Artec Global Media (ACTL) Risk Analysis

We invest in the development of new products and services with the expectation that we will be able to effectively offer them to our clients. Our future revenue depends in part on our ability to stay competitive with our product and service offerings. Our ability to develop and launch new products on our expected timelines, or at all, is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, such as the difficulties of designing complex software products, achieving desired functionality and integrating the new products with our existing technology. The sale of new or additional features, products and services, the value or utility of which may be different from our current products and services or less easily understood by our clients, may require increasingly sophisticated and costly sales efforts and increased operating expenses, as well as additional training of our employees and clients. New product launches require the investment of resources in advance of any revenue generation. If new products fail to achieve market acceptance, we may never realize a return on this investment. If these efforts are not successful, our business may suffer.

There is growing concern over the security of personal information transmitted over the Internet, consumer identity theft and user privacy. Despite our implementation of security measures, our computer systems may be susceptible to electronic or physical computer break-ins, viruses and other disruptions and security breaches. Any perceived or actual unauthorized disclosure of personally-identifiable information regarding website visitors, whether through breach of our network by an unauthorized party, employee theft, misuse or error or otherwise, could harm our reputation, impair our ability to attract website visitors and attract and retain our clients, or subject us to claims or litigation arising from damages suffered by consumers, and thereby harm our business and operating results. In addition, we could incur significant costs in complying with the multitude of state, federal and foreign laws regarding the unauthorized disclosure of personal information.

We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks or actions on our websites or our third-party publishers' websites. We may in the future have to refund revenue that our clients have paid to us and that was later attributed to, or suspected to be caused by, fraud. Click-through fraud occurs when an individual clicks on an ad displayed on a website or an automated system is used to create such clicks with the intent of generating the revenue share payment to the publisher rather than to view the underlying content. Action fraud occurs when on-line forms are completed with false or fictitious information in an effort to increase the compensable actions in respect of which a web publisher is to be compensated. It is conceivable that this activity could negatively affect our profitability, and this type of fraudulent act could hurt our reputation. If fraudulent clicks or actions are not detected, the affected clients may experience a reduced return on their investment in our marketing programs, which could lead the clients to become dissatisfied with our campaigns, and in turn, lead to loss of clients and the related revenue. Additionally, we have from time to time had to terminate relationships with web publishers who we believed to have engaged in fraud and we may have to do so in the future. Termination of such relationships entails a loss of revenue associated with the legitimate actions or clicks generated by such web publishers.

There are companies within our industry that regularly engage in activities that our clients' customers may view as unlawful or inappropriate. These activities, such as deceptive promotions, by third parties may be seen by clients as characteristic of participants in our industry and, therefore, may have an adverse effect on the reputation of all participants in our industry, including us. Any damage to our reputation, including from publicity from legal proceedings against us or companies that work within our industry, governmental proceedings, consumer class action litigation, or the disclosure of information security breaches or private information misuse, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

When a user visits our websites, we use technologies, including "cookies", to collect information such as the user's Internet Protocol, or IP, address, offerings delivered by us that have been previously viewed by the user and responses by the user to those offerings. In order to determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign and to determine how to modify the campaign, we need to access and analyze this information. The use of cookies has been the subject of regulatory scrutiny and litigation and users are able to block or delete cookies from their browser. Periodically, certain of our clients and publishers seek to prohibit or limit our collection or use of this data. Interruptions, failures or defects in our data collection systems, as well as privacy concerns regarding the collection of user data, could also limit our ability to analyze data from our clients' marketing campaigns. This risk is heightened when we deliver marketing services to clients in the financial and medical services client verticals. If our access to data is limited in the future, we may be unable to provide effective technologies and services to clients and we may lose clients and revenue.

The tax treatment of Internet commerce remains unsettled, and we cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income or other taxes on commerce conducted over the Internet. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state and local levels are currently reviewing the taxation of Internet commerce, particularly as many governmental agencies seek to address fiscal concerns and budgetary shortfalls by introducing new taxes or expanding the applicability of existing tax laws. We have experienced certain states taking expansive positions with regard to their taxation of our services. The imposition of new laws requiring the collection of sales or other transactional taxes on the sale of our services via the Internet could create increased administrative burdens or costs, discourage clients from purchasing services from us, decrease our ability to compete or otherwise substantially harm our business and results of operations.

Self-regulation and privacy regulation The regulatory environment for the collection and use of consumer data by advertising networks, advertisers, and publishers is very unsettled in Europe, the United States and internationally. The United States and foreign governments have enacted, considered or are considering legislation or regulations that could significantly restrict industry participants' ability to collect, augment, analyze, use and share anonymous data, such as by regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can place cookies or other tracking technologies. A number of existing bills are pending in the U.S. Congress that contain provisions that would regulate how companies can use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and utilize user information. In addition to compliance with government regulations, we voluntarily participate in several trade associations and industry self-regulatory groups that promulgate best practices or codes of conduct relating to targeted advertising. For example, the Internet Advertising Bureau EU & US, the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance, have developed and implemented guidance for companies to provide notice and choice to users regarding targeted advertising. There is ongoing debate about whether the current guidance and approaches by such associations and industry groups complies with EU law. For example, on December 28, 2011, the Article 29 Working Group published an opinion stating that the self-regulatory code was not adequate to comply with Article 5.3 of the amended E-Privacy Directive addressing placement and reading of cookies for targeted advertising. We could be adversely affected by changes to these guidelines and codes in ways that are inconsistent with our practices or the practices of our publishers and advertisers or in conflict with the laws and regulations of the EU, United States or other international regulatory authorities. These existing and proposed laws, regulations and industry standards can be costly to comply with and can delay or impede the development of new products, result in negative publicity and reputational harm, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, increase our risk of non-compliance and subject us to claims or other remedies, including fines or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices. Privacy risks relating to our clients' actions or inactions On behalf of certain of our clients using some of our services, we collect and store information derived from the activities of website visitors and their devices. This enables us to provide such clients with reports on information from and about the visitors to their websites in the manner specifically directed by each such individual client and to conduct targeted advertising. Federal, state and foreign governments and agencies have adopted or are considering adopting laws regarding the passive collection, use, sharing and storage of data collected from or about users' or their devices. Any perception of our practices or products as an invasion of privacy, whether or not such practices or products are consistent with current or future regulations and industry practices, may subject us to public criticism, private class actions, reputational harm or claims by regulators, which could disrupt our business and expose us to increased liability. Our compliance with privacy laws and regulations and our reputation among the public body of website visitors depend in part on our clients' adherence to privacy laws and regulations and their use of our services in ways consistent with visitors' expectations. We contractually require our clients to notify visitors to their websites about our services (i.e., that we place cookies and collect and share certain non-identifying data for purposes of targeting advertisements), and further require that they link to pages where visitors can opt-out of the collection or targeting. We rely on representations made to us by clients that they will comply with all applicable laws including all relevant privacy and data protection regulations. We make reasonable efforts to enforce contractual notice requirements but do not fully audit our clients' compliance with our recommended disclosures or their adherence to privacy laws and regulations, nor do we contractually require them to seek explicit consent to the placement of cookies which may be required in certain countries. If our clients fail to adhere to our contracts in this regard, or a court or governmental agency determines that we have not adequately, accurately or completely described our own products, services and data collection, use and sharing practices in our own disclosures to consumers, or if explicit consent was required, then we, and our clients, may be subject to potentially adverse publicity, damages and related possible investigation or other regulatory activity in connection with our privacy practices or those of our clients.

Our performance is subject to worldwide economic conditions and their impact on levels of advertising. Although we believe that marketing budgets that have been traditionally invested in mediums such as print and television and these budgets are now being reallocated to Internet marketing, we believe that continuing economic difficulties have adversely affected our business. We believe the economic conditions in the United States remain challenging. To the extent that economic difficulties continue, or worldwide economic conditions materially deteriorate, our existing and potential clients may no longer consider investment in our marketing solutions a necessity, or may elect to reduce advertising budgets. Historically, economic downturns have resulted in overall reductions in advertising spending. In particular, online marketing advertising solutions may be viewed by some of our existing and potential clients as a lower priority and may be among the first expenditures reduced as a result of unfavorable economic conditions. These developments could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.