Yahoo 2015 Annual Report Download - page 31

activity, tort, including personal injury, fraud, or other theories based on the nature and content of
information which we publish or to which we provide links or that may be posted online or generated
by us or by third parties, including our users. In addition, we have been and may again in the future
be subject to domestic or international actions alleging that certain content we have generated or
third-party content that we have made available within our services violates laws in domestic and
international jurisdictions. We arrange for the distribution of third-party advertisements to third-party
publishers and advertising networks, and we offer third-party products, services, or content, such as
stock quotes and trading information, under the Yahoo brand or 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.
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, Search
click-driven revenue, Price-per-Click and Price-per-Ad that are calculated using internal company
data. We periodically review, refine and update our methodologies for monitoring, gathering, and
calculating these metrics.
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. Furthermore, over time
we may revise or cease reporting certain metrics that we no longer believe are useful or meaningful
measures of our performance and add new metrics which we believe are better measurements of
performance.
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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