Marchex (MCHX) Risk Factors

If the market for conversational analytics solutions develops more slowly than we expect, our business could suffer. Our future success is highly dependent on the increased adoption by businesses of conversational analytics and solutions, and our ability to sell our conversational analytics and solutions services to large to small customers in different verticals as well as to reseller partners and agencies. The advertising and sales market is rapidly evolving, and most businesses have historically not utilized nor allocated a portion of their marketing and/or sales budgets to conversational analytics and solutions. As a result, the future demand and market acceptance for conversational analytics and related services is uncertain.

A disaster could interrupt our services for an indeterminate length of time and severely damage our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from: fire; floods; network failure; hardware failure; software failure; power loss; telecommunications failures; break-ins; terrorism, war or sabotage; computer viruses; denial of service attacks; penetration of our network by unauthorized computer users and "hackers" and other similar events; natural disasters, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes; and other unanticipated problems. We may not have developed or implemented adequate protections or safeguards to overcome any of these events. We also may not have anticipated or addressed many of the potential events that could threaten or undermine our technology network. Any of these occurrences could cause material interruptions or delays in our business, result in the loss of data or render us unable to provide services to our customers. In addition, if a person is able to circumvent our security measures, they could destroy or misappropriate valuable information, including sensitive customer information, or disrupt our operations. We have deployed firewall technology intended to thwart hacker attacks. Although we maintain property insurance and business interruption insurance, our insurance may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses that may occur as a result of a catastrophic system failure or other loss, and our insurers may not be able to compensate us for all losses that may occur or may decline to do so for a variety of reasons. If we fail to address these issues in a timely manner, we may lose the confidence of our customers and reseller partners, our revenue may decline, and our business could suffer.

We may not be able to obtain and maintain insurance policies on terms affordable to us that would adequately insure our business and property against damage, loss or claims by third parties. To the extent our business, property or systems suffer any damages, losses or claims by third parties that are not covered or adequately covered by insurance, our financial condition may be materially adversely affected. We currently have directors' and officers' liability insurance. If we are unable to maintain sufficient insurance as a public company to cover liability claims made against our officers and directors, we may not be able to retain or recruit qualified officers and directors to manage our Company, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels are continually reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in digital information services. Furthermore, from time to time, various state, federal and other jurisdictional tax authorities undertake reviews of us and our filings. In evaluating the exposure associated with various tax filing positions, we may on occasion accrue charges for probable exposures. We cannot predict the outcome of any of these reviews nor whether any will have a material adverse impact on our business.

We provide information and analytics services to our customers and reseller partners. In connection therewith, we obtain certain telecommunications products and services from carriers in order to deliver these packages of information and analytic services. Telecommunications laws and regulations (and interpretations thereof) are evolving in response to rapid changes in the telecommunications industry. If our carrier providers were to be subject to any changes in applicable law or regulation (or interpretations thereof), or additional taxes or surcharges, then we in turn may be subject to increased costs for their products and services or receive products and services that may be of less value to our customers, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results. Furthermore, our call recording and/or monitoring services may directly subject us to certain telecommunications-related regulations. Finally, in the event that any federal or state regulators were to expand the scope of applicable laws and regulations or their application to include certain end users and information service providers, then our business and operating results could also be adversely affected. The following existing and possible future federal and state laws could impact the growth and profitability of our business: - The Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the "Act"), and the regulations promulgated by the FCC under Title II of the Act, may impose federal licensing, reporting and other regulatory obligations on the Company. To the extent we contract with and use the networks of voice over IP service providers, new legislation or FCC regulation in this area could restrict our business, prevent us from offering service or increase our cost of doing business. There are an increasing number of regulations and rulings that specifically address access to commerce and communications services on the Internet, including IP telephony. We are unable to predict the impact, if any, that future legislation, legal decisions, or regulations concerning voice services offered via the Internet may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. - The U.S. Congress, the FCC, state legislatures or state agencies may target, among other things, access or settlement charges, imposing taxes related to Internet communications, imposing tariffs or other regulations based on encryption concerns, or the characteristics and quality of products and services that we may offer. Any new laws or regulations concerning these, or other areas of our business could restrict our growth or increase our cost of doing business. - There is risk that a regulatory agency will require us to conform to rules that are unsuitable for IP communications technologies or rules that cannot be complied with due to the nature and efficiencies of IP routing, or are unnecessary or unreasonable in light of the manner in which we offer voice-related services such as call recording services to our customers. - Federal and state telemarketing laws including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") which limits the use of autodialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages and fax machines, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Telemarketing Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. In recent years, the TCPA has become a fertile source for both individual and class action lawsuits and regulatory actions. Specifically, the TCPA restricts telemarketing and the transmission of automatic SMS text messages without proper consent. The scope and interpretation of the laws and regulations that are or may be applicable to the delivery of text messages and/or to the allowable methods of obtaining proper consent are continuously evolving and developing. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations due to the failure of our customers to comply with these laws by obtaining proper consent, we could face liability. In addition, certain regulatory developments in this area may adversely impact the demand for some of our services (e.g. our text analytics and communications services) if some our customers become unable to obtain proper consents for their communications at historical volumes. - The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. The FCC has adopted an initial set of rules requiring originating and terminating voice service providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework to combat spoofed robocalls and is expected to adopt additional measures for that purpose. A number of our information services depend on integrations with voice service providers subject to these regulations. Some of these providers have taken the position that we must register in FCC's Robocall Mitigation Database in order to continue doing business with them even though we are not a voice service provider. If we do not comply with our providers' evolving requirements pertaining to these regulations or if future regulatory measures relative to the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework result in unforeseen interoperability issues for our information services that we are unable to address in a timely and efficient manner, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be negatively impacted and/or we could face liability. - Laws affecting telephone call recording and data protection, such as consent and personal data statutes. Under the federal Wiretap Act, at least one-party taking part in a call must be notified if the call is being recorded. Under this law, and most state laws, there is nothing illegal about one of the parties to a telephone call recording the conversation. However, a number of states (i.e., California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington) require that all parties consent when one party wants to record a telephone conversation. The telephone recording laws in other states, like federal law, require only one party to be aware of the recording. - The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act may require that we undertake material modifications to our platforms and processes to permit wiretapping and other access for law enforcement personnel. - Under various Orders of the FCC, we may be required to make material retroactive and prospective contributions to funds intended to support Universal Service, Telecommunications Relay Service, Local Number Portability, the North American Numbering Plan and the budget of the FCC. - Laws in most states of the United States of America may require registration or licensing of one or more of our subsidiaries, and may impose additional taxes, fees or telecommunications surcharges on the provision of our services which we may not be able to pass through to customers. - Our international operations may expose us to telecommunications regulations and data and privacy regulations in the countries where we are operating, and these regulations could negatively affect the viability of our business in those regions. We may also be subject to costs and liabilities with respect to privacy issues. Several companies have incurred penalties for failing to abide by the representations made in their public-facing privacy policies. In addition, several states have passed laws that require businesses and their service providers to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect personal information and to provide notice to consumers in the event of a security breach. For example, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, which was subsequently amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, "CPRA"), which went into effect on January 1, 2023. The CPRA gives California residents rights to access, correct, and delete their personal information, opt out of certain types of personal information sharing, limit the use of sensitive personal information as well as receive detailed information about how their personal information is retained and used. The CPRA and the regulations promulgated thereunder also include requirements for provisions to be included by businesses in their respective contracts with service providers, which limit the scope of permissible use for personal data processed as part of the services and give businesses certain rights to assess their service providers' data processing operations. The CPRA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. Virginia has enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act ("VDCPA"), which also took effect on January 1, 2023 and several other states have enacted privacy-related legislation that took effect in 2023 (e.g. Connecticut, Colorado, and Utah) or is slated to take effect in the near-term (e.g. Montana, Texas, and Iowa ) and that each provide for consumer rights similar to the CPRA. Further, it is anticipated that additional federal and state privacy-related legislation may be enacted. Such legislation could negatively affect our business in various ways such as by increasing our and/or our customers' costs of compliance. Finally, the majority of the aforementioned privacy laws and regulations do not apply to information historically regulated by certain industry-specific legislation and regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and/or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, each of which include separate sets of security standards for the processing of covered data and provide for significant civil and/or criminal penalties for violations. To the extent that we increase our market share of conversational analytics offerings for customers in the healthcare and/or financial services industries, our risk of possible costs and liabilities related to compliance with these additional laws increases as well. Foreign countries may enact laws that could negatively impact our business and/or may prosecute us for violating existing laws. Such laws might include EU member country conforming legislation under applicable EU Privacy, eCommerce, Data Protection Directives (and similar legislation in other countries where we may have operations), the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which is directly applicable to all member states and which has substantial compliance obligations and significant potential administrative fines for non-compliance, as well as the GDPR equivalent law retained by the United Kingdom and any successor legislation thereto. Any costs incurred in addressing foreign laws could negatively affect the viability of our business. Our exposure to this risk will increase to the extent we expand our operations internationally. In addition, the potential regulation of new and emerging technologies, such as AI, which we are increasingly building into many of our new offerings, may result in increased compliance costs and risks. Any additional costs and penalties associated with increased compliance and risk mitigation could make certain offerings less profitable or increase the difficulty of bringing certain offerings to market.

There are a number of companies that offer or may develop products that compete in our targeted markets. We compete with call analytics technology providers such as Twilio and Invoca, as well as messaging platform providers such as EZ Texting. As we continue to advance our conversational analytics and related technologies, we anticipate facing increased competition from companies providing broader a broader range of products and solutions, such as Google (which offers Google Ads call tracking). The markets for our products and services are characterized by intense competition, evolving industry and regulatory standards, emerging business and distribution models, disruptive software and hardware technology developments, short product and service life cycles, price sensitivity on the part of customers, and frequent new product introductions. While we are developing and deploying features powered by AI across our conversational analytics offerings, competitors may develop comparable or superior AI-powered features before we do, which could adversely affect our business. Current and potential competitors have established, or may establish, cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase the ability of their technologies to address the needs of our prospective customers. Furthermore, there has been a trend toward industry consolidation in our markets for several years. We expect this trend to continue as companies attempt to strengthen or hold their market positions. The competition in our targeted markets could adversely affect our operating results by reducing the volume of the products and services we license or sell or the prices we can charge. Some of our current or potential competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, and marketing resources than we do. These competitors may be able to respond more rapidly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. They may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of their products than we do. To the extent they do so, market acceptance and penetration of our products and services, and therefore our revenues, may be adversely affected. Our success and long-term growth depends substantially upon our ability to enhance our products and services and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost-effective basis, new products and services that meet changing customer requirements and incorporate technological enhancements. If we are unable to develop or acquire new products, services, functionalities, or technologies to adapt to these changes or otherwise fail to maintain a technological edge, our business will suffer.

Our large customers have substantial purchasing power and leverage in negotiating contractual arrangements with us. These customers may seek for us to develop additional features, may require penalties for failure to deliver such features, may seek discounted product or service pricing, and may seek more favorable contractual terms. As we sell more products and services to this class of customer, we may be required to agree to such terms and conditions. Such large customers also have substantial leverage in negotiating resolution of any disagreements or disputes that may arise. Any of the foregoing factors could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our operating results will be subject to fluctuations based on general economic conditions, which are subject to a range of macroeconomic uncertainties such as labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, inflation and monetary supply shifts, among others. Any economic downturn could result in: a deterioration in the credit quality of our customers, which could adversely affect our accounts receivables; sales prospects delaying decision making and reducing propensity to purchase; challenges in servicing customers and extending and entering into new agreements; a reduction in customer budgets and slower sales cycles; customer requests for price concessions and extended payment terms; customer cancellations and inability to pay; and/or customer reconsideration and delay in launching test programs with us. Any such outcomes can cause decreases in or delays in customer spending and negatively impact our short-term ability to grow our revenues or result in significant decline in revenues, a significant decrease in our operating cash flows and/or otherwise negatively impact our results of operations. Our business is also subject to the impact of global climate change which can increase the frequency of natural catastrophic events such as drought, wildfires, storms, sea-level rise, earthquakes, floods, or power outages. The long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and our industry in particular are unclear but could be severe. Furthermore, global political crises such as terrorism or war, and public health crises, such as disease outbreaks, epidemics, or pandemics (including COVID-19) and their resulting impacts on the U.S. and global economies, our markets and business locations, could negatively impact our operating results.