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Shutterstock, Inc. (SSTK)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 24, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Shutterstock, Inc. Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder this call maybe recorded. I would like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Craig Felenstein, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Craig Felenstein - Senior Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Shutterstock's fourth quarter and full year 2015 earnings call. Joining me today is Jon Oringer, our Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman; and Steven Berns, our Chief Financial Officer. During this call, management may make forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainty, including predictions, expectations, estimates and other information. These include statements relating to the expansion of our addressable market, the success of new product offerings, including products we recently acquired, revenue growth and the predictability of our revenue, adjusted EBITDA, equity-based compensation, taxes, and capital expenditures. Our actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Please refer to today's press release and the reports and documents we file from time-to-time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the section entitled Risk Factors in the company's Form 10-K filed this morning for discussions of important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statements we may make on this call. On this call, we will refer to adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a description of these items along with a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's earnings release, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. We believe that the use of these measures provides important additional insights for investors. However, these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. And with all that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Jon. Jonathan Oringer…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question is from the line of Youssef Squali of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Youssef Squali - Cantor Fitzgerald Securities

Analyst

Thank you very much. Good morning, guys. A couple of questions, maybe starting with you Steven. Going back to what you just said in terms of the headwinds to your 2016 guidance, can you maybe just provide a little more color on the FX? And I think you mentioned three things, one was FX, one was the tech platform migration and the third was the editorial business. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Sure.

Youssef Squali - Cantor Fitzgerald Securities

Analyst

I guess, in trying to kind to parse out those how much is this – I guess FX you can't really project beyond 2016. But for the others, are these one-time events, i.e. we go through them in 2016 and then we see a kind of a catch up in 2017, or are these investments that will sustain for multiple years? And then maybe Jon, can you just talk broadly about the competitive landscape, what you are seeing out there? I think the top line guidance for 2016 implies some decent deceleration. How much of that is backed in potentially pricing pressure or lower demand – driven by competition? Thanks. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: So thanks for the question, in regards to the impacts of the technology re-platform and our increased investment in editorial as we continue to integrate the Rex business and build out our capabilities. Those are both 2016 items, which we do not expect to recur in 2017, and so we expect this to be once again a 2016 event, which we'll start to see benefits even later this year. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Cool. And I could talk about the competitive landscape a bit. It's always changed around us, and for the past 10 years, it's been consolidation, it's been new companies that start. We don't see any underlying trends of our business change. And in addition, we do not compete on price. We are building, we are investing, we are re-platforming, we are releasing some amazing stuff out there in terms of editorial product features, and also workflow features. And we are going to continue to differentiate our products from the rest of the competitors that way and stay ahead of them like we always have.

Youssef Squali - Cantor Fitzgerald Securities

Analyst

All right. So we start to assume that at least so far you have not seen any pressure from Adobe? Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: No.

Youssef Squali - Cantor Fitzgerald Securities

Analyst

Okay. All right, thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Rohit Kulkarni of RBC. Your line is open.

Rohit Kulkarni - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Thank you. One for Jon and one for Steve. Jon, in terms of kind of thinking out your product roadmap over the next 12 to 24 months, and then you talk about workflow and it's interesting that you launched this Editor in Q4. Can you talk about what other tools do you think, as you interact both more with enterprise customers and other forms of media, that Shutterstock needs to build or buy or partner as you kind of look ahead over the next 12 to 24 months? Are there any obvious holes that you think you need to fill to be able to get a greater share of wallet of your customers as you're going to build out your enterprise capabilities? And another one for Steve. On your gross margin comments, can you peel back a little bit in terms of what is the effect of the unlimited downloads on gross margins? And also, what are you assuming with respect to mix shift towards editorial and offset on gross margins? Thank you. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, I can jump in first, and then Steven can answer the second part. On our product roadmap, we're doing what we have done for the past 13 years, which is listening to our customers and build the things that they need. We're starting from an amazing place. We sell 4.6 images every single second, and we spend very little time with that user before and after today. But as we start to expand into products like Editor where we start to spend more time with the user and we can see that they start to download more images because they are spending more time with us, that gives us an opportunity to continue to expand along the…

Rohit Kulkarni - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, Jon. Thanks, Steve. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Aaron Kessler of Raymond James. Your line is open. Aaron M. Kessler - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Yes. Hi, guys, just a couple of questions. First on geography, any updates just on the strength in different geographies? Second, I don't know if you provided the video and music percentage in Q4 roughly. And then is it possible to quantify the rough EBITDA impact from the tech re-platform in the editorial investments? Thank you. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: So as it relates to geography, we still see Europe as choppy despite the fact that we mentioned Germany and the UK. We are seeing not the same level of robustness that we would like to see going forward. The U.S. continues strong. Asia has been particularly strong as well, and so we feel that the overall – there's nothing that we're seeing that's, if you will, a cause of concern. But we want to make sure that we're being mindful as to those areas of the world where there is opportunity and those where we see greater strength. And as it relates to the video and music percentage, we don't break out those percentages. But at the moment, on a combined basis, they're about 10%. Okay, so when you look at video and music, but we certainly look forward to the day when we're having more conversations and we feel like those are coming soon because we believe that both our product, as well as the user acceptance of that product, the functionality of those products, will be far greater for the customer. And we think, as Jon said earlier, we're going to continue to be a leader in those product areas. Aaron M. Kessler - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Can you possibly quantify the impact from the tech platforming on EBITDA? Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Yeah. So really the impact, I would say, is two-fold. One is we're making sure that we position ourselves, as Jon indicated, really a platform on a go-forward basis that is nimble and flexible and as user friendly as it possibly can be. And so it's – that we would expect is going to be "several million dollars of EBITDA impact". Cash is going to be higher because there'll be some cap labor involved there but overall, we see this as a 2016 event. So impact on EBITDA, call it below $10 million. But once again, there's cap labor involved there as well. Aaron M. Kessler - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Lloyd Walmsley of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Kevin LaBuz - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Hi, thank you. This is Kevin LaBuz on behalf of Lloyd. For 2016, if I assume you grow your enterprise business about 40% year-over-year and video 50% year-over-year, that implies that the core business is growing about 6%. Just wondering if you could comment on the outlook to your core business for 2016. And related to that, does 2016 guidance incorporate any price cuts or lower-tier subscriptions? And I've got a follow-up. Thank you. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: So as it relates to the latter part of your question in terms of price cuts, it doesn't incorporate anything other than us continuing to offer packages that are desired by consumers. So there's no expectation of a price cut. As Jon indicated, we see our value proposition as one that has not just been successful but continues to be highly desired by our customers. We'll continue to test new packages as and when our customers ask us about that. But at the moment, as I said, there's nothing incorporated into guidance if that would be the case. As it relates to the core business, it continues to grow nicely. The on-demand business is better than the subscription business, but both are growing. And I can't comment on your particular assumptions, all I can say is that as we continue to go through 2016, we believe that the businesses will grow and will be positioning ourselves for even accelerated growth as we move into 2017 and beyond. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: And one more important thing, you can't really split them out that well. The way that the core and the enterprise businesses work is that they're very intimately related. We're getting better and better at converting some of our core customers and identifying which ones will become premier customers quicker and more effectively in bringing them into the enterprise product. So as we get better and better at bringing new clients into core, we get better and better at also bringing them up into the enterprise product.

Kevin LaBuz - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

All right, thank you for that. And just as a follow-up, you had mentioned in your Analyst Day that the productivity of your enterprise sales force is ramping. So just wondering if that continues to be the case, and if that's incorporated into guidance for 2016? That's all, thanks. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Yeah. We see the enterprise sales team continuing to produce improved results. They've done a phenomenal job and we also have – all that's been incorporated into our 2016 guidance. As we do bring our new hires, there is a period of ramp up, but they pay for themselves within a 12-month period. And so we feel very positive about the people that we have and the new talent that we're also adding on top of that to build capabilities on a more global basis. So as Jon said, adding enterprise customers at a continued rapid clip.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Blake Harper of Topeka Capital. Your line is open.

Blake T. Harper - Topeka Capital Markets

Analyst

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, guys. Jon, I wanted to ask you two questions. First, I wanted to see if you could comment on the Corbis deal and the partnership with Getty, if any of the changes there has had any positive or negative effect to you with contributors or customers. And then my second question is related to your API strategy. Some of the partners that you have there have had traction with their advertising business and just wanted to see if you had seen anything similar there, or what you can comment there as far as the level of activity that you've seen with those partners on your API. Thanks. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. On the competitive environment, it's kind of the same answer I gave before on the competitive environment. It continues to change around us. It's always changed around us for the past 13 years. Nothing surprises me anymore. And this is business as usual. We have not been stronger with our contributor community. We're ramping up our image intake and we're getting a lot more efficient with it, and we see contributors continue to choose us over other companies more and more as the environment around us changes, so that goes to the impact. On the API, it's a business line for us. We continue to sign on new partners all the time. We signed on a couple in the past quarter and those were in our release, Optimizely and Sprinklr and some others. And it'll continue to be a growing business unit for us. We want to get more integrated into our partners. And if we can help them with deeper and deeper integrations directly into our product, that benefits both us and our partners. And we continue to keep those clients for a long period of time because of that deep integration. And this kind of goes back to the re-platform we're talking about, too. As we start to move over to a fully services-oriented architecture, the API become a more efficient and powerful tool for us to integrate, and it lets us do it cross the entire kind of workflow or the user instead of just delivering images in the future. Hopefully that answers both.

Blake T. Harper - Topeka Capital Markets

Analyst

Yeah. Thanks, Jon. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Brian Fitzgerald of Jefferies. Your line is open.

Brian P. Fitzgerald - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Thanks, guys. A couple of questions maybe on that note on the API integrations. Do those tend to start out exclusive? How long do those usually run for maybe before they fall off exclusive? And then a follow-up to some of the enterprise questions. As you look at your enterprise sales efforts, how much are dedicated towards current customers versus new customers? Any noteworthy dynamics in the length of sales cycle or product cross promotion, maybe specifically as you continue to broaden your offerings and tool sets? Thanks. Jonathan Oringer - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: On the API, they're all different. Some of them are exclusive, some of them are not. They tend to stay with us for a long time when they integrate with us, because it's a pretty deep partnership. But it's something we focus on. We have a team and we continue to build out. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Yeah. And as it relates to the growth in enterprise customers, it's coming equally from expansion of new customers, as well as growth with existing customers as they see the benefits of the platform, as we continue to enhance the platform, as we listen to their needs and solve their problems and workflow issues. I think that will even become a greater amount of connectivity with our customers. We've just added music to our enterprise platform and so we're also rolling out editorial on our enterprise platform, and so therefore we only see future growth continuing and accelerating from here.

Brian P. Fitzgerald - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Thanks, Jon. Thanks Steve. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Operator, we have time for one last question, please.

Operator

Operator

Our last question is from the line of Dean Prissman of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Dean J. Prissman - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thanks for taking my questions. I may have missed this, so apologies if so, but can you please comment on the growth rate of your enterprise revenue stream in the fourth quarter? And then within your 2016 revenue growth guidance, how meaningful are the Red Bull and PENSKE Media partnerships, and how should we think about the margin profile of these deals? Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: So we don't actually speak to specific growth of enterprise, but what we have said in the past kind of where it is directionally, and it's now approximately – it's more than 25% of our overall revenue. And so that is certainly, as Jon said, important as we've grown the customers, as well as the amount of business with each of those customers. As it relates to Red Bull Media and our deal with Penske Media that we closed in 2015, we haven't discussed specifics but in terms of the – what it does for our business, I think a couple of things. It makes our overall platform more desirable by customers. It attracts both other contributors and other players because they want to be part of that platform. We are an extremely customer-friendly organization and I think that has historically differentiated us from some others. And so being able to provide this first-rate, high quality content in real-time really puts us in a very good position with our customers. But once again, it's not beneficial to break that out independent of any other – the overall business. Dean J. Prissman - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thanks.

Craig Felenstein - Senior Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. We appreciate your time. And if you have any follow-up questions, please let us know. We're happy to answer them over the next couple days. Steven Berns - Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer: Thanks.