Yahoo 2013 Annual Report Download - page 26

via distribution on Yahoo Properties. We may be subject to claims concerning these products, services, or
content by virtue of our involvement in marketing, branding, broadcasting, or providing access to them, even if
we do not ourselves host, operate, provide, or provide access to these products, services, or content. While our
agreements with respect to these products, services, and content may provide that we will be indemnified against
such liabilities, the ability to receive such indemnification may be disputed, could result in substantial costs to
enforce or defend, and depends on the financial resources of the other party to the agreement, and any amounts
received might not be adequate to cover our liabilities or the costs associated with defense of such proceedings.
Defense of any such actions could be costly and involve significant time and attention of our management and
other resources, may result in monetary liabilities or penalties, and may require us to change our business in an
adverse manner.
It is also possible that if any information provided directly by us contains errors or is otherwise wrongfully
provided to users, third parties could make claims against us. For example, we offer Web-based e-mail services,
which expose us to potential risks, such as liabilities or claims, by our users and third parties, resulting from
unsolicited e-mail, lost or misdirected messages, illegal or fraudulent use of e-mail, alleged violations of policies,
property interests, or privacy protections, including civil or criminal laws, or interruptions or delays in e-mail
service. We may also face purported consumer class actions or state actions relating to our online services,
including our fee-based services (particularly in connection with any decision to discontinue a fee-based service).
In addition, our customers, third parties, or government entities may assert claims or actions against us if our
online services or technologies are used to spread or facilitate malicious or harmful code or applications.
Investigating and defending these types of claims are expensive, even if the claims are without merit or do not
ultimately result in liability, and could subject us to significant monetary liability or cause a change in business
practices that could negatively impact our ability to compete.
If we are unable to recruit, hire, motivate, and retain key personnel, we may not be able to execute our
business plan.
Our business is dependent on our ability to recruit, hire, motivate, and retain talented, highly skilled personnel.
Achieving this objective may be difficult due to many factors, including the intense competition for such highly
skilled personnel in the San Francisco Bay Area and other metropolitan areas where our offices are located;
fluctuations in global economic and industry conditions; competitors’ hiring practices; and the effectiveness of
our compensation programs. If we do not succeed in retaining and motivating our existing key employees, and in
attracting new key personnel, we may be unable to meet our business plan and as a result, our revenue and
profitability may decline.
Certain of our metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies
in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We present key metrics such as unique users, number of Ads Sold, number of Paid Clicks, Price-per-Click and
Price-per-Ad that are calculated using internal company data. We periodically review and refine our
methodologies for monitoring, gathering, and calculating these metrics. Based on this process, from time to time
we update our methodologies.
While our metrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable measurements and methodologies, there are
inherent challenges in deriving our metrics across large online and mobile populations around the world. In
addition, our user metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similar metrics of our
competitors due to differences in methodology.
If advertisers or publishers do not perceive our metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies in
our metrics, it could negatively affect our reputation, business and financial results.
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