MAGNITE, INC. (MGNI) FY 2024 MD&A

Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements included in Item 8 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, beliefs, and expectations and that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and the "Special Note About Forward-Looking Statements; Summary of Risk Factors."

Overview and Trends

See "Item 1. Business" for an overview of our business, the industry in which we operate, and important industry trends.

Recent Developments

Financial Highlights

The following represents our consolidated financial highlights for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022:

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* Contribution ex-TAC and Adjusted EBITDA are Non-GAAP measures. Refer to discussion in section "Key Operating and Financial Performance Metrics" for a definition of Contribution ex-TAC and Adjusted EBITDA, as well as reconciliations of gross profit to Contribution ex-TAC and Net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA, for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.

Over the past several years, we have made a number of investments to build what we believe is the leading independent programmatic CTV platform, including our 2021 acquisitions of SpotX, a leading CTV supply side platform, and SpringServe, a leading ad server for CTV. We believe these transactions are highly strategic, as the combination of our SSP and ad server allows us to offer publishers an independent full-stack solution that works across their entire video advertising business, for both programmatic and directly sold inventory, to manage yield and drive value. As a result of our investments, CTV has become the biggest growth driver of our business, with revenue growing 13% and Contribution ex-TAC growing 19% year over year from 2023 to 2024.

We believe that we are well positioned to take advantage of a number of favorable market trends in CTV. In particular, as the pace of consumer adoption has accelerated and the streaming market has proliferated, the largest streaming publishers have adopted ad-supported models leading to a significant increase in the amount of CTV inventory available for advertisers.

Despite the proliferation of CTV advertising inventory, CTV sellers have been slower to embrace biddable environments with multiple buyers compared to desktop and mobile sellers. Currently, the vast majority of CTV advertising is transacted through reserve auctions that are established by a sellers direct sales team with a single buyer. This is particularly true of larger publishers and broadcasters that are newer to programmatic advertising and have large direct sales forces, as reserve auctions allow the seller to maintain tighter control over their advertising allocation. These publishers have continued to increase their focus and investment in programmatic CTV, and in recent periods have grown as a percentage of our CTV business.

As the industry matures, we anticipate that market dynamics will lead CTV sellers to make a greater percentage of inventory available through biddable auction environments in order to attract a broader set of advertisers that have not historically advertised on linear TV. We believe that this shift, if it were to occur, would likely be beneficial to our CTV growth as biddable transactions tend to require a higher level of service and therefore carry a higher take-rate compared to reserve auctions. At the same time, we expect CTV advertisers that have historically transacted on our platform through managed service insertion orders to continue to shift budgets towards more automated solutions, which tend to carry a lower take rate; and as a result, we expect transactions through managed service insertion orders to become a smaller component of our overall business.

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In addition to CTV, we track mobile and desktop channels. We expect our revenue and Contribution ex-TAC from each of these channels to grow at a slower rate compared to CTV, with mobile expected to grow at a higher rate than desktop. As such, we expect our desktop business to continue to decline as an overall percentage of our revenue in future periods; however, we expect that it will continue to represent a significant percentage of our revenue in the near term. Therefore, the mix of our desktop business will continue to have a negative effect on our overall growth rate.

Our mobile channel consists of mobile web and mobile applications, with mobile applications expected to be a larger driver of our growth in future periods. A significant portion of the mobile application inventory on our platform is made available through third-party mobile technology platforms or aggregators, rather than application developers themselves. Accordingly, we are focused on expanding our relationships with these third parties in order to increase our access to inventory. Other important growth initiatives for our mobile and desktop channels include: bringing additional advertising demand to sellers through SPO and other buyer initiatives; increasing the operational efficiency of our platform to reduce costs for us as well as the process costs for buyers; developing alternative identity solutions to increase the value of seller inventory, as the industry shifts away from third-party cookies; and leveraging our machine learning and big data set to improve traffic shaping and generate higher-quality matching between buyers and sellers.

Our results for the year-ended December 31, 2024, were negatively impacted by challenges in the fourth quarter in our desktop and mobile channels, where we experienced a significant drop in advertising demand following the election and through year-end. We believe this drop was temporary in nature and was likely due to fears of macro and political uncertainty due to the election.

We anticipate that our operating expenses will continue to increase in the foreseeable future as we invest in technology and development to enhance our product features, in particular CTV, as well as sales and marketing to acquire new clients and reinforce our relationships with existing clients. At the same time, we are making additional investments in on-prem data centers to support a higher percentage of CTV transactions, with the goal of increasing the operational efficiency of our platform in order to realize long-term cost savings.

Macroeconomic Developments

Macroeconomic challenges, such as inflation, the interest rate environment, global conflicts, the risk of a recession, and labor strikes, generally have a negative impact on ad budgets, which in turn may lead to slower ad spend growth through our platform. Any worsening of macroeconomic conditions in future periods would likely have a negative effect on our financial results, the magnitude of which is difficult to predict. In addition, continued inflation could result in an increase in our cost base relative to our revenue.

Refer to Item 1A. "Risk Factors" for additional information related to risks associated with macroeconomic challenges.

Components of Our Results of Operations

We report our financial results as one operating segment. Our consolidated operating results are regularly reviewed by our chief operating decision maker, principally to make decisions about how we allocate our resources and to measure our consolidated operating performance.

Revenue

We generate revenue from the use of our platform for the purchase and sale of digital advertising inventory. Generally, our revenue is based on a percentage of the ad spend that runs through our platform, although for certain clients, services, or transaction types, we may receive a fixed CPM for each impression sold, and for advertising campaigns that are transacted through insertion orders, we earn revenue based on the full amount of ad spend that runs through our platform. In addition, we may receive certain fixed monthly fees for the use of our platform or products. We recognize revenue upon the fulfillment of our contractual obligations in connection with a completed transaction, subject to satisfying all other revenue recognition criteria. For the majority of transactions executed through our platform, we act as an agent on behalf of the publisher that is monetizing its inventory, and revenue is recognized net of any advertising inventory costs that we remit to sellers. With respect to certain revenue streams for managed advertising campaigns that are transacted through insertion orders, we report revenue on a gross basis, based primarily on our determination that the Company acts as the primary obligor in the delivery of advertising campaigns for our buyer clients with respect to such transactions.

For the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, our revenue reported on a gross basis was 14%, 18%, and 18% of total revenue for the respective periods. Any mix shift that causes an increase in the relative percentage of our revenue accounted for on a gross basis would result in a higher revenue contribution and an associated decrease in our gross margin percentage (with no underlying impact on gross profit or Contribution ex-TAC, as defined in section "Key Operating and Financial Performance Metrics"). Our revenue recognition policies are discussed in more detail in Note 2 of the "Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements."

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Expenses

We classify our expenses into the following categories:

Cost of Revenue. Our cost of revenue primarily consists of cloud hosting, data center, and bandwidth costs, ad verification costs, depreciation and maintenance expense of hardware supporting our revenue-producing platform, amortization of internally-developed software costs for the development of our revenue-producing platform, amortization expense associated with acquired developed technologies, personnel costs, and software costs. In addition, for revenue booked on a gross basis, cost of revenue includes traffic acquisition costs. Personnel costs included in cost of revenue include salaries, bonuses, and stock-based compensation, and are primarily attributable to personnel in our network operations group who support our platform. We capitalize costs associated with software that is developed or obtained for internal use and amortize the costs associated with our revenue-producing platform in cost of revenue over their estimated useful lives. We amortize acquired developed technologies over their estimated useful lives.

Sales and Marketing. Our sales and marketing expenses primarily consists of personnel costs, including salaries, bonuses, and stock-based compensation, as well as marketing expenses such as brand marketing, travel expenses, trade shows and marketing materials, amortization expense associated with client relationships, and non-compete agreements from our business acquisitions, professional services, facilities-related costs, and depreciation expense. Our sales and support organization focuses on increasing the adoption of our solution by existing and new buyers and sellers and supports ongoing client relationships. We amortize acquired intangibles associated with client relationships from our business acquisitions over their estimated useful lives.

Technology and Development. Our technology and development expenses primarily consists of personnel costs, including salaries, bonuses, and stock-based compensation, as well as professional services associated with the ongoing development and maintenance of our solution, software costs, facilities-related costs, and depreciation and amortization expense. These expenses include costs incurred in the development, implementation, and maintenance of internal use software, including platform and related infrastructure. Technology and development costs are expensed as incurred, except to the extent that such costs are associated with internal use software development that qualifies for capitalization, which are then recorded as internal use software development costs, net, on our consolidated balance sheets. We amortize internal use software development costs that relate to our revenue-producing activities on our platform to cost of revenue and amortize other internal use software development costs to technology and development costs or general and administrative expenses, depending on the nature of the related project. We amortize acquired intangibles associated with technology and development functions from our business acquisitions over their estimated useful lives.

General and Administrative. Our general and administrative expenses primarily consists of personnel costs, including salaries, bonuses, and stock-based compensation, associated with our executive, finance, legal, human resources, compliance, and other administrative personnel, as well as accounting and legal professional services fees, facilities-related costs, depreciation expense, bad debt expense, and other corporate-related expenses.

Merger, Acquisition, and Restructuring Costs. Our merger, acquisition, and restructuring costs primarily consists of professional service fees associated with merger and acquisition activities, cash-based employee termination costs, related stock-based compensation charges, and other restructuring activities, including facility closures, relocation costs, contract termination costs, and impairment costs of abandoned technology associated with restructuring activities.

Other (Income) Expense

Interest (Income) Expense, Net. Interest expense primarily consists of interest expense associated with our 2024 Term Loan B Facility (defined below), 2021 Term Loan B Facility (defined below) and Convertible Senior Notes (defined below), and their related amortization of debt issuance costs and debt discount. Interest income primarily consists of interest earned on our cash equivalents.

Foreign Currency Exchange (Gain) Loss, Net. Foreign currency exchange (gain) loss, net consists of gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and remeasurement of monetary assets and liabilities on our balance sheet denominated in foreign currencies. Foreign currency monetary assets and liabilities primarily consists of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and various intercompany balances held between our subsidiaries. Our primary foreign currency exposures are currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, principally the Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, and New Zealand Dollar.

(Gain) Loss on Extinguishment of Debt. Gain or loss on extinguishment of debt consists of gains or losses associated with the repurchases of Convertible Senior Notes at a discount or premium and gains or losses associated with the refinancing of our debt facilities, including the extinguishment of unamortized debt discount, debt issuance costs, and deferred financing costs.

Other Income. Other income primarily consists of rental income from commercial office space we hold under lease and have sublet to other tenants.

Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. (federal and state) and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Tax laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles, and interpretations in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change, with or without

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notice, due to economic, political, and other conditions, and significant judgment is required in evaluating and estimating our provision and accruals for these taxes. There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our effective tax rates could be affected by numerous factors, such as changes in our business operations, acquisitions, investments, entry into new businesses and geographies, intercompany transactions, the relative amount of our foreign earnings, including earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory rates, losses incurred in jurisdictions for which we are not able to realize related income tax benefits, the applicability of special tax regimes, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, changes in our stock price, changes in our deferred tax assets ("DTAs") and liabilities and their valuation, changes in the laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles, and interpretations related to tax, including changes to the global tax framework, competition, and other laws and accounting rules in various jurisdictions.

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Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our consolidated results of operations:

NM - Not meaningful

The following table sets forth our consolidated results of operations for the specified periods as a percentage of our revenue for those periods presented:

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022

Revenue

Revenue increased $48.5 million, or 8%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year. Our revenue growth was driven primarily by growth in CTV and mobile. Revenue from CTV, mobile, and desktop increased by $35.3 million, or 13%, $12.1 million, or 5%, and $1.0 million, or 1%, respectively.

Revenue increased $42.6 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year. Our revenue growth was driven primarily by growth in mobile and CTV, which was partially offset by a decrease in desktop. Revenue from mobile and CTV increased by $39.7 million, or 21%, and $13.6 million, or 5%, respectively, while desktop decreased by $10.6

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million, or 9%. During 2023, our growth rate in CTV was negatively impacted, in part, by a mix shift towards large CTV sellers that transacted primarily through reserve auctions, which carry a lower overall take rate compared to other transaction types.

Our revenue is largely a function of the number of advertising transactions and the price, or CPM, at which the inventory is sold, which results in total advertising spend on our platform, and, with respect to our revenue reported on a net basis, the take rate we charge for our services. Because pricing and take rate vary across publisher, channel, and transaction type, our revenue is subject to changes in publisher-specific take rates, and shifts in the mix of advertising spend on our platform among publishers and transaction types.

For 2025, we believe our revenue will increase compared to the prior year period and we expect CTV will continue to be our biggest growth driver.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue decreased $151.1 million, or 37%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year, primarily due to decreases of $164.4 million in depreciation and amortization, which was primarily driven by certain acquired intangible assets becoming fully amortized in the third quarter of 2023. These decreases were partially offset by increases of $11.8 million in cloud hosting, data center, and bandwidth expenses, primarily due to revenue growth and an associated increase in the volume of transactions processed on our platform.

On January 1, 2024, we extended the estimated useful lives of our network hardware assets from three years to five years, which was due to actual and expected longer refresh cycles for these assets. Based on the related asset balance as of December 31, 2023 and those placed in service during the year ended December 31, 2024, the effect of this change reduced depreciation expense by $12.6 million for the full year ending December 31, 2024 when compared to what depreciation expense would have been based on the original expected useful lives of three years.

Cost of revenue increased $102.7 million, or 33%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases of $69.3 million in depreciation and amortization. These increases were primarily driven by incremental amortization due to the acceleration of the remaining lives of certain acquired intangible assets and capitalized software from the integration of our legacy Magnite CTV and SpotX CTV platforms, which started in the fourth quarter of 2022 and was completed in the third quarter of 2023. The year over year increase in amortization due to the acceleration was $64.0 million. Cost of revenue also included increases of $26.2 million in cloud hosting, data center, and bandwidth expenses and $8.1 million in traffic acquisition costs, both primarily due to revenue growth and an associated increase in the volume of transactions processed on our platform.

Cost of revenue may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and period to period, on an absolute dollar basis and as a percentage of revenue, depending on revenue levels and the volume of transactions we process supporting those revenues, and the timing and amounts of depreciation and amortization of equipment and software.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses decreased $7.8 million, or 5%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year, primarily due to decreases of $17.4 million in depreciation and amortization, which were primarily driven by certain acquired intangible assets becoming fully amortized in 2023. These decreases were partially offset by increases of $9.5 million in personnel costs.

Sales and marketing expenses decreased $26.1 million, or 13%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year, primarily due to decreases of $44.3 million in depreciation and amortization, which were primarily driven by certain acquired intangible assets becoming fully amortized in 2022 and 2023. These decreases were partially offset by increases of $15.3 million of personnel costs.

Sales and marketing expenses may fluctuate quarter to quarter and period to period, on an absolute dollar basis and as a percentage of revenue, based on revenue levels, the timing of our investments and seasonality in our industry and business.

Technology and Development

Technology and development expenses increased $0.9 million, or 1%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year.

Technology and development expenses increased $0.6 million, or 1%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year.

The timing and amount of our capitalized development and enhancement projects may affect the amount of development costs expensed in any given period. As a percentage of revenue, technology and development expense may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and period to period based on revenue levels, the timing and amounts of technology and development efforts, the timing and the rate of the amortization of internally-developed capitalized projects and the timing and amounts of future capitalized internally-developed software costs.

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General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses increased $7.8 million, or 9%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases of $5.9 million in personnel costs, $4.1 million in expenses associated with refinancing our 2021 Credit Agreement (defined below) in February 2024 and repricing our 2024 Term Loan B Facility (defined below) in September 2024, and $3.7 million in insurance and business taxes. These increases were partially offset by decreases of $4.1 million in bad debt expense and $2.7 million in facilities-related costs. The higher bad debt expense in 2023 as compared to 2024 was primarily due to a buyer defaulting on payment obligations and filing for bankruptcy, resulting in bad debt expense of $4.2 million.

General and administrative expenses increased by $7.7 million, or 9%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases of $4.8 million in bad debt expense, as described above, and $4.2 million in personnel costs.

General and administrative expenses may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and period to period based on the timing and amounts of expenditures in our general and administrative functions as they vary in scope and scale over periods. Such fluctuations may not be directly proportional to changes in revenue.

Merger, Acquisition, and Restructuring Costs

We did not incur any merger, acquisition, and restructuring costs for the year ended December 31, 2024. We incurred merger, acquisition, and restructuring costs of $7.5 million and $7.5 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, primarily related to the acquisitions of SpotX, Inc. and SpringServe, LLC, which were completed on April 30, 2021 and July 1, 2021, respectively.

In 2023, these costs primarily included $3.4 million of severance related expenses, $2.2 million of facilities related loss contracts, and $1.4 million of exit costs, all due to restructuring activities as a result of consolidating our legacy CTV and SpotX CTV platforms following the SpotX acquisition.

In 2022, these costs primarily included $3.3 million of impairment costs associated with abandoned technology, $2.0 million non-cash stock-based compensation expense associated with the acceleration of unvested equity awards, and $1.2 million of one-time cash-based employee termination costs due to restructuring activities related to the integration of our acquisitions.

Other (Income) Expense, Net

Interest expense, net decreased by $5.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year. The net decrease is primarily due to an increase in interest income and a decrease in interest expense as a result of lower Convertible Senior Notes (defined below) outstanding throughout 2024 as compared to the prior year period and the lower interest incurred under the 2024 Term Loan B Facility (defined below) compared to the 2021 Term Loan B Facility (defined below).

Interest expense, net increased by $3.1 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year, mainly due to increased interest expense of $11.3 million as a result of increased interest rates on our 2021 Term Loan B Facility (defined below), partially offset by an increase in interest income of $8.2 million.

Foreign exchange (gain) loss, net changed by $7.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year, due to movements in foreign currency exchange rates and the amount of foreign currency-denominated cash, receivables, and payables, which were impacted by our billings to buyers, payments to sellers, and intercompany balances. Foreign exchange (gain) loss, net changed by $3.1 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the prior year, for the same reasons above.

The loss on extinguishment of debt of $7.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 was due to the refinancing of our 2021 Credit Agreement (defined below) in February 2024 and the repricing of our 2024 Term Loan B Facility (defined below) in September 2024, which are further discussed below. The gain on extinguishment of debt of $26.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 was due to the repurchase of portions of our Convertible Senior Notes (defined below).

Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes

We recorded an income tax expense of $3.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to an income tax expense of $1.6 million and an income tax benefit $5.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The

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income tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2024 was primarily the result of our ability to recognize DTAs subject to the domestic valuation allowance and the state and foreign income tax provisions. We continue to maintain a valuation allowance for our domestic deferred tax assets.

The income tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2023 was primarily the result of the domestic valuation allowance and the federal, state, and foreign income tax liabilities.

The income tax benefit for the year ended December 31, 2022 was primarily the result of recognizing the benefit of deferred tax assets previously subject to the domestic valuation allowance and the foreign income tax liability. The net deferred tax liabilities recorded in connection with prior acquisitions and current taxable income for the year provided sources of taxable income to support the realization of pre-existing deferred tax assets.

Key Operating and Financial Performance Metrics

In addition to our GAAP results, we review non-GAAP financial measures, including Contribution ex-TAC and Adjusted EBITDA, to help us evaluate our business on a consistent basis, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, establish budgets, measure the effectiveness of investments in our technology and development and sales and marketing, and assess our operational efficiencies. Our non-GAAP financial measures are discussed below. Revenue and net income (loss) are discussed above under the headings "Components of Our Results of Operations" and "Results of Operations."

Contribution ex-TAC

Contribution ex-TAC is calculated as gross profit plus cost of revenue excluding traffic acquisition cost ("TAC"). Traffic acquisition cost, a component of cost of revenue, represents what we must pay sellers for the sale of advertising inventory through our platform for revenue reported on a gross basis. Contribution ex-TAC is a non-GAAP financial measure that is most comparable to gross profit. Our management believes Contribution ex-TAC is a useful measure in facilitating a consistent comparison against our core business without considering the impact of traffic acquisition costs related to revenue reported on a gross basis.

Our use of Contribution ex-TAC has limitations as an analytical tool and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial results as reported under GAAP. A potential limitation of this non-GAAP financial measure is that other companies, including companies in our industry which have similar business arrangements, may define Contribution ex-TAC differently, which may make comparisons difficult. Because of these and other limitations, you should consider our non-GAAP measures only as supplemental to GAAP-based financial performance measures, including revenue, gross profit, net income (loss) and cash flows.

The following table presents the calculation of gross profit and reconciliation of gross profit to Contribution ex-TAC for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively:

Sellers use our technology to monetize their content across all digital channels, including CTV, mobile, and desktop. We track the breakdown of Contribution ex-TAC across channels to better understand how our clients are transacting on our platform.

The following table presents Contribution ex-TAC by channel for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022:

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Contribution ex-TAC increased $57.8 million, or 11%, for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. The increase in Contribution ex-TAC was primarily due to the growth drivers described above for revenue.

Contribution ex-TAC increased $34.5 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in Contribution ex-TAC was primarily due to the growth drivers described above for revenue.

For 2025, we expect Contribution ex-TAC will increase compared to the prior year period, and we expect CTV will be our biggest growth driver in 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization, amortization of acquired intangible assets, impairment charges, interest income or expense, and other cash and non-cash based income or expenses that we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance, including, but not limited to foreign exchange gains and losses, acquisition and related items, gains or losses on extinguishment of debt, other debt refinancing expenses, non-operational real estate and other expenses (income), net, and provision (benefit) for income taxes. We believe Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors in evaluating our performance for the following reasons:

•Adjusted EBITDA is widely used by investors and securities analysts to measure a company’s performance without regard to items such as those we exclude in calculating this measure, which can vary substantially from company to company depending upon their financing, capital structures, and the method by which assets were acquired.

•Our management uses Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with GAAP financial measures for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget, as a measure of performance and the effectiveness of our business strategies, and in communications with our board of directors concerning our performance. Adjusted EBITDA is also used as a metric for determining payment of cash incentive compensation.

•Adjusted EBITDA provides a measure of consistency and comparability with our past performance that many investors find useful, facilitates period-to-period comparisons of operations, and also facilitates comparisons with other peer companies, many of which use similar non-GAAP financial measures to supplement their GAAP results.

Although Adjusted EBITDA is frequently used by investors and securities analysts in their evaluations of companies, Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results of operations as reported under GAAP. These limitations include:

•Stock-based compensation is a non-cash charge and will remain an element of our long-term incentive compensation package, although we exclude it as an expense when evaluating our ongoing operating performance for a particular period.

•Depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, and the assets being depreciated or amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, but Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect any cash requirements for these replacements.

•Impairment charges are non-cash charges related to goodwill, intangible assets and/or long-lived assets.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect certain cash and non-cash charges related to acquisition and related items, such as amortization of acquired intangible assets, merger, acquisition, or restructuring related severance costs, and changes in the fair value of contingent consideration.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash and non-cash charges and changes in, or cash requirements for, acquisition and related items, such as certain transaction expenses.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash and non-cash charges related to certain financing transactions such as gains or losses on extinguishment of debt or other debt refinancing expenses.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect certain non-operational real estate and other (income) and expense, net, which consists of transactions or expenses that are typically by nature non-operating, one-time items, or unrelated to our core operations.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in our working capital needs, capital expenditures, or contractual commitments.

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash requirements for income taxes and the cash impact of other income or expense.

•Other companies may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

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Our Adjusted EBITDA is influenced by fluctuations in our revenue, cost of revenue, and the timing and amounts of the cost of our operations. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss), income (loss) from operations, or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net income (loss), the most comparable GAAP measure, to Adjusted EBITDA for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022:

Adjusted EBITDA increased by $25.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to increases in revenue, described above, which were partially offset by increases in expenses to support this revenue growth. Refer to discussion in section "Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022."

Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $7.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily due to increases in expenses being greater than increases in revenue. Refer to discussion in section "Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022."

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Liquidity

At December 31, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents of $483.2 million, of which $54.4 million was held in foreign currency denominated cash accounts, and an aggregate gross principal amount of $568.2 million of indebtedness outstanding under our 2024 Term Loan B Facility (as defined below) and our Convertible Senior Notes (as defined below). In addition, we were party to a $175.0 million 2024 Revolving Credit Facility (as defined below), of which approximately $5.2 million was assigned to outstanding but undrawn letters of credit. See "Capital Resources" below for further information about our outstanding debt.

Our principal cash requirements for the twelve-month period following this report primarily consists of personnel costs, contractual payment obligations, including office leases, data center costs and cloud hosting costs, capital expenditures, payment of interest and required principal payments on our Convertible Senior Notes and our 2024 Term Loan B Facility, cash outlays for income taxes, and cash requirements to fund working capital. In the longer term, we would expect to have similar cash requirements, with increases in absolute dollars associated with the continued growth of our business and expansion of operations. See "Contractual Obligations and Known Future Cash Requirements" for a further discussion of our known material contractual obligations.

On February 1, 2024, the Board of Directors approved a new repurchase plan (the "February 2024 Repurchase Plan"), which fully replaced the prior repurchase plan, pursuant to which we are authorized to repurchase common stock or Convertible Senior Notes, with an aggregate market value of up to $125.0 million, through February 1, 2026. During the year ended December 31, 2024, we repurchased 1,160,496 shares of the Company's common stock for an aggregate amount of $14.6 million. As of December 31, 2024, $110.4 million remains available under the February 2024 Repurchase Plan.

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Our working capital needs and cash conversion cycle, which is influenced by seasonality and by the mix of terms among our buyers and sellers and which may be negatively impacted as a result of pandemics, inflationary, recessionary and other macroeconomic challenges, can have large fluctuations due to the timing of receipts from buyers and timing of disbursements to sellers. In addition, in the event a buyer defaults on payment, we may still be required to pay sellers for the inventory purchased. The impacts from changes in working capital and capital expenditures can significantly impact our cash flows and therefore, our liquidity during any period presented.

We have historically relied upon cash and cash equivalents, cash generated from operations, borrowings under credit facilities and issuance of debt for our liquidity needs. Our ability to meet our cash requirements depends on, among other things, our operating performance, competitive developments, and financial market conditions, all of which are significantly affected by business, financial, economic, political, global health-related and other factors, many of which we may not be able to control or influence.

We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents, cash generated from operating activities, and amounts available to borrow under our 2024 Revolving Credit Facility will be sufficient to meet our liquidity requirements for at least the next twelve months from the issuance of our financial statements. However, there are multiple factors that could impact our cash balances in the future, including the factors described above with respect to working capital and cash conversion cycles, as well as the duration and severity of events beyond our control, macroeconomic factors and other factors set forth in Part I, Item 1A: "Risk Factors" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Capital Resources

In March 2021, we sold convertible senior notes ("Convertible Senior Notes") for gross proceeds of $400.0 million. The Convertible Senior Notes are senior, unsecured obligations with interest payable semi-annually in cash at a rate of 0.25% per annum in arrears on March 15 and September 15. The Convertible Senior Notes will mature on March 15, 2026, unless earlier converted, redeemed, or repurchased. The initial conversion rate is 15.6539 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes, which represents an initial conversion price of approximately $63.88 per share of the Company’s common stock and is subject to adjustment as described in the Offering Memorandum. At December 31, 2024, the balance of the Convertible Senior Notes was $203.6 million, net of unamortized debt issuance costs of $1.4 million.

In conjunction with the issuance of the Convertible Senior Notes, we entered into capped call transactions to reduce the Company's exposure to additional cash payments above principal balances in the event of a cash conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes. The Company may owe additional cash or shares to the holders of the Convertible Senior Notes upon early conversion if our stock price exceeds $91.260 per share, which is subject to certain adjustments.

On February 6, 2024, we entered into a credit agreement (the “2024 Credit Agreement”) with Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. as our term loan administrative agent and Citibank, N.A. as our revolving facility administrative agent and collateral agent, and other lender parties thereto. The 2024 Credit Agreement provided for a $365.0 million seven-year senior secured term loan facility (the "2024 Term Loan B Facility") and a $175.0 million five-year senior secured revolving credit facility (the "2024 Revolving Credit Facility"). The proceeds from the 2024 Term Loan B Facility were used, among other things, to terminate and to repay in full the outstanding facilities under the prior credit agreement entered into in April 2021 (the "2021 Credit Agreement"), which included a term loan facility (the "2021 Term Loan B Facility") and a revolving facility (the "2021 Revolving Credit Facility").

On September 18, 2024, we entered into Amendment No. 1 to the 2024 Credit Agreement ("Amendment No. 1"), which reduced the interest rate of the 2024 Term Loan B Facility by 75 basis points to Term SOFR plus a margin of 3.75% from the previous rate of Term SOFR plus a margin of 4.50%. The remaining terms of the 2024 Term Loan B Facility and the 2024 Revolving Credit Facility were substantially unchanged.

At December 31, 2024, the balance of the 2024 Term Loan B Facility was $350.1 million, net of unamortized debt discount and debt issuance costs of $13.1 million, and amounts available under the 2024 Revolving Credit Facility were $169.8 million, net of letters of credit outstanding in the amount of $5.2 million.

In the future, we may attempt to raise additional capital through the sale of equity securities or through equity-linked or debt financing arrangements. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity or equity-linked securities, the ownership of our existing stockholders may be diluted. If we raise additional financing by incurring indebtedness, we will be subject to increased fixed payment obligations and could also be subject to financial maintenance covenants, or restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Any future indebtedness we incur may result in terms that could be unfavorable to equity investors. An inability to raise additional capital could adversely affect our ability to achieve our business objectives.

Our cash and cash equivalents balance is affected by our results of operations, the timing of capital expenditures, and by changes in our working capital, particularly changes in accounts receivable and accounts payable. The timing of cash receipts from buyers and payments to sellers can significantly impact our cash flows from operating activities and our liquidity for, and within, any period presented. Our collection and payment cycle can vary from period to period depending upon various circumstances,

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including seasonality, and may be negatively impacted by certain macroeconomic challenges, such as capital market disruptions and instability of financial institutions.

Cash Flows

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

Operating Activities

Our cash flows from operating activities are primarily driven by revenue generated by our business, offset by the cash costs of operations, and are significantly influenced by the timing of and fluctuations in receipts from buyers and related payments to sellers. Our future cash flows will be diminished if we cannot increase our revenue levels and manage costs appropriately.

During the year ended December 31, 2024, net cash provided by operating activities was $235.2 million, compared to net cash provided by operating activities of $214.4 million and $192.6 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our operating activities included net income of $22.8 million, net loss of $159.2 million, and net loss of $130.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. Non-cash adjustments of $135.8 million, $298.1 million, and $282.4 million increased cash provided by operating activities in 2024, 2023, and 2022 respectively. Net changes in our working capital also resulted in increases of $76.6 million, $75.5 million, and $40.4 million in cash provided by operating activities in 2024, 2023, and 2022 respectively. The net changes in working capital for all periods presented are primarily due to the timing of cash receipts from buyers and the timing of payments to sellers.

Investing Activities

Our primary investing activities have consisted of acquisitions of businesses, purchases of property and equipment, and capital expenditures in support of creating and enhancing our technology infrastructure. Purchases of property and equipment and investments in internal use software development may vary from period-to-period due to the timing of the expansion of our operations, changes to headcount, and the cycles of our internal use software development.

During the year ended December 31, 2024, net cash used in investing activities was $47.5 million, compared to net cash used in investing activities of $37.4 million and $65.2 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, we used cash for purchases of property and equipment of $32.8 million, $26.8 million, and $30.8 million, respectively, and used cash for investments in our internally developed software of $14.3 million, $10.6 million, and $13.6 million, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2022, we used net cash of $20.8 million to acquire Carbon.

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Financing Activities

Our financing activities consisted of our debt refinancing and repricing activities, Convertible Senior Notes transactions, repayment of amounts borrowed under our 2024 Term Loan B Facility and our 2021 Term Loan B Facility, and transactions related to our share repurchases and equity plans.

During the year ended December 31, 2024, net cash used in financing activities was $28.9 million, compared to net cash used in financing activities of $177.8 million and $30.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Cash outflows from financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 primarily included $403.1 million of payments related to paying off our 2021 Term Loan B Facility in February 2024 and repricing our 2024 Term Loan B Facility in September 2024, $22.5 million for taxes paid related to net share settlement of stock-based awards, $14.6 million of payments related to share repurchases, and $4.5 million of payments related to debt issuance costs related to the issuance of our 2024 Term Loan B Facility and 2024 Revolver Facility in February 2024. The outflows were partially offset by cash proceeds primarily consisting of $413.5 million from the issuance of our 2024 Term Loan B Facility, net of debt discount, and the repricing of our 2024 Term Loan B Facility in September 2024, and cash proceeds from the employee stock purchase plan of $3.6 million. In connection with the September 2024 repricing, most lenders decided to roll their loan balances over from the original 2024 Term Loan B Facility to the amended 2024 Term Loan B Facility, while some decided to cash out and reassign their loan balances. On September 18, 2024, $312.0 million of the 2024 Term Loan B Facility principal balance was rolled over as part of non-cash financing activities while the remaining lenders who were repaid and then had their loans reissued were included in the $403.1 million cash outflows and the $413.5 million cash proceeds mentioned above.

Cash outflows from financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2023 primarily included $165.5 million of payments related to repurchasing our Convertible Senior Notes, $11.8 million for taxes paid related to net share settlement of stock-based awards, $3.6 million for repayment of our 2021 Term Loan B Facility, and $2.3 million for payment of our indemnification claims holdback related to a historical acquisition. These outflows for the year ended December 31, 2023 were partially offset by cash proceeds from issuance of common stock under our employee stock purchase plan of $3.5 million and from stock options exercised of $2.2 million. Cash outflows from financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2022 included $15.7 million for payments related to share repurchases, $14.5 million for taxes paid related to net share settlement of stock-based awards, and $3.6 million for repayment of our 2021 Term Loan B Facility. These outflows for the year ended December 31, 2022 were partially offset by cash proceeds from issuance of common stock under our employee stock purchase plan of $3.7 million and from stock options exercised of $2.2 million.

Contractual Obligations and Known Future Cash Requirements

Our principal commitments as of December 31, 2024 consist of obligations under our Convertible Senior Notes, 2024 Term Loan B Facility, 2024 Revolving Credit Facility, leases for our various office facilities, including our corporate headquarters in New York, New York and offices in Los Angeles, California, and operating lease agreements, including data centers and cloud hosting services that expire at various times through 2033. In certain cases, the terms of the lease agreements provide for rental payments on a graduated basis.

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The following table summarizes our future lease obligations, payments of principal and interest under our debt agreements and other future payments due under non-cancelable agreements at December 31, 2024:

Obligations for leases not included in the lease liabilities as of December 31, 2024 include commitments under agreements for office space and data centers that have not commenced as of December 31, 2024.

Payments associated with our Convertible Senior Notes, 2024 Term Loan B, and 2024 Revolving Credit Facility are based on contractual terms and intended timing of repayments of long-term debt and associated interest and required fees.

Other non-cancelable obligations above consist of agreements in the normal course of business that are in excess of one year as of December 31, 2024.

In addition, the amounts above exclude commitments due within a year for a cloud-managed services agreement, under which the Company has a remaining non-cancelable minimum spend commitment from January 2025 to June 2025 of $15.9 million.

In the ordinary course of business, we enter into agreements with sellers, buyers, and other third parties pursuant to which we agree to indemnify buyers, sellers, vendors, lessors, business partners, lenders, stockholders, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses resulting from claims of intellectual property infringement, damages to property or persons, business losses, or other liabilities. Generally, these indemnity and defense obligations relate to our own business operations, obligations, and acts or omissions. However, under some circumstances, we agree to indemnify and defend contract counterparties against losses resulting from their own business operations, obligations, and acts or omissions, or the business operations, obligations, and acts or omissions of third parties. These indemnity provisions generally survive termination or expiration of the agreements in which they appear. In addition, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors, executive officers and certain other officers that will require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers, or employees. No demands for indemnification have been made as of December 31, 2024.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses, and related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our estimates are based on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates.

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We believe that the following assumptions and estimates have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements: (i) the determination of revenue recognition as net versus gross in our revenue arrangements and (ii) the determination of amounts to capitalize and the estimated useful lives of internal-use software development costs. There have been no significant changes in our accounting policies or estimates from those disclosed in our audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022.

We believe that the accounting policies disclosed below include estimates and assumptions critical to our business and their application could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. In addition to these critical policies, our significant accounting policies are included within Note 2 of our "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" within this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Revenue Recognition

We generate revenue from transactions where we provide a platform for the purchase and sale of digital advertising inventory. Generally, our revenue is based on a percentage of the ad spend that runs through our platform, although for certain clients, services, or transaction types we may receive a fixed CPM for each impression sold, and for advertising campaigns that are transacted through insertion orders, we earn revenue based on the full amount of ad spend that runs through our platform. In addition, we may receive certain fixed monthly fees for the use of our platform or products. Our platform dynamically connects sellers and buyers of advertising inventory in a digital marketplace. Our solution incorporates proprietary machine-learning algorithms, sophisticated data processing, high-volume storage, detailed analytics capabilities, and a distributed infrastructure. Digital advertising inventory is created when consumers access sellers’ content. Sellers provide digital advertising inventory to our platform in the form of advertising requests, or ad requests. When we receive ad requests from sellers, we send bid requests to buyers, which enable buyers to bid on sellers’ digital advertising inventory. Winning bids can create advertising, or paid impressions, for the seller to present to the consumer.

The total volume of spending between buyers and sellers on our platform is referred to as advertising spend. We keep a percentage of that advertising spend as a fee, and remit the remainder to the seller. The fee that we retain from the gross advertising spend on our platform is recognized as revenue. The fee earned on each transaction is based on the pre-existing agreement we have with the seller and the clearing price of the winning bid. We recognize revenue upon fulfillment of our performance obligation to a client, which occurs at the point in time an ad renders and is counted as a paid impression, subject to a contract existing with the client and a fixed or determinable transaction price. Performance obligations for all transactions are satisfied, and the corresponding revenue is recognized, at a distinct point in time. We consider the following when determining if a contract exists (i) contract approval by all parties, (ii) identification of each party’s rights regarding the goods or services to be transferred, (iii) specified payment terms, (iv) commercial substance of the contract, and (v) collectability of substantially all of the consideration is probable.

The determination of whether revenue should be reported on a gross or net basis is based on an assessment of whether we are acting as the principal or an agent in the transaction. In determining whether we are acting as the principal or an agent, we followed the accounting guidance for principal-agent considerations. Making such determinations involves judgment and is based on an evaluation of the terms of each arrangement, none of which are considered presumptive or determinative.

For the majority of transactions on our platform, we report revenue on a net basis as we do not act as the principal in the purchase and sale of digital advertising inventory because we do not have control of the digital advertising inventory and do not set prices agreed upon within the auction marketplace. However, with respect to certain revenue streams for managed advertising campaigns that are transacted through insertion orders, we report revenue on a gross basis, based primarily on our determination that we act as the primary obligor in the delivery of advertising campaigns for buyers with respect to such transactions.

Internal Use Software Development Costs

We capitalize certain internal use software development costs associated with creating and enhancing internally developed software related to our technology infrastructure. These costs include personnel and related employee benefits expenses for employees who are directly associated with and who devote time to software projects, and external direct costs of materials and services consumed in developing or obtaining the software. Software development costs that do not meet the qualification for capitalization, as further discussed below, are expensed as incurred and recorded in technology and development expenses in the results of operations.

Software development activities generally consist of three stages, (i) the planning stage, (ii) the application and infrastructure development stage, and (iii) the post implementation stage. Costs incurred in the planning and post implementation stages of software development, including costs associated with the post-configuration training and repairs and maintenance of the developed technologies, are expensed as incurred. We capitalize costs associated with software developed for internal use when the planning stage is completed, management has authorized further funding for the completion of the project, and it is probable that the project will be completed and perform as intended. Costs incurred in the application and infrastructure development stages, including significant enhancements and upgrades, are capitalized. Capitalization ends once a project is substantially complete and the software and technologies are ready for their intended purpose. There is judgment involved in estimating the stage of

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development as well as estimating time allocated to a particular project. A significant change in the time spent on each project could have a material impact on the amount capitalized and related amortization expense in subsequent periods.

We amortize internal use software development costs using a straight-line method over a three year estimated useful life, commencing when the software is ready for its intended use. The straight-line recognition method approximates the manner in which the expected benefit will be derived. We determined the life of internal use software based on historical software upgrades and replacement.

On an ongoing basis, we assess if the estimated remaining useful lives of capitalized projects continue to be reasonable based on the remaining expected benefit and usage. If the remaining useful life of a capitalized project is revised, it is accounted for as a change in estimate and the remaining unamortized cost of the underlying asset is amortized prospectively over the updated remaining useful life. We also evaluate internal use software for abandonment and consider that along with other quantitative and qualitative factors as indicators for potential impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

The information set forth under Note 2 to our "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" under the caption "Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" is incorporated herein by reference.