Marketing and Customer Experience in the Data-Driven Era
As the world becomes more multichannel, consumer behavior is rapidly shifting, and organizations are increasingly realizing that true competitive advantage lies in providing meaningful customer experiences - experiences that are personalized, relevant and cohesive across all channels and interactions. Experience is the key to brand differentiation and retention. Companies that fail to prioritize customer experience as a strategic growth initiative will simply get left behind.
In concert, consumer expectations are also at an all-time high. Consumers are demanding personalization - and, in this new area, every consumer interaction has the potential to be individually relevant, addressable, and measurable.
Data is at the center of exceptional customer experiences but is still vastly underutilized. Organizations must capture, analyze, understand - and, most importantly use - customer data to power the customer experience. By understanding which devices, email addresses, and postal addresses relate to the same individual, enterprise marketers can leverage that insight to deliver seamless experiences as consumers engage with a company across all touchpoints. At the same time, by reaching consumers at the individual level, organizations can reduce marketing waste and more easily attribute their marketing spend to actual results. Enterprise marketers recognize the huge opportunity big data brings, yet over half admit they are not using their data effectively to drive their customer experience.
Our Approach
Companies want to enable better decisions, improve return on investment and deliver better experiences to their customers - and it all begins with data. However, given the rapid adoption of new platforms and channels, enterprise marketers remain plagued by fragmented data - resulting in a shallow, incomplete or incorrect understanding of the people with whom they do business. Data today is still too hard to access, too hard to make sense of and too hard to activate across all the touchpoints where it could power better decision-making and better experiences. Data fragmentation is the reason companies struggle to deliver relevant, consistent and meaningful experiences to their customers. Our mission is to break down silos and make data safe and easy to use. Leveraging our core capabilities in data access, identity resolution, connectivity and data stewardship, we create the foundation from which the ecosystem can deliver innovative products and services.
We are middleware for the customer experience economy. LiveRamp provides the trusted platform that sits in between customer data and the thousands of applications that data could power. We make data consistent, consumable and portable. We ensure the seamless connection of data to and from the customer experience applications our customers use and the partners with which they collaborate. We empower businesses to make data more accessible and create richer, more meaningful experiences for their customers.
The LiveRamp Platform
As depicted in the graphic below, we power the industry’s leading enterprise data connectivity platform. We enable organizations to access and leverage data more effectively across the applications they use to interact with their customers. A core component of our platform is the omnichannel, deterministic identity asset that sits at its center. Leveraging deep expertise in identity and data collaboration, the LiveRamp platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data (first-, second-, or third-party) to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. This single customer view can then be enhanced and activated across any of the 550 partners in our ecosystem in order to support a variety of people-based marketing solutions, including:
•Activation. We enable organizations to leverage their customer and prospect data in the digital and TV ecosystems and across the customer experience applications they use through a safe and secure data matching process called data onboarding. Our technology ingests a customer’s first-party data, removes all offline data (personally identifiable information or "PII"), and replaces them with anonymized IDs called RampID™, a true people-based identifier. RampID can then be distributed through direct integrations to the top platforms our customers work with, including leading marketing cloud providers, publishers and social networks, personalization tools, and connected TV services.
•Measurement & Analytics. We power more accurate, more complete measurement with the measurement vendors and partners our customers use. Our platform allows customers to combine disparate data files (typically ad exposure and customer events, like transactions), replacing customer identifiers with RampID. Customers then can use that aggregated view of each customer for measurement of reach and frequency, sales lift, closed loop offline to online conversion and cross-channel attribution.
•Identity. We provide enterprise-level identity solutions that enable organizations to: 1) resolve and connect disparate identities, 2) enrich data sets with hygiene capabilities and additional audience data from Data Marketplace providers, and 3) translate data between different systems. Our approach to identity is built from two complementary graphs, combining offline data and online data and providing the highest level of accuracy with a focus on privacy. LiveRamp technology for PII gives brands and platforms the ability to connect and update what they know about consumers, resolving PII across enterprise databases and systems to deliver better customer experiences in a privacy-conscious manner. Our digital identity graph powered by our Authenticated Traffic Solution (or ATS) associates pseudonymous device IDs, TV IDs and other online customer IDs from premium publishers, platforms or data providers, around a RampID. This allows marketers to perform the personalized segmentation, targeting, and measurement use cases that require a consistent view of the user.
•Data Collaboration with Safe Haven. We enable trusted second-party data collaboration between organizations and their partners in a neutral, permissioned environment. Safe Haven provides customers with collaborative opportunities to safely and securely build a more accurate, dynamic view of their customers leveraging partner data. Advanced measurement and analytics use cases can be performed on this shared data without either party giving up control or compromising privacy.
•Data Marketplace. Our Data Marketplace provides customers with simplified access to trusted, industry leading third-party data globally. The LiveRamp platform allows for the search, discovery and distribution of data to improve targeting, measurement, and customer intelligence. Data accessed through our Data Marketplace is connected via RampID and is utilized to enrich our customers’ first-party data and can be leveraged across technology and media platforms, agencies, analytics environments, and TV partners. Our platform also provides tools for data providers to manage the organization, distribution, and operation of their data and services across our network of customers and partners. Today we work with more than 150 data providers across all verticals and data types (see below for discussion on Marketplace and Other).
Consumer privacy and data protection, what we call Data Ethics, are at the center of how we design our products and services. Accordingly, the LiveRamp platform operates with technical, operational, and personnel controls designed to keep our customers’ data private and secure.
Our solutions are sold to enterprise marketers and the companies they partner with to execute their marketing, including agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers and data providers. Today, we work with over 825 direct customers world-wide, including approximately 22% of the Fortune 500, and serve thousands of additional customers indirectly through our reseller partnership arrangements.
•Brands and Agencies. We work with over 450 of the largest brands and agencies in the world, helping them execute people-based marketing by creating an omni-channel understanding of the consumer and activating that understanding across their choice of best-of-breed digital marketing platforms.
•Marketing Technology Providers. We provide marketing technology providers with the identity foundation required to offer people-based targeting, measurement and personalization within their platforms. This adds value for brands by increasing reach, as well as the speed at which they can activate their marketing data.
•Publishers. We enable publishers of any size to offer people-based marketing on their properties. This adds value for brands by providing direct access to their customers and prospects in the publisher's premium inventory.
•Data Owners. Leveraging our vast network of integrations, we allow data owners to easily connect to the digital ecosystem and monetize their own data. Data can be distributed to clients or made available through the LiveRamp Data Marketplace feature. This adds value for brands as it allows them to augment their understanding of consumers and increase both their reach against and understanding of customers and prospects.
We primarily charge for our platform on an annual subscription basis. Our subscription pricing is based primarily on data volume, which is a function of data input records and connection points.
Marketplace and Other
As we have scaled the LiveRamp network and technology, we have found additional ways to leverage our platform, deliver more value to clients and create incremental revenue streams. Leveraging our common identity system and broad integration network, the LiveRamp Data Marketplace is a solution that seamlessly connects data owners’ audience data across the marketing ecosystem. The Data Marketplace allows data owners to easily monetize their data across hundreds of marketing platforms and publishers with a single contract. At the same time, it provides a single gateway where data buyers, including platforms and publishers, in addition to brands and their agencies, can access third-party data from more than 150 data providers, supporting all industries and encompassing all types of data. Data providers include sources and brands exclusive to LiveRamp, emerging platforms with access to previously unavailable deterministic data, and data partnerships enabled by our platform.
We generate revenue from the Data Marketplace primarily through revenue-sharing arrangements with data owners that are monetizing their data assets on our marketplace. We also generate Marketplace and Other revenue through transactional usage-based arrangements with certain publishers and addressable TV providers.
Competitive Strengths
Our competitive strengths can be mapped back to our core capabilities around data access, identity, connectivity and data stewardship - which together create strong network effects that form a larger strategic moat around the entire business.
•Extensive Coverage. We activate data across an ecosystem of more than 550 partners, representing one of the largest networks of connections in the digital marketing space. We use 100% deterministic matching, resulting in the strongest combination of reach and accuracy. Through our Data Marketplace, we offer multi-sourced insight into approximately 700 million consumers worldwide, and over 5,000 data elements from hundreds of sources with permission rights.
•Most Advanced Consumer-Level Recognition. Our proprietary, patented recognition technology draws upon an extensive historical reference base to identify and link together multiple consumer records and identifiers. We use the pioneering algorithms of AbiliTec® and deterministic digital matching to link individuals and households to the right digital identifiers including cookies, mobile device IDs, Advanced TV IDs, and user accounts at social networks. As a result, we are able to match online and offline data with a high degree of speed and accuracy.
•Scale Leader in Data Connectivity. We are a category creator and one of the largest providers of identity and data connectivity at scale. We match records with the highest level of accuracy and offer the most flexibility for activating data through our extensive set of integrations. Our platform processes more than 4 trillion data records daily.
•Unique Position in Marketing Ecosystem. We are one of the only open and neutral data connectivity platforms operating at large scale. We provide the data connectivity required to build best-of-breed integrated marketing stacks, allowing our customers to innovate through their preferred choice of data, technology, and services providers. We strive to make every customer experience application more valuable by providing access to more customer data. We enable the open marketing stack and power the open ecosystem.
•Standard Bearer for Privacy and Security. LiveRamp has been a leader in data stewardship and a strong and vocal proponent of providing consumers with more visibility and control over their data. A few examples of our commitment in this area:
◦In all of our major geographies we have Privacy teams focused on the protection and responsible use of consumer data
◦The use of our privacy-enabled environment that allows marketers and partners to connect different types of data while protecting and governing its use
◦Industry-leading expertise in safely connecting data across the online and offline worlds
◦In fiscal 2020, the acquisition and integration of Faktor to streamline consent management across the open ecosystem. Faktor is a global consent management platform that allows consumers to better manage how and where their data is used.
•Strong Customer Relationships. We work with over 825 direct customers world-wide and serve thousands of additional customers indirectly through our partner and reseller network. We have deep relationships with companies and marketing leaders in key industries, including financial services, retail, telecommunications, media, insurance, health care, automotive, technology, and travel and entertainment. Our customers are loyal and typically grow their use of the platform over time, as evidenced by our growth in the number of customers whose subscription contracts exceed $1 million in annual revenue.
Growth Strategy
LiveRamp is a category creator, thought leader and innovator in how data is used to power the customer experience. Key elements of our growth strategy include:
•Grow our Customer Base. We have strong relationships with many of the world’s largest brands, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers and data providers. Today, we work with over 825 direct customers globally; however, we believe our target market includes the world’s top 2,000 marketers, signaling there is still significant opportunity to add new customers to our roster. We expect to continue making investments in growing our sales and customer success team to support this strategy.
•Expand Existing Customer Relationships. A key growth lever for our business is the ability to land and expand - or grow existing customer relationships. Our subscription pricing is based on data volume, so over time, as customers expand their usage and leverage their data across more use cases, we are able to grow our relationships. As of March 31, 2021, we worked with 70 clients whose subscription contracts exceed $1 million in annual revenue, and as we continue to expand our coverage beyond programmatic, we expect to see this number grow.
•Continue to Innovate and Extend Leadership Position in Identity. We intend to establish LiveRamp as the standard for consumer-level recognition across the marketing ecosystem, providing a single source of user identity for audience targeting, measurement and personalization.
•Establish LiveRamp as the Trusted, Best and Essential Industry Standard for Connected Data. We intend to continue to make substantial investments in our platform and solutions and extend our market leadership through innovation. Our investments will focus on automation, speed, higher match rates, expanded partner integrations and use cases, and new product development.
•Expand Global Footprint. Many of our customers and partners serve their customers on a global basis, and we intend to expand our presence outside of the United States to serve the needs of our customers in additional geographies. As we expand relationships with our existing customers, we are investing in select regions in Europe and APAC.
•Expand Addressable Market. Historically, our focus has been to enable data-driven advertising for paid media. As customers look to deploy data across additional use cases, we intend to power all customer experience use cases and expand our role inside the enterprise. Advanced TV, B2B and data collaboration powered by Safe Haven are great examples of this strategy. In addition, over time, we intend to pursue adjacent markets beyond marketing, like risk and fraud, healthcare and government, where similar identity and data connectivity challenges exist.
•Build an Exceptional Business. We do not aspire to be mediocre, good, or even great - we intend to be the absolute best in everything we do. We attract and employ exceptional people, challenge them to accomplish exceptional things, and achieve exceptional results for our clients and shareholders. We will do this through six guiding principles: 1) Above all, we do what is right; 2) We love our customers; 3) We say what we mean and do what we say; 4) We empower people; 5) We respect people and time; and 6) We get stuff done.
Privacy Considerations
The growing online advertising and e-commerce industries are converging, with consumers expecting a seamless experience across all channels, in real time. This challenges marketing organizations to balance the deluge of data and demands of the consumer with responsible, privacy-compliant methods of managing data internally and with advertising technology intermediaries.
We have policies and operational practices governing our use of data that are designed to actively promote a set of meaningful privacy guidelines for digital advertising and direct marketing via all channels of addressable media, e-commerce, risk management and information industries as a whole. Since the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union ("EU") in July 2020, as part of our effort to ensure our continued ability to process information across borders we continue to adhere to the principles of the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield networks, although we do not rely on those frameworks as a legal basis for transfers of personal data. We have dedicated teams in place to oversee our compliance with the data protection regulations that govern our business activities in the various countries in which we operate.
The U.S. Congress and state legislatures, along with federal regulatory authorities, have recently increased their attention on matters concerning the collection and use of consumer data. Data privacy legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress, and California and Virginia have enacted broad-based privacy legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Privacy Rights Act, and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. State legislatures outside of California and Virginia have proposed, and in certain cases enacted, a variety of types of data privacy legislation. In all of the non-U.S. locations in which we do business, laws and regulations governing the collection and use of personal data either exist or are being developed.
We expect the trend of enacting and revising data protection laws to continue and that new and expanded data privacy legislation in various forms will be implemented in the U.S. and in other countries around the globe. We are supportive of legislation that codifies current industry guidelines of accountability-based data governance that includes meaningful transparency for the individual, and appropriate controls over personal information and choice whether that information is shared with independent third parties for marketing purposes. We also support legislation requiring all custodians of sensitive information to deploy reasonable information security safeguards to protect that information.
Changes in laws and regulations and violations of laws or regulations by us could have a significant direct or indirect effect on our operations and financial condition, as detailed below and set forth under "Risk Factors-Risks Related to Government Regulation and Taxation."
Customers
Our customer base consists primarily of Fortune 1000 companies and organizations in the financial services, insurance, information services, direct marketing, retail, consumer packaged goods, technology, automotive, healthcare, travel and communications industries as well as in non-profit and government sectors. Given the strong network effects associated with our platform, we work with both enterprise marketers and the companies they partner with to execute their marketing, including agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers and data providers.
We seek to maintain long-term relationships with our clients. Our customers are loyal and typically grow their use of the platform over time, as evidenced by our growing number of customers whose subscription contracts exceed $1 million in annual revenue, which totaled 70 at the end of fiscal year 2021, up from 53 the year prior.
Our ten largest clients represented approximately 33% of our revenues in fiscal year 2021. If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, one client, The Interpublic Group of Companies, accounted for 11% of our revenues in fiscal year 2021.
Sales and Marketing
Our sales teams focus on new business development across all markets - sales to new clients and sales of new lines of business to existing clients, as well as revenue growth within existing accounts. We organize our customer relationships around customer type and industry vertical, as we believe that understanding and speaking to the nuances of each industry is the most effective way to positively impact our customers’ businesses.
Our partner organization focuses on enabling key media partners, agencies and software providers who can help drive value for our customers.
Our marketing efforts are focused on increasing awareness for our brand, executing thought-leadership initiatives, supporting our sales team and generating new leads. We seek to accomplish these objectives by hosting and presenting at industry conferences, hosting client advisory boards, publishing white papers and research, public relations activities, social media presence and advertising campaigns.
Research and Development
We continue to invest in our global data connectivity platform to enable effective use of data. Our research and development teams are focused on the full cycle of product development from customer discovery through development, testing and release. Research and development expense was $135.1 million in fiscal 2021, compared to $106.0 million in fiscal 2020, and $85.7 million in fiscal 2019. Management expects to maintain research and development spending, as a percentage of revenue, at similar levels in fiscal 2022.
Competition
Competitors to LiveRamp are typically also members of our partner and reseller ecosystem, creating a paradigm where competition is the norm. Our primary competitors are companies that sell data onboarding as part of a suite of marketing applications or services. Walled gardens that offer a direct interface for matching CRM data compete for a portion of our services, particularly amongst marketers that have not yet adopted in-house platforms for programmatic marketing or attribution. Some providers of tag management, data management, and cross-device marketing solutions have adopted positioning similar to our business and compete for mindshare. In markets outside the United States, we primarily face small, local market players.
We continue to focus on levers to increase our competitiveness and believe that investing in the product and technology platform of our business is a key to our continued success. Further, we believe that enabling a broad partner ecosystem will help us to continue to provide competitive differentiation.
Seasonality and Inflation
Although we cannot accurately determine the amounts attributable to inflation, we are affected by inflation through increased costs of compensation and other operating expenses. If inflation were to increase over the low levels of recent years, the impact in the short run would be to cause increases in costs, which we would attempt to pass on to our clients, although there is no assurance that we would be able to do so. Generally, the effects of inflation in recent years have been offset by technological advances, economies of scale and other operational efficiencies.
While the majority of our business is not subject to seasonal fluctuations, our Marketplace and other business experiences modest seasonality, as the revenue generated from this area of the business is more transactional in nature and tied to advertising spend. For example, many advertisers allocate the largest portion of their budgets to the fourth quarter of the calendar year in order to coincide with increased holiday purchasing. We expect our Marketplace and other revenue to continue to fluctuate based on seasonal factors that affect the advertising industry as a whole.
Pricing
Approximately 80% of our revenue is derived from subscription based arrangements sold on an annual or multi-year basis. Our subscription pricing is based on data volume supported by our platform. We also generate revenue from data providers, digital publishers and advanced TV platforms in the form of revenue-sharing agreements.
Our Human Capital
LiveRamp employs approximately 1,200 employees (LiveRampers) worldwide. No U.S. LiveRampers are represented by a labor union or subject to a collective bargaining agreement. To the best of management’s knowledge, no LiveRamper is an elected member of works councils and trade unions representing LiveRamp employees in the European Union. LiveRamp has never experienced a work stoppage, and we believe that our employee relations are good.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
We attract and retain employees with market-competitive, internally-equitable compensation and benefit programs, learning and development opportunities that support career growth and advancement opportunities, and employee engagement initiatives that foster a strong, inclusive company culture.
Through our dedicated organizational development program, we assess our human capital opportunities and needs and focus on building the individual capabilities of our employees to facilitate achieving the overall goals of our organization. We aggregate and analyze critical human capital metrics, including employee retention, to monitor the success of our strategy and make adjustments accordingly.
Since 2016, LiveRamp has either qualified or been certified as a Best Place to Work. In addition, LiveRamp was awarded as a Best Place to Work by Fortune every year since 2018 and was among the Top 10 Best Places to Work by Glassdoor in 2017. In 2020, Live Ramp was also recognized as a Great Place to Work for Parents and in 2021, LiveRamp was recognized as a Best Workplace in Technology and in the Bay Area by Fortune.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging (“DIB”) efforts are a cornerstone of LiveRamp’s innovative culture. During 2020, we hired our first-ever Head of Diversity Strategy & Programs and published LiveRamp’s Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Charter, which set our commitment to and the core pillars of DIB for LiveRamp, talked about our current programs and practices as well as showed the breath of leaders making DIB part of their focus. Our CEO also joined 1,000 CEOs of the world’s leading companies and organizations to sign the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
We believe there are three core pillars of DIB: Workforce, Product & Customers, and Community. These pillars reflect the intricate relationship of diversity, inclusion, and belonging-both internally and externally. To be effective, we believe all three must work together harmoniously for an environment that is equal parts diverse, encouraging, and accepting. Creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace where colleagues feel a sense of belonging leads to producing better outcomes for our employees and business. We work to foster a sense of belonging where everyone can bring their full selves to work.
Investing in our people is foundational to building an exceptional culture where everyone can thrive. We seek out brilliant people from all backgrounds. As one way to make this real, we provide candidates with an unusual amount of information about who we are and how our products work to help level the knowledge base among referrals and direct applicants. Additionally, candidates have the opportunity to speak with members of our employee resource groups (“ERGs”) to get a first-hand perspective of what it is like to work here.
Forming teams with diverse backgrounds enables us to achieve our goals of building products that can be used by customers with varying capabilities, which reduces inequities and serves a wider variety of business needs. Our ERGs exist to support the growth and development of our employees, communities, and business to increase diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Currently, we have seven ERGs: EQUAL, LatinX@LiveRamp, Veterans@LiveRamp, Women@LiveRamp, RAMPability, Black@LiveRamp and AAPI@LiveRamp.
Diversity, inclusion and belonging also lives outside of our office walls. We have invested in LiveRamp.org, which includes opportunities for volunteerism, philanthropic initiatives, employee donation matching, and our Data for Good initiative, which enables organizations to use data to solve some of society’s biggest challenges.
Expanded Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In light of extraordinary circumstances under the COVID-19 pandemic, we have created new resources for our employees to assist with the transition to a remote work environment. The health and safety of our employees is of utmost priority. The majority of our employees have the opportunity to work remotely until September 2021, which may be extended for health and safety reasons. We have also invested in several programs designed to promote employee well-being and ensure that our employees are as effective at home as they would be in our offices worldwide.
Executive Officers of the Registrant
LiveRamp’s executive officers, their current positions, ages and business experience are listed below. They are elected by the board of directors annually or as necessary to fill vacancies or to fill new positions. There are no family relationships among any of the officers or directors of the Company.
Scott E. Howe, age 53, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Prior to joining the Company in 2011, he served as corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising Business Group from 2007-2010. In this role, he managed a multi-billion-dollar business encompassing all emerging businesses related to online advertising, including search, display, ad networks, in-game, mobile, digital cable and a variety of enterprise software applications. Mr. Howe was employed from 1999-2007 as an executive and later as a corporate officer at aQuantive, Inc. where he managed three lines of business, including Avenue A | Razorfish (a leading Seattle-based global consultancy in digital marketing and technology), DRIVE Performance Media (now Microsoft Media Network), and Atlas International (an adserving technology now owned by Facebook). Earlier in his career, he was with The Boston Consulting Group and Kidder, Peabody & Company, Inc. He previously served on the boards of Blue Nile, Inc., a leading online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, and the Internet Advertising Bureau. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a degree in economics, and he holds an MBA from Harvard University.
Warren C. Jenson, age 64, is the Company’s President, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Managing Director of International. He joined the Company in 2012 and is responsible for all aspects of LiveRamp’s financial management and the Company’s business operations outside the United States. Prior to joining the Company Mr. Jenson served as COO at Silver Spring Networks, a successful start-up specializing in smart grid networking technology, where he had responsibility for the company’s service delivery, operations and manufacturing organizations. From 2002 - 2008 he was CFO at Electronic Arts Inc., a leading global interactive entertainment software company. He has more than 30 years of experience in operational finance and has been CFO of some of the most important success stories of the last two decades, including Amazon.com, NBC and Electronic Arts. In addition, he was twice designated one of the “Best CFOs in America” by Institutional Investor magazine, and he was also honored as Bay Area Venture CFO of the Year in 2010. He also has significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, as well as in the development and formulation of strategic partnerships. Mr. Jenson’s board experience includes DigitalOcean (NYSE: DOCN) (2020 - present), Cardtronics (NASDAQ: CATM) (2018 - present), Digital Globe (NYSE: DGI) (2008 - 2017), Tapjoy (2013 - present), PowerSchool (2021 - present). He previously served on the board of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master of accountancy degree, both from Brigham Young University
Jerry C. Jones, age 65, is the Company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Ethics and Legal Officer, and Assistant Secretary. He joined the Company in 1999 and currently oversees the Company’s legal, data ethics and human resources matters. He also assists in the strategy and execution of mergers and alliances and the Company’s strategic initiatives. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Jones was employed for 19 years as an attorney with the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, representing a broad range of business interests. Mr. Jones is a member of the board of directors of Agilysys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AGYS), a leading developer and marketer of proprietary enterprise software, services and solutions to the hospitality and retail industries, where he serves on the Compensation Committee and the Nominating & Governance Committee. He also serves on the executive committee of Privacy for America, the board of directors of ForwARd Arkansas and is a co-founder of uhire U.S. He is a Special Advisor to the Club de Madrid, an organization composed of over 100 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from more than 60 democratic countries. Mr. Jones was a member of the board of directors of Heifer International until 2019 and Entrust, Inc. until it was purchased by private investors in 2009. He is the former chairman of the board of the Arkansas Virtual Academy, a statewide virtual public school, and is a former member of the UA Little Rock Board of Visitors. Mr. Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a juris doctorate degree, both from the University of Arkansas.
Anneka R. Gupta, age 33, is President and Head of Products and Platforms at LiveRamp. In this role she is responsible for product development, engineering, operations and go-to-market functions. In addition, she has an executive role in the planning and execution of the Company’s diversity, inclusion and belonging (“DIB”) program and strategy. Ms. Gupta has led several of the Company’s strategic initiatives, including the debut of LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (“ATS”), the development of the Company’s Safe Haven® platform for secure data partnerships.
Ms. Gupta is a director of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and is also on the board of directors of Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing firm. She was recently included in the San Francisco Business Times’ 2021 “40 Under 40” listing. In 2020, she was named a “Rising Star” by AdExchanger and was featured in Business Insider as one of the key executives shaping the future of marketing technology. She has also been featured on the DMN “40 Under 40” listing, Marketing Edge’s “Rising Stars,” and Ad Age’s “Top 10 Digital Marketing Innovators.” Ms. Gupta holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computational Sciences from Stanford University and has completed the Executive Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Item 1A. Risk Factors
An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below and the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in other public filings before making an investment decision. Our business, prospects, financial condition, or operating results could be harmed by any of these risks, as well as other risks not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial. If any of such risks and uncertainties actually occurs, our business, financial condition or operating results could differ materially from the plans, projections and other forward-looking statements included in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this report and in our other public filings. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Strategy
We are dependent upon customer renewals, the addition of new customers and increased revenue from existing customers for our subscription revenue through our LiveRamp platform and our marketplace and other business.
To sustain or increase our revenue, we must regularly add new clients and encourage existing clients to maintain or increase their business with us. As the market matures and as existing and new market participants produce new and different approaches to enable businesses to address their respective needs that compete with our offerings, we may be forced to reduce the prices we charge, may be unable to renew existing customer agreements, or enter into new customer agreements at the same prices and upon the same terms that we have historically obtained. If our new business and cross-selling efforts are unsuccessful or if our customers do not expand their use of our platform or adopt additional offerings and features, our operating results may suffer.
Our existing customers have no obligation to renew their contracts upon expiration of their contractual subscription period and may not choose to renew their contracts for a variety of reasons. In the normal course of business, some customers have elected not to renew, and it is difficult to predict attrition rates. Our renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including customer satisfaction, pricing changes, the prices of services offered by our competitors, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, and reductions in our customers’ spending levels or other declines in customer activity. If our customers do not renew their contracts or decrease the amount they spend with us, our revenue will decline and our business will suffer.
A decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any period may not be immediately reflected in our reported financial results for that period but may result in a decline in our revenue in future periods. If we were to experience significant downturns in subscription sales and renewal rates, our reported financial results might not reflect such downturns until future periods. Moreover, the conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected, and may continue to affect the rate of spending on advertising products and have and could continue to adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our offerings, delay prospective customers’ purchasing decisions, increase pressure for pricing discounts, lengthen payment terms, reduce the value or duration of their subscription contracts, or increase customer attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance.
The loss of a contract upon which we rely for a significant portion of our revenues could adversely affect our operating results.
Our ten largest clients represented approximately 33% of our revenues in fiscal year 2021. If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, one client, The Interpublic Group of Companies, accounted for 11% of our revenues in fiscal year 2021. The loss of, or decrease in revenue from, any of our significant clients for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our revenue and operating results, which could be exacerbated by client consolidation, changes in technologies or solutions used by our clients, changes in demand for our platform, client bankruptcies or departures from their respective industries, pricing competition or deviation from marketing and sales methods, any one of which may result in even fewer contractual relationships accounting for a high percentage of our revenue and reduced demand from any single significant client.
In addition, some of our clients have used, and may in the future use, the size and relative importance of their purchases to our business to require that we enter into agreements with more favorable terms than we would otherwise agree to, to obtain price concessions, or to otherwise restrict our business.
Data suppliers may withdraw data that we have previously collected or withhold data from us in the future, leading to our inability to provide products and services to our clients, which could lead to a decrease in revenue and loss of client confidence.
Much of the data that we use is either purchased or licensed from third-party data suppliers, and we are dependent upon our ability to obtain necessary data licenses on commercially reasonable terms. We could suffer material adverse consequences if our data suppliers were to withhold their data from us or materially limit our use of their data, which could occur for a variety of reasons, including because we fail to maintain sufficient relationships with the suppliers or because they decline to provide, or are prohibited from providing, such data to us due to legal, contractual, privacy, competitive or other economic concerns. For example, data suppliers could withhold their data from us if there is a competitive reason to do so, if we breach our contract with a supplier, if we breach their expectations of our use of their data, if they are acquired by one of our competitors, if legislation is passed restricting the use or dissemination of the data they provide, if market optics become negative regarding the sharing of their data with third parties or allowing the setting of cookies from their sites, if publishers change their privacy policies or user settings in a material manner that turns off or diminishes the volume of data we receive, or if judicial interpretations are issued restricting use of such data, or for other reasons. Further, definitions in enacted or proposed state-level data broker legislation could be interpreted to apply to LiveRamp, potentially exposing the Company to negative perceptions and diminishing data available to it. Additionally, we could terminate relationships with our data suppliers if they fail to adhere to our data quality standards. If a substantial number of data suppliers were to withdraw or withhold their data from us or substantially limit our use of their data, or if we were to sever ties with our data suppliers based on their inability to meet appropriate data standards, our ability to provide products and services to our clients could be materially adversely impacted, which could result in decreased revenues and operating results.
Our business is subject to substantial competition from a diverse group of competitors. New products and pricing strategies introduced by these competitors could decrease our market share or cause us to lower our prices in a manner that reduces our revenues and operating margin.
We operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing industry. With the introduction of new technologies and the influx of new entrants to the market, we expect competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm our ability to increase revenue and operating results. In addition to existing competitors and intermediaries, we may also face competition from new companies entering the market, which may include large established companies, all of which currently offer, or may in the future offer, products and services that result in additional competition. These competitors may be in a better position to develop new products and pricing strategies that more quickly and effectively respond to changes in customer requirements in these markets. These competitors and new products and technologies may be disruptive to our existing platform offerings, resulting in operating inefficiencies and increased competitive pressure. Some of our competitors may choose to sell products or services competitive to ours at lower prices by accepting lower margins and profitability, or may be able to sell products or services competitive to ours at lower prices given proprietary ownership of data, technical superiority or economies of scale. Such introduction of competent, competitive products, pricing strategies or other technologies by our competitors that are superior to or that achieve greater market acceptance than our products and services could adversely affect our business. In such event, we could experience a decline in market share and revenues and be forced to reduce our prices, resulting in lower profit margins for the Company.
The extent to which the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty, and measures taken in response to the pandemic could continue to impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and difficult to predict.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the flow of the economy and put unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, educational institutions, businesses and individuals around the world. The ongoing impact on the global population and the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess or predict. It is even more difficult to predict the future impact on the global economic market, which will be highly dependent upon the actions of governments, businesses and other enterprises in response to the pandemic and the effectiveness of those actions. The pandemic has caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruption of global financial markets and economic uncertainty. While the COVID-19 pandemic has not materially adversely impacted our sales or operations, we continue to monitor our operations, the operations of our customers and corporate partners, and government recommendations. The spread of an infectious disease may also result in, and, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, regional quarantines, labor shortages or stoppages, changes in consumer purchasing patterns, disruptions to service providers to deliver data on a timely basis, or at all, and overall economic instability.
A recession, depression or other sustained adverse market events resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially and adversely affect our business and the value of our common stock. Our customers or potential customers, particularly in industries most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic including transportation, travel and hospitality, retail and energy, may reduce their advertising spending or delay their advertising initiatives, which could materially and adversely impact our business. We may also experience curtailed customer demand, reduced customer spend or contract duration, delayed collections, lengthened payment terms and increased competition due to changes in terms and conditions and pricing of our competitors’ products and services that could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial performance in future periods. Existing and potential customers may choose to reduce or delay technology spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or may attempt to renegotiate contracts and obtain concessions, which may materially and negatively impact our operating results, financial condition and prospects.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have temporarily closed most of our offices (including our headquarters), encouraged our employees to work remotely, implemented restrictions on all non-essential travel, and shifted certain of our customer, industry, investor, and employee events to virtual-only experiences and may deem it advisable to similarly alter, postpone or cancel entirely additional events in the future. Certain costs incurred in preparation for these events could not be recovered. If the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, especially in regions in which we have material operations or sales, our business activities originating from affected areas, including sales-related activities, could be adversely affected. Disruptive activities could include business closures in impacted areas, further restrictions on our employees’ and other service providers’ ability to travel, impacts to productivity if our employees or their family members experience health issues, and potential delays in hiring and onboarding of new employees. Further, we may experience increased cyberattacks and security challenges as our global employee base works remotely. Our employees' ability to effectively work remotely is also impacted by continued availability of internet connectivity and a general degradation of such would negatively impact their ability to work effectively.
The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business will depend on future developments, which are not within our control, are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. Such future developments may include, among others, the duration and spread of the outbreak, new information that may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 (including new variants) and government actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its impact, impact on our customers and our sales cycles, impact on our customer, industry or employee events, and effect on our partners, vendors and supply chains. A significant outbreak of infectious diseases could result in, and in the case of COVID-19, has resulted in, a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect, and, in the case of COVID-19, has adversely affected economies and financial markets worldwide, resulting in an economic downturn or a prolonged contraction in the industries in which our customers operate that could affect demand for our products and services and otherwise adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. While the majority of our revenues, billings and earnings are relatively predictable as a result of our subscription-based business model, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and overall financial performance until future periods.
In addition, we have seen significant volatility in the global markets, as well as significant interest rate and foreign currency volatility. As a result, the trading prices for our common stock and other S&P 500 and technology companies have been highly volatile, and such volatility may continue for the duration of and possibly beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
The failure to attract, recruit, onboard and retain qualified personnel could hinder our ability to successfully execute our business strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and operating results.
Our growth strategy and future success depends in large part on our ability to attract, recruit, onboard, motivate and retain technical, client services, sales, consulting, research and development, marketing, administrative and management personnel, all of which may be made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions intended to prevent its spread. The complexity of our products, processing functionality, software systems and services requires highly trained professionals. While we presently have a sophisticated, dedicated and experienced team of executives and associates who have a deep understanding of our business, the labor market for these individuals has historically been very competitive due to the limited number of people available with the necessary technical skills and understanding. As our industry continues to become more technologically advanced, we anticipate increased competition for qualified personnel. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly trained personnel and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them, and our succession plans may be insufficient to ensure business continuity if we are unable to retain key personnel. The loss or prolonged absence of the services of highly trained personnel like our current team of executives and associates, or the inability to recruit, attract, onboard and retain additional, qualified associates, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or operating results.
If we cannot maintain our culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success, and our business may be harmed.
We believe that a critical component to our success has been our company culture, which is based on transparency and personal autonomy. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team within this company culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to proactively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unique challenges to this objective by forcing large numbers of our employees to work remotely while facing unique personal and professional challenges in doing so. If we fail to maintain our company culture, our business may be adversely impacted.
Failure to keep up with rapidly changing technologies and marketing practices could cause our products and services to become less competitive or obsolete, which could result in loss of market share and decreased revenues and results of operations.
Advances in information technology are changing the way our clients use and purchase information products and services. Maintaining the technological competitiveness of our products, processing functionality, software systems and services is key to our continued success. However, the complexity and uncertainty regarding the development of new technologies and the extent and timing of market acceptance of innovative products and services create difficulties in maintaining this competitiveness. Without the timely introduction of new products, services and enhancements, our offerings will become technologically or commercially obsolete over time, in which case our revenue and operating results would suffer.
Consumer needs and expectations and the business information industry as a whole are in a constant state of change. Our ability to continually improve our current processes and products in response to changes in technology and to develop new products and services are essential in maintaining our competitive position, preserving our market share and meeting the increasingly sophisticated requirements of our clients. If we fail to enhance our current products and services or fail to develop new products in light of emerging technologies and industry standards, we could lose clients to current or future competitors, which could result in impairment of our growth prospects, loss of market share and decreased revenues.
Acquisition and divestiture activities may disrupt our ongoing business and may involve increased expenses, and we may not realize the financial and strategic goals contemplated at the time of a transaction, all of which could adversely affect our business and growth prospects.
Historically, we have engaged in acquisitions to grow our business. To the extent we find suitable and attractive acquisition candidates and business opportunities in the future, we may continue to acquire other complementary businesses, products and technologies and enter into joint ventures or similar strategic relationships. The pursuit of acquisitions may divert the attention of management, disrupt ongoing business, and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating, and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated. While we believe we will be able to successfully integrate newly acquired businesses into our existing operations, there is no certainty that future acquisitions or alliances will be consummated on acceptable terms or that we will be able to integrate successfully the services, content, products and personnel of any such transaction into our operations. In addition, the pursuit of any future acquisitions, joint ventures or similar relationships may cause a disruption in our ongoing business and distract our management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating, and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated. An acquisition may later be found to have a material legal or ethical issue, not disclosed or discovered prior to acquisition. Further, we may be unable to realize the revenue improvements, cost savings and other intended benefits of any such transaction. The occurrence of any of these events could result in decreased revenues, net income and earnings per share.
We have also divested assets in the past and may do so again in the future. As with acquisitions, divestitures involve significant risks and uncertainties, such as disruption of our ongoing business, reductions of our revenues or earnings per share, unanticipated liabilities, legal risks and costs, the potential loss of key personnel, distraction of management from our ongoing business, impairment of relationships with employees and clients because of migrating a business to new owners.
Because acquisitions and divestitures are inherently risky, transactions we undertake may not be successful and may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
Our operations outside the U.S. are subject to risks that may harm the Company’s business, financial condition or results of operations.
During the last fiscal year, we received approximately 6% of our revenues from business outside the United States. In those non-U.S. locations where legislation restricting the collection and use of personal data currently exists, less data is available and at a much higher cost. In some foreign markets, the types of products and services we offer have not been generally available and thus are not fully understood by prospective clients. Upon entering these markets, we must educate and condition the markets, increasing the cost and difficulty of successfully executing our business plan in these markets. Additionally, each of our foreign locations is generally expected to fund its own operations and cash flows, although periodically funds may be loaned or invested from the U.S. to the foreign subsidiaries. Because of such loan or investment, exchange rate movements of foreign currencies may have an impact on our future costs of, or future cash flows from, foreign investments. We have not entered into any foreign currency forward exchange contracts or other derivative instruments to hedge the effects of adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
Additional risks inherent in our non-U.S. business activities generally include, among others, the costs and difficulties of managing international operations, potentially adverse tax consequences, and greater difficulty enforcing intellectual property rights. The various risks that are inherent in doing business in the U.S. are also generally applicable to doing business outside of the U.S., but such risks may be exaggerated by factors normally associated with international operations, such as differences in culture, laws and regulations, especially restrictions on collection, management, aggregation, localizations, and use of information. Failure to effectively manage the risks facing our non-U.S. business activities could materially adversely affect our operating results.
In addition, when operating in foreign jurisdictions, we must comply with complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act and other local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as well as anti-competition regulations and data protection laws and regulations. Violations of these laws and regulations could result in fines and penalties, criminal sanctions, restrictions on our business conduct and on our ability to offer our products and services in one or more countries. Such violations could also adversely affect our reputation with existing and prospective clients, which could negatively impact our operating results and growth prospects.
A significant breach of the confidentiality of the information we hold or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’, or other partners’ computer systems could be detrimental to our business, reputation and results of operations.
Our business requires the storage, transmission and utilization of data, including personally identifiable information, much of which must be maintained on a confidential basis. These activities may make us a target of cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to the data we maintain, including our data and client data, or to disrupt our ability to provide service. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of the data we maintain, including personal information, could result in the loss or misuse of such data, which could harm our business and reputation and diminish our competitive position. Our clients and suppliers are increasingly imposing more rigorous contractual obligations on us relating to data security protections. If we are unable to maintain protections and processes at a level equal to that required by our clients and suppliers, it could negatively affect our relationships with those clients and suppliers or increase our operating costs. In addition, computer malware, viruses, social engineering, and general hacking have become more prevalent. As a result of the types and volume of personal data on our systems, we believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such breaches and attacks.
In recent years, the frequency, severity and sophistication of cyber-attacks, computer malware, viruses, social engineering and other intentional misconduct by computer hackers have significantly increased, including the ability to evade detection or obscure their activities, and government agencies and security experts have warned about the growing risks of hackers, cyber criminals and other potential attackers targeting information technology systems. Such third parties could attempt to gain entry to our systems for the purpose of stealing data or disrupting the systems. In addition, our security measures may also be breached due to employee error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities, including vulnerabilities of our vendors, suppliers, their products, or otherwise. Third parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees or clients into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information to gain access to our clients’ data or our data, including intellectual property and other confidential business information. The COVID-19 pandemic has generally increased opportunities available to hackers and cyber criminals as more companies and individuals work online from remote locations We believe we have taken appropriate measures to protect our systems from intrusion, but we cannot be certain that advances in criminal capabilities, discovery of new vulnerabilities in our systems and attempts to exploit those vulnerabilities, physical system or facility break-ins and data thefts or other developments will not compromise or breach the technology protecting our systems and the information we possess.
Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect our data, our client data, and data transmissions to prevent data loss, and to prevent or detect security breaches, our databases have in the past been and in the future may be subject to unauthorized access by third parties, and we may incur significant costs in protecting against or remediating cyber-attacks. Any security breach could result in operational disruptions that impair our ability to meet our clients’ requirements, which could result in decreased revenues. Also, whether there is an actual or a perceived breach of our security, our reputation could suffer irreparable harm, causing our current and prospective clients to reject our products and services in the future and deterring data suppliers from supplying us data. Further, we could be forced to expend significant resources in response to a security breach, including those expended in repairing system damage, increasing cyber security protection costs by deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, and litigating and resolving legal claims or governmental inquiries and investigations, all of which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations. In any event, a significant security breach could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our clients, suppliers and other partners are primarily responsible for the security of their information technology environments, and we rely heavily on them and other third parties to supply clean data content and/or to utilize our products and services in a secure manner. Each of these third parties may face risks relating to cyber security, which could disrupt their businesses and therefore materially impact ours. While we provide guidance and specific requirements in some cases, we do not directly control any of such parties’ cyber security operations, or the amount of investment they place in guarding against cyber security threats. Accordingly, we are subject to any flaw in or breaches of their systems, which could materially impact our business, operations and financial results.
Finally, while we maintain cyber liability insurance coverage that may cover certain liabilities in connection with a cyber-security incident, we cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, financial results and reputation.
Unfavorable publicity and negative public perception about our industry could adversely affect our business and operating results.
With the growth of online advertising and e-commerce, there is increasing awareness and concern among the general public, privacy advocates, mainstream media, governmental bodies and others regarding marketing, advertising, and data privacy matters, particularly as they relate to individual privacy interests and the global reach of the online marketplace. Any unfavorable publicity or negative public perception about us, our industry, including our competitors, or even other data focused industries can affect our business and results of operations, and may lead to digital publishers changing their business practices or additional regulatory scrutiny or lawmaking that affects us or our industry. For example, in recent years, consumer advocates, mainstream media and elected officials have increasingly and publicly criticized the data and marketing industry for its collection, storage and use of personal data. The negative public attention Facebook faced following revelations about Cambridge Analytica's use of data led Facebook to change how it delivers targeted advertising, as well as its relationship with us and some of our competitors. Additional public scrutiny may lead to general distrust of our industry, consumer reluctance to share and permit use of personal data and increased consumer opt-out rates, any of which could negatively influence, change or reduce our current and prospective clients’ demand for our products and services and adversely affect our business and operating results.
Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party data center providers could impair our ability to deliver our products and services to our customers, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, damage to our reputation, loss of customers, limited growth and reduction in revenue.
We currently serve the majority of our platform functions from third-party data center hosting facilities operated by Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. Our operations depend, in part, on our third-party facility providers’ abilities to protect these facilities against any damage or interruption from natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, power or telecommunication failures, criminal acts and similar events. In the event that any of our third-party facilities arrangements is terminated, or if there is a lapse of service or damage to a facility, we could experience interruptions in our platform as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging new facilities and services.
Any damage to, or failure of, the systems of our third-party providers could result in interruptions to our platform. Despite precautions taken at our data centers, the occurrence of spikes in usage volume, a natural disaster, such as earthquakes or hurricane, an act of terrorism, vandalism or sabotage, a decision to close a facility without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems at a facility could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our platform. Even with current and planned disaster recovery arrangements, our business could be harmed. Also, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. These factors in turn could further reduce our revenue, subject us to liability and cause us to issue credits or cause customers to fail to renew their subscriptions, any of which could materially adversely affect our business.
We are dependent on the continued availability of third-party data hosting and transmission services.
We incur significant costs with our third-party data hosting services. If the costs for such services increase due to vendor consolidation, regulation, contract renegotiation, or otherwise, we may not be able to increase the fees for our products and services to cover the changes. As a result, our operating results may be significantly worse than forecasted.
If the use of “third-party cookies” or other tracking technology is rejected by Internet users, restricted or otherwise subject to unfavorable regulation, blocked or limited by technical changes on end users’ devices, or our and our clients’ ability to use data on our platform is otherwise restricted, all of which could materially impact our business.
Digital advertising mostly relies on the use of cookies, pixels and other similar technology, including mobile device identifiers that are provided by mobile operating systems for advertising purposes, which we refer to collectively as cookies, to collect data about interactions with users and devices. To provide our platform, we utilize third-party cookies, which are cookies owned and used by parties other than the owners of the website visited by the Internet user. Our cookies are used to record information tied to a random unique identifier, including such information as when an Internet user views an ad, clicks on an ad or visits one of our advertiser’s websites through a browser while the cookie is active. We use cookies to help us achieve our advertisers’ campaign goals on the web, to limit the instances that an Internet user sees the same advertisement, to report information to our advertisers regarding the performance of their advertising campaigns and to detect and prevent malicious behavior and invalid traffic throughout our network of inventory. We also use data from cookies to help our clients decide whether to bid on, and how to price, an opportunity to place an advertisement in a specific location, at a given time, in front of a particular Internet user. Additionally, our clients use cookies and other technologies to add information they have collected or acquired about users into our platform. Without such data, our clients may not have sufficient insight into an Internet user’s activity, which may compromise their and our ability to determine which inventory to purchase for a specific campaign and undermine the effectiveness of our platform.
Cookies may be deleted or blocked by Internet users who do not want information to be collected about them. The most commonly used Internet browsers-Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari-allow Internet users to modify their browser settings to prevent cookies from being accepted by their browsers. In January 2020, Google publicly stated it intends for Chrome to block third-party cookies at some point in the following 24 months. In April 2021, Google began releasing software updates to its Chrome browser with features to phase-out third party cookies. Mobile devices allow users to opt out of the use of mobile device IDs for targeted advertising. Additionally, the Safari browser currently blocks some third-party cookies by default and has recently added controls that algorithmically block or limit some cookies. Other browsers have added similar controls. In addition, Internet users can delete cookies from their computers at any time. Some Internet users also download free or paid ad blocking software that not only prevents third-party cookies from being stored on a user’s computer, but also blocks all interaction with a third-party ad server. Google has introduced ad blocking software in its Chrome web browser that will block certain ads based on quality standards established under a multi-stakeholder coalition. Additionally, the DAA, NAI, their international counterparts, and our company have certain opt-out mechanisms for users to opt out of the collection of their information via cookies. If more Internet users adopt these settings or delete their cookies more frequently than they currently do, or restrictions are imposed by advertisers and publishers, there are changes in technology or new developments in laws, regulations or industry standards around cookies, our business could be harmed.
For in-app advertising, data regarding interactions between users and devices are tracked mostly through stable, pseudonymous mobile device identifiers that are built into the device operating system with privacy controls that allow users to express a preference with respect to data collection for advertising, including to disable the identifier. These identifiers and privacy controls are defined by the developers of the mobile platforms and could be changed by the mobile platforms in a way that may negatively impact our business. Privacy aspects of other channels for programmatic advertising, such as CTVs or over-the-top video, are still developing. Technical or policy changes, including regulation or industry self-regulation, could harm our growth in those channels.
As the collection and use of data for digital advertising has received ongoing media attention over the past several years, some government regulators, such as the FTC, and privacy advocates have raised significant concerns around observed data. There has been an array of 'do-not-track' efforts, suggestions and technologies introduced to address these concerns. However, the potential regulatory and self-regulatory landscape is inherently uncertain, and there is not yet a consensus definition of tracking, nor agreement on what would be covered by 'do-not-track' functionality. There is activity by the major Internet browsers to default set on 'do-not-track' functionality, including by Apple Safari and Firefox. It is not clear if other Internet browsers will follow. Substantial increases in the rate and number of people opting out of various data collection processes could have a negative impact on our business and the ecosystems in which we operate.
In addition, in the EU, Directive 2002/58/EC (as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC), commonly referred to as the ePrivacy or Cookie Directive, directs EU member states to ensure that accessing information on an Internet user’s computer, such as through a cookie and other similar technologies, is allowed only if the Internet user has been informed about such access and given his or her consent. A replacement for the Cookie Directive to complement and bring electronic communication services in line with the GDPR and force a harmonized approach across EU member states is currently with the EU Council for a trilogue to decide its final effective date. Like the GDPR, the proposed ePrivacy Regulation has extra-territorial application as it applies to businesses established outside the EU who provide publicly-available electronic communications services to, or gather data from the devices of, users in the EU. Though still subject to debate, the proposed ePrivacy Regulation may limit the lawful bases available to process digital data and require "opt-in" consent. The fines and penalties for breach of the proposed ePrivacy Regulation may be significant. Limitations on the use or effectiveness of cookies, or other limitations on our, or our clients’, ability to collect and use data for advertising, whether imposed by EU member state implementations of the Cookie Directive, by the new ePrivacy Regulation, or otherwise, may impact the performance of our platform. We may be required to, or otherwise may determine that it is advisable to, make significant changes in our business operations and product and services to obtain user opt-in for cookies and use of cookie data, or develop or obtain additional tools and technologies to compensate for a lack of cookie data. We may not be able to make the necessary changes in our business operations and products and services to obtain user opt-in for cookies and use of cookie data, or develop, implement or acquire additional tools that compensate for a lack of cookie data. Moreover, even if we are able to do so, such additional products and tools may be subject to further regulation, time consuming to develop or costly to obtain, and less effective than our current use of cookies.
Finally, Google, the owner of the Chrome browser, has publicly stated that over the next several years it will no longer support the setting of third-party cookies. Apple, the owner of the Safari browser, had previously ceased supporting third-party cookies. Separately, and combined, these actions will have significant impacts on the digital advertising and marketing ecosystems in which we operate and could negatively impact our business. We are currently offering and continuing to develop non-cookie based alternatives that can be used in the global ecosystem.
Risks Related to Government Regulation and Taxation
Changes in legislative, judicial, regulatory, or cultural environments relating to information collection and use may limit our ability to collect and use data. Such developments could cause revenues to decline, increase the cost and availability of data and adversely affect the demand for our products and services.
We receive, store and process personal information and other data from and about consumers in addition to our clients, employees, and services providers. Our handling of this data is subject to a variety of federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations and is subject to regulation by various government authorities. Our data handling also is subject to contractual obligations and may be deemed to be subject to industry standards.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of data relating to individuals, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the U.S., various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure, and security of certain types of data. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data.
The regulatory framework for data privacy issues worldwide is currently evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. The occurrence of unanticipated events often rapidly drives the adoption of legislation or regulation affecting the use, collection or other processing of data and manners in which we conduct our business. Restrictions could be placed upon the collection, management, aggregation and use of information, which could result in a material increase in the cost of collecting or otherwise obtaining certain kinds of data and could limit the ways in which we may use or disclose information.
In particular, interest-based advertising, or the use of data to draw inferences about a user’s interests and deliver relevant advertising to that user, and similar or related practices, such as cross-device data collection and aggregation, steps taken to de-identify personal data and to use and distribute the resulting data, including for purposes of personalization and the targeting of advertisements, have come under increasing scrutiny by legislative, regulatory, and self-regulatory bodies in the U.S. and abroad that focus on consumer protection or data privacy. Much of this scrutiny has focused on the use of cookies and other technology to collect information about Internet users’ online browsing activity on web browsers, mobile devices, and other devices, to associate such data with user or device identifiers or pseudonymous identities across devices and channels. In addition, providers of Internet browsers have engaged in, or announced plans to continue or expand, efforts to provide increased visibility into, and certain controls over, cookies and similar technologies and the data collected using such technologies. For example, in January 2020 Google announced that at some point in the following 24 months the Chrome browser will block third-party cookies. In April 2021, Google began releasing software updates to its Chrome browser with features intended to phase out third-party cookies. Because we, and our clients, rely upon large volumes of such data collected primarily through cookies and similar technologies, it is possible that these efforts may have a substantial impact on our ability to collect and use data from Internet users, and it is essential that we monitor developments in this area domestically and globally, and engage in responsible privacy practices, including providing consumers with notice of the types of data we collect and how we use that data to provide our services.
In the U.S., the U.S. Congress and state legislatures, along with federal regulatory authorities have recently increased their attention on matters concerning the collection and use of consumer data. In the U.S., non-sensitive consumer data generally may be used under current rules and regulations, subject to certain restrictions, so long as the person does not affirmatively “opt-out” of the collection or use of such data. If an “opt-in” model were to be adopted in the U.S., less data would be available, and the cost of data would be higher. For example, California enacted legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), that became operative on January 1, 2020 and came under California Attorney General ("AG") enforcement on July 1, 2020. The CCPA requires covered companies to, among other things, provide new disclosures to California consumers and afford such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information, a concept that is defined broadly. The CCPA is the subject of regulations issued by the California AG. In November 2020 California voters also approved the ballot initiative known as the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”). Pursuant to the CPRA, the CCPA will be amended by creating additional privacy rights for California consumers and additional obligations on businesses, which could subject us to additional compliance costs as well as possible fines, individual claims and commercial liabilities for certain compliance failures. In March 2021, the Virginia legislature passed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act ("VCDPA"). The CPRA and VCDPA will take effect on January 1, 2023. Further modifications and regulations to these Acts could create additional liability and require costly expenditures to ensure continued compliance.
We cannot yet fully predict the full impact of the CCPA, CPRA or VCDPA on our business or operations, but they may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. The CCPA, CPRA and VCDPA have prompted a number of proposals for federal and other state privacy legislation that, if enacted, could increase our exposure to potential liability, add additional complexity to compliance in the U.S. market and increase our compliance costs. For example, other states have enacted or are considering legislation similar to that of the CCPA, CPRA and VCDPA statutory frameworks, including legislation that, if enacted, would require persons to “opt-in” to the collection of certain consumer data. Decreased availability and increased costs of information could adversely affect our ability to meet our clients’ requirements and could result in decreased revenues.
In Europe, the European General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") took effect on May 25, 2018 and applies to products and services that we provide in Europe, as well as the processing of personal data of EU citizens, wherever that processing occurs. The GDPR includes operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of residents of the European Union that are different than those that were in place in the European Union. For example, we have been required to offer new controls to data subjects in Europe before processing data for certain aspects of our service. In addition, the GDPR includes significant penalties for non-compliance of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of an enterprise’s global annual revenue. Further, the European Union is expected to replace the EU Cookie Directive governing the use of technologies to collect consumer information with the ePrivacy Regulation. The replacement ePrivacy Regulation may impose burdensome requirements around obtaining consent, and impose fines for violations that are materially higher than those imposed under the European Union’s current ePrivacy Directive and related EU member state legislation. In addition, some countries are considering or have passed legislation or interpretations implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services. Any failure to achieve required data protection standards may result in lawsuits, regulatory fines, or other actions or liability, all of which may harm our operating results.
In June 2016, a referendum was passed in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” The United Kingdom exited the European Union pursuant to Brexit on January 31, 2020, subject to a transition period for certain matters that ran December 31, 2020. Brexit has created an uncertain political and economic environment in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. For example, a Data Protection Bill designed to be consistent with GDPR was enacted in the United Kingdom in May 2018, but it remains uncertain how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated in the mid and long term. Pursuant to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which went into effect on January 1, 2021, the United Kingdom and the European Union agreed to a specified period during which the United Kingdom will be treated like a European Union member state in relation to transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom for four months from January 1, 2021 (with potential extensions). Following the expiration of the specified period, there may be an increase in the divergence in the interpretation, application and enforcement of data protection laws between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The full effect of Brexit is uncertain and depends on any agreements the United Kingdom may make to retain access to European Union markets. Consequently, no assurance can be given about the impact of the outcome and our business may be seriously harmed.
We are also subject to laws and regulations that dictate whether, how, and under what circumstances we can transfer, process and/or receive certain data that is critical to our operations, including data shared between countries or regions in which we operate and data shared among our products and services. For example, in 2016, the European Union and the U.S. agreed to an alternative transfer framework for data transferred from the European Union to the U.S., called the Privacy Shield. On July 16, 2020, however, the European Court of Justice invalidated the Privacy Shield and companies may no longer rely on it as a valid mechanism to comply with European Union data protection requirements. The invalidation of the Privacy Shield and related uncertainty regarding other data transfer mechanisms could have a significant adverse impact on our operations, while increasing our compliance costs and legal and regulatory risks. While domestic efforts between the EU and U.S. toward a replacement are underway, the timing and requirements are unclear. In addition, the other bases upon which we rely to legitimize the transfer of such data, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, have been subjected to regulatory and judicial scrutiny. If other legal bases upon which we currently rely for transferring data from Europe to the U.S. are invalidated, if we are unable to transfer data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are prohibited from sharing data among our products and services, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services or adversely affect our financial results.
In addition to government regulation, privacy advocacy and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that either legally or contractually apply to us or our clients. We are members of self-regulatory bodies that impose additional requirements related to the collection, use, and disclosure of consumer data. Under the requirements of these self-regulatory bodies, in addition to other compliance obligations, we are obligated to provide consumers with notice about our use of cookies and other technologies to collect consumer data and of our collection and use of consumer data for certain purposes, and to provide consumers with certain choices relating to the use of consumer data. Some of these self-regulatory bodies have the ability to discipline members or participants, which could result in fines, penalties, and/or public censure (which could in turn cause reputational harm). Additionally, some of these self-regulatory bodies might refer violations of their requirements to the Federal Trade Commission or other regulatory bodies.
Because the interpretation and application of privacy and data protection laws, regulations and standards are uncertain, it is possible that these laws, regulations and standards may be interpreted and applied in manners that are, or are asserted to be, inconsistent with our data management practices or the technological features of our solutions. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, investigations, lawsuits and other claims and proceedings, it may be necessary or desirable for us to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our products and services, which could have an adverse effect on our business. We may be unable to make such changes or modifications in a commercially reasonable manner or at all. Any inability to adequately address privacy concerns, even if unfounded, or any actual or perceived failure to comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws, regulations, standards or policies, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, decrease the availability of and increase costs for information, inhibit sales and harm our business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, standards and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our clients may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform. Privacy concerns, whether valid or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our platform particularly in certain industries and foreign countries.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material
adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could affect the tax treatment of our domestic and foreign earnings. Our existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, due to economic and political conditions, tax rates and tax regimes in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant changes, and the tax benefits that we intend to eventually derive could be impacted by changing tax laws. Any new taxes could adversely affect our domestic and international business operations, and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
Governments are increasingly focused on ways to increase tax revenue, which has contributed to an increase in audit activity, more aggressive positions taken by tax authorities and an increase in tax legislation. Any such additional taxes or other assessments may be in excess of our current tax provisions or may require us to modify our business practices in order to reduce our exposure to additional taxes going forward, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Third parties may claim that we are infringing their intellectual property and we could suffer significant litigation or licensing expenses or be prevented from developing or selling products or services. Additionally, third parties may infringe our intellectual property and we may suffer competitive injury or expend significant resources enforcing our rights.
As our business is focused on data-driven results and analytics, we rely heavily on proprietary information technology, processes and other protectable intellectual property rights. From time to time, third parties may claim that one or more of our products or services infringe their intellectual property rights. We analyze and take action in response to such claims on a case-by-case basis. Any dispute or litigation regarding patents or other intellectual property, whether they are with or without merit, could be costly and time-consuming due to the complexity of our technology and the uncertainty of intellectual property litigation, which could divert the attention of our management and key personnel away from our business operations, even if ultimately determined in our favor. A claim of intellectual property infringement could force us to enter into a costly or restrictive license or royalty agreement, which might not be available under acceptable terms or at all, could require us to pay significant damages (including attorneys’ fees), could subject us to an injunction against development and sale of certain of our products or services, could require us to expend additional development resources to redesign our technology and could require us to indemnify our partners and other third parties.
Our proprietary portfolio consists of various intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, database rights, source code, trademarks, trade secrets, know-how, confidentiality provisions and licensing arrangements. The extent to which such rights can be protected varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. If we do not enforce our intellectual property rights vigorously and successfully, our competitive position may suffer, which could harm our operating results.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Item 2. Properties
LiveRamp is headquartered in San Francisco, California with additional locations in the United States. We also have a physical presence in Europe and Asia-Pacific. As we have only one business segment, all of the properties listed below are used exclusively by it. In general, our facilities are in good condition, and we believe that they are adequate to meet our current needs. The table below sets forth the location, form of ownership and general use of our principal properties currently being used.
Location Held Use
United States:
San Francisco, California Lease Office space
New York, New York Lease Office space
Little Rock, Arkansas Lease Office space
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Lease Office space
Boston, Massachusetts Lease Office space
Europe:
London, England Lease Office space
Paris, France Lease Office space
Amsterdam, Netherlands Lease Office space
Asia-Pacific:
Shanghai, China Lease Office space
Nantong, China Lease Office space
Singapore, Singapore Lease Office space
Tokyo, Japan Lease Office space
Sydney, Australia Lease Office space

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
The information required by this item is set forth under Note 13, "Commitments and Contingencies" to our Consolidated Financial Statements, which appears in the Financial Supplement at page, and is incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
The outstanding shares of LiveRamp's common stock are listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange since October 1, 2018 under the symbol "RAMP". Prior to that date our stock was listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "ACXM".
Stockholders
As of May 24, 2021, the approximate number of record holders of the Company’s common stock was 1,058.
Dividends
The Company has not paid dividends on its common stock in the past two fiscal years. The Board of Directors may consider paying dividends in the future but has no plans to pay dividends in the short term.
Performance Graph
The graph below compares the 5-year cumulative total return of holders of our common stock with the cumulative total returns of the Russell 2000 index and S&P 400 IT Consulting and Other Services index. The graph tracks the performance of a $100 investment in our common stock and in each index, (with the reinvestment of dividends) from 3/31/2016 to 3/31/2021.
March 2016 March 2017 March 2018 March 2019 March 2020 March 2021
LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. 100.00 132.79 105.92 254.52 153.54 241.98
Russell 2000 100.00 126.22 141.10 143.99 109.45 213.26
S&P 400 IT Consulting 100.00 120.27 129.92 172.92 165.21 231.99
The performance graph and the related chart and text, are being furnished solely to accompany this Annual Report on Form 10-K pursuant to Item 201(e) of Regulation S-K, and are not being filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of ours, whether made before or after the date hereof, regardless of any general incorporation language in such filing. The stock price performance included in this graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
Copyright© 2021 Standard and Poor's, a division of S&P Global. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2021 Russell Investment Group. All rights reserved.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
The table below provides information regarding purchases by LiveRamp of its common stock during the periods indicated.
Period Total Number of Shares Purchased Average Price Paid
Per Share Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs Maximum Number (or Approximate Dollar Value) of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
January 1, 2021 - January 31, 2021 - - - $ 326,443,254
February 1, 2021 - February 28, 2021 - - - $ 326,443,254
March 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021 - - - $ 326,443,254
Total - - - N/A
On August 29, 2011, the board of directors adopted a common stock repurchase program. That program was subsequently modified and expanded, most recently on November 3, 2020. Under the modified common stock repurchase program, the Company may purchase up to $1.0 billion of its common stock through the period ending December 31, 2022. Through March 31, 2021, the Company had repurchased 28.2 million shares of its stock for $673.6 million, leaving remaining capacity of $326.4 million under the stock repurchase program.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Item 6. Reserved

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The information required by this item appears in the Financial Supplement at pages -, which is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Market Risk
Market risk is the risk of loss from adverse changes in market prices and rates. Our primary market risk is foreign currency exchange rate risk.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk. LiveRamp has a presence in the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Australia, China, Singapore and Japan. Most of the Company's exposure to exchange rate fluctuation is due to translation gains and losses as there are no material transactions that cause exchange rate impact. In general, each of the foreign locations is expected to fund its own operations and cash flows, although funds may be loaned or invested from the U.S. to the foreign subsidiaries. These advances are considered long-term investments, and any gain or loss resulting from exchange rates as well as gains or losses resulting from translating the foreign financial statements into U.S. dollars are included in accumulated other comprehensive income. Therefore, exchange rate movements of foreign currencies may have an impact on LiveRamp’s future costs or on future cash flows from foreign investments. LiveRamp has not entered into any foreign currency forward exchange contracts or other derivative instruments to hedge the effects of adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. There have been no changes since the end of the last fiscal year in our primary market risk exposures or the management of those exposures, and we do not expect any changes going forward.
Inflation. Although we cannot accurately determine the amounts attributable to inflation, we are affected by inflation through increased compensation costs and other operating expenses. If inflation were to increase over the low levels of recent years, the impact in the short run would be to cause increases in costs, which we would attempt to pass on to clients, although there is no assurance that we would be able to do so. Generally, the effects of inflation in recent years have been offset by technological advances, economies of scale and other operational efficiencies.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The financial statements required by this item appear in the Financial Supplement at pages -, which is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Management has evaluated, under the supervision and with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2021. Based on their evaluation as of March 31, 2021, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) were effective at the reasonable assurance level to ensure that the information required to be disclosed by us in the Annual Report on Form 10-K was (i) recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and regulations and (ii) accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal controls over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, with LiveRamp have been detected.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended).
The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and includes those policies and procedures that:
•Pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the Company;
•Provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the Company; and
•Provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluations of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
The Company’s management, with participation of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2021. In making this assessment, the Company’s management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013).
Based on management’s assessment and those criteria, the Company’s management determined that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of March 31, 2021.
KPMG LLP, the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, as stated in their report, which is included herein.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
During the three months ended March 31, 2021, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
COVID-19
In response to COVID-19, we have undertaken measures to protect our employees, partners, and clients, including encouraging, and in many cases requiring employees to work remotely due to local government orders. These changes have compelled us to modify some of our control procedures. However, those changes have so far not been material and are not expected to be in future periods.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 9B. Other Information
Not applicable.
Part III

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The information concerning our executive officers is contained in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption “Executive Officers of the Registrant,” which is included there pursuant to Instruction 3 to Item 401(b) of the SEC’s Regulation S-K.
The LiveRamp Board of Directors has adopted codes of ethics applicable to our principal executive, financial and accounting officers and all other persons performing similar functions. Copies of these codes of ethics are posted on LiveRamp’s website at www.liveramp.com under the “Corporate Governance” section of the site. Except as set forth above, the information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed within 120 days after March 31, 2021, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Item 11. Executive Compensation
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed within 120 days after March 31, 2021, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
The following table contains information about our common stock that may be issued under our existing equity compensation plans as of March 31, 2021:
Equity Compensation Plan Information
Plan category Number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants, and rights Weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants, and rights 2
Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans (excluding securities reflected in column (a))
(a) (b) (c)
Equity compensation plans approved by shareholders 4,064,061 1 $ 17.31 5,568,915 3
Equity compensation plans not approved by shareholders - - 41,983 4
Total 4,064,061 $ 17.31 5,610,898
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1.This amount does not include the number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants, and rights under equity compensation plans LiveRamp assumed in acquisitions (104,096 shares at a weighted-average exercise price of $1.10).
2.The weighted-average exercise price set forth in this column is calculated excluding outstanding restricted stock unit awards, since recipients are not required to pay an exercise price to receive the shares subject to these awards.
3.This amount represents shares of Common Stock available for future issuance under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp, Inc. (5,142,434) (the "2005 Plan") and the LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. 2005 Stock Purchase Plan (426,481, including 65,107 shares subject to purchase during the current purchase period), which is an employee stock purchase plan covered by Section 423 of the Internal Revenue Code. The 2005 Plan is an equity compensation plan that permits awards of a variety of equity-based incentives, including stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance awards and other stock unit awards.
4.This amount represents shares available for issuance pursuant to the Company’s 2011 Non-qualified Equity Compensation Plan described below, which does not require shareholder approval under the exception provided for in NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4).
Equity Compensation Plan Not Approved by Security Holders
The Company adopted the 2011 Non-qualified Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (the “2011 Plan”) for the purpose of making equity grants to induce new key executives to join the Company. The awards that may be made under the 2011 Plan include stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards, RSU awards, performance awards, or other stock unit awards. To receive such an award, a person must be newly employed with the Company with the award being provided as an inducement material to their employment, provided the award is first properly approved by the board of directors or an independent committee of the board. The board of directors and its compensation committee are the administrators of the 2011 Plan, and as such, determine all matters relating to awards granted under the 2011 Plan, including the eligible recipients, whether and to what extent awards are to be granted, the number of shares to be covered by each grant and the terms and conditions of the awards. The 2011 Plan has not been approved by the Company’s shareholders.
The remaining information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed within 120 days after March 31, 2021, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed within 120 days after March 31, 2021, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the definitive proxy statement to be filed within 120 days after March 31, 2021, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders.
Part IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules
(a) The following documents are filed as a part of this report:
1. Financial Statements.
The following consolidated financial statements of the registrant and its subsidiaries included in the Financial Supplement and the Independent Auditors' Reports thereof are attached hereto. Page references are to page numbers in the Financial Supplement.
F-Page
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of March 31, 2021 and 2020
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019
Consolidated Statements of Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the years ended March 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
2. Financial Statement Schedules.
All schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or not required or because the required information is included in the consolidated financial statements or notes thereto.
3. Exhibits.
The following exhibits are filed with this report or are incorporated by reference to previously filed material.
Exhibit No.
3.1 Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (previously filed on October 1, 2018 as Exhibit 3.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
3.2 Amended and Restated Bylaws (previously filed on October 1, 2018, as Exhibit 3.2 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
4.1 Description of Share Capital (previously filed as Exhibit 4.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Commission File No. 001-38869, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.1 LiveRamp Holdings, Inc Employee Stock Purchase Plan (previously filed on November 16, 2020 as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission file No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.2 Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (previously filed on August 5, 2019 as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings Inc.'s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated by herein reference)
Exhibit No.
10.3 Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, amended and restated effective January 1, 2009 (previously filed on May 29, 2013 as Exhibit 10.27 to Acxiom Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, Commission file No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.4 First Amendment to the Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, effective July 1, 2009 (previously filed on May 29, 2013 as Exhibit 10.28 to Acxiom Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.5 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, effective September 30, 2016
10.6 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, effective April 1, 2018
10.7 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, effective September 20, 2018
10.8 Amendment to the Amended and Restated LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Non-Qualified Deferral Plan, effective January 1, 2020
10.9 Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, amended and restated effective January 1, 2009 (previously filed on May 29, 2013 as Exhibit 10.29 to Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.10 First Amendment to the Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, effective July 1, 2009 (previously filed on May 29, 2013 as Exhibit 10.30 to Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporation herein by reference)
10.11 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, effective September 30, 2016
10.12 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, effective April 1, 2018
10.13 Amendment to the Amended and Restated Acxiom Corporation Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, effective September 20, 2018
10.14 Amendment to the Amended and Restated LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Non-Qualified Matching Contribution Plan, effective January 1, 2020
10.15 LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Directors’ Deferred Compensation Plan, effective October 1, 2018
10.16 Amended and Restated 2010 Executive Cash Incentive Plan of Acxiom Corporation (previously filed on May 27, 2015 as Exhibit 10.6 to Acxiom Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.17 Amended and Restated 2010 Executive Officer Severance Policy (previously filed on May 29, 2019 as Exhibit 10.9 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.18 2011 Nonqualified Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (previously filed on October 2, 2018, as Exhibit 99.8 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-8, Registration No. 333-214927, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.19 LiveRamp, Inc. 2006 Equity Incentive Plan (previously filed on October 2, 2018, as Exhibit 99.2 to LiveRamp holdings, Inc.'s Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on form S-8, Registration No. 333-197463, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.20 Arbor Equity Compensation Plan (previously filed on October 2, 2018, as Exhibit 99.4 to LiveRamp Holdings Inc.'s Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-8, No. 333-214926, and incorporated herein by reference)
Exhibit No.
10.21 Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award under the Arbor Equity Compensation Plan (previously filed on May 26, 2017 as Exhibit 10.19 to the Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2017, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.22 Circulate Equity Compensation Plan (previously filed on October 2, 2018, as Exhibit 99.6 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on form S-8, Registration No. 333-214926, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.23 2018 Equity Compensation Plan of Pacific Data Partners LLC (previously filed on October 2, 2018, as Exhibit 99.10 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Post Effective Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-8, Registration No. 333-227540, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.24 Data Plus Math Corporation 2016 Equity Incentive Plan (previously filed on August 1, 2019, as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Registration Statement on form S-8, Registration No. 333-232963, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.25 DataFleets, Ltd. 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (previously filed on March 15, 2021 as Exhibit 99.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-8, Registration No. 333-254302, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.26 Amendment to the DataFleets, Ltd. 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (previously filed on March 15, 2021 as Exhibit 99.2 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-8, Registration No. 333-254302, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.27 Form of Stock Option Grant Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of Acxiom Corporation (previously filed on May 26, 2017 as Exhibit 10.16 to Acxiom Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2017, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.28 Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., (previously filed on May 26, 2020 as Exhibit 10.18 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.29 Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (previously filed on May 26, 2020 as Exhibit 10.19 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.30 Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award under the 2011 Nonqualified Equity Compensation Plan of Acxiom Corporation (previously filed on May 26, 2017 as Exhibit 10.18 to Acxiom Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2017, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.31 Employment Agreement by and between Acxiom Corporation and Scott E. Howe dated as of February 14, 2018 (previously filed on May 25, 2018 as Exhibit 10.22 to Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Commission File No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.32 Employment Agreement by and between Acxiom Corporation and Warren C. Jenson dated as of February 14, 2018 (previously filed on May 25, 2018 as Exhibit 10.23 to Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Commission File No. 000-13163,and incorporated by reference)
10.33 Form of Director Indemnity Agreement (previously filed on May 25, 2018 as Exhibit 10.26 to Acxiom Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Commission File No. 000-13163,and incorporated by reference)
10.34 Form of Officer and Key Employee Indemnity Agreement (previously filed on May 29, 2019 as Exhibit 10.25 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
21 Subsidiaries of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.
23 Consent of KPMG LLP
24 Powers of Attorney
Exhibit No.
31.1 Certification of Chief Executive Officer (principal executive officer) pursuant to SEC Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
31.2 Certification of President, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Managing Director of International (principal financial and accounting officer) pursuant to SEC Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
32.1 Certification of Chief Executive Officer (principal executive officer) pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
32.2 Certification of President, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Managing Director of International (principal financial and accounting officer) pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
101 The following financial information from our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, formatted in inline XBRL: (i) Consolidated Balance Sheets as of March 31, 2021 and 2020; (ii) Consolidated Statements of Operations for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019; (iii) Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019; (iv) Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019; (v) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019; and (vi) Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, tagged in detail.
104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101)