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Table of Contents

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM 10-Q

 

 

 

x QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT 1934

For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2014

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number: 001-35650

 

 

Trulia, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware   20-2958261

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification Number)

116 New Montgomery Street, Suite 300

San Francisco, California 94105

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

415.648.4358

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

 

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 whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer   ¨    Accelerated filer   x
Non-accelerated filer   ¨  (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)    Smaller reporting company   ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x

As of November 3, 2014, 37,805,698 shares of the registrant’s common stock were outstanding.

 

 

 


Table of Contents

TRULIA, INC.

Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q

For the Three Months Ended September 30, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

         Page  
PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION   

Item 1.

 

Financial Statements (unaudited)

     2   
 

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013

     2   
 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations for the Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2014 and 2013

     3   
 

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2014 and 2013

     4   
 

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

     5   

Item 2.

 

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

     18   

Item 3.

 

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

     33   

Item 4.

 

Controls and Procedures

     33   
PART II — OTHER INFORMATION   

Item 1.

 

Legal Proceedings

     34   

Item 1A.

 

Risk Factors

     35   

Item 2.

 

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

     55   

Item 6.

 

Exhibits

     55   
 

Signatures

     56   

 

- 1 -


Table of Contents

PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION

 

Item 1. Financial Statements

TRULIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(Unaudited)

 

    September 30,
2014
    December 31,
2013
 

ASSETS

   

CURRENT ASSETS:

   

Cash and cash equivalents

  $ 212,114      $ 225,597   

Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $103 and $411 as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively

    14,161        11,697   

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

    8,197        12,272   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current assets

    234,472        249,566   

Restricted cash

    6,912        1,589   

Property and equipment, net

    41,391        22,289   

Intangible assets, net

    106,439        117,888   

Goodwill

    255,904        255,904   

Other assets

    7,547        8,173   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

TOTAL ASSETS

  $ 652,665      $ 655,409   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

   

CURRENT LIABILITIES:

   

Accounts payable

  $ 1,799      $ 3,018   

Accrued liabilities and restructuring costs

    22,409        11,261   

Accrued compensation and benefits

    10,496        10,863   

Deferred revenue

    9,932        10,002   

Deferred rent, current portion

    813        1,035   

Capital lease liability, current portion

    24        51   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current liabilities

    45,473        36,230   

Deferred rent, net of current portion

    9,850        4,751   

Capital lease liability, net of current portion

    80        84   

Long-term debt

    230,000        230,000   

Other long-term liabilities

    3,538        3,268   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

TOTAL LIABILITIES

    288,941        274,333   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Commitments and contingencies (NOTE 7)

 

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY:

   

Preferred stock, par value of $0.00001, 20,000,000 shares authorized as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013; no shares issued or outstanding as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013

    —          —     

Common stock, par value of $0.00001, 1,000,000,000 shares authorized as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013; 38,841,254 and 37,668,476 shares issued as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively; 37,755,350 and 36,582,572 shares outstanding as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively

    —          —     

Treasury stock at $27.65, 1,085,904 shares as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013

    —          —     

Additional paid-in capital

    485,615        445,960   

Accumulated deficit

    (121,891     (64,884
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

    363,724        381,076   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

  $ 652,665      $ 655,409   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

- 2 -


Table of Contents

TRULIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(Unaudited)

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
    Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013     2014     2013  

Revenue

   $ 67,144      $ 40,283      $ 185,719      $ 93,998   

Cost and operating expenses:

        

Cost of revenue (exclusive of amortization of product development cost)

     12,025        6,069        32,996        13,694   

Technology and development

     14,865        10,058        41,931        21,484   

Sales and marketing

     38,867        20,189        109,516        45,785   

General and administrative

     11,606        9,826        37,162        20,568   

Acquisition costs

     10,832        4,060        10,832        6,065   

Restructuring costs

     1,154        —          4,797        —     
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost and operating expenses

     89,349        50,202        237,234        107,596   

Loss from operations

     (22,205     (9,919     (51,515     (13,598

Interest and other income

     109        33        400        112   

Interest expense

     (1,830     (203     (5,529     (655
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss before provision for income taxes

     (23,926     (10,089     (56,644     (14,141

(Provision) benefit for income taxes

     (67     7,869        (363     7,529   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders

   $ (23,993   $ (2,220   $ (57,007   $ (6,612
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

   $ (0.64   $ (0.06   $ (1.54   $ (0.21
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted average shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

     37,540,527        34,557,842        37,112,195        31,734,356   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

- 3 -


Table of Contents

TRULIA, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands, except share amounts)

(Unaudited)

 

                                 
     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013  

CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:

    

Net loss

   $ (57,007   $ (6,612

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:

    

Depreciation and amortization

     20,907        6,288   

Compensation paid in stock

     29,073        10,668   

Provision for doubtful accounts

     (187     325   

Restructuring costs

     2,858        —     

Release of valuation allowance

     —          (7,923

Amortization of debt discount

     —          105   

Amortization of debt issue cost

     100        21   

Amortization of underwriters fees

     654        —     

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

    

Accounts receivable

     (2,277     (6,961

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

     4,075        (1,802

Other assets

     (128     —     

Accounts payable

     (913     (5,334

Accrued liabilities and restructuring costs

     10,990        3,609   

Accrued compensation and benefits

     2,025        3,248   

Deferred rent

     4,877        —     

Deferred revenue

     (70     (1,207

Other long-term liabilities

     88        (184
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

     15,065        (5,759
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:

    

Increase in restricted cash and deposits

     (5,323     (1,087

Maturities of short term investments

     —          2,999   

Purchases of property and equipment

     (29,504     (8,191

Acquisition, net of cash acquired of $0 in 2014 and $9.7 million in 2013

     —          (160,813
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

     (34,827     (167,092
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:

    

Proceeds from the follow-on public offering, net of underwriting discounts

     —          114,056   

Payments of costs related to the follow-on public offering

     —          (1,034

Repayments on capital lease liability

     (31     (167

Repayments of long-term debt

     —          (1,848

Proceeds from exercise of stock options

     9,765        5,445   

Value of equity awards withheld for tax liabilities

     (3,455     (201
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by financing activities

     6,279        116,251   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

NET DECREASE IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS

     (13,483     (56,600

CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS—Beginning of period

     225,597        100,017   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS—End of period

   $ 212,114      $ 43,417   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURES OF CASH FLOW INFORMATION:

    

Cash paid for interest

   $ 3,128      $ 544   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash paid for income taxes

   $ 450      $ 395   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

NON-CASH INVESTING AND FINANCING ACTIVITIES:

    

Compensation paid in stock capitalized in product development costs

   $ 1,848      $ 407   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net change related to purchases of equipment in accounts payable and accrued liabilities

   $ (2,698   $ 136   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Purchases of equipment with accounts payable and accrued liabilities at period end

   $ 1,266      $ 775   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Number of common warrants exercised in a net settlement transaction

     —          56,054   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Number of stock appreciation rights exercised in net settlement transactions

     73,404        —     
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Shares issued and assumed related to acquisition

     —          5,340,271  
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

- 4 -


Table of Contents

TRULIA, INC.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

 

1. Organization and Description of Business

We were incorporated on June 1, 2005 in the state of Delaware as Realwide, Inc. On September 22, 2005, we changed our name to Trulia, Inc.

Our online marketplace and mobile applications help consumers research homes and neighborhoods and provide a broad array of information to help them in the buying and selling processes. We also help real estate professionals market themselves and their listings. Our subscription-based real estate marketing and software products provide real estate professionals with access to transaction-ready consumers and help them grow and manage their businesses.

Proposed Acquisition by Zillow, Inc.

On July 28, 2014, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger, or the Merger Agreement, with Zillow, Inc., or Zillow, and Zebra HoldCo, Inc., or HoldCo, pursuant to which Zillow will acquire us. The Merger Agreement provides that both we and Zillow will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of HoldCo, which series of transactions we refer to as the Zillow Merger. The Merger Agreement has been approved by our board of directors and the board of directors of Zillow.

Upon completion of the Zillow Merger, (i) each outstanding share of our common stock will be converted into the right to receive 0.444 of a share of Class A common stock of HoldCo; (ii) each outstanding share of Class A common stock of Zillow will be converted into the right to receive one share of Class A common stock of HoldCo; and (iii) each outstanding share of Class B common stock of Zillow will be converted into the right to receive one share of Class B common stock of HoldCo. The Class A common stock of HoldCo will have one vote per share and the Class B common stock of HoldCo will have ten votes per share, similar to the current capital structure of Zillow.

The Zillow Merger is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the expiration of U.S. antitrust waiting periods and shareholder approval of both companies.

The Merger Agreement contains certain termination rights for both us and Zillow, including for the failure to consummate the Zillow Merger by January 28, 2016, the enactment, promulgation or issuance of any injunction, order or ruling which has become final and non-appealable and makes the consummation of the Zillow Merger illegal or otherwise prohibits their consummation, failure of either our stockholders or Zillow’s shareholders to approve the Merger Agreement, or breaches of representations, warranties or covenants by a party that result in the failure of certain conditions to closing being satisfied. In addition, we and Zillow have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement in the event that the other party’s board of directors recommends or accepts a “Competing Transaction Proposal” (as defined in the Merger Agreement). Prior to receipt of the approval of the Merger Agreement by our stockholders, we also have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement in connection with entering into a definitive agreement with respect to a superior proposal with a third party.

The Merger Agreement also provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement under certain circumstances involving a competing transaction proposal, we or Zillow may be required to pay the other party a termination fee of $69.8 million. Further, the Merger Agreement provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement by us or Zillow in the event that any necessary regulatory approval is not obtained, Zillow would be required to pay us a termination fee of $150 million. The Merger Agreement also provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement by us if Zillow is unable to obtain shareholder approval of the Merger Agreement, Zillow would be required to pay us a termination fee of $150 million.

Acquisition of Market Leader, Inc.

In August 2013, we acquired all the outstanding shares of capital stock of Market Leader, Inc. (“Market Leader”) for 4,412,489 shares of our common stock and $170.5 million in cash. Market Leader is a provider of software-as-a-service (“SaaS”)-based customer relationship management software for the real estate sector. Under the terms and conditions of the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Market Leader Merger Agreement”), each outstanding share of Market Leader common stock was converted into the right to receive (a) $6.00 in cash, without interest, and subject to applicable withholding tax, and (b) 0.1553 of a share of our common stock, for a total purchase consideration of $372.7 million. In connection with the merger, all of the outstanding stock options, stock appreciation rights, and restricted stock units of Market Leader were converted into stock options, stock appreciation rights, and restricted stock units, respectively, denominated in shares of our common stock based on the formulas set forth in the Market Leader Merger Agreement.

In June 2014, our board of directors approved a restructuring plan to accelerate the integration of our Market Leader operations with those of Trulia, to eliminate overlapping positions, and to streamline operations. We implemented this restructuring plan to shorten the time to market for our products and to drive further growth. Further detail on the restructuring is presented in Notes 2 and 11 of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

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Table of Contents

Convertible Senior Notes

On December 17, 2013, we issued $230.0 million aggregate principal amount of 2.75% Convertible Senior Notes, due in 2020 (the “2020 Notes”), which included a $30.0 million of principal amount issued pursuant to an over-allotment option granted to the initial purchasers. The aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes is due on December 15, 2020. We received net proceeds of $222.4 million, after deducting offering expenses payable by us. Interest began to accrue on December 17, 2013 and is payable semi-annually every June 15 and December 15, starting on June 15, 2014. We may not redeem the 2020 Notes prior to December 20, 2018. We may redeem the 2020 Notes, at our option, in whole or in part on or after December 20, 2018, if the last reported sale price per share of our common stock has been at least 130% of the conversion price then in effect for at least 20 trading days (whether or not consecutive) during any 30 consecutive trading day period. Holders of the notes may convert all or any portion of their notes, in multiples of $1,000 principal amount, at their option at any time prior to the close of business on the business day immediately preceding the maturity date. The 2020 Notes are convertible at an initial conversion rate of 27.8303 shares of our common stock per $1,000 principal amount of notes, subject to adjustment in certain events. Further details on these 2020 Notes is presented in Note 6 of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

Certain Significant Risks and Uncertainties

We operate in a dynamic industry and, accordingly, can be affected by a variety of factors. For example, we believe that changes in any of the following areas could have a significant negative effect on our future financial position, results of operations, or cash flows: ability to obtain additional financing; advances and trends in new technologies and industry standards; changes in certain strategic relationships or customer relationships; market acceptance of our products; development of sales channels; loss of significant customers; litigation or other claims against us; the hiring, training, and retention of key employees; changes in enacted tax rates; and new product introductions by competitors.

 

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

Our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regarding interim financial reporting. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in the financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations. Accordingly, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and accompanying notes as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on March 3, 2014 and amended on May 23, 2014. The condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2013, included herein, was derived from the audited financial statements as of that date.

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual financial statements and, in our opinion, reflect all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, necessary to present fairly our financial position as of September 30, 2014, our results of operations and cash flows for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. The results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ended December 31, 2014, or for any other interim period, or for any other future year.

Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the operations of Trulia and our wholly owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Restructuring Costs

The main components of our restructuring plan relate to workforce reduction and contract termination costs. Workforce reduction charges are accrued when it is probable that the employees are entitled to the severance payments and the amounts can be reasonably estimated. One-time involuntary termination benefits are accrued when the plan of termination has been communicated to the employees and certain other criteria are met. Contract termination costs are recognized as a liability when a contract is terminated in accordance with its terms, or at the cease-use date. If the amounts and timing of cash flows from restructuring activities are significantly different from what we have estimated, the actual amount of restructuring and other related charges could be materially different than those we have recorded. Further details on the restructuring are presented in Note 11 of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

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Table of Contents

Advertising Expense

Advertising costs are expensed when incurred and are included in sales and marketing expenses in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. Barter transactions represent the exchange of online advertising for online advertising through placement of links. No revenue or expense for such barter transactions is recognized because the fair value of neither the advertising surrendered nor the advertising received is determinable.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of the accompanying financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires that we make estimates and assumptions about future events that affect the amounts of assets and liabilities reported, disclosures about contingent assets and liabilities, and reported amounts of revenues and expenses. Significant items subject to such estimates include: revenue recognition; allowance for doubtful accounts; useful lives of property and equipment and intangible assets; recoverability of long-lived assets and intangible assets with definite lives; goodwill; income tax uncertainties, including a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets; accounting for business combinations; restructuring reserves; and contingencies. We base these estimates on historical and anticipated results, trends, and various other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, including assumptions as to future events. These estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities and recorded revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Significant Accounting Policies

There have been no changes to our significant accounting policies described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013.

 

3. Fair Value Measurements

Fair value is defined as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or an exit price paid to transfer a liability in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Valuation techniques used to measure fair value must maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs. The current accounting guidance for the fair value measurements defines a three-level valuation hierarchy for disclosures as follows:

Level I—Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities;

Level II—Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level I that are observable, unadjusted quoted prices in markets that are not active, or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data; and

Level III—Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity, which requires us to develop our own assumptions.

The categorization of a financial instrument within the valuation hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

The carrying values of our financial instruments, including cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and restricted cash approximate their fair values. The estimated fair value and carrying value of our 2020 Notes as of September 30, 2014 were $315.5 million and $230.0 million, respectively. We determined the estimated fair value of the 2020 Notes through use of option pricing and discounted cash flow models. The fair value is classified as Level III due to the use of significant unobservable inputs such as estimated long-term volatility of our common stock and credit risk premium. The estimated fair value and carrying value of our 2020 Notes as of December 31, 2013 were $252.0 million and $230.0 million, respectively. The following table sets forth the fair value of our financial assets remeasured on a recurring basis, by level within the fair value hierarchy (in thousands):

 

     As of September 30, 2014  
     Level I      Level II      Level III      Total  

Financial Assets:

           

Money market funds

   $ 6,683       $ —         $ —         $ 6,683   

Restricted cash

     6,912         —           —           6,912   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total financial assets

   $ 13,595       $ —         $ —         $ 13,595   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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Table of Contents
     As of December 31, 2013  
     Level I      Level II      Level III      Total  

Financial Assets:

           

Money market funds

   $ 6,683       $ —         $ —         $ 6,683   

Restricted cash

     1,589         —           —           1,589   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total financial assets

   $   8,272       $ —         $ —         $   8,272   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

None of the cash equivalents or the restricted cash held by us had unrealized losses and there were no realized losses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. There were no other-than-temporary impairments for these instruments as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013. In the nine months ended September 30, 2014, our restricted cash increased by $5.3 million, of which $3.8 million was related to our new lease agreement in San Francisco, and $968,000 related to the amendment of our continuing lease agreement in Denver. As of September 30, 2014 the contractual maturities of all certificates of deposit were from less than one year to less than three years.

Our cash equivalents include all credit card and debit card transactions that process as of the last day of each month and settle within the first few days of the subsequent month. The amounts due from third party merchant processors for these transactions that are included in our cash equivalents totaled $778,000 and $349,000 as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively.

 

4. Property and Equipment, net

Property and equipment consisted of the following (in thousands):

 

     As of September 30,
2014
    As of December 31,
2013
 

Computer equipment

   $ 8,692      $ 7,275   

Capitalized product development costs

     19,498        9,934   

Furniture and fixtures

     4,175        3,276   

Leasehold improvements

     12,422        8,985   

Software

     1,833        183   

Equipment not yet in service

     15,074        3,868   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total property and equipment

     61,694        33,521   

Less: accumulated depreciation and amortization

     (20,303     (11,232
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total property and equipment, net

   $ 41,391      $ 22,289   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

As of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, property and equipment under capital lease included within the computer equipment balance above amounted to $105,000 and $261,000, respectively, with accumulated depreciation of $16,000 and $87,000, respectively. Depreciation expense was $3.9 million and $1.6 million, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $9.2 million and $4.5 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

We capitalized costs associated with product development of $5.2 million and $2.0 million, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $13.6 million and $5.1 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. Amortization expense for product development costs included in the technology and development expenses was $1.8 million and $559,000, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $6.3 million and $1.2 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

 

5. Intangible Assets

As noted in Note 1 of these condensed consolidated financial statements, during the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, we acquired all the outstanding shares of capital stock of Market Leader, Inc. for 4,412,489 shares of our common stock and $170.5 million in cash, for a total purchase price of $372.7 million. The total purchase price was allocated to the preliminary net tangible and intangible assets based on their preliminary fair values as of August 20, 2013. For this business combination the measurement period allowed by FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 805, “Business Combinations” (“ASC 805”), expired and the purchase price allocation to the net tangible and intangible assets was finalized on August 20, 2014. No significant purchase price adjustments were made during the measurement period. The excess of the purchase price over the net tangible and intangibles assets was recorded as goodwill. The total value allocated to the intangible assets was $123.1 million.

 

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The following tables present the detail of intangible assets subject to amortization (in thousands):

 

     As of September 30, 2014  
     Gross      Accumulated
Amortization
    Net  

Enterprise relationships

   $ 29,000       $ (3,227   $ 25,773   

Premium users

     15,200         (3,383     11,817   

Existing technology

     32,300         (5,135     27,165   

Trade names

     42,900         (4,774     38,126   

Home/MLS data feeds

     3,700         (412     3,288   

Other

     898         (628     270   
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $    123,998       $ (17,559   $    106,439   
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 
     As of December 31, 2013  
     Gross      Accumulated
Amortization
    Net  

Enterprise relationships

   $ 29,000       $ (1,052   $ 27,948   

Premium users

     15,200         (1,103     14,097   

Existing technology

     32,300         (1,675     30,625   

Trade names

     42,900         (1,557     41,343   

Home/MLS data feeds

     3,700         (134     3,566   

Other

     701         (392     309   
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ 123,801       $ (5,913   $ 117,888   
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Amortization expense was $3.9 million and $1.8 million, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $11.7 million and $1.8 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

Future amortization expense is expected to be as follows over each of the next five years (in thousands):

 

     Total  

2014 (remaining three months)

   $ 3,908   

2015

     15,275   

2016

     15,230   

2017

     15,230   

2018

     14,127   

Thereafter

     42,669   
  

 

 

 

Total

   $    106,439   
  

 

 

 

 

6. Debt

Convertible Senior Notes

As discussed in Notes 1 and 3 of these condensed consolidated financial statements, on December 17, 2013 we issued $230.0 million aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes, which included a $30.0 million of principal amount issued pursuant to an over-allotment option granted to the initial purchasers. The aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes is due on December 15, 2020. The estimated fair value and carrying value of the 2020 Notes as of September 30, 2014 were $315.5 million and $230.0 million, respectively.

The conversion option of the 2020 Notes has no cash settlement provisions. Total issuance costs for the 2020 Notes were $7.6 million. We use the effective interest method to amortize the debt issuance costs. We believe that the conversion option does not meet the criteria for separate accounting as a derivative as it is indexed to our own stock.

 

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Upon completion of the Zillow Merger, the 2020 Notes will become obligations of HoldCo, and will become convertible for shares of HoldCo Class A common stock. Additional details on the Merger Agreement and the Zillow Merger are presented in Note 1 of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

We recognized interest expense related to the 2020 Notes in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 of $1.8 million and $5.5 million, respectively. The amortization of debt issuance costs related to the 2020 Notes in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 was $241,000 and $724,000, respectively, which amounts were recorded as part of the interest expense.

Credit Facility

In September 2011, we entered into a $20.0 million loan and security agreement which provided for a secured term loan facility (“Credit Facility”), issuable in tranches, with a financial institution. Under the Credit Facility, the two tranches of $5.0 million each were drawn down in full in September 2011, the first of which was used to pay down our debt from our previous credit facility. On December 31, 2012, the drawdown period for the remaining $10.0 million expired. As of September 30, 2013 there was no unused credit balance under this Credit Facility.

The Credit Facility carried an interest rate equal to the greater of the prime rate plus 2.75%, or 6%, for the first tranche, and a rate equal to the greater of the prime rate plus 5.5%, or 8.75%, for the second tranche. The loan facility was subject to interest-only payments through March 2013, and since then was repayable in 30 equal monthly installments of principal and interest, and had a maturity date of September 2015. On December 17, 2013, when the outstanding balance of the Credit Facility was $7.2 million we repaid the Credit Facility with the proceeds from the 2020 Notes discussed above. We recorded a loss on debt extinguishment of $141,000 in December 2013.

 

7. Commitments and Contingencies

Operating Leases

We lease our corporate offices under noncancelable operating leases in San Francisco, Bellevue, Denver, and New York that range from one to nine years in term.

Rent expense from the leases of the facilities we currently occupy is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. The rent expense was $1.4 million and $783,000, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $3.8 million and $2.1 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

On March 10, 2014, we entered into a lease agreement (the “Lease”) for 52,595 square feet of office space at 535 Mission Street in San Francisco. The term of the Lease is approximately 107 months and is scheduled to commence on November 1, 2014, or the date that the landlord substantially completes the construction of our new facility. On July 25, 2014 we entered into a lease amendment under which we will lease an additional 26,620 square feet of office space commencing in October 2015 under the same terms and conditions. Furthermore, we have options to lease up to an aggregate of approximately 40,000 square feet of additional office space under the Lease. Future minimum lease payments under the Lease will range from $182,000 per month to $347,000 per month.

As of September 30, 2014, our minimum payments under the noncancelable operating leases were as follows (in thousands):

 

Year Ending December 31:

   Operating Lease  

2014 (remaining three months)

   $ 1,643   

2015

     7,841   

2016

     8,577   

2017

     8,788   

2018

     9,033   

Thereafter

     37,246   
  

 

 

 

Total minimum lease payments

   $ 73,128   
  

 

 

 

Contingencies

Zillow Litigation

In September 2012, Zillow, Inc. (“Zillow”) filed a lawsuit against us alleging patent infringement of US patent 7,970,674 (the “764 Patent”). Zillow is seeking a permanent injunction against the alleged infringement, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees.

 

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We believe we have meritorious defenses and we intend to vigorously defend the claims against us. On September 11, 2013, we filed a petition for covered business method patent review with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). Also, on September 11, 2013, we filed a motion to stay pending the review. The district court granted our motion to stay on October 7, 2013, and this matter is now stayed. On March 10, 2014, the PTO granted our petition and instituted the covered business method patent review. Separately, on March 27, 2014, the PTO ruled in an inter partes review proceeding brought by a different company that the majority of the claims of the ‘764 Patent were invalid. On October 2, 2014, we reached an agreement with Zillow to terminate the covered business method patent under review by the PTO and the district court litigation during the pendency of our proposed acquisition by Zillow. If the acquisition does not close, we may reinstitute the covered business method review and Zillow may reinstitute the district court litigation.

From time to time, we are subject to legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business. We have received, and may in the future continue to receive, claims from third parties asserting, among other things, infringement of their intellectual property rights.

Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we believe the final outcome of the matters discussed above will not have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. We will, however, accrue for losses for any known contingent liabilities when future payment is probable and the amount is reasonably estimable.

Zillow Merger Litigation

Between August 7, 2014 and August 20, 2014, four plaintiffs filed purported class action lawsuits against us and our directors, Zillow and HoldCo in connection with the Zillow Merger. Three of those purported class actions were brought in the Delaware Court of Chancery, captioned Shue et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10020 (August 7, 2014), Sciabacucci et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10022 (August 8, 2014), and Steinberg et al. v. Trulia, Inc. et al., Case No. 10049 (August 20, 2014). The fourth of those purported class actions was brought in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Francisco, captioned Collier et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. CGC 14-540985 (August 7, 2014).

Each of the lawsuits alleges that our directors breached their fiduciary duties to Trulia stockholders, and that the other defendants aided and abetted such breaches, by seeking to sell Trulia through an allegedly unfair process and for an unfair price and on unfair terms. The Collier complaint filed in Delaware and the Sciabacucci complaint (as amended, as described below) also allege that our directors breached their fiduciary duties to Trulia stockholders, and that the other defendants aided and abetted such breaches, with respect to the contents of HoldCo’s registration statement on Form S-4. All lawsuits seek, among other things, equitable relief that would enjoin the consummation of the Zillow Merger and attorneys’ fees and costs. The Delaware actions also seek rescission of the Merger Agreement (to the extent it has already been implemented) or rescissory damages, and orders directing the individual defendants to account for alleged damages suffered by the plaintiff and the purported class as a result of the defendants’ alleged wrongdoing.

On September 23, 2014, the plaintiff in the Sciabacucci action filed an amended complaint, alleging substantially the same claims and seeking substantially the same relief as in the original complaint, and on September 24, 2014, the plaintiff filed (1) a motion for expedited proceedings, (2) a motion for a preliminary injunction, (3) a request for production of documents from defendants, and (4) notice of depositions. On October 7, 2014, the plaintiff in the Collier action filed a new complaint in Delaware Court of Chancery, captioned Collier et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10209 (October 7, 2014), alleging substantially the same claims and seeking substantially the same relief as the original complaint filed in California. On October 8, 2014, the plaintiff in the Collier action filed a request for dismissal of the California case without prejudice. On October 13, 2014, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an order consolidating all of the Delaware actions into one matter captioned In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, C.A. No. 10020-CB and appointed a lead counsel. On October 13 and 14, 2014, the above-referenced motions were refiled under the consolidated case number. The hearing on the preliminary injunction motion is set for December 3, 2014. We believe that the foregoing lawsuits are entirely without merit and intend to defend against the actions vigorously.

Indemnifications

In the ordinary course of business, we enter into contractual arrangements under which we agree to provide indemnification of varying scope and terms to business partners and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the breach of such agreements and out of intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. In these circumstances, payment may be conditional on the other party making a claim pursuant to the procedures specified in the particular contract. Further, our obligations under these agreements may be limited in terms of time and/or amount, and in some instances, we may have recourse against third parties for certain payments. In addition, we have indemnification agreements with certain of our directors and executive officers that require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors or officers. The terms of such obligations may vary. No such obligations existed as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013.

 

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8. Stockholders’ Equity

Common Stock

As of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, we had reserved shares of our common stock for issuance as follows:

 

    As of September 30, 
2014
    As of December 31,
2013
 

Stock options and awards issued and outstanding

    6,163,846        6,452,832   

Stock options and awards available for grant under 2012 Plan

    2,577,790        1,976,815   

Stock options and awards available for grant under the 2004 Plan

    246,124        82,784   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

    8,987,760        8,512,431   
 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

9. Compensation paid in stock

2005 Stock Plan

We granted options under our 2005 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2005 Plan”) until September 2012 when the 2005 Plan was terminated. Since the date of the plan termination, no more stock options or awards were issued under the plan; however, the stock options issued prior to the plan termination continue to be outstanding. Under the terms of the 2005 Plan, we had the ability to grant incentive (“ISO”) and nonstatutory (“NSO”) stock options, restricted stock awards (“RSA”), and restricted stock units (“RSU”). The options were granted at a price per share not less than 100% of the fair market value per share at the grant date. Options granted under the 2005 Plan generally vest at a rate of 25% after the first year and then at 1/36 of the remaining shares each month thereafter and expire 10 years from the grant date. Certain options vest monthly over two to four years.

2012 Equity Incentive Plan

Effective September 19, 2012, our board of directors adopted, and our stockholders approved, a 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2012 Plan”). The 2012 Plan provides for the grant of ISOs, NSOs, RSAs, RSUs, stock appreciation rights, performance units, and performance shares to our employees, directors, and consultants. Upon adoption of the 2012 Plan, a total of 2,370,000 shares of common stock were reserved for issuance plus up to 1,000,000 shares from the expiration or termination of awards under the 2005 Plan. The shares available are increased at the beginning of each fiscal year by the lesser of (i) 2,100,000 shares, (ii) 4% of outstanding common stock on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year, or (iii) such number determined by our board of directors. On January 1, 2014 and 2013 the shares available for grant under the 2012 Plan were automatically increased by 1,463,303 and 1,102,112 shares, respectively. On June 5, 2013, the stockholders approved a 2,000,000 share increase to the 2012 Plan. Under the 2012 Plan, both the ISOs and NSOs are granted at a price per share not less than 100% of the fair market value per share of the underlying stock at the grant date. The board of directors determines the vesting period for each option award on the grant date, and the options generally expire 10 years from the grant date or such shorter term as may be determined by the board of directors. The RSUs are granted for zero purchase price.

Market Leader 2004 Equity Incentive Plan

In connection with our acquisition of Market Leader and pursuant to the Market Leader Merger Agreement, we assumed Market Leader’s 2004 Equity Incentive Plan (“2004 Plan”), including all outstanding shares of restricted stock, all outstanding stock appreciation rights, all outstanding options, and all shares available for future issuance under the 2004 Plan, and all of such securities became issuable for shares of our common stock. We may make equity-based awards, to the extent permissible by applicable law and NYSE rules, under the terms of the 2004 Plan to issue the reserved but unissued shares under the 2004 Plan and the shares that would otherwise be returned to the 2004 Plan due to (i) awards that lapse, expire, terminate, or are canceled prior to the issuance of shares thereunder or (ii) shares of common stock that are issued under the 2004 Plan and thereafter are forfeited to or otherwise reacquired by us.

As of the date we assumed the 2004 Plan, a total of 283,522 shares of common stock were available for issuance. The shares available were increased on January 1, 2014 by 202,770 shares under the automatic annual increase provisions of the 2004 Plan.

We did not assume House Value’s 1999 Stock Incentive Plan (the “1999 Plan”). However, pursuant to the Market Leader Merger Agreement we have assumed all outstanding shares of restricted stock, all outstanding stock appreciation rights, and all outstanding options issued under the 1999 Plan. These equity awards will continue to be outstanding and will be governed by the provisions of the 1999 Plan.

 

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The total shares of common stock available for grant under our 2012 Plan and 2004 Plan were 2,823,914 and 2,059,599, respectively, as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013.

Equity Awards Activity

The equity awards activity under the 2005 Plan, 2012 Plan, 1999 Plan, and 2004 Plan presented below includes employee and non-employee awards. Non-employee awards and awards that are classified as a liability are remeasured at fair value at the end of each reporting period. Any changes in fair value as a result of this remeasurement are recorded as cumulative compensation cost.

Stock Option Activity

 

    Stock
Options
Outstanding
    Weighted
Average
Exercise Price
    Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Life (Years)
    Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
 
                      (In thousands)  

Balance—January 1, 2014

    3,088,449      $ 13.90        7.42      $ 68,131   

Granted

    337,798        38.72       

Canceled

    (264,508     29.77       

Exercised

    (763,731     12.74       
 

 

 

       

Balance—September 30, 2014

    2,398,008      $ 16.01        7.18      $ 79,073   
 

 

 

       

Options exercisable—September 30, 2014

    1,285,262      $ 9.22        6.21      $ 51,043   
 

 

 

       

Options vested and expected to vest—September 30, 2014

    2,273,745      $ 15.62        7.11      $ 76,067   
 

 

 

       

The options exercisable as of September 30, 2014 included options that were exercisable prior to vesting. None of the options were exercised that would result in a liability as of September 30, 2014. The weighted average grant date fair value of options granted was $24.84 and $19.70, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $17.23 and $14.96, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

Aggregate intrinsic value represents the difference between the estimated fair value of the underlying common stock and the exercise price of outstanding, in-the-money options. The aggregate intrinsic value of options exercised was $13.4 million and $18.3 million, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $24.5 million and $35.2 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

The total estimated grant date fair value of employee options vested was $2.0 million and $5.0 million, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $5.9 million and $4.1 million, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. As of September 30, 2014, the total unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested stock options granted to employees was $12.4 million, net of estimated forfeitures of $5.8 million. This cost will be amortized on a straight-line basis over a weighted average remaining vesting period of 2.3 years.

 

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Stock Appreciation Rights Activity

 

    Stock
Appreciation
Rights
Outstanding
    Weighted
Average
Exercise Price
    Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Life (Years)
    Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
 
                      (In thousands)  

Balance—January 1, 2014

    127,544      $ 11.83        3.08      $ 2,990   

Granted

    —         —        

Canceled

    (3,259     16.09      

Exercised

    (73,404     11.40       
 

 

 

       

Balance—September 30, 2014

    50,881      $ 12.18        2.36      $ 1,869   
 

 

 

       

Exercisable—September 30, 2014

    7,240      $ 11.44        2.30      $ 271   
 

 

 

       

Vested and expected to vest—September 30, 2014

    46,194      $ 12.16        2.36      $ 1,697   
 

 

 

       

We measure the fair value of our stock appreciation rights similar to stock options. Our stock appreciation rights typically vest on a graded basis over either a two or four year period and typically expire on the earlier of five years from the date of grant or ninety days following termination of employment.

The aggregate intrinsic value of stock appreciation rights exercised was $2.9 million and $3.2 million, respectively, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014. No stock appreciation rights were exercised in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013. The total estimated grant date fair value of employee stock appreciation rights vested was $980,000 and $280,000, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $1.8 million and $280,000, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. As of September 30, 2014 the total unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested stock appreciation rights was $1.3 million, net of estimated forfeitures of $195,000. This cost will be amortized on a straight-line basis over a weighted average remaining vesting period of 1.37 years.

Restricted Stock Units Activity

 

    RSUs
Outstanding
    Weighted
Average
Grant Date
Fair Value
    Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Life (Years)
    Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
 
                      (in thousands)  

Unvested—January 1, 2014

    1,660,589      $ 35.28        1.94      $ 58,569   

Granted

    1,538,372        44.16       

Canceled

    (241,975     27.68       

Released

    (432,029     32.31       
 

 

 

       

Unvested—September 30, 2014

    2,524,957      $ 38.37        2.42      $ 123,609   
 

 

 

       

Restricted stock units expected to vest—September 30, 2014

    1,934,635      $ 38.37        2.29      $ 94,604   
 

 

 

       

In the three months ended September 30, 2014 we granted restricted stock units to certain of our employees in connection with the Zillow Merger. These awards will vest on the earlier of: (i) immediately prior to the closing of the Merger; or (ii) 18 months. We recorded a $2.3 million stock-based compensation expense associated with these awards in the three months ended September 30, 2014.

As of September 30, 2014 the total unrecognized compensation cost related to the unvested RSUs granted to employees was $84.3 million, net of estimated forfeitures of $16.5 million. This cost will be amortized on a straight-line basis over a weighted average remaining vesting period of 2.42 years.

In May and August of 2013 we granted 2,105,000 stock unit awards in relation to the Market Leader acquisition, of which 1,576,250 were performance based awards (PSU) and 528,750 were time based awards. The performance based awards were contingent upon closing of the Market Leader acquisition referred to in Note 1 of these condensed consolidated financial statements, achievement of certain performance metrics, including comparative market-based returns, and the employees’ continued service relationship with us. The time based awards were contingent upon closing of the Market Leader acquisition and the employees’

 

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continued service relationship with us. On August 20, 2013 the first contingency was resolved when we closed the acquisition of Market Leader. Hence, the time-based awards were classified as restricted stock units and included in the RSU table above. The performance-based awards are summarized in the table below.

 

     PSUs
Outstanding
    Weighted
Average
Grant Date
Fair Value
     Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Life (Years)
     Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
 
                         (in thousands)  

Unvested—January 1, 2014

     1,576,250      $ 22.84         3.0       $ 55,594   

Granted

     —            

Canceled

     (386,250        

Released

     —            
  

 

 

         

Unvested—September 30, 2014

     1,190,000      $ 20.10         2.88       $ 58,191   
  

 

 

         

Restricted stock units expected to vest—September 30, 2014

     1,076,612      $ 20.10         2.88       $ 52,646   
  

 

 

         

We estimated the fair value of the performance based awards using a Monte Carlo simulation model.

As of September 30, 2014 the total unrecognized compensation cost related to the unvested performance based awards was $15.3 million, net of estimated forfeitures of $8.5 million. This cost will be amortized on a straight-line basis over a weighted average remaining vesting period of 2.88 years.

Summary of Assumptions

The fair value of employee stock options and stock appreciation rights was estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes options pricing model with the following weighted average assumptions:

 

     Three Months Ended September 30,     Nine Months Ended September 30,  
     2014     2013     2014     2013  

Expected term (in years)

     5.2        5.4        5.3        5.5   

Expected volatility

     48     52     48     52

Risk-free interest rate

     1.8     1.6     1.7     1.1

Dividend rate

     0     0     0     0

The fair value of the performance based awards with market based condition was estimated using the Monte Carlo simulation model with the following weighted average assumptions:

 

    As of May 29, 
2013
    As of August 29,
2013
 

Stock price

  $ 30.31      $ 41.67   

Simulation period

    2.93 years        2.68 years   

Risk free rate

    0.47     0.65

Volatility

    52.6     52.6

Dividend yield

    0     0

Cost of equity

    12.6     12.3

 

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Compensation Paid in Stock

We recorded compensation expense for the stock based awards granted to employees and other compensation paid in stock as follows (in thousands):

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014      2013      2014      2013  

Compensation paid in stock related to vesting of stock based awards:

           

Cost of revenue

   $ 1,129       $ 200       $ 1,749       $ 298   

Technology and development

     2,179         2,039         6,359         3,028   

Sales and marketing

     2,391         1,526         8,963         2,348   

General and administrative

     3,476         3,525         12,002         4,994   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total compensation paid in stock related to vesting of stock based awards

     9,175         7,290         29,073         10,668   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Other compensation paid in stock:

           

Restructuring cost

     —           —          82         —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total compensation paid in stock

   $ 9,175       $ 7,290       $ 29,155       $ 10,668   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

We capitalized compensation paid in stock in product development costs of $894,000 and $174,000, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $1.7 million and $407,000, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

 

10. Net Loss per Share Attributable to Common Stockholders

The following table sets forth the computation of our basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands, except share and per share data):

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
    Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013     2014     2013  

Net loss attributable to common stockholders

   $ (23,993   $ (2,220   $ (57,007   $ (6,612
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted average shares used in computing basic and diluted net loss per share

     37,540,527        34,557,842        37,112,195        31,734,356   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

   $ (0.64   $ (0.06   $ (1.54   $ (0.21
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

The following outstanding shares of common stock equivalents were excluded from the computation of the diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders for the periods presented because including them would have been antidilutive:

 

     Three and Nine
Months Ended September 30,
 
     2014      2013  

Stock options to purchase common stock

     2,398,008         3,500,220   

Restricted stock units

     3,714,957         3,226,248   

Stock appreciation rights

     50,881         159,713   

Heldback shares in connection with Movity acquisition

     —          30,524   

2020 Notes

     6,400,969         —    

 

11. Restructuring

In June 2014, as an ongoing effort to fully integrate Market Leader’s operations, we committed to a restructuring plan according to which we reduced headcount by 83 employees and incurred certain contract termination and other costs. We anticipate that we will substantially complete these restructuring activities by the end of the fourth quarter of 2014.

 

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A summary of total restructuring activities is shown in the table below (in thousands):

 

                                                                                           
    One-time
Termination
Benefits
    Contract
Termination
Costs
    Other
Associated
Costs
    Total  

Restructuring costs

  $ 598      $ 2,168      $ 877      $ 3,643   

Cash payments

    (329     —         (649     (978
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Balance as of June 30, 2014

    269        2,168        228        2,665   
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Restructuring costs

    565        614        45        1,224   

Cash payments

    (591     (6 )     (192 )     (789 )

Non-cash

    (82     —         —         (82

Change in estimate

    (25     —         (45 )     (70 )
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Balance as of September 30, 2014

  $ 136     $ 2,776     $ 36     $ 2,948  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

In the nine months ended September 30, 2014, we incurred $4.8 million in restructuring costs, of which $4.3 million was general and administrative in nature. The restructuring accruals, which totaled $3.0 million at September 30, 2014, are recorded as part of the accrued liabilities in our condensed consolidated balance sheet. These balances reflect estimated future cash outlays.

 

12. Income Taxes

We account for income taxes in accordance with authoritative guidance, which requires the use of the asset and liability method. Under this method, deferred income tax assets and liabilities are determined based upon the difference between the financial statements carrying amounts and the tax basis of assets and liabilities and are measured using the enacted tax rate expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which the differences are expected to be reversed.

As a result of the acquisition of Market Leader in August 2013, we recorded a tax benefit of $7.9 million as a discrete item in the three months ended September 30, 2013. This tax benefit resulted from a partial release of our valuation allowance immediately prior to the acquisition since the acquired deferred tax liabilities from Market Leader would provide a source of income for us to realize a portion of its deferred tax assets, for which a valuation allowance was no longer needed.

 

13. Self-Insurance

We are self-insured for a portion of our employees’ medical and dental coverage. The medical plan carries a stop-loss policy, which will protect from individual claims during the plan year exceeding $100,000 or when cumulative medical claims exceed 125% of expected claims for the plan year. We record estimates of the total costs of claims incurred as of the balance sheet date based on an analysis of historical data and independent estimates. Our liability for self-insured medical and dental claims is included in the accrued compensation and benefits balance in our condensed consolidated balance sheets and was $702,000 and $225,000, respectively, at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013.

 

14. Employee Benefit Plan

Effective April 1, 2014, we have a single defined contribution 401(k) retirement plan covering Trulia and Market Leader employees who have met certain eligibility requirements (the “Trulia 401(k) Plan”). Eligible employees may contribute pretax compensation up to a maximum amount allowable under the Internal Revenue Service limitations. Employee contributions and earnings thereon vest immediately.

We currently match up to 4% of employee contributions under the Trulia 401(k) Plan. Our expense related to the Trulia 401(k) Plan was $689,000 and $278,000, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013; and $1.9 million and $809,000, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.

* * * * * *

 

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Item 2.

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTS OF OPERATION

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our  financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Statements containing words such as “may,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “projections,” “business outlook,” “estimate,” or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Overview

Trulia is redefining the home search experience for consumers and changing the way that real estate professionals build their businesses. Our marketplace, delivered through the web and mobile applications, gives consumers powerful tools to research homes and neighborhoods and enables real estate professionals to efficiently market their listings and attract and manage new clients. We believe we deliver the best home search experience by combining our superior user interface with our comprehensive database of real estate properties, local insights, and user-generated content. We also offer a comprehensive suite of free and subscription products that provide real estate professionals with access to transaction-ready consumers and help them to grow and manage their online presence. We also generate media revenue from sales of display advertising on our websites and mobile applications.

Key elements of our marketplace are extensive consumer reach, an engaged base of real estate professionals, and a comprehensive database of real estate information and local insights. We also offer free and subscription-based products that provide comprehensive marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for real estate professionals. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, we had approximately 55 million monthly unique visitors. In addition, as of September 30, 2014, we had more than 520,000 active real estate professionals in our Trulia marketplace and 179,000 active real estate professionals using our Market Leader software and services. Approximately 78,000 of these real estate professionals were paying subscribers (assuming a 20% overlap between Trulia subscribers and Market Leader’s premium subscribers).

Our large, continually refreshed, and searchable database contains approximately 114 million properties, including 3.2 million homes for sale and rent. We supplement listings data with local information on schools, crime, commute time, neighborhood amenities, rental prices, and historical earthquake, flood and other natural disaster data to provide unique insights into each community. In addition, we harness rich, insightful user-generated content from our active community of contributors, including consumers, local enthusiasts, and real estate professionals. With 15.7 million unique user contributions, we believe we have the largest collection of user-generated content on homes, neighborhoods, and real estate professionals. We deliver this information on mobile devices through our iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, Android tablet, and Kindle Fire applications and also provide tailored mobile experiences, such as GPS-based search.

We offer our products free to consumers. We deliver hard to find insights on homes, neighborhoods, and real estate professionals in an intuitive and engaging way, helping consumers make more informed housing decisions. Our free products attract users to our marketplace and the quality of our products drives the growth of our audience and promotes deep engagement by our users. We believe this leads real estate professionals to convert to paying subscribers and brand advertisers to purchase our advertising products.

For real estate professionals, we offer a suite of free and subscription products to promote themselves and their listings online, manage and grow their businesses and to connect with consumers searching for homes. We generate revenue primarily from sales of subscription marketing products and our software-as-a-service customer relationship management products that we offer to real estate professionals. Our Trulia Pro and Trulia Premium Listings products allow real estate professionals to receive prominent placement of their listings in our search results. With our Trulia Local Ads and Trulia Mobile Ads products, real estate professionals can purchase local advertising on our Trulia website and mobile applications, respectively, by locale and by share of a given market. With our recently launched Trulia Seller Ads product, real estate professionals can generate leads from consumers interested in selling their homes. With our software-as-a-service products, real estate professionals can manage and cultivate clients and potential clients by automating daily tasks and efficiently marketing their services. We charge real estate professionals subscription fees for our software-as-a-service products. We also generate revenue through enterprise marketing agreements with real estate franchise networks. We provide a base level software-as-a-service product to all agents and/or brokerages in these franchise networks in exchange for certain minimum payments from the real estate franchise networks. We also generate revenue through the sale of premium software and marketing products to individual agents, teams and brokerage offices within these real estate franchise networks.

In addition, we generate revenue from display advertising we sell to leading advertisers engaged in promoting their brand to our attractive audience. Pricing for our display advertisements is based on advertisement size and position on our web page, and fees are primarily based on a Cost-Per-Thousand, Cost-Per-Click, or Cost-Per-Lead basis.

 

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To date, we have focused our efforts and investments on developing and delivering superior products and user experiences, attracting consumers and real estate professionals to our marketplace, selling our products and growing our revenue. We intend to continue to spend significantly on technology and engineering in order to further improve the experience of our users and offer the most comprehensive end-to-end marketing and customer relationship management solutions for real estate professionals.

We believe that the growth of our business and our future success are dependent upon many factors including our ability to increase our audience size and user engagement, grow the number of our paying subscribers, increase the value of our advertising and software-as-a-service products, achieve the anticipated benefits of the Market Leader acquisition, and successfully invest in our growth. While each of these areas presents significant opportunities for us, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to sustain the growth of our business and improve our operating results. We also expect that our efforts to maintain or increase consumer traffic and subscribers are likely to include, among other things, significant increases to our marketing spending and significant expenditures to increase the number of our engineering and product development personnel. In February 2014, we announced a national marketing campaign that is designed to attract serious home buyers and sellers to our marketplace.

Proposed Acquisition by Zillow, Inc.

On July 28, 2014, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger, or the Merger Agreement, with Zillow, Inc., or Zillow, and Zebra Holdco, Inc., or HoldCo, pursuant to which Zillow will acquire us. The Merger Agreement provides that both we and Zillow will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of HoldCo, which series of transactions we refer to as the Zillow Merger. The Merger Agreement has been approved by our board of directors and the board of directors of Zillow.

Upon completion of the Zillow Merger, (i) each outstanding share of our common stock will be converted into the right to receive 0.444 of a share of Class A common stock of HoldCo; (ii) each outstanding share of Class A common stock of Zillow will be converted into the right to receive one share of Class A common stock of HoldCo; and (iii) each outstanding share of Class B common stock of Zillow will be converted into the right to receive one share of Class B common stock of HoldCo. The Class A common stock of HoldCo will have one vote per share and the Class B common stock of HoldCo will have ten votes per share, similar to the current capital structure of Zillow.

The Zillow Merger is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the expiration of U.S. antitrust waiting periods and shareholder approval of both companies.

The Merger Agreement contains certain termination rights for both us and Zillow, including for the failure to consummate the Zillow Merger by January 28, 2016, the enactment, promulgation or issuance of any injunction, order or ruling which has become final and non-appealable and makes the consummation of the Zillow Merger illegal or otherwise prohibits their consummation, failure of either our stockholders or Zillow’s shareholders to approve the Merger Agreement, or breaches of representations, warranties or covenants by a party that result in the failure of certain conditions to closing being satisfied. In addition, we and Zillow have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement in the event that the other party’s board of directors recommends or accepts a “Competing Transaction Proposal” (as defined in the Merger Agreement). Prior to receipt of the approval of the Merger Agreement by our stockholders, we also have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement in connection with entering into a definitive agreement with respect to a superior proposal with a third party.

The Merger Agreement also provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement under certain circumstances involving a competing transaction proposal, we or Zillow may be required to pay the other party a termination fee of $69.8 million. Further, the Merger Agreement provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement by us or Zillow in the event that any necessary regulatory approval is not obtained, Zillow would be required to pay us a termination fee of $150 million. The Merger Agreement also provides that, upon termination of the Merger Agreement by us if Zillow is unable to obtain shareholder approval of the Merger Agreement, Zillow would be required to pay us a termination fee of $150 million.

Acquisition of Market Leader, Inc.

On August 20, 2013 we completed the acquisition of Market Leader, Inc., or Market Leader, for approximately $372.7 million, including 4,412,489 million shares of our common stock valued at $189.3 million, and $170.5 million in cash and assumed Market Leader equity awards valued at $26.7 million, $12.9 million of which was included in the purchase price and the remaining amount is subject to post-acquisition service requirement and will be expensed prospectively. Market Leader is a provider of software-as-a-service based customer relationship management software for the real estate sector. We acquired Market Leader to help accelerate our growth, including by expanding our product portfolio for real estate professionals and increasing our subscriber base.

 

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In June 2014, our board of directors approved a restructuring plan to accelerate the integration of our Market Leader operations with those of Trulia, to eliminate overlapping positions and streamline operations. We anticipate that this initiative will result in approximately $4 to $6 million of cost savings during the remainder of 2014. We implemented the restructuring initiative to shorten the time to market for our products and to drive further growth. See Note 11 elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for further details on this restructuring.

Convertible Senior Notes

On December 17, 2013 we issued $230.0 million aggregate principal amount of 2.75% Convertible Senior Notes due in 2020, or the 2020 Notes, which included a $30.0 million of principal amount issued pursuant to an option to purchase additional notes granted to the initial purchasers. The aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes is due on December 15, 2020. We received net proceeds of $222.4 million, after deducting offering expenses of $7.6 million payable by us. Interest began to accrue on December 17, 2013 and is payable semi-annually every June 15 and December 15, starting on June 15, 2014. We may not redeem the 2020 Notes prior to December 20, 2018. We may redeem the 2020 Notes, at our option, in whole or in part on or after December 20, 2018, if the last reported sale price per share of our common stock has been at least 130% of the conversion price then in effect for at least 20 trading days (whether or not consecutive) during any 30 consecutive trading day period. Holders of the notes may convert all or portion all or any portion of their notes, in multiples of $1,000 principal amount, at their option at any time prior to the close of business on the business day immediately preceding the maturity date. The notes are convertible at an initial conversion rate of 27.8303 shares of our common stock per $1,000 principal amount of notes, subject to adjustment in certain events. Upon completion of the Zillow Merger, the 2020 Notes will become obligations of HoldCo, and will become convertible for shares of HoldCo Class A common stock.

Key Business Metrics

To analyze our business performance, determine financial forecasts, and help develop long-term strategic plans, we review the key business metrics below.

 

    Monthly Unique Visitors. We count a unique visitor the first time a computer or mobile device with a unique IP address accesses trulia.com (including our Trulia blogs), any of our more than 148,292 agent websites powered by Market Leader, or our mobile websites and applications during a calendar month. If an individual accesses any of the websites or mobile applications using different IP addresses within a given month, the first access by each such IP address is counted as a separate unique visitor. If an individual accesses more than any one of our websites in a single month, the first access to each website is counted as a separate unique user since unique users are tracked separately for each domain. Our number of monthly unique visitors includes mobile monthly unique visitors. We calculate our monthly unique visitors based on the monthly average over the applicable period. The third quarter of 2013 was the first quarter in which we included our consumer facing blogs in our monthly unique visitor count, and starting in March 2014 of the first quarter of 2014 we began including all other blogs in our monthly unique visitor count. We view monthly unique visitors as a key indicator of the growth in our business and audience reach, the quality of our products, and the strength of our brand awareness. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, the total number of monthly unique visitors increased to 55 million from 40.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, a 36% increase. We attribute the growth in our monthly unique visitors principally to our marketing campaign efforts, the popularity of our mobile products, and the overall industry trend of more consumers using the web and mobile applications to research housing decisions.

 

    Mobile Monthly Unique Visitors. We count a unique mobile visitor the first time a mobile device with a unique IP address accesses trulia.com (including our Trulia blogs starting March 2014), any of our more than 148,292 agent websites powered by Market Leader, or our mobile websites and applications during a calendar month. We calculate our mobile monthly unique visitors based on the monthly average over the applicable period. These mobile monthly unique visitors are included in our monthly unique visitors metric. We view mobile monthly unique visitors as a key indicator of the growth in our business and audience reach, and believe that having more unique visitors using our mobile applications will drive faster growth in our revenue. We plan to expand our mobile products to support our rapidly growing mobile user base. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, the number of mobile monthly unique visitors increased to 29.9 million from 15.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, a 89% increase. We attribute this growth to our marketing campaign efforts, the overall adoption of smartphones and the growth of mobile applications and mobile web use by consumers. We also attribute the growth in our mobile monthly unique visitors to our increased efforts in developing a mobile website and mobile applications. Due to the significant growth rate of usage of our mobile products and solutions, our mobile monthly unique visitors has grown as a percentage of our monthly unique visitors over recent periods and we expect this trend to continue.

 

   

New Contributions to User-Generated Content. We define user-generated content as any content contributed by a user through trulia.com, or Trulia’s mobile websites or applications, such as Q&A discussions, blogs, blog comments, user votes, recommendations, and neighborhood ratings and reviews. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, new

 

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contributions to user-generated content increased by approximately 1.2 million contributions, and we now have over 15.7 million cumulative contributions on our marketplace. We expect new contributions to user-generated content to continue to grow as our monthly unique visitors and total subscribers grow and as we introduce new features to trulia.com and our Trulia mobile websites and applications. While the absolute number of new contributions to user-generated content may continue to grow period-over-period, the rate of growth has slowed and we expect that the rate of growth may continue to slow as the aggregate size of our user-generated content increases. We believe the slowing growth rate of new contributions to user-generated content is a function of the large historical number of new contributions to user-generated content on our marketplace, which makes achievement of increasing rates of growth more challenging. We continue to focus on promoting new contributions to user-generated content to increase the engagement of our users with our marketplace.

 

    Total Subscribers. We define a subscriber as a real estate professional with a paid subscription at the end of a period. This includes agents using our premium software-as-a-service product under a licensed purchased by their brokerage, and excludes subscribers to certain legacy Market Leader properties, such as activerain.com and SharperAgent. Total subscribers has been, and we expect will continue to be, a key driver of revenue growth. It is also an indicator of our market penetration, the value of our products, and the attractiveness of our consumer audience to real estate professionals. As of September 30, 2014, we had approximately 78,000 total subscribers, a 38% increase from approximately 56,000 total subscribers as of September 30, 2013, assuming a 20% overlap between Trulia and Market Leader. We attribute the growth in our total subscribers to our increasing sales and marketing efforts, principally from the growth of our inside sales team, as well as growth in monthly unique visitors. Although our total subscribers are growing period-over-period and we expect total subscribers to continue to grow, the rate of growth may slow as we increase efforts to sell more products to existing subscribers. In addition, subscribers often purchase subscriptions for limited periods as a result of seasonality, as part of their advertising campaigns, and other factors.

 

    Average Monthly Revenue per Subscriber. We calculate our average monthly revenue per subscriber by dividing the revenue generated from subscriptions of our lead generation products and our software as a service products in a period by the average number of subscribers in the period, divided again by the number of months in the period. Our average number of subscribers is calculated by taking the average of the beginning and ending number of subscribers for the period, and assumes a 20% overlap between Trulia and Market Leader. Our average monthly revenue per subscriber is a key indicator of our ability to monetize our marketplace and the performance of our software as a service subscription products for real estate professionals, and we monitor changes in this metric to measure the effectiveness of our monetization strategy. As our new and existing subscribers mature, we have been able to increase our average monthly revenue per subscriber by launching new products to sell to these customers, redesigning existing products to expand inventory in high demand zip codes, raising prices in certain geographic markets, and selling to existing subscribers the additional advertising inventory created by traffic growth to our marketplace. In addition, in geographic markets that show strong demand for our Trulia subscription products—those where inventory is sold out and wait lists to purchase our products exist—average monthly revenue per subscriber is higher than in markets with less demand for these products. While our average monthly revenue per subscriber has increased and may continue to increase in absolute dollars year-over-year, the rate of increase has slowed and we expect that the rate of increase may continue to slow. We believe that the slowing growth rate of our average monthly revenue per subscriber is the result of the consolidation of the historically lower Market Leader average monthly revenue per subscriber into this key business metric, our larger subscriber base and the resulting challenge associated with achieving higher growth rates and our efforts to introduce new, lower priced, entry level lead generation products to attract new subscribers. Despite this slowing growth rate, we believe we have significant opportunities to continue to increase average monthly revenue per subscriber by further penetrating markets and by offering new products to existing subscribers.

Our key business metrics are as follows:

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014      2013  

Monthly unique visitors (in thousands)

     55,044         40,556   

Mobile monthly unique visitors (in thousands)

     29,900         15,817   

New contributions to user-generated content (in thousands)

     1,229         1,169   

Total subscribers (at period end)

     77,914         56,468   

Average monthly revenue per subscriber ($)

     204         189   

 

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Components of Statements of Operations

Revenue

Our revenue is comprised of Marketplace revenue and Media revenue.

Marketplace Revenue. Marketplace revenue primarily consists of products and services sold to real estate professionals, including agents, brokers, agents of property managers, builders, and mortgage lenders on a fixed fee subscription, Cost Per Click (“CPC”), or Cost Per Lead (“CPL”) basis. We currently sell four sets of products to real estate professionals on a subscription basis. The first set of products, which includes Trulia Local Ads and Trulia Mobile Ads, enables real estate professionals to promote themselves on our search results pages and property details pages for a local market area. Real estate professionals purchase subscriptions to these products based upon their specified market share for a city or zip code, at a fixed monthly price, for periods ranging from one month to one year, with pricing depending on demand, location, and the percentage of market share purchased. Our second set of products allows real estate professionals to receive prominent placement of their listings in our search results. Real estate professionals sign up for new subscriptions to this product at a fixed monthly price for periods that generally range from 1 month to 24 months. Our third set of products includes Trulia Seller Ads that enables real estate professionals to generate leads from consumers interested in selling their homes. Our fourth set of products is our comprehensive premium software-as-a-service based marketing products typically sold to real estate professionals as a bundle of products under a fixed fee subscription. We also sell a base version of these products to strategic franchise networks for specified contractual amounts over a number of years and partner with them to drive adoption of our premium solution across their network.

Media Revenue. Media revenue primarily consists of display advertising sold on a Cost per Thousand (“CPM”), CPC, and CPL basis to advertisers promoting their brand on trulia.com, our mobile website, m.trulia.com and our partners websites (cumulatively “Trulia Websites”). Impressions are the number of times an advertisement is loaded on a web page and clicks are the number of times users click on an advertisement. Revenue is recognized in the periods the clicks or impressions are delivered. Pricing is primarily based on advertisement size and position on the Trulia Websites and fees are generally billed monthly. As our mobile web pages and mobile applications offer less space on which to display advertising, a shift in user traffic from our websites to mobile products could decrease our advertising inventory and negatively affect our Media revenue. Recently, we have experienced a shift in user traffic as our mobile monthly unique visitors continued to grow at a rapid pace and our monthly unique visitors have stayed relatively constant.

During the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, we recognized marketplace revenue and media revenue as follows:

 

     Three Months Ended September 30,  
     2014      2013  

Marketplace Revenue

   $ 55,875       $ 31,308   

Media Revenue

   $ 11,269       $ 8,975   

Cost and Operating Expenses

Cost of Revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of expenses related to operating our websites and mobile applications, including those associated with the operation of our data centers and customer websites, hosting fees, customer service related headcount expenses including salaries, bonuses, benefits and compensation paid in stock, cost to generate leads for customers, licensed content, multiple listing services fees, revenue sharing costs, credit card processing fees, third-party contractor fees, and allocated overhead.

Technology and Development. Technology and development expenses consist primarily of headcount related expenses including salaries, bonuses, benefits and compensation paid in stock, third-party contractor fees, and allocated overhead primarily associated with developing new technologies. Technology and development also includes amortization expenses related to capitalized costs from internal and external development activities for our marketplace.

Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of headcount-related expenses including salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits and compensation paid in stock for sales, customer service, marketing, and public relations employees; advertising expenses and third-party contractor fees. Sales and marketing expenses also include other sales expenses related to promotional and marketing activities, and allocated overhead.

General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of headcount related expenses including salaries, bonuses, and benefits and compensation paid in stock for executive, finance, accounting, legal, human resources, recruiting, and administrative support personnel. General and administrative expenses also include legal, accounting, and other third-party professional service fees, bad debt, and allocated overhead costs.

Interest Income. Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents.

 

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Interest Expense. Interest expense consists primarily of interest on our outstanding long-term debt and capital lease obligations. See Note 6 of our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for more information about our long-term debt.

Provision for Income Taxes. Our provision for income taxes has not been historically significant to our business as we have incurred operating losses to date.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP. Preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable. In many instances, we could have reasonably used different accounting estimates, and in other instances changes in the accounting estimates are reasonably likely to occur from period-to-period. Actual results could differ significantly from our estimates. To the extent that there are material differences between these estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013, which include estimates for revenue recognition, allowance for doubtful accounts, goodwill, impairment of long-lived assets, product development costs, compensation paid in stock, income taxes, accounting for business combination, useful lives and recoverability of the purchased intangible assets, contingencies, as well as estimates in the three months ended September 30, 2014 related to accounting for restructuring costs, are critical to understanding our historical and future performance, as these policies relate to the critical areas involving our judgments and estimates, and as such, the information included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and accompanying notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. There have been no material changes to the accounting policies described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013.

Restructuring Costs

The main components of our restructuring plan relate to workforce reduction and contract termination costs. Workforce reduction charges are accrued when it is probable that the employees are entitled to the severance payments and the amounts can be reasonably estimated. One-time involuntary termination benefits are accrued when the plan of termination has been communicated to employees and certain other criteria are met. Contract termination costs are recognized as a liability when a contract is terminated in accordance with its terms, or at the cease-use date. If the amounts and timing of cash flows from restructuring activities are significantly different from what we have estimated, the actual amount of restructuring and other related charges could be materially different than those we have recorded.

Advertising Expense

Advertising costs are expensed when incurred and are included in sales and marketing expenses in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. Barter transactions represent the exchange of online advertising for online advertising through placement of links. No revenue or expense for such barter transactions is recognized because the fair value of neither the advertising surrendered nor the advertising received is determinable.

 

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Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented in dollars and as a percentage of our total revenue:

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
    Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013     2014     2013  
     (In thousands)  

Statement of Operations Data:

        

Revenue

   $ 67,144      $ 40,283      $ 185,719      $ 93,998   

Cost and operating expenses: (1)

        

Cost of revenue (exclusive of amortization of product development costs) (2)

     12,025        6,069        32,996        13,694   

Technology and development

     14,865        10,058        41,931        21,484   

Sales and marketing

     38,867        20,189        109,516        45,785   

General and administrative

     11,606        9,826        37,162        20,568   

Acquisition costs

     10,832        4,060        10,832        6,065   

Restructuring costs

     1,154        —         4,797        —    
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost and operating expenses

     89,349        50,202        237,234        107,596   

Loss from operations

     (22,205     (9,919     (51,515     (13,598

Interest and other income

     109        33        400        112   

Interest expense

     (1,830     (203     (5,529     (655
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss before provision for income taxes

     (23,926     (10,089     (56,644     (14,141

(Provision) benefit for income taxes

     (67     7,869        (363     7,529   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss attributable to common stockholders

   $ (23,993   $ (2,220   $ (57,007   $ (6,612
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1) Compensation paid in stock was allocated as follows:

 

         Three Months Ended
September 30,
     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
         2014      2013      2014      2013  

Compensation paid in stock related to vesting of stock based awards:

           

Cost of revenue

   $ 1,129       $ 200       $ 1,749       $ 298   

Technology and development

     2,179         2,039         6,359         3,028   

Sales and marketing

     2,391         1,526         8,963         2,348   

General and administrative

     3,476         3,525         12,002         4,994   
    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total compensation paid in stock related to vesting of stock based awards

     9,175         7,290         29,073         10,668   
    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Other compensation paid in stock:

           

Restructuring cost

     —          —          82         —    
    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total compensation paid in stock

   $ 9,175       $ 7,290       $ 29,155       $ 10,668   
    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

(2)    

  Amortization of product development costs was included in technology and development as follows:    $ 1,817       $ 559       $ 6,263       $ 1,155   
    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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     Three Months Ended September 30,     Nine Months Ended September 30,  
     2014     2013     2014     2013  

Percentage of Revenue:**

        

Revenue

     100     100     100     100

Cost and operating expenses:

        

Cost of revenue

     18        15        18        14   

Technology and development

     22        25        23        23   

Sales and marketing

     58        50        59        49   

General and administrative

     17        24        20        22   

Acquisition costs

     16        10        6        6   

Restructuring costs

     2        —         3        —    
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost and operating expenses

     133        125        128        114   

Loss from operations

     (33     (25     (28     (14

Interest and other income

                       —     

Interest expense

     (3     (1     (3     (1
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss before provision for income taxes

     (36     (25     (30     (15

(Provision) benefit for income taxes

           20              8   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss attributable to common stockholders

     (36 )%      (6 )%      (31 )%      (7 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

* Less than 0.5% of revenue.
** Columns may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net loss adjusted to exclude interest income, interest expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, compensation paid in stock, and certain other infrequently occurring items that we do not believe are indicative of ongoing results (such as acquisition or restructuring related costs). Below, we have provided a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to our net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net loss or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Our Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other organizations because other organizations may not calculate Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner as we calculate the measure.

We include Adjusted EBITDA in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q because it is an important measure upon which our management assesses our operating performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA as a key performance measure because we believe it facilitates operating performance comparisons from period to period by excluding potential differences primarily caused by variations in capital structures, tax positions, the impact of depreciation and amortization expense on our fixed assets, and the impact of compensation paid in stock. Because Adjusted EBITDA facilitates internal comparisons of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis, we also use Adjusted EBITDA for business planning purposes, to incentivize and compensate our management personnel, and in evaluating acquisition opportunities. In addition, we believe Adjusted EBITDA and similar measures are widely used by investors, securities analysts, ratings agencies, and other parties in evaluating companies in our industry as a measure of financial performance and debt-service capabilities.

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

 

    Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our cash expenditures for capital equipment or other contractual commitments;

 

    Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect capital expenditure requirements for such replacements;

 

    Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

 

    Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our indebtedness; and

 

    Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA measures differently, which reduces their usefulness as a comparative measure.

 

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In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we will incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by these expenses or any unusual or non-recurring items. When evaluating our performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including our net loss and other GAAP results.

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to our net loss, the most comparable GAAP measure, for each of the periods indicated:

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
    Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013     2014     2013  
     (In thousands)  

Net loss attributable to common stockholders

   $ (23,993   $ (2,220   $ (57,007   $ (6,612

Non-GAAP adjustments:

        

Interest and other income

     (109     (33     (400     (112

Interest expense

     1,830        203        5,529        655   

Depreciation and amortization

     7,754        3,380        20,907        6,288   

Compensation paid in stock

     9,175        7,290        29,073        10,668   

Provision (benefit) for income taxes

     67        (7,869     363        (7,529

Acquisition related costs

     10,832        4,060        10,832        6,065   

Restructuring related costs

     1,154        —         4,797        —    
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 6,710      $ 4,811      $ 14,094      $ 9,423   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Comparison of the Three Months Ended September 30, 2014 and 2013

Revenue

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Revenue

   $ 67,144       $ 40,283         67

Revenue increased to $67.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $40.3 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $26.8 million, or 67%. Marketplace revenue and Media revenue represented 83% and 17%, respectively, of total revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2014, compared to 78% and 22%, respectively, of total revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2013. The increase in total revenue was primarily attributable to the growth in our subscriber base, an increase in the average revenue per subscriber, the growth in our monthly unique visitors, and increased sales of our Trulia Mobile Ads and Trulia Seller Ads subscription products.

During the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, we recognized Marketplace revenue and Media revenue as follows:

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Marketplace revenue

   $ 55,875       $ 31,308         78

Media revenue

     11,269         8,975         26
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

Total revenue

   $ 67,144       $ 40,283         67
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

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Marketplace revenue increased to $55.9 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $31.3 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $24.6 million, or 78%. This increase was primarily attributable to the growth in our subscriber base, the growth in sales of our subscription products for agents, Trulia Mobile Ads and Trulia Seller Ads, and an increase in the average revenue per subscriber.

Overall our subscriber base grew by 38% to approximately 78,000 subscribers as of September 30, 2014 from 56,468 subscribers as of September 30, 2013. However, we estimate that there was a 20% overlap of subscribers between Trulia and Market Leader for the three months ended September 30, 2014. Our subscription products for agents, Trulia Mobile Ads and Trulia Seller Ads, contributed to Marketplace revenue growth in the three months ended September 30, 2014. The average monthly revenue per subscriber increased from $189 in the three months ended September 30, 2013 to $204 in the three months ended September 30, 2014, largely due to increased sales of these products.

Media revenue increased to $11.3 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $9.0 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $2.3 million, or 26%. This increase is driven by the strong execution in our builder, credit, and display advertising areas, as well as continued rapid growth of our mobile monthly unique visitors, as our monthly unique visitors stayed relatively constant.

Cost of Revenue

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Cost of revenue

   $ 12,025       $ 6,069         98

Cost of revenue increased to $12.0 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $6.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $5.9 million, or 98%. The increase was primarily due to a $3.5 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 41% increase in headcount in the three months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2013. Also, $1.1 million of the increase was related to lead acquisition.

Technology and Development Expenses

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Technology and development

   $ 14,865       $ 10,058         48

Technology and development expenses increased to $14.9 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $10.1 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $4.8 million, or 48%. The increase was primarily due to a $3.1 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 15% increase in headcount in the three months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2013. Also, $632,000 of the increase was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, and $940,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger.

Sales and Marketing Expenses

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Sales and marketing

   $ 38,867       $ 20,189         93

Sales and marketing expenses increased to $38.9 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $20.2 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $18.7 million, or 93%. The increase was primarily due to an $8.5 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 13% increase in headcount in

 

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the three months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2013. Also, $8.2 million of the increase was related to our marketing and advertising activities, $860,000 was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, $320,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the performance-based awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Market Leader acquisition, and $730,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger.

General and Administrative Expenses

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

General and administrative

   $ 11,606       $ 9,826         18

General and administrative expenses increased to $11.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $9.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $1.8 million, or 18%. The increase was primarily due to a $2.1 million net increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, which reflects a 10% decrease in headcount in the three months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2013, as a result of our restructuring plan. Also, $588,000 was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, and $507,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger. This was offset by a $1.7 million decrease in the compensation paid in stock related to forfeitures of certain performance-based awards granted in connection with the Market Leader acquisition.

Acquisition Costs

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Acquisition costs

   $ 10,832      $ 4,060         167

In the three months ended September 30, 2014 we incurred $10.8 million of expenses in connection with the Zillow Merger described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q primarily related to legal and other professional fees, compared to $4.1 million of expenses incurred in connection with our acquisition of Market Leader in the three months ended September 30, 2013.

Restructuring Costs

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Restructuring costs

   $ 1,154       $ —          100 

In the three months ended September 30, 2014 we incurred $1.2 million of expenses in connection with the restructuring activities related to our ongoing integration of Market Leader, which is described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Interest Expense

 

     Three Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Interest expense

   $ 1,830       $ 203         802

 

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Interest expense increased to $1.8 million in the three months ended September 30, 2014 from $203,000 in the three months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $1.6 million, or 802%. The increase is primarily related to the 2020 Notes that we issued in December 2013, which accrue interest at 2.75% annually.

Comparison of the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2014 and 2013

Revenue

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Revenue

   $ 185,719       $ 93,998         98

Revenue increased to $185.7 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $94.0 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $91.7 million, or 98%. Marketplace revenue and Media revenue represented 83% and 17%, respectively, of total revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, compared to 76% and 24%, respectively, of total revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2013. The increase in total revenue was primarily attributable to the revenue from our acquisition of Market Leader in August 2013, the growth in our subscriber base, an increase in the average revenue per subscriber, the growth in our monthly unique visitors, and increased sales of our Trulia Mobile Ads, and Trulia Seller Ads subscription products.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, we recognized Marketplace revenue and Media revenue as follows:

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Marketplace revenue

   $ 154,821       $ 71,231         117

Media revenue

     30,898         22,767         36
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

Total revenue

   $ 185,719       $ 93,998         98
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

Marketplace revenue increased to $154.8 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $71.2 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $83.6 million, or 117%. This increase was primarily attributable to the revenue from our acquisition of Market Leader in August 2013, the growth in our subscriber base, the growth in sales of our subscription products for agents, Trulia Mobile Ads and Trulia Seller Ads, and an increase in the average revenue per subscriber.

Overall our subscriber base grew by 38% to approximately 78,000 subscribers as of September 30, 2014 from 56,468 subscribers as of September 30, 2013. However, we estimate that there was a 20% overlap of subscribers between Trulia and Market Leader for the nine months ended September 30, 2014. Our Trulia Mobile Ads and Trulia Seller Ads subscription products contributed to Marketplace revenue growth in the nine months ended September 30, 2014. The average monthly revenue per subscriber increased from $189 in the nine months ended September 30, 2013 to $205 in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, largely due to increased sales of these products.

Media revenue increased to $30.9 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $22.8 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $8.1 million, or 36%. This increase is driven by the strong executions in our builder, credit, and display advertising areas, as well as continued rapid growth of our mobile monthly unique visitors, as our monthly unique visitors stayed relatively constant.

Cost of Revenue

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Cost of revenue

   $ 32,996       $ 13,694         141

 

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Cost of revenue increased to $33.0 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $13.7 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $19.3 million, or 141%. The increase was primarily due to a $9.7 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 78% increase in headcount in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2013, partially as a result of the Market Leader acquisition. Also, $5.7 million of the increase was related to lead acquisition.

Technology and Development Expenses

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Technology and development

   $ 41,931       $ 21,484         95

Technology and development expenses increased to $41.9 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $21.5 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $20.4 million, or 95%. The increase was primarily due to a $14.2 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 62% increase in headcount in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2013, partially as a result of the Market Leader acquisition. Also, $2.9 million of the increase was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, $575,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the performance-based awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Market Leader acquisition, and $940,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger.

Sales and Marketing Expenses

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Sales and marketing

   $ 109,516       $ 45,785         139

Sales and marketing expenses increased to $109.5 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $45.8 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, an increase of $63.7 million, or 139%. The increase was primarily due to a $34.3 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including compensation paid in stock, largely as a result of a 64% increase in headcount in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2013, partially as a result of the Market Leader acquisition. Also, $21.8 million of the increase was related to our marketing and advertising activities, $4.1 million was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, $1.9 million was related to the compensation paid in stock for the performance-based awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Market Leader acquisition, and $730,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger.

General and Administrative Expenses

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

General and administrative

   $ 37,162       $ 20,568         81

General and administrative expenses increased to $37.2 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $20.6 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $16.6 million, or 81%. The increase was primarily due to a $10.2 million increase in labor and facilities related costs, including stock-based compensation, largely as a result of a 48% increase in headcount in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2013, partially as a result of the Market Leader acquisition. Also, $2.7 million of the increase was related to the amortization of the intangible assets acquired in the Market Leader transaction, $1.2 million was related to the compensation paid in stock for the performance-based awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Market Leader acquisition, and $507,000 was related to the compensation paid in stock for the equity awards granted to certain employees in connection with the Zillow Merger.

 

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Acquisition Costs

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013         
     (In thousands)         

Acquisition costs

   $ 10,832      $ 6,065         79

In the nine months ended September 30, 2014 we incurred $10.8 million of expenses in connection with the Zillow Merger described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q primarily related to legal and other professional fees, compared to the $6.1 million of expenses incurred in connection with our acquisition of Market Leader in the nine months ended September 30, 2013

Restructuring Costs

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Restructuring costs

   $ 4,797       $ —          100

In the nine months ended September 30, 2014 we incurred $4.8 million of expenses in connection with the restructuring activities related to our ongoing integration of Market Leader described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Interest Expense

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
     2013 to 2014
% Change
 
     2014      2013     
     (In thousands)         

Interest expense

   $ 5,529       $ 655         744

Interest expense increased to $5.5 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014 from $655,000 in the nine months ended September 30, 2013, an increase of $4.9 million, or 744%. The increase is primarily related to the 2020 Notes that we issued in December 2013, which accrue interest at 2.75% annually.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of September 30, 2014, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents totaling $212.1 million, which consisted of bank deposits and money market funds.

On December 17, 2013 we issued $230.0 million aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes, which included a $30.0 million of principal amount issued pursuant to an option to purchase additional notes granted to the initial purchasers. The aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes is due on December 15, 2020. We received net proceeds of $222.4 million after deducting offering expenses of $7.6 million.

On March 20, 2013, we completed our follow-on public offering pursuant to which we sold an aggregate of 3,500,000 shares of our common stock, at a public offering price of $29.75 per share, resulting in aggregate net proceeds to us of $98.1 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by us. On March 26, 2013, we sold an additional 525,000 shares of our common stock pursuant to the exercise by the underwriters of an option to purchase additional shares, at a public offering price of $29.75 per share, resulting in aggregate net proceeds to us of $14.8 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by us. In addition, another 3,117,311 shares were sold by certain selling stockholders, which included 406,606 shares sold pursuant to the exercise by the underwriters of an option to purchase additional shares. We did not receive any proceeds from sales by the selling stockholders.

 

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Prior to our follow-on public offering and our 2020 Notes offering, our operations were financed primarily by the net proceeds of $89.4 million from our initial public offering in September 2012 and $10.0 million in proceeds from the issuance of indebtedness from a credit facility. We repaid in full the outstanding balance of the credit facility in December 2013 with the net proceeds received from issuance of the 2020 Notes.

We have incurred cumulative losses of $121.9 million from our operations to date, and expect to incur additional losses in the future. We believe that our cash balances and the cash flows generated by operations will be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. However, our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our rate of revenue growth, the cash that may be used in connection with acquisitions or other investments, the expansion of our sales and marketing activities, and the timing and extent of our spending to support our technology and development efforts. To the extent that existing cash and cash equivalents, and cash from operations are insufficient to fund our future activities, we may need to raise additional funds through public or private equity or debt financing. Additional funds may not be available on terms favorable to us or at all.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:

 

     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
     2014     2013  
     (In thousands)  

Cash provided by (used in) operating activities

   $ 15,065      $ (5,759

Cash used in investing activities

   $ (34,827   $ (167,092

Cash provided by financing activities

   $ 6,279      $ 116,251   

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 was $15.1 million. The cash flows from our net loss were increased by our non-cash operating activities and net cash flows provided through changes in certain of our operating assets and liabilities. Specifically, we recognized non-cash charges of $20.9 million for depreciation and amortization of our property and equipment, $29.1 million for compensation paid in stock, and $2.9 million related to our restructuring activities. Also, we recognized changes in assets and liabilities which provided $18.4 million of cash from operating activities and $0.2 million of cash from restructuring activities. The primary drivers of the changes in our operating assets and liabilities were a $4.1 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets driven by the receipt of our tenant improvement allowance for our Bellevue lease; a $10.7 million increase in accrued liabilities primarily due to the overall growth in our business during the year; and a $4.9 million increase in deferred rent due to our receipt of tenant improvement allowance for our new office lease in San Francisco. Changes in our operating assets and liabilities were also affected by an increase in accounts receivable of $2.3 million due to timing of collections, and an increase in accrued compensation and benefits of $2.0 million due to the growth in headcount.

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Cash flows used in investing activities of $34.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 were primarily comprised of a $5.3 million increase in our restricted cash balance mainly related to our new office lease in San Francisco and a $29.5 million increase in purchases of property and equipment.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities

Cash flows provided by financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 of $6.3 million were primarily comprised of $9.8 million proceeds from the exercise of stock options by our employees that were partially offset by $3.5 million value of equity awards withheld for tax liability.

Contractual Obligations and Other Commitments

On March 10, 2014, we entered into a lease agreement (the “Lease”) for 52,595 square feet of office space at 535 Mission Street in San Francisco. The term of the Lease is approximately 107 months and is scheduled to commence on November 1, 2014, or the date that the landlord substantially completes the construction of our new facility. On July 25, 2014 we entered into a lease amendment under which we will lease an additional 26,620 square feet of office space commencing in October 2015 under the same terms and conditions. Furthermore, we have options to lease up to an aggregate of approximately 40,000 square feet of additional office space

 

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under the Lease. Future minimum lease payments under the Lease will range from $182,000 per month to $347,000 per month. Once we occupy this office space, it will become our new principal executive office and will replace 116 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. To secure our lease obligation we were required to enter into a secured letter of credit arrangement with a financial institution for the amount of $3.8 million. This deposit is classified as restricted cash in our balance sheet as of September 30, 2014.

On April 10, 2014, we entered into a lease agreement for 64,908 square feet of office space in the Denver metropolitan area. The term of the lease is approximately 90 calendar months and is scheduled to commence on May 1, 2014. The lease agreement calls for escalating rent payments over the 90 calendar months and allows for six full months of rent abatement. Future minimum lease payments range from $124,000 per month to $141,000 per month. In connection with this lease agreement we were required to enter into a secured letter of credit arrangement with a financial institution for the amount of $1.1 million to secure our lease obligation. This deposit is classified as restricted cash in our balance sheet as of September 30, 2014.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into any off-balance sheet arrangements and do not have any holdings in variable interest entities.

Segment Information

We have one business activity and operate in one reportable segment.

 

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

We are exposed to certain market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks primarily include interest rate sensitivities as follows:

Interest Rate Risk

We had cash and cash equivalents of $212.1 million as of September 30, 2014, which consisted of bank deposits and money market funds. Such interest-earning instruments carry a degree of interest rate risk. To date, fluctuations in interest income have not been significant. We also had the $230.0 million aggregate principal amount of the 2020 Notes outstanding as of September 30, 2014, due on December 15, 2020. The 2020 Notes carry a fixed interest rate of 2.75% per year.

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while maximizing income without significantly increasing risk. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes and have not used any derivative financial instruments to manage our interest rate risk exposure. Due to the short-term nature of our investments, we have not been exposed to, nor do we anticipate being exposed to, material risks due to changes in interest rates. The interest rate on our outstanding debt is fixed. A hypothetical 10% change in interest rates during any of the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our financial statements.

 

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2014. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2014, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.

 

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Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the quarter ended September 30, 2014 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II – OTHER INFORMATION

 

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we are subject to legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business. We have received, and may in the future continue to receive, claims from third parties asserting, among other things, infringement of their intellectual property rights.

Zillow Litigation

On September 12, 2012, Zillow filed a lawsuit against us in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging that we infringe on one U.S. patent held by it (the “’764 Patent”). The lawsuit alleges that one component of our Trulia Estimates feature infringes Zillow’s patent insofar as Trulia Estimates allows homeowners to claim their homes and provide additional information about the properties, which enables us to update the valuation estimates for such properties. We started offering our Trulia Estimates feature in 2011. Zillow is seeking a permanent injunction against the alleged infringement, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees. On September 11, 2013, we filed a petition for covered business method patent review with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). Also, on September 11, 2013, we filed a motion to stay pending the PTO’s review. The district court granted our motion to stay on October 7, 2013, and this matter is now stayed. On March 10, 2014, the PTO granted our petition and instituted the covered business method patent review. Separately, on March 27, 2014, the PTO ruled in an inter partes review proceeding brought by a different company that the majority of the claims of the ‘764 Patent were invalid. On October 2, 2014, we reached an agreement with Zillow to terminate the covered business method patent under review by the PTO and the district court litigation during the pendency of our proposed acquisition by Zillow. If the acquisition does not close, we may reinstitute the covered business method review and Zillow may reinstitute the district court litigation.

Current and future litigation may be necessary to defend ourselves, our partners and our customers by determining the scope, enforceability, and validity of third-party proprietary rights or to establish our proprietary rights. The results of any current or future litigation cannot be predicted with certainty, and regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors.

Zillow Merger Litigation

Between August 7, 2014 and August 20, 2014, four plaintiffs filed purported class action lawsuits against us and our directors, Zillow and HoldCo in connection with the Zillow Merger. Three of those purported class actions were brought in the Delaware Court of Chancery, captioned Shue et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10020 (August 7, 2014), Sciabacucci et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10022 (August 8, 2014), and Steinberg et al. v. Trulia, Inc. et al., Case No. 10049 (August 20, 2014). The fourth of those purported class actions was brought in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Francisco, captioned Collier et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. CGC 14-540985 (August 7, 2014).

Each of the lawsuits alleges that our directors breached their fiduciary duties to Trulia stockholders, and that the other defendants aided and abetted such breaches, by seeking to sell Trulia through an allegedly unfair process and for an unfair price and on unfair terms. The Collier complaint filed in Delaware and the Sciabacucci complaint (as amended, as described below) also allege that our directors breached their fiduciary duties to Trulia stockholders, and that the other defendants aided and abetted such breaches, with respect to the contents of HoldCo’s registration statement on Form S-4. All lawsuits seek, among other things, equitable relief that would enjoin the consummation of the Zillow Merger and attorneys’ fees and costs. The Delaware actions also seek rescission of the Merger Agreement (to the extent it has already been implemented) or rescissory damages, and orders directing the individual defendants to account for alleged damages suffered by the plaintiff and the purported class as a result of the defendants’ alleged wrongdoing. The defendants believe that the foregoing lawsuits are entirely without merit and intend to defend against the actions vigorously.

On September 23, 2014, the plaintiff in the Sciabacucci action filed an amended complaint, alleging substantially the same claims and seeking substantially the same relief as in the original complaint and on September 24, 2014, the plaintiff filed (1) a motion for expedited proceedings, (2) a motion for a preliminary injunction, (3) a request for production of documents from defendants, and (4) notice of depositions. On October 7, 2014, the plaintiff in the Collier action filed a new complaint in Delaware Court of Chancery, captioned Collier et al. v. Trulia, Inc., et al., Case No. 10209 (October 7, 2014), alleging substantially the same claims and seeking

 

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substantially the same relief as the original complaint filed in California. On October 8, 2014, the plaintiff in the Collier action filed a request for dismissal of the California case without prejudice. On October 13, 2014, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an order consolidating all of the Delaware actions into one matter captioned In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, C.A. No. 10020-CB and appointed a lead counsel. On October 13 and 14, 2014, the above-referenced motions were refiled under the consolidated case number. The hearing on the preliminary injunction motion is set for December 3, 2014.

 

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties including those described below. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, also may become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks or others not specified below materialize, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. In that case, the market price of our common stock could decline.

The Zillow Merger is subject to various closing conditions, including governmental approvals, and other uncertainties and there can be no assurances as to whether and when it may be completed.

On July 28, 2014, we entered into the Merger Agreement with Zillow and HoldCo, pursuant to which Zillow will acquire us. The Merger Agreement provides that both we and Zillow will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of HoldCo. The consummation of the Zillow Merger is subject to customary closing conditions and a number of the conditions are not within our control, and may prevent, delay or otherwise materially adversely affect the completion of the transaction. These conditions include, among other things, (i) the effectiveness of the registration statement on Form S-4 filed with the SEC with respect to the HoldCo Class A Common Stock to be issued pursuant to the Zillow Merger; (ii) the approval of the Merger Agreement by Trulia’s and Zillow’s respective stockholders and shareholders; (iii) the expiration or termination of the applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended; (iv) the approval of the listing on the NASDAQ Global Select Market of the shares of HoldCo Class A Common Stock to be issued in the Zillow Merger; and (v) the absence of any law, regulation or order that has the effect of making the Zillow Merger illegal or otherwise preventing the consummation of the Zillow Merger. It is also possible that a change, event, fact, effect or circumstance could occur that could lead to a material adverse effect to us, which may give Zillow the ability to not complete the Zillow Merger. We cannot predict with certainty whether and when any of the required closing conditions will be satisfied or if another uncertainty may arise.

If the Zillow Merger does not receive, or timely receive, the required U.S. regulatory approvals and clearance, or if another event occurs delaying or preventing the Zillow Merger, such delay or failure to complete the Zillow Merger may cause uncertainty or other negative consequences that may materially and adversely affect our sales, financial performance and operating results, and the price per share for our common stock and perceived acquisition value.

Additionally, if the Zillow Merger is not completed for any reason, to the extent that the current market price of our common stock reflects an increase resulting from a market assumption that the transaction will be completed, the market price of our common stock may decline by the value attributed to this assumption, or could decline even more. Furthermore, we will be required to pay certain costs relating to the Zillow Merger, whether or not it is completed, such as significant fees and expenses relating to legal, accounting and printing services. In addition, we could be subject to litigation related to any failure to complete the Zillow Merger. If it is not completed, these risks may materially and adversely affect our stock price, operating results and ongoing business.

If the Merger Agreement is terminated, we may, under certain circumstances, be obligated to pay a termination fee to Zillow and these costs could require us to use available cash that would have otherwise been available for general corporate purposes.

If the Merger Agreement is terminated, in certain circumstances, we would be required to pay Zillow a termination fee of $69.8 million. If the Merger Agreement is terminated, the termination fee we may be required to pay, if any, under the Merger Agreement may require us to use available cash that would have otherwise been available for general corporate purposes. For these and other reasons, a failed Zillow Merger could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results or financial condition, which in turn would materially and adversely affect our business or financial condition, the price per share of our common stock or our perceived acquisition value.

While the Zillow Merger is pending, we are subject to business uncertainties and contractual restrictions that could materially adversely affect our operations and the future of our business or result in a loss of employees.

The Merger Agreement includes restrictions on the conduct of our business prior to the completion of the Zillow Merger, generally requiring us to conduct our business in the ordinary course, consistent with past practice, and subjecting us to a variety of specified limitations absent Zillow’s prior written consent. We may find that these and other contractual arrangements in the Merger

 

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Agreement may delay or prevent us from or limit our ability to respond effectively to competitive pressures, industry developments and future business opportunities that may arise during such period, even if our management and board of directors think they may be advisable. The pendency of the Zillow Merger may also divert management’s attention and our resources from ongoing business and operations. Our employees, customers and advertisers may have uncertainties about the effects of the Zillow Merger. In connection with the pending Zillow Merger, it is possible that some customers, advertisers and other persons with whom we have a business relationship may delay or defer certain business decisions or might decide to seek to terminate, change or renegotiate their relationship with us as a result of the Zillow Merger. Similarly, current and prospective employees may experience uncertainty about their future roles with us following completion of the Zillow Merger, which may materially adversely affect our ability to attract and retain key employees. If any of these effects were to occur, it could materially and adversely impact our revenues, earnings and cash flows and other business results and financial condition, as well as the market price of our common stock and our perceived acquisition value, regardless of whether the Zillow Merger is completed. In addition, whether or not the Zillow Merger is completed, while it is pending we will continue to incur costs, fees, expenses and charges related to the proposed Zillow Merger, which may materially and adversely affect our business results and financial condition.

We are subject to certain purported class action lawsuits relating to the Zillow Merger, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

We and our directors, Zillow and HoldCo are subject to certain purported class action lawsuits relating to the Zillow Merger and additional lawsuits may be filed. While we intend to defend against the actions vigorously, the costs of the defense of such lawsuits and other effects of such litigation could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

We have a limited operating history in an evolving industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.

We have a limited operating history in an evolving industry that may not develop as expected. Assessing our business and future prospects is challenging in light of the risks and difficulties we may encounter. These risks and difficulties include our ability to:

 

    increase the number of consumers using our websites and mobile applications;

 

    continue to obtain home listing information, as well as information on schools, crime, commute times, neighborhood amenities, rental prices and historical earthquake and flood data;

 

    increase the number of real estate professionals subscribing to our products;

 

    increase the revenue from real estate professionals subscribing to our products;

 

    increase the revenue from advertisers on our websites;

 

    successfully develop and deploy new features and products;

 

    encourage and foster the growth of user-generated content;

 

    increase our brand awareness among consumers and real estate professionals;

 

    successfully compete with other companies that are currently in, or may in the future enter, the business of providing residential real estate information online and on mobile applications, as well as with companies that provide this information offline;

 

    successfully compete with existing and future providers of other forms of offline, online, and mobile advertising;

 

    successfully compete with existing and future providers of customer relationship management (CRM) tools and other solutions that help real estate professionals manage and grow their businesses;

 

    successfully navigate fluctuations in the real estate market;

 

    effectively manage the growth of our business;

 

    successfully expand our business into adjacent markets, such as rentals, mortgages, and home improvement;

 

    successfully integrate companies we may acquire or have acquired, including Market Leader; and

 

    successfully expand internationally.

 

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If the demand for residential real estate information online does not develop as we expect, or if we fail to address the needs of consumers, real estate professionals, or advertisers, our business will be harmed. We may not be able to successfully address these risks and difficulties, which could harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer.

We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

We have not been profitable on a quarterly or annual basis since we were founded, and as of September 30, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $121.9 million. We expect to make significant future investments in the development and expansion of our business which may not result in increased revenue or growth. In addition, as a public company, we have incurred and expect that we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. As a result of these increased expenditures, we must generate and sustain increased revenue to achieve and maintain future profitability. While our revenue has grown in recent periods, this growth may not be sustainable and we may not achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including slowing demand for our products, a decrease in the growth rate of our monthly unique visitors, increasing competition, weakness in the residential real estate market, our inability to effectively integrate acquired businesses, such as Market Leader, as well as other risks described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays, and other unknown factors. Accordingly, we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability and we may continue to incur significant losses in the future, and this could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

If real estate professionals do not continue to subscribe to our products, or we are unable to attract new subscribers, our business and operating results would be harmed.

We rely primarily on subscriptions purchased by real estate professionals to generate a substantial portion of our marketplace revenue. Marketplace revenue accounted for 83%, 79%, and 70% of our revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, and the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. We generally offer subscriptions for periods between three months to 12 months, with most real estate professionals preferring to subscribe for periods shorter than 12 months. Our ability to attract and retain real estate professionals as subscribers, and to generate subscription revenue, depends on a number of factors, including:

 

    our ability to attract transaction-ready consumers to our websites and mobile applications;

 

    the number of unique visitors using our websites and mobile applications;

 

    the quality of the leads that we provide to our subscribers;

 

    the number of leads that we provide to our subscribers;

 

    the rate of adoption of our software-as-a-service based products;

 

    the success of our marketing relationships with leading national real estate franchise networks;

 

    the success of our efforts to upsell customers from promotional offers to higher revenue services;

 

    the success of any increased marketing and product development efforts directed at attracting additional consumers and real estate professionals to our marketplace;

 

    the strength of the real estate market;

 

    the competition for real estate professionals’ marketing dollars; and

 

    the strength of our brand.

A key focus of our sales and marketing activities has been to further penetrate the large base of more than 2.8 million real estate professionals in the United States. As of September 30, 2014, we had more than 520,000 active real estate professionals in our Trulia marketplace and 179,000 active real estate professionals using our software and services. Approximately 78,000 of these real estate professionals were paying subscribers (assuming a 20% overlap between Trulia subscribers and Market Leader’s premium subscribers). We spend a considerable portion of our operating expenses on sales and marketing activities. Our sales and marketing expenses were our largest operating expenses in the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. Sales and marketing expenses reflect many of the costs that we incur in acquiring new subscribers and retaining existing subscribers, and we expect that sales and marketing expenses will continue to significantly increase in absolute dollars as we seek to grow the number of subscribers in our marketplace. If we are unable to increase the number of total subscribers in our marketplace, our revenue may not grow and our operating results could suffer.

Real estate professionals may not continue to subscribe with us if we do not deliver a strong return on their investment in subscriptions, and we may not be able to replace them with new subscribers. In addition, real estate professionals associated with our real estate franchise network partners may choose not to use our premium services if they are unable to convert leads we provide into

 

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closed sales, resulting in a loss of incremental revenue associated with our premium services. In addition, real estate professionals sometimes do not renew their subscriptions with us because of dissatisfaction with our products. This may occur for a number of reasons, including because we have made changes to our products or services, which we do periodically. If subscribers do not renew their subscriptions with us with the same or higher subscription fees, or at all, or if we are unable to attract new subscribers, our business and operating results would be harmed.

Further, although a majority of our revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013 was generated from subscriptions purchased by real estate professionals, we cannot be certain that subscribers will renew their subscriptions with us and that we will be able to achieve the same or higher amounts of subscription revenue in the future.

Our ability to increase the number of subscribers to our services also depends, to some degree, on whether we can increase the inventory of marketing products and services available for us to sell in different geographic markets. If we are unable to create additional inventory by offering new services or reconfiguring our existing services, we may not be able to grow the number of subscribers to our services quickly or at all. Even if we are able to offer new services or reconfigure our existing services, there can be no assurance that new subscribers will purchase them or existing subscribers will be satisfied with the changes we make. For instance, in March 2013 we initiated an inventory expansion program offering additional advertising slots on our real estate listing detail pages to feature more than one subscriber. While this allowed us to sell additional subscriptions in a given location, some existing subscribers were dissatisfied with the change and elected not to renew their subscriptions.

In addition, if we need to reduce our subscription fees due to competition, our business, operating results, financial condition, and prospects would suffer if we are unable to offset any reductions in our fees by increasing our number of consumers and advertisers, reducing our costs, or successfully developing and deploying new features on a timely basis.

If we are not able to optimize our pricing and increase our average revenue per subscriber, we may not be able to grow our revenue over time.

Our ability to grow revenue depends, in part, on our ability to optimize pricing and increase average monthly revenue per subscriber over time. Since launching our first subscription product in 2007, we have continued to expand our products and optimize pricing of our products. As we continue to optimize our pricing, real estate professionals may not accept these new prices, which may harm our business and growth prospects. In August 2013, we acquired Market Leader, which offers subscription-based real estate marketing software and lead generation products. Market Leader historically generated lower average revenue per subscriber than us. As a result, we may experience difficulty in increasing our average revenue per subscriber, which may impact our ability to grow revenue over time and may harm our business and growth prospects.

If advertisers reduce or end their advertising spending with us, or if we are unable to attract new advertisers, our business and operating results would be harmed.

Display advertising accounted for 17%, 21%, and 30% of our revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2014, and the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. Our advertisers can generally terminate their contracts with us at any time or on very short notice. Our ability to attract and retain advertisers, and to generate advertising revenue, depends on a number of factors, including:

 

    the number of consumers using our websites and mobile applications;

 

    our ability to continue to attract an audience that advertisers find attractive;

 

    the strength of our brand:

 

    our ability to compete effectively for advertising spending with other real estate marketplaces, offline companies, and online companies;

 

    how advertisers value our advertising network, which consists of our online properties and those of our publishing partners;

 

    the amount of spending on online advertising generally;

 

    our ability to deliver an attractive return on investment to advertisers; and

 

    shift by advertisers from direct to programmatic ad buying.

In addition, expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical, reflecting overall economic conditions and budgeting and buying patterns. Adverse macroeconomic conditions can also have a material impact on demand for advertising and cause our advertisers to reduce the amounts they spend on advertising, which could adversely affect our revenues and our business.

 

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We may not succeed in capturing more spending from advertisers if we are unable to demonstrate to advertisers the effectiveness of advertising in our marketplace as compared to alternatives, including traditional offline advertising media such as newspapers and magazines.

If advertisers reduce or terminate their advertising spending with us and we are unable to attract new advertisers, our revenue, business, operating results, and financial condition would be harmed. In our display advertising business, we also have a limited ability to replace the loss of revenue resulting from the loss of a customer during a particular quarter because of the significant time required to secure an alternative advertiser for such advertising inventory, run the alternative advertising campaign on our marketplace, and satisfy our revenue recognition criteria from such campaign. As a result, the loss of a customer during a quarter could result in our inability to replace the lost revenue from such customer within that quarter and, therefore, we will sometimes encounter variances in our Media revenue.

If we are unable to maintain or increase consumer traffic to our marketplace, our business and operating results would be harmed.

Our ability to generate revenue from our marketplace business and media business depends, in part, on our ability to attract consumers to our websites and mobile applications. If we fail to maintain or increase consumer traffic to our marketplace, our ability to acquire additional subscribers, deliver leads to existing subscribers, and sell advertising to third parties could be negatively affected. While we believe the number of consumers visiting our marketplace will continue to grow, our growth rate of monthly unique visitors has decreased on a year-over-year basis from 63% in the three months ended September 30, 2013 to 36% in the three months ended September 30, 2014. We expect that our efforts to maintain or increase consumer traffic are likely to include, among other things, significant increases to our marketing expenditures and significant expenditures to increase the number of our engineering and product development personnel. There can be no assurance that any increases in our expenses will be successful in generating additional consumer traffic. Even if we are able to attract additional consumers to our marketplace, an increase in our operating expenses could negatively impact our operating results if we are unable to generate more revenue through increased sales of subscriptions to our marketplace products and display advertising. Accordingly, if we are unable to increase consumer traffic to our marketplace, or if we are unable to generate enough additional revenue to offset any increase in expenses related to increasing consumer traffic to our marketplace, our business and operating results would be harmed.

Our recent revenue growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth, and we may not continue to grow at our recent pace, or at all.

From the year ended 2008 to the year ended December 31, 2013, our revenue grew from $8.1 million to $143.7 million, which represents a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 78%, and we had revenue of $185.7 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2014. In the future, our revenue may not grow as rapidly as it has over the past several years. We believe that our future revenue growth will depend, among other factors, on our ability to:

 

    acquire additional subscribers and sell additional products to existing subscribers;

 

    sell advertising to third parties;

 

    attract a growing number of users to our websites and mobile applications;

 

    increase our brand awareness;

 

    successfully develop and deploy new products for the residential real estate industry;

 

    maximize our sales personnel’s productivity;

 

    respond effectively to competitive threats;

 

    successfully expand our business into adjacent markets, such as rentals and mortgages;

 

    successfully integrate companies we may acquire or have acquired, including Market Leader; and

 

    successfully expand internationally.

We may not be successful in our efforts to do any of the foregoing, and any failure to be successful in these matters could materially and adversely affect our revenue growth.

You should not consider our past revenue growth to be indicative of our future growth.

 

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We may experience difficulties in integrating Market Leader’s business and realizing the expected benefits of the acquisition.

The success of the Market Leader acquisition will depend, in part, on our ability to realize the anticipated business opportunities and growth prospects from combining our businesses with those of Market Leader. We may never realize these business opportunities and growth prospects. Integrating operations is complex and requires significant efforts and expenditures. Our management might have its attention diverted while trying to integrate operations and corporate and administrative infrastructures. We might experience increased competition that limits our ability to expand our business, and we might fail to capitalize on expected business opportunities, including retaining current customers.

We closed the acquisition of Market Leader on August 20, 2013, and are in a period of accelerating our integration of Market Leader’s business and operations into our business and operations. The integration process could result in the loss of key employees, the disruption of each company’s ongoing businesses, tax costs or inefficiencies, or inconsistencies in standards, controls, information technology systems, procedures and policies, any of which could adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with clients, employees or other third parties or our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the Market Leader acquisition and could harm our financial performance.

If we are unable to successfully or timely integrate the operations of Market Leader’s business into our business, we may be unable to realize the revenue growth, synergies and other anticipated benefits resulting from the acquisition and our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

The actual timing, costs and benefits of the Market Leader restructuring plan may differ from those currently expected which may harm our operating results.

In June 2014, we committed to a restructuring plan to accelerate the integration of our Market Leader operations with those of Trulia, designed to eliminate overlapping positions and streamline operations. The restructuring plan is subject to various risks, which could result in the actual timing, costs and benefits of the plan differing from those currently anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, among others that: we may not be able to implement the planned restructuring in the timeframe currently planned; our costs related to such restructuring may be higher than currently estimated; and unanticipated disruptions to our operations may result in additional costs being incurred. As a result, our anticipated benefits may not be realized and may adversely impact our operating results.

Additionally, the restructuring plan may yield unintended consequences, such as attrition beyond our intended reduction in headcount and reduced employee morale, which may cause our employees who were not affected by the restructuring plan to seek alternate employment. In addition, as a result of the restructuring plan, we may face an increased risk of employment litigation. We cannot assure you that we will not undertake additional restructuring activities, that any of our efforts will be successful, or that we will be able to realize the cost savings and other anticipated benefits from our restructuring plan.

If we cannot obtain comprehensive and accurate real estate listing information on a timely basis or at all, our business will suffer.

Our offerings are based on receiving current and accurate real estate listing data. We depend on, and expect to continue to depend on, relationships with various third parties to provide this data to us, including real estate listing aggregators, multiple listing services, real estate brokerages, apartment management companies, and other third parties. Many of our agreements with our listing sources are short-term agreements that may be terminated with limited or no notice. If our relationship with one or more of these parties is disrupted, the quality of the experience we provide to users would suffer.

We currently depend on a listing aggregator to provide us with a substantial portion of the unique listings in our database. While these listings are available from their original sources, it would take substantial time and effort for us to aggregate these listings from all of the original sources. Therefore, if the agreement with our largest listing aggregator is terminated, we may not be able to fully replace the listings in a timely manner or on terms favorable to us, or at all, which would adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, as real estate brokers and multiple listing services typically control the distribution and use of listings, our business could suffer if real estate brokers or multiple listing services withheld listings from us or delayed the delivery of their listings to us. From time to time in the past, real estate brokers have refused to syndicate listings to us and multiple listing services have delayed the delivery of listings to us, and we cannot assure you this will not happen in the future. If real estate brokers or multiple listing services refuse to syndicate listings or delay such syndication to us, the quality of our products would suffer due to the decline of timely and accurate information, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

We rely on information from real estate multiple listing services provided by third parties that we do not control.

The websites we provide to our software-as-a-service based customers combine aerial maps and for sale home listings, including listings in most of the major metropolitan markets in the United States. In addition, in selected markets, including most of the major metropolitan markets in the United States, we provide customers with functionality that allows them to automatically email their

 

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prospective clients information about newly available homes that meet the prospective clients’ criteria. The for sale home listings information provided by our websites and the automated email functionality are supplied only in markets in which we, our broker customers, or the broker affiliated with our agent customers have a relationship with the local multiple listing service (MLS). Our agreements with MLSs to display property listings have short terms, or can be terminated by the MLSs, or, in some cases, the broker, with little notice. The success of our products depends in part on our continued ability to provide customers with MLS listings and data, as well as our ability to expand listings in markets in which it is not currently available. Our inability to obtain MLS listings and data will harm our business and operating results.

If use of our mobile products does not continue to grow or we are not able to successfully monetize them as we expect, our operating results could be harmed and our growth could be negatively affected.

Our future success depends in part on the continued growth in the use of our mobile products by our users and our ability to monetize them. During the nine months ended September 30, 2014, our mobile products accounted for 49% of our total traffic, which has grown significantly since we launched our first subscription product for mobile devices in May 2012. We currently monetize our mobile offerings through our Trulia Mobile Ads subscription product for real estate professionals and through our mobile websites, including our Trulia mobile website and more than 148,292 agent websites powered by Market Leader. We monetize our mobile applications principally through our Trulia Mobile Ads subscription product through which real estate professionals can purchase local advertising on our mobile applications and our Trulia mobile website by zip code and by share of a given market. We monetize our Trulia mobile website and Trulia mobile applications through the sale of display advertisements and we also provide our Trulia subscribers rotational placement in a local lead form that appears on certain pages of our Trulia mobile website and mobile applications. The use of mobile technology may not continue to grow at historical rates, and consumers may not continue to use mobile technology for real estate research. Further, mobile technology may not be accepted as a viable long-term platform for a number of reasons, including actual or perceived lack of security of information and possible disruptions of service or connectivity. In addition, traffic on our mobile applications may not continue to grow if we do not continue to innovate and introduce enhanced products on mobile platforms, or if users believe that our competitors offer superior mobile products. The growth of traffic on our mobile products may also slow or decline if our mobile applications are no longer compatible with operating systems such as iOS or Android, or the devices they support. Additionally, real estate professionals and advertisers may choose to devote less of their spending to target mobile users for a number of reasons, including a perceived lack of effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices. Although we have seen strong results in our mobile product monetization efforts with the launch of Trulia Mobile Ads in May 2012 and our product redesign in March 2013, we cannot assure you that we will continue to monetize our mobile products as effectively in the future. If use of our mobile products does not continue to grow, or if real estate professionals or advertisers decrease their spending on our mobile products, our business and operating results could be harmed.

If we do not continue to innovate and provide useful products, we may not remain competitive, and our business and financial performance could suffer.

Our success depends in part on our ability to continue to innovate. This is particularly true with respect to mobile applications, which are increasingly being used by our audience. Our competitors regularly enhance their offerings and create new offerings for consumers, real estate professionals, and others involved in the residential real estate industry. If we are unable to continue to offer innovative products or to keep pace with our competitors’ offerings, our business and operating results will suffer.

We rely on Internet search engines to drive traffic to our websites, and if we fail to appear high up in the search results, our traffic would decline and our business would be adversely affected.

We depend in part on Internet search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, to drive traffic to our websites. For example, when a user types a property address into a search engine, we rely on a high organic search ranking of our webpages in these search results to refer the user to our websites. However, our ability to maintain high organic search result rankings is not within our control. Our competitors’ search engine optimization, or SEO, efforts may result in their websites receiving a higher search result page ranking than ours, or Internet search engines could revise their methodologies in a way that would adversely affect our search result rankings. If Internet search engines modify their search algorithms in ways that are detrimental to us, or if our competitors’ SEO efforts are more successful than ours, overall growth in our user base could slow. Search engine providers could provide listings and other real estate information directly in search results or choose to align with our competitors. Our websites have experienced fluctuations in search result rankings in the past, and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future. Any reduction in the number of users directed to our websites through search engines could harm our business and operating results.

 

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We rely on assumptions and estimates to calculate certain of our key metrics, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

Our key metrics of monthly unique visitors and mobile monthly unique visitors are calculated using internal company data that has not been independently verified. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable calculations for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring such information. For example, our metrics may be affected by applications that automatically contact our servers to access our online properties with no user action involved, and this activity can cause our system to count the user associated with such a device as a unique visitor on the day such contact occurs. The calculations of monthly unique visitors and mobile monthly unique visitors presented in this report may be affected by this activity.

We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy. Our measures of monthly unique visitors and mobile monthly unique visitors may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly-titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. If real estate professionals, advertisers or investors do not perceive our user metrics to be accurate representations of our user base or user engagement, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our user metrics, our reputation may be harmed and real estate professionals and advertisers may be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to our products and services, which could negatively affect our business and operating results.

Our revenue and operating results could vary significantly from period to period, which could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

We generate revenue through sales of subscriptions to real estate professionals and sales of display advertising to advertisers. Our subscription and advertising sales can be difficult to predict and may result in fluctuations in our revenue from period to period. Our revenue and operating results have fluctuated in the past, and may continue to fluctuate in the future, as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our revenue and operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on past results as an indication of future performance.

Our revenue, operating results, or both, may be affected by a number of factors, including:

 

    our subscription and advertising sales, particularly large advertising campaigns;

 

    fluctuations in user activity on our websites and mobile applications, including as a result of seasonal variations;

 

    competition and the impact of offerings and pricing policies of our competitors;

 

    competing effectively for advertising dollars with other online media companies;

 

    offering an attractive return on investment to our advertisers for their advertising spending with us;

 

    the effects of changes in search engine placement and prominence of our websites;

 

    the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations, and infrastructure;

 

    our ability to control costs, particularly those of third-party data providers;

 

    our ability to reduce costs in a given period to compensate for unexpected shortfalls in revenue;

 

    the timing of costs related to the development or acquisition of technologies or businesses;

 

    our inability to complete or integrate efficiently any acquisitions that we may undertake;

 

    our ability to collect amounts owed to us from advertisers;

 

    changes in our tax rates or exposure to additional tax liabilities;

 

    claims of intellectual property infringement against us and any resulting temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from selling our products or requirements to pay damages or expenses associated with any of those claims;

 

    our ability to successfully expand in existing markets and enter new markets;

 

    our ability to keep pace with changes in technology;

 

    changes in government regulation affecting our business;

 

    the effectiveness of our internal controls;

 

    conditions in the real estate market; and

 

    general economic conditions.

 

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For example, individuals hired to join our sales team typically do not reach their maximum productivity until they have been employed for several months or more. Our fixed expenses related to the addition of personnel may not result in an increase in revenue in a given period or at all.

As a result of the foregoing factors and others discussed in this “Risk Factors” section, our operating results in one or more future periods may fail to meet or exceed our projections or the expectations of securities analysts or investors. In that event, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline.

Seasonality may cause fluctuations in our traffic, revenue, operating expenses and operating results.

From time to time, we experience seasonality in subscription revenue and display advertising due to fluctuations in traffic to our websites and mobile applications. During the fourth quarter of each year, traffic to our marketplace has historically declined and our revenue has historically grown more slowly than in other quarters or has declined sequentially. For example, we experienced a decrease in the number of unique visitors to our marketplace in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to the third quarter of 2013, due in part to seasonality. Conversely, we typically experience higher growth in traffic and revenue during the spring and summer months, when consumers are more likely to buy new homes. We expect that seasonality will continue to affect traffic in our marketplace, as well as our revenue from subscriptions and advertising.

We rely on advertising to attract consumers to our websites and to generate traffic and leads on these websites. As a result, we are subject to seasonal fluctuations in advertising rates and marketing services. Changing consumer behavior at various times throughout the year affects our advertising expenses. We expect that seasonal fluctuations in advertising costs will affect our operating expenses, as well as our operating margins.

Declines in, or changes to, the real estate industry could adversely affect our business and financial performance.

Our business and financial performance are affected by the health of, and changes to, the residential real estate industry. Although we have built and grown our business during a worldwide economic downturn, home-buying patterns are sensitive to economic conditions and tend to decline or grow more slowly during these periods. A decrease in home purchases could lead to reductions in user traffic, reductions in subscriptions by real estate professionals, and a decline in marketing spend by real estate professionals. Furthermore, online advertising products may be viewed by some existing and potential advertisers on our websites and mobile applications as a lower priority, which could cause advertisers to reduce the amounts they spend on advertising, terminate their use of our products, or default on their payment obligations to us. In addition, we may become subject to rules and regulations in the real estate industry that may restrict or complicate our ability to deliver our products. These changes would harm our business and operating results.

Most recently, beginning in 2008, domestic and global economic conditions deteriorated rapidly, resulting in a dramatic slowdown in the housing market, which slowed advertising spending in the real estate industry. In addition, changes to the regulation of the real estate industry and related areas, including mortgage lending and the deductibility of home mortgage interest, may negatively affect the prevalence of home purchases. Real estate markets also may be negatively impacted by a significant natural disaster, such as earthquake, fire, flood, or other disruption. Declines or disruptions in the real estate market or increases in mortgage interest rates could reduce demand for our products and could harm our business and operating results.

We participate in a highly competitive market, and pressure from existing and new companies may adversely affect our business and operating results.

The market to provide home listings and marketing services for the residential real estate industry is highly competitive and fragmented. Homes are not typically marketed exclusively through any single channel. Consumers can access home listings and related data through more than one source. Accordingly, current and potential competitors could aggregate a set of listings similar to ours. We compete with online real estate marketplaces, such as Zillow.com, and Realtor.com, other real estate websites, and traditional offline media. We compete to attract consumers primarily on the basis of the number and quality of listings; user experience; the breadth, depth, and relevance of insights and other content on homes, neighborhoods, and professionals; brand and reputation; and the quality of mobile products. We expect that our marketing and product development expenses are likely to significantly increase as we continue to seek to attract additional consumers and real estate professionals to our marketplace. For example, we recently announced a national marketing campaign that is designed to attract serious home buyers and sellers to our marketplace.

We compete to attract real estate professionals primarily on the basis of the quality of our websites and mobile products, the size and attractiveness of the consumer audience, the quality and measurability of the leads we generate, the perceived return on investment we deliver, and the effectiveness of marketing and workflow tools. We also compete for advertisers against other media, including print media, television and radio, social networks, search engines, other websites, and email marketing. We compete primarily on the basis of the size and attractiveness of the audience; pricing; and the ability to target desired audiences.

 

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Many of our existing and potential competitors have substantial competitive advantages, such as:

 

    greater scale;

 

    stronger brands and greater name recognition;

 

    longer operating histories;

 

    more financial, research and development, sales and marketing, and other resources;

 

    more extensive relationships with participants in the residential real estate industry, such as brokers, agents, and advertisers;

 

    strong relationships with third-party data providers, such as multiple listing services and listing aggregators;

 

    access to larger user bases; and

 

    larger intellectual property portfolios.

The success of our competitors could result in fewer users visiting our websites and mobile applications, the loss of subscribers and advertisers, price reductions for our subscriptions and display advertising, weaker operating results, and loss of market share. Our competitors also may be able to provide users with products that are different from or superior to those we can provide, or to provide users with a broader range of products and prices.

We expect increased competition if our market continues to expand. In addition, current or potential competitors may be acquired by third parties with greater resources than ours, which would further strengthen these current or potential competitors and enable them to compete more vigorously or broadly with us. If we are not able to compete effectively, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected. Any increased marketing spending by one of our primary competitors could cause us to incur additional expenses, could reduce consumer traffic to, and subscribers of, our marketplace, or could harm our operating results.

If our users do not continue to contribute content or their contributions are not valuable to other users, our marketplace would be less attractive, which could negatively affect our unique visitor traffic and revenue.

Our success depends on our ability to provide consumers with the information they seek, which in turn depends in part on the content contributed by our users. We believe that one of our primary competitive advantages is the quality and quantity of the user-generated content in our marketplace, and that information is one of the main reasons consumers use our platform. If we are unable to provide consumers with the information they seek because our users do not contribute content, or because the content that they contribute is not helpful and reliable, the number of consumers visiting our websites and using our mobile applications may decline. If we experience a decline in consumers visiting our websites and using our mobile applications, real estate professionals and advertisers may not view our marketplace as attractive for their marketing expenditures, and may reduce their spending with us. Any decline in visits to our websites and usage of our mobile applications by consumers and any decline in spending by real estate professionals and advertisers with us would harm our business and operating results.

In addition, we monitor new contributions to user-generated content because we believe this metric is a key indicator of our user engagement and the strength of our community. In the event that the number of new contributions to user-generated content declines, this metric may provide a leading indicator of the health of our business. However, if the quantity of new contributions to user-generated content continues to increase but the quality of user-generated content declines, this metric would not capture any corresponding declines in user engagement or the strength of our community as evidenced by the lower quality of user-generated content, and such data would be of limited use in those circumstances.

Our growth depends in part on our relationship with third parties to provide us with local information.

Third parties provide us with information that we use to provide users with insights that go beyond listings, such as information about schools, crime, and neighborhood amenities. Property descriptions and sale transactions obtained via third-party data providers also inform the valuations provided by our Trulia Estimates feature. If these third-party data providers terminate their relationships with us, the information that we provide to users may be limited or the quality of the information may suffer. If we are unable to renew our agreements with these data providers on favorable terms to us or to secure alternative sources for this information, our costs may increase and our business may be harmed.

 

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If we do not display accurate and complete information on a timely basis, our user traffic may decline, our reputation would suffer, and our business and operating results would be harmed.

We receive listing and other information provided by listing aggregators and other third parties that we include on our websites and mobile applications. Our reputation with consumers depends on the accuracy and completeness of the information that we provide, although the accuracy and completeness of this data is often outside of our control. We cannot independently verify the accuracy or completeness of all of the information provided to us by third parties. If third parties provide us with inaccurate or incomplete information that we then display on our websites and mobile applications, consumers may become dissatisfied with our products, our traffic may decrease, and our reputation may suffer. Real estate professionals also expect listings data and other information to be accurate and complete, and to the extent our information is incorrect or incomplete, our reputation and business relationships may suffer.

In addition, we update the listing information that we provide on our websites and mobile applications on a daily basis. To the extent that we are no longer able to update information in our marketplace on a timely basis, or if consumers begin to expect updates in a more timely manner, we may be forced to make investments which allow us to update information with higher frequency. There can be no assurance that we will be able to provide information at a pace necessary to satisfy consumers in a cost-effective manner, or at all.

Growth of our business will depend on a strong brand, and any failure to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to retain or expand our base of users, or our ability to increase their level of engagement.

We believe that a strong brand is necessary to continue to attract and retain consumers and, in turn, the real estate professionals and others who choose to advertise on our websites and mobile applications. We need to maintain, protect, and enhance the “Trulia” and “Market Leader” brands in order to expand our base of users and increase their engagement with our websites and mobile applications. This will depend in part on our ability to continue to provide high-value, differentiated products, and we may not be able to do so effectively. This will also depend on our ability to successfully execute a broader marketing campaign to further promote our brand. In February 2014, we announced a national marketing campaign that is designed to attract serious home buyers and sellers to our marketplace. If this campaign is not successful, our business could suffer. Furthermore, negative publicity about our company, including our content, technology, sales practices, personnel, or customer service could diminish confidence in and the use of our products, which could harm our operating results. If we are unable to maintain or enhance user and advertiser awareness of our brand cost effectively, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be harmed. In addition, our trulia.com and activerain.com websites serve as a forum for expression by our users, and if some of our users contribute inappropriate content and offend other users, our reputation could be harmed.

Our Market Leader brand could be harmed if customers do not provide quality service to prospective home buyers and sellers.

We rely on real estate professionals who are our customers of our Market Leader marketing services products to promote our Market Leader brand by providing high-quality service to prospective home buyers and sellers. We have little control over the activities of customers. If customers do not provide prospective home buyers and sellers with high-quality service, or if they use the functionality of our systems to send unwanted email to prospective home buyers or sellers, our brand value and our ability to generate leads may diminish.

We rely on a small number of advertising partners for a substantial portion of our Media revenue, and we are subject to risks as a result of this advertiser concentration.

In the nine months ended September 30, 2014, and the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, our ten largest advertising partners accounted for more than 60%, 65%, and 63% of our Media revenue, respectively. One of our growth strategies is to increase the amount large advertisers spend in our marketplace, and we expect this revenue concentration to continue. If one or more of these large advertisers were to decrease or discontinue advertising with us, our business and operating results will be adversely affected.

Our operating results may be adversely affected by a failure to collect amounts owed to us by advertisers.

We often run display advertisements in our marketplace prior to receiving payment from an advertiser, which makes us subject to credit risks. In the past, certain advertisers have been unable to pay us due to bankruptcy or other reasons, and we cannot assure you that we will not experience collection issues in the future. If we have difficulty collecting amounts owed to us by advertisers, or fail to collect these amounts at all, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.

 

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Current and future acquisitions and investments could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders, and harm our financial condition and operating results.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to expand our products and markets, and grow our business in response to changing technologies, user, and advertiser demands, and competitive pressures. In some circumstances, we may determine to do so through the acquisition of complementary businesses and technologies rather than through internal development, including, for example, our acquisition of Movity, Inc., a data visualization company, and our acquisition of Market Leader, Inc., a provider of software-as-a-service based customer relationship management software for the real estate sector. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and we may not be able to successfully complete identified acquisitions. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions include:

 

    diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to addressing acquisition integration challenges;

 

    coordination of research and development and sales and marketing functions;

 

    transition of the acquired company’s users to our websites and mobile applications;

 

    retention of employees from the acquired company;

 

    cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into our organization;

 

    failure to successfully continue the development of acquired technologies;

 

    integration of the acquired company’s accounting, management information, human resources, and other administrative systems;

 

    the need to implement or improve controls, procedures, and policies at a business that prior to the acquisition may have lacked effective controls, procedures, and policies;

 

    liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including patent and trademark infringement claims, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities, and other known and unknown liabilities;

 

    litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, users, former stockholders, or other third parties;

 

    substantial impairments to goodwill or intangible assets in the event that an acquisition proves to be less valuable than the price we paid for it; and

 

    the possibility that any acquisition may be viewed negatively by our customers or investors or the financial markets.

Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments, cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities, amortization expenses, impairment of goodwill, and restructuring charges, any of which could harm our financial condition and operating results. Also, the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions may not materialize.

Competition within our industry for acquisitions of businesses, technologies, assets and product lines has been, and is likely to continue to be, intense. As such, even if we are able to identify an acquisition that we would like to consummate, we may not be able to complete the acquisition on commercially reasonable terms or because the target chooses to be acquired by another company. Furthermore, in the event that we are able to identify and consummate any future acquisitions, we may, in each of those acquisitions:

 

    issue equity securities which would dilute current stockholders’ percentage ownership;

 

    incur substantial debt to finance the acquisition or assume substantial debt in the acquisition;

 

    incur significant acquisition-related expenses;

 

    assume substantial liabilities, contingent or otherwise; or

 

    expend significant cash.

These financing activities or expenditures could harm our operating results, cash flows and financial condition or the price of our common stock. Alternatively, due to difficulties in the capital or credit markets, we may be unable to secure capital on reasonable terms, or at all, necessary to complete an acquisition.

We depend on our talented personnel to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain, manage, and motivate our personnel, or if our new personnel do not perform as we anticipate, we may not be able to grow effectively.

Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, and retain talented personnel. We may not be able to retain the services of any of our employees or other members of senior management in the future. We do not have employment agreements other than offer letters with any key employee, and we do not maintain key person life insurance for any employee. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our senior management team fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies, our business could be harmed.

 

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Our growth strategy also depends on our ability to expand our organization by hiring high-quality personnel. Identifying, recruiting, training, integrating, managing, and motivating talented individuals will require significant time, expense, and attention. Competition for talent is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters is located. If we are not able to effectively recruit and retain our talent, our business and our ability to achieve our strategic objectives would be harmed.

Growth may place significant demands on our management and our infrastructure.

We have experienced substantial growth in our business that has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. As our operations grow in size, scope, and complexity, we will need to improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure. The expansion of our systems and infrastructure will require us to commit substantial financial, operational, and technical resources in advance of an increase in the volume of business, with no assurance that the volume of business will increase. Continued growth could also strain our ability to maintain reliable service levels for our users and advertisers, develop and improve our operational, financial, and management controls, enhance our reporting systems and procedures, and recruit, train, and retain highly skilled personnel.

Our products are accessed by a large number of users, often at the same time. If the use of our marketplace continues to expand, we may not be able to scale our technology to accommodate increased capacity requirements, which may result in interruptions or delays in service. The failure of our systems and operations to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruptions or delays in service or impede our ability to scale our operations.

Our employee growth will also require significant financial and management resources. For example, we recently entered into a lease for new headquarters in San Francisco, as our existing lease expires in October 2014 and we needed additional headquarters office space to accommodate our growth. As lease rates in the San Francisco commercial real estate market have increased significantly in recent years, we will incur significantly higher facilities expenses for the new larger facility for our headquarters.

Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be harmed.

A significant disruption in service on our websites or of our mobile applications could damage our reputation and result in a loss of users of our products and of advertisers, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our brand, reputation, and ability to attract users and advertisers depend on the reliable performance of our network infrastructure, software platform and content delivery. We may experience significant interruptions with our systems in the future. Interruptions in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, or physical or electronic break-ins, could affect the security or availability of our products on our websites and mobile applications, and prevent or inhibit the ability of users to access our products. Problems with the reliability or security of our systems could harm our reputation, result in a loss of users of our products and of advertisers, and result in additional costs.

Substantially all of the communications, network, and computer hardware used to operate our trulia.com website and mobile applications are located at a single colocation facility in Santa Clara, California. Our software as a service operations depend on our ability to maintain and protect our computer systems, located in Bellevue, Washington and at other co-location facilities in Kent, Washington and other locations operated by third parties. While we have made investments to back up our system in the event of a disruption involving these facilities, our systems are not fully redundant. In addition, we do not own or control the operation of these facilities. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorist attacks, acts of war, electronic and physical break-ins, computer viruses, earthquakes, and similar events. The occurrence of any of these events could result in damage to our systems and hardware or could cause them to fail.

Problems faced by our third-party web hosting providers could adversely affect the experience of our users. Our third-party web hosting providers could close their facilities without adequate notice. Any financial difficulties, up to and including bankruptcy, faced by our third-party web hosting providers or any of the service providers with whom they contract may have negative effects on our business, the nature and extent of which are difficult to predict. If our third-party web hosting providers are unable to keep up with our growing capacity needs, our business could be harmed.

Any errors, defects, disruptions, or other performance or reliability problems with our network operations could cause interruptions in access to our products as well as delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities and services and could harm our reputation, business, operating results, and financial condition.

 

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Our failure to protect confidential information of our users against security breaches could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business and operating results.

We maintain sensitive information provided by users and advertisers. We rely on encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties to effect secure transmission of confidential information, including personally identifiable information and credit card numbers. We may need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches or to address problems caused by breaches. If we are unable to maintain the security of confidential information that is provided to us by our users, our reputation and brand could be harmed and we may be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and possible liability, any of which could harm our business and operating results.

Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could harm our business and operating results.

Our business depends on our intellectual property, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright law and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology, and confidential information by requiring our employees and consultants to enter into confidentiality and assignment of inventions agreements and third parties to enter into nondisclosure agreements. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property, or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property, or technology. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our websites features, software, and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider proprietary.

We have registered “Trulia” as a trademark in the United States, the European Union and Canada. We also hold thirty-six registered trademarks registered in the United States and five trademarks registered in Canada. We have five patents registered and eleven patents pending application in the United States. Competitors may adopt service names similar to ours, thereby harming our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to user confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of the terms “Trulia” or “Market Leader.”

We currently hold the “Trulia.com,” “Marketleader.com,” “Housevalues.com” and “RealEstate.com” Internet domain names and various other related domain names. The regulation of domain names in the United States is subject to change. Regulatory bodies could establish additional top-level domains, appoint additional domain name registrars, or modify the requirements for holding domain names. As a result, we may not be able to acquire or maintain all domain names that use the names Trulia, Market Leader, Housevalues, or RealEstate.

Litigation or proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or other governmental authorities and administrative bodies in the United States and abroad may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our patent rights, trade secrets, and domain names and to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, which could harm our business and operating results.

Intellectual property infringement assertions by third parties could result in significant costs and harm our business and operating results.

Other parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. Such litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue, and therefore our own issued and pending patents may provide little or no deterrence. We could also be required to pay damages in an unspecified amount. For example, in September 2011, we entered into a settlement agreement with CIVIX-DDI LLC, or CIVIX, relating to a claim by CIVIX that we infringed two CIVIX patents relating to searching and locating real estate. Under the settlement agreement, we agreed to pay CIVIX to settle the litigation.

        In addition, on September 12, 2012, Zillow, Inc., or Zillow, filed a lawsuit against us in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging that we infringe on one U.S. patent held by it (the “’764 Patent”). The lawsuit alleges that one component of our Trulia Estimates feature infringes upon Zillow’s patent insofar as Trulia Estimates allows homeowners to claim their homes and provide additional information about the properties, which enables us to update the valuation estimates for such properties. We started offering our Trulia Estimates feature in 2011. Zillow is seeking a permanent injunction against the alleged infringement, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees. On September 11, 2013, we filed a petition for covered business method patent review with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). Also, on September 12, 2013, we filed a motion to stay pending the PTO’s review. The district court granted our motion to stay on October 7, 2013, and this matter is now stayed. On March 10, 2014, the PTO granted our petition and instituted the covered business method patent review. Separately, on March 27, 2014, the PTO ruled in an inter partes review proceeding brought by a different company that the majority of the claims of the ‘764 Patent were invalid. On October 2, 2014, we reached an agreement with Zillow to terminate the covered business method patent under review by the PTO and the district court litigation during the pendency of our proposed acquisition by Zillow. If the acquisition does not close, we may reinstitute the covered business method review and Zillow may reinstitute the district court litigation.

 

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Litigation matters could cause us to incur significant expenses and costs. In addition, the outcome of any litigation is inherently unpredictable, and as a result of our litigation matters, we may be required to pay damages, an injunction may be entered against us that requires us to change certain features in our marketplace, or a license or other right to continue to deliver an unmodified version of such features may not be made available to us at all or may require us to pay ongoing royalties and comply with unfavorable terms. Any of these outcomes could harm our business. Even if we were to prevail, this litigation matter could be costly and time-consuming, could divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations, and may discourage consumers, real estate professionals, and advertisers from using our marketplace.

From time to time, we also have other claims brought against us by third parties alleging infringement of their intellectual property. We cannot predict whether other assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or claims arising from such assertions will substantially harm our business and operating results. The defense of these claims and any future infringement claims, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in our favor, may result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel. Furthermore, an adverse outcome of a dispute may require us to pay damages, potentially including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a party’s patent or copyright rights; cease making, licensing or using products that are alleged to incorporate the intellectual property of others; expend additional development resources to redesign our products; and enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In any event, we may need to license intellectual property, which would require us to pay royalties or make one-time payments. Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, the time and resources necessary to resolve them could harm our business, operating results, financial condition, and reputation.

Valuation and other proprietary data may be subject to disputes.

We provide data that is relevant to the decision to purchase a home and some of this data is subject to revision, interpretation, or dispute. For example, our Trulia Estimates tool provides users with home valuations and is based on algorithms we have developed to analyze third-party data. We revise our algorithms regularly, which may cause valuations to differ from those previously provided. Consumers and real estate professionals sometimes disagree with our estimates. Any such variation in or disagreements about the estimates that we present could result in negative user feedback, harm our reputation, or lead to legal disputes.

We are subject to payments-related risks.

We accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit and debit cards. For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay bank interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of credit and debit cards, and our business would be disrupted if these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, certification requirements, and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, we may be subject to fines and higher transaction fees and lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from consumers or facilitate other types of online payments, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

If we fail to comply with the various laws and regulations that govern the real estate industry, our business may be harmed.

Our business is governed by various federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the real estate industry, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Fair Housing Act, state and local real estate broker licensing laws, federal and state laws prohibiting unfair and deceptive acts and practices, and federal and state advertising laws. We may not have always been and may not always be in compliance with each of these requirements. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in, among other things, revocation of required licenses, indemnification liability to contract counterparties, class action lawsuits, administrative enforcement actions and civil and criminal liability.

Due to the geographic scope of our operations and the nature of the services we provide, we may be required to obtain and maintain real estate brokerage licenses in certain states in which we operate. In connection with such licenses, we are required to designate individual licensed brokers of record. We cannot assure you that we are, and will remain at all times, in full compliance with state real estate licensing laws and regulations and we may be subject to fines or penalties in the event of any non-compliance. If in the future a state agency were to determine that we are required to obtain a real estate brokerage license in that state in order to receive payments or commissions from real estate professionals, or if we lose the services of a designated broker, we may be subject to fines or legal penalties or our business operations in that state may be suspended until we obtain the license or replace the designated broker. Any failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations may limit our ability to expand into new markets, offer new products or continue to operate in one or more of our current markets.

 

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We may be limited in the way in which we market our business or generate revenue by federal law prohibiting referral fees in real estate transactions.

RESPA generally prohibits the payment or receipt of fees or any other thing of value for the referral of business related to a residential real estate settlement service, including real estate brokerage services. RESPA also prohibits fee shares or splits or unearned fees in connection with the provision of residential real estate settlement services. However, RESPA expressly permits payments pursuant to cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements or agreements between real estate agents and brokers. In addition, RESPA permits payments for goods or facilities furnished or for services actually performed, so long as those payments bear a reasonable relationship to the market value of the goods or facilities furnished or the services performed, excluding the value of any referrals that may be provided in connection with such goods, facilities or services. Failure to comply with RESPA may result in, among other things, administrative enforcement actions, class action lawsuits, and civil and criminal liability.

There has been limited guidance by the appropriate federal regulator or the courts regarding the applicability of RESPA to online marketing relationships for real estate or mortgage services, including those we provide. Nonetheless, RESPA may restrict our ability to enter into marketing and distribution arrangements with third parties, particularly to the extent that such arrangements may be characterized as involving payments for the referral of residential real estate settlement service business.

Our business is subject to a variety of state and federal laws, many of which are unsettled and still developing and which could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.

We are subject to a variety of federal and state laws, including laws regarding data retention, privacy, and consumer protection that are continuously evolving and developing. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to us are often uncertain and may be conflicting. For example, laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested by a number of claims, including actions based on invasion of privacy and other torts, unfair competition, copyright and trademark infringement, and other theories based on the nature and content of the materials searched, the ads posted, or the content provided by users. In addition, regulatory authorities are considering a number of legislative and regulatory proposals concerning data protection and other matters that may be applicable to our business. Changes to existing laws or regulations or the adoption of new laws or regulations could negatively affect our business. It is difficult to predict how existing laws will be applied to our business and the new laws to which we may become subject.

If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy, and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. In connection with the audit of our financial statements for 2009, 2010, and 2011, we identified a material weakness in the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that was the result of a lack of a sufficient number of qualified personnel within our accounting department that possessed an appropriate level of expertise to perform certain accounting functions. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, that creates a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

Although we have remediated this material weakness, we cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future.

Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has required, and will continue to require, that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional corporate governance practices and comply with reporting requirements. While our management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting resulted in our conclusion that, as of December 31, 2013, our internal control over financial reporting was effective, we cannot predict the outcome of our assessment and that of our independent registered public accounting firm in future periods. If we conclude in future periods that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we could be subject to one or more investigations or enforcement actions by state or federal regulatory agencies, stockholder lawsuits or other adverse actions requiring us to incur defense costs, pay fines, settlements or judgments and causing investor perceptions to be adversely affected and potentially resulting in a decline in the market price of our stock.

In addition, we are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, and as such we have elected to avail ourselves of the exemption from the requirement that our independent registered public accounting firm audit our

 

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internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act until we cease to be an “emerging growth company.” See “—We are an ‘emerging growth company,’ and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors,” for additional risks relating to our “emerging growth company” status.

If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting to meet the demands placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we may be unable to accurately report our financial results, or report them within the timeframes required by law or exchange regulations.

Complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies has increased and may continue to increase our costs and the demands on management and could harm our operating results.

As a public company, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring changes in corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel have devoted and will need to continue to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have increased and will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs and have made and will continue to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or our board committees or as executive officers.

In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has required, and will continue to require, that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional corporate governance practices and comply with reporting requirements. While our management’s assessment of our internal control over financial reporting resulted in our conclusion that, as of December 31, 2013, our internal control over financial reporting was effective, we cannot predict the outcome of our assessment and that of our independent registered public accounting firm in future periods. If we conclude in future periods that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we could be subject to one or more investigations or enforcement actions by state or federal regulatory agencies, stockholder lawsuits or other adverse actions requiring us to incur defense costs, pay fines, settlements or judgments and causing investor perceptions to be adversely affected and potentially resulting in a decline in the market price of our stock. In addition, we are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, and as such we have elected to avail ourselves of the exemption from the requirement that our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act until we cease to be an “emerging growth company.” See “—We are an ‘emerging growth company,’ and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors,” for additional risks relating to our “emerging growth company” status.

If we are unable to implement these changes effectively or efficiently, it could harm our operations, financial reporting, or financial results and could result in an adverse opinion on internal control from our independent registered public accounting firm.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act enacted in April 2012, and, for as long as we continue to be an “emerging growth company,” we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies,” including, but not limited to, not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an “emerging growth company” until December 31, 2017; however, if we have more than $1.0 billion in annual revenue, if the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of June 30 of any year, or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period before the end of that five-year period, we would cease to be an “emerging growth company” as of the following December 31. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result of any choices to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We will cease to be an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, at the end of this fiscal year.

Under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards, and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

 

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Our operating results may be harmed if we are required to collect sales taxes for our products.

There is general uncertainty in the industry about the obligation of Internet-based businesses to collect and remit sales taxes in jurisdictions where their commerce is solely virtual. In the current climate, it is possible that one or more states or countries could seek to impose sales or other tax collection obligations on us or our subscribers with regards to our products, which taxes may be applicable to past sales. A successful assertion that we should be collecting additional sales or other taxes on our products could result in substantial tax liabilities for past sales, discourage subscribers from purchasing our products, or otherwise harm our business and operating results.

If we fail to expand effectively into adjacent markets, our growth prospects could be harmed.

We intend to expand our operations into adjacent markets, such as rentals, mortgages, and home improvement, and into international geographies. We may incur losses or otherwise fail to enter these markets successfully. Our expansion into these markets will place us in competitive environments with which we are unfamiliar and involves various risks, including the need to invest significant resources and the possibility that returns on such investments will not be achieved for several years, or at all. In attempting to establish a presence in new markets, we expect to incur significant expenses and face various other challenges, such as expanding our sales force and management personnel to cover these markets. For example, in September 2012, we introduced a mortgage product through which we provide real-time mortgage quotes to our users. We currently obtain mortgage quotes from partners. If we are unable to continue our relationships with these two providers, add additional real-time mortgage quote providers, find replacement real-time mortgage quote providers on similar or better terms or we are unable to integrate with other providers, our expansion into the mortgage market will be hindered and our business and operating results may suffer.

We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features and products or enhance our existing products, improve our operating infrastructure, or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities or if we issue equity securities as consideration in a merger or acquisition, our existing stockholders could suffer significant ownership dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. Any debt financing we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be impaired, and our business may be harmed.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our actual operating results may differ significantly from our guidance.

From time to time, we have released, and may continue to release guidance in our quarterly earnings conference call, quarterly earnings releases, or otherwise, regarding our future performance that represents our management’s estimates as of the date of release. This guidance, which includes forward-looking statements, has been and will be based on projections prepared by our management. These projections are not prepared with a view toward compliance with published guidelines of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and neither our registered public accountants nor any other independent expert or outside party compiles or examines the projections. Accordingly, no such person expresses any opinion or any other form of assurance with respect to the projections.

Projections are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. We intend to state possible outcomes as high and low ranges which are intended to provide a sensitivity analysis as variables are changed but are not intended to imply that actual results could not fall outside of the suggested ranges. The principal reason that we release guidance is to provide a basis for our management to discuss our business outlook with analysts and investors. We do not accept any responsibility for any projections or reports published by any such third parties.

 

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Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions underlying the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. Accordingly, our guidance is only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date of release. Actual results may vary from our guidance and the variations may be material. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged not to rely upon our guidance in making an investment decision regarding our common stock.

Any failure to successfully implement our operating strategy or the occurrence of any of the events or circumstances set forth in this “Risk Factors” section in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q could result in the actual operating results being different from our guidance, and the differences may be adverse and material.

The price of our common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The trading price of our common stock has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate substantially. Since shares of our common stock were sold in our initial public offering, or the IPO, in September 2012 at a price of $17.00 per share, the reported high and low sales prices of our common stock have ranged from $14.69 to $67.50 through September 30, 2014. The trading price of our common stock depends on a number of factors, including those described in this “Risk Factors” section, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our common stock since you might be unable to sell your shares at or above the price you paid. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our common stock include the following:

 

    price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;

 

    volatility in the market prices and trading volumes of high technology stocks;

 

    changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;

 

    sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders;

 

    failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;

 

    the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections, or our failure to meet those projections;

 

    announcements by us or our competitors of new products;

 

    the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements, and filings with the SEC;

 

    rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;

 

    actual or anticipated changes in our operating results or fluctuations in our operating results;

 

    actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses, or the competitive landscape generally;

 

    litigation involving us, our industry or both, or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors;

 

    developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;

 

    announced or completed acquisitions of businesses or technologies by us or our competitors;

 

    new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;

 

    changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles;

 

    any significant change in our management;

 

    conditions in the real estate industry or changes in mortgage interest rates; and

 

    general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market prices of a particular companies’ securities, securities class action litigations have often been instituted against these companies. Litigation of this type, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

 

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Because our outstanding 2020 Notes are convertible into shares of our common stock, volatility or depressed prices of our common stock could have a similar effect on the trading price of our 2020 Notes. In addition, the existence of the 2020 Notes may encourage short selling in our common stock by market participants because the conversion of the convertible notes could depress the price of our common stock.

Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.

The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of shares of our common stock in the market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, employees and significant stockholders, and the perception that these sales could occur may also depress the market price of our common stock. As of September 30, 2014, we had 37,755,350 shares of common stock outstanding.

As of September 30, 2014 an aggregate of 2,316,350 shares are entitled, under contracts providing for registration rights, to require us to register shares of our common stock owned by them for public sale in the United States. In addition, we filed registration statements to register approximately 11,889,738 shares reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. Subject to the satisfaction of applicable exercise periods, the shares of common stock issued upon exercise of outstanding options will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market. In addition, a substantial number of shares of our common stock are reserved for issuance upon conversion of the 2020 Notes.

Substantial sales of our common stock may make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-linked securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause our stock price to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our common stock.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock has been and may continue to be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If any of the analysts who covers us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who covers us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

We do not expect to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law and our outstanding convertible notes could impair a takeover attempt.

Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, and Delaware law contain provisions which could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:

 

    providing for a classified board of directors whose members serve staggered three-year terms;

 

    authorizing “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by our board of directors without stockholder approval and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend, and other rights superior to our common stock;

 

    limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers;

 

    limiting the ability of our stockholders to call and bring business before special meetings;

 

    requiring advance notice of stockholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our stockholders and for nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors;

 

    controlling the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of board of directors and stockholder meetings; and

 

    providing our board of directors with the express power to postpone previously scheduled annual meetings and to cancel previously scheduled special meetings.

 

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These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.

As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation law, which prevents some stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding common stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of substantially all of our outstanding common stock. Additionally, certain provisions of our outstanding convertible notes could make it more difficult or more expensive for a third party to acquire us.

Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

 

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

Not applicable.

 

Item 6. Exhibits

The documents listed in the Exhibit Index of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are incorporated by reference or are filed with this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, in each case as indicated therein.

 

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

 

    Trulia, Inc.
Date: November 6, 2014      

/s/ PETER FLINT

      Peter Flint
     

Chief Executive Officer and Director

(Principal Executive Officer)

Date: November 6, 2014      

/s/ PRASHANT “SEAN” AGGARWAL

      Prashant “Sean” Aggarwal
     

Chief Financial Officer

(Principal Accounting and Financial Officer)

 

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EXHIBIT INDEX

 

Exhibit
Number

  

Description

  31.1*    Certification of Peter Flint, Chief Executive Officer, pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
  31.2*    Certification of Prashant “Sean” Aggarwal, Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
  32.1*    Certification of Peter Flint, Chief Executive Officer, and Prashant “Sean” Aggarwal, Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
101.INS    XBRL Instance Document.
101.SCH    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document.
101.CAL    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document.
101.DEF    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
101.LAB    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
101.PRE    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

 

* Filed herewith.

 

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