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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
________________________________
FORM 10-K
________________________________

(Mark One)
         x      ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES
        EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934  
For the Year Ended December 31, 2003
OR
         ¨      TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES    
                 EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934  
For the Transition Period from                           to                         
Commission File Number: 0-30849
WEBEX COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware
77-0548319
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)
 
San Jose, California
95134
(Zip Code)
 
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 435-7000
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 
None
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
 
Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share
(Title of Class)
 
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes   x    No   ¨
 
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.   x
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes  x    No  ¨
 
The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2003 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently-completed second fiscal quarter and based upon the closing sale price on the Nasdaq National Market on such date) was approximately $384,911,624. Shares of Common Stock held by each executive officer and director, and shares held by other individuals and entities and based on Schedule 13G filings, have been excluded since such persons may be deemed affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
 
As of February 27, 2004, there were 43,334,902 shares of Common Stock, $0.001 per share par value, outstanding.
 
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
 
Certain sections of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the 2003 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on May 19, 2004 are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K to the extent stated herein.



WEBEX COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
 
FORM 10-K
For the Year Ended December 31, 2003
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
Page No.
PART I  
 
 
 
 
Item 1.
1
 
 
 
Item 2.
7
 
 
 
Item 3.
7
 
 
 
Item 4.
7
 
 
 
   
8
 
 
 
PART II
 
 
 
 
Item 5.
10
 
 
 
Item 6.
11
 
 
 
Item 7.
12
 
 
 
Item 7A.
32
 
 
 
Item 8.
33
 
 
 
Item 9.
56
 
 
 
Item 9A.
56
 
 
 
PART III
 
 
 
 
Item 10.
56
 
 
 
Item 11.
56
 
 
 
Item 12.
57
 
 
 
Item 13.
58
 
 
 
Item 14.
58
 
 
 
PART IV
 
 
 
 
Item 15.
58
 
 
 
 
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When used in this Report, the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These are statements that relate to future periods and include, but are not limited to, statements as to our ability to enhance the quality and variety of real-time communications, statements about the features, benefits and performance of our current service offerings and technology including our belief that use of our services allows users to be more productive and efficient, our ability to introduce new product offerings and increase revenue from existing products, our ability to integrate current and emerging technology into our service offerings and our ability to find replacements for third party technologies, expec ted expenses including those related to sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative, our beliefs regarding the health and growth of the market for our web conferencing services, anticipated increase in our customer base, expansion of our service offerings and service functionalities, ability to reduce operating expenses, expected revenue levels and sources of revenue, expected impact, if any, of legal proceedings, expected increases in headcount, the adequacy of liquidity and capital resources, the sufficiency of our cash reserves to meet our capital requirements, expected growth in business and operations, our ability to realize positive cash flow from operations, the ability of cash generated from operations to satisfy our liquidity requirements, our ability to continue to realize net earnings, and the effect of recent accounting pronouncements. Forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our dependence on key products and/or services, demand for our products and services, our ability to attract and retain customers and distribution partners for existing and new services, our ability to expand our operations internationally, our ability to expand our infrastructure to meet the demand for our services, our ability to control our expenses, our ability to recruit and retain employees particularly in the areas of sales, engineering, support and hosting services, the ability of distribution partners to successfully resell our services, the economy, the strength of competitive offerings, the prices being charged by those competitors, the risks discussed below and the risks discussed in Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors that May Affect Results.” These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. We expressly disclaim any ob ligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
 
In the sections of this report entitled “Business” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, all references to “WebEx,” “we,” “us,” “our” or the “Company” mean WebEx Communications, Inc.
 
Our trademarks include ActiveTouch, WebEx (word and design), WebEx bifurcated ball design, WebEx power button design, WebEx.com, MyWebEx, Bringing the Meeting to You, MediaTone, Meeting Center, WebEx Meeting Center, Event Center, WebEx sound mark, Meeting-Enable Your Web Site, We’ve Got To Start Meeting Like This, Powering Real Time Business Meetings, and One Button, Infinite Power. We also refer to trademarks of other corporations and organizations in this document.


PART I

Item 1. Business
 
Overview
 
We develop and market services that allow end-users to conduct meetings and share software applications, documents, presentations and other content on the Internet using a standard web browser. Integrated telephony and web-based audio and video services are also available using standard devices such as telephones, computer web-cameras and microphones. Because our services enable users to share voice, data and video with others in remote locations, we believe we can enhance the quality and variety of real-time communications compared to traditional telephone communications. Our services enable users to engage in media-rich, interactive, real-time communications without the need to be in the same physical location, which we believe allows users to be more productive and efficient because, in order to achieve the same type of communication and interactivity meeting participants would be required to travel to the locations of the other participants.
 
We commenced operations under the name Silver Computing, Inc. in February 1995. We changed our name to Stellar Computing Corporation in June 1997, ActiveTouch Systems, Inc. in December 1997, ActiveTouch, Inc. in May 1998, and WebEx, Inc. in December 1999. In July 2000, we reincorporated in Delaware under the name WebEx Communications, Inc. We released interactive communications software built on our technology in early 1998, and our business at that time was focused on licensing software to end-users. We began offering WebEx Meeting Center, our first real-time, interactive, multimedia communications service, in February 1999 and began selling the service to customers and distribution partners. With WebEx Meeting Center, our business focus became, instead of licensing software to end-users, providing customers and distribution partners access to our hosted services under subscriptio n and other service arrangements.

 
     

 
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Since February 1999, our activities have been focused on continuing to enhance and market our web communications services, on developing and deploying new services, on expanding our sales and marketing organizations, and on expanding our global WebEx MediaTone Network. We currently offer the following services: WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Meeting Center Pro, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Support Center and WebEx Event Center (an enhanced version of the service formerly known as WebEx OnStage), WebEx Enterprise Edition, WebEx SMARTtech, and WebEx Presentation Studio .
 
We sell our services directly to our customers and indirectly through our distribution partners. We offer our services on a monthly subscription basis to our customers and on a revenue sharing, discounted or pay-per-use basis through our distribution partners. Revenue from subscription services consists primarily of monthly fixed fees, which are based upon either a fixed number of concurrent ports or a fixed usage-based minimum commitment fee, and initial set-up fees. Typically, our fixed-fee contracts are for an initial non-cancelable term ranging from three to twelve months, and then automatically renew for the same period unless terminated by either party. In addition, we obtain revenue from certain “per minute”, or usage-based, pricing arrangements consisting of the following: usage in excess of the usage commitment or the concurrent ports maximum, telephony, certain distribution partner arrangements and individual pay-per-use purchased directly from our website.


Our Services and Technology Architecture
 
We have designed and developed our technology architecture to satisfy the interactive communications requirements of a broad range of customers. We provide a number of web communications services, which are delivered through the WebEx MediaTone Network.
 
WebEx Communication Services . Our web communications services provide a broad range of features that build on the real-time functionality and capabilities of the WebEx MediaTone Network.
 
    WebEx Meeting Center.     WebEx Meeting Center is a service designed to enable the sharing of documents and applications on the Web and to allow business professionals to communicate more effectively and economically through interactive online meetings. WebEx Meeting Center is a service that can be easily provisioned with low start-up costs and without the need for the involvement of information technology professionals. Our basic service, WebEx Meeting Center Standard, allows users to give presentations, demonstrate software, view and annotate any document electronically, and includes integrated teleconferencing. An upgraded version of Meeting Center Standard, Meeting Center Pro, includes the full range of Meeting Center Standard functionality and some additional features such as record and playback, integrated video, the ability to edit any document collaboratively and the ability to share applications or a user’s entire desktop.
 
    WebEx Support Center.     Formerly known as WebEx OnCall, this service is primarily used by customer service organizations to provide remote hands-on support for system or software application problems. WebEx Support Center enables our customers to enhance the effectiveness of traditional telephone-based customer support by allowing their service agents to support end-users through the web browser, with no requirement for preinstalled software on either computer. The service incorporates a custom user interface to simplify support interactions for both the support agent and the end-user.
 
    WebEx Event Center.     Formerly known as WebEx OnStage, WebEx Event Center offers business managers and executives a professionally managed web conferencing service for communications events such as press briefings, product announcements and marketing events. WebEx Event Center combines WebEx’s interactive meeting capabilities with planning, training, logistics management and real-time support services to provide a comprehensive service that reduces the customer effort involved in hosting a web seminar. WebEx Event Center includes online confirmation, notification, and instruction, customized attendee registration, high-resolution text and graphics, the ability to demonstrate a broad rang e of applications in real-time, audience feedback collection via polling, white board interaction, guided web browsing, live chat, recording and archiving of seminars for on-demand playback, and end user reports.
 
    WebEx Training Center.     WebEx Training Center is a web communications service that is designed for training and e-learning applications. With Training Center, users can coordinate training schedules from announcement to enrollment to follow-up, deliver live instruction from a variety of sources directly to learners’ desktops, and give presentations that include audio, video and interactive multimedia. Training Center allows users to administer comprehensive tests, organize multiple simultaneous breakout sessions, and record, edit, play back and archive entire sessions for future use.
 
    WebEx Enterprise Edition.     WebEx Enterprise Edition is a service that integrates four of WebEx’s currently available web communications services—WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Support Center and WebEx Event Center—to create a single source for a customer’s enterprise communications. WebEx Enterprise Edition features include
 
     

 
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   allowing users to create a personalized “MyWebEx” meeting room with a unique URL that becomes a default meeting address for all Web meetings. WebEx Enterprise Edition enables users to start meetings with a single click of the tool bar icon, allows users to access or share information securely in a Web meeting where the content or application resides in an unattended remote computer, and enables users to integrate MyWebEx with the Microsoft Outlook application.
 
    WebEx SMARTtech .      The WebEx SMARTtech service enables customers to centrally manage and administer their company-wide computer networks through the use of a secure, Web-based remote access network provided by the SMARTtech service. SMARTtech is designed to allow a computer-support organization within a company to install upgrades, perform maintenance, troubleshoot problems, and engage in proactive support on hundreds or even thousands of computers without the need of the individual computer user to be present at the machine. SMARTtech’s Web-based, remotely-administered and centralized computer support capabilities offer companies increased efficiency in managing their computer networks without the need to invest in expensive software and hardware upgrades and without compromising network security .
 
    WebEx Presentation Studio.      WebEx Presentation Studio is a service that gives customers the ability to create and deliver multimedia content for convenient, on-demand access via the Web. With Presentation Studio, users can create presentations that include, and integrate as desired, audio content, video content and digital presentation software content such as presentations created with PowerPoint software. For example, Presentation Studio enables organizations to create and distribute sales presentations to sales personnel, capture and track sales leads from marketing and promotional presentations and deliver e-learning and training presentations to employees. Presentations created with Presentation Studio can be viewed over the Web or can be downloaded to a laptop or a personal digital assistant .

WebEx MediaTone Network . The WebEx MediaTone Network is a private, global-switched, redundant network that is designed to deliver scalable, secure, real-time communications services to our customers by capturing screen data from a meeting presenter’s computer, translating that information into a proprietary format, and routing that information through WebEx switching clusters to the meeting session participants. The WebEx MediaTone Network is based on MediaTone, our proprietary information switching technology. Our MediaTone technology allows the WebEx MediaTone Network to handle high-speed data, voice and video communications, manage complex media types, and deliver advanced communications capabilities regardless of location, platform, operating system, device, browser and wired/wireless status. The WebEx Me diaTone Network includes:
 
    a globally distributed network made up of dispersed communications switches, switching centers and dedicated network links designed to reduce latency issues and service interruptions even when participants are located in different countries;
 
    WebEx proprietary switches in data centers located across the U.S., Europe and Asia, in our own facilities and at third-party co-location facilities;
 
     high capacity Internet connections for high-speed connectivity and redundancy;
 
    network operations centers where we manage and monitor the WebEx MediaTone Network 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
 
    the ability to add capacity at any facility and otherwise manage heavy network traffic during peak usage periods, enabling each WebEx switching cluster to scale to meet changes in user demand;
 
    online content that is transmitted, or “switched”, in realtime through the network rather than persistently;
 
    encryption of online content with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to provide security;
 
    diagnostic software for troubleshooting and rapid problem resolution;
 
    the ability to create a personalized, continuous web meeting room, like a personal telephone number or an office extension;
 
    the ability to simultaneously share multiple documents and presentations at the same time and the ability to flip back and forth between them;
 
    the ability to support high-speed sharing of rich media content within Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, such as the sharing of embedded flash files, the sharing of streaming content such as Microsoft’s Media Player, and the sharing of previously-recorded WebEx meetings, in each instance with the ability to start, pause, stop, reverse and fast-forward the content;
 
     the ability to support video conferencing with just a browser and simple web cameras; and
 
 
     

 
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     the ability to access or share information securely in a WebEx meeting even where the content or applications reside in an unattended remote computer.


Customers and Distribution Partners
We sell our services directly to our customers and indirectly through our distribution partners. We offer our services on a monthly subscription basis to our customers and through a revenue sharing, discounted or pay-per-use basis through our distribution partners. Our customers purchase and use our services themselves while our distribution partners integrate and resell our services with their offerings. Some of our distribution partners are also end-user customers.
 
As of December 31, 2003 and 2002, we had subscription agreements with over 8,850 and 7,200 direct customers, respectively. In 2003, we derived approximately 89% of our revenue from direct sales to customers. Typically, our direct sales contracts are for an initial non-cancelable term ranging from three to twelve months, and then automatically renew for the same period unless terminated by either party. As of December 31, 2003, we had agreements in place with approximately 134 distribution partners, including portals, software and service vendors and communications service providers. In 2003 we generated approximately 11% of our revenue from these relationships. Software and service vendors have agreements to resell our services to end-users by marketing, and in some cases int egrating, our services into their product or service offerings. Communications service providers typically resell our services in conjunction with their teleconferencing services. Our distribution agreements typically have terms of one to three years and are automatically renewed for additional one-year terms unless either party terminates the agreement with 30 days prior written notice. In most of these agreements, the distribution partner purchases subscription or pay per use services from us and resells such services to end user customers. Under these agreements, the amount of revenue we receive depends on the level of commitment and volume of business generated under the agreement.
 
Under our distribution agreements, either we or the distribution partner bills the end user customers. When we bill the end user, a percentage of the proceeds generated from the distribution partner’s sale of our services is paid to the distribution partner and the remainder is retained by us. When the distribution partner bills the end user, we sell the services on a discounted basis to the distribution partner, which in turn marks up the price and sells the services to the end user.
 
In 2003, sales of our Meeting Center service, whether directly to our customers or indirectly through our distribution partners, accounted for approximately 60% of our revenue. In 2002 and 2001, respectively, sales of our Meeting Center service accounted for 65% and 75% of our revenue. This reduction in Meeting Center sales as a percentage of our total revenue may continue as we introduce new service offerings and increase revenue in other existing services.


Third Party Software and Hardware
 
We license software and purchase hardware, such as database, operating system, and web server software, font technology and servers, routers, and audio-conference bridges. We believe that use of third party vendors enables us to integrate current and emerging technologies into our proprietary service offerings. We purchase, or license, these third party technologies from companies including BEA Systems (application servers), Bitstream (font technology), Oracle (database technology), Rackable (servers), Sun Microsystems (servers), Veritas (file management), and Voyant (audio-conference bridges). While the loss of one or more of these vendors may result in the need to identify, secure and integrate alternative technologies, we believe we can obtain, from other sources and on comparable business terms, third party software or hardware functionally comparable to that provided by these third party vendors.


Research and Development
 
The emerging market for web communications services is characterized by rapid technological change, new product introductions and enhancements, evolving customer requirements and rapidly changing industry standards. We devote a substantial portion of our resources to developing and enhancing our network services and application platform, extending our global network, and conducting quality assurance testing.
 
As of December 31, 2003, we had 558 employees engaged in research and development activities. Our research and development expenditures were approximately $24.8 million, $22.8 million and $16.3 million in 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively. We expect to continue to devote significant resources to research and development for the foreseeable future.
 
A significant amount of our development and testing activity is conducted by our subsidiary in China (“WebEx China”). Prior to February 2003, our development and testing activity was conducted by three companies in China, which are owned by our President and Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Min Zhu, and his spouse. In February 2003, WebEx China acquired substantially all of the assets of these three companies for a cash purchase price of $0.2 million and hired approximately 325 of their employees. The valuation of the assets was
 
 
     

 
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determined by an independent appraisal and the purchase was approved by our Board of Directors. Prior to the completion of this asset purchase, we had contracts with these companies under which they performed development projects, assigned ownership of the work performed to us, and invoiced us for services rendered based on a monthly fee per employee working on WebEx projects. As of December 31, 2003, of the 481 employees in our WebEx China operations 443 employees were engaged in research and development activities. We rely on WebEx China for a significant portion of our quality assurance, software development and other activities .


Sales and Marketing
 
Our sales efforts target a broad range of businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations primarily through direct sales channels and, to a lesser extent, through indirect sales channels. Direct sales are generated through our internal sales force, while indirect sales are generated through agreements with our distribution partners. Our internal sales force uses our own WebEx services to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of our direct sales channel.
 
As of December 31, 2003, we had 398 employees engaged in sales and marketing activities. Our sales and marketing expenditures were approximately $74.2 million, $58.0 million and $47.2 million in 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively. We expect to continue to devote significant resources to sales and marketing for the foreseeable future.
 
Our marketing programs include customer needs assessment and market analysis, service and platform marketing, brand awareness, advertising, public relations, lead generation, and educating organizations in our target markets. In December 2002, we entered into an agreement with a celebrity spokesperson whom we have featured and whom we continue to feature in our print, electronic and digital media advertising campaigns
 
We derive sales revenues from both North American-based and non-North American-based customers. In 2003, 2002 and 2001, the percentage of revenues from North American-based customers was 95%, 96%, and 97%, respectively. In 2003, 2002 and 2001, the percentage of revenues from our non-North American-based customers was 5%, 4%, and 3%, respectively.

Competition
 
The market for web communications services is intensely competitive, subject to rapid change and is significantly affected by new product and service introductions and other market activities of industry participants. Although we do not currently compete against any one entity with respect to all aspects of our services, we do compete with various companies in regards to specific elements of our web communications services. For example, we compete with providers of traditional communications technologies such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing, applications software and tools companies, and web conferencing services such as Centra Software, Genesys, Raindance, IBM, Oracle, Macromedia, and Microsoft. In January 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. acquired Latitude Communications, a competitor of WebEx. Other companies could choose to extend their products and services to include web co mmunications services in the future. Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical and other resources and greater name recognition than we have. Our current and future competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements. Some of these competitors, such as Microsoft, have dominant positions in other technology markets and may seek to leverage those positions to expand their presence in the web communications services market, which may make it more difficult for other vendors, such as WebEx, to compete. In addition, current and potential competitors have established, and may in the future establish, cooperative relationships with third parties and with each other to increase the availability of their products and services to the marketplace. Competitors may introduce products or services that have better capabilities or performance, lower prices, or broader distribution or market acceptance which could cause us to lose customers, lose revenue and earnings, lose market share or require us to increase expenses or reduce the price of our services, any of which could harm our business and operating results.
 
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market include:
    service functionality, quality and performance;
    ease of use, reliability, scalability and security of services;
    customer service and support;
    establishing a significant base of customers and distribution partners;
     ability to introduce new services to the market in a timely manner;
    ability to integrate with third-party offerings and services; and
     pricing.
 
     

 
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Although we believe our services compete favorably with respect to many of these factors, the market for our services is new and rapidly evolving. We may not be able to maintain our competitive position against current and potential competitors, especially those with greater resources such as IBM, Microsoft and Cisco.


Intellectual Property
 
The status of United States patent protection in the Internet industry is not well defined and will evolve as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grants additional patents. We currently have ten issued patents in the areas of peer-to-peer connections to facilitate conferencing, document annotation, optimizing data transfer, and graphical user interface for extracting video presentations, and we currently have 33 patent applications pending in the United States. We may seek additional patents in the future. We do not know if our patent applications or any future patent application will result in any patents being issued with the scope of the claims we seek, if such patents are issued at all. We do not know whether any patents we have received or may receive will be challenged, invalidated or be of any value. It is difficult to monitor unauthorized use of technology, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States, and our competitors may independently develop technology similar to ours. We will continue to seek patent and other intellectual property protections, when appropriate, for those aspects of our technology that we believe constitute innovations providing significant competitive advantages. The pending, and any future, patent applications may not result in the issuance of valid patents.
 
Our success depends in part upon our rights to proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of copyright, trade secret, trademark and contractual protection to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We require our employees, to enter into confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements upon commencement of employment. Before we will disclose any confidential aspects of our services, technology or business plans to customers, potential business distribution partners and other non-employees, we routinely require such persons to enter into confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements. In addition, we require all employees, and those consultants involved in the deployment of our services, to agree to assign to us any proprietary information, inventions or other intellectual property they generate, or come to possess, while employed by us. Despite our efforts to protect our prop rietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our services or technology. These precautions may not prevent misappropriation or infringement of our intellectual property.
 
Third parties may infringe or misappropriate our copyrights, trademarks and similar proprietary rights. In addition, we may be subject to claims of alleged infringement of patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties. We may be unaware of filed patent applications which have not yet been made public and which relate to our services. From time to time, we have received notices alleging that we infringe intellectual property rights of third parties. In such cases, we investigate the relevant facts, respond to the allegations and, where case facts and other conditions warrant, consider settlement options. For example, in March 2003, we received a letter from a company alleging that we infringed several of that company’s patents. We reviewed the company’s allegations and other relevant patents and publications and responded by providing arguments and materials supporting our position that we do not infringe the cited patents and that the patents are invalid.
 
Intellectual property claims may be asserted against us in the future. Intellectual property litigation is expensive and time-consuming and could divert management’s attention away from running our business. Intellectual property litigation could also require us to develop non-infringing technology or enter into royalty or license agreements. These royalty or license agreements, if required, may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Our failure or inability to develop non-infringing technology or license the proprietary rights on a timely basis would harm our business.
 
Employees
 
As of December 31, 2003, we had 1,241 full-time employees, including 558 in research and development, 398 in sales and marketing, 200 in set-up, support and training, and 85 in general and administrative. As of December 31, 2003, 530 of our employees are based overseas, including 481 in China as part of our WebEx China subsidiary. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe our relations with our employees are good.

    Available Information
 
Our website is located at http://www.webex.com. We make available, free of charge, on or through our website, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports to be filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing such reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, we have an investor relations web page located on our website which includes additional information including webcasts of earnings announcements, stock information, press releases and other information of interest to current and prospective investors. Information on our website is not part of this report.

 
     

 
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Item 2.    Properties
 
We currently lease approximately 126,000 square feet in three buildings in San Jose, California, which are used for sales, engineering, support, network operations, and general corporate functions, including our corporate headquarters. The lease terms for two of these buildings expire in September 2004, and for the third building in February 2008. Of the 126,000 square feet, 19,300 square feet have been sub-leased under a non-cancelable sub-lease that expires in July 2004. During 2003, we resolved, through a settlement agreement modifying the lease agreement between us and the sublessee, the sublessee’s delinquency as to a portion of the payments owing under the sublease. We also have leased facilities in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; Raleigh, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; Sacramento, California; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Bracknell, England; Melb ourne, Australia; and Tokyo, Japan, which are used for sales-related activities and, in some cases, to house equipment used in the operation of our MediaTone network. We also lease facilities located in the Chinese cities of Hefei, HongZhou, Shanghai and Suzhou, in which we conduct quality assurance, software development and other activities. The lease terms of all of these leases range from June 2004 to February 2008. While we believe that these offices are adequate to meet our current requirements, it may be necessary for us to lease additional facilities over the next 12 months.

In February 2004, we purchased approximately nine acres of real property in Mountain View, California on which resides a building containing approximately 125,000 square feet of commercial grade facility of which 25,000 square feet consists of data infrastructure facility floor space. The purchase price was approximately $16.1 million. As part of the purchase, we also acquired certain items of data infrastructure equipment previously installed and situated on the property. For the foreseeable future, we intend to use this building primarily as a switching center facility to accommodate growing usage requirements on our WebEx MediaTone Network.

We anticipate that most of the capital necessary for expansion will continue to be obtained from internally generated funds. Investment in new property, plant and equipment amounted to $9.2 million in fiscal 2003, $8.2 million in fiscal 2002 and $11.5 million in fiscal 2001.

Item 3.    Legal Proceedings
 
The Company is not a party to any material pending legal proceedings.


Item 4.    Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
 
No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders during the fourth quarter of the year ended December 31, 2003.


 
     

 
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Executive Officers of the Registrant
Our executive officers and their ages as of March 1, 2004, are:
Name
Age
Position



Subrah S. Iyar
46
Chief Executive Officer
Min Zhu
55
President and Chief Technical Officer
Michael Everett
54
Chief Financial Officer
David Farrington
47
Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Shawn Farshchi
47
Chief Information Officer and VP, Technical Operations
Stanford Au
43
Vice President, Applications Services
Walt Weisner
48
Vice President, Customer Care
 
Subrah S. Iyar is a co-founder of WebEx and has served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since January 1997. Prior to founding WebEx, Mr. Iyar served as Vice President and General Manager of the Northern California Internet Business division of Quarterdeck Corporation, a software company, from October 1995 until November 1996. From February 1983 to 1995, Mr. Iyar held several senior positions in business development, marketing and sales management at Apple Computer, Inc., a computer hardware company, and Intel Corporation, a semiconductor company. Mr. Iyar holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
 
Min Zhu is a co-founder of WebEx and has served as its President and Chief Technical Officer since February 1997. Prior to founding WebEx, Mr. Zhu in 1991 co-founded Future Labs, a real-time collaboration software company that was subsequently sold to Quarterdeck in 1996. Mr. Zhu holds an M.S. in Engineering Economics Systems from Stanford University.
 
Michael Everett has served as Chief Financial Officer of WebEx since May 2003. From June 2001 to February 2003, Mr. Everett served as Chief Financial Officer of Bivio Networks, a privately-held provider of secure Internet Protocol (“IP”) service platforms. From November 2000 to April 2001, Mr. Everett served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of VMWare, Inc., a privately-held infrastructure software company that is now a subsidiary of EMC Corporation. From March 1997 to November 2000, Mr. Everett served as Chief Financial Officer of Netro Corporation, a publicly-traded broadband wireless access equipment provider later acquired by SR Telecom. Mr. Everett also spent approximately ten years in various executive capacities at Raychem Corporation from 1987 through 1996, where he served as General Counsel/Secretary (1987-1988), Senior Vice President an d Chief Financial Officer (1988-1993) and Senior Vice President, Asia (1993-1996). Mr. Everett holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School .
 
David Farrington has served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of WebEx since March 2000. From April 1998 to March 2000, Mr. Farrington was a partner at the law firm of Skjerven Morrill MacPherson LLP in San Jose, California. From October 1989 to January 1998, Mr. Farrington worked at Apple Computer, where he held a number of senior positions, including senior director of Apple’s corporate development group, associate general counsel in charge of legal support for Apple’s worldwide sales and marketing organization, and director of Apple’s technology law group. Mr. Farrington holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.