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AppLovin Corp (APP)

CIK: 0001751008. SIC: 7370 Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc.. Latest 10-K as of: 2026-02-19.

SIC breadcrumb: Services > Business Services > SIC 7370 Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc.

SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1751008. Latest filing source: 0001751008-26-000010.

Informational only - descriptive public-record data, not investment advice.

Selected Fundamentals

MetricValueUnitFYFiled
Revenue5,480,717,000USD20252026-02-19
Net income3,333,751,000USD20252026-02-19
Assets7,259,610,000USD20252026-02-19

Financials

Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-02-19. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001751008.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.

Flow metrics use full-year FY periods from 10-K/10-K/A filings; balance-sheet metrics use FY-end instants. Free cash flow = operating cash flow - capital expenditures. Missing metrics are omitted rather than fabricated.

Metric20182019202020212022202320242025
Revenue994,104,0001,451,086,0002,793,104,0002,817,058,0001,841,762,0003,224,058,0005,480,717,000
Net income119,040,000-125,187,00035,446,000-192,746,000356,711,0001,579,776,0003,333,751,000
Operating income194,371,000-62,042,000150,016,000-47,791,000772,411,0001,910,956,0004,151,914,000
Diluted EPS0.36-0.580.09-0.520.984.539.75
Operating cash flow198,462,000222,883,000361,851,000412,773,0001,061,510,0002,099,011,0003,971,094,000
Capital expenditures3,358,0003,241,0001,390,000662,0004,246,0004,776,000
Share buybacks11,0001,766,0000.00338,880,0001,153,593,000981,297,0002,191,944,000
Assets2,154,593,0006,163,579,0005,847,846,0005,359,187,0005,869,259,0007,259,610,000
Liabilities2,312,829,0004,025,288,0003,945,169,0004,102,858,0004,779,441,0005,124,939,000
Stockholders' equity-378,355,000-256,567,000-158,545,0002,138,090,0001,902,677,0001,256,329,0001,089,818,0002,134,671,000
Cash and cash equivalents317,235,0001,520,504,0001,080,484,000502,152,000697,030,0002,487,096,000
Free cash flow195,104,000219,642,000360,461,000412,111,0001,057,264,0002,094,235,000

Ratios

ROE and ROA use period-end equity/assets. Liabilities / equity uses total liabilities divided by stockholders' equity. Current ratio uses current assets divided by current liabilities when both are reported.

Metric20182019202020212022202320242025
Net margin11.97%-8.63%1.27%-6.84%19.37%49.00%60.83%
Operating margin19.55%-4.28%5.37%-1.70%41.94%59.27%75.75%
Return on equity1.66%-10.13%28.39%144.96%156.17%
Return on assets-5.81%0.58%-3.30%6.66%26.92%45.92%
Liabilities / equity1.882.073.274.392.40
Current ratio1.115.053.351.712.193.32

Financial Charts

Quarterly

Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-05-06. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001751008.json.

Flow metrics use discrete quarter-length periods from 10-Q/10-Q/A filings. Q4 revenue and net income are derived only when annual FY and nine-month YTD facts exist for the same fiscal year; derived Q4 values are labeled. EPS Q4 is not derived.

QuarterEnd DateRevenueNet IncomeDiluted EPSMethod
2022-Q22022-06-30-0.06reported discrete quarter
2022-Q32022-09-300.06reported discrete quarter
2023-Q12023-03-31-0.01reported discrete quarter
2023-Q22023-03-31-4,518,000reported discrete quarter
2023-Q22023-06-30750,165,0000.22reported discrete quarter
2023-Q32023-06-3080,357,000reported discrete quarter
2023-Q32023-09-30864,256,0000.30reported discrete quarter
2023-Q42023-12-31953,261,000172,233,000derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD
2024-Q12024-03-311,058,115,000236,183,0000.67reported discrete quarter
2024-Q22024-03-31236,183,000reported discrete quarter
2024-Q22024-06-301,080,119,0000.89reported discrete quarter
2024-Q32024-06-30309,969,000reported discrete quarter
2024-Q32024-09-301,198,235,0001.25reported discrete quarter
2024-Q42024-12-311,372,779,000599,204,000derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD
2025-Q12025-03-311,484,021,000576,419,0001.67reported discrete quarter
2025-Q22025-03-31576,419,000reported discrete quarter
2025-Q22025-06-301,258,754,0002.39reported discrete quarter
2025-Q32025-06-30819,531,000reported discrete quarter
2025-Q32025-09-301,405,045,0002.45reported discrete quarter
2025-Q42025-12-311,657,944,0001,102,256,000derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD
2026-Q12026-03-311,842,449,0001,205,613,0003.56reported discrete quarter

Quarterly Charts

Macro Cross-References

Latest quarter (10-Q)

Latest 10-Q source: 0001751008-26-000044.

Extracted structurally from real Item 2 body heading to real Item 3/4 boundary. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2026-05-06. Report date: 2026-03-31.

ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Overview

Our mission is to create meaningful connections between companies and their ideal customers. We provide end-to-end AI-powered advertising solutions for businesses to reach, monetize, and grow their global audience. Our scaled business model is intricately linked to the advertising ecosystem, providing a durable competitive advantage. We generate revenue when our advertisers achieve their return on advertising spend targets with our advertising solutions, ensuring that their success directly fuels our growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building advertising solutions for advertisers to improve the marketing and monetization of their content. Our founders, who were mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the advertising ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and advertising solutions.

Our Business Model

We primarily generate revenue from fees paid by advertisers who use our advertising solutions to grow and monetize their content. We are able to grow our revenue by improving our various technologies, including improvements to our Axon AI recommendation engine.

Advertising clients include a wide variety of advertisers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Meta and Google. We see multiple opportunities to gain new clients, and to increase spend from existing clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful.

Our advertising solutions include Axon Ads Manager, MAX, Adjust, and Wurl. Clients use Axon Ads Manager to automate, optimize, and manage customer acquisition. They set marketing and transaction goals, and Axon Ads Manager maximizes advertising spend at their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. Axon Ads Manager comprises the vast majority of revenue. Revenue represents the dynamically-priced amount charged to advertisers based on their campaign goals, less consideration paid or payable to publishers.

Publishers use MAX to optimize the sale of their app advertising inventory to demand-side platforms and ad networks. The MAX tool provides insights to manage against key performance indicators, understand the long-term value of users, and help manage profitability. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of winning auction spend. As demand-side platforms continue to improve their recommendation systems and more apps adopt in-app advertising, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Advertising clients use Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform to better understand their users' journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

Advertising clients use Wurl's connected TV ("CTV") platform to distribute streaming video and maximize revenue. Revenue from Wurl is primarily generated from content companies and streamers typically on a usage-based and/or CPM model.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income adjusted for loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes, interest expense, other income, net (excluding certain recurring items), provision for income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation, transaction-related expense, restructuring costs (benefits), and non-operating foreign exchange gain, as we believe

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these items are not reflective of our core operating performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, and a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA:

Three Months Ended March 31,
20262025
(in thousands, except percentages)
Revenue$1,842,449$1,158,974
Net income1,205,613576,419
Net margin65.4%49.7%
Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes147,119
Net income from continuing operations1,205,613723,538
Net margin from continuing operations65.4%62.4%
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense51,15952,888
Other income, net1(41,360)(8,644)
Provision for income taxes225,79571,068
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs33,66531,946
Non-operating foreign exchange gain(1,266)(320)
Stock-based compensation83,46959,115
Transaction-related expense2(49)4,583
Restructuring costs (benefits)2(107)3,598
Adjusted EBITDA$1,556,919$937,772
Adjusted EBITDA margin84.5%80.9%

1 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses.

2 Negative amount reflects a reversal of amounts expensed in prior periods.

Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and principal payment of finance leases. We use Free Cash Flow to help manage the health of our business, prepare budgets and for capital allocation purposes. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful supplemental information to help investors understand underlying trends in our business and our liquidity. Free Cash Flow also reflects cash flows from both continuing and discontinued operations. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies

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may not publish Free Cash Flow or similar metrics. Thus, our Free Cash Flow should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Free Cash Flow for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, and a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:

Three Months Ended March 31,
20262025
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$1,291,393$831,712
Less:
Purchase of property and equipment(413)(138)
Principal payments of finance leases(4,232)(5,843)
Free Cash Flow$1,286,748$825,731
Net cash used in investing activities$(5,247)$(22,664)
Net cash used in financing activities$(1,012,232)$(1,002,217)

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below.

Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our advertising solutions to enhance their effectiveness and value proposition for our clients. We expect to continue to invest in our technology and to incur related costs, including costs to attract and retain critical engineering talent, such as stock-based compensation, as well as datacenter costs as we continue to launch enhancements to our Axon recommendation system. We believe investments in our technology will further improve effectiveness for advertisers. Our investments will also allow us to continue to enter into and expand into new verticals outside of gaming, such as e-commerce and CTV. We also continue to opportunistically explore strategic transactions related to our advertising solutions and the expansion of the markets we serve.

Attract and retain clients

We rely on existing clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our advertising solutions, we can attract additional spend from these clients. Our clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with existing clients and increase their usage of our advertising solutions, as well as to onboard new clients. We expect to continue to invest in sales and marketing to enhance awareness of the Axon brand and drive new client acquisition.

Changes to the mobile app and advertising ecosystems

Our business and results of operations are and will continue to be, impacted by industry factors that drive the overall performance and growth of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. Mobile app developers rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute apps, collect payments made for in-app purchases, and target users with relevant advertising. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our advertising solutions to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in

[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]

Latest 10-K MD&A

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary. Published MD&A gate trimmed front/tail over-capture. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2026-02-19. Report date: 2025-12-31.

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Overview

Our mission is to create meaningful connections between companies and their ideal customers. We provide end-to-end AI-powered advertising solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow their global audience. Our scaled business model is intricately linked to the advertising ecosystem, providing a durable competitive advantage. We generate revenue when our advertisers achieve their return on advertising spend targets with our advertising solutions, ensuring that their success directly fuels our growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building advertising solutions for advertisers to improve the marketing and monetization of their content. Our founders, who were mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the advertising ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and advertising solutions.

Recent Developments

On May 7, 2025, we, along with our subsidiaries Morocco, Inc. and AppLovin GmbH (collectively, the “Sellers”) entered into a Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Tripledot and its subsidiaries Eton Games Inc. ("Eton") and Tripledot Group Holdings Limited (collectively, with Tripledot, the “Purchasers”) relating to the sale of our Apps business. On June 30, 2025, we and Tripledot entered into an amendment to the Agreement to provide, among other things, that in lieu of the issuance of a secured promissory note by Eton to us or our designated affiliate to fund a portion of the full Cash Consideration (as defined in the Agreement), Tripledot may elect to pay such amount in cash.

On June 30, 2025, we consummated the sale of the Apps business to the Purchasers for $400 million in cash, subject to closing adjustments, and equity consideration representing approximately 20% of Tripledot’s fully-diluted equity at the time of closing. No promissory note was issued as part of the transaction. Following the sale of the Apps business, we operate as a single operating and reportable segment. Results related to our Apps business are presented as discontinued operations in our consolidated financial statements. See Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 3 – Discontinued Operations of the Notes to consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our Business Model

We primarily generate revenue from fees paid by advertisers who use our advertising solutions to grow and monetize their content. We are able to grow our revenue by improving our various technologies, including improvements to our Axon AI recommendation engine.

Advertising clients include a wide variety of advertisers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Meta and Google. We see multiple opportunities to gain new clients, and to increase spend from existing clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful.

Our advertising solutions include Axon Ads Manager, MAX, Adjust, and Wurl. Clients use Axon Ads Manager to automate, optimize, and manage their user acquisition investments. They set marketing and user growth goals, and Axon Ads Manager optimizes their ad spend in an effort to achieve their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. Axon Ads Manager comprises the vast majority of revenue. The revenue we generate from Axon Ads Manager is determined dynamically based on advertisers’ campaign goals.

Advertising networks use MAX to optimize purchases of app advertising inventory. The MAX tool provides insights to manage against key performance indicators, understand the long-term value of users, and help manage profitability. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of client spend. As more advertising networks move to in-app real-time bidding, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Advertising clients use Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform to better understand their users' journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

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Advertising clients use Wurl's CTV platform to distribute streaming video, maximize revenue, and acquire and retain viewers or subscribers. Revenue from Wurl is primarily generated from content companies, streamers, and advertisers, typically on a usage-based and/or CPM model.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income adjusted for loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt, other income, net (excluding certain recurring items), provision for income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation, transaction-related expense, restructuring costs, and non-operating foreign exchange (gain) loss, as well as certain other items that we believe are not reflective of our core operating performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2025, 2024, and 2023, and a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Revenue$5,480,717$3,224,058$1,841,762
Net income3,333,7511,579,776356,711
Net margin60.8%49.0%19.4%
Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes99,4449,748101,115
Net income from continuing operations3,433,1951,589,524457,826
Net margin from continuing operations62.6%49.3%24.9%
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt207,016317,209273,508
Other income, net1(15,694)(23,396)(4,729)
Provision for income taxes519,71522,41943,776
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs130,724128,791119,152
Non-operating foreign exchange (gain) loss(3,949)1,642837
Stock-based compensation207,958357,431342,551
Transaction-related expense27,5798851,047
Restructuring costs5,90817,2592,316
Adjusted EBITDA$4,512,452$2,411,764$1,236,284
Adjusted EBITDA margin82.3%74.8%67.1%

1 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses.

Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and principal payment of finance leases. We use Free Cash Flow to help manage the health of our business, prepare budgets and for capital allocation purposes. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful supplemental information to help investors understand

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underlying trends in our business and our liquidity. Free Cash Flow also reflects cash flows from both continuing and discontinued operations. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish Free Cash Flow or similar metrics. Thus, our Free Cash Flow should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Free Cash Flow for 2025, 2024, and 2023, and a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$3,971,094$2,099,011$1,061,510
Less:
Purchase of property and equipment(473)(4,776)(4,246)
Principal payments of finance leases(18,669)(20,875)(20,170)
Free Cash Flow$3,951,952$2,073,360$1,037,094
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities$358,428$(106,754)$(77,829)
Net cash used in financing activities$(2,593,069)$(1,749,844)$(1,562,791)

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below.

Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our advertising solutions to enhance their effectiveness and value proposition for our clients. We expect to continue to invest in our technology and solutions and to incur related costs, including costs to attract and retain critical engineering talent, such as stock-based compensation, as well as datacenter costs as we continue to launch enhancements to our Axon AI recommendation engine. We believe investments in our technology will further improve effectiveness for advertisers. Our investments will also allow us to continue to enter into and expand into new verticals outside of gaming, such as e-commerce and CTV. We also continue to opportunistically explore strategic transactions related to our advertising solutions and the expansion of the markets we serve.

Attract and retain clients

We rely on existing clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our advertising solutions, we can attract additional spend from these clients. Our clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with existing clients and increase their usage of our advertising solutions, as well as to onboard new clients both inside and outside of mobile gaming. We expect to continue to invest in sales and marketing to enhance awareness of the Axon brand and drive new client acquisition.

Changes to the mobile app and advertising ecosystems

Our business and results of operations are and will continue to be impacted by industry factors that drive the overall performance and growth of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. Mobile app developers rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute apps, collect payments made for in-app purchases, and target users with relevant advertising. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our advertising solutions to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Any changes made to the policies of these third party platforms can drive rapid change across the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. Both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have made various changes to their policies in recent years, as further discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors–Risks Related to Our Business, Operations and Industry–-If third-party platforms change their policies in a way that harms our business, including the design and effectiveness of our advertising solutions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.” The mobile app and advertising ecosystems also continue to be subject to an evolving legal and regulatory landscape, including with respect to data protection, privacy, and AI. We must continue to innovate and stay ahead of developments in the advertising and mobile app ecosystems in order for our business to succeed and our results of operations to continue to improve.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate substantially all of our revenue from fees collected from advertisers spending on Axon Ads Manager, which are determined dynamically based on advertisers’ campaign goals. Revenue from other services was not material. Revenue does not include the results of our former Apps business, which is classified as discontinued operations.

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Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of amortization of acquired technology-related intangible assets, amortization of finance lease right-of-use assets related to certain servers and networking equipment and datacenter costs related primarily to third-party cloud computing services.

Sales and marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of marketing programs and other advertising expenses, professional services costs, personnel-related expenses including salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in sales and marketing activities, amortization of acquired user-related intangible assets, travel and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of product development costs, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in research and development activities, professional services costs, consulting costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to support our business, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in finance, accounting, legal, human resources and administration, professional services fees for legal, accounting, recruiting, and administrative services (including acquisition or other transaction-related expenses), insurance, travel, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

Other Income and Expenses

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt. Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt consists primarily of interest expense associated with our outstanding debt, including accretion of debt discount and issuance costs.

Other income, net. Other income, net, primarily includes interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, fair value adjustments relating to our non-marketable equity securities, and foreign currency gains and losses.

Provision for income taxes. We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, impacts from acquisition restructuring, deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income, future changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws. Additionally, our effective tax rate can vary based on the amount of pre-tax income or loss.

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Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as a comparison for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.

The following tables summarize our historical consolidated statement of operations:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands)
Revenue$5,480,717$3,224,058$1,841,762
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue1,2665,140520,613356,613
Sales and marketing1,2203,651252,863228,025
Research and development1226,510374,710333,781
General and administrative1233,502164,916150,932
Total costs and expenses1,328,8031,313,1021,069,351
Income from operations4,151,9141,910,956772,411
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(207,016)(317,209)(273,508)
Other income, net8,01218,1962,699
Total other expense, net(199,004)(299,013)(270,809)
Income before income taxes3,952,9101,611,943501,602
Provision for income taxes519,71522,41943,776
Net income from continuing operations3,433,1951,589,524457,826
Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes(99,444)(9,748)(101,115)
Net income$3,333,751$1,579,776$356,711

_______

1 Includes stock-based compensation as follows:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$1,425$4,799$3,834
Sales and marketing34,05576,82469,903
Research and development114,463229,577216,236
General and administrative58,01546,23152,578
Total stock-based compensation$207,958$357,431$342,551

_______

2 Includes amortization expense related to intangible assets as follows:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$42,300$38,220$36,983
Sales and marketing55,10454,62854,556
Total amortization expense related to intangible assets$97,404$92,848$91,539

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue1:

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
Revenue100%100%100%
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue12%16%19%
Sales and marketing4%8%12%
Research and development4%12%18%
General and administrative4%5%8%
Total costs and expenses24%41%58%
Income from operations76%59%42%
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(4)%(10)%(15)%
Other income, net%1%%
Total other expense, net(4)%(9)%(15)%
Income before income taxes72%50%27%
Provision for income taxes9%1%2%
Net income from continuing operations63%49%25%
Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes(2)%%(5)%
Net income61%49%19%

_______

1 Totals of percentages of revenue may not foot due to rounding.

Comparison of Our Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023

Revenue

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Revenue$5,480,717$3,224,058$1,841,76270%75%

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2025, our revenue increased by $2.3 billion, or 70%, from the prior year period primarily due to improved Axon Ads Manager performance, where the volume of installations increased 3% and net revenue per installation increased 72% compared to the prior year period.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, our revenue increased by $1.4 billion, or 75%, from the prior year period primarily due to improved Axon Ads Manager performance, where the volume of installations increased 50% and net revenue per installation increased 22% compared to the prior year period.

Cost of revenue

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue$665,140$520,613$356,61328%46%
Percentage of revenue12%16%19%

Cost of revenue in 2025 increased by $144.5 million, or 28%, compared to 2024, due primarily to an increase of $150.2 million in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our operations.

Cost of revenue in 2024 increased by $164.0 million, or 46%, compared to 2023, due primarily to an increase of $141.3 million in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our operations.

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Sales and marketing

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing$203,651$252,863$228,025(19)%11%
Percentage of revenue4%8%12%

Sales and marketing expenses in 2025 decreased by $49.2 million, or 19%, compared to 2024 due primarily to a decrease of $57.1 million in personnel-related expenses related to a decrease in stock-based compensation related payroll costs and a reduction in headcount.

Sales and marketing expenses in 2024 increased by $24.8 million, or 11%, compared to 2023 due primarily to an increase of $12.8 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs and an increase of $4.8 million in marketing costs.

Research and development

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Research and development$226,510$374,710$333,781(40)%12%
Percentage of revenue4%12%18%

Research and development expenses in 2025 decreased by $148.2 million, or 40%, compared to 2024, due primarily to a decrease of $151.1 million in personnel-related expenses related to a decrease in stock-based compensation related payroll costs.

Research and development expenses in 2024 increased by $40.9 million, or 12%, compared to 2023, due primarily to an increase of $39.8 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs.

General and administrative

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative$233,502$164,916$150,93242%9%
Percentage of revenue4%5%8%

General and administrative expenses in 2025 increased by $68.6 million, or 42% compared to 2024, due primarily to an increase of $31.6 million in professional services costs primarily associated with transaction support and an increase of $24.5 million in bad debt expense primarily related to new initiatives.

General and administrative expenses in 2024 increased by $14.0 million, or 9% compared to 2023, due primarily to an increase of $9.5 million in indirect tax costs and an increase of $5.5 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs, partially offset by a decrease of $6.3 million in bad debt expense.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt$(207,016)$(317,209)$(273,508)(35)%16%
Percentage of revenue(4)%(10)%(15)%

In 2025, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt decreased by $110.2 million, or 35%, compared to 2024. Interest expense decreased $78.7 million as a result of lower interest rates under our senior unsecured notes compared to the interest rates under our prior credit agreement. The decrease was also due to a loss on extinguishment of debt of $28.4 million in the prior year period.

In 2024, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $43.7 million, or 16%, compared to 2023. This increase was due to loss on extinguishment of debt of $28.4 million in 2024. In addition, the prior year period included a net gain of $15.8 million related to interest rate swaps.

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Other income, net

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income, net$8,012$18,196$2,699(56)%**
Percentage of revenue%1%%

** Not meaningful

In 2025, other income, net decreased by $10.2 million compared to 2024, due primarily to a net fair value remeasurement loss of $34.8 million related to our investments in non-marketable equity securities in the current period and an increase in net foreign currency losses of $2.5 million. This is partially offset by an increase in interest income of $18.2 million driven by an increase in cash and a decrease in certain third-party costs of $6.6 million incurred in connection with the refinancing of term loans in the prior year period.

In 2024, other income, net increased by $15.5 million compared to 2023. The increase was primarily due to the loss on fair value remeasurement of $24.2 million from the impairment of non-marketable equity securities in the prior year period, partially offset by a decrease in interest income of $9.1 million due to a reduction in average cash balances held during the period.

Provision for Income Taxes

Year Ended December 31,2024 to 2025 % change2023 to 2024 % change
202520242023
(in thousands, except percentages)
Provision for income taxes$519,715$22,419$43,776****
Percentage of revenue9%1%2%

** Not meaningful

In 2025, provision for income taxes increased by $497.3 million compared to 2024. The increase in tax provision was primarily driven by higher pre-tax book income, global minimum tax, a decrease in stock-based compensation benefits, and a decrease in research and development credits, partially offset by an increase in deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income.

In 2024, provision for income taxes decreased by $21.4 million compared to 2023. The decrease in tax provision was primarily driven by an increase in stock-based compensation benefits, an increase in research and development credits, and a favorable shift in jurisdictional mix partially offset by higher pre-tax book income.

On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”) was enacted in the U.S. The OBBBA includes significant provisions, such as the permanent extension of certain expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, modifications to the international tax framework and the restoration of favorable tax treatment for certain business provisions. We evaluated the provisions of OBBBA effective in 2025 and its impact on the consolidated financial statements was immaterial.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents of $2.5 billion, consisting primarily of cash held in checking and interest-bearing deposit accounts, as well as investments in money market funds. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, cash flows expected to be generated by our operations, and, if necessary, our borrowing capacity under our 2024 Credit Agreement that provides for a $1.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility, would be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditures needs for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our revenue growth rate; sales and marketing activities; timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts; capital expenditures to purchase hardware and software; our continued need to invest in our IT infrastructure to support our growth; and the volume and timing of our stock repurchases. In addition, we may enter into additional strategic investments in teams and technologies, including intellectual property rights, which could increase our cash requirements. As a result of these and other factors, we may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing sooner than we currently anticipate, or we may opportunistically seek additional financing. See the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Financial and Accounting Matters” for more information regarding risks related to liquidity and capital resources.

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated (all periods include cash flows from continuing and discontinued operations):

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$3,971,094$2,099,011$1,061,510
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities$358,428$(106,754)$(77,829)
Net cash used in financing activities$(2,593,069)$(1,749,844)$(1,562,791)

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $4.0 billion for 2025, primarily consisting of $3.3 billion of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as $210.4 million of stock-based compensation, $194.8 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $188.9 million of goodwill impairment, $50.0 million of impairment of non-marketable equity securities, and a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $77.9 million, partially offset by a gain from the divestiture of our Apps business, net of transaction costs, of $106.2 million.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $2.1 billion for 2024, primarily consisting of $1.6 billion of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as $448.7 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, and $369.4 million of stock-based compensation, partially offset by a net decrease in the operating assets and liabilities of $349.5 million.

The improvement in cash flows from operating activities during 2025 compared to 2024 was primarily due to an increase in cash collection from our customers driven by revenue growth and a decrease of interest payments on debt as a result of lower interest rates, partially offset by higher cash operating expenses primarily associated with operating our network infrastructure, as well as higher income tax payments due to revenue growth.

Investing Activities

Net cash provided by investing activities was $358.4 million for 2025, primarily driven by $407.3 million in proceeds from the divestiture of our Apps business, net of cash divested, which were partially offset by $28.3 million related to purchase of intangible assets and $20.2 million in purchases of non-marketable equity securities.

Net cash used in investing activities was $106.8 million for 2024, primarily consisting of $77.0 million in purchases of non-marketable equity securities and $25.6 million related to purchase of intangible assets.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities was $2.6 billion for 2025, primarily driven by $2.2 billion in stock repurchases under our share repurchase program and $392.4 million in payments for withholding taxes related to the net share settlement of equity awards.

Net cash used in financing activities was $1.7 billion for 2024, primarily consisting of $4.2 billion in principal repayments of debt, $1.1 billion in payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards, and $981.3 million of stock repurchases, partially offset by $4.6 billion of proceeds from issuance of debt.

Credit Agreement

Our unsecured revolving credit facility under the 2024 Credit Agreement provides for up to $1.0 billion of borrowing capacity and matures on December 5, 2029, with the option for two one-year extensions, subject to the terms of the agreement. In March 2025, we borrowed $200.0 million under the facility to fund share repurchases and we repaid $100.0 million in April 2025 and the remaining $100.0 million in May 2025. As of December 31, 2025, $1.0 billion remained available for borrowing under the facility. For additional information, see Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Long-term Debt

As of December 31, 2025, we had $3.6 billion of senior unsecured notes outstanding, issued in multiple series that mature between 2029 and 2054 and bear fixed annual interest rates ranging from 5.125% to 5.950%. Interest is payable semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year, beginning June 1, 2025. For additional information, see Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Stock Repurchase Program

In 2025, we repurchased and retired 5.5 million shares of Class A common stock for $2.2 billion and our board of directors authorized an incremental increase to our stock repurchase program totaling $3.2 billion. As of December 31, 2025, $3.3 billion remained available for repurchases under the program. The program has no expiration date, does not obligate us to repurchase any specific amount of stock, and may be modified, suspended, or terminated at any time at our discretion. For additional information, see Note 10—Equity to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Contractual Obligations

As of December 31, 2025, we had non-cancelable purchase obligations of $702.8 million, primarily related to an agreement for third-party cloud computing services, of which $398.5 million is payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 6—Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2025, we had non-cancelable lease payment obligations of $173.9 million, consisting of $140.3 million for server and network equipment leases and $33.7 million for office leases, of which $37.7 million is payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8—Leases to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Taxes

As of December 31, 2025, our long-term income tax liabilities include $64.2 million related to the uncertain tax positions. Due to uncertainties in the timing of potential tax audits, the timing of the resolution of these positions is uncertain and we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years particularly beyond 12 months.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and related disclosures. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates based on assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. These estimates are inherently subject to judgment and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

An accounting estimate is considered critical if it involves significant subjectivity and judgment, and if changes in the estimate have had or are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements. We believe the following estimates are subject to a greater degree of judgment and complexity and have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. For additional information on all of our significant accounting policies, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Goodwill and Intangible Assets

We assess goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level annually during the fourth quarter, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate potential impairment. Similarly, we evaluate intangible assets for impairment at the asset group level whenever indications suggest that their carrying amounts may not be recoverable. These impairment assessments involve both qualitative and quantitative evaluations.

The qualitative evaluation considers factors such as financial performance, macroeconomic conditions, industry trends, and other relevant events that may impact a reporting unit or asset group. If qualitative assessments suggest a potential impairment, we proceed with a quantitative assessment, which involves significant estimates and assumptions including projected future cash flows, risk-adjusted discount rates, economic and market conditions, and appropriate market comparables, among others. Additionally, we apply judgment and assumptions in allocating shared assets and liabilities to determine the carrying values of each reporting unit or asset group. Furthermore, we review and reassess the estimated remaining useful lives of intangible assets if significant events or changes in circumstances indicate a need to revise the remaining amortization periods.

Equity Method Investments

We account for investments under the equity method when we have the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, over the financial and operating policies of an investee, unless the fair value option is elected. Equity method investments are initially recorded at cost and subsequently adjusted for our proportionate share of the investee’s net income or loss and the amortization of basis differences arising from the excess of investment cost over our share of the investee’s

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underlying net assets. We record our share of the investee’s results and related basis difference amortization one quarter in arrears in other income (expense), net in our consolidated statements of operations.

We evaluate equity method investments for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable and record an impairment loss when a decline in fair value below carrying value is determined to be other than temporary. Indicators of potential impairment include, among other factors, the investee’s financial results and operating trends, implied values from transactions involving the investee’s securities, the severity and duration of any decline in value, and our intent and ability to hold the investment. If an impairment is determined to be other than temporary, we determine the investment’s fair value and record an impairment charge for the difference between fair value and carrying value. Determining fair value, particularly for investments in privately held companies, requires significant judgment and the use of estimates and assumptions. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could affect the fair value determination and the amount of any impairment charges.

Stock-Based Compensation

We measure and recognize stock-based compensation for share-based awards, primarily including restricted stock units ("RSUs"), performance-based RSUs with both service and market-based conditions, stock options and stock purchase rights granted under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan, based on the grant-date fair value of the awards. To estimate the grant-date fair value, we may use different valuation models such as the Black-Scholes option valuation model or the Monte Carlo valuation model that require various assumptions including, among others, the expected stock price volatility, the risk-free interest rate, the expected dividend yield, the discount for awards subject to post-vesting restrictions.

Income Taxes

Significant management judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes, including the determination of deferred tax assets and liabilities. We consider both positive and negative evidence regarding the realizability of deferred tax assets in assessing the need for valuation allowances, and if necessary, adjust the valuation allowance so that the net deferred tax assets are recorded only to the extent we conclude it is more likely than not that these deferred tax assets will be realized.

In evaluating the exposure associated with various tax filing positions, we accrue an income tax liability when such positions do not meet the more-likely-than-not threshold for recognition. We consider changes in facts and circumstances, such as new regulations or recent judicial opinions, as well as the status of audit activities by taxing authorities.

While we believe we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes and the effective tax rate in the period in which such determination is made.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the dates of the statement of financial position included in this Annual Report on 10-K.

MD&A history

Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. The latest 10-K appears above; prior years are below.

FY 2024 10-K MD&A

SEC filing source: 0001751008-25-000018.

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary. Published MD&A gate trimmed front/tail over-capture. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2025-02-27. Report date: 2024-12-31.

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Overview

Our mission is to create meaningful connections between companies and their ideal customers. We provide end-to-end software and AI-powered solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow their global audience. We also operate a portfolio of owned mobile apps and accelerated our market penetration through an active acquisition and partnership strategy. Our scaled business model is intricately linked to the advertising ecosystem, providing a durable competitive advantage. We generate revenue when our advertisers achieve their return on spend targets with our Advertising solutions, ensuring that their success directly fuels our growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building Advertising solutions for advertisers to improve the marketing and monetization of their content. Our founders, who were mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the advertising ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and Advertising solutions. We capitalized on our success and understanding of the mobile app ecosystem by entering into the mobile game apps industry in 2018. Our global diversified portfolio of apps now consist of over 200 free-to-play mobile games across five genres, run by ten studios.

For 2024, our revenue grew 43% year-over-year from 2023, from $3.3 billion in 2023 to $4.7 billion in 2024. For 2023, our revenue grew 17% year-over-year from 2022, from $2.8 billion in 2022 to $3.3 billion in 2023. We generated net income of $1.6 billion in 2024, net income of $356.7 million in 2023, and net loss of $192.9 million in 2022. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion, $1.5 billion, and $1.1 billion in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. Additionally, we have generated strong cash flows, with net cash provided by operating activities of $2.1 billion, $1.1 billion, and $412.8 million in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. Given our strong financial position, we have been able to reinvest in our expansion and growth, and repurchase and withhold shares of our Class A common stock. See the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

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Recent Developments

On February 12, 2025, we announced that we entered into a term sheet for the sale of our mobile gaming business to a privately held company (the “Acquirer”) for total consideration of $900.0 million (the “Term Sheet”). The Term Sheet provides for the total consideration to consist of $400.0 million in shares of the Acquirer’s common equity and $500.0 million in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The Term Sheet also provides that the Acquirer will borrow up to $250.0 million of the cash portion of the total consideration and that, if the Acquirer is unable to obtain such financing, we agree to provide financing in such amount to the Acquirer through the issuance of a promissory note. The Term Sheet is non-binding, except with respect to an agreement by the parties to use commercially reasonable best efforts in good faith to negotiate and finalize definitive agreements for the proposed transaction, a prohibition on us from engaging in discussions or negotiations with any third party other than the Acquirer regarding the sale of our mobile gaming business for a specified period, and customary terms such as fees and expenses, governing law, and termination.

Our Business Model

We collect revenue from Advertising and our Apps. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, Advertising Revenue represented 68% of total revenue and Apps Revenue represented 32% of total revenue.

We report our operating results through two reportable segments: Advertising and Apps.

Our CODM, the Chief Executive Officer, evaluates performance of each segment based on several factors, of which the financial measures are segment revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA, as defined in Note 14 to our consolidated financial statements.

The Advertising and Apps segments provide a view into the organization of our business and generate revenue as follows:

Advertising Revenue

We primarily generate Advertising Revenue from fees paid by advertisers who use our Advertising solutions to grow and monetize their content. We are able to grow our Advertising Revenue by improving our various technologies.

Advertising clients include a wide variety of advertisers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Facebook and Google. We see multiple opportunities to gain new Advertising clients, and to increase spend from existing clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful.

Our Advertising solutions include AppDiscovery, MAX, Adjust, and Wurl. Clients use AppDiscovery to automate, optimize, and manage their user acquisition investments. They set marketing and user growth goals, and AppDiscovery optimizes their ad spend in an effort to achieve their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. AppDiscovery comprises the vast majority of Advertising Revenue. Revenue is generated from our advertisers, typically on a performance-basis, and shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model.

Advertising clients use MAX to optimize purchases of app advertising inventory. The MAX tool provides insights to manage against key performance indicators, understand the long-term value of users, and help manage profitability. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of client spend. As more advertising networks move to in-app real-time bidding, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Advertising clients use Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform to better understand their users' journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

Advertising clients use Wurl's CTV platform to distribute streaming video, maximize Advertising Revenue, and acquire and retain viewers or subscribers. Revenue from Wurl is primarily generated from content companies, typically on a usage-based model.

Apps Revenue

Apps Revenue is generated when a user of one of our Apps makes an in-app purchase (“IAP") and when clients purchase the digital advertising inventory of our portfolio of Apps ("IAA"). We are able to grow our Apps Revenue by adding more apps to our Apps portfolio and increasing engagement on our existing Apps.

Our Apps are generally free-to-play mobile games and generate IAP Revenue through IAPs. IAPs consist of virtual goods used to enhance gameplay, accelerate access to certain features or levels, and augment other mobile game progression opportunities for the user. IAPs drive more engagement and better economics from our Apps. The vast majority of our IAP Revenue flows through two app stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, which charge us a standard commission on IAPs. IAP Revenue represented 68% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, we had an average of 1.6 million Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs") across our portfolio of Apps. Over that period, we had an Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP") of $51. See “Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate MAPs and ARPMAP.

IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps are able to target highly relevant users from our diverse and global portfolio of over 200 mobile games. Our clients leverage a broad set of high-performing mobile ad formats, including playable and rewarded video, and are able to match these ads with relevant users resulting in a better return on their advertising

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spend. By increasing the number of users and their engagement, as well as better matching ads with the appropriate target audience, we are able to increase our revenue from IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps. IAA Revenue represented 32% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024.

Key Metrics

We review the following key metrics on a regular basis in order to evaluate the health of our business, identify trends affecting our performance, prepare financial projections, and make strategic decisions.

Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs"). We define a MAP as a unique mobile device active on one of our Apps in a month that completed at least one IAP during that time period. A consumer who makes IAPs within two separate Apps on the same mobile device in a monthly period will be counted as two MAPs. MAPs for a particular time period longer than one month are the average MAPs for each month during that period. We estimate the number of MAPs by aggregating certain data from third-party attribution partners.

Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP"). We define ARPMAP as (i) the total IAP Revenue derived from our Apps in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAPs in that same period. ARPMAP for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAP for each month during that period. ARPMAP shows how efficiently we are monetizing each MAP.

The following table shows our Monthly Active Payers and Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
Monthly Active Payers (millions)1.61.82.3
Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer$51$46$43

Our key metrics are not based on any standardized industry methodology and are not necessarily calculated in the same manner or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Similarly, our key metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. The numbers that we use to calculate MAPs and ARPMAP are based on internal data. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable judgments and estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income (loss) before interest expense and loss on settlement of debt, other income, net (excluding certain recurring items), provision for (benefit from) income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus, publisher bonuses, MoPub acquisition transition services, restructuring costs, loss on disposal of long-lived assets, and non-operating foreign exchange (gain) losses. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

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The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2024, 2023, and 2022, and a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net income (loss)$1,579,776$356,711$(192,947)
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt318,260275,665171,863
Other income, net1(25,440)(7,831)(18,647)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes(3,771)23,859(12,230)
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs448,680489,008547,084
Loss on disposal of long-lived assets1,646127,892
Non-operating foreign exchange (gain) loss291(1,224)(164)
Stock-based compensation376,455363,107191,612
Acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus8851,04721,279
Publisher bonuses2209,635
MoPub acquisition transition services36,999
Restructuring costs22,8232,31610,834
Adjusted EBITDA$2,719,605$1,502,658$1,063,210
Net income (loss) margin33.5%10.9%(6.8)%
Adjusted EBITDA margin57.8%45.8%37.7%

1 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses.

2 In association with the MoPub acquisition, we incurred certain costs to incentivize publishers to migrate to our MAX mediation solution, including existing publishers of MoPub as well as publishers on other competitor offerings. We have not historically incurred significant publisher migration costs, nor do we currently intend to incur significant publisher migration costs in the future. As such, we have removed the impact of these costs from Adjusted EBITDA.

3 Reflects one-time transition services provided by Twitter to AppLovin.

Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and principal payment of finance leases. We use Free Cash Flow to help manage the health of our business, prepare budgets and for capital allocation purposes. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful supplemental information to help investors understand underlying trends in our business and our liquidity. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect our future contractual commitments. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish Free Cash Flow or similar metrics. Thus, our Free Cash Flow should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Free Cash Flow for 2024, 2023, and 2022, and a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$2,099,011$1,061,510$412,773
Less:
Purchase of property and equipment(4,776)(4,246)(662)
Principal payments of finance leases(20,875)(20,170)(24,083)
Free Cash Flow$2,073,360$1,037,094$388,028
Net cash used in investing activities$(106,754)$(77,829)$(1,371,468)
Net cash used in financing activities$(1,749,844)$(1,562,791)$(526,848)

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to continue to grow profitably while maintaining strong cash flow.

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Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our Advertising solutions to enhance their effectiveness and value proposition for our clients. We expect that these investments will require spending on research and development, and acquisitions and partnerships related to technology components and products. We believe investments in our technology, including our AI-powered advertising engine AXON, AppDiscovery, Adjust, and MAX, will further improve effectiveness for advertisers. In addition, we plan to continue to invest in the AI-based, self-learning capabilities of our advertising recommendation engine, AXON. Our investments will also allow us to enter into and expand into new verticals outside of gaming, such as e-commerce, CTV, original equipment manufacturer ("OEM"), and carrier-related markets. While our investments in research and development and acquisitions and partnerships may not result in revenue in the near term, we believe these investments position us to increase our revenue over time.

Retain and grow existing clients

We rely on existing clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our Advertising solutions and Apps, we can attract additional spend from these clients. Our clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with these clients and increase their usage of our Advertising solutions.

In the past, our clients have generally increased their usage of our Advertising solutions and Apps, and as a result, growth from existing clients has been a primary driver of our revenue growth. We must continue to retain our existing clients and expand their spend with us over time to continue to grow our revenue, increase profitability and drive greater cash flow.

Add new clients globally

Our future success depends in part on our ability to acquire new clients. In 2024, 43% of our revenue was generated from outside of the United States. We believe that the global opportunity is significant and will continue to expand as developers and advertisers outside the United States adopt our Advertising solutions and advertise on our Apps. We also see opportunities to acquire new clients outside of mobile gaming, as the capabilities of our Advertising solutions are relevant to the broader advertising ecosystem. We are investing in direct sales, product development, education, and other capabilities to drive increased awareness and adoption of our Advertising solutions and Apps, which investments may impact our profitability in the near term as we seek further scale.

Continued execution of strategic partnerships

We continue to explore strategic partnership opportunities related to our Software Platform and the expansion of the markets it serves and we may from time to time evaluate strategic acquisitions and partnerships opportunistically. From the beginning of 2018 through 2024, we have invested approximately $4.1 billion in 33 strategic acquisitions and partnerships with mobile app developers and for technologies or relationships to enhance our Advertising solutions, including the acquisition of MAX in 2018, Adjust in April 2021, MoPub in January 2022, and Wurl in April 2022. We believe our future results of operations will be affected by our ability to continue to identify and execute such strategic transactions that are accretive to our growth and profitability.

Growth and structure of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems

Our business and results of operations will be impacted by industry factors that drive the overall performance of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. Mobile app developers, including AppLovin, rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute games, collect payments made for IAPs, and target users with relevant advertising. We expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our Advertising solutions to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Any changes made in the policies of third-party platforms could drive rapid change across the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. For example, in April 2021, Apple started implementing its application tracking transparency framework that, among other things, requires users' opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. While this transparency framework has not had a significant impact on our overall business, it may do so in the future, including with respect to the effectiveness of our advertising practices and/or our ability to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps. We rely in part on Identifier for Advertisers ("IDFA") to provide us with data that helps our Advertising solutions better market and monetize Apps. In light of the IDFA and transparency changes, we made changes to our data collection practices. To the extent we are unable to utilize IDFA or a similar offering, or if the transparency changes and any related opt-in or other requirements result in decreases in the availability or utility of data relating to Apps, our Advertising solutions may not be as effective, we may not be able to continue to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps, and our revenue and results of operations may be harmed. Additionally, Apple implemented new requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy and data processing practices in December 2020, which has resulted in increased compliance requirements and could result in decreased usage of our Apps. Apple incorporated new SDK privacy controls into iOS 17, which was released in September 2023, including privacy manifests and signatures designed to allow app developers to outline the data practices for SDKs embedded in their apps, manage tracking domains within SDKs, and curb device fingerprinting by requiring app developers to select allowed reasons for using data received through certain APIs. In February 2022, Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative for Android, a multi-year effort expected to restrict tracking activity and limit advertisers' ability to collect app and user data across Android devices. In January 2024, Google commenced rolling out a Chrome feature, called Tracking Protection, which limits

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cross-site tracking. In May 2023, Google announced new consent management platform ("CMP") requirements for ads served in the European Economic Area ("EEA") and UK, which requires, as of January 2024, publishers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob to use a CMP that has been certified by Google and has integrated with the Interactive Advertising Bureau's ("IAB") Transparency and Consent Framework when serving ads to users in the EEA or the UK. While to date these third-party platform privacy changes have had some impact on the discoverability of apps across these platforms and have had a relatively muted aggregate impact on our results of operations, the ultimate impact of these or any similar or future changes to the policies of Apple or Google could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

New tools for developers, industry standards, and platforms may emerge in the future. We believe our focus on the advertising ecosystem has allowed us to understand the needs of our clients and our relentless innovation has enabled us to quickly adapt to changes in the industry and pioneer new solutions. We must continue to innovate and stay ahead of developments in the advertising and mobile app ecosystems in order for our business to succeed and our results of operations to continue to improve.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate Advertising Revenue primarily from fees collected from advertisers spending on AppDiscovery, typically on a performance basis, then shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression basis. Advertising Revenue also includes fees generated based on a percentage of client spend through MAX and subscription fees for Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform. Revenue from other services under Advertising was not material.

We generate Apps Revenue from IAPs made by the users within our Apps and from IAA generated from advertisers that purchase advertising inventory from our diverse portfolio of Apps. IAA Revenue from our Apps was 32%, 31%, and 33% of total Apps Revenue in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of payment processing fees related to IAP Revenue, amortization of acquired technology-related intangible assets, amortization of finance lease right-of-use assets related to certain servers and networking equipment and data center costs related primarily to third-party cloud computing services. The fees for IAPs are processed and collected by third-party distribution partners. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars over the long term as our business and revenue continue to grow. We also expect our cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period.

Sales and marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of user acquisition costs, marketing programs and other advertising expenses, professional services costs related to the marketing of apps by third parties, personnel-related expenses including salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in sales and marketing activities, amortization of acquired user-related intangible assets, travel and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to grow our Advertising customer base and increase brand awareness. We expect sales and marketing expenses to fluctuate period-over-period as we launch new games. We also expect our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period- over-period in the near term as we invest to grow our customer base and increase brand awareness, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of product development costs, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in research and development activities, professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, consulting costs, regulatory compliance costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in research and development to continue to enhance our Advertising solutions and to improve existing games and develop new games. We expect our research and development expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to enhance our Advertising solutions and improve our existing Apps and develop new Apps, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to support our business, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in finance, accounting, legal, human resources and administration, professional services fees for legal, accounting, recruiting, and administrative services (including acquisition-related expenses), insurance, travel, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in our general and administrative function to support the growth of our business. We expect our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to support the growth of our business, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Other Income and Expenses

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt. Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt consists primarily of interest expense associated with our outstanding debt, including accretion of debt discount and issuance costs.

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Other income, net. Other income, net, primarily includes interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, fair value adjustments relating to our non-marketable equity securities, and foreign currency gains and losses.

Provision for (benefit from) income taxes. We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, impacts from acquisition restructuring, deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income, future changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws. Additionally, our effective tax rate can vary based on the amount of pre-tax income or loss.

Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.

The following tables summarize our consolidated statement of operations:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands)
Revenue$4,709,248$3,283,087$2,817,058
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue1,21,166,8061,059,1911,256,065
Sales and marketing1,2849,209830,718919,550
Research and development1638,689592,386507,607
General and administrative1181,085152,585181,627
Total costs and expenses2,835,7892,634,8802,864,849
Income (loss) from operations1,873,459648,207(47,791)
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(318,260)(275,665)(171,863)
Other income, net20,8068,02814,477
Total other expense(297,454)(267,637)(157,386)
Income (loss) before income taxes1,576,005380,570(205,177)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes(3,771)23,859(12,230)
Net income (loss)$1,579,776$356,711$(192,947)

_______

1 Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$5,499$5,229$6,307
Sales and marketing83,43579,87941,533
Research and development239,902230,80694,319
General and administrative47,61947,19349,453
Total stock-based compensation$376,455$363,107$191,612

_______

2 Includes amortization expense related to acquired intangibles as follows:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$338,380$382,956$448,462
Sales and marketing74,24867,19066,173
Total amortization expense related to acquired intangibles$412,628$450,146$514,635

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue1:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
Revenue100%100%100%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue25%32%45%
Sales and marketing18%25%33%
Research and development14%18%18%
General and administrative4%5%6%
Total costs and expenses60%80%102%
Income (loss) from operations40%20%(2)%
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(7)%(8)%(6)%
Other income, net%%1%
Total other expense(6)%(8)%(6)%
Income (loss) before income taxes33%12%(7)%
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes%1%%
Net income (loss)34%11%(7)%

_______

1 Totals of percentages of revenue may not foot due to rounding.

Comparison of Our Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022

Revenue

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Advertising Revenue$3,224,058$1,841,762$1,049,16775%76%
In-App Purchases Revenue1,002,656989,0071,179,1331%(16)%
In-App Advertising Revenue482,534452,318588,7587%(23)%
Total Apps Revenue1,485,1901,441,3251,767,8913%(18)%
Total Revenue$4,709,248$3,283,087$2,817,05843%17%

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, our Advertising Revenue increased by $1.4 billion, or 75%, from the prior year period primarily due to improved AppDiscovery performance, where the volume of installations increased 50% and net revenue per installation increased 22% compared to the prior year period. We do not recognize Advertising Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, our Apps Revenue increased by $43.9 million, or 3%, from the prior year period. Our IAA Revenue from Apps increased by $30.2 million, or 7%, compared to the prior year period, due to a 34% increase in the volume of advertising impressions, partially offset by a 20% decrease in price per advertising impression. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our studios. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, our IAP Revenue from Apps increased by $13.6 million, or 1%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 3% increase in price per in-app purchase, partially offset by a 2% decrease in the volume of in-app purchases. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our Advertising Revenue increased by $792.6 million, or 76%, from the prior year period primarily due to publisher bonuses of $209.6 million accounted for as a reduction to revenue in the prior year period. The increase in Advertising Revenue was also due to improved AppDiscovery performance, where installations increased 17% and net revenue per installation increased 35% compared to the prior year period. We do not recognize Advertising Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our Apps Revenue decreased by $326.6 million, or 18%, from the prior year period. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our IAP Revenue from Apps decreased by $190.1 million, or 16%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 12% decrease in the volume of IAPs and a 5% decrease in price per IAP. Our IAA Revenue from Apps decreased by $136.4 million, or 23%, compared to the prior year period, due to a 45% decrease in price per advertising impression, partially offset by a 39% increase in the volume of advertising impressions. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our studios.

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Cost of revenue

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue$1,166,806$1,059,191$1,256,06510%(16)%
Percentage of revenue25%32%45%

Cost of revenue in 2024 increased by $107.6 million, or 10%, compared to 2023. The increase in 2024 was primarily due to an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our Advertising operations of $141.4 million, partially offset by a decrease of $44.5 million in amortization and impairment of intangible assets resulting from the end of the useful life of certain intangible assets.

Cost of revenue in 2023 decreased by $196.9 million, or 16%, compared to 2022. The decrease in 2023 was primarily due to a decrease of $192.3 million in amortization and impairment of intangible assets resulting from the sale of certain assets within our Apps segment during the second half of 2022 and a decrease of $50.0 million in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the decline in IAP revenue, offset by an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our Software Platform operations of $42.7 million.

Sales and marketing

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing$849,209$830,718$919,5502%(10)%
Percentage of revenue18%25%33%

Sales and marketing expenses in 2024 increased by $18.5 million, or 2%, compared to 2023 due primarily to an increase of $10.3 million in depreciation and amortization driven by write-offs of certain intangible assets, an increase of $9.4 million increase in personnel-related expenses primarily related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs and an increase of $9.6 million in professional services costs associated with the marketing of apps by third parties. This was partially offset by a decrease of $17.9 million in user acquisition costs.

Sales and marketing expenses in 2023 decreased by $88.8 million, or 10%, compared to 2022 primarily due to a $126.5 million decrease in user acquisition costs and a $12.3 million decrease in professional services costs associated with the strategic review and optimization of our Apps segment, offset by a $47.5 million increase in personnel-related expense primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation.

Research and development

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Research and development$638,689$592,386$507,6078%17%
Percentage of revenue14%18%18%

Research and development expenses in 2024 increased by $46.3 million, or 8%, compared to 2023. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $44.9 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs.

Research and development expenses in 2023 increased by $84.8 million, or 17%, compared to 2022. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $145.5 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount, offset by a decrease of $67.1 million in professional services costs due to the optimization and sale of certain assets within our Apps segment.

General and administrative

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative$181,085$152,585$181,62719%(16)%
Percentage of revenue4%5%6%

General and administrative expenses in 2024 increased by $28.5 million, or 19% compared to 2023. The increase was primarily due to $12.7 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation related payroll costs and an increase of $11.7 million in legal-related costs.

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General and administrative expenses in 2023 decreased by $29.0 million, or 16% compared to 2022. The decrease was primarily due to $12.7 million in acquisition-related costs in 2022 and a decrease of $6.7 million in professional services costs primarily associated with acquisition support.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt$(318,260)$(275,665)$(171,863)15%60%
Percentage of revenue(7)%(8)%(6)%

In 2024, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $42.6 million, or 15%, compared to 2023. This increase was due to loss on extinguishment of debt of $28.4 million in the current period. In addition, the prior year period includes a net gain of $15.8 million related to interest rate swaps.

In 2023, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $103.8 million, or 60%, compared to 2022. This increase was primary driven by $99.5 million due to an increase in interest rate and $4.3 million in loss on settlement of debt resulting from a debt refinancing transaction during the period.

Other income, net

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income, net$20,806$8,028$14,477159%(45)%
Percentage of revenue%%1%

In 2024, other income, net increased by $12.8 million compared to 2023. The increase was primarily due to the loss on fair value remeasurement of $20.7 million from the impairment of non-marketable equity securities in the prior year period, partially offset by a decrease in interest income of $10.2 million due to a reduction in average cash balances held during the period.

In 2023, other income, net decreased by $6.4 million compared to 2022. The decrease was primarily due to the loss on fair value remeasurement of $20.7 million from the impairment of non-marketable equity securities and an expense resulting from a debt refinancing transaction of $11.0 million, offset by an increase in interest income of $23.2 million and an increase in net foreign currency gains and losses of $4.4 million.

Provision for (benefit from) Income Taxes

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes$(3,771)$23,859$(12,230)(116)%(295)%
Percentage of revenue%1%%

In 2024, tax provision for income taxes decreased by $27.6 million, or 116%, compared to 2023. The decrease in tax provision was primarily driven by an increase of $172.9 million of stock-based compensation benefit, a benefit of $123.2 million due to foreign income taxed at a different rate, an increase of $31.5 million in the research and development credit, offset by an increase of $251.0 million due to higher pre-tax book income of $1.6 billion in 2024 as compared to pre-tax book income of $380.6 million in 2023, and an increase of $34.7 million related to increase in Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income.

In 2023, tax provision for income taxes increased by $36.1 million, or 295%, compared to 2022. The increase in tax provision was primarily driven by an increase of $119.0 million due to the tax impact on the pre-tax income of $380.6 million in 2023 as compared to pre-tax loss of $205.2 million in 2022, offset by $65.7 million related to foreign rate differential and income inclusion, an increase of $16.5 million related to increase in Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income offset by an increase in foreign tax credit, an increase of $25.9 million of stock-based compensation benefit, and an increase of $13.3 million in the research and development credit.

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Comparison of our Segment Results of Operations

The following table presents the results for our Advertising and Apps segment adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated:

Year Ended December 31,2023 to 2024 % change2022 to 2023 % change
202420232022
(in thousands, except percentages)
Advertising Adjusted EBITDA$2,442,597$1,275,705$808,41591%58%
Apps Adjusted EBITDA$277,008$226,953$254,79522%(11)%

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2024 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2023

The $1.2 billion, or 91%, increase in Advertising Adjusted EBITDA for 2024 was primarily driven by an increase in Advertising Revenue of $1.4 billion, partially offset by an increase of $141.3 million in expenses associated with our network infrastructure and an increase of $33.3 million in personnel-related expenses.

The $50.1 million, or 22%, increase in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for 2024 was primarily driven by an increase in Apps Revenue of $43.9 million, a $17.9 million decrease in user acquisition costs, and a $7.7 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with IAPs, partially offset by an $18.2 million increase in professional services costs related to marketing, development and maintenance of apps by third parties.

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022

The $467.3 million, or 58%, increase in Advertising Adjusted EBITDA for 2023 was primarily driven by an increase in Advertising Revenue of $792.6 million, partially offset by an increase of $49.5 million in expenses associated with our network infrastructure and an increase of $46.6 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount. In addition, Advertising Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 has been adjusted to exclude one-time publisher bonuses of $209.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The $27.8 million, or 11%, decrease in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for 2023 was primarily driven by a decrease in Apps Revenue of $326.6 million, offset by a $126.7 million decrease in user acquisition costs, an $84.1 million decrease in professional services costs related to marketing, development and maintenance of apps by third parties, a $50.0 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with IAPs, and a $15.9 million decrease in personnel-related expenses.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of December 31, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents of $741.4 million, consisting primarily of cash on deposit with banks and short-term liquid investments in money market deposit accounts. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, cash flows expected to be generated by our operations, and, if necessary, our borrowing capacity under our 2024 Credit Agreement that provides for $1.0 billion of unsecured revolving credit facility, would be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditures needs for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our revenue growth rate; sales and marketing activities; timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts; capital expenditures to purchase hardware and software; our continued need to invest in our IT infrastructure to support our growth; and the volume and timing of our stock repurchases. In addition, we may enter into additional strategic partnerships as well as agreements to acquire or invest in teams and technologies, including intellectual property rights, which could increase our cash requirements. As a result of these and other factors, we may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing sooner than we currently anticipate. See the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Financial and Accounting Matters” for more information regarding risks related to liquidity and capital resources.

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

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$2,099,011$1,061,510$412,773
Net cash used in investing activities$(106,754)$(77,829)$(1,371,468)
Net cash used in financing activities$(1,749,844)$(1,562,791)$(526,848)

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $2.1 billion for 2024, primarily consisting of $1.6 billion of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as $448.7 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $369.4 million of stock-based compensation expense, $28.4 million of loss on settlement of debt, $12.7 million of change in operating right of use asset, partially offset by a net decrease in the operating assets and liabilities of $349.5 million.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $1.1 billion for 2023, primarily consisting of $356.7 million of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as $489.0 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $363.1 million of stock-

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based compensation expense, $28.0 million of impairment of non-marketable equity securities, $17.8 million of change in operating right of use asset, and $9.4 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $208.7 million.

The improvement in cash flows from operating activities during 2024 compared to 2023 was primarily due to an increase in cash collection from our customers driven by the increase in revenue, partially offset by higher cash operating expenses, primarily related to data center and payroll related costs, as well as higher interest payments due to an increase of debt.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $106.8 million for 2024, primarily consisting of $77.0 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and $25.6 million related to contingent considerations for prior acquisitions and capitalized software development costs.

Net cash used in investing activities was $77.8 million for 2023, primarily consisting of $63.9 million related to contingent considerations for prior acquisitions and capitalized software development costs, and $17.9 million in purchases of non-marketable investments.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities was $1.7 billion for 2024, primarily consisting of $4.2 billion of principal repayments of debt, $1.1 billion of payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards, and $981.3 million of stock repurchases, partially offset by $4.6 billion of proceeds from issuance of debt.

Net cash used in financing activities was $1.6 billion for 2023, primarily consisting of $1.2 billion of stock repurchases, $498.0 million of principal repayments of debt, and $246.4 million of payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards, partially offset by $395.3 million of proceeds from issuance of debt.

Credit Agreement

In December 2024, we entered into an unsecured credit agreement (the "2024 Credit Agreement"), which provided for a $1.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility maturing on December 5, 2029, with the option for two one-year extensions as permitted under the agreement. The 2024 Credit Agreement replaced the existing credit agreement, originally entered into in August 2018 and subsequently amended multiple times. As of December 31, 2024, no amounts had been borrowed under the 2024 Credit Agreement. For additional information on the 2024 Credit Agreement, see Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Long-term Debt

As of December 2024, we had outstanding long-term debt in the form of senior unsecured notes for an aggregate principal amount of $3.6 billion. These notes were issued in multiple series, which mature from 2029 to 2035 and bear fixed annual interest rates ranging from 5.125% to 5.950%, with interest payments due semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year, beginning on June 1, 2025. For additional information, see Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Stock Repurchase Program

During 2024, our board of directors authorized increases to our stock repurchase program of an aggregate amount of $3.3 billion, which additional amount may be repurchased from time to time subject to a limitation in any fiscal quarter of the amount of our Free Cash Flow in the preceding fiscal quarter and compliance with applicable law and any contractual restrictions. As of December 31, 2024, $2.3 billion remained available and authorized for repurchases under our stock repurchase program. For additional information on the stock repurchase program, see Note 10 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Contractual Obligations

As of December 31, 2024, we had non-cancellable purchase obligations primarily related to an agreement for third-party cloud computing services of $1.2 billion, with $438.9 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2024, we had non-cancelable payments related to leases of servers and networking equipment of $184.1 million, with $30.5 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2024, we had non-cancellable payments related to leases of office facilities of $51.4 million, with $16.8 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2024, we had unfunded commitments of $21.5 million related to investments in certain private equity funds, which may be called from time to time by the funds. For additional information, see Note 3 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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As of December 31, 2024, we had a non-cancelable payment related to a third-party intellectual property license of $12.8 million, which was paid in January 2025.

As of December 31, 2024, we had certain contingent consideration arrangements related to our prior acquisitions, with payouts contingent on the profit or revenue generated by the relevant Apps. We do not expect these payouts to have a material impact on our cash flows.

Taxes

As of December 31, 2024, we had recorded liabilities of $60.9 million related to uncertain tax positions. Due to uncertainties in the timing of potential tax audits, the timing of the resolution of these positions is uncertain and we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years particularly beyond 12 months.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities revenue, expenses and related disclosures. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates based on assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. These estimates are inherently subject to judgment and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

An accounting estimate is considered critical if it involves significant subjectivity and judgment, and if changes in the estimate have had or are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements. We believe the following estimates are subject to a greater degree of judgment and complexity and have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. For additional information on all of our significant accounting policies, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Goodwill and Intangible Assets

We assess goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level annually during the fourth quarter, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate potential impairment. Similarly, we evaluate intangible assets for impairment at the asset group level whenever indications suggest that their carrying amounts may not be recoverable. These impairment assessments involve both qualitative and quantitative evaluations.

The qualitative evaluation considers factors such as financial performance, macroeconomic conditions, industry trends, and other relevant events that may impact an reporting unit or asset group. If qualitative assessments suggest a potential impairment, we proceed with a quantitative assessment, which involves significant estimates and assumptions including projected future cash flows, risk-adjusted discount rates, economic and market conditions, and appropriate market comparables, among others. Additionally, we apply judgment and assumptions in allocating shared assets and liabilities to determine the carrying values of each reporting unit or asset group. Furthermore, we review and reassess the estimated remaining useful lives of intangible assets if significant events or changes in circumstances indicate a need to revise the remaining amortization periods.

Stock-Based Compensation

We measure and recognize stock-based compensation expense for share-based awards, primarily including restricted stock units ("RSUs"), performance-based RSUs with both service and market-based conditions, stock options and stock purchase rights granted under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan, based on the grant-date fair value of the awards. To estimate the grant-date fair value, we may use different valuation models such as the Black-Scholes option valuation model or the Monte Carlo valuation model that require various assumptions including, among others, the expected stock price volatility, the risk-free interest rate, the expected dividend yield, the discount for awards subject to post-vesting restrictions.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance would be made to reduce the provision for income taxes.

We record uncertain tax positions on the basis of a two-step process in which determinations are made (i) whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (ii) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with a tax authority.

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We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in the income tax expense line in our consolidated statement of operations. Accrued interest and penalties are included in the other non-current liabilities line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the dates of the statement of financial position included in this Annual Report on 10-K.

FY 2023 10-K MD&A

SEC filing source: 0001751008-24-000012.

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2024-02-26. Report date: 2023-12-31.

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Overview

Our mission is to create meaningful connections between companies and their ideal customers. We provide end-to-end software and AI-powered solutions for businesses to reach, monetize and grow their global audience. We also operate a portfolio of owned mobile apps and accelerated our market penetration through an active acquisition and partnership strategy. Our scaled business model sits at the nexus of the advertising ecosystem, which creates a durable competitive advantage that has fueled our clients’ success and our strong growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building a software-based platform for advertisers to improve the

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marketing and monetization of their content. Our founders, who were mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the advertising ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and Software Platform. We capitalized on our success and understanding of the mobile app ecosystem by entering into the mobile game apps industry in 2018. Our global diversified portfolio of apps now consist of over 200 free-to-play mobile games across five genres, run by eleven studios.

For 2023, our revenue grew 17% year-over-year from 2022, from $2.82 billion in 2022 to $3.28 billion in 2023. For 2022, our revenue grew 1% year-over-year from 2021, from $2.79 billion in 2021 to $2.82 billion in 2022. We generated net income of $356.7 million in 2023, net loss of $192.9 million in 2022, and net income of $35.3 million in 2021. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion, $1.1 billion, and $726.8 million in 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Additionally, we have generated strong cash flows, with net cash provided by operating activities of $1.1 billion, $412.8 million, and $361.9 million in 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively. Given our strong financial position, we have been able to reinvest in our expansion and growth and consummate strategic acquisitions and partnerships. See the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

In February 2022, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program to repurchase $750.0 million of our Class A common stock, which was increased by $296.0 million in May 2023, $447.6 million in August 2023, and $1.25 billion in February 2024. As of December 31, 2023, we had repurchased $1,153.6 million of our class A common stock. We will continuously evaluate efficient alternatives to using cash on hand to fund the program, including accessing the capital markets, subject to market conditions.

Our Business Model

We collect revenue from our Software Platform and our Apps. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, Software Platform Revenue represented 56% of total revenue and Apps Revenue represented 44% of total revenue.

We report our operating results through two reportable segments: Software Platform and Apps. Prior to the second quarter of 2022, we had a single operating and reportable segment.

Our CODM, the Chief Executive Officer, evaluates performance of each segment based on several factors, of which the financial measures are segment revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA, as defined in Note 14 to our consolidated financial statements.

The Software Platform and Apps segments provide a view into the organization of our business and generate revenue as follows:

Software Platform Revenue

We primarily generate Software Platform Revenue from fees paid by advertisers who use our Software Platform to grow and monetize their content. We are able to grow our Software Platform Revenue by improving our various software technologies.

Software Platform clients include a wide variety of advertisers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Facebook and Google. We see multiple opportunities to gain new Software Platform clients, and to increase spend from existing clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful.

Our Software Platform includes AppDiscovery, MAX, Adjust, and Wurl. Clients use AppDiscovery to automate, optimize, and manage their user acquisition investments. They set marketing and user growth goals, and AppDiscovery optimizes their ad spend in an effort to achieve their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. AppDiscovery comprises the vast majority of revenue from our Software Platform. Revenue is generated from our advertisers, typically on a performance-basis, and shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model.

Software Platform clients use MAX to optimize purchases of app advertising inventory. The MAX tool suite provides insights to manage against key performance indicators, understand the long-term value of users, and help manage profitability. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of client spend. As more developers move to in-app bidding monetization, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Software Platform clients use Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform to better understand their users' journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

Software Platform clients use Wurl's CTV platform to distribute streaming video, maximize advertising revenue, and acquire and retain viewers or subscribers. Revenue from Wurl is primarily generated from content companies, typically on a usage-based model.

Apps Revenue

Apps Revenue is generated when a user of one of our Apps makes an in-app purchase (“IAP") and when clients purchase the digital advertising inventory of our portfolio of Apps ("IAA"). We are able to grow our Apps Revenue by adding more apps to our Apps portfolio and increasing engagement on our existing Apps.

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Our Apps are generally free-to-play mobile games and generate IAP Revenue through IAPs. IAPs consist of virtual goods used to enhance gameplay, accelerate access to certain features or levels, and augment other mobile game progression opportunities for the user. IAPs drive more engagement and better economics from our Apps. The vast majority of our IAP revenue flows through two app stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, which charge us a standard commission on IAPs. IAP Revenue represented 69% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, we had an average of 1.8 million Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs") across our portfolio of Apps. Over that period, we had an Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP") of $46. See “Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate MAPs and ARPMAP.

IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps are able to target highly relevant users from our diverse and global portfolio of over 200 mobile games. Our clients leverage a broad set of high-performing mobile ad formats, including playable and rewarded video, and are able to match these ads with relevant users resulting in a better return on their advertising spend. By increasing the number of users and their engagement, as well as better matching ads with the appropriate target audience, we are able to increase our revenue from IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps. IAA Revenue represented 31% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

Key Metrics

We review the following key metrics on a regular basis in order to evaluate the health of our business, identify trends affecting our performance, prepare financial projections, and make strategic decisions.

Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs"). We define a MAP as a unique mobile device active on one of our Apps in a month that completed at least one IAP during that time period. A consumer who makes IAPs within two separate Apps on the same mobile device in a monthly period will be counted as two MAPs. MAPs for a particular time period longer than one month are the average MAPs for each month during that period. We estimate the number of MAPs by aggregating certain data from third-party attribution partners. Some of our Apps do not utilize such third-party attribution partners, and therefore our MAPs figure for any period does not capture every user that completed an IAP on our Apps. We estimate that our counted MAPs generated approximately 99% of our IAP Revenue during the year ended December 31, 2023, and as such, management believes that MAPs is still a useful metric to measure the engagement and monetization potential of our games.

Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP"). We define ARPMAP as (i) the total IAP Revenue derived from our Apps in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAPs in that same period. ARPMAP for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAP for each month during that period. ARPMAP shows how efficiently we are monetizing each MAP.

The following table shows our Monthly Active Payers and Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Year Ended December 31,
202320222021
Monthly Active Payers (millions)1.82.33.0
Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer$46$43$43

Our key metrics are not based on any standardized industry methodology and are not necessarily calculated in the same manner or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Similarly, our key metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. The numbers that we use to calculate MAPs and ARPMAP are based on internal data. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable judgments and estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income (loss) before interest expense and loss on settlement of debt, other income (expense), net (excluding certain recurring items), provision for (benefit from) income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus, publisher bonuses, MoPub acquisition transition services, restructuring costs, impairment and loss in connection with the sale of long-lived assets, non-operating foreign exchange (gain) losses, and change in the fair value of contingent consideration. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of

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our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2023, 2022, and 2021, and a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:

Year Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net income (loss)$356,711$(192,947)$35,338
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt275,665171,863103,170
Other income (expense), net1(7,831)(18,647)(7,545)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes23,859(12,230)10,973
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs489,008547,084431,063
Impairment and loss in connection with sale of long-lived assets127,892
Non-operating foreign exchange gain(1,224)(164)(1,537)
Stock-based compensation2363,107191,612135,468
Acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus1,04721,27916,887
Publisher bonuses3209,6353,227
MoPub acquisition transition services46,999
Restructuring costs2,31610,834
Change in the fair value of contingent consideration(230)
Adjusted EBITDA$1,502,658$1,063,210$726,814
Net income (loss) margin10.9%(6.8)%1.3%
Adjusted EBITDA margin45.8%37.7%26.0%

1 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses and write-off investments included in Amortization, depreciation and write-offs.

2 The twelve months ended December 31, 2021 includes $2.3 million of bonus compensation settled in stock outside of the scope of ASC 718.

3 In association with the MoPub acquisition, we incurred certain costs to incentivize publishers to migrate to our MAX mediation solution, including existing publishers of MoPub as well as publishers on other competitor offerings. We have not historically incurred significant publisher migration costs, nor do we currently intend to incur significant publisher migration costs in the future. As such, we have removed the impact of these costs from Adjusted EBITDA.

4 Reflects one-time transition services provided by Twitter to AppLovin.

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Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and principal payment of finance leases. We use Free Cash Flow to help manage the health of our business, prepare budgets and for capital allocation purposes. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful supplemental information to help investors understand underlying trends in our business and our liquidity. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect our future contractual commitments. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish Free Cash Flow or similar metrics. Thus, our Free Cash Flow should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Free Cash Flow for 2023, 2022, and 2021, and a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:

Year Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net cash provided by operating activities$1,061,510$412,773$361,851
Less:
Purchase of property and equipment(4,246)(662)(1,390)
Principal payments of finance leases(20,170)(24,083)(15,271)
Free Cash Flow$1,037,094$388,028$345,190
Net cash used in investing activities$(77,829)$(1,371,468)$(1,214,930)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities$(1,562,791)$(526,848)$3,109,546

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to continue to grow profitably while maintaining strong cash flow.

Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our Software Platform to enhance its effectiveness and value proposition for our clients. We expect that these investments will require spending on research and development, and acquisitions and partnerships related to technology components and products. We believe investments in our software, including our AI-powered advertising engine AXON, AppDiscovery, Adjust, and MAX, will further improve effectiveness for advertisers. Our investments will also allow us to enter new mobile app sectors outside of gaming. While our investments in research and development and acquisitions and partnerships may not result in revenue in the near term, we believe these investments position us to increase our revenue over time.

Retain and grow existing clients

We rely on existing clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our Software Platform and Apps, we can attract additional spend from these clients. Our clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with these clients and increase their usage of our Software Platform. We have invested in targeted sales and account-based marketing efforts, including through Adjust’s sales and marketing teams, to identify and showcase opportunities to clients and plan to continue to do so in the future.

In the past, our clients have generally increased their usage of our Software Platform and Apps, and as a result, growth from existing clients has been a primary driver of our revenue growth. We must continue to retain our existing clients and expand their spend with us over time to continue to grow our revenue, increase profitability and drive greater cash flow.

Add new clients globally

Our future success depends in part on our ability to acquire new clients. We recently increased our focus on markets outside the United States to serve the needs of clients globally. In 2023, only 42% of our revenue from Software Platform and IAA Revenue clients was generated from outside of the United States. We believe that the global opportunity is significant and will continue to expand as developers and advertisers outside the United States adopt our Software Platform and advertise on our Apps. We also see opportunities to acquire new clients outside of mobile gaming, as the capabilities of our Software Platform are relevant to the broader advertising and mobile app ecosystems. We are investing in direct sales, product development, education, and other capabilities to drive increased awareness and adoption of our Software Platform and Apps, which investments may impact our profitability in the near term as we seek further scale. We must continue to acquire new clients to grow our revenue, increase profitability, and drive greater cash flow.

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Continued execution of strategic partnerships

We intend to continue to explore and enter into strategic partnerships to grow our business. From the beginning of 2018 through end of 2022, we have invested nearly $4.0 billion in 29 strategic acquisitions and partnerships with mobile app developers and for technologies to enhance our Software Platform including the acquisition of MAX in 2018, Adjust in April 2021, MoPub in January 2022, and Wurl in April 2022. While we were not focused on acquisitions in 2023, we continue to explore strategic partnership opportunities related to our Software Platform, and the expansion of the markets it serves. We believe our future results of operations will be affected by our ability to continue to identify and execute such transactions that are accretive to our growth and profitability.

Growth and structure of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems

Our business and results of operations will be impacted by industry factors that drive the overall performance of the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. Mobile app developers, including AppLovin, rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute games, collect payments made for IAPs, and target users with relevant advertising. We expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our Software Platform to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Any changes made in the policies of third-party platforms could drive rapid change across the mobile app and advertising ecosystems. For example, in April 2021, Apple started implementing its application tracking transparency framework that, among other things, requires users' opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. While this transparency framework has not had a significant impact on our overall business, it may do so in the future, including with respect to the effectiveness of our advertising practices and/or our ability to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps. We rely in part on Identifier for Advertisers ("IDFA") to provide us with data that helps our Software Platform better market and monetize Apps. In light of the IDFA and transparency changes, we made changes to our data collection practices. To the extent we are unable to utilize IDFA or a similar offering, or if the transparency changes and any related opt-in or other requirements result in decreases in the availability or utility of data relating to Apps, our Software Platform may not be as effective, we may not be able to continue to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps, and our revenue and results of operations may be harmed. Additionally, Apple implemented new requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy and data processing practices in December 2020, which has resulted in increased compliance requirements and could result in decreased usage of our Apps. Apple incorporated new SDK privacy controls into iOS 17, which was released in September 2023, including privacy manifests and signatures designed to allow app developers to outline the data practices for SDKs embedded in their apps, manage tracking domains within SDKs, and curb device fingerprinting by requiring app developers to select allowed reasons for using data received through certain APIs. In February 2022, Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative for Android, a multi-year effort expected to restrict tracking activity and limit advertisers' ability to collect app and user data across Android devices. In May 2023, Google announced new consent management platform ("CMP") requirements for ads served in the European Economic Area ("EEA") and UK, which will require, starting in January 2024, publishers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob to use a CMP that has been certified by Google and has integrated with the Interactive Advertising Bureau's ("IAB") Transparency and Consent Framework when serving ads to users in the EEA or the UK. While to date these third-party platform privacy changes have had some impact on the discoverability of apps across these platforms and have had a relatively muted aggregate impact on our results of operations, the ultimate impact of these or any similar or future changes to the policies of Apple or Google could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

New tools for developers, industry standards, and platforms may emerge in the future. We believe our focus on the advertising ecosystem has allowed us to understand the needs of our clients and our relentless innovation has enabled us to quickly adapt to changes in the industry and pioneer new solutions. We must continue to innovate and stay ahead of developments in the advertising and mobile app ecosystems in order for our business to succeed and our results of operations to continue to improve.

Current Economic Conditions

We are subject to risks and uncertainties caused by global economic conditions and events with significant macroeconomic impacts, including but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts in the Ukraine and Middle East, and actions taken to counter inflation. Inflation, rising interest rates and reduced consumer confidence have caused and may continue to cause our clients to be cautious in their spending. The full impact of these macroeconomic events and the extent to which these macro factors may impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations in the future remains uncertain. The risks related to our business are further described in the section titled “Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate Software Platform Revenue primarily from fees collected from advertisers spending on AppDiscovery, typically on a performance basis, then shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression basis. Software Platform Revenue also includes fees generated based on a percentage of client spend through MAX and subscription fees for Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform. Revenue from other services under Software Platform was not material.

We generate Apps Revenue from IAPs made by the users within our Apps and from IAA generated from advertisers that

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purchase advertising inventory from our diverse portfolio of Apps. IAA Revenue from our Apps was 31%, 33% and 31% of total Apps Revenue in 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of third-party payment processing fees for distribution partners, amortization of acquired technology-related intangible assets, amortization of finance lease right-of-use assets related to certain servers and networking equipment and costs for third-party cloud service providers. Third-party payment processing fees relate to IAP Revenue. The fees for IAPs are processed and collected by third-party distribution partners. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars over the long term as our business and revenue continue to grow. We also expect our cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period.

Sales and marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of user acquisition costs, marketing programs and other advertising expenses, professional services costs related to the marketing of apps by third parties, personnel-related expenses including salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in sales and marketing activities, amortization of acquired user-related intangible assets, travel and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to grow our Software Platform customer base and increase brand awareness. We also plan to continue to invest in new App launches to the extent we see opportunities for cost-effective growth. We expect sales and marketing expenses to fluctuate period-over-period as we launch new games. We also expect our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period- over-period in the near term as we invest to grow our customer base and increase brand awareness, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of product development costs, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in research and development activities, professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, consulting costs, regulatory compliance costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in research and development to continue to enhance our Software Platform and to improve existing games and develop new games. We expect our research and development expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to enhance our Software Platform and improve our existing Apps and develop new Apps, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to support our business, including personnel-related expenses such as salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in finance, accounting, legal, human resources and administration, professional services fees for legal, accounting, recruiting, and administrative services (including acquisition-related expenses), insurance, travel, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in our general and administrative function to support the growth of our business. We expect our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to support the growth of our business, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Other Income and Expenses

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt. Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt consists primarily of interest expense associated with our outstanding debt, including accretion of debt discount, and gains and losses of interest rate swap related to the variable interest payments associated with our outstanding debt.

Other income (expense), net. Other income (expense), net, primarily includes interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, fair value adjustments relating to our non-marketable equity securities, and foreign currency gains and losses.

Provision for (benefit from) income taxes. We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, impacts from acquisition restructuring, deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income, future changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws. Additionally, our effective tax rate can vary based on the amount of pre-tax income or loss.

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Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The following tables summarize our consolidated statement of operations.

Years Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands)
Revenue$3,283,087$2,817,058$2,793,104
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue1,21,059,1911,256,065988,095
Sales and marketing1,2830,718919,5501,129,892
Research and development1592,386507,607366,402
General and administrative1152,585181,627158,699
Total costs and expenses2,634,8802,864,8492,643,088
Income (loss) from operations648,207(47,791)150,016
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(275,665)(171,863)(103,170)
Interest income (expense) and other, net8,02814,477(535)
Total other expense(267,637)(157,386)(103,705)
Income (loss) before income taxes380,570(205,177)46,311
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes23,859(12,230)10,973
Net income (loss)$356,711$(192,947)$35,338

_______

1 Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$5,229$6,307$2,335
Sales and marketing79,87941,53315,224
Research and development230,80694,31963,344
General and administrative47,19349,45352,274
Total stock-based compensation$363,107$191,612$133,177

_______

2 Includes amortization expense related to acquired intangibles as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$382,956$448,462$373,726
Sales and marketing67,19066,17322,661
Total amortization expense related to acquired intangibles$450,146$514,635$396,387

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue1:

Years Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands)
Revenue100%100%100%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue32%45%35%
Sales and marketing25%33%40%
Research and development18%18%13%
General and administrative5%6%6%
Total costs and expenses80%102%95%
Income (loss) from operations20%(2)%5%
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(8)%(6)%(4)%
Other income (expense), net0%1%0%
Total other expense(8)%(6)%(4)%
Income (loss) before income taxes12%(7)%2%
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes1%%%
Net income (loss)11%(7)%1%

_______

1 Totals of percentages of revenue may not foot due to rounding.

Comparison of Our Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021

Revenue

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023% change2021 to 2022% change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Software Platform Revenue$1,841,762$1,049,167$673,95276%56%
In-App Purchases Revenue989,0071,179,1331,458,595(16)%(19)%
In-App Advertising Revenue452,318588,758660,557(23)%(11)%
Apps Revenue1,441,3251,767,8912,119,152(18)%(17)%
Total Revenue$3,283,087$2,817,058$2,793,10417%1%

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our Software Platform Revenue increased by $792.6 million, or 76%, from the prior year period primarily due to publisher bonuses of $209.6 million accounted for as a reduction to revenue in the prior year period. The increase in Software Platform revenue was also due to improved AppDiscovery performance, where installations increased 17% and net revenue per installation increased 35% compared to the prior year period. We do not recognize Software Platform Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our Apps Revenue decreased by $326.6 million, or 18%, from the prior year period. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, our IAP Revenue from Apps decreased by $190.1 million, or 16%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 12% decrease in the volume of IAPs and a 5% decrease in price per IAP. Our IAA Revenue from Apps decreased by $136.4 million, or 23%, compared to the prior year period, due to a 45% decrease in price per advertising impression, partially offset by a 39% increase in the volume of advertising impressions. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our Software Platform Revenue increased by $375.2 million, or 56%, from the prior year period primarily due to AppDiscovery where installations increased 24% and revenue per installation increased 46% compared to the prior year period, as well as our addition of Wurl during the year which contributed 9% of the Software Platform revenue increase, and continued growth in MAX and Adjust, partially offset by publisher bonuses of $209.6 million accounted for as a reduction to revenue in 2022. We do not recognize Software Platform Revenue from transactions with our studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our Apps Revenue decreased by $351.3 million, or 17%, from the prior year period. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our IAP Revenue from Apps decreased by $279.5 million, or 19%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 21% decrease in the volume of IAPs, partially offset by a 2% increase in price per IAP. Our IAA Revenue from Apps decreased $71.8 million, or 11%, compared to the prior year period, due to a 16% decrease

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in price per advertising impression, partially offset by a 7% increase in the volume of advertising impressions. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our studios.

Cost of revenue

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue$1,059,191$1,256,065$988,095(16)%27%
Percentage of revenue32%45%35%

Cost of revenue in 2023 decreased by $196.9 million, or 16%, compared to 2022. The decrease in 2023 was primarily due to a decrease of $192.3 million in amortization and impairment of intangible assets resulting from the sale of certain assets within our Apps segment during the second half of 2022 and a decrease of $50.0 million in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the decline in IAP revenue, offset by an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our Software Platform operations of $42.7 million.

Cost of revenue in 2022 increased by $268.0 million, or 27%, compared to 2021. The increase in 2022 was primarily due to an increase of $127.9 million in impairment and loss in connection with the sale of certain assets resulting from our strategic review of the Apps portfolio, an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our Software Platform operations of $126.1 million, and an increase of $82.1 million in depreciation and amortization driven primarily by current-year acquisition activities and the recognition of a full year amortization of intangible assets acquired in 2021, offset by an $88.4 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the decline in IAP Revenue.

Sales and marketing

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing$830,718$919,550$1,129,892(10)%(19)%
Percentage of revenue25%33%40%

Sales and marketing expenses in 2023 decreased by $88.8 million, or 10%, compared to 2022 primarily due to a $126.5 million decrease in user acquisition costs and a $12.3 million decrease in professional services costs associated with the strategic review and optimization of our Apps segment, offset by a $47.5 million increase in personnel-related expense primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation.

Sales and marketing expenses in 2022 decreased by $210.3 million, or 19%, compared to 2021 primarily due to a $317.8 million decrease in user acquisition costs, offset by a $57.1 million increase in personnel-related expense primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation and an increase in headcount from acquisitions, and a $43.1 million increase in depreciation and amortization of user-related intangible assets.

Research and development

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Research and development$592,386$507,607$366,40217%39%
Percentage of revenue18%18%13%

Research and development expenses in 2023 increased by $84.8 million, or 17%, compared to 2022. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $145.5 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount, offset by a decrease of $67.1 million in professional services costs due to the optimization and sale of certain assets within our Apps segment.

Research and development expenses in 2022 increased by $141.2 million, or 39%, compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $70.5 million in professional services costs related to development of new games by third parties and an increase of $62.5 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount.

General and administrative

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative$152,585$181,627$158,699(16)%14%
Percentage of revenue5%6%6%

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General and administrative expenses in 2023 decreased by $29.0 million, or 16% compared to 2022. The decrease was primarily due to $12.7 million in acquisition-related costs in 2022 and a decrease of $6.7 million in professional services costs primarily associated with acquisition support.

General and administrative expenses in 2022 increased by $22.9 million, or 14% compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $12.7 million in acquisition-related costs, an increase of $3.1 million in professional services costs primarily associated with audit, tax, and legal support, and an increase of $3.0 million in bad debt expense.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt$(275,665)$(171,863)$(103,170)60%67%
Percentage of revenue(8)%(6)%(4)%

In 2023, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $103.8 million, or 60%, compared to 2022. This increase was primary driven by $99.5 million due to an increase in interest rate and $4.3 million in loss on settlement of debt resulting from a debt refinancing transaction during the period.

In 2022, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $68.7 million, or 67%, compared to 2021. This increase was primary due to an increase of $86.9 million in interest expense related to an increase in the term loan balance and increase in LIBOR during the period, partially offset by a loss on the settlement of term loans of $16.9 million during the prior year period.

Other income (expense), net

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income (expense), net$8,028$14,477$(535)(45)%**
Percentage of revenue%1%%

** Not meaningful

In 2023, other income (expense), net decreased by $6.4 million compared to 2022. The decrease was primarily due to the loss on fair value remeasurement of $20.7 million from the impairment of non-marketable equity securities and an expense resulting from a debt refinancing transaction of $11.0 million, offset by an increase in interest income of $23.2 million and an increase in net foreign currency gains and losses of $4.4 million.

In 2022, interest income and other, net increased by $15.0 million compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase in interest income of $14.0 million.

Provision for (benefit from) Income Taxes

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes$23,859$(12,230)$10,973(295)%(211)%
Percentage of revenue1%%%

In 2023, tax provision for income taxes increased by $36.1 million, or 295%, compared to 2022. The increase in tax provision was primarily driven by an increase of $119.0 million due to the tax impact on the pre-tax income of $380.6 million in 2023 as compared to pre-tax loss of $205.2 million in 2022, offset by $65.7 million related to foreign rate differential and income inclusion, an increase of $16.5 million related to increase in Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income offset by an increase in foreign tax credit, an increase of $25.9 million of stock-based compensation benefit, and an increase of $13.3 million in the research and development credit.

In 2022, tax benefit was $12.2 million as compared to the tax provision of $11.0 million in 2021, a change of $23.2 million, or 211%. The increase in tax benefit was driven by an increase of $52.7 million due to the tax impact on the pre-tax loss of $205.2 million in 2022 as compared to $46.3 million of pre-tax income in 2021, an increase of $14.7 million related to capital loss, an increase of $7.2 million due to higher foreign-derived intangible income deduction, and an increase of $5.1 million due to higher research and development credit, offset by a decrease of $30.1 million related to decrease in stock-based compensation benefit, a decrease of $15.7 million due to higher US-foreign rate differential, a decrease of $5.6 million due to higher foreign income inclusion and a decrease of $5.2 million due to higher valuation allowance.

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Comparison of our Segment Results of Operations

The following table presents the results for our Software Platform and Apps segment adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated:

Years Ended December 31,2022 to 2023 % change2021 to 2022 % change
202320222021
(in thousands, except percentages)
Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA$1,275,705$808,415$457,30258%77%
Apps Adjusted EBITDA$226,953$254,795$269,512(11)%(5)%

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022

The $467.3 million, or 58%, increase in Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2023 was primarily driven by an increase in Software Platform revenue of $792.6 million, partially offset by an increase of $49.5 million in expenses associated with our network infrastructure and an increase of $46.6 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount. In addition, Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 has been adjusted to exclude one-time publisher bonuses of $209.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The $27.8 million, or 11%, decrease in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for 2023 was primarily driven by a decrease in Apps Revenue of $326.6 million, offset by a $126.7 million decrease in user acquisition costs, an $84.1 million decrease in professional services costs related to marketing, development and maintenance of apps by third parties, a $50.0 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with IAPs, and a $15.9 million decrease in personnel-related expenses.

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2021

The $351.1 million, or 77%, increase in Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was primarily driven by an increase in Software Platform revenue of $375.2 million, partially offset by an increase of $123.9 million in expenses associated with our network infrastructure and an increase of $74.3 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in headcount primarily due to the acquisitions of Adjust and Wurl. In addition, Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 has been adjusted to exclude one-time publisher bonuses of $209.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The $14.7 million, or 5%, decrease in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was primarily driven by a decrease in Apps Revenue of $351.3 million and a $73.0 million increase in professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, partially offset by a $317.6 million decrease in user acquisition costs, and an $88.4 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with IAPs.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we have financed our operations primarily through payments received from clients using our Software Platform and advertising on our Apps, and from user IAPs from our Apps, and through net proceeds we received from the sales of our convertible preferred stock and of our Class A common stock in our initial public offering and debt borrowings, including borrowings made under our credit agreement. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash and cash equivalents of $502.2 million.

We believe that our cash and cash equivalents would be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditures needs for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements, however, will depend on many factors, including our growth rate; sales and marketing activities; timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts; capital expenditures to purchase hardware and software; and our continued need to invest in our IT infrastructure to support our growth. In addition, we may enter into additional strategic partnerships as well as agreements to acquire or invest in teams and technologies, including intellectual property rights, which could increase our cash requirements. For example, in 2022, we acquired MoPub and Wurl, which reduced our year-end 2022 cash balance by $1.3 billion. As a result of these and other factors, we may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing sooner than we currently anticipate. If additional financing from outside sources is required, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required, or if we cannot expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities because we lack sufficient capital, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

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

Years Ended December 31,
202320222021
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$1,061,510$412,773$361,851
Net cash used in investing activities$(77,829)$(1,371,468)$(1,214,930)
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities$(1,562,791)$(526,848)$3,109,546

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $1,061.5 million for 2023, primarily consisting of $356.7 million of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, which included $489.0 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $363.1

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million of stock-based compensation expense, $28.0 million of impairment of non-marketable equity securities, $17.8 million of change in operating right of use asset, and $9.4 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $208.7 million. The net increase in the operating assets and liabilities was primarily driven by an increase in accounts receivable and other assets, and a decrease in operating lease liabilities, partially offset by higher accounts payable, deferred revenue, and accrued and other liabilities.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $412.8 million for 2022, primarily consisting of $192.9 million of net loss, adjusted for certain non-cash items, which included $547.1 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $191.6 million of stock-based compensation expense, $127.9 million of impairment charges and losses on disposal of assets, $17.1 million of change in operating right of use asset, and $12.7 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $292.4 million. The net increase in the operating assets and liabilities was primarily driven by an increase in accounts receivable and other assets, and a decrease in operating lease liabilities, deferred revenue and accrued and other liabilities, partially offset by higher accounts payable.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $77.8 million for 2023, primarily consisting of $63.9 million related to acquisitions, $17.9 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and 4.2 million in purchase of property and equipment, partially offset by $8.3 million in proceeds from sale of long-lived assets.

Net cash used in investing activities was $1.4 billion for 2022, primarily consisting of $1.3 billion related to acquisitions, $66.3 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and other, partially offset by $37.0 million in proceeds from sale of long-lived assets.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities was $1.6 billion for 2023, primarily consisting of $1.2 billion of common stock repurchases, payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of restricted stock units of $246.4 million, payments for the principal repayment of debt of $498.0 million net of $395.3 million proceeds from issuance of debt, deferred acquisition costs of $33.9 million, licensed asset obligation payments of $27.1 million, and principal payments for finance leases of $20.2 million, partially offset by $20.9 million in proceeds from exercise of stock awards.

Net cash used in financing activities was $526.8 million for 2022, primarily consisting of $338.9 million of common stock repurchases, deferred acquisition costs of $124.2 million, payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of restricted stock units of $27.5 million, payments for the principal repayment of debt of $25.8 million, and payments for finance leases of $24.1 million, partially offset by $25.5 million in proceeds from exercise of stock awards.

Credit Agreement

As of December 31, 2023, our total outstanding indebtedness under the Amended Credit Agreement with the lenders party thereto and Bank of America, N.A. serving as the administrative agent consisted of two term loans, with each having an outstanding balance of $1.5 billion, with $30.0 million due within twelve months, which excludes interest payments which vary based on the fluctuations in the interest rate index. Additionally, the Amended Credit Agreement provides a Revolving Credit Facility with a maximum commitment of $610.0 million. During the third quarter of 2023, we drew down $185.0 million from the Revolving Credit Facility, with a remaining unused commitment of $418.7 million as of December 31, 2023, which is net of outstanding letters of credit of $6.3 million. For additional information on the Credit Agreement, see Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Contractual Obligations

Our material cash requirements include the following contractual obligations.

Operating Leases

As of December 31, 2023, we have non-cancellable commitments for primarily real estate leases with fixed lease payment obligations of $62.3 million, with $16.0 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Finance Leases

As of December 31, 2023, we have non-cancelable payments related to finance leases of certain networking equipment of $192.2 million, with $27.5 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

License Asset Obligation

As of December 31, 2023, we have an obligation related to certain intellectual property that we licensed from a third party of $14.2 million, which is expected to be paid within twelve months.

Non-cancelable purchase obligations

As of December 31, 2023, we have non-cancellable purchase obligations, which primarily consist of a certain arrangement related to cloud platform services, of $252.0 million, with $160.2 million payable within twelve months.

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Investment Commitments

During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we invested or committed to invest in certain private equity funds. As of December 31, 2023 these unfunded commitments were $41.2 million, which may be called from time to time by the funds.

Contingent Consideration

Several of the definitive agreements governing our acquisitions of our owned studios and arrangements with our partner studios provide for payment contingent upon future performance metrics. These contingent consideration arrangements include payouts based on a percentage of profitability metrics or the achievement of certain revenue targets, and some of these arrangements do not have a maximum limit of contingent consideration achievable. Because these contingent consideration arrangements are based on the success of relevant Apps and are not guaranteed, we do not expect our results of operations would be materially and adversely effected by the payment of amounts under any such arrangement. The table below presents a summary of the outstanding contingent consideration arrangements:

Relevant TransactionContingent Consideration Summary
Recoded asset acquisition (January 2019)Future one-time earn-out payments, based on a service agreement, of either $60.0 million or $30.0 million per game depending on the nature of the new game App developed, subject to the achievement of a certain monthly revenue milestone in the initial thirty-six months following the launch of a new game App. The term of the service agreement is initially three years, after which time the agreement is terminable by either party upon thirty days’ written notice.
Athena acquisition (November 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on (i)(a) the revenue generated by the initially acquired game Apps in each such year in excess of (b) a certain revenue threshold, multiplied by (ii) a predetermined revenue multiple.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)As amended in 2023, future earn-out payments are based on a percentage of a certain operating profit generated by the acquired mobile Apps for each of the four years following the amendment, with additional earn-out payments contingent on the achievement of certain revenue targets for each of the two years following the amendment.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)As amended in 2022, future earn-out payments are based on a percentage of the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") generated by the acquired mobile Apps.

For acquisitions of studios we own that are accounted for as business combinations, contingent consideration is initially recognized at fair value. For our other transactions, we generally recognize contingent consideration only on the date when the related performance metrics are achieved. For additional information, see Notes 2 and 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2023, we had recorded liabilities of $35.9 million related to uncertain tax positions. Due to uncertainties in the timing of potential tax audits, the timing of the resolution of these positions is uncertain and we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years particularly beyond 12 months. As a result, this amount is not included in the table above.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported revenue generated and expenses incurred during the reporting periods. We base our estimates on assumptions, both historical and forward-looking, that are believed to be reasonable. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions. These estimates are inherently subject to judgment and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

We believe that the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant judgments, estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. For additional information, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

We generate Software Platform and Apps revenue. Software Platform revenue is generated primarily from fees collected from advertisers including advertising networks who use our Software Platform. Apps revenue consists of in-app purchase ("IAP") revenue generated from in-app purchases made by users within our apps (“Apps”), and in-app advertising ("IAA") revenue generated from third-party advertisers that purchase ad inventory from Apps.

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Software Platform Revenue

The vast majority of the Software Platform Revenue is generated through AppDiscovery and MAX, which provide the technology to match advertisers and owners of digital advertising inventory (“Publishers”) via auctions at large scale and microsecond-level speeds. The terms for all mobile advertising arrangements are governed by our terms and conditions and generally stipulate payment terms of 30 days subsequent to the end of the month. Substantially all of our contracts with customers are fully cancellable at any time or upon a short notice.

Our performance obligation is to provide customers with access to the Software Platform, which facilitates the advertiser’s purchase of ad inventory from Publishers. We do not control the ad inventory prior to its transfer to the advertiser, because we do not have the substantive ability to direct the use of nor obtain substantially all of the remaining benefits from the ad inventory. We are not primarily responsible for fulfillment and does not have any inventory risk. We are an agent as it relates to the sale of third-party advertising inventory and presents revenue on a net basis. The transaction price is the product of either the number of completions of agreed upon actions or advertisements displayed and the contractually agreed upon price per advertising unit with the advertiser less consideration paid or payable to Publishers. We recognize Software Platform Revenue when the agreed upon action is completed or when the ad is displayed to users. The number of advertisements delivered and completions of agreed upon actions is determined at the end of each month, which resolves any uncertainty in the transaction price during the reporting period.

Software Platform Revenue also includes revenue generated from Adjust's measurement and analytics marketing platform that is recognized ratably over the subscription period of generally up to twelve months.

Apps Revenue

In-App Purchase Revenue

IAP Revenue includes fees collected from users to purchase virtual goods to enhance their gameplay experience. The identified performance obligation is to provide users with the ability to acquire, use, and hold virtual items over the estimated period of time the virtual items are available to the user or until the virtual item is consumed. Payment is required at the time of purchase, and the purchase price is a fixed amount.

Users make IAPs through our distribution partners. The transaction price is equal to the gross amount charged to users because we are the principal in the transaction. IAP fees are non-refundable. Such payments are initially recorded as deferred revenue. We categorize virtual goods as either consumable or durable. Consumable virtual goods represent goods that can be consumed by a specific player action in gameplay; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of consumable virtual goods as the goods are consumed. Durable virtual goods represent goods that are accessible to the user over an extended period of time; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of durable virtual goods ratably over the period of time the goods are available to the user, which is generally the estimated average user life (“EAUL”).

The EAUL represents our best estimate of the expected life of paying users for the applicable game. The EAUL begins when a user makes the first purchase of durable virtual goods and ends when a user is determined to be inactive. We determine the EAUL on a game-by-game basis. For a newly launched game with limited playing data, we determine the EAUL based on the EAUL of a game with sufficiently similar characteristics.

We determine the EAUL on a quarterly basis and applies such calculated EAUL to all bookings in the respective quarter. Determining the EAUL is subjective and requires management’s judgment. Future playing patterns may differ from historical playing patterns, and therefore the EAUL may change in the future. The EAULs are generally between 5 and 10 months.

In-App Advertising Revenue

IAA Revenue is generated by selling ad inventory on our Apps to third-party advertisers. Advertisers purchase ad inventory either through the Software Platform or through third-party advertising networks (“Ad Networks”). Revenue from the sale of ad inventory through Ad Networks is recognized net of the amounts retained by Ad Networks as we are unable to determine the gross amount paid by the advertisers to Ad Networks. We recognize revenue when the ad is displayed to users.

Asset Acquisitions and Business Combinations

We perform an initial test to determine whether substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets transferred are concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets, such that the acquisition would not represent a business. If that test suggests that the set of assets and activities is a business, we then perform a second test to evaluate whether the assets and activities transferred include inputs and substantive processes that together, significantly contribute to the ability to create outputs, which would constitute a business. If the result of the second test suggests that the acquired assets and activities constitute a business, we account for the transaction as a business combination.

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For transactions accounted for as business combinations, we allocate the fair value of acquisition consideration to the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. Acquisition consideration includes the fair value of any promised contingent consideration. The excess of the fair value of acquisition consideration over the fair values of acquired identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Contingent consideration is remeasured to its fair value each reporting period with changes in the fair value of contingent consideration recorded in general and administrative expenses. Such valuations require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates and assumptions in valuing certain identifiable intangible assets include, but are not limited to, forecasted revenue and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. In certain circumstances, the allocations of the excess purchase price are based upon preliminary estimates and assumptions and subject to revision when we receive final information, including appraisals and other analyses. During the measurement period, which is one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings. Acquisition-related costs are expensed as incurred.

For transactions accounted for as asset acquisitions, the cost, including certain transaction costs, is allocated to the assets acquired on the basis of relative fair values. We generally include contingent consideration in the cost of the assets acquired only when the uncertainty is resolved. We amortize contingent consideration adjustments to the cost of the acquired assets prospectively using the straight-line method over the remaining useful life of the assets. No goodwill is recognized in asset acquisitions.

Services and Development Agreements

We enter into strategic agreements with third-party mobile game studios. We have historically allowed these studios to continue their operations with a significant degree of autonomy. In some cases, we bought Apps from these studios and entered into service and development agreements whereby these studios provide support in improving existing Apps and developing new Apps. The substantial majority of payments associated with service agreements for existing Apps are expensed to research and development when the services are rendered as the payments primarily relate to developing enhancements for the Apps. Payments for new Apps associated with development agreements are generally made in connection with the development of a particular App, and therefore, we are subject to development risk prior to the release of the App. Accordingly, payments that are due prior to completion of an App are generally expensed to research and development over the development period as the services are incurred. Payments due after completion of an App are generally capitalized and expensed as cost of revenue. For additional information, see Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Software Development Costs

We incur development costs related to internal-use software and Apps. Development costs meet the criteria for capitalization once the preliminary project stage is complete and it is probable that the project will be completed and the software will be used to perform the function intended. Software development costs that meet the criteria for capitalization were not material for the periods presented.

Goodwill

We test goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level on an annual basis during the fourth quarter, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that goodwill may be impaired. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate that could affect the value of goodwill or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. A qualitative assessment is performed to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value. If the reporting unit does not pass the qualitative assessment, we compare the carrying value of the reporting unit, including goodwill, to its fair value. A goodwill impairment loss is recognized for the amount that the carrying value of the reporting unit, including goodwill, exceeds its fair value, limited to the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. As of December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, no impairment of goodwill has been identified.

Intangible Assets

Intangible assets consist primarily of Apps, user base, developed technology, customer relationships and certain intellectual property licenses resulting from acquisitions. Intangible assets are amortized over the period of estimated benefit using the straight-line method. Our estimates of useful lives of intangible assets are based on cash flow forecasts which incorporate various assumptions, including forecasted user acquisition costs, user attrition rates and level of user engagement.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

We review long-lived assets that are held and used for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of an asset or asset group may not be recoverable. If such indicators are present, we assess the recoverability of the asset or asset group by comparing its carrying value to the undiscounted future cash flows expected to be generated by the asset or asset group. If the future undiscounted cash flows are less than the carrying value of the asset or asset group, an impairment charge is recognized in the consolidated statements of operations by the amount by which the carrying value of the asset or asset group, exceeds its estimated fair value. There were no material impairment charges related to long-lived assets that are held and used for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021.

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We classify an asset as held for sale when management commits to a formal plan to actively market the asset for sale at a price reasonable in relation to fair value, the asset is available for immediate sale in its present condition, an active program to locate a buyer and other actions required to complete the sale have been initiated, the sale of the asset and the transfer is expected to be completed within one year and it is unlikely that significant changes will be made to the plan. Upon classification as held for sale, we recognize the asset at the lower of its carrying value or its estimated fair value, less costs to sell. In addition, we cease to record depreciation or amortization for assets that are classified as held for sale. During the year ended December 31, 2022, we classified certain assets within the Apps reportable segment as held for sale and recognized a total impairment charge of $53.0 million, representing the excess of the assets' carrying value over their estimated fair value, less cost to sell, in cost of revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. As of December 31, 2022, the carrying value of assets held for sale was not material. No assets were classified as held for sale in 2023 or 2021.

Stock-Based Compensation

We account for stock-based compensation based on the fair value of stock-based awards as of the grant date. We recognize the fair value as stock-based compensation expense following the straight-line attribution method over the requisite service period for restricted stock units ("RSUs") and stock options, and over the offering period for purchase rights issued under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan ("ESPP"). Stock-based compensation expense for performance-based RSUs (“PSUs”) with a market condition is recognized ratably on a tranche-by-tranche basis using the accelerated attribution method over the respective derived service period, unless the market condition is satisfied earlier. We account for forfeitures for all awards as they occur.

The fair value of RSUs is estimated on the date of grant based on the closing price of the Company's publicly traded Class A common stock on the date of grant.

We determine the fair value of PSUs with market conditions using the Monte Carlo simulation pricing model. This requires the input of assumptions, including the expected stock volatility, the risk-free interest rate, the expected dividend yield and the discount for post-vesting restrictions, as applicable.

We determines the fair value of stock options and purchase rights under the ESPP using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. This requires the input of assumptions, including the expected term, the expected stock volatility, the risk-free interest rate, and the expected dividend yield.

For awards that are liability classified, we update the grant date fair value at each reporting period. Liability-classified awards are reclassified to equity upon settlement in shares of the Company’s common stock.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance would be made to reduce the provision for income taxes.

We record uncertain tax positions on the basis of a two-step process in which determinations are made (i) whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (ii) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with a tax authority.

We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits on the income tax expense line in our consolidated statement of operations. Accrued interest and penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the dates of the statement of financial position included in this Annual Report on 10-K.

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FY 2022 10-K MD&A

SEC filing source: 0001751008-23-000006.

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary. Published MD&A gate trimmed front/tail over-capture. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2023-02-28. Report date: 2022-12-31.

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Overview

Our mission is to help companies grow their apps and accelerate their business. Our full stack software solution provides advanced tools for mobile app developers to grow their businesses by automating and optimizing the marketing and monetization of their apps. We also operate a portfolio of owned mobile apps and accelerated our market penetration through an active acquisition and partnership strategy. Our scaled business model sits at the nexus of the mobile app ecosystem, which creates a durable competitive advantage that has fueled our clients’ success and our strong growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building a software-based platform for mobile app developers to improve the marketing and monetization of their apps. Our founders, who are mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the mobile app ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these developer challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and software—AppLovin Core Technologies and AppLovin Software Platform. We capitalized on our success and understanding of the mobile app ecosystem by launching AppLovin Apps in 2018. Our Apps now consist of a globally diversified portfolio of over 350 free-to-play mobile games across five genres, run by eleven studios.

For 2022, our revenue grew 1% year-over-year from 2021, from $2.79 billion in 2021 to $2.82 billion in 2022. For 2021, our revenue grew 92% year-over-year from 2020, from $1.45 billion in 2020 to $2.79 billion in 2021. We generated a net loss of $192.9 million in 2022, net income of $35.3 million in 2021, and a net loss of $125.9 million in 2020. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion, $726.8 million, and $345.5 million in 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Additionally, we have generated strong cash flows, with net cash provided by operating activities of $412.8 million, $361.9 million, and $222.9 million in 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively. Given our strong financial position, we have been able to reinvest in our expansion and growth and consummate strategic acquisitions and partnerships. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

In February 2022, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program to repurchase $750.0 million of our Class A common stock over time. We will continuously evaluate efficient alternatives to using cash on hand to fund the program, including accessing the capital markets, subject to market conditions.

Our Business Model

We collect revenue from our Software Platform and our Apps. In 2022, Software Platform Revenue represented 37% of total revenue and Apps Revenue represented 63% of total revenue.

In the second quarter of 2022, we revised the presentation of segment information to align with changes to how our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”), the Chief Executive Officer, allocates resources and assesses performance. Effective in May 2022, we report our operating results through two reportable segments: Software Platform and Apps. Previously we had a single operating and reportable segment.

The CODM evaluates performance of each segment based on several factors, of which the financial measures are segment revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA, as defined in Note 14 to the Company's consolidated financial statements.

The Software Platform and Apps segments provide a view into the organization of our business and generate revenue as follows:

Software Platform Revenue

We primarily generate Software Platform Revenue from fees paid by mobile app advertisers who use our Software Platform to grow and monetize their apps. We are able to grow our Software Platform Revenue by improving our various software technologies.

Software Platform clients include a wide variety of advertisers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Facebook and Google. While we have thousands of clients as of December 31, 2022, the vast majority of our revenue is derived from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients. See “Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate Software Platform Enterprise Clients. We see multiple opportunities to gain new Software Platform clients, and to increase spend from existing clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful.

Our Software Platform includes AppDiscovery, MAX, Adjust, and Wurl.

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Clients use AppDiscovery to automate, optimize, and manage their user acquisition investments. They set marketing and user growth goals, and AppDiscovery optimizes their ad spend in an effort to achieve their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. AppDiscovery comprises the vast majority of revenue from our Software Platform. Revenue is generated from our advertisers, typically on a performance-basis, and shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model. Our Software Platform Enterprise Clients had a Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate of approximately 134% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022.1

Software Platform clients use MAX to optimize purchases of app advertising inventory. The Compass Analytics tool within MAX provides insights to manage against key performance indicators, understand the long-term value of users, and help manage profitability. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of client spend. As more developers move to in-app bidding monetization, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Software Platform clients use Adjust's SaaS mobile marketing platform to better understand their users' journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

Software Platform clients use Wurl's CTV platform to distribute streaming video, maximize advertising revenue, and acquire and retain viewers or subscribers. Revenue from Wurl is primarily generated from content companies, typically on a usage-based model.

Apps Revenue

During the fourth quarter of 2022, we changed the terms used to describe our two Apps segment revenue streams to better align with market terminology. We now refer to our Apps "Business" revenue as "In-App Advertising" and "Consumer" revenue as "In-App Purchases." Apps Revenue is generated when a user of one of our Apps makes an in-app purchase ("IAP") and when clients purchase the digital advertising inventory of our portfolio of Apps ("In-App Advertising" or "IAA"). We are able to grow our Apps Revenue by adding more apps to our Apps portfolio and increasing engagement on our existing Apps.

Our Apps are generally free-to-play mobile games and generate IAP Revenue through IAPs. IAPs consist of virtual goods used to enhance gameplay, accelerate access to certain features or levels, and augment other mobile game progression opportunities for the user. IAPs drive more engagement and better economics from our Apps. The vast majority of our IAP revenue flows through two app stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, which charge us a standard commission on IAPs. IAP Revenue represented 67% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, we had an average of 2.3 million Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs") across our portfolio of Apps. Over that period, we had an Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP") of $43. See “Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate MAPs and ARPMAP.

IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps are able to target highly relevant users from our diverse and global portfolio of over 350 mobile games. Our clients leverage a broad set of high-performing mobile ad formats, including playable and rewarded video, and are able to match these ads with relevant users resulting in a better return on their advertising spend. By increasing the number of users and their engagement, as well as better matching ads with the appropriate target audience, we are able to increase our revenue from IAA clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps. IAA Revenue represented 33% of total Apps Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022.

1 We measure Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 for our Software Platform Enterprise Clients as current period revenue divided by prior period revenue. Prior period revenue is measured as revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2021. Current period revenue is revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2021.

Key Metrics

We review the following key metrics on a regular basis in order to evaluate the health of our business, identify trends affecting our performance, prepare financial projections, and make strategic decisions.

Update to our Key Metrics

As our Software Platform, which includes AppDiscovery, MAX, AppLovin Exchange, Adjust and Wurl, continues to evolve, we continue to evaluate metrics that facilitate an understanding of our business. Following the addition and integration of offerings like Adjust and Wurl, as well as the future launch of our Array OEM/carrier offering, the revenue mix within our Software Platform segment is shifting and we expect this shift will become more pronounced over time as these businesses grow. Given the structural differences in these businesses—in terms of their revenue models as well as the nature of their clients—we believe our current key metrics for the Software Platform will no longer provide a valuable method to understand fluctuations in the performance of our Software Platform revenue. As a result, beginning in first quarter of 2023, we will no longer provide certain key metrics related to our Software Platform segment including Total Software Transaction Value, Software Platform Enterprise Clients and Revenue per Software Platform Enterprise Client.

Software Platform Enterprise Clients ("SPECs"). We focus on the number of SPECs, which are third-party clients from whom we have collected greater than $125,000 of Software Platform Revenue in the trailing twelve months to a given date. SPECs generate the vast majority of our Software Platform Revenue and Software Platform Revenue growth.

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Revenue Per Software Platform Enterprise Client ("Revenue per SPEC"). We define Revenue per SPEC as (i) the total revenue derived from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients in the trailing twelve months to a given period, divided by (ii) Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of the end of that same period. Revenue per SPEC shows how efficiently we are monetizing each SPEC. We expect to increase Revenue per SPEC over time as we enhance our Software Platform and Apps.

The following table shows our SPEC and Revenue per SPEC as of December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Twelve Months Ended
December 31,
202220212020
SPEC (trailing twelve months)566380142
Revenue per SPEC (trailing twelve months) (in thousands)$1,907$1,634$1,404

Total Software Transaction Value ("TSTV"). Software Platform Revenue is from third-party clients using our Software Platform to find new customers. We do not recognize revenue from our own spend on our Software Platform. Therefore, we use TSTV to measure the scale and growth rates of our Software Platform as it reflects the total value on our Software Platform including our first-party studios as though they were stand-alone businesses.

The following table shows our TSTV for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Year Ended December 31,
202220212020
Total Software Transaction Value (in thousands)$1,222,160$982,248$295,698

Monthly Active Payers ("MAPs"). We define a MAP as a unique mobile device active on one of our Apps in a month that completed at least one IAP during that time period. A consumer who makes IAPs within two separate Apps on the same mobile device in a monthly period will be counted as two MAPs. MAPs for a particular time period longer than one month are the average MAPs for each month during that period. We estimate the number of MAPs by aggregating certain data from third-party attribution partners. Some of our Apps do not utilize such third-party attribution partners, and therefore our MAPs figure for any period does not capture every user that completed an IAP on our Apps. We estimate that our counted MAPs generated approximately 98% of our IAP Revenue during the year ended December 31, 2022, and as such, management believes that MAPs are still a useful metric to measure the engagement and monetization potential of our games.

Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer ("ARPMAP"). We define ARPMAP as (i) the total IAP Revenue derived from our Apps in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAPs in that same period. ARPMAP for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAP for each month during that period. ARPMAP shows how efficiently we are monetizing each MAP.

The following table shows our Monthly Active Payers and Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Year Ended December 31,
202220212020
Monthly Active Payers (millions)2.33.01.5
Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer$43$43$41

Our key metrics are not based on any standardized industry methodology and are not necessarily calculated in the same manner or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Similarly, our key metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. The numbers that we use to calculate TSTV, MAP, and ARPMAP are based on internal data. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable judgments and estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.

Non-GAAP Financial Metrics

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income (loss) before interest expense and loss on settlement of debt, other (income) expense, net (excluding certain recurring items), provision for (benefit from) income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus, publisher bonuses, MoPub acquisition transition services, restructuring costs, impairment and loss on disposal, loss (gain) on extinguishments of acquisition related contingent consideration, non-operating foreign exchange (gain) losses, lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements, and change in the fair value of contingent consideration. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

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Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2022, 2021, and 2020, and a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:

Year Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net income (loss)$(192,947)$35,338$(125,934)
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt171,863103,17077,873
Other (income), net1(18,647)(7,545)(6,183)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes(12,230)10,973(9,772)
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs547,084431,063254,951
Impairment and loss in connection with sale of long-lived assets127,892
Non-operating foreign exchange (gain) loss(164)(1,537)1,210
Stock-based compensation2191,612135,46862,387
Acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus21,27916,8877,850
Publisher bonuses3209,6353,227
MoPub acquisition transition services46,999
Loss on extinguishments of acquisition related contingent consideration74,820
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements7,851
Restructuring costs10,834
Change in the fair value of contingent consideration(230)442
Adjusted EBITDA$1,063,210$726,814$345,495
Net income (loss) margin(6.8)%1.3%(8.7)%
Adjusted EBITDA margin37.7%26.0%23.8%

1 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses and write-off investments included in Amortization, depreciation and write-offs.

2 The twelve months ended December 31, 2021 includes $2.3 million of bonus compensation settled in stock outside of the scope of ASC 718.

3 In association with the MoPub acquisition, we incurred certain costs to incentivize publishers to migrate to our MAX mediation solution, including existing publishers of MoPub as well as publishers on other competitor offerings. We have not historically incurred significant publisher migration costs, nor do we currently intend to incur significant publisher migration costs in the future. As such, we have removed the impact of these costs from Adjusted EBITDA.

4 Reflects one-time transition services provided by Twitter to AppLovin.

In 2022, 2021 and 2020, our net income (loss) and Adjusted EBITDA included $0.8 million, $1.8 million and $62.0 million, related to the fair value adjustment of the deferred revenue balance assumed as a result of the acquisitions of Adjust in 2021 and Machine Zone in 2020.

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Free Cash Flow

We define Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and principal payment of finance leases. We use Free Cash Flow to help manage the health of our business, prepare budgets and for capital allocation purposes. We believe Free Cash Flow provides useful supplemental information to help investors understand underlying trends in our business and our liquidity. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect our future contractual commitments. Our definition may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish Free Cash Flow or similar metrics. Thus, our Free Cash Flow should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Free Cash Flow for 2022, 2021, and 2020, and a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free Cash Flow:

Year Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net cash provided by operating activities$412,773$361,851$222,883
Less:
Purchase of property and equipment(662)(1,390)(3,241)
Principal payments of finance leases(24,083)(15,271)(9,708)
Free Cash Flow$388,028$345,190$209,934
Net cash used in investing activities$(1,371,468)$(1,214,930)$(679,891)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities$(526,848)$3,109,546$377,855

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to continue to grow profitably while maintaining strong cash flow.

Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our Core Technologies and Software Platform to enhance their effectiveness and value proposition for our clients. We expect that these investments will require spending on research and development, and acquisitions and partnerships related to technology components and products. We believe investments in our software, including our machine learning engine AXON, AppDiscovery, Adjust, and MAX, will further improve effectiveness for developers. Our investments will also allow us to enter new mobile app sectors outside of gaming. While our investments in research and development and acquisitions and partnerships may not result in revenue in the near term, we believe these investments position us to increase our revenue over time.

Retain and grow existing clients

We rely on existing clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our Software Platform and Apps, we can attract additional spend from these clients. Our clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with these clients and increase their usage of our Software Platform. We have invested in targeted sales and account-based marketing efforts, including through Adjust’s sales and marketing teams, to identify and showcase opportunities to clients and plan to continue to do so in the future.

In the past, our clients have generally increased their usage of our Software Platform and Apps, and as a result, growth from existing clients has been a primary driver of our revenue growth. We must continue to retain our existing clients and expand their spend with us over time to continue to grow our revenue, increase profitability and drive greater cash flow.

Add new clients globally

Our future success depends in part on our ability to acquire new clients. We recently increased our focus on markets outside the United States to serve the needs of clients globally. In 2022, only 41% of our revenue from Software Platform and IAA Revenue clients was generated from outside of the United States. We believe that the global opportunity is significant and will continue to expand as developers and advertisers outside the United States adopt our Software Platform and advertise on our Apps. We also see opportunities to acquire new clients outside of mobile gaming, as the capabilities of our Core Technologies and Software Platform are relevant to the broader mobile app ecosystem. We are investing in direct sales, product development, education, and other capabilities to drive increased awareness and adoption of our Software Platform and Apps, which investments may impact our profitability in the near term as we seek further scale. We must continue to acquire new clients to grow our revenue, increase profitability, and drive greater cash flow.

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Review of our AppLovin Apps portfolio

Over the past several years, our Apps have been critical in providing first-party data and audiences for our Software Platform to enable us to test, design, and scale our technologies. Given the recent development of our technology, the current scale of our Software Platform, and the reach of our MAX solution, we believe we can reduce our reliance on the data from our Apps. Therefore, we are continuing our strategic review and optimization of our Apps portfolio and its cost structure, focusing on how best to optimize each asset’s contribution to our overall financial performance. This review has resulted in the divestiture or closure of certain studios, a reduction of headcount, restructuring of earn out arrangements, and other changes to our Apps portfolio, such as restructuring of certain assets or choosing to make changes to optimize the cost structure of certain Apps rather than investing in revenue growth. For example, we have reduced our user acquisition spend for our portfolio of Apps as we increased our desired return goals, which has led to improved App segment Adjusted EBITDA margin, but also contributed to a decline in revenue and MAPs. While we believe we have made substantial progress on this review, we may take similar actions in the future. We will continue to manage our Apps portfolio for financial return, including investing for growth through new game launches, while remaining open to evaluating opportunities for the retention, restructure, or sale of assets in the future. We believe that our execution of this review, and our ability to optimize the contribution of our Apps portfolio, will affect our revenue growth, profitability, and cash flow.

Continued execution of strategic acquisitions and partnerships

We intend to continue to make strategic acquisitions and enter into strategic partnerships to grow our business. From the beginning of 2018 through December 31, 2022, we have invested nearly $4.0 billion in 29 strategic acquisitions and partnerships with mobile app developers and for technologies to enhance our Software Platform including the acquisition of MAX in 2018, Adjust in April 2021, MoPub in January 2022, and Wurl in April 2022.

While we have a strong pipeline of strategic acquisition and partnership opportunities, we believe our future results of operations will be affected by our ability to continue to identify and execute such transactions that are accretive to our growth and profitability.

Growth and structure of the mobile app ecosystem

Our business and results of operations will be impacted by industry factors that drive overall performance of the mobile app ecosystem. The mobile app ecosystem has been affected by the recent economic uncertainty, including by advertisers more closely managing budgets and reducing overall spend, which has resulted in slowed growth for our Software Platform in recent quarters. We expect that any further slowing, or accelerations of our growth would affect our business and results of operations. In addition, even if the mobile app ecosystem continues to grow at its current rate, our ability to position ourselves within the market will impact our business and results of operations.

Mobile app developers, including AppLovin, rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute games, collect payments made for IAPs, and target users with relevant advertising. We expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our Core Technologies and Software Platform to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Any changes made in the policies of third-party platforms could drive rapid change across the mobile app ecosystem. For example, in April 2021, Apple started implementing its application tracking transparency framework that, among other things, requires users' opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. While this transparency framework has not had a significant impact on our overall business, it may in the future, including with respect to the effectiveness of our advertising practices and/or our ability to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps. We rely in part on Identifier for Advertisers ("IDFA") to provide us with data that helps our Software Platform better market and monetize Apps. In light of the IDFA and transparency changes, we made changes to our data collection practices., To the extent we are unable to utilize IDFA or a similar offering, or if the transparency changes and any related opt-in or other requirements result in decreases in the availability or utility of data relating to Apps, our Software Platform may not be as effective, we may not be able to continue to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps, and our revenue and results of operations may be harmed. Additionally, Apple implemented new requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy and data processing practices in December 2020, which has resulted in increased compliance requirements and could result in decreased usage of our Apps. In February 2022, Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative for Android, expecting to restrict tracking activity and limit advertisers' ability to collect app and user data across Android devices by the third quarter of 2023. These or any similar changes to the policies of Apple or Google may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. To date, these data privacy changes have had some impact on the discoverability of apps across these platforms, though they have had a relatively muted aggregate impact on our overall results of operations.

New tools for developers, industry standards, and platforms may emerge in the future. We believe our focus on the mobile app ecosystem has allowed us to understand the needs of our clients and our relentless innovation has enabled us to quickly adapt to changes in the industry and pioneer new solutions. We must continue to innovate and stay ahead of developments in the mobile app ecosystem in order for our business to succeed and our results of operations to continue to improve.

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Current Economic Conditions and COVID-19

We are subject to risks and uncertainties caused by global economic conditions and events with significant macroeconomic impacts, including but not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and actions taken to counter inflation. Inflation, rising interest rates and reduced consumer confidence have caused and may continue to cause our clients to be cautious in their spending. The mobile gaming and app market continue to be affected by cautious advertiser demand, but we believe that demand is stabilizing when compared against the third quarter of 2022. The full impact of these macroeconomic events and the extent to which these macro factors may impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations in the future remains uncertain. The risks related to our business are further described in the section titled “Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Ukraine/Russia Conflict

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to evolve, we are closely monitoring the current and potential impact on our business, our people, and our clients. We have taken steps to comply with applicable domestic and international regulatory restrictions on international trade and financial transactions. In connection with our compliance efforts, we have identified active clients and vendors inside Russia and Belarus that are subject to evolving sanctions imposed by the United States and/or the European Union and have terminated or suspended our contracts with them. Revenues associated with clients and vendors in Russia and Belarus are not material to our consolidated financial results, and we anticipate that the termination of Russian and Belarus clients and vendors that are subject to duly authorized sanctions will not have a material impact on our business or other client relationships. Management and our Board of Directors are monitoring the regional and global ramifications of the continuing events. Our cybersecurity teams are continually monitoring for any attacks that could cause disruption to our platform, systems, and networks, which could result in security breaches or data loss, damage to our brand, or reduce demand for our products and services.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate Software Platform Revenue primarily from fees collected from advertisers spending on AppDiscovery, typically on a performance basis, then shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model. Software Platform Revenue also includes fees generated based on a percentage of client spend through MAX and subscription fees for Adjust's SaaS mobile marketing platform.

We generate Apps Revenue from In-App Purchases made by the users within our Apps and from In-App Advertising generated from advertisers that purchase advertising inventory from our diverse portfolio of Apps. IAA Revenue from our Apps was 33%, 31% and 41% of total Apps Revenue in 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of third-party payment processing fees for distribution partners, amortization of acquired technology-related intangible assets, and expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure. Third-party payment processing fees relate to IAP Revenue. The fees for IAPs are processed and collected by third-party distribution partners.

Network operating costs include bandwidth, energy, other equipment costs related to our co-located data centers, and costs for third-party cloud service providers. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars over the long term as our business and revenue continue to grow. We also expect our cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period.

Sales and marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of user acquisition costs, other advertising expenses, personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in sales and marketing, and amortization of acquired user-related intangible assets, marketing programs, travel, customer service costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to grow our Software Platform customer base and increase brand awareness. We also plan to continue to invest in new App launches to the extent we see opportunities for cost-effective growth. As a result, we expect sales and marketing expenses to increase in absolute dollars over the long-term, though they may fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we reduce our user acquisition spend for our portfolio of Apps. We also expect our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period- over-period in the near term as we invest to grow our customer base and increase brand awareness, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of product development costs, including personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock- based compensation for employees engaged in research and development, professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, consulting costs, regulatory compliance costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

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We plan to continue to invest in research and development to continue to enhance our Core Technologies and Software Platform, and to improve existing games and develop new games. As a result, we expect research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars over the long-term, though they may fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we reassess in which areas to focus our investment. We also expect our research and development expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to enhance our Core Technologies and Software Platform and improve our existing Apps and develop new Apps, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to support our business, including personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in finance, accounting, legal, human resources and administration, professional services fees for legal, accounting, recruiting, and administrative services (including acquisition-related expenses), insurance, travel, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in our general and administrative function to support the growth of our business. In addition, we expect to incur additional general and administrative expenses as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses related to compliance and reporting obligations of a public company, increased insurance and investor relations expenses, and increased professional services fees (including acquisition-related expenses). As a result, we expect general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars. We also expect our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to support the growth of our business, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Other Income and Expenses

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt. Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt consists primarily of loss related to debt extinguishment, interest expense associated with our outstanding debt, including accretion of debt discount, and changes in fair value of interest rate swap related to the stream of variable interest payments associated with a portion of our outstanding debt.

Other income (expense), net. Other income (expense), net, includes interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, gains and losses related to embedded derivatives and other financial instruments accounted for at fair value, and foreign currency exchange gains (losses), which consist primarily of remeasurement of transactions and monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency at the end of the period.

Provision for (benefit from) income taxes. We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, impacts from acquisition restructuring, deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income, future changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws. Additionally, our effective tax rate can vary based on the amount of pre-tax income or loss.

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Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

The following tables summarize our consolidated statement of operations.

Years Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands)
Revenue$2,817,058$2,793,104$1,451,086
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue(1)(2)1,256,065988,095555,578
Sales and marketing(1)(2)919,5501,129,892627,796
Research and development(1)507,607366,402180,652
General and administrative(1)181,627158,69966,431
Extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent consideration74,820
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements7,851
Total costs and expenses2,864,8492,643,0881,513,128
Income (loss) from operations(47,791)150,016(62,042)
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(171,863)(103,170)(77,873)
Other income (expense), net14,477(535)4,209
Total other expense(157,386)(103,705)(73,664)
Income (loss) before income taxes(205,177)46,311(135,706)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes(12,230)10,973(9,772)
Net income (loss)$(192,947)$35,338$(125,934)

_______

(1)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$6,307$2,335$982
Sales and marketing41,53315,22410,668
Research and development94,31963,34436,852
General and administrative49,45352,27413,885
Total stock-based compensation$191,612$133,177$62,387

_______

(2)Includes amortization expense related to acquired intangibles as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$448,462$373,726$228,339
Sales and marketing66,17322,66111,587
Total amortization expense related to acquired intangibles$514,635$396,387$239,926

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue(1):

Years Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands)
Revenue100%100%100%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue45%35%38%
Sales and marketing33%40%43%
Research and development18%13%12%
General and administrative6%6%5%
Extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent consideration%%5%
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements%%1%
Total costs and expenses102%95%104%
Income (loss) from operations(2)%5%(4)%
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(6)%(4)%(5)%
Other income (expense), net1%%0%
Total other expense(6)%(4)%(5)%
Income (loss) before income taxes(7)%2%(9)%
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes%%(1)%
Net income (loss)(7)%1%(9)%

_______

(1)Totals of percentages of revenue may not foot due to rounding.

Comparison of Our Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020

Revenue

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Software Platform Revenue$1,049,167$673,952$207,28556%225%
In-App Purchases Revenue1,179,1331,458,595739,934(19)%97%
In-App Advertising Revenue588,758660,557503,867(11)%31%
Apps Revenue1,767,8912,119,1521,243,801(17)%70%
Total Revenue$2,817,058$2,793,104$1,451,0861%92%

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our Software Platform Revenue increased by $375.2 million, or 56%, from the prior year period primarily due to AppDiscovery where installations increased 24% and revenue per installation increased 46% compared to the prior year period, as well as our addition of Wurl during the year which contributed 9% of the Software Platform revenue increase, and continued growth in MAX and Adjust. We do not recognize Software Platform Revenue from transactions with our Owned Studios and Partner Studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our Apps Revenue decreased by $351.3 million, or 17%, from the prior year period. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, our IAP Revenue from Apps decreased by $279.5 million, or 19%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 21% decrease in the volume of in-app purchases, partially offset by a 2% increase in price per in-app purchase. Our IAA Revenue from Apps decreased $71.8 million, or 11%, compared to the prior year period, due to a 16% decrease in price per advertising impression, partially offset by a 7% increase in the volume of advertising impressions. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our Owned Studios and Partner Studios.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, our Software Platform Revenue increased by $466.7 million, or 225%, from the prior year period primarily due to AppDiscovery where installations increased 62% and revenue per installation increased 81% compared to the prior year period, as well as our addition of Adjust during the year which contributed 17% of the Software Platform revenue increase. We do not recognize Software Platform Revenue from transactions with our Owned Studios and Partner Studios.

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For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, our Apps Revenue increased by $875.4 million, or 70%, from the prior year period. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, our IAP Revenue from Apps increased by $718.7 million, or 97%, from the prior year period, primarily due to a 88% increase in the volume of in-app purchases, as well as a 5% increase in price per in-app purchase. Our IAA Revenue from Apps increased $156.7 million, or 31%, due to a 44% increase in the volume of advertising impressions partially offset by a 9% decrease in price per advertising impression compared to the prior year period. We do not recognize IAA Revenue from transactions with our Owned Studios and Partner Studios.

Cost of revenue

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue$1,256,065$988,095$555,57827%78%
Percentage of revenue45%35%38%

Cost of revenue in 2022 increased by $268.0 million, or 27%, compared to 2021. The increase in 2022 was primarily due to an increase of $127.9 million in impairment and loss in connection with the sale of certain assets resulting from our strategic review of the Apps portfolio, an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our Software Platform operations of $126.1 million, and an increase of $82.1 million in depreciation and amortization driven primarily by current-year acquisition activities and the recognition of a full year amortization of intangible assets acquired in 2021, offset by an $88.4 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the decline in IAP Revenue.

Cost of revenue in 2021 increased by $432.5 million, or 78%, compared to 2020. The increase in 2021 was primarily due to an increase of $199.8 million in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the growth in IAP Revenue, an increase of $153.9 million in depreciation and amortization of technology-related intangible assets driven by an increase in acquisition activity, and an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our operations of $49.7 million.

Sales and marketing

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing$919,550$1,129,892$627,796(19)%80%
Percentage of revenue33%40%43%

Sales and marketing expenses in 2022 decreased by $210.3 million, or 19%, compared to 2021 primarily due to a $317.8 million decrease in user acquisition costs, offset by a $57.1 million increase in personnel-related expense primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation and an increase in headcount from acquisitions, and a $43.1 million increase in depreciation and amortization of user-related intangible assets.

Sales and marketing expenses in 2021 increased by $502.1 million, or 80%, compared to 2020 primarily due to a $432.8 million increase in user acquisition costs, a $23.2 million increase in personnel-related expenses primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and increase in headcount, and a $28.0 million increase in professional service fees.

Research and development

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Research and development$507,607$366,402$180,65239%103%
Percentage of revenue18%13%12%

Research and development expenses in 2022 increased by $141.2 million, or 39%, compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $70.5 million in professional services costs related to development of new games by third parties and an increase of $62.5 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of an increase in headcount.

Research and development expenses in 2021 increased by $185.8 million, or 103%, compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $109.9 million in professional services costs related to development of new games by third parties and an increase of $66.1 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and an increase in headcount.

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General and administrative

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative$181,627$158,699$66,43114%139%
Percentage of revenue6%6%5%

General and administrative expenses in 2022 increased by $22.9 million, or 14% compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $12.7 million in acquisition-related costs, an increase of $3.1 million in professional services costs primarily associated with audit, tax, and legal support, and an increase of $3.0 million in bad debt expense.

General and administrative expenses in 2021 increased by $92.3 million, or 139% compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $65.4 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and an increase in headcount to support our growth and an increase of $12.4 million in professional services costs primarily associated with audit, tax, and legal support.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt$(171,863)$(103,170)$(77,873)67%32%
Percentage of revenue(6)%(4)%(5)%

In 2022, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $68.7 million, or 67%, compared to 2021. This increase was primary due to an increase of $86.9 million in interest expense related to an increase in the term loan balance and increase in LIBOR during the period, partially offset by a loss on the settlement of term loans of $16.9 million during the prior year period.

In 2021, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $25.3 million, or 32%, compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to a loss on the settlement of term loans of $16.9 million during the period.

Other income (expense), net

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income (expense), net$14,477$(535)$4,209**(113)%
Percentage of revenue1%%%

** Not meaningful

In 2022, other income (expense), net increased by $15.0 million compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase in interest income of $14.0 million.

In 2021, other income (expense), net decreased by $4.7 million, or 113% compared to 2020. The decrease was primarily due to the write-off of an investment in non-marketable securities of $10.0 million, third-party cost incurred for the amendment of term loans of $3.7 million, and a fair value remeasurement loss of $2.0 million, which were partially offset by an unrealized gain of $4.7 million related to marketable equity securities, $3.9 million in net foreign exchange gains, and a fair value remeasurement gain related to term loan embedded derivative of $2.0 million.

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Provision for (benefit from) Income Taxes

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes$(12,230)$10,973$(9,772)(211)%(212)%
Percentage of revenue%%(1)%

In 2022, benefit for income taxes increased by $23.2 million or 211% compared to 2021.

The increase in tax benefit was driven by an increase of $52.7 million due to the tax impact on the pre-tax loss of $205.2 million in 2022 as compared to $46.3 million of pre-tax income in 2021, an increase of $14.7 million related to capital loss, an increase of $7.2 million due to higher foreign-derived intangible income deduction, and an increase of $5.1 million due to higher research and development credit, offset by a decrease of $30.1 million related to decrease in stock option deduction, a decrease of $15.7 million due to higher US-foreign rate differential, a decrease of $5.6 million due to higher foreign income inclusion and a decrease of $5.2 million due to higher valuation allowance.

In 2021, we recognized tax provision of $11.0 million as compared to the tax benefit of $9.8 million, a change of $20.7 million, or 212% compared to 2020. The increase in tax provision was driven by an increase of $38.0 million due to higher pre-tax income in 2021, an increase of $15.9 million due to higher valuation allowance, an increase of $6.0 million due to change in foreign deferred tax rate in 2020, a decrease of $2.6 million due to foreign loss inclusion, a decrease of $19.2 million due to excess tax benefit for stock-based compensation, a decrease of $6.9 million due to higher foreign-derived intangible income deduction, and a decrease of $12.2 million due to a disallowed deduction for extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent considerations in 2020.

Comparison of our Segment Results of Operations

The following table presents the results for our Software Platform and Apps segment adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated:

Years Ended December 31,2021 to 2022 % change2020 to 2021 % change
202220212020
(in thousands, except percentages)
Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA$808,415$457,302$121,11477%278%
Apps Adjusted EBITDA$254,795$269,512$224,381(5)%20%

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2021

The $351.1 million, or 77%, increase in Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was primarily driven by an increase in Software Platform revenue of $375.2 million, partially offset by an increase of $123.9 million in expenses associated with our network infrastructure and an increase of $74.3 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in headcount primarily due to the acquisitions of Adjust and Wurl. In addition, Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 has been adjusted to exclude one-time publisher bonuses of $209.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The $14.7 million, or 5%, decrease in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was primarily driven by a decrease in Apps Revenue of $351.3 million and a $73.0 million increase in professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, partially offset by a $317.6 million decrease in user acquisition costs, and a $88.4 million decrease in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with in-app purchases.

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2020

The $336.2 million, or 278%, increase in Software Platform Adjusted EBITDA for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 was primarily driven by an increase in Software Platform revenue of $466.7 million, partially offset by an increase of $43.7 million in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure and an increase of $52.3 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in headcount primarily due to the acquisition of Adjust.

The $45.1 million, or 20%, increase in Apps Adjusted EBITDA for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 was primarily driven by an increase in Apps Revenue of $875.4 million, partially offset by a $432.6 million increase in user acquisition costs, a $199.8 million increase in third-party payment processing fees paid associated with in-app purchases, a $151.6 million increase in costs primarily related to the development of new games by third parties, and a $31.8 million increase in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and an increase in headcount.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we have financed our operations primarily through payments received from clients using our Software Platform and advertising on our Apps, and from user IAPs from our Apps, and through net proceeds we received from the sales of our convertible preferred stock and of our Class A common stock in our initial public offering and debt borrowings, including borrowings made under our credit agreement. As of December 31, 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion.

We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents would be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditures needs for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements, however, will depend on many factors, including our growth rate; sales and marketing activities; timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts; capital expenditures to purchase hardware and software; and our continued need to invest in our IT infrastructure to support our growth. In addition, we may enter into additional strategic partnerships as well as agreements to acquire or invest in teams and technologies, including intellectual property rights, which could increase our cash requirements. For example, in 2022, we acquired MoPub and Wurl, which reduced our year-end 2022 cash balance by $1.3 billion. As a result of these and other factors, we may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing sooner than we currently anticipate. If additional financing from outside sources is required, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required, or if we cannot expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities because we lack sufficient capital, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

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

Years Ended December 31,
202220212020
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$412,773$361,851$222,883
Net cash used in investing activities$(1,371,468)$(1,214,930)$(679,891)
Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities$(526,848)$3,109,546$377,855

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $412.8 million for 2022, primarily consisting of $192.9 million of net loss, adjusted for certain non-cash items, which included $547.1 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $191.6 million of stock-based compensation expense, $127.9 million of impairment charges and losses on disposal of assets, $17.1 million of change in operating right of use asset, and $12.7 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $292.4 million. The net increase in the operating assets and liabilities was primarily driven by an increase in accounts receivable and other assets, and a decrease in operating lease liabilities, deferred revenue and accrued and other liabilities, partially offset by higher accounts payable.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $361.9 million for 2021, primarily consisting of $35.3 million of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, which included $431.1 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $133.2 million of stock-based compensation expense, $26.3 million of change in operating right of use asset, $18.2 million of loss on settlement of debt, $8.8 million of net unrealized gains on fair value remeasurement of financial instruments, and $12.8 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount, partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $284.3 million. The net increase in the operating assets and liabilities was primarily driven by an increase in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other current assets and decrease in operating lease liabilities partially offset by higher accounts payable and accrued and other liabilities.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $1.4 billion for 2022, primarily consisting of $1.3 billion related to acquisitions, $66.3 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and other, partially offset by $37.0 million in proceeds from sale of long-lived assets.

Net cash used in investing activities was $1.2 billion for 2021, primarily consisting of $1.2 billion related to acquisitions, $15.0 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and other and $12.0 million in proceeds from other investing activity.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities was $526.8 million for 2022, primarily consisting of $338.9 million of common stock repurchases, deferred acquisition costs of $124.2 million, payments for withholding taxes related to net share settlement of restricted stock units of $27.5 million, payments for the principal repayment of debt of $25.8 million, and payments for finance leases of $24.1 million, partially offset by $25.5 million in proceeds from exercise of stock awards.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $3.1 billion for 2021, primarily consisting of $1.7 billion of proceeds from issuance of common stock in our initial public offering, net of issuance costs as adjusted for cost reimbursement, $2.3 billion of proceeds from debt issuance and $31.2 million proceeds from exercise of stock awards partially offset by payments for the principal repayment of debt of $719.8 million, deferred acquisition costs of $234.1 million and finance leases of $15.3 million.

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Credit Agreement

As of December 31, 2022, our total outstanding indebtedness under the Amended Credit Agreement with the lenders party thereto and Bank of America, N.A. serving as the administrative agent consisted of $3.25 billion of outstanding term loans with $33.3 million due within twelve months. This amount is exclusive of interest payments which vary based on the fluctuations in the interest rate index. Additionally, the Amended Credit Agreement provides a Revolving Credit Facility with a borrowing capacity of $600.0 million. There were no borrowings drawn from the Revolving Credit Facility as of December 31, 2022. For additional information on the Credit Agreement, see Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Contractual Obligations

Our material cash requirements include the following contractual obligations.

Deferred Acquisition Costs

As of December 31, 2022, we had accrued certain deferred acquisition costs of $31.0 million, with the entire amount payable within twelve months. These costs represent part of the consideration related to games acquired in asset acquisition transactions. Refer to "Contingent Consideration" below for additional information.

Operating Leases

As of December 31, 2022, we have non-cancellable commitments for real estate leases and leases of certain networking equipment colocation space with fixed lease payment obligations of $77.0 million, with $17.3 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Finance Leases

As of December 31, 2022, we have non-cancelable payments related to finance leases of certain networking equipment of $72.8 million, with $25.0 million payable within twelve months. For additional information, see Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

License Asset Obligation

As of December 31, 2022, we have an obligation related to certain intellectual property that we licensed from a third party of $45.8 million, with $15.3 million payable within twelve months.

Non-cancelable purchase obligations

As of December 31, 2022, we have non-cancellable purchase obligations, which primarily consist of a certain arrangement related to cloud platform services, of $480.6 million, with $210.7 million payable within twelve months.

Wurl Acquisition Obligations

In April 2022, we completed our acquisition of Wurl, a software platform company in the connected TV market for $378.2 million, which includes a deferred payment of $22.7 million to be paid in October 2023, less any eligible claims against the deferred payment.

Investment Commitments

During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we invested or committed to invest in certain private equity funds. As of December 31, 2022 these unfunded commitments were $50.1 million, which may be called from time to time by the funds.

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Contingent Consideration

Several of the definitive agreements governing our acquisitions of our Owned Studios and arrangements with Partner Studios provide for payment contingent upon future performance metrics. These contingent consideration arrangements include payouts based on a percentage of revenue or profitability metrics, payouts of fixed amounts based on the achievement of certain operating targets, and revenue share arrangements for specific apps, and some of these arrangements do not have a maximum limit of contingent consideration achievable. Because these contingent consideration arrangements are based on the success of relevant Apps and are not guaranteed, we do not expect our results of operations would be materially and adversely effected by the payment of amounts under any such arrangement. The table below presents a summary of the significant contingent consideration arrangements:

Relevant TransactionContingent Consideration Summary
Recoded asset acquisition (January 2019)Future one-time earn-out payments, based on a service agreement, of either $60.0 million or $30.0 million per game depending on the nature of the new game App developed, subject to the achievement of a certain monthly revenue milestone in the initial thirty-six months following the launch of a new game App. The term of the service agreement is initially three years, after which time the agreement is terminable by either party upon thirty days’ written notice. We are also required to make future one-time earn-out payments, based on a development agreement during the term of six years, of $10.0 million to each of two additional new game Apps developed, subject to the achievement of the same monthly revenue milestone in the initial thirty-six months following the launch of such game Apps.
Samfinaco Games asset acquisition (August 2019)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on the greater of (i) a predetermined percentage of revenue or (ii) a predetermined percentage of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization generated by the acquired game Apps over each such year. We are also required to make future earn-out payments based on performance metrics of the newly developed game Apps which are similar to the performance metrics of the initially acquired mobile game Apps during the four years from the date of the transaction.
Zenlife asset acquisition (June 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on the excess, if any, of revenue generated by the initially acquired game App for such year above the sum of (i) an annual fixed baseline revenue and (ii) the aggregate earn-out payments made in prior years. We are also required to make future earn-out payments for newly developed game Apps determined under the similar approach as for the initially acquired mobile game Apps.
Athena acquisition (November 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on (i)(a) the revenue generated by the initially acquired game Apps in each such year in excess of (b) a certain revenue threshold, multiplied by (ii) a predetermined revenue multiple.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)Future earn-out payments are contingent on the revenue generated by the acquired mobile Apps exceeding a certain revenue threshold, which will be measured and payable (if applicable) each year for four years from the date of the transaction.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)As amended in 2022, future earn-out payments are contingent on the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") generated by the acquired mobile Apps.

For acquisitions of Owned Studios that are accounted for as business combinations, contingent consideration is initially recognized at fair value. For our other transactions, we generally recognize contingent consideration only on the date when the related performance metrics are achieved. For additional information, see Notes 2 and 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

As of December 31, 2022, we had recorded liabilities of $19.1 million related to uncertain tax positions. Due to uncertainties in the timing of potential tax audits, the timing of the resolution of these positions is uncertain and we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years particularly beyond 12 months. As a result, this amount is not included in the table above.

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In April 2020, we entered into a share purchase agreement with Redemption Games, Inc. (Redemption Games). We purchased a majority of the outstanding common stock of Redemption Games and entered into agreements with the equity holders of Redemption Games that, among other things, provide for call/put rights whereby such holders can elect to require us to purchase all or a portion of their vested securities on a specified date in February of each year from 2022 to 2025 and we can require such holders to sell to us all of their remaining securities on or after February 19, 2025, each for a purchase price per share of the then current fair market value per share of common stock of Redemption Games. In 2022, we disposed all of the common stock shares of Redemption Games and such call/put rights were terminated without having been exercised.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported revenue generated and expenses incurred during the reporting periods. We base our estimates on assumptions, both historical and forward-looking, that are believed to be reasonable. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions. These estimates are inherently subject to judgment and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

We believe that the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant judgments, estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. For additional information, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

We generate Software Platform and Apps revenue. Software Platform revenue is generated primarily from fees collected from advertisers and advertising networks who use our Software Platform. We generate Apps revenue from In-App Purchases ("IAP") generated from in-app purchases (“IAPs”) made by users within our apps (“Apps”) and In-App Advertising ("IAA") generated from advertisers that purchase ad inventory from Apps.

Software Platform Revenue

The vast majority of the Software Platform Revenue is generated through AppDiscovery and MAX, which provides the technology to match advertisers and owners of digital advertising inventory (“Publishers”) via auctions at large scale and microsecond-level speeds. The terms for all mobile advertising arrangements are governed by our terms and conditions and generally stipulate payment terms of up to 60 days subsequent to the end of the month. Substantially all of our contracts with customers are fully cancellable at any time or upon a short notice.

Software Platform Revenue is generated by placing ads on mobile applications owned by Publishers. Our performance obligation is to provide customers with access to the Software Platform, which facilitates the advertiser’s purchase of ad inventory from Publishers. We do not control the ad inventory prior to its transfer to the advertiser, because we do not have the substantive ability to direct the use of nor obtain substantially all of the remaining benefits from the ad inventory. We are not primarily responsible for fulfillment and does not have any inventory risk. We are an agent as it relates to the sale of third-party advertising inventory and presents revenue on a net basis. The transaction price is the product of either the number of completions of agreed upon actions or advertisements displayed and the contractually agreed upon price per advertising unit with the advertiser less consideration paid or payable to Publishers. We recognize Software Platform Revenue when the agreed upon action is completed or when the ad is displayed to users. The number of advertisements delivered and completions of agreed upon actions is determined at the end of each month, which resolves any uncertainty in the transaction price during the reporting period.

Software Platform Revenue also includes revenue generated by our mobile application tracking and attribution solutions that is recognized ratably over the subscription period generally up to twelve months.

Apps Revenue

IAP Revenue

IAP Revenue includes fees collected from users to purchase virtual goods to enhance their gameplay experience. The identified performance obligation is to provide users with the ability to acquire, use, and hold virtual items over the estimated period of time the virtual items are available to the user or until the virtual item is consumed. Payment is required at the time of purchase, and the purchase price is a fixed amount.

Users make IAPs through our distribution partners. The transaction price is equal to the gross amount charged to users because we are the principal in the transaction. IAPs fees are non-refundable. Such payments are initially recorded as deferred revenue. We categorize virtual goods as either consumable or durable. Consumable virtual goods represent goods that can be consumed by a specific player action in gameplay; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of consumable virtual goods as the goods are consumed. Durable virtual goods represent goods that are accessible to the user over an extended period of time; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of durable virtual goods ratably over the period of time the goods are available to the user, which is generally the estimated average user life (“EAUL”).

The EAUL represents our best estimate of the expected life of paying users for the applicable game. The EAUL begins when a user makes the first purchase of durable virtual goods and ends when a user is determined to be inactive. We determine

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the EAUL on a game-by-game basis. For a newly launched game with limited playing data, we determine the EAUL based on the EAUL of a game with sufficiently similar characteristics.

We determine the EAUL on a quarterly basis and applies such calculated EAUL to all bookings in the respective quarter. Determining the EAUL is subjective and requires management’s judgment. Future playing patterns may differ from historical playing patterns, and therefore the EAUL may change in the future. The EAULs are generally between six and nine months.

IAA Revenue

IAA Revenue is generated by selling ad inventory on our Apps to third-party advertisers. Advertisers purchase ad inventory either through the Software Platform or through third-party advertising networks (“Ad Networks”). Revenue from the sale of ad inventory through Ad Networks is recognized net of the amounts retained by Ad Networks as we are unable to determine the gross amount paid by the advertisers to Ad Networks. We recognize revenue when the ad is displayed to users.

Asset Acquisitions and Business Combinations

We perform an initial test to determine whether substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets transferred are concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets, such that the acquisition would not represent a business. If that test suggests that the set of assets and activities is a business, we then perform a second test to evaluate whether the assets and activities transferred include inputs and substantive processes that together, significantly contribute to the ability to create outputs, which would constitute a business. If the result of the second test suggests that the acquired assets and activities constitute a business, we account for the transaction as a business combination.

For transactions accounted for as business combinations, we allocate the fair value of acquisition consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair values. Acquisition consideration includes the fair value of any promised contingent consideration. The excess of the fair value of acquisition consideration over the fair values of acquired identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Contingent consideration is remeasured to its fair value each reporting period with changes in the fair value of contingent consideration recorded in general and administrative expenses. Such valuations require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates and assumptions in valuing certain identifiable intangible assets include, but are not limited to, forecasted revenue and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. In certain circumstances, the allocations of the excess purchase price are based upon preliminary estimates and assumptions and subject to revision when we receive final information, including appraisals and other analyses. During the measurement period, which is one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings. Acquisition-related costs are expensed as incurred.

For transactions accounted for as asset acquisitions, the cost, including certain transaction costs, is allocated to the assets acquired on the basis of relative fair values. We generally include contingent consideration in the cost of the assets acquired only when the uncertainty is resolved. We recognize contingent consideration adjustments to the cost of the acquired assets prospectively using the straight-line method over the remaining useful life of the assets. No goodwill is recognized in asset acquisitions.

Services and Development Agreements

We enter into strategic agreements with Partner Studios. We have historically allowed these Partner Studios to continue their operations with a significant degree of autonomy. In some cases, we bought Apps from Partner Studios and entered into service and development agreements whereby Partner Studios provide support in improving existing Apps and developing new Apps. The substantial majority of payments associated with service agreements for existing Apps are expensed to research and development when the services are rendered as the payments primarily relate to developing enhancements for the Apps. Payments for new Apps associated with development agreements are generally made in connection with the development of a particular App, and therefore, we are subject to development risk prior to the release of the App. Accordingly, payments that are due prior to completion of an App are generally expensed to research and development over the development period as the services are incurred. Payments due after completion of an App are generally capitalized and expensed as cost of revenue. For additional information, see Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Software Development Costs

We incur development costs related to internal-use software and the development of Apps. We review software development costs on a quarterly basis to determine if the costs qualify for capitalization. As a result of an agile and iterative development process, the preliminary project stage remains ongoing until just prior to launch, at which time final feature selection occurs. As such, software development costs do not meet the criteria for capitalization and are expensed as incurred to research and development expenses. The software development costs we capitalized during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were insignificant. We did not capitalize any software development costs during the year ended December 31, 2020

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Goodwill

Goodwill is allocated to reporting units and tested for impairment on an annual basis during the fourth quarter or more frequently if we believe indicators of impairment exist. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate that could affect the value of goodwill or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. When conducting quantitative annual goodwill impairment assessments, we compare the fair value of its reporting units to their carrying value. If the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, then we record a goodwill impairment. Commencing January 1, 2019, the lesser of (i) the entire amount by which the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value or (ii) the carrying value of goodwill allocated to such reporting unit is recorded as an impairment to goodwill. As of December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, no impairment of goodwill has been identified.

Intangible Assets

This consists of identifiable intangible assets, primarily Apps, user base, developed technology, customer relationships and intellectual property licenses resulting from acquisitions. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at cost, net of accumulated amortization. Our estimates of useful lives of intangible assets are based on cash flow forecasts which incorporate various assumptions, including forecasted user acquisition costs, user attrition rates and level of user engagement.

Intangible assets also include costs of intellectual property that we license from third parties for use of their content in our game. The licensing agreements include license payments, which are due over the terms of the agreements. We recognize these license payments as a license asset and a license obligation at the fair value on the contract date, based on a discounted cash flow model. The amortization of the licensed asset commences when the game with licensed content is launched and when licensed agreement is executed; and is recorded in cost of revenue on a straight-line method over the remaining license terms or estimated useful life of the game with licensed content, whichever is shorter. The classification of the license obligations between current and long-term is based on the expected timing of the payments to the licensor.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

We review long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate an asset’s carrying value may not be recoverable. If such circumstances are present, we assess the recoverability of the long-lived assets by comparing the carrying value to the undiscounted future cash flows associated with the related assets. If the future net undiscounted cash flows are less than the carrying value of the assets, the assets are considered impaired and an expense equal to the amount required to reduce the carrying value of the assets to the estimated fair value is recorded as an impairment of intangible assets in the consolidated statements of operations. Significant judgment is required to estimate the amount and timing of future cash flows and the relative risk of achieving those cash flows. Assumptions and estimates about future values and remaining useful lives are complex and often subjective. They can be affected by a variety of factors, including external factors such as industry and economic trends, and internal factors such as changes in our business strategy and our internal forecasts. For example, if future operating results do not meet current forecasts, we may be required to record future impairment charges for acquired intangible assets. Additional factors which significantly affect future cash flows related to long-lived assets include, but are not limited to, forecasted user acquisition costs, user attrition rates, and level of user engagement. Significant changes in these factors may require us to reassess recoverability of long-lived assets and record impairment. Impairment charges could materially decrease future net income and result in lower asset values on our consolidated balance sheet. There were no material impairment charges related to long-lived assets that are held and used for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

We classify an asset as held for sale when we commit to a formal plan to sell the asset and the sale is expected to be completed within one year. Upon classification as held for sale, we recognize the asset at the lower of its carrying value or its estimated fair value, less costs to sell. In addition, we cease to record depreciation or amortization for assets that are classified as held for sale. During the year ended December 31, 2022, we classified certain assets within our Apps reportable segment as held for sale and recognized a total impairment charge of $53.0 million in cost of revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. During the same period, we also recorded a total net loss of $74.9 million as a result of the sale of certain assets within our Apps reportable segment in cost of revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. No assets were classified as held for sale or sold in 2021 or 2020.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance would be made to reduce the provision for income taxes.

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We record uncertain tax positions on the basis of a two-step process in which determinations are made (i) whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (ii) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with a tax authority.

We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits on the income tax expense line in our consolidated statement of operations. Accrued interest and penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the dates of the statement of financial position included in this Annual Report on 10-K.

FY 2021 10-K MD&A

SEC filing source: 0001751008-22-000005.

Extracted structurally from real Item 7 body heading to real Item 7A/8 boundary. Published MD&A gate trimmed front/tail over-capture. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2022-03-11. Report date: 2021-12-31.

Item 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data” and the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” and other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future. A discussion of the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 has been reported previously in our final prospectus dated April 14, 2021 filed with the SEC on April 15, 2021 pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) (File No. 333-253800) of the Securities Act, under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Overview

Our mission is to grow the mobile app ecosystem by enabling the success of mobile app developers. Our software solutions provide advanced tools for mobile app developers to grow their businesses by automating and optimizing the marketing and monetization of their apps. Our software, coupled with our deep industry knowledge and expertise, has allowed us to rapidly scale a successful and diversified portfolio of owned mobile apps. We have also accelerated our market penetration through an active acquisition and partnership strategy. Our scaled and integrated business model sits at the nexus of the mobile app ecosystem, which creates a durable competitive advantage that has fueled our clients’ success and our strong growth.

Since our founding in 2011, we have been focused on building a software-based platform for mobile app developers to improve the marketing and monetization of their apps. Our founders, who are mobile app developers themselves, quickly realized the real impediment to success and growth in the mobile app ecosystem was a discovery and monetization problem—breaking through the congested app stores to efficiently find users and successfully grow their business. Their first-hand experience with these developer challenges led to the development of our infrastructure and software—AppLovin Core Technologies and AppLovin Software Platform. We capitalized on our success and understanding of the mobile app ecosystem by launching AppLovin Apps in 2018. Our Apps now consist of a globally diversified portfolio of over 350 free-to-play mobile games across five genres, run by nineteen studios.

Our focus on building a market-leading software platform, coupled with our unique approach to developing and growing our Apps portfolio, as well as our strategic investments to date, has produced a business model characterized by rapid growth and strong cash flow generation. For 2021, our revenue grew 92% year-over-year from 2020, from $1.45 billion in 2020 to $2.79 billion in 2021. For 2020, our revenue grew 46% year-over-year from 2019, from $994.1 million in 2019 to $1.45 billion in 2020. We generated net income of $35.3 million in 2021, net loss of $125.9 million in 2020, and net income of $119.0 million in 2019. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $726.8 million, $345.5 million, and 301.2 million in 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. Additionally, we have generated strong cash flows, with net cash provided by operating activities of $361.9 million, $222.9 million, and $198.5 million in 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. Given our strong financial position, we have been able to reinvest in our expansion and growth and consummate strategic acquisitions and partnerships. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

In February 2022, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program to repurchase $750.0 million of our Class A common stock over time. The program is effective immediately. We will continuously evaluate efficient alternatives to using cash on hand to fund the program, including accessing the capital markets, subject to market conditions.

Our Business Model

We collect revenue from business clients, comprised of Business—Software Platform and Business—Apps revenue (collectively, "Business Revenue") and consumers. In 2021, Business Revenue represented 48% of total revenue and Consumer Revenue represented 52% of total revenue.

Business Revenue

We generate Business—Software Platform revenue from fees paid by mobile app advertisers, or business clients, that use our Software Platform to grow and monetize their apps. We also collect Business—Apps revenue from business clients that purchase the digital advertising inventory of our portfolio of Apps. We are able to grow our Business Revenue by improving our Software Platform, adding more apps to our Apps portfolio and increasing engagement on our existing Apps. While we have thousands of business clients as of December 31, 2021, the vast majority of our revenue is derived from our Enterprise Clients. See “—Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate Enterprise Clients. Approximately 96% of our Business Revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 came from our 407

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Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2021. Our Enterprise Clients had a Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate of approximately 176% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021.1

Business—Software Platform clients include a wide variety of advertisers and publishers, from indie developer studios to some of the largest global internet platforms, such as Facebook and Google. We have rapidly grown the number of Software Platform Enterprise Clients from 158 as of December 31, 2020 to 461 as of December 31, 2021, which generated approximately 94% of our Business Revenue from our Software Platform for the three months ended December 31, 2021. Our Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate from existing Software Platform Enterprise Clients (SPECs) was 204% for SPECs as of December 31, 2021.2 We see multiple opportunities to gain new business clients, and to increase spend from existing business clients, as we help them grow their businesses and make them more successful. Business Software Platform represented 51% of total Business Revenue in the twelve months ended December 31, 2021.

Our Software Platform includes AppDiscovery, Adjust, and MAX. Business clients use AppDiscovery to automate, optimize, and manage their user acquisition investments. They set marketing and user growth goals, and AppDiscovery optimizes their ad spend in an effort to achieve their return on advertising spend targets and other marketing objectives. AppDiscovery comprises the vast majority of revenue from our Software Platform. Revenue is generated from our advertisers, typically on a performance-based, and shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model.

Business clients use Adjust’s SaaS mobile marketing platform to better understand their users’ journey while allowing marketers to make smarter decisions through measurement, attribution, and fraud prevention. Revenue from Adjust is primarily generated from an annual software subscription fee.

Business clients use MAX to optimize purchases of app ad inventory. Revenue from MAX is generated based on a percentage of client spend. As more developers move to in-app bidding monetization, we expect growth in the adoption of, and revenue from, MAX.

Our Business—Apps revenue clients purchase advertising inventory from our Apps and are able to target highly relevant users from our diverse and global portfolio of over 350 mobile games. Our clients leverage a broad set of high-performing mobile ad formats, including playable and rewarded video, and are able to match these ads with relevant users resulting in a better return on their advertising spend. By increasing the number of users and their engagement, as well as better matching ads with the appropriate target audience, we are able to increase our revenue from business clients that purchase advertising inventory from our Apps. Revenue from business clients related to our Apps is generated from ads purchased by advertisers, as well as from revenue-sharing agreements between some of our studios and a selection of third-party studios for which they publish and monetize games.

Consumer Revenue

Consumer Revenue is generated when a user of one of our Apps makes an in-app purchase (IAP). Our Apps are generally free-to-play mobile games and generate Consumer Revenue through IAPs. IAPs consist of virtual goods used to enhance gameplay, accelerate access to certain features or levels, and augment other mobile game progression opportunities for the user. IAPs drive more engagement and better economics from our Apps. The vast majority of our IAP revenue flows through two app stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, which charge us a standard commission on IAPs.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, we had an average of 3.0 million Monthly Active Payers (MAPs) across our portfolio of Apps. Over that period, we had an Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer (ARPMAP) of $43. Leveraging the benefit of our integrated Core Technologies, Software Platform, and Apps, we see opportunities to grow our App-related revenue streams by increasing MAPs and expanding ARPMAP within existing games and through new game development, acquisitions and partnerships. See “—Key Metrics” below for additional information on how we calculate MAPs and ARPMAP.

Key Metrics

We review the following key metrics on a regular basis in order to evaluate the health of our business, identify trends affecting our performance, prepare financial projections, and make strategic decisions. As a result of our continued focus on our Software Platform, we plan to phase out several metrics including Enterprise Clients, Revenue Per Enterprise

1 We measure Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 for our Enterprise Clients as current period revenue divided by prior period revenue. Prior period revenue is measured as revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2020 from our Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2020. Current period revenue is revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 from our Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2021, and excludes revenue from any new Enterprise Clients during the twelve months ended December 31, 2021.

2 We measure Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate for the three months ended December 31, 2021 for our Software Platform Enterprise Clients (SPECs) as current period revenue divided by prior period revenue. Prior period revenue is measured as revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2020 from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2020. Current period revenue is revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2021 from Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2020.

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Client and Net Dollar-Based Retention Rate for Enterprise Clients beginning with the quarter ended March 31, 2022 in favor of similar software-focused Key Metrics. See “Update to our Key Metrics” below for further details.

Our key metrics are not based on any standardized industry methodology and are not necessarily calculated in the same manner or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Similarly, our key metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology. The numbers that we use to calculate TSTV, MAP, and ARPMAP are based on internal data. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable judgments and estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and engagement. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy.

Annual Key Metrics

Enterprise Clients. We focus on the number of Enterprise Clients, which are third-party business clients from whom we have collected greater than $125,000 of revenue in the trailing 12 months to a given date. Enterprise Clients generate the vast majority of our Business Revenue and Business Revenue growth. We expect to increase the revenue from Enterprise Clients over time.

Revenue Per Enterprise Client (RPEC). We define RPEC as (i) the total revenue derived from our Enterprise Clients in a twelve-month period, divided by (ii) Enterprise Clients as of the end of that same period. RPEC shows how efficiently we are monetizing each Enterprise Client. We expect to increase RPEC over time as we enhance our Software Platform and Apps.

The following table shows our Enterprise Clients as of December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, and our RPEC for 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
Enterprise Clients407172167
Revenue Per Enterprise Client (in thousands)$3,146$4,081$3,515

Quarterly Key Metrics

Software Platform Enterprise Clients (SPECs). We focus on the number of SPECs, which are third-party business clients from whom we have collected greater than $31,250 of Software Platform revenue in the three months to a given date, equating to an annual run-rate of $125,000 in revenue. SPECs generate the vast majority of our Business Revenue—Software Platform and Business Revenue—Software Platform growth.

Revenue Per Software Platform Enterprise Client (Revenue per SPEC). We define Revenue per SPEC as (i) the total revenue derived from our Software Platform Enterprise Clients in a three- month period, divided by (ii) Software Platform Enterprise Clients as of the end of that same period. Revenue per SPEC shows how efficiently we are monetizing each SPEC. We expect to increase Revenue per SPEC over time as we enhance our Software Platform and Apps.

The following table shows our SPECs and Revenue per SPEC as of the three-months ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Three Months Ended
December 31,
202120202019
SPEC461158133
Revenue per SPEC (in thousands)$503$500$338

Update to our Key Metrics

Beginning with the three months ended June 30, 2022, the revenue measurement period used to determine the number of SPECs in a period will be updated to include clients from whom we have collected greater than $125,000 in Software Platform revenue over the trailing 12 months. The current definition of SPEC includes third-party clients who had more than $31,250 in Software Platform revenue for the prior three months. We believe this change in revenue measurement period will provide additional information regarding the scale and growth of our more-mature clients. Going forward, when Net Dollar-Based Revenue Retention (NDBRR) measures are provided, we will also calculate such measures using the updated definition of SPECs.

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The table below shows our SPEC and Revenue per SPEC as of December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 under the updated calculations.

Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
SPEC (trailing 12 months)380142146
Revenue per SPEC (trailing 12 months) (in thousands)$1,634$1,404$1,300

Total Software Transaction Value (TSTV). Business Software Platform revenue is from third- party clients using our software platform to find new customers. We do not recognize revenue from our own spend on our software platform. Therefore, we use TSTV to measure the scale and growth rates of our software platform, as it reflects the total value on our software platform including our first-party studios as though they were stand-alone businesses.

The following table shows our TSTV for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
Total Software Transaction Value$982,248$295,698$281,079

Monthly Active Payers (MAPs). We define a MAP as a unique mobile device active on one of our Apps in a month that completed at least one IAP during that time period. A consumer who makes IAPs within two separate Apps on the same mobile device in a monthly period will be counted as two MAPs. MAPs for a particular time period longer than one month are the average MAPs for each month during that period. We estimate the number of MAPs by aggregating certain data from third-party attribution partners. Some of our Apps do not utilize such third-party attribution partners, and therefore our MAPs figure for any period does not capture every user that completed an IAP on our Apps. We estimate that our counted MAPs generated approximately 97% of our Consumer Revenue during the year ended December 31, 2021, and as such, management believes that MAPs are still a useful metric to measure the engagement and monetization potential of our games. We expect to increase our MAPs over time as we increase the number of our Apps and enhance the engagement and monetization of our Apps.

Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer (ARPMAP). We define ARPMAP as (i) the total Consumer Revenue derived from our Apps in a monthly period, divided by (ii) MAPs in that same period. ARPMAP for a particular time period longer than one month is the average ARPMAP for each month during that period. ARPMAP shows how efficiently we are monetizing each MAP. We expect to increase ARPMAP over time as we enhance the monetization of our Apps.

The following table shows our Monthly Active Payers and Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
Monthly Active Payers (millions)3.01.51.0
Average Revenue Per Monthly Active Payer$43$41$32

Non-GAAP Financial Metrics

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA for a particular period as net income (loss) before interest expense and loss on settlement of debt, other (income) expense, net, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, amortization, depreciation and write-offs and as further adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus, customer acquisition bonuses, loss (gain) on extinguishments of acquisition related continent consideration, non-operating foreign exchange losses, lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements, and change in the fair value of contingent consideration. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue for the same period.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance. We use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance,

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including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures and are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as alternatives or substitutes to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Furthermore, these metrics have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Thus, our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides our Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2021, 2020 and 2019, and a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:

Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Net income (loss)$35,338$(125,934)$119,040
Adjusted as follows:
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt103,17077,87373,955
Other (income) expense, net3(7,545)(6,183)(5,818)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes10,973(9,772)7,194
Amortization, depreciation and write-offs431,063254,95192,806
Non-operating foreign exchange losses(1,537)1,210
Stock-based compensation4135,46962,38710,222
Acquisition-related expense and transaction bonus16,8877,8503,798
Customer acquisition bonuses53,227
Loss on extinguishments of acquisition related contingent consideration74,820
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements7,851
Change in the fair value of contingent consideration(230)442
Adjusted EBITDA$726,815$345,495$301,197
Net income (loss) margin1.3%(8.7)%12.0%
Adjusted EBITDA margin26.0%23.8%30.3%

In 2021, 2020, and 2019, our net income (loss) and Adjusted EBITDA included $1.8 million, $62.0 million, and $0.2 million related to the fair value adjustment of the deferred revenue balance assumed as a result of the acquisitions of Adjust in 2021, Machine Zone in 2020, and SafeDK in 2019.

Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that the future success of our business depends on many factors, including the factors described below. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to continue to grow profitably while maintaining strong cash flow.

Continue to invest in innovation

We have made, and intend to continue to make, significant investments in our Core Technologies and Software Platform to enhance their effectiveness and value proposition for our business clients. We expect that these investments will require spending on research and development, and acquisitions and partnerships related to technology components and products. We believe investments in our software, including AXON, AppDiscovery, Adjust, and MAX, will further improve their effectiveness for developers. Our investments will also allow us to enter new mobile app sectors outside of

3 Excludes recurring operational foreign exchange gains and losses and write-off of an investment that is included in Amortization, depreciation and write-offs line item above

4 The twelve months ended December 31, 2021 includes $2.3 million of bonus compensation settled in stock outside of the scope of ASC 718.

5 In association with the MoPub acquisition, we incurred certain costs to incentivize publishers to migrate to our MAX mediation solution, including existing publishers of MoPub as well as publishers on other competitor offerings. We have not historically incurred significant publisher migration costs, nor do we currently intend to incur significant publisher migration costs in the future. As such, we have removed the impact of these costs from Adjusted EBITDA.

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gaming. While our investments in research and development and acquisitions and partnerships may not result in revenue in the near term, we believe these investments position us to increase our revenue over time.

Retain and grow existing business clients

We rely on existing business clients for a significant portion of our revenue. As we improve our Software Platform and Apps, we can attract additional spend from these business clients. Our business clients include indie studio developers and some of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world. We believe there is significant room for us to further expand our relationships with these clients and increase their usage of our Software Platform. We have invested in targeted sales and account- based marketing efforts, including through Adjust’s sales and marketing teams, to identify and showcase opportunities to business clients and plan to continue to do so in the future.

In the past, our business clients have generally increased their usage of our Software Platform and Apps, and as a result, growth from existing business clients has been a primary driver of our revenue growth. We must continue to retain our existing business clients and expand their spend with us over time to continue to grow our revenue, increase profitability and drive greater cash flow.

Add new business clients globally

Our future success depends in part on our ability to acquire new business clients. We recently increased our focus on markets outside the United States to serve the needs of business clients globally. In 2021, only 42% of our revenue from business clients was generated from outside of the United States. We believe that the global opportunity is significant and will continue to expand as developers and advertisers outside the United States adopt our Software Platform and advertise on our Apps. We also see opportunities to acquire new business clients outside of mobile gaming, as the capabilities of our Core Technologies and Software Platform are relevant to the broader mobile app ecosystem. We are investing in direct sales, product development, education, and other capabilities to drive increased awareness and adoption of our Software Platform and Apps, which investments may impact our profitability in the near term as we seek further scale. We must continue to acquire new business clients to grow our revenue, increase profitability, and drive greater cash flow.

Optimization, growth, and expansion of our AppLovin Apps

We plan to continue to invest in developing new Apps and enhancing existing Apps. Because our Apps are typically free to download and use, economically acquiring users and monetizing through advertising and IAPs is critical to the future success of our Apps. We plan to launch several new Apps per year, as well as continue to evaluate investments in mobile gaming and other mobile app sectors.

Given our expertise in app marketing, we are able to pursue a highly-optimized and scaled user acquisition investment playbook. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, we invested $1.13 billion in sales and marketing, a large percentage of which was invested in user acquisition to grow the number of users engaging with our Apps. We believe the scale, insights, and effective monetization strategies provided through our Core Technologies and Software Platform, and our integrated business model allow us to optimize ad spend across our portfolio of Apps. We also invest in the growth of our Apps by improving in-game monetization, optimizing game economies and in-game conversion, and opt-in business services, such as creative services and localization. We must continue to optimize, grow, and expand our Apps portfolio to grow our revenue, increase profitability, and drive greater cash flow.

Continued execution of strategic acquisitions and partnerships

We intend to continue to make strategic acquisitions and add complementary software and tools to our Software Platform and enter into strategic partnerships to grow our portfolio of Apps. From the beginning of 2018 through December 31, 2021, we have invested over $2.5 billion in 27 strategic acquisitions and partnerships with mobile app developers and for technologies to enhance our Software Platform. We have been very successful in growing mobile apps that we have added to our Apps portfolio. We have also invested strategically to enhance our Software Platform. For example, in 2022 we acquired MoPub, a monetization platform for mobile apps from Twitter, Inc. in 2021 we acquired Adjust GmbH, a leading app attribution, measurement, and analytics company and in 2018 we acquired MAX, an in-app bidding platform, which improves monetization on apps. On February 23, 2022, we also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wurl, a high-growth software platform in the Connected TV (CTV) market.

While we have a strong pipeline of strategic acquisition and partnership opportunities, we believe our future results of operations will be affected by our ability to continue to identify and execute such transactions that are accretive to our growth and profitability.

Growth and structure of the mobile app ecosystem

Our business and results of operations will be impacted by industry factors that drive overall performance of the mobile app ecosystem. The mobile app ecosystem has grown rapidly in recent years. We expect that any acceleration, or slowing, of this growth would affect our business and results of operations. In addition, even if the mobile app ecosystem

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continues to grow at its current rate, our ability to position ourselves within the market will impact our business and results of operations.

Mobile app developers, including AppLovin, rely on third-party platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, among others, to distribute games, collect payments made for IAPs, and target users with relevant advertising. We expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. These third-party platforms have significant market power and discretion to set platform fees, select which apps to promote, and decide how much consumer information to provide to advertising networks that enable our Core Technologies and Software Platform to target users with personalized and relevant advertising and allocate marketing campaigns in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Any changes made in the policies of third-party platforms could drive rapid change across the mobile app ecosystem. For example, in April 2021, Apple started implementing its application tracking transparency framework that, among other things, requires users' opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. While this transparency framework has not had a significant impact on our overall business, it may in the future continue to have an impact on it, including the effectiveness of our advertising practices and/or our ability to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps. We rely in part on IDFA to provide us with data that helps our Software Platform better market and monetize Apps. The IDFA and transparency changes may require us to engage in significant changes to our data collection practices, which may require our expenditure of substantial costs and resources, and to the extent we are unable to utilize IDFA or a similar offering, or if the transparency changes and any related opt-in or other requirements result in decreases in the availability or utility of data relating to Apps, our Software Platform may not be as effective, we may not be able to continue to efficiently generate revenue for our Apps, and our revenue and results of operations may be harmed. Additionally, Apple implemented new requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy and data processing practices in December 2020, which has resulted in increased compliance requirements and could result in decreased usage of our Apps. These or any similar changes to the policies of Apple or Google may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. To date, these data privacy changes have had a relatively muted aggregate impact on our overall results of operations

New tools for developers, industry standards, and platforms may emerge in the future. We believe our focus on the mobile app ecosystem has allowed us to understand the needs of our business clients and our relentless innovation has enabled us to quickly adapt to changes in the industry and pioneer new solutions. We must continue to innovate and stay ahead of developments in the mobile app ecosystem in order for our business to succeed and our results of operations to continue to improve.

Acquisition of MoPub

On October 6, 2021, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from Twitter, Inc. the MoPub business for approximately $1.0 billion and the acquisition closed in January 2022. We plan to integrate MoPub’s reach and product features into our existing Software Platform to better maximize revenue growth and improve efficiencies for our combined customers. We expect to see strong growth in our unified MAX solution and to facilitate successful migration to our MAX platform, we expect to pay approximately $200 million in migration fees to publishers.

Definitive Agreement to Acquire Wurl

On February 23, 2022 we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wurl, Inc., a software platform company in the Connected TV (CTV) market, for approximately $430 million in cash and Class A common stock. Concurrent with entering into the definitive agreement, we also adopted a multi-year performance-based incentive plan for certain key employees of Wurl, under which such employees may earn up to a total of $600.0 million in additional shares of the Company's Class A common stock through 2025, subject to the achievement of certain revenue and other performance targets by the acquired business. Such plan will become effective at the closing of the transaction. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to close in the first half of 2022. We believe our software marketing expertise will further optimize the experience for our advertisers and consumers while enabling content companies to expand their audiences and increase monetization.

Term Loans and Amendment to Credit Agreement

On October 25, 2021, we entered into Amendment No. 6 (Amendment No. 6), to that certain Credit Agreement, dated as of August 15, 2018, by and among us, as borrower, Bank of America,N.A., as administrative agent and collateral agent, and the other parties thereto, as amended by Amendment No. 1 to the Credit Agreement, dated as of April 23, 2019, Amendment No. 2 to the Credit Agreement, dated as of April 27, 2020, Amendment No. 3 to the Credit Agreement, dated as of May 6, 2020, Amendment No. 4 to the Credit Agreement, dated as of October 27, 2020 and Amendment No. 5 to the Credit Agreement, dated as of February 12, 2021 (the Credit Agreement; and as amended by Amendment No. 6, the Amended Credit Agreement).

Pursuant to Amendment No. 6 and the Amended Credit Agreement, certain additional lenders agreed to provide incremental loans in an aggregate amount of $1.50 billion (such incremental loans, the Amendment No. 6 New Term Loans). The Amendment No. 6 New Term Loans have (a) a maturity date of October 25, 2028 (or if not a business day, the immediately preceding business day), (b) a floor on LIBOR Loans of 50 basis points, and (c) an applicable margin for LIBOR Loans equal to 3.00% (or 2.00% for ABR Loans), in each case, subject to and in accordance with the terms and

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conditions of the Amended Credit Agreement. Except as set forth in Amendment No. 6 and the Amended Credit Agreement, the other terms and conditions of the Amendment No. 6 New Term Loans are consistent with the term loans outstanding immediately prior to the effectiveness of Amendment No. 6.

Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing and shelter-in-place orders put in place around the world have caused widespread disruption in global economies, productivity, and financial markets and have altered the way in which we conduct our day-to-day business. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic we have temporarily closed our offices around the world, including our corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and implemented travel restrictions. Our Software Platform and Apps do not require physical interaction, thus, our ability to meet the needs of our clients and users has not been materially affected. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and the extent to which the pandemic may impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations in the future remains uncertain. See the section titled “Risk Factors—The COVID-19 pandemic and responses thereto across the globe have altered how individuals interact with each other and affected how we and our business partners are operating, and the extent to which this situation will impact our future results of operations remains uncertain” for additional information.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We collect Business Revenue from advertisers spending on our Software Platform and Apps. The majority of our Business Revenue comes from our Software Platform and is generated from our advertisers, typically on a performance-based , then shared with our advertising publishers, typically on a cost per impression model. Business Revenue generated from our Apps comes from advertisers that purchase ad inventory from our diverse portfolio of Apps. Business Revenue from our Software Platform was 51%, 29%, and 33% of total Business Revenue in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

We generate Consumer Revenue from IAPs made by users within our Apps.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of third-party payment processing fees for distribution partners, amortization of acquired technology-related intangible assets, and expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure. Third-party payment processing fees relate to Consumer Revenue. The fees for IAPs are processed and collected by third-party distribution partners.

Network operating costs include bandwidth, energy, other equipment costs related to our co-located data centers, and costs for third-party cloud service providers. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars over the long term as our business and revenue continue to grow. We also expect our cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period.

Sales and marketing. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of user acquisition costs, other advertising expenses, personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock- based compensation for employees engaged in sales and marketing, and amortization of acquired user-related intangible assets, marketing programs, travel, customer service costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to grow our customer base and increase brand awareness. As a result, we expect sales and marketing expenses to increase in absolute dollars. We also expect our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period- over-period in the near term as we invest to grow our customer base and increase brand awareness, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist primarily of product development costs, including personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock- based compensation for employees engaged in research and development, professional services costs related to development of new apps by third parties, consulting costs, regulatory compliance costs, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in research and development to continue to enhance our Core Technologies and Software Platform, and to improve existing games and develop new apps. As a result, we expect research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars. We also expect our research and development expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to enhance our Core Technologies and Software Platform and improve our existing Apps and develop new Apps, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of costs incurred to support our business, including personnel-related expenses for salaries, employee benefits, and stock-based compensation for employees engaged in finance, accounting, legal, human resources and administration, professional services fees for

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legal, accounting, recruiting, and administrative services (including acquisition-related expenses), insurance, travel, and allocated facilities and information technology costs.

We plan to continue to invest in our general and administrative function to support the growth of our business. In addition, we expect to incur additional general and administrative expenses as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses related to compliance and reporting obligations of a public company, increased insurance and investor relations expenses, and increased professional services fees (including acquisition-related expenses). As a result, we expect general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars. We also expect our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue to fluctuate period-over-period in the near term as we invest to support the growth of our business, and to decrease over the long term as we benefit from greater scale.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt. Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt consists primarily of loss related to debt extinguishment, interest expense associated with our outstanding debt, including accretion of debt discount, and changes in fair value of interest rate swap accounted for as a cash flow hedge related to the stream of variable interest payments associated with a portion of our outstanding debt.

Other income (expense), net. Other income (expense), net, includes interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents, gains and losses related to embedded derivatives and other financial instruments accounted for at fair value, and foreign currency exchange gains (losses), which consist primarily of remeasurement of transactions and monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency at the end of the period.

Provision for (benefit from) income taxes. We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than those in the United States. Additionally, certain of our foreign earnings may also be taxable in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign to domestic income, impacts from acquisition restructuring, deduction benefits related to foreign-derived intangible income, future changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws. Additionally, our effective tax rate can vary based on the amount of pre-tax income or loss.

Results of Operations

The following tables summarize our consolidated statement of operations in dollar amounts. The period to period comparisons of results is not necessarily indicative of results for future periods.

Years Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands)
Revenue$2,793,104$1,451,086$994,104
Costs and expenses
Cost of revenue(1)(2)988,095555,578241,274
Sales and marketing(1)(2)1,129,892627,796481,781
Research and development(1)366,402180,65244,966
General and administrative(1)158,69966,43131,712
Extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent consideration74,820
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements7,851
Total costs and expenses2,643,0881,513,128799,733
Income (loss) from operations150,016(62,042)194,371
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(103,170)(77,873)(73,955)
Other income (expense), net(535)4,2095,818
Total other expense(103,705)(73,664)(68,137)
Income (loss) before income taxes46,311(135,706)126,234
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes10,973(9,772)7,194
Net income (loss)$35,338$(125,934)$119,040

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_______

(1)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$2,335$982$124
Sales and marketing15,22410,6681,922
Research and development63,34436,8525,009
General and administrative52,27413,8853,167
Total stock-based compensation$133,177$62,387$10,222

_______

(2)Includes amortization expense related to acquired intangibles as follows:

Years Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands)
Cost of revenue$373,726$228,339$74,787
Sales and marketing22,66111,5877,641
Total amortization expense related to acquired intangibles$396,387$239,926$82,428

The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue(1):

Years Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands)
Revenue100%100%100%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue35%38%24%
Sales and marketing40%43%48%
Research and development13%12%5%
General and administrative6%5%3%
Extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent consideration%5%%
Lease modification and abandonment of leasehold improvements%1%%
Total costs and expenses95%104%80%
Income (loss) from operations5%(4)%20%
Other income (expense):
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt(4)%(5)%(7)%
Other income (expense), net0%%1%
Total other expense(4)%(5)%(7)%
Income (loss) before income taxes2%(9)%13%
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes%(1)%1%
Net income (loss)1%(9)%12%

_______

(1)Totals of percentages of revenue may not foot due to rounding.

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Comparison of Our Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019

Revenue

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Business Revenue – Software Platform$673,952$207,285$198,305225%5%
Business Revenue – Apps660,557503,867397,64331%27%
Total Business Revenue1,334,509711,152595,94888%19%
Consumer Revenue1,458,595739,934398,15697%86%
Total Revenue$2,793,104$1,451,086$994,10492%46%

Total revenue increased by $1,342.0 million, or 92%, for 2021 compared to 2020 due to increases in Business Revenue from our Software Platform of 225%, Business Revenue from our Apps of 31% and Consumer Revenue of 97%.

In 2021, our Business Revenue increased by $623.4 million from 2020. In 2021, our Business Revenue from our Software Platform increased by $466.7 million from 2020 primarily due to AppDiscovery where installations increased 62% and price per installation increased 81% compared to 2020, as well as our addition of Adjust during the year which contributed 17% of the Business Revenue from Software Platform increase. Our Business Revenue from Apps grew due to a 44% increase in the volume of advertising impressions and a 9% decrease in price per advertising impression, each compared to 2020. Usage of advertising inventory by our Owned Studios and Partner Studios represented 21% of installations in 2021. We do not recognize Business Revenue from transactions with our Owned Studios and Partner Studios.

In 2021, our Consumer Revenue increased by $718.7 million from 2020, primarily due to a 88% increase in the volume of in-app purchases, as well as a 5% increase in price per in-app purchase.

Cost of revenue

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Cost of revenue$988,095$555,578$241,27478%130%
Percentage of revenue35%38%24%

Cost of revenue in 2021 increased by $432.5 million, or 78%, compared to 2020. The increase in 2021 was primarily due to an increase of $199.8 million in third-party payment processing fees as a result of the growth in Consumer Revenue, an increase of $153.9 million in depreciation and amortization of technology-related intangible assets driven by an increase in acquisition activity, and an increase in expenses associated with operating our network infrastructure driven by the growth in our operations of $49.7 million.

Sales and marketing

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Sales and marketing$1,129,892$627,796$481,78180%30%
Percentage of revenue40%43%48%

Sales and marketing expenses in 2021 increased by $502.1 million, or 80%, compared to 2020 primarily due to a $432.8 million increase in user acquisition costs, a $23.2 million increase in personnel-related expenses primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and increase in headcount, and a $28.0 million increase in professional service fees.

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Research and development

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Research and development$366,402$180,652$44,966103%302%
Percentage of revenue13%12%5%

Research and development expenses in 2021 increased by $185.8 million, or 103%, compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $109.9 million in professional services costs related to development of new games by third parties and an increase of $66.1 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and an increase in headcount.

General and administrative

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
General and administrative$158,699$66,431$31,712139%109%
Percentage of revenue6%5%3%

General and administrative expenses in 2021 increased by $92.3 million, or 139% compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $65.4 million in personnel-related expenses related to an increase in stock-based compensation expense as a result of higher fair value in our common stock and an increase in headcount to support our growth and an increase of $12.4 million in professional services costs primarily associated with audit, tax, and legal support.

Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Interest expense and loss on settlement of debt$(103,170)$(77,873)$(73,955)32%5%
Percentage of revenue(4)%(5)%(7)%

In 2021, interest expense and loss on settlement of debt increased by $25.3 million, or 32%, compared to 2020. The increase was primarily due to a loss on the settlement of term loans of $16.9 million during the period.

Other income (expense), net

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Other income (expense), net$(535)$4,209$5,818(113)%(28)%
Percentage of revenue%%1%

In 2021, other income (expense), net decreased by $4.7 million, or 113% compared to 2020. The decrease was primarily due to the write-off of an investment in non marketable securities of $10.0 million, third-party cost incurred for the amendment of term loans of $3.7 million, and a fair value remeasurement loss of $2.0 million, which were partially offset by an unrealized gain of $4.7 million related to marketable equity securities, $3.9 million in net foreign exchange gains, and a fair value remeasurement gain related to term loan embedded derivative of $2.0 million.

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Provision for (benefit from) Income Taxes

Years Ended December 31,2020 to 2021 % change2019 to 2020 % change
202120202019
(in thousands, except percentages)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes$10,973$(9,772)$7,194(212)%(236)%
Percentage of revenue%(1)%1%

In 2021, provision for (benefit from) income taxes increased by $20.7 million, or 212% compared to 2020. The increase was driven by an increase of $38.0 million due to higher pre-tax income in 2021, an increase of $15.9 million due to higher valuation allowance, an increase of $6.0 million due to change in foreign deferred tax rate in 2020, a decrease of $2.6 million due to foreign loss inclusion, a decrease of $19.2 million due to excess tax benefit for stock-based compensation, a decrease of $6.9 million due to higher foreign-derived intangible income deduction, and a decrease of $12.2 million due to a disallowed deduction for extinguishments of acquisition-related contingent considerations in 2020.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we financed our operations primarily through payments received from business clients using our Software Platform and advertising on our Apps, and from user IAPs from our Apps, and through net proceeds we received from the sales of our convertible preferred stock and of our Class A common stock in our initial public offering and debt borrowings, including borrowings made under our credit agreement. As of December 31, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $1,520.5 million.

In February 2022, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program to repurchase $750.0 million of our Class A common stock over time. The program is effective immediately. We will continuously evaluate efficient alternatives to using cash on hand to fund the program, including accessing the capital markets, subject to market conditions.

We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, cash flows from operations, and ability to access capital markets would be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated working capital and capital expenditure needs, including authorized share repurchases, for at least the next 12 months and beyond. Our future capital requirements, however, will depend on many factors, including our growth rate; expansion of sales and marketing activities; timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts; capital expenditures to purchase hardware and software; and our continued need to invest in our IT infrastructure to support our growth. In addition, we may enter into additional strategic partnerships as well as agreements to acquire or invest in teams and technologies, including intellectual property rights, which could increase our cash requirements. For example, in 2021, we completed a number of asset and business acquisitions, which reduced our year-end 2021 cash balance by $1,206.5 million. As a result of these and other factors, we may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing sooner than we currently anticipate. If additional financing from outside sources is required, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In particular, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in the global financial markets, which may reduce our ability to access capital and negatively affect our liquidity in the future. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required, or if we cannot expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities because we lack sufficient capital, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

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

Years Ended December 31,
202120202019
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities$361,851$222,883$198,462
Net cash used in investing activities$(1,214,930)$(679,891)$(411,554)
Net cash provided by financing activities$3,109,546$377,855$333,160

Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $361.9 million for 2021, primarily consisting of $35.3 million of net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, which included $431.1 million of amortization, depreciation and write-offs, $133.2 million of stock-based compensation expense, $26.3 million of change in operating right of use asset, $18.2 million of loss on settlement of debt, $8.8 million of net unrealized gains on fair value remeasurement of financial instruments, and $12.8 million of amortization of debt issuance costs and discount, partially offset by a net increase in the operating assets and liabilities of $284.3 million. The net increase in the operating assets and liabilities was primarily driven by an increase in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other current assets and decrease in operating lease liabilities partially offset by higher accounts payable and accrued and other liabilities.

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Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $1,214.9 million for 2021, primarily consisting of $1,206.5 million related to acquisitions, $15.0 million in purchases of non-marketable investments and other and $12.0 million in proceeds from other investing activity.

Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities was $3,109.5 million for 2021, primarily consisting of $1,745.2 million of proceeds from issuance of common stock in our initial public offering, net of issuance costs as adjusted for cost reimbursement, $2,329.1 million of proceeds from debt issuance and $31.2 million proceeds from exercise of stock awards partially offset by payments for the principal repayment of debt of $719.8 million, deferred acquisition costs of $234.1 million and finance leases of $15.3 million.

Credit Agreement

On August 15, 2018, we entered into a credit agreement with the lenders party thereto and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent for the lenders (the credit agreement), which provided for $820.0 million of senior secured term loans and a $50.0 million senior secured revolving loan facility. The credit agreement was amended on April 23, 2019 to increase the senior secured term loan facility by $400.0 million to an aggregate principal amount of $1.22 billion. The credit agreement was further amended on April 27, 2020 to modify certain negative covenants contained therein. The credit agreement was further amended on May 6, 2020 to increase the senior secured term loan facility by $300.0 million to an aggregate principal amount of $1.52 billion. The credit agreement was further amended on October 27, 2020 to add an additional $541.7 million in aggregate principal amount of revolving commitments and reduce the existing commitments by $1.7 million, increasing the total revolving commitments to $590.0 million, reduce the interest rate on the revolving loans, and extend the maturity date of the revolving loans.

The credit agreement was further amended on February 12, 2021 to increase the senior secured term loan facility by $300.0 million to an aggregate principal amount of $1.82 billion, to add an additional $10.0 million in aggregate principal amount of revolving commitments, increasing the total revolving commitments to $600.0 million and to reduce the interest rate on the incremental term loans issued on May 6, 2020 to have the same interest rate as all other term loans. On March 31, 2021, we borrowed an additional $250.0 million under our revolving credit facility and in connection with our initial public offering we repaid the entire amount outstanding under this facility. On October 25, 2021, we amended the credit agreement whereby certain additional lenders agreed to provide incremental loans in an aggregate amount of $1.50 billion.

As of December 31, 2021, our total outstanding indebtedness under the credit agreement was consisting of $3,272 million of outstanding term loans.

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Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2021:

Payments Due by Period
TotalLess than 1 Year1-3 Years3-5 YearsMore than 5 years
(in thousands)
Long-term debt6$3,272,273$25,810$66,619$1,751,094$1,428,750
Deferred acquisition costs788,07988,079
Operating lease commitments891,80421,68328,79825,95815,365
Finance lease commitments948,82123,56121,4003,860
License asset obligations1026,06117,3748,687
Licensor commitments113,6052,6051,000
Non-cancelable purchase obligations12262,45215,465127,623119,364
Total$3,793,095$194,577$254,127$1,900,276$1,444,115

Several of the definitive agreements governing our acquisitions of our Owned Studios and arrangements with Partner Studios provide for payment contingent upon future performance metrics. The table above does not include any amounts related to these obligations. These contingent consideration arrangements include payouts based on a percentage of revenue or profitability metrics, payouts of fixed amounts based on the achievement of certain operating targets, and revenue share arrangements for specific apps, and some of these arrangements do not have a maximum limit of contingent consideration achievable. Because these contingent consideration arrangements are based on the success of relevant Apps and are not guaranteed, we do not expect our results of operations would be materially and adversely effected by the payment of amounts under any such arrangement. The table below presents a summary of the significant contingent consideration arrangements:

Relevant TransactionContingent Consideration Summary
Recoded asset acquisition (January 2019)Future one-time earn-out payments, based on a service agreement, of either $60.0 million or $30.0 million per game depending on the nature of the new game App developed, subject to the achievement of a certain monthly revenue milestone in the initial thirty-six months following the launch of a new game App. The term of the service agreement is initially three years, after which time the agreement is terminable by either party upon thirty days’ written notice. We are also required to make future one-time earn-out payments, based on a development agreement during the term of six years, of $10.0 million to each of two additional new game Apps developed, subject to the achievement of the same monthly revenue milestone in the initial thirty-six months following the launch of such game Apps.
Samfinaco Games asset acquisition (August 2019)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on the greater of (i) a predetermined percentage of revenue or (ii) a predetermined percentage of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization generated by the acquired game Apps over each such year. We are also required to make future earn-out payments based on performance metrics of the newly developed game Apps which are similar to the performance metrics of the initially acquired mobile game Apps during the four years from the date of the transaction.

6 Consists of borrowings under our credit agreement. The table above does not include interest payments which vary based on changes in the interest rate index. See the section titled “Description of Certain Indebtedness” and Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding our long-term debt obligations.

7 Deferred acquisition costs represent part of the consideration related to games acquired in asset acquisition transactions.

8 Consists of non-cancellable commitments for real estate leases and lease of networking equipment colocation space. See Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

9 Consists of payments related to finance leases of networking equipment. One of the leases is under month-to-month lease arrangement with renewal options. The amounts include payments attributable to optional renewal periods if it is reasonably certain that we will exercise such options. See Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

10 Represents an obligation related to intellectual property that the Company licenses from a third party.

11 Licensor commitments include minimum guarantee royalty payments due to licensors for use of their mobile game products.

12 The contractual commitment obligations in the table above are associated with agreements that are enforceable and legally binding.

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Asset acquisition(March 2020)Future earn-out payments based on a predetermined percentage of revenue net of certain direct costs generated by the initially acquired game App, or additional game Apps developed under a service and development agreement, over the term of the agreement, which is initially two years, but which may renew for an additional two-year term.
Asset acquisition(April 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction are based on (i)(a) the revenue generated by the initially acquired game App and any additional game Apps developed under a service and development agreement over the term of four years in excess of (b) a baseline revenue threshold, multiplied by (ii) tiered revenue multiples, up to a cumulative amount of $45.0 million.
Zenlife asset acquisition (June 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on the excess, if any, of revenue generated by the initially acquired game App for such year above the sum of (i) an annual fixed baseline revenue and (ii) the aggregate earn-out payments made in prior years. We are also required to make future earn-out payments for newly developed game Apps determined under the similar approach as for the initially acquired mobile game Apps.
Athena acquisition (November 2020)Future earn-out payments for each of the four years from the date of the transaction based on (i)(a) the revenue generated by the initially acquired game Apps in each such year in excess of (b) a certain revenue threshold, multiplied by (ii) a predetermined revenue multiple.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)Future earn-out payments are contingent on the revenue generated by the acquired mobile Apps exceeding a certain revenue threshold, which will be measured and payable (if applicable) each year for four years from the date of the transaction.
Asset acquisition (April 2021)Future earn-out payments are contingent on the revenue generated by the acquired mobile Apps exceeding a certain revenue threshold, which will be measured and payable (if applicable) each year for four years from the date of the transaction, in addition to a potential one-time earn-out payment of $50.0 million contingent on the achievement of a certain monthly revenue milestone within the four years following the date of the transaction.
Asset acquisition (June 2021)Future earn-out payments are contingent on the revenue and/or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") generated by the acquired mobile Apps exceeding certain thresholds.

For acquisitions of Owned Studios that are accounted for as business combinations, contingent consideration is initially recognized at fair value. For our other transactions, we generally recognize contingent consideration only on the date when the related performance metrics are achieved. See Notes 2 and 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

As of December 31, 2021, we had recorded liabilities of $18.7 million related to uncertain tax positions. Due to uncertainties in the timing of potential tax audits, the timing of the resolution of these positions is uncertain and we are unable to make a reasonable estimate of the timing of payments in individual years particularly beyond 12 months. As a result, this amount is not included in the table above.

In April 2020, we entered into a share purchase agreement with Redemption Games, Inc. (Redemption Games). We purchased a majority of the outstanding common stock of Redemption Games and entered into agreements with the equity holders of Redemption Games that, among other things, provide for call/put rights whereby such holders can elect to require us to purchase all or a portion of their vested securities on a specified date in February of each year from 2022 to 2025 and we can require such holders to sell to us all of their remaining securities on or after February 19, 2025, each for a purchase price per share of the then current fair market value per share of common stock of Redemption Games. Based on the fair market value of the common stock of Redemption Games at December 31, 2021, the purchase price for an exercise in full of such call options would have been $6.6 million.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

We believe that the following accounting policies involve a high degree of judgment and complexity and are critical to understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of our operations. An accounting policy is considered to be critical if it requires judgment on a significant accounting estimate to be made based on assumptions about matters that are uncertain at the time the estimate is made, and if different estimates that reasonably could have been used, or changes in the accounting estimates that are reasonably likely to occur periodically, could materially impact the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosures in our audited consolidated financial statements. We have based our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Although we believe that the estimates we use are reasonable, due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making those estimates, actual results reported in future periods could differ from those estimates.

We believe that the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant judgments, estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

We generate revenue from two types of customers—Business and Consumer. Business Revenue includes fees paid by mobile app advertisers that use our Software Platform, and revenue generated from the sale of digital advertising inventory of our Apps. Consumer Revenue consists of IAPs made by users within our Apps.

Business Revenue

Our Software Platform provides the technology to match advertisers and third-party owners of digital advertising inventory via auctions at large scale and microsecond-level speeds. The pricing and terms for all mobile advertising arrangements are governed by our terms and conditions and generally stipulate payment terms of 30 days subsequent to the end of the month. The contract is fully cancellable at any time.

For Business Revenue generated through the placement of advertisements on mobile game apps owned by publishers, our performance obligation is to provide an advertiser with access to our Software Platform which facilitates the advertiser’s purchase of advertising inventory from publishers. We do not control the advertising inventory prior to its transfer to the advertiser, our customer, because we do not have the substantive ability to direct the use of, nor obtain substantially all of the remaining benefits from, the advertising inventory. We are not primarily responsible for fulfillment and do not have any inventory risk. We are an agent as it relates to the sale of third-party advertising inventory and present revenue on a net basis. The transaction price is the product of either the number of completions of agreed upon actions or advertisements displayed and the contractually agreed upon price per advertising unit with the advertiser less consideration paid or payable to publishers.

Advertisers also purchase the advertising inventory of our Apps either through our Software Platform or through third-party advertising networks. Revenue from the sale of advertising inventory through third-party advertising networks is recognized net of the amounts retained by third-party advertising networks as we are unable to determine the gross amount paid by the advertisers to the third-party advertising networks.

We recognize mobile advertising revenue when the agreed upon action is completed or when the ad is displayed to users, depending on the agreed upon pricing mechanism with an advertiser or third- party advertising network. The number of advertisements delivered and completions of agreed upon actions is determined at the end of each month, which resolves any uncertainty in the transaction price during the reporting period.

Consumer Revenue

IAPs include fees collected from users for the purchase of virtual goods to enhance their gameplay experience. The identified performance obligation is to provide users with the ability to acquire, use, and hold virtual items over the estimated period of time the virtual items are available to the user or until the virtual item is consumed. We categorize our virtual goods as either consumable or durable. Consumable virtual goods represent goods that can be consumed by a specific player action in gameplay; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of consumable virtual goods as the goods are consumed and our performance obligation is satisfied. Durable virtual goods represent goods that are accessible to the user over an extended period of time; accordingly, we recognize revenue from the sale of durable virtual goods ratably over the period of time the goods are available to the user and our performance obligation is satisfied, which is generally the estimated average user life (EAUL). Payment is required at the time of purchase and the purchase price is a fixed amount. Users make IAPs through our distribution partners. The transaction price is equal to the gross amount charged to users because we are the principal in the transaction. IAPs fees are non-refundable. Such payments are initially recorded to deferred revenue.

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The EAUL represents our best estimate of the expected life of paying users for the applicable game. The EAUL begins when a user makes a first purchase of durable virtual goods and ends when a user is determined to be inactive. We determine the EAUL on a game-by-game basis. For a newly launched game that has limited playing data, we determine our EAUL based on the EAUL of a game that has sufficiently similar characteristics. We determine the EAUL on a quarterly basis and apply such calculated EAUL to all bookings in the respective quarter. Determining the EAUL is subjective and requires management’s judgment. Future playing patterns may differ from historical playing patterns, and therefore the EAUL may change in the future. The EAULs are generally between six and nine months.

We present taxes collected from customers and remitted to governmental authorities on a net basis.

Asset Acquisitions and Business Combinations

We perform an initial test to determine whether substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets transferred are concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets, such that the acquisition would not represent a business. If that test suggests that the set of assets and activities is a business, we then perform a second test to evaluate whether the assets and activities transferred include inputs and substantive processes that together, significantly contribute to the ability to create outputs, which would constitute a business. If the result of the second test suggests that the acquired assets and activities constitute a business, we account for the transaction as a business combination.

For transactions accounted for as business combinations, we allocate the fair value of acquisition consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair values. Acquisition consideration includes the fair value of any promised contingent consideration. The excess of the fair value of acquisition consideration over the fair values of acquired identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Contingent consideration is remeasured to its fair value each reporting period with changes in the fair value of contingent consideration recorded in general and administrative expenses. Such valuations require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates and assumptions in valuing certain identifiable intangible assets include, but are not limited to, forecasted revenue and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. In certain circumstances, the allocations of the excess purchase price are based upon preliminary estimates and assumptions and subject to revision when we receive final information, including appraisals and other analyses. During the measurement period, which is one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings. Acquisition-related costs are expensed as incurred.

For transactions accounted for as asset acquisitions, the cost, including certain transaction costs, is allocated to the assets acquired on the basis of relative fair values. We generally include contingent consideration in the cost of the assets acquired only when the uncertainty is resolved. We recognize contingent consideration adjustments to the cost of the acquired assets prospectively using the straight-line method over the remaining useful life of the assets. No goodwill is recognized in asset acquisitions.

Services and Development Agreements

We enter into strategic agreements with Partner Studios. We have historically allowed these Partner Studios to continue their operations with a significant degree of autonomy. In some cases, we bought Apps from Partner Studios and entered into service and development agreements whereby Partner Studios provide support in improving existing Apps and developing new Apps. The substantial majority of payments associated with service agreements for existing Apps are expensed to research and development when the services are rendered as the payments primarily relate to developing enhancements for the Apps. Payments for new Apps associated with development agreements are generally made in connection with the development of a particular App, and therefore, we are subject to development risk prior to the release of the App. Accordingly, payments that are due prior to completion of an App are generally expensed to research and development over the development period as the services are incurred. Payments due after completion of an App are generally capitalized and expensed as cost of revenue. See Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Software Development Costs

We incur development costs related to internal-use software and the development of Apps. We review software development costs on a quarterly basis to determine if the costs qualify for capitalization. As a result of an agile and iterative development process, the preliminary project stage remains ongoing until just prior to launch, at which time final feature selection occurs. As such, software development costs do not meet the criteria for capitalization and are expensed as incurred to research and development expenses. The software development costs we capitalized during the year ended December 31, 2021 were not material. We did not capitalize any software development costs during the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

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Goodwill

Goodwill is allocated to reporting units and tested for impairment on an annual basis during the fourth quarter or more frequently if we believe indicators of impairment exist. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate that could affect the value of goodwill or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. When conducting quantitative annual goodwill impairment assessments, we compare the fair value of its reporting units to their carrying value. If the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, then we record a goodwill impairment. Commencing January 1, 2019, the lesser of (i) the entire amount by which the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value or (ii) the carrying value of goodwill allocated to such reporting unit is recorded as an impairment to goodwill. As of December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, no impairment of goodwill has been identified.

Intangible Assets

This consists of identifiable intangible assets, primarily Apps, user base, developed technology and intellectual property licenses resulting from acquisitions. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at cost, net of accumulated amortization. Our estimates of useful lives of intangible assets are based on cash flow forecasts which incorporate various assumptions, including forecasted user acquisition costs, user attrition rates and level of user engagement.

Intangible assets also include costs of intellectual property that we license from third parties for use of their content in our game. The licensing agreements include license payments, which are due over the terms of the agreements. We recognize these license payments as a license asset and a license obligation at the fair value on the contract date, based on a discounted cash flow model. The amortization of the licensed asset commences when the game with licensed content is launched and when licensed agreement is executed; and is recorded in cost of revenue on a straight-line method over the remaining license terms or estimated useful life of the game with licensed content, whichever is shorter. The classification of the license obligations between current and long-term is based on the expected timing of the payments to the licensor.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

We review long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate an asset’s carrying value may not be recoverable. If such circumstances are present, we assess the recoverability of the long-lived assets by comparing the carrying value to the undiscounted future cash flows associated with the related assets. If the future net undiscounted cash flows are less than the carrying value of the assets, the assets are considered impaired and an expense equal to the amount required to reduce the carrying value of the assets to the estimated fair value is recorded as an impairment of intangible assets in the consolidated statements of operations. Significant judgment is required to estimate the amount and timing of future cash flows and the relative risk of achieving those cash flows. Assumptions and estimates about future values and remaining useful lives are complex and often subjective. They can be affected by a variety of factors, including external factors such as industry and economic trends, and internal factors such as changes in our business strategy and our internal forecasts. For example, if future operating results do not meet current forecasts, we may be required to record future impairment charges for acquired intangible assets. Additional factors which significantly affect future cash flows related to long-lived assets include, but are not limited to, forecasted user acquisition costs, user attrition rates, and level of user engagement. Significant changes in these factors may require us to reassess recoverability of long-lived assets and record impairment. Impairment charges could materially decrease future net income and result in lower asset values on our consolidated balance sheet. There were no material impairment charges recorded for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019.

Stock-Based Compensation

We estimate the fair value of employee stock-based compensation awards on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and recognize the grant date fair value as compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period. The Black-Scholes option pricing model requires use of various assumptions, including expected option life and expected stock price volatility. We determine the expected option life as the average of the options’ contractual term and the options’ vesting period. We estimate the options’ volatility using volatilities of public companies in a comparable industry, stage of life cycle, and size. We use the straight-line method for recording stock- based compensation expense and recognize forfeitures as they occur.

The following tables summarize the assumptions used in the Black-Scholes option pricing model to determine the fair value of our stock options:

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Year Ended December 31,
202120202019
Weighted-average expected term5.215.946.05
Expected volatility43%39%43%
Risk-free interest rate0.48%0.56%1.91%
Dividend yield0%0%0%

Given the absence of a public trading market for our Class A common stock prior to our initial public offering, and in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Accounting and Valuation Guide, Valuation of Privately-Held Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation, our board of directors exercised its reasonable judgment and considered numerous objective and subjective factors to determine the best estimate of fair value of our Class A common stock, including:

•independent third-party valuations of our Class A common stock;

•the price of sales of our Class A common stock and preferred stock in recent secondary sales by existing stockholders to investors;

•our capital resources and financial condition;

•the preferences held by our preferred stock classes relative to those of our Class A common stock;

•the likelihood and timing of achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering or sale of the company, given prevailing market conditions;

•our historical operating and financial performance as well as our estimates of future financial performance;

•valuations of comparable companies;

•the hiring of key personnel;

•the status of our development, product introduction, and sales efforts;

•the price paid by us to repurchase outstanding shares;

•the relative lack of marketability of our Class A common stock;

•industry information such as market growth and volume and macro-economic events; and

•additional objective and subjective factors relating to our business.

Prior to the IPO, in valuing our Class A common stock, our board of directors determined the fair value of our Class A common stock using both the income and market approach valuation methods, in addition to giving consideration to recent secondary sales of our Class A common stock. The income approach estimates value based on the expectation of future cash flows that a company will generate. These future cash flows are discounted to their present values using a discount rate based on our weighted-average cost of capital, and is adjusted to reflect the risks inherent in our cash flows. The market approach estimates value based on a comparison of our company to comparable public companies in a similar line of business. From the comparable companies, a representative market value multiple is determined and then applied to our company’s financial forecasts to estimate the value of the subject company.

Following our IPO, the fair value of each equity award grant is determined based on the closing price of our Class A common stock as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the date of the respective grant.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance would be made to reduce the provision for income taxes.

We record uncertain tax positions on the basis of a two-step process in which determinations are made (i) whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (ii) for

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those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with a tax authority.

We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits on the income tax expense line in our consolidated statement of operations. Accrued interest and penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the dates of the statement of financial position included in this Annual Report on 10-K.