EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 733269
Filing Year: 2023
Filename: 733269_10-K_2023_0000733269-23-000024.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Item 1. Business
LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. ("LiveRamp", "we", "us", or the "Company") is a global technology company that helps companies build enduring brand and business value by collaborating responsibly with data. A groundbreaking leader in consumer privacy, data ethics and foundational identity, LiveRamp is setting a new standard for building a connected customer view with unmatched clarity and context while protecting brand and consumer trust. Our best-in-class enterprise platform enables data collaboration, where companies can share first-party consumer data with trusted business partners securely and in a privacy conscious manner. We offer flexibility to collaborate wherever data lives to support a wide range of data collaboration use cases-within organizations, between brands, and across our global network of premier partners. Global innovators, from iconic consumer brands and tech platforms to retailers, financial services, and healthcare leaders, turn to LiveRamp to deepen customer engagement and loyalty, activate new partnerships, and maximize the value of their first-party data while staying on the forefront of rapidly evolving compliance and privacy requirements.
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 best-known and most innovative 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 and non-profit. Through our expansive partner ecosystem we serve thousands of additional companies, unlocking access to unique customer moments and creating powerful network effects.
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 industry trends include:
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 customer retention. Companies that fail to prioritize customer experience as a strategic growth initiative will simply get left behind. Companies are also increasingly realizing that best-in-class customer experiences require enhanced insights that can only be achieved through a structured data collaboration effort that combines first- and second-party data.
At the same time, consumer expectations are also at an all-time high. Consumers are demanding personalization from brands 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 many admit they are not using their data effectively to drive their customer experience.
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 and direct-to-consumer platforms 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 enhance the customer experience.
Growing Data Collaboration to Enable Commerce Media
The advertising market is being transformed by commerce media, a new form of advertising that closes the loop between media impressions and sales transactions. Commerce media provides enhanced audience insights that drive more effective and efficient advertising and more relevant experiences for consumers. The foundation for commerce media is data collaboration where companies share first-party consumer data with trusted business partners in a manner that is safe, secure and adheres to privacy regulations. Retail media was the first to scale, spurred by e-commerce, but other sectors are embracing the commerce media opportunity, including travel & hospitality, telecommunications, finance, auto and healthcare. Other examples of data collaboration use cases include enterprise companies connecting consumer data across functional groups or properties, cross-screen media measurement and analysis, and media and commerce networks across a range of industries, including finance, travel and hospitality, and healthcare.
Growing Complexity of the Customer Journey
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 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 matter 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 of Consumer Identity
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, becky.smith@gmail.com when she conducts a Google search, cookie ABC when she browses cnn.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 from Inaccurate Consumer Identification
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 regulations 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. Every year there are new consumer data privacy regulations being introduced. For example, new comprehensive privacy legislation, similar to the CCPA, has taken, or will take, effect in at least eight states on or before July 1, 2025. New category-specific legislation, such as the My Health, My Data Act passed in Washington State in April 2023, will also take effect in the next year or two. Consumers' 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.
Our Approach
Leveraging our groundbreaking leadership in consumer privacy, data ethics, foundational identity and connectivity, we help our clients build enduring brand and business value by unlocking siloed and fragmented consumer data and enabling responsible data collaboration.
We are middleware for the customer experience economy. LiveRamp provides the trusted platform that sits in between customer data and the thousands of applications powered by data. 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.
LiveRamp Data Collaboration Platform
As depicted in the graphic below, we power the industry’s leading enterprise platform for data collaboration. We enable organizations to access and leverage data more effectively across the applications they use to interact with their customers. At the core of our platform is an omnichannel, deterministic identity resolution technology that offers unparalleled accuracy, breadth, and depth. Leveraging deep expertise in identity and data collaboration, the LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform (formerly branded as Safe Haven) 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. First party data is data collected first hand through a company's controlled channels. Second party data is data that a company shares directly with a trusted business partner. Third party data is data collected and sold by a company through an online data marketplace to companies with which it does not have a direct relationship. 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:
•Data Collaboration. We enable trusted data collaboration between organizations and their trusted partners in a neutral, manageable environment. Our platform 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, such as linking marketing spending to actual sales transactions, can be performed on this shared data without either party giving up control or compromising privacy.
•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 (directly identifiable information or "DII"), and replaces them with pseudonymized IDs called RampID™, a durable identifier for connecting to the digital ecosystem. 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 the LiveRamp 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 accuracy with a focus on privacy. LiveRamp technology for DII gives brands and platforms the ability to connect and update what they know about consumers, resolving DII across enterprise databases and systems to deliver better customer experiences. 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. There are currently more than 165 supply-side platforms and demand-side platforms live or committed to bid on RampID or ATS. In addition, to date more than 14,000 publisher domains, including nearly 70% of the comScore 100 largest digital publishers, have integrated ATS worldwide.
•Data Marketplace. Our Data Marketplace provides customers with simplified access to industry-leading third-party data providers globally. The LiveRamp Data Collaboration Platform allows for the search, discovery and distribution of data provided by third-party data providers to improve targeting, measurement, and customer intelligence. Data accessed through the LiveRamp 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 200 data providers across all verticals and data types (see below for discussion on Marketplace and Other).
Subscription
We primarily charge for our platform services on an annual basis. Our subscription pricing is based primarily on data volume, which is a function of data input records and connection points.
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 920 direct customers world-wide, including approximately 25% of the Fortune 500, and serve thousands of additional customers indirectly through our reseller partnership arrangements.
•Brands and Agencies. We work with over 500 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 Sellers. Leveraging our vast network of integrations, we enable data sellers to easily connect to the digital ecosystem and monetize their own data. Data can be distributed to clients or made available through the Data Marketplace. 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.
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 Data Marketplace seamlessly connects data sellers’ audience data across the marketing ecosystem. The Data Marketplace enables data sellers to easily monetize their data across hundreds of marketing platforms and publishers. At the same time, it provides a single platform where data buyers, including platforms and publishers, in addition to brands and their agencies, access third-party data from more than 200 data sellers, 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 sellers that are monetizing their data assets via our marketplace platform service. We also generate Marketplace and Other revenue through transactional usage-based arrangements with certain publishers and addressable TV providers.
To complement our product offering, we provide professional services and enhanced support entitlements to help customers leverage our platform and drive business outcomes. Our services offering includes product implementation, data science analytics, audience measurement and general advisory. We generate revenue from services primarily from project fees paid by subscribers to our software platform. Service projects are sold on an ad hoc basis as well as bundled with platform subscriptions. Services revenue is less than 5% of total Company revenue.
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.
•Premier Global Ecosystem. We offer an expansive, data-rich network of top-quality partners for incomparable scale and reach. 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 a strong combination of reach and accuracy. Additionally, 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.
•Groundbreaking Leadership in Privacy and Security. LiveRamp is a standard bearer in consumer privacy and data stewardship. We have been 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;
◦We provide a privacy-enabled environment that allows marketers and partners to connect different types of data while protecting and governing its use; and
◦We have industry-leading expertise in connecting data across the online and offline worlds.
•Scale Leader in Identity and Data Connectivity. We are a category creator and one of the largest providers of identity and data connectivity at scale. We match records with a high level of accuracy and offer the flexibility for activating data through our extensive set of integrations. Our platform processes more than 4 trillion data records daily.
•Flexible Collaboration. We have flexibility to collaborate wherever data lives, enabling the widest possible range of data collaboration use cases. We bring our technology to the customer’s data environment and can collaborate with cloud providers or across clouds. We offer broad configurability, controls and permissioning to meet varying customer requirements. Our platform is extensible and scalable to meet growing collaboration usage.
•Uniquely Neutral in the 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. We enable the open marketing stack and power the open ecosystem.
•Strong Customer Relationships. We work with 920 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 920 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, 2023, we worked with 95 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.
•Expand Sales Channel Partnerships. A growth opportunity for our business is forging sales partnerships and product integrations with adjacent technology platforms and service providers. We are actively expanding our channel sales efforts with customer data platforms, public cloud providers, cloud data warehouses, marketing clouds, and global systems integrators.
•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 measurement and personalization.
•Establish LiveRamp as the Trusted, Best and Essential Industry Standard for Data Collaboration. 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, business-to-business (B2B), call centers, email and messaging campaigns, and data collaboration 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 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 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 eight states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia) now have comprehensive privacy legislation. Additional state legislatures 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, appropriate controls over personal information and choice of 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 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 had 920 direct subscription customers at the end of fiscal year 2023, up from 905 in the prior year.
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 95 at the end of fiscal year 2023, up from 87 the year prior.
Our ten largest clients represented approximately 29% of our revenues in fiscal year 2023. If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, one client, The Interpublic Group of Companies, accounted for 12% of our revenues in fiscal year 2023.
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. We are actively expanding our channel sales efforts with customer data platforms, public cloud providers, cloud data warehouses, marketing clouds, and global systems integrators.
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 $189.2 million in fiscal 2023, compared to $157.9 million in fiscal 2022, and $135.1 million in fiscal 2021. Management expects to maintain research and development spending, as a percentage of revenue, at relatively similar levels in fiscal 2024.
Seasonality
While the majority of our business is not subject to seasonal fluctuations, our Data Marketplace and usage-based subscription revenue experience modest seasonality, as the revenue generated from these areas of the business are 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 Data Marketplace and usage-based subscription revenue to continue to fluctuate based on seasonal factors that affect the advertising industry as a whole. Usage-based subscription revenue equaled 14% of total subscription revenue in fiscal 2023, and 15% in fiscal 2022.
Competition
We operate in a complex and competitive environment. Competitors of 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 customer relationship management (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.
Pricing
Approximately 81% 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's most valuable resource is our people. Our board of directors considers LiveRamp's Talent strategy and Diversity, Belonging and Inclusion commitment and programs to be a critical component of our Company strategy and a competitive advantage. We believe each hire is an opportunity to diversify our workforce and add new skills and capabilities that will foster greater innovation.
LiveRamp employs approximately 1,370 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. We promote high employee engagement, open communication and a culture of equality to foster positive employee relations.
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 regularly 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 and engagement, to monitor the success of our strategy and make adjustments accordingly. Our employee engagement score is above industry benchmark.
Since 2016, LiveRamp has either qualified for or been certified as a Best Place to Work. Additionally, LiveRamp has been listed among the 100 Best Companies to Work by Fortune every year since 2018. Recently, LiveRamp was recognized as a Great Place to Work and a Company that Cares by People Magazine in 2022. We strive to not just earn these accolades, but also to push the boundaries of what we know we are capable of as guardians of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging (“DIB”) efforts are a cornerstone of LiveRamp’s innovative culture. In 2020, we hired our first-ever Head of Diversity Strategy and published LiveRamp’s Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Charter, which set our commitment to and the core pillars of DIB for LiveRamp, explained our current programs and practices as well as showed the breadth 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 creates more innovation and produces better outcomes for our employees, our business and our communities. 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. One way we make this real is we provide candidates with a significant 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 directly with members of our business employee resource groups (“BERGs”) to get a first-hand perspective of what it is like to work here.
Forming teams with diverse backgrounds enables us to achieve our goal of building products that can be used by customers with varying capabilities, which reduces inequities and serves a wider variety of business needs. Our BERGs exist to support the growth and development of our employees, communities and business to increase diversity, inclusion and belonging. Currently, we have six ERGs: EQUAL@LiveRamp, Women@LiveRamp, Badge@LiveRamp, SOMOS@LiveRamp, SAUCE@LiveRamp, and MOSAIC@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.
Information about our Executive Officers
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 55, 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 is a member of the board of directors of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and previously served on the board of Blue Nile, Inc., a leading online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry. Mr. Howe is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a degree in economics, and he holds an MBA from Harvard University.
Lauren R. Dillard, age 37, is the Company’s interim Chief Financial Officer, a position she has held since April 2023. She also serves as the Company’s SVP of Finance and Investor Relations, overseeing all aspects of the Company’s finance and investor relations functions since assuming the role in August 2021. Prior to her current positions, she served as the Company’s Chief Communications Officer & Head of Investor Relations from 2018 to 2021. Prior to joining the Company, she worked in corporate finance and investor relations for a number of San Francisco Bay Area technology companies and started her career at Ernst & Young. She is an active community leader and has served on and chaired several Bay Area nonprofit boards, including the Bay Area Discovery Museum and Multiplying Good. Ms. Dillard is a certified public accountant (inactive) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Santa Clara University.
Jerry C. Jones, age 67, is the Company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Ethics and Legal Officer, and Secretary. He joined the Company in 1999 and currently oversees the Company’s legal, data ethics and government relations 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 70 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.
Mohsin Hussain, age 50, has served as the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering of the Company since 2021. During the year prior to assuming this position, he was the Company’s Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering. Mr. Hussain has more than 25 years’ experience in engineering leadership and product innovation in the areas of software-as-a-service, data science, machine learning, analytics, and the cloud. Before joining LiveRamp, Mr. Hussain was employed for two years as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Criteo (NYSE: CRTO) where he led a large-scale buildout of the U.S. engineering team, new product launches, and the R&D integration of several acquisitions, including Criteo's largest, Hooklogic (integrated and rebranded as Criteo's Retail Media Platform). Prior to that, he was Vice President of Engineering at Criteo for over two years. Earlier in his career Mr. Hussain held leadership roles in several high-growth start-ups and public companies,
including AOL/Netscape (now Yahoo), Siebel Systems (now Oracle), and SunPower. He has been a member of the Google Cloud CIO/CTO Customer Advisory Board since 2021. Mr. Hussain is named as an inventor on 18 issued patents and holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from University of California at Berkeley.

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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 would decline and our business would 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 other events outside our control, such as 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 29% of our revenues in fiscal year 2023. If all of our individual client contractual relationships were aggregated at the holding company level, one client, The Interpublic Group of Companies, accounted for 12% of our revenues in fiscal year 2023. 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, legal or regulatory changes, market optics, 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, regulatory, 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 or regulations are adopted restricting or making too difficult the collection, 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, including as a result of legal or regulatory actions, 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 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.
Public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may result in global, national and/or regional economic uncertainty, and measures taken in response to such emergencies could impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the flow of the economy and put unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, educational institutions, businesses and individuals around the world, and future public health emergencies could result in the same. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, future public health emergencies could result in significant disruptions to the global financial markets and economic uncertainty, as well as 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. Any future public health emergencies could materially and adversely affect our business, our operating results, financial condition and prospects, and the value of our common stock.
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 was 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 employees 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. In addition, many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel may be able to offer greater compensation and benefits packages and/or more flexible work alternatives. 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. Further, volatility or lack of appreciation in our stock price may also affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees. The loss or prolonged absence of the services of highly trained personnel like our current team of executives and employees, or the inability to recruit, attract, onboard and retain additional, qualified employees, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or operating results.
In addition, effective succession planning is important to our long-term success. If we do not develop effective succession planning, the loss of one or more of our key executive or employees or groups of executives or employees could seriously harm our business.
In November 2022, we announced (i) a reduction in force involving approximately 10% of our full-time employees, and (ii) a planned downsizing of our real estate footprint in addition to the footprint reduction which occurred during our fiscal year second quarter. The headcount reduction is part of a broader strategic reprioritization to build a stronger, more profitable company by tightening our focus and simplifying and driving efficiency into our business processes. This reduction, or any location strategy or similar actions taken in the future, could negatively impact our ability to attract, integrate, retain and motivate key executives and employees.
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. Although we have recently reopened our offices and hold in-person meetings and events in compliance with applicable government orders and guidelines, the majority of our employees continue to work remotely. Further, upon the reopening of our offices, we have offered most of our employees the flexibility to determine the amount of time they work in the office, which may present operational challenges and risks, including negative employee morale and productivity, low employee retention, and increased compliance and tax obligations in a number of jurisdictions. 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, thereby impacting our results of operations.
Advances in information technology are changing the way our clients use and purchase information products and services and may be disruptive to our existing platform offerings. 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, including through the use of new and emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning), we could be at a competitive disadvantage and 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 successfully integrate 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 that was 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, and 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 United States 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 7% 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 United States to the foreign subsidiaries. Because of such loans or investments, 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 United States are also generally applicable to doing business outside of the United States, 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. Also, our business is subject to weak international economic conditions, geopolitical developments, such as existing and potential trade wars, and other events outside of our control that could result in a reduced volume of business by our customers and prospective customers, and the demand for, and use of, our products and services may decline. For example, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine could result in regional instability and adversely impact financial markets as well as economic conditions, especially in Europe.
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 cyberattacks from malicious 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, ransomware, phishing and general hacking have become more prevalent, and events outside of our control, such as the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, could result in a further increase in such activities. 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 cyberattacks, computer malware, viruses, social engineering, ransomware, phishing 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 usernames, 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 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 or existing 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 cyberattacks. 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, elected officials and government officials have increasingly and publicly criticized the data and marketing industry for its collection, storage and use of personal data. 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, destruction, 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, and there is no assurance can be provided that any interruptions would be remediated without significant cost or in a timely manner or at all. 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.
As the use of “third-party cookies” or other tracking technology continues to be pressured 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, our business could be materially impacted.
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. 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. 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 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 May 2023, Google announced it will continue with its previously announced timeline to end Chrome's support for third party cookies in the second half of 2024. 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, and state statutes are beginning to incorporate the obligation to honor them. 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 Safari and Firefox. It is not clear how many 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 collected through cookies 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.
Climate change may have an impact on our business
Any of our primary locations may be vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. For example, our offices and facilities in California have experienced, and are projected to continue to experience, climate-related events at an increasing frequency, including drought, water scarcity, heat waves, wildfires and resultant air quality impacts and power shutoffs associated with wildfire prevention. Furthermore, it may be more difficult to mitigate the impact of these events on our remote employees working from home. Changing market dynamics, global policy developments and the increasing frequency and impact of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere have the potential to disrupt our business, the business of our third-party suppliers and the business of our customers, and may cause us to experience higher churn, losses and additional costs to maintain or resume operations.
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. In addition, the European Union has been developing new requirements related to the use of data, including in the Digital Services Act, that may impose additional rules and restrictions on the use of the data.
The regulatory framework for data privacy issues worldwide is currently evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. For example, in the U.S., in August 2022 the FTC released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking concerning commercial surveillance and data security and is seeking comment on whether it should implement new trade regulation rules or other regulatory alternatives concerning the ways in which companies (1) collect, aggregate, protect, use, analyze, and retain consumer data, as well as (2) transfer, share, sell, or otherwise monetize that data in ways that are unfair or deceptive. In addition, a potential federal data privacy law remains the subject of active discussion, and, in June 2022, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would substantially impact on the online advertising ecosystem if passed. 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 or pseudonymize 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 identifiers 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 would 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. In May 2023, Google stated that it would deprecate third-party cookies by mid-2024. Because we, and our clients, rely upon data, including that collected through cookies and similar technologies, it is possible that Google's efforts may have a substantial impact on the 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, effective January 1, 2023, the CCPA was 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. Since the CCPA, ten other state legislatures so far have passed comprehensive privacy legislation, including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Montana, Florida and Texas, and other states have passed sector or data-specific legislation, such as Illinois and Washington. Together with the CCPA and CPRA, these are referred to throughout as "State Consumer Privacy Acts." Each of these State Consumer Privacy Acts have gone, or will go, into effect on or before July 1, 2025. Many other states currently have comprehensive and/or sector or data-specific bills winding their way through their legislatures.
In addition, the FTC Chair has called for a new approach to consumer data protection, such as the notice and consent framework in which consumers are asked to agree to privacy policies. The FTC has also articulated and demonstrated its intention to use its authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to focus on data privacy through investigations and enforcement actions (for unfair and deceptive actions), particularly in the areas of sensitive data, such as health, location, and children’s data, and has begun to demonstrate that with significant consent decrees. Further modifications and regulations under the State Consumer Privacy Acts, enforcement actions and guidance, or new rules promulgated by the FTC, could create additional liability and require costly expenditures to ensure continued compliance.
We cannot yet predict the full impact of the State Consumer Privacy Acts 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 State Consumer Privacy Acts 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 State Consumer Privacy Act statutory frameworks, including legislation that would require individuals 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. For example, the GDPR requires offering a variety of controls to individuals 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 through 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. 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, regulations and other restrictions 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, requirements and reliability 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 and materially affect our financial position and results of operations. For example, the United States recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides for a minimum tax equal to 15% of the adjusted financial statement income of certain large corporations, as well as a 1% excise tax on share repurchases, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development issued proposals including the implementation of the global minimum tax under the Pillar Two model rule. 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 the Asia-Pacific region. 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
Seattle, Washington Lease Office space
Europe:
London, England Lease Office space
Paris, France 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 under the symbol "RAMP".
Stockholders
As of May 19, 2023, the approximate number of record holders of the Company’s common stock was 982.
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 LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s cumulative 5-year total shareholder return on 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 all dividends) from 3/31/2018 to 3/31/2023.
COMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN*
Among LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., the Russell 2000 Index
and the S&P 400IT Consulting & Other Services
*$100 invested on 3/31/18 in stock or index, including reinvestment of dividends. Fiscal year ending March 31.
March 2018 March 2019 March 2020 March 2021 March 2022 March 2023
LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. 100.00 240.29 144.96 228.45 164.64 96.57
Russell 2000 100.00 102.05 77.57 151.14 142.39 125.87
S&P 400 IT Consulting and Other Services 100.00 109.02 109.86 135.17 87.92 84.92
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© 2023 Standard and Poor's, a division of S&P Global. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2023 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, 2023 - January 31, 2023 - - - $ 217,827,014
February 1, 2023 - February 28, 2023 - - - $ 217,827,014
March 1, 2023 - March 31, 2023 - - - $ 217,827,014
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 December 20, 2022. Under the modified common stock repurchase program, the Company may purchase up to $1.1 billion of its common stock through the period ending December 31, 2024. Through March 31, 2023, the Company had repurchased 35.6 million shares of its common stock for $882.2 million, leaving remaining capacity of $217.8 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 beginning at page, 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 represents the risk of loss that may impact our financial position due to adverse changes in financial market prices and rates. Our primary market risks are foreign currency exchange rate risk and inflation.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk. LiveRamp has a presence in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, India, Australia, China, Singapore and Japan. Most of the Company's exposure to exchange rate fluctuation is due to translation gains and losses. 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 the Company’s future costs or on future cash flows from foreign investments. The Company 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.
Inflation. We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business. However, if our costs, in particular sales and marketing and hosting costs, were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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.

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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 beginning at page, 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 Interim Chief Financial Officer, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2023. Based on their evaluation as of March 31, 2023, our Chief Executive Officer and Interim 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 Interim Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Interim 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 Interim Chief Financial Officer, assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2023. 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, 2023.
The effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of March 31, 2023 has been audited by KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report, which is included under Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
During the three months ended March 31, 2023, 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.

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

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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 “Information about our Executive Officers,” which is included there pursuant to Instruction to Item 401 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, 2023, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2023 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, 2023, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2023 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, 2023:
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 5,228,795 1 $ 19.15 5,425,842 3
Equity compensation plans not approved by shareholders - - 41,983 4
Total 5,228,795 $ 19.15 5,467,825
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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 (21,704 shares at a weighted-average exercise price of $0.78).
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. (4,300,108) (the "2005 Plan") and the LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. 2005 Stock Purchase Plan (1,125,734, including 150,567 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 did not require shareholder approval under the exception provided for in applicable listing standards.
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, 2023, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2023 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, 2023, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2023 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, 2023, pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act in connection with our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders.
Part IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15. Exhibits and 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 (PCAOB ID: 185)
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of March 31, 2023 and 2022
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021
Notes to 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)
Exhibit No.
10.1+ LiveRamp Holdings, Inc Employee Stock Purchase Plan (previously filed on August 11, 2022 as Exhibit 10.2 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 November 18, 2022 as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission file No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.3+ Amended and Restated LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Non-Qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan effective August 9, 2022
10.4+ Amendment to the LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Non-Qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan effective January 1, 2023
10.5+ LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. Directors’ Deferred Compensation Plan, effective October 1, 2018 (previously filed on May 27, 2021 as Exhibit 10.15 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2021, Commission file No. 000-13163, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.6+ 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)
10.7+ Amended and Restated 2010 Executive Officer Severance Policy (previously filed on November 2, 2022 as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2022, Commission File No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.8+ Amended and Restated 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)
10.9+ 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)
10.10+ 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)
10.11+ 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)
10.12+ Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement 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)
10.13+ Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (CA) (previously filed on May 24, 2022 as Exhibit 10.31 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2022, Commission File No. 000-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
Exhibit No.
10.14+ Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (CA) (previously filed on May 24, 2022 as Exhibit 10.32 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2022, Commission File No. 000-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.15+ Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (previously filed on May 24, 2022 as Exhibit 10.33 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2022, Commission File No. 000-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.16+ Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (previously filed on May 24, 2022 as Exhibit 10.34 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year March 31, 2022, Commission File No. 000-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.17+ 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)
10.18+ 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)
10.19+ 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)
10.20+ Separation Agreement and General Release between the Company and Warren C. Jenson dated as of February 20, 2023 (previously filed on February 21, 2023 as Exhibit 10.1 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission file No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.21+ Consulting Agreement between the Company and Warren C. Jenson dated as of February 20, 2023 (previously filed on February 21, 2023 as Exhibit 10.2 to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.'s Current Report on Form 8-K, Commission file No. 001-38669, and incorporated herein by reference)
10.22+ Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (CA)
10.23+ Form of Performance Unit Award Agreement under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation Plan of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.
21 Subsidiaries of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc.
23 Consent of KPMG LLP
24 Powers of Attorney
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 Interim Chief Financial Officer (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
Exhibit No.
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 Interim Chief Financial Officer (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, 2023, formatted in inline XBRL: (i) Consolidated Balance Sheets as of March 31, 2023 and 2022; (ii) Consolidated Statements of Operations for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021; (iii) Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021; (iv) Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021; (v) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021; 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)
+ Constitutes a management contract or compensation plan or arrangement.