UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 10-K

 

 

Commission File Number: 000-51461

Unica Corporation

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

170 Tracer Lane

Waltham, Massachusetts 02451-1379

(Address of principal executive offices)

(781) 839-8000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes o     No þ

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.  Yes o     No þ

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes þ     No o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).  Yes o     No o

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

 

(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  Yes o     No þ

 

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of March 31, 2009 was approximately $48,442,000 based on the last reported sale price of the common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market on March 31, 2009.

 

The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding as of December 1, 2009 was 20,855,000.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE.

 

Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the registrant’s 2010 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended September 30, 2009, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. With the exceptions of the portions of the Proxy Statement expressly incorporated by reference herein, such document shall not be deemed filed with this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

 

UNICA CORPORATION
ANNUAL REPORT ON
FORM 10-K
FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

 

Table of Contents

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “estimate,” “may,” or similar words. You should read statements that contain these words carefully because they discuss our future expectations, contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial condition, or state other “forward-looking” information. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to accurately predict or control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed as a result of various factors, including those factors described in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation and do not intend to update any forward-looking statements.

 

References to “Unica,” “the Company,” “registrant,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and similar pronouns refer to Unica Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries.

 

 

Overview

 

Unica Corporation was incorporated in Massachusetts in December 1992 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 2003. We are a leading provider of software and services used to automate marketing processes. Focused exclusively on the needs of marketers, Unica’s software streamlines the marketing process for relationship marketing, online marketing, and marketing operations — from analysis and planning, to budgeting, online and offline execution and measurement. Offering one of the most comprehensive Enterprise Marketing Management, or EMM, suites on the market, Unica’s software delivers a marketing “system of record” — a dedicated solution through which marketers capture, record and easily manage marketing activity, information and assets, rapidly design online and offline campaigns, analyze web usage data, and report on performance. Our solutions are designed to benefit our customers by increasing their revenue and profitability, improving their visibility to marketing activity, and strengthening their marketing investment accountability.

 

Our software products can be licensed on a perpetual or subscription basis, and can be deployed either at the customer’s location (on premise deployment model) or managed as a remotely hosted solution by our Marketing Services Provider partners, or MSPs, or by Unica (using on-demand versions of our software). Our software uses an open, scalable and flexible product architecture with built-in data access functionality, which facilitates rapid implementation and deployment in any deployment model.

 

Our worldwide, customer installed base consists of over 1,000 organizations in a wide range of industries, including financial services, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and travel and hospitality. Our customers include four of the top five global telecommunications companies, 12 of the top 20 retailers in North America, all top 10 retail banks in the U.S., seven of the top 10 U.S. travel and hospitality companies, four of the top five global automobile companies, eight of the top 10 global life sciences companies, five of the top 10 global insurance companies, as well as numerous large and medium-sized companies across other industries. We offer our software primarily through our direct sales force, as well as through alliances with partners, including MSPs, resellers, distributors and systems integrators. We also provide a full range of services to our customers, including implementation, training, consulting, and maintenance and technical support. In addition to reselling and deploying our products, MSPs and systems integrators also offer a range of marketing program design, support, and execution services on an on-demand or outsourced basis.

Available Information

 

Our website address is www.unica.com. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Our reports filed with the SEC are also available at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, and any amendments to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, are also available on our website. We are not including the information contained on our website as part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

Industry Background

 

Despite the significant investments in media advertising, promotions, direct marketing activities, Internet advertising and other marketing services, most businesses have not fully automated their marketing functions or developed capabilities to measure and continually improve results. Other business functions, such as sales, manufacturing, logistics and finance, have implemented comprehensive software applications to automate workflow, business processes, information management and measurement. Marketing organizations, however, typically continue to rely on a combination of manual processes, internally developed software programs, and desktop office productivity software such as graphics packages, word processing and spreadsheets to conduct marketing activities, which limits their ability to effectively manage, track and measure results or improve productivity.

 

Changing Market Dynamics

 

Powerful trends are reshaping businesses, driving the need for more robust software applications that can meet the changing needs of marketing organizations:

 

Growth of online channels increases marketing complexity.  The proliferation of media — particularly the rapid growth in Internet usage, the number of radio, cable and satellite television channels, text messaging, user-generated content, and blogs — has changed the concept of “mass media” and is requiring marketers to understand, use and measure a broader and more complex marketing mix to reach consumers. The consumer purchasing process itself has also become cross-channel, as consumers increasingly research decisions on the Internet but then purchase in-store and vice-versa. Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that almost $400 billion of store sales — or 16% of total retail sales — are directly influenced by the Internet as consumers research products online and purchase them offline. This figure is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% over the next five years, resulting in more than $1 trillion of store sales by 2012. In response to this growth, Forrester’s recent “US Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009 To 2014” projects that marketers will increase their spending in interactive channels (e.g. email, search, online video, etc.) by a compound growth rate of 17% from 2009 to 2014. We believe marketers must use technology to understand buyers’ online and offline behavior and productively market to them across channels.

 

At the same time, demographic changes are leading businesses to develop separate products and services to target distinct groups of consumers, rather than simply developing a single product or service to be marketed broadly to a large, but not necessarily homogeneous, audience. Businesses now must implement more frequent and diversified marketing programs, often targeted to the individual consumer, with the ability for offers to be varied based on real-time data from the Internet, call center and other interactive channels.

 

Growth in consumer power.  The balance of power in the marketplace has been shifting from businesses to consumers. Consumers today exercise unprecedented control over the marketing and buying process through the use of new technologies, such as Internet ad blockers, digital video recorders, email filters, Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, feeds and consumer-generated online content and reviews. With today’s technology, consumers can quickly research pricing, read peer and expert reviews and take advantage of unlimited choices in product options, as well as determine how, when, and what marketing

they receive. Moreover, recent privacy regulations, such as national and local “do not call” registries and anti-spam legislation, permit consumers to opt out of specific marketing channels and restrict businesses from using personal information for specified marketing purposes. This power-shift requires marketers to be more adept at understanding individual consumer preferences and needs, and puts increasing pressure on marketers to adopt technology to automatically gather and analyze this data, and deliver targeted marketing communications.

 

Proliferation of consumer data.  Businesses have access to increasingly large quantities of consumer data that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of marketing operations. Information about consumer preferences, attributes and buying patterns is more readily available as a result of:

 

 

Marketing organizations are now able to capture these growing volumes of consumer data because of significant technological advances, including improvements in computing power, network bandwidth and storage. Organizations that use this information to better understand and serve customers can derive significant competitive advantage.

 

Marketing accountability.  Business management trends such as Six Sigma and regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 have increased focus on process, productivity and accountability across all facets of a business. Marketing departments, often wielding large discretionary budgets, have come under increasing pressure to track spending, processes and approvals, as well as to justify investments.

 

To respond to these fundamental trends, marketing organizations must capture more customer information, deliver more precise and relevant communications, and measure and justify the effectiveness of their marketing activities in generating revenue. We believe marketers cannot effectively meet these demands using manual processes, internally developed software programs and desktop productivity software.

 

Enterprise Marketing Management

 

Enterprise Marketing Management, or EMM, solutions help businesses manage the complexities and processes of marketing and achieve customer-relevancy, all while driving revenue growth, cost efficiencies, and accountability. With EMM solutions, marketers can manage the end-to-end process of marketing, from analysis to planning, creative production management, online and offline execution and measurement.

 

In response to changing market dynamics and the availability of comprehensive marketing software suites, such as ours, marketing executives are increasingly acknowledging a need for EMM. According to Forrester Research, a significant and growing majority of marketers — 83% — agree that they need a more comprehensive and integrated application suite in order to increase their effectiveness.

 

Based on this growing need for EMM software, a sizable market opportunity has developed for providers who can offer a comprehensive EMM solution. Forrester forecasted that the worldwide market for enterprise marketing platforms, including software license and maintenance revenues, will grow from approximately $2.4 billion in 2009 to approximately $5.5 billion in 2013.

 

Our Enterprise Marketing Management Solutions

 

We believe our EMM suite is the most comprehensive solution available on the market today. With capabilities that are both broad and deep, our suite meets the needs of marketers in mid-sized to large enterprises in nearly any industry, from business-to-consumer to business-to-business markets. Our suite provides capabilities to improve all facets of marketing that help marketing become more interactive: capable

of engaging each customer and prospect in a cross-channel dialog that builds upon their past and current behavior. Unica’s enterprise marketing management suite helps marketers meet this challenge across four crucial areas: customer awareness, centralized decisioning, cross-channel execution, and integrated marketing operations.

 

Customer Awareness

 

Marketers need to be aware of what their customers are saying, through past purchase experience behavior, as well as other interactions like website behavior. Our solutions enable marketers to have customer awareness by offering the following capabilities:

 

Customer analytics that give marketers visual analysis of customer behavior, preferences, and opportunities; and permit them to select customer groups for easy inclusion in targeted marketing initiatives, moving quickly from questions to insight to action — without programming or technical support.

 

Web analytics, beginning with self-service analytics that allow marketers to improve marketing effectiveness by rapidly testing and enhancing campaigns and web sites; and then also providing a rich “lather” of behavioral data to uncover individual customers’ unspoken intentions, so marketing can converse with these customers more effectively.

 

Predictive analytics designed for marketing specialists, not statisticians: easy tools for segmenting markets; predicting response, cross-sell and lifetime value; and determining exactly who to target with which offers.

 

Event detection that can monitor each customer’s transactional behavior patterns, and set off triggers when meaningful changes occur that suggest a company can take advantage of an opportunity if immediate action is taken.

 

Centralized Decisioning

 

Unica solutions allow marketers to “think before they speak” to their customer, and speak based on a complete memory of previous interactions with the customer to date. This approach is essential in order to engage customers in an effective dialogue. To make this happen, Unica’s solution incorporates:

 

Segmentation capabilities that enable marketers to group customers by like characteristics or behavior, in order to communicate with them in the most appropriate way.

 

Offer management to choose which personalized message each customer should receive, depending on conditions. Offer management draws on a central offer repository that permits offers to be leveraged across all channels, ensures that they are presented consistently, and tracks and measures their success over time.

 

Real-time targeting, combining the ability to perform segmentation dynamically during live customer interactions while taking into account their moment-by-moment behavior; and learning algorithms and arbitration rules for optimizing customer messages in real-time channels.

 

Interaction history that creates a two-way memory of every marketing message delivered as well as the customer’s reaction to that message.

 

Contact optimization designed to help manage marketing communications over time against business objectives and resource constraints.

Cross-channel Execution

 

Our solutions allow marketers to communicate through any outbound or inbound channel with equal ease and manage conversations that continue through as many interactions as necessary to help customers reach their goals. Unica’s capabilities that support effective cross-channel execution include:

 

Outbound fulfillment to support list creation for delivering mail-ready files to letter shops and fulfillment houses, high-volume email execution, and smooth integration with third-party vendors for fulfilling to any outbound channel.

 

Inbound integration to capture real-time contextual information from customer touchpoints — like Web sites, inbound customer service interactions, kiosks, and even face-to-face point-of-sale — and create offers to be presented immediately during a current interactive session.

 

Distributed marketing to provide campaign execution capabilities to store or branch managers and their colleagues in field marketing, which enables them to take advantage of their relationship with the customer, all within the framework and rules set by the central marketing organization.

 

Lead management to capture, score, and rapidly route leads and responses to marketing contacts.

 

Integrated Marketing Operations

 

Unica’s solutions simplify marketing collaboration and cross-channel planning, design, execution, and measurement. It achieves these goals by supporting a spectrum of marketing functions and capabilities through one unified interface, and integrating with other tools our customers may already own. Unica’s solution enables marketing organizations to effectively manage:

 

Plans and budgets in order to provide universal visibility, top-down budget allocations, and full tracking of forecasts and expenses.

 

People and process, including a master marketing calendar to track programs and maximize their visibility; as well as tools for assessing resource availability, assigning jobs and tasks, driving project schedules, managing reviews, and improving collaboration.

 

Data and assets through tools that capture re-usable information, manage project and campaign data, and provide secure access to all creative assets.

 

Measurement and performance with easy-to-use reports and full-fledged dashboards for interactive monitoring and drill-down investigation.

 

Our Strategy

 

Unica’s mission is to “Power the Success of Every Marketing Organization.” Our objective is to be the leading global provider of EMM technology. To achieve this goal, we are pursuing the following strategies:

 

Maintain product leadership in the marketing domain.  We intend to build upon our product and technology leadership by continuing to invest in research and development to expand our EMM offerings and increase the functionality of our current offerings. In spite of the growing awareness of and need for complete and integrated EMM solutions, the purchasing of marketing solutions remains fragmented within many large corporations, with the online marketing group acting independently from the direct marketing or marketing communications teams. Unica expects to maintain market leadership through our solutions designed to meet the needs of specific marketing challenges and teams, such as online marketing, while attempting to lead the market to the converged EMM solution that we believe is currently emerging. Thus, we intend to continue to deepen capabilities within our offerings, such as interactive marketing, while continuing to expand the breadth of our capabilities to meet the needs of more organizations.

Lead in the emerging interactive marketing market.  As noted above, old marketing channels have faded, new online channels have arisen, and all channels are becoming more personal and addressable. Meanwhile, customers have gained immense power and they are leveraging it to the fullest.

 

Unica has developed a single solution to address these interactive marketing trends: Unica Interactive Marketing. This solution reflects our experience supporting the marketing function in more than 1,000 organizations on six continents. While many companies offer software that supports fragments of interactive marketing (e.g., in a single channel only), we believe we have the solution and experience required to truly make interactive marketing a reality.

 

Offer flexible deployment options.  To meet the needs of the widest number of potential customers, we will continue to offer our solutions for on-premise and on-demand deployments, both through our partners and directly from Unica. We believe this strategy lets us address the entire market for EMM, from the largest enterprises to the smallest, and provides a competitive advantage by enabling our customers to continue to leverage our solutions even as their needs change.

 

Expand customer relationships.  Our strong customer relationships and broad spectrum of offerings afford us an opportunity to continually deepen and expand our existing customer relationships. Expansion typically occurs in three ways: licensing additional capacity as our customers grow their marketing teams and as they expand automation throughout their organizations; the sale of new modules such as web analytics, lead management or real-time recommendation capabilities; and penetration into subsidiaries and business divisions within large enterprises.

 

Penetrate new markets and market segments.  The market for EMM solutions is in its early stages. According to Gartner, Inc.’s “Hype Cycle for CRM Marketing Applications, 2009,” dated June 30, 2009, only one to five percent of the target market has currently adopted EMM. We intend to continue to penetrate deeper into existing verticals, reach into new industries and vertical markets and expand geographically through investments in direct sales and partners.

 

Leverage strategic alliances.  We have developed strategic relationships with MSPs and systems integrators around the world in order to increase distribution of our products, supplement and extend our EMM offerings, and enhance market awareness of our company and offerings. We will continue to leverage our sales and service resources by expanding our relationships with our existing MSPs and systems integrators. We will selectively seek alliance opportunities with additional MSPs, systems integrators, and distributors particularly in countries outside the United States, to complement or expand our business by offering configuration and integration support, data management, and strategic marketing services. We will leverage our global Partner Program to cost effectively recruit and enable new partners supporting all Unica product lines.

 

Selectively pursue strategic acquisitions.  To complement and accelerate our internal growth, we intend to pursue the acquisition of businesses, technologies and products that will complement our existing operations. For example, the acquisition of Marketic by Unica France in May 2003 has provided us with additional customers and a base of operations in Europe. Our acquisitions of MarketSoft Software Corporation and Sane Solutions, LLC in 2006 enabled us to introduce new capabilities for event-based marketing, lead management and web analytics, enhancing capabilities for our customers to track and analyze cross-channel customer behavior and deliver more targeted and precise communications to their consumers through nearly any channel, including sales and partner channels. Finally, our acquisition of MarketingCentral, L.L.C. in July 2007 has provided us with a leading on-demand marketing resource management solution.

 

Our Product Lines

 

Our software offerings provide marketing organizations with a comprehensive set of integrated modules that enable marketers to manage the end-to-end process of marketing, from analysis to planning, production management, execution and measurement. Through this functionality, our suite of offerings can help businesses increase their revenues and improve the efficiency and measurability of their marketing operations.

We offer a range of deployment options including fully hosted, multi-tenant software on-demand, partner hosted and managed, and customer hosted and managed on their premises. We can host all or part of a solution in our facility allowing customers to reduce IT costs and free up resources to focus on core business activities, while gaining the reliability, security, and scalability they require. In addition, we offer consultative services to our on-demand customers, such as best practices for website and online marketing measurement, report development, and marketing process development.

 

Unica offers its solutions in two product lines:

 

 

Unica Enterprise

 

Our Enterprise software offerings consist of seven top-level modules: Unica Campaign, Unica Marketing Operations, Unica Detect, Unica Leads, Unica NetInsight, Unica CustomerInsight, and Unica PredictiveInsight. The modular design of our offerings provides our customers with flexibility to deploy all of our offerings at once or to implement our software products individually or incrementally. By deploying multiple modules, a business can, for example, coordinate and measure all of its direct marketing operations, act upon analytically generated insights, and prepare consolidated reports that facilitate the evaluation and dissemination of marketing program results. Moreover, we have designed our modules to be integrated with each other. In addition, through our open and flexible product architecture, we enable data integration with existing third-party enterprise applications as well as migration from previous EMM implementations. As a result, our software allows marketing objects, such as customer segment definitions, digital assets, offers, customer treatment strategies and other marketing content, to be created once and then shared throughout a business, thereby increasing productivity, re-use, and consistency across multiple channels, and creating the marketing system of record. The consistent user interface across all of the modules reduces training costs and speeds user adoption.

 

Unica Campaign allows marketing organizations to easily create, test and execute customer interaction strategies across outbound and inbound touch points using a common graphical user interface. Marketers can quickly create powerful marketing campaign logic using graphical flowcharts. Reusable campaign templates can be adapted to deliver personalized acquisition, retention, cross-selling and other treatment strategies through outbound channels such as direct mail, email, telemarketing and the web. Marketers can use Unica Campaign to test customer interaction strategies by iteratively changing customer selection criteria, promotional offer materials or personalized digital marketing appearances, and then evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy before executing a program. We also offer several optional modules to extend Unica Campaign’s capabilities to include electronic messaging of personalized email and mobile text messages, real-time marketing analysis of recent interactions and historical patterns, optimization analysis and a centralized repository of marketing campaigns.

 

Unica Marketing Operations provides marketing operations and resource management capabilities that help marketers define, coordinate, monitor, control and measure marketing program activities. Unica Marketing Operations provides visibility into all marketing initiatives, thereby enabling businesses to improve their consistent use of best practices and execution, decision-making, management and overall productivity for those initiatives. We also offer three optional modules within Unica Marketing Operations that provide the ability to centrally store marketing plans, track and analyze results of marketing plans, create, review, approve and store digital files and manage marketing budgets and expenses.

Unica Detect uses patented event-detection technology to efficiently monitor high volumes of transactional data to identify significant changes in behavior over time that signal a need to interact with a customer for sales or service opportunities. Unica Detect is able to identify changes specific to each customer such as unusually high deposits in a bank account, significant decreases in purchases at a retailer, or changes in calling patterns that might indicate customer attrition for a mobile phone operator. Customers can develop their own rules or use the over 150 pre-packaged events and alerts offered with the software. Once detected, other modules within our Unica Enterprise suite, such as Unica Campaign or Unica Leads can act on the events and marketing opportunities identified by Unica Detect.

 

Unica Leads enables marketers to better manage the qualification, enrichment, distribution and maturation of leads between marketing activities and multiple sales channels such as telesales, channel partners, and field sales for higher closure rates and greater revenue. Unica Leads helps automate the analysis, prioritization and distribution of leads based on easily defined business rules that can incorporate sophisticated analytics, regional overlays, product group hierarchies and channel partners. These leads can be managed within the Unica Enterprise suite’s own interface or routed to existing contact management software or sales force automation systems. In addition, the application provides the capability to report on lead status and results so that managers can take action to improve closure rates, and marketers can gain a more comprehensive view of which programs drive the most valuable leads. In addition, we offer optional modules of Unica Leads that provide the ability to manage and track lead referrals across lines of business and a contact management capability.

 

Unica NetInsight collects, analyzes and reports on website activity. It offers an open relational database backend with a fully extensible data schema, easy-to-configure custom dashboards and reports. Using Unica NetInsight, marketers can analyze whether their company websites and Internet marketing are meeting the needs of their customers and driving the behaviors desired. For example, marketers can uncover ways to increase purchase or lead conversion, encourage customer self-service, or improve performance of paid search-engine marketing. With Unica’s open architecture, web data is integrated with offline purchase and customer activity to increase the ability to measure cross-channel effectiveness, such as the influence of the web on in-store purchases.

 

Unica CustomerInsight provides powerful analytics for marketing performance management and cross-channel customer analysis through an easy-to-use, visually intuitive interface designed specifically for marketers. It allows marketers to select and focus on the data most relevant to them with flexible, visual exploration, unlimited drilling and seamless integration to Unica Campaign to analyze, understand and fully leverage the cross-channel buying experience and the performance of their marketing efforts.

 

Unica PredictiveInsight enables marketing organizations to automate the creation of accurate predictive models to determine customer response propensities, recognize customers at risk of attrition, identify significant customer behaviors, analyze customer attributes and preferences, discover cross-selling opportunities, and forecast customer value. Accurate models can be developed and deployed quickly to target likely responders to a particular marketing offer. The results of Unica PredictiveInsight, such as model scoring, can be integrated into ongoing marketing operations using Unica Campaign and Unica Optimize.

 

Unica OnDemand

 

Our on-demand offerings consist of Unica Interactive Marketing OnDemand, Unica NetInsight OnDemand, and Unica Marketing Operations OnDemand. The on-demand offerings allow customers to take advantage of Unica’s marketing technology without incurring IT infrastructure costs or occupying valuable IT resources.

 

Unica Interactive Marketing OnDemand combines analytics, email, and web personalization in one intuitive, on-demand application, Unica Interactive Marketing OnDemand brings together all the data visitors are providing through web behavior, responses to marketing, and offline activities — and incorporates that insight directly into easy-to-use targeting and HTML authoring features. The solution enables marketers to carry out all aspects of email and site personalization programs themselves.

Unica NetInsight OnDemand collects, analyzes and reports on website activity. It offers an open relational database backend with a fully extensible data schema, and easy-to-configure custom dashboards and reports. Using Unica NetInsight, marketers can analyze whether their company websites and Internet marketing are meeting the needs of their customers and driving the behaviors desired. For example, marketers can uncover ways to increase purchase or lead conversion, encourage customer self-service, or improve performance of paid search-engine marketing. With Unica’s open architecture, web data is integrated with offline purchase and customer activity to increase the ability to measure cross-channel effectiveness, such as the influence of the web on in-store purchases.

 

Unica MarketingOperations OnDemand is an on-demand marketing resource management, or MRM, solution, providing capabilities that help marketers define, coordinate, monitor, control and measure marketing program activities. Unica Marketing Operations OnDemand has more straight-forward configuration options than a more complex MRM solution, allowing customers to set up the software in a more timely manner.

 

Services

 

We provide a full range of services to our customers through two principal services groups:

 

Professional Services.  Our professional services group provides implementation, training and consulting services to our customers, MSPs, systems integrators and other alliance partners. Implementation services include the installation of our software, identification and sourcing of legacy data, configuration of rules necessary to generate marketing campaigns, distribute leads and manage marketing processes, creation of reports, and other general services for our software. We offer customers, MSPs and systems integrators a full range of training and education services, including classroom, on-site and web-based training. We also offer a variety of consulting services to existing customers (such as process design and best practice services) to help them use their licensed software more broadly and efficiently.

 

Maintenance and Technical Support.  We provide maintenance on a centralized basis from our headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. We provide technical support on a centralized basis from our headquarters in the United States and on a regional basis from centers in the United Kingdom, France and India. We currently offer two levels of maintenance, standard and premium, both of which generally are sold for a term of one year. With both of these maintenance levels, customers are provided with online access to our customer support database, technical support and software updates and upgrades. With premium maintenance, customers are provided additional services such as emergency service response and periodic on-site utilization reviews.

 

Customers

 

We have a worldwide installed base of over 1,000 companies and thousands of users in a broad range of industries. A significant number of these companies sublicense our products from MSPs, as described under “Alliances — Marketing Service Providers” below. See Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements for geographic data regarding our revenue from customers located outside of the United States.

 

We target our sales and marketing efforts to a wide variety of industries, focusing on marketing executives and the Information Technology, or IT, staff that support them. We have focused our sales efforts to date principally on the financial services, insurance, retail, telecommunications and travel and hospitality industries as these industries include significant numbers of businesses with large numbers of customers and prospects.

 

No single customer accounted for 10% or more of our total revenue in fiscal 2009, 2008 or 2007.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

We sell and market our software primarily through our direct sales force and in conjunction with MSPs, systems integrators and distributors. In addition to our headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, we have sales offices in several U.S. cities. Outside the United States, our primary sales offices are in France, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia.

Sales.  Our direct sales force, which consists of account executives, subject matter experts, technical pre-sales engineers, inside sales account development representatives, alliance partner managers and sales management, is responsible for the worldwide sale of our products to businesses across multiple industries and is organized into named account, geographic, product and channel focus.

 

Marketing.  Our marketing activities consist of a variety of programs designed to generate sales leads and build awareness of our company and our offerings. These activities include traditional product marketing functions, such as production of both hard copy and digital product and company promotional material, gathering of customer and partner input for new product features, and creation of solution demonstrations. We build awareness of our company and generate sales leads through online marketing, such as blogs, search engine marketing and display ads; trade shows; seminars; direct mail; customer and partner events; and limited print advertising.

 

Alliances

 

We enter into alliances with MSPs, systems integrators and distributors to acquire new customers and to provide existing customers with a full spectrum of implementation services and training support, customer data management, and marketing program design and support. An MSP or systems integrator participated in selling or deploying our software in a significant number of our perpetual and subscription license agreements in fiscal 2009. Our alliance strategy enables us to become part of a total marketing solution for businesses and provides the potential, through referrals and co-marketing opportunities, to expand our contacts with prospects in new and existing markets. We will seek alliance opportunities with additional MSPs, systems integrators and distributors, particularly in additional countries outside the United States, that can complement or expand our business by offering configuration and integration support, data management and strategic marketing services.

 

Marketing Service Providers.  MSPs offer a range of data services, marketing program design, support, and execution services on an on-demand or outsourced basis. We selectively establish and maintain relationships with MSPs to resell and deploy our products. Current significant MSPs include Acxiom, Epsilon and Harte Hanks as well as other MSPs in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific. We enter into subscription arrangements with MSPs and the MSPs then enter into sublicenses of those offerings with their own clients.

 

Systems Integrators.  Our relationships with systems integrators allow us to leverage our business model by selectively subcontracting or outsourcing integration and configuration services, thereby enabling us to focus our resources on additional sales of software licenses. Systems integrators also serve to provide us with leads for new business and bundle our products into joint industry or solution offerings. Our systems integrators help their customers develop strategies for implementing our EMM offerings, provide implementation support, and offer assistance with ongoing measurement and process improvement. Strategic systems integrators include Accenture and IBM as well as a number of specialist providers and regional systems integrators in and outside the United States.

 

Distributors.  We have relationships with select distributors outside of the United States. In addition to representing us in their local markets and selling our solutions, our distributors also typically offer systems integration and consulting services, and may also serve as an MSP in their local markets. We currently use distributors in Latin America, Japan, India and Israel.

 

Technology

 

Our product design philosophy is to deliver products that scale to meet the information processing volumes and computational complexity of sophisticated global marketers, while providing marketing process flexibility and software usability to meet the needs of marketing organizations across a range of industries, company sizes and marketing skill sets. Key elements of our technology include:

 

 

 

These companies may provide us with early releases of new products and, in some cases, access to technical resources to facilitate compatibility with their products.

 

Research and Development

 

Our research and development organization is responsible for designing, developing, enhancing and supporting our software products, performing product testing and quality assurance activities, and ensuring the compatibility of our products with third-party hardware and software products. Our research and development organization is divided into teams consisting of development engineers, product managers, quality assurance engineers, technical writers and technical support staff. We employ advanced software development tools including automated testing, performance monitoring, source code control and defect tracking systems.

 

Our research and development expense totaled $19.9 million in fiscal 2009, $23.0 million in fiscal 2008, and $22.0 million in fiscal 2007.

 

Competition

 

The market for EMM software, which has emerged only in recent years, is intensely competitive, evolving rapidly and highly fragmented. We believe the following factors are the principal methods of competition in the EMM market:

 

 

 

We believe our products compete with the following:

 

 

We believe we effectively compete against these solutions in a number of ways, including: our market focus and domain expertise, which make our solutions better suited to marketers’ needs, our open-architecture and flexible deployment options, which facilitate more rapid deployment and lower cost of ownership, the breadth and depth of our solutions, which solve more marketing challenges and which facilitate successful cross-channel marketing, and the analytic capabilities of our solutions, which we believe help marketers deliver more effective marketing and achieve higher return on investment.

 

Intellectual Property

 

Our success will depend in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property and to avoid infringement of the intellectual property of third parties. We rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as contractual provisions and licenses, to protect our proprietary rights and brands.

 

As of September 30, 2009, we had five issued U.S. patents and had 13 pending U.S. patent applications. We file applications for patents on certain inventions in the United States, and in each case consider whether filing for protection in selected foreign jurisdictions is appropriate. We evaluate ideas and inventions for patent protection with a team of engineers, product managers and internal counsel, in consultation with our outside patent counsel. These issued patents and pending patent applications relate to various systems and methods, including offer management, lead management, data mining, modeling, and optimization. The issued patents we own will expire in 2018 or later. We anticipate filing more patent applications in the ordinary conduct of our business.

 

“Unica” is a registered trademark in the United States, the European Union, Australia, India, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Singapore. The “Unica & Design” (Unica with the crescent) mark is registered in the United States, Australia, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland. Unica is also seeking trademark registration of its new “Unica & Design” (the conversational “U”) domestically and internationally. We also hold trademarks and service marks identifying certain product and service offerings. We seek to protect our source code for our software, documentation and other written materials under trade secret and other relevant laws. We also pursue foreign copyrights, trademarks and service marks where applicable and necessary. Although we typically consider whether filing for patent protection in foreign jurisdictions is appropriate, we are not currently seeking patent protection in any foreign countries, except for one patent filing in Canada.

 

We have incorporated third-party licensed technology into our current product offerings. Royalties paid for this third-party licensed technology represented 4% of total revenue in fiscal 2009, and 2% in both fiscal 2008 and 2007, and we expect this percentage to remain relatively constant for the foreseeable future.

Employees

 

On August 12, 2009, our Board of Directors approved a restructuring plan to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, streamline operations, and better allocate resources. The restructuring plan involved various measures, including the transfer and consolidation of certain ongoing research and development activities previously undertaken in our Waltham, Massachusetts office to our office in Pune, India where certain research and development activities have already been successfully undertaken in the past. We expect to expand our workforce in our Pune, India office as part of the restructuring, and we will also continue to perform research and development activities out of our Waltham, Massachusetts office.

 

As a result of the restructuring, we reduced our workforce by approximately 13% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, with approximately half of the reduction related to the transfer of research and development activities to our Pune, India office. The workforce reduction was substantially completed as of September 30, 2009.

 

As of September 30, 2009, we had a total of 440 employees, consisting of 120 employees in sales and marketing, 172 employees in research and development, 91 employees in services groups, and 57 employees in general and administrative functions. A total of 164 of those employees were located outside of the United States.

 

From time to time we also employ independent contractors and temporary employees to support our operations. None of our employees is subject to a collective bargaining agreement. We have never experienced a work stoppage and believe that our relations with our employees are good.

 

 

The following discussion highlights certain risks which may affect future operating results. These are the risks and uncertainties we believe are most important for our existing and potential stockholders to consider. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, which we currently deem immaterial or which are similar to those faced by other companies in our industry or business in general, may also impair our business operations. If any of the following risks or uncertainties actually occurs, our business, financial condition and operating results would likely suffer.

 

If the market for enterprise marketing management software does not develop as we anticipate, our revenue may decline or fail to grow and we may incur operating losses.

 

We derive, and expect to continue to derive, all of our revenue from providing EMM software and services. The market for EMM software is relatively new and still evolving, and it is uncertain whether these products will achieve and sustain high levels of demand and market acceptance.

 

Some businesses may be reluctant or unwilling to implement EMM software for a number of reasons, including failure to perceive the need for improved marketing processes and lack of knowledge about the potential benefits that EMM software may provide. Even if businesses recognize the need for improved marketing processes, they may not select EMM software such as ours because they previously have made investments in internally developed solutions or marketing or infrastructure software. Some businesses may elect to improve their marketing processes through software obtained from their existing enterprise software providers, whose products are designed principally to address one or more functional areas other than marketing. These enterprise products may appeal to customers that wish to limit the number of software vendors on which they rely and the number of different types of software used to run their businesses.

 

If businesses do not perceive the benefits of EMM software, the EMM market may not continue to develop or may develop more slowly than we expect, either of which would significantly adversely affect our revenue and profitability. Because the market for EMM software is developing and the manner of its development is difficult to predict, we may make errors in predicting and reacting to relevant business trends, which could harm our operating results.

Current macro-economic conditions could negatively impact our results of operations.

 

The current unfavorable macro-economic conditions could negatively impact the results of operations of our current and prospective customers, which in turn could negatively impact the spending by our current and prospective customers on our software and services. Given that we have numerous customers in certain of the industries most impacted by the current unfavorable economic conditions, including financial services and retail, this could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If the economic climate in the U.S. or abroad does not improve from its current condition or continues to deteriorate, our customers or prospective customers could reduce or delay their purchases of our products, which would adversely impact our revenues and our profitability.

 

Our quarterly and annual revenue and other operating results can be difficult to predict and can fluctuate substantially, which may result in volatility in the price of our common stock.

 

Our quarterly and annual revenue and other operating results have varied in the past and are likely to continue to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. This variability may lead to volatility in our stock price as equity research analysts and investors respond to these quarterly and annual fluctuations. These fluctuations are due to numerous factors, including:

 

 

Because of quarterly fluctuations, we believe that quarter to quarter comparisons of our operating results are not necessarily meaningful. Moreover, our operating results may not meet our announced guidance, if any, or expectations of equity research analysts or investors, in which case the price of our common stock could decrease significantly.

 

In addition, our expense levels are based, in significant part, on our expectations as to future revenue and are largely fixed in the short term. As a result, we may be unable to adjust spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in revenue. Any such revenue shortfall, and the resulting decrease in operating income or increase in operating loss, could lead to volatility in the price of our common stock.

The delay or cancellation of one or more large transactions may adversely affect our quarterly or annual revenue.

 

Large license transactions from time to time account for a substantial amount of our license revenue in a fiscal quarter. If a potential customer does not enter into a large transaction that we anticipate in a certain quarter, or if we are unable to recognize license revenue from that transaction in the quarter, our revenue may decline or fail to grow at the rate expected and we may incur operating losses in that quarter. Moreover, a significant portion of each quarter’s license revenue historically has come from transactions agreed upon in the final month of the quarter. Therefore, even a short delay in the consummation of an agreement may cause our revenue to fall below our announced guidance, if any, or expectations of equity research analysts or investors for a quarter.

 

If we fail to develop or acquire new software products or enhance existing products, we will not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth.

 

We must introduce new software products and enhance existing products in order to meet our business plan, keep pace with technological developments, satisfy increasing customer requirements, increase awareness of EMM software generally and of our company and products in particular, and maintain our competitive position. Any new products we develop may not be introduced in a timely manner and may not achieve market acceptance sufficient to generate significant revenue. Furthermore, we expect other companies to develop and market new products that will compete with, and may reduce the demand for, our products. We may not be successful in developing or otherwise acquiring, marketing and licensing new products or product updates and upgrades that meet changing industry standards and customer demands, and we may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, marketing and licensing of these products. If we are unable to develop or acquire new products successfully, to enhance our existing products, or to position or price our products to meet market demand, we may not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our revenue and other operating results would be adversely affected.

 

In addition, because our software products are intended to operate on a variety of hardware and software platforms, we must continue to modify and enhance our products to keep pace with changes in these platforms. Any inability of our products to operate effectively with existing or future hardware and software platforms could reduce the demand for our products, result in customer dissatisfaction and limit our revenue.

 

A substantial majority of our perpetual license revenue is derived from our Unica Campaign software, and a decline in sales of licenses of this software could materially adversely affect our operating results.

 

Sales of licenses of our Unica Campaign software have historically accounted for a substantial portion of our license revenues. We expect to continue to derive a substantial portion of our license revenue for the foreseeable future from current and future versions of our Unica Campaign software, and our operating results will depend significantly upon the level of demand for this software. Demand for our Unica Campaign software may decline due to a number of factors, including increased market penetration by our competitors’ products or slower growth in the EMM market than we anticipate. If demand for our Unica Campaign software decreases significantly, our operating results will be adversely affected and we may incur operating losses.

 

Significant defects or disruptions in our Unica OnDemand service could diminish demand and subject us to liability.

 

Because our Unica OnDemand service is relatively new and rapidly expanding, our on-demand service may have errors or defects that users identify after they begin using it that could result in unanticipated downtime for our subscribers and harm our reputation and our business. Internet-based services frequently contain undetected errors when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. We have from time to time found defects in our service and new errors in our existing service may be detected in the future. In addition, our customers may use our service in unanticipated ways that may cause a disruption in service for other customers attempting to access their data. Since our customers use our service for important

aspects of their business, any errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems with our service could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs, customers could elect not to renew, or delay or withhold payment to us, we could lose future sales or customers may make warranty claims against us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable or the expense and risk of litigation.

 

Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party data center hosting facilities could impair the delivery of our Unica OnDemand service and harm our business.

 

We currently serve our Unica OnDemand customers from third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States and Europe. Any damage to, or failure of, our systems generally could result in interruptions in our service. As we continue to add capacity in our existing and future data centers, we may move or transfer data. Despite precautions taken during this process, any unsuccessful data transfers may impair the delivery of our service. Further, any damage to, or failure of, our systems generally could result in interruptions in our service. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their subscriptions and adversely affect our renewal rates and our ability to attract new customers. Our business will also be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our service is unreliable.

 

We do not control the operation of any of these facilities, and they are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our service. Even with the disaster recovery arrangements, our service could be interrupted.

 

If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a customer’s data or our data, our Unica OnDemand service may be perceived as not being secure, customers may curtail or stop using our service and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities.

 

Our on-demand service involves the storage and transmission of customers’ proprietary information, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation and possible liability. If our security measures are breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, during transfer of data to additional data centers or at any time, and, as a result, someone obtains unauthorized access to our data or our customers’ data, our reputation could be damaged, our business may suffer and we could incur significant liability. Additionally, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information in order to gain access to our data or our customers’ data, which could result in significant legal and financial exposure and a loss of confidence in the security of our service that would harm our future business prospects. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed and we could lose sales and customers.

 

If we fail to protect our proprietary rights and intellectual property adequately, our business and prospects may be harmed.

 

Our success depends in large part on our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, service marks, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our software products and services. These protections may not be adequate to prevent our competitors from copying or reverse-engineering our products, or that our competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technology. As of September 30, 2009, we had five issued U.S. patents and 13 pending U.S. patent applications. We may, however, be unable to

obtain additional patent protection in the future. In addition, any current or future patents issued to us may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be challenged by third parties. Legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Accordingly, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property. Furthermore, we cannot be sure that steps we take to protect our proprietary rights will prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property.

 

In addition, effective patent, trademark, copyright, service mark and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every country in which our software products are available. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. To date, we have applied for a limited number of patents outside of the United States. Therefore, to the extent that we continue to increase our international selling activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our products and proprietary information will continue to increase.

 

We have incorporated third-party licensed technology into our current product offerings. Royalties paid for this third-party licensed technology have historically ranged from 1% to 4% of license revenue and we expect this percentage to remain relatively constant for the foreseeable future. If these technology providers were no longer to allow us to use these technologies for any reason, we may be required to:

 

 

Any one of these outcomes could delay further sales or the implementation of our products, impair the functionality of our products, delay new product introductions, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our products, or injure our reputation. In addition, we may be required to license additional third-party technology to develop and market new products, and we cannot provide assurance that we could license additional third-party technology on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Because of the relative immateriality of the additional third-party licensed technology that we incorporate into our current product offerings, as well as the availability of alternative equivalent technology, we do not expect that our inability to license this technology in the future would have a material adverse affect on our business or operating results. Our inability to license this technology could adversely affect our ability to compete.

 

We have entered into agreements with many of our customers, MSPs and systems integrators that require us to maintain the source code of our software products in escrow. These agreements typically provide that these parties will have limited, nonexclusive rights to use the source code under certain circumstances in which we are unable or unwilling to provide product support, including in the event of our bankruptcy. We may be unable, however, to control the actions of our customers, MSPs and systems integrators that have entered into these agreements, and our business may be harmed if one or more customers, MSPs or systems integrators use the source code for purposes other than those permitted by the escrow provisions.

 

Competition from EMM, enterprise application and infrastructure software, as well as from internally developed solutions, could adversely affect our ability to sell our software products and related services and could result in pressure to price our products in a manner that reduces our margins.

 

The market for EMM software, which has emerged only in recent years, is intensely competitive, evolving and fragmented. Our software products compete with software developed internally by businesses as well as software offered by commercial competitors. Our principal commercial competition consists of:

 

 

We expect additional competition from other established and emerging companies as the EMM market continues to develop and expand. We also expect competition to increase as a result of software industry consolidation, including through a merger or partnership of two or more of our competitors, and the entrance of new competitors in the EMM market. Many of our current and potential competitors have larger installed bases of users, longer operating histories and greater name recognition than we have. In addition, many of these companies have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, service and other resources than we have. As a result, these companies may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer demands and to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we can.

 

Competition could seriously impede our ability to sell additional software products and related services on terms favorable to us. Businesses may continue to enhance their internally developed solutions, rather than investing in commercial software such as ours. Our current and potential commercial competitors may develop and market new technologies that render our existing or future products obsolete, unmarketable or less competitive. In addition, if these competitors develop products with similar or superior functionality to our products, we may need to decrease the prices for our products in order to remain competitive. If we are unable to maintain our current product, services and maintenance pricing due to competitive pressures, our margins will be reduced and our operating results will be negatively affected. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors and competitive pressures may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

 

If we do not maintain and strengthen our strategic alliance relationships, our ability to generate revenue and manage expenses could be adversely affected.

 

We believe that our ability to increase revenue from our software products and manage our expenses depends in part upon our maintaining and strengthening our existing strategic alliance relationships and our developing new strategic alliance relationships, particularly in additional countries outside the United States. We rely on established, nonexclusive relationships with a variety of MSPs and systems integrators for marketing, licensing, implementing and supporting our products. Although many aspects of our strategic alliance relationships are contractual in nature, important aspects of these relationships depend on the continued cooperation between the parties. Divergence in strategy, change in focus, competitive product offerings, potential contract defaults, and changes in ownership or management of an MSP or systems integrator may interfere with our ability to market, license, implement or support our products with that party, which in turn could harm our business. Some of our competitors may have stronger relationships with our MSPs and systems integrators than we do, and we have limited control, if any, as to whether MSPs and systems integrators implement our products rather than our competitors’ products or whether they devote resources to market and support our competitors’ products rather than our offerings. In addition, MSPs typically have available their own internally developed applications that they may choose to offer and support in lieu of our software offerings.

 

We may not be able to maintain our strategic alliance relationships or attract sufficient additional MSPs and systems integrators that have the ability to market, sell, implement or support our products effectively, particularly in additional countries outside the United States. If we are unable to leverage our sales resources through our strategic alliance relationships with MSPs, we may need to hire and train additional qualified sales personnel. Similarly, if we cannot leverage our services resources through our strategic alliance relationships with systems integrators, we may incur additional costs associated with providing services. We may not be able to hire additional qualified sales or service personnel in these circumstances, and our failure to do so may restrict our ability to generate revenue or implement our products on a timely basis. Even if we are successful in hiring additional qualified sales or service personnel, we will incur additional costs and our operating results, including our gross margins, may be adversely affected.

If we fail to retain our chief executive officer or other key personnel or if we fail to attract additional qualified personnel, we will not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our operating results could be adversely affected.

 

Our future success depends upon the continued service of our executive officers and other key sales, marketing, service, engineering and technical staff. The loss of the services of our executive officers and other key personnel would harm our operations. In particular, Yuchun Lee, our co-founder, chief executive officer, president and chairman, is critical to the management of our business and operations, as well as to the development of our strategic direction. None of our officers or key personnel is bound by an employment agreement, and we do not maintain key person life insurance on any of our employees. In addition, our future success will depend in large part on our ability to attract a sufficient number of highly qualified personnel, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so. Competition for qualified personnel in the software industry is intense, and we compete for these personnel with other software companies that have greater financial, technical, marketing, service and other resources than we do. If we fail to retain our key personnel and to attract new personnel, we will not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our operating results could be adversely affected.

 

Our international operations expose us to additional business risks, and failure to manage these risks may adversely affect our business and operating results.

 

Our primary international sales offices are in France, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia. Revenue from customers located outside of North America accounted for $29.7 million, or 30% of total revenue in fiscal 2009, $44.1 million, or 36% of total revenue in fiscal 2008 and $27.3 million, or 27% of total revenue in fiscal 2007. Our international operations are subject to a number of risks and potential costs, including:

 

 

Our operating results and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro and the British pound sterling. These fluctuations could negatively affect our operating results and could cause our net income or loss to vary from quarter to quarter.

 

Our failure to manage the risks associated with our international operations effectively could limit the future growth of our business and adversely affect our operating results. We may in the future further expand our existing international operations by, for example, entering additional international markets. We may be required to make a substantial financial investment and expend significant management efforts in connection with any such international expansion.

New accounting standards or interpretations of existing accounting standards could adversely affect our operating results.

 

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

 

Certain factors have in the past and may in the future cause us to defer recognition for license and subscription fees beyond delivery. For example, the inclusion in our software arrangements of customer acceptance testing, specified upgrades or other material non-standard terms could require the deferral of license revenue beyond delivery. Because of these factors and other specific requirements under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for software revenue recognition, we must have very precise terms in our software arrangements in order to recognize revenue when we initially deliver software or perform services. Negotiation of mutually acceptable terms and conditions can extend our sales cycle, and we may accept terms and conditions that do not permit revenue recognition at the time of delivery.

 

Taxing authorities could challenge our historical and future tax positions as well as our allocation of taxable income among our subsidiaries

 

The amount of income taxes we pay is subject to our interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we file. We have taken and will continue to take tax positions based on our interpretation of such tax laws. While we believe that we have complied with all applicable income tax laws, there can be no assurance that a taxing authority will not have a different interpretation of the law and assess us with additional taxes. Should additional taxes be assessed, this may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

 

We conduct sales, marketing, professional services and research and development operations through our subsidiaries located in various tax jurisdictions around the world. While our transfer pricing methodology is based on economic studies which we believe are reasonable, the price charged for these services could be challenged by the various tax authorities resulting in additional tax liability, interest and/or penalties.

 

Our business continues to grow rapidly in complexity which may affect our ability to effectively comply with new and existing regulations affecting our business.

 

We anticipate that we will continue to grow in complexity. We recognize that the regulatory environment affecting our business, particularly regulations relating to accounting standards and principles and regulations relating to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance related to our internal controls, continues to become more complex and burdensome. We may not be able to scale our business infrastructure in a way that will allow us to comply with such regulations or comply with such regulations in a timely manner and, in particular, there is a risk that we will not be able to effectively remedy material internal control weaknesses or may have new material control weaknesses in the future. Material control weaknesses or our inability to be compliant with regulations may have a direct negative effect on our long and short term stock performance and may require us to devote significant resources in response to compliance or remedial measures.

 

Goodwill and other intangible assets represent a significant portion of our assets, and any impairment of goodwill or other acquired intangible assets would adversely impact our net income.

 

At September 30, 2009, we had goodwill of $10.9 million and other acquired intangible assets of approximately $4.5 million, net of accumulated amortization. Our goodwill is subject to an annual impairment test, and both goodwill and other intangible assets are also tested whenever events and circumstances indicate that they may be impaired. Such events or conditions could include an economic downturn in our customers’ industries, increased competition, or other information regarding our market value, such as a reduction in our stock price to a price at, near or below our book value for a period of time, which could indicate a triggering event and a possible impairment of goodwill. Any excess goodwill resulting from the impairment test must be

written off in the period of determination. During the quarter ended March 31, 2009, given a change in our reporting units as well as the decline in the Company’s market capitalization and overall operating results, we performed an interim impairment assessment of our goodwill. As a result of the goodwill impairment assessment, during the three months ended March 31, 2009, we recorded a $15.3 million charge relating to the impairment of goodwill.

 

During the quarter ended September 30, 2009, we performed our annual impairment assessment of our goodwill. We determined that our goodwill was not further impaired based on this test. We will continue to incur non-cash charges relating to the amortization of our intangible assets other than goodwill, over the remaining useful lives of such assets. Future determinations of significant write-offs of goodwill or intangible assets resulting from an impairment test or any accelerated amortization of intangible assets could have a significant impact on our net income and affect our ability to achieve profitability. Although we do not believe that any impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets exists at this time, in the event that such a condition or event occurs, we may record charges which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

 

Our inability to sustain our historical maintenance renewal rates and pricing would adversely affect our operating results.

 

We generate maintenance fees revenue from sales of maintenance associated with licensed software. We generally sell maintenance on an annual basis. In each of the last three fiscal years, customers have renewed maintenance arrangements at a renewal rate of greater than 85%. We may not succeed in sustaining this rate of maintenance renewals. Moreover, we are facing competitive and other pressures to reduce the pricing of our maintenance arrangements. If we fail to sustain our historical level of maintenance renewals or our historical pricing, our maintenance fees revenue and total revenue would decrease and our operating results would be adversely affected.

 

Defects or errors in our software products could harm our reputation, impair our ability to sell our products and result in significant costs to us.

 

Our software products are complex and may contain undetected defects or errors. We have not suffered significant harm from any defects or errors to date, but we have from time to time found defects in our products and we may discover additional defects in the future. We may not be able to detect and correct defects or errors before releasing products. Consequently, we or our customers may discover defects or errors after our products have been implemented. We have in the past issued, and may in the future need to issue, corrective releases of our products to correct defects or errors. The occurrence of any defects or errors could result in:

 

 

Defects and errors in our software products could result in an increase in service and warranty costs or claims for substantial damages against us. Our license agreements with our customers typically contain provisions designed to limit our liability for defects and errors in our products and damages relating to such defects and errors, but these provisions may not be enforced by a court or otherwise effectively protect us from legal claims. Our liability insurance may not be adequate to cover all of the costs resulting from these

legal claims. Moreover, our current liability insurance coverage may not continue to be available on acceptable terms or the insurer may deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion against us of one or more large claims that exceeds available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. Furthermore, even if we succeed in the litigation, we are likely to incur substantial costs and our management’s attention will be diverted from our operations.

 

We intend to increase the amount of revenue that we derive from subscription arrangements, which may cause our quarterly revenue and other operating results to fail to meet expectations.

 

We generate recurring revenue from agreements to license our offerings on a subscription basis, both directly and through MSPs that provide outsourcing and on-demand solutions. Our subscription arrangements typically have a license or service period of one year, although the contractual term may range from three to 36 months. We intend to seek to increase the percentage of our total revenue derived under the subscription model in order to diversify our revenue stream and generally provide us with greater revenue predictability over the long term. Since revenue from a subscription arrangement is generally recognized ratably over the contractual term of the arrangement rather than upon product delivery, a greater shift than anticipated from perpetual license agreements towards subscription arrangements will result in our recognizing less revenue in the initial quarters of the contractual term. Similarly, a decline in new or renewed subscription arrangements in any one quarter will not necessarily be fully reflected in the revenue for that quarter and may negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Differences in the mix of our perpetual license revenue and our subscription fees revenue could cause our operating results for a quarter to vary from our announced guidance, if any, or expectations of equity research analysts or investors, which could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.

 

Privacy and security concerns, including evolving government regulation in the area of consumer data privacy, could adversely affect our business and operating results.

 

The effectiveness of our software products relies on our customers’ storage and use of data concerning their customers, including financial, personally identifying and other sensitive data. Our customers’ collection and use of these data for consumer profiling may raise privacy and security concerns and negatively impact the demand for our products and services. We have implemented various features intended to enable our customers to better comply with privacy and security requirements, such as opt-out messaging and checking, the use of anonymous identifiers for sensitive data, and restricted data access, but these security measures may not be effective against all potential privacy concerns and security threats. If a breach of customer data security were to occur, our products may be perceived as less desirable, which would negatively affect our business and operating results.

 

In addition, governments in some jurisdictions have enacted or are considering enacting consumer data privacy legislation, including laws and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, processing and use of consumer data. This legislation could reduce the demand for our software products if we fail to design or enhance our products to enable our customers to comply with the privacy and security measures required by the legislation. Moreover, we may be exposed to liability under existing or new consumer data privacy legislation.

 

Intellectual property litigation and infringement claims may cause us to incur significant expenses or prevent us from selling our software products.

 

The software industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, trademarks and copyrights and by frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. From time to time, we receive claims that our software products or business infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property of third parties.

In the future other third parties may assert that our technology violates their intellectual property rights or we may be the subject of a material intellectual property dispute. EMM software developers may become increasingly subject to infringement claims as the number of commercially available EMM software products increases and the functionality of these products further overlaps.

 

Regardless of the merit of any particular claim that our technology violates the intellectual property rights of others, responding to such claims may require us to:

 

 

We may also be required to indemnify customers, MSPs or systems integrators for their use of the intellectual property associated with the current suit or for other third-party products that are incorporated into our products and that infringe the intellectual property rights of others. If we are unable to resolve our legal obligations by settling or paying an infringement claim or a related indemnification claim as described above, we may be required to refund amounts that we had received under the contractual arrangement with the customers, MSPs or systems integrators.

 

In addition, from time to time there have been claims challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their products. We use a limited amount of open source software in our products and may use more open source software in the future. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software.

 

We may enter into acquisitions that may be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value or divert management attention.

 

We intend to continue to pursue the acquisition of businesses, technologies and products that will complement our existing operations. On December 20, 2005, we acquired certain assets of MarketSoft Software Corporation and on March 22, 2006, we acquired Sane Solutions, LLC. Most recently, on July 12, 2007, we acquired MarketingCentral L.L.C. as described in Note 3 to our consolidated financial statements. These acquisitions or any acquisition we make in the future may not provide us with the benefits we anticipated in entering into the transaction. Acquisitions are typically accompanied by a number of risks, including:

 

 

 

In addition, acquisitions may result in the incurrence of debt, restructuring charges and large one-time write-offs, such as write-offs for acquired in-process research and development costs. Acquisitions may also result in goodwill and other intangible assets that are subject to impairment tests, which could result in future impairment charges. Furthermore, if we finance acquisitions by issuing convertible debt or equity securities, our existing stockholders may be diluted and earnings per share may decrease.

 

From time to time, we may enter into negotiations for acquisitions that are not ultimately consummated. Those negotiations could result in diversion of management time and significant out-of-pocket costs. If we fail to evaluate and execute acquisitions properly, we may not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

 

We will continue to incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

 

We will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as new rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the NASDAQ Stock Market, or NASDAQ, has imposed various new requirements on public companies, including requiring changes in corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to continue to devote a substantial amount of time to these new compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly.

 

In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal controls for financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, commencing in fiscal 2006, we began system and process evaluation and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management and our independent registered public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we continue to incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management efforts. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identifies deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by NASDAQ, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.

 

Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Common Stock

 

The price of our common stock may be volatile.

 

The trading market for our common stock may fluctuate substantially. These fluctuations could cause our investors to lose part or all of any investment in shares of our common stock. The following factors, most of which are outside of our control, could cause the market price of our common stock to decrease significantly:

 

 

 

In the past, securities class action litigation often has been initiated against a company following a period of volatility in the market price of the company’s securities. If class action litigation is initiated against us, we will incur substantial costs and our management’s attention will be diverted from our operations. All of these factors could cause the market price of our stock to decline, and our investors may lose some or all of any investment.

 

Our directors and executive officers will continue to have substantial control over us and could limit the ability of stockholders to influence the outcome of key transactions, including a change in control.

 

We anticipate that our executive officers and directors and entities affiliated with them will, in the aggregate, continue to beneficially own a substantial portion of our outstanding common stock in the near term. In particular, Yuchun Lee, our co-founder, chief executive officer, president and chairman, beneficially owned approximately 21% of our outstanding common stock as of September 30, 2009. Our executive officers, directors and affiliated entities, if acting together, would be able to influence significantly all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and the approval of mergers or other significant corporate transactions. The concentration of ownership of our common stock may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change of control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company, and may affect the market price of our common stock.

 

Our corporate documents and Delaware law make a takeover of our company more difficult, which may prevent certain changes in control and limit the market price of our common stock.

 

Our charter and by-laws and Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law contain provisions that might enable our management to resist a takeover of our company. These provisions might discourage, delay or prevent a change in the control of our company or a change in our management. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors and take other corporate actions. The existence of these provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. Some provisions in our charter and by-laws may deter third parties from acquiring us, which may limit the market price of our common stock.

 

 

None.

 

 

Our operations are conducted in leased facilities. We lease approximately 73,000 square feet of office space in Waltham, Massachusetts pursuant to a lease agreement that expires in April 2015. This facility serves as our corporate headquarters. Personnel located at this facility include members of our senior management team, software research and development team, consulting personnel, technical support personnel, product marketing and management personnel, sales personnel, and finance and administration personnel.

 

We also lease office space in Paris, France; Pune, India; Egham, England; Singapore; Brussels, Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Munich, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Melbourne, Australia and Seoul, Korea. Our aggregate rent expense was $4.0 million in fiscal 2009. For more information about our lease commitments, see Note 7 to our consolidated financial statements, Commitments and Contingencies.

 

We are not currently a party to any material litigation and we are not aware of any pending or threatened litigation against us that could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. However, the industry in which we operate is characterized by frequent claims and litigation, including claims regarding patent and other intellectual property rights as well as improper hiring practices. As a result, we may be involved in various legal proceedings from time to time that arise in the ordinary course of business.

 

 

No matters were submitted to a vote of our security holders through solicitation of proxies or otherwise, during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009.

 

 

Stock Market Information

 

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the trading symbol UNCA. The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices of our common stock, as reported by The Nasdaq Global Market, for each quarterly period within our two most recent fiscal years:

 

 

The closing sale price of our common stock, as reported by The Nasdaq Global Market, was $6.88 on December 1, 2009.

 

Holders

 

As of December 1, 2009 there were approximately 99 stockholders of record of our common stock based on the records of our transfer agent.

 

Dividends

 

We did not declare or pay any cash dividends on our common stock during the two most recent fiscal years. We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business and do not anticipate paying other cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Our payment of any future dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, cash needs and growth plans.

 

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

 

The information required by this item is included under the caption “Equity Compensation Plan Information” in our Proxy Statement related to the 2010 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later that 120 days after the end of our fiscal year and is incorporated herein by reference.

Performance Graph

 

The following performance graph and related information is “furnished” and not “filed” and shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or subject to Regulation 14A, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act except to the extent that we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.

 

The following graph compares the cumulative total return to stockholders of our common stock for the period from August 3, 2005, the date of our initial public offering, to September 30, 2009, to the cumulative total return of the Nasdaq Stock Market (U.S.) Index and the Nasdaq Computer & Data Processing Index for the same period. This graph assumes the investment of $100.00 on August 3, 2005 in our common stock, the Nasdaq Stock Market (U.S.) Index and the Nasdaq Computer & Data Processing Index and assumes any dividends are reinvested.

 

COMPARATIVE STOCK PERFORMANCE
Among Unica Corporation
The Nasdaq Stock Market (U.S.) Index and
The Nasdaq Computer & Data Processing Index

 

 

 

The selected consolidated financial data set forth below as of September 30, 2009, 2008 and 2007 and for the years ended September 30, 2009, 2008 and 2007 are derived from our financial statements audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, and included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The selected consolidated financial data as of September 30, 2006 and 2005 and for the years ended September 30, 2006 and 2005 are derived from our audited financial statements not included in this Annual Report.

 

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, the related notes and Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future period.

 

On October 1, 2005, the Company adopted a new accounting standard relating to share-based compensation, which requires us to recognize expense related to the fair value of share-based compensation awards. We elected to use the modified prospective transition method and therefore have not restated our financial results for prior periods.

 

For the year ended September 30, 2005, net loss applicable to common stockholders and net loss per share reflect a special one-time preferred stock dividend of $3.1 million and a redemption payment of $1.0 million in August 2005 in connection with our initial public offering. In addition, as a result of the net loss applicable to common stockholders, shares used in computing diluted net loss per common share excludes 1,456,133 weighted-average shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options, as the effect of including those shares would be anti-dilutive.

 

In the preceding table, cost of revenue and operating expenses include share-based compensation expense as follows:

 

 

 

On October 1, 2007, the Company adopted a new accounting standard, which requires the Company to accrue an estimated liability for sabbatical leave over the requisite service period. Prior to October 1, 2007, the Company recorded a liability for sabbatical leave upon an employee vesting in the benefit, which occurred when an employee went on leave after completing a six-year service period. The cumulative effect of adopting this accounting standard was recorded to retained earnings (accumulated deficit).

 

On October 1, 2007 the Company adopted a new accounting standard which prescribes a minimum recognition threshold a tax position is required to meet before being recognized in the financial statements. This accounting standard also provides guidance on derecognition, measurement, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim periods, disclosure and transition. There was no cumulative effect upon adoption of this accounting standard.

 

The consolidated financial position and results of operations data reflect our acquisitions of MarketingCentral on July 12, 2007 for $12.9 million in cash and assumed liabilities; Sane Solutions on March 22, 2006 for $27.0 million in cash and assumed liabilities, and $1.8 million in shares of the Company’s common stock; and MarketSoft on December 20, 2005 for $7.9 million in cash and assumed liabilities. Results of operations for the acquired businesses have been included in the consolidated statements of operations since their acquisition dates.

 

During the three months ended March 31, 2009, Company performed an interim impairment assessment of its goodwill at March 31, 2009, and recorded a $15.3 million charge relating to the impairment of goodwill.

 

The information contained in this section has been derived from our consolidated financial statements and should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “estimate,” “may,” or similar words. You should read statements that contain these words carefully because they discuss our future expectations, contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial condition, or state other “forward-looking” information. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to accurately predict or control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed as a result of various factors, including those factors described in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A on this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation and do not intend to update any forward-looking statements.

 

Our fiscal year ends on September 30. References to fiscal 2009, 2008 or 2007, for example, refer to the fiscal year ended September 30, unless otherwise indicated.

 

Overview

 

Unica Corporation is a global provider of enterprise marketing management, or EMM — software designed to help businesses increase their revenues and improve the efficiency and measurability of their marketing operations. Focused exclusively on the needs of marketers, Unica’s software delivers key capabilities to track and analyze online and offline customer behavior, generate demand and manage marketing process, resources and assets. Our software streamlines the entire marketing process for relationship, brand and Internet marketing — from analysis and planning, to budgeting, production management, execution and measurement. As the most comprehensive EMM suite on the market, our suite delivers a marketing “system of record” — a dedicated solution through which marketers capture, record and easily manage marketing activity, information and assets, rapidly design campaigns, and report on performance.

 

We sell and market our software primarily through our direct sales force as well as through alliances with MSPs, resellers, distributors and systems integrators. In addition to reselling and deploying our products, MSPs offer a range of marketing program design, support, and execution services on an on-demand or outsourced basis. We also provide a full range of services to our customers, including implementation, training, consulting, maintenance and technical support, and customer success programs. We have sales offices across the United States, including at our headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Our primary sales offices outside of the United States are in France, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia. In addition, we have a research and development office in India. We have a worldwide installed base of over 1,000 companies in a wide range of industries. Our current customers operate principally in the financial services, retail, telecommunications, and travel and hospitality industries.

 

Management evaluates our financial condition and operating results based on many factors, including license revenue, subscription revenue, maintenance revenue, service revenue, costs of revenue, operating expenses, income from operations, cash flow from operations, total cash and cash equivalents and total liabilities. Management reviews these factors on an ongoing basis and measures them quarterly. As noted below in the Results of Operations, our license revenue has decreased significantly from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009 due to, we believe, longer sales cycles, delayed decision making and lack of commitment to large capital expenditures by our customers as a result of the macro-economic environment. Conversely, our subscription revenue has grown, with one of the contributing factors being the lower upfront operating expense needed for a subscription license as compared to the higher upfront perpetual license capital expenditure. We expect to

have diminished visibility into future license revenue and expect subscription revenue to be an attractive licensing model to our customers during this difficult economic environment.

 

Sources of Revenue

 

We derive revenue from software licenses, maintenance, services and subscriptions. License revenue is derived from the sale of software licenses for our product offerings under perpetual software arrangements that typically include: (a) an end-user license fee paid for the use of our products in perpetuity; (b) an annual maintenance arrangement that provides for software updates and upgrades and technical support; and (c) a services work order for implementation, training, consulting and reimbursable expenses. Subscription revenue is derived from arrangements for our on demand offerings and term licenses. On demand arrangements typically include: (a) a subscription fee for hosted services and technical support and (b) optional professional services for consulting, training and other services. Term license arrangements typically include: (a) a subscription fee for bundled software and support for a fixed period and (b) a services work order for implementation, training, consulting and reimbursable expenses.

 

License Revenue

 

Perpetual Licenses.  Licenses to use our software products in perpetuity generally are priced based on (a) either a customer’s database size (including number of database records) or a platform fee and (b) a specified number of users. With respect to our Unica NetInsight product, licenses are generally priced based on the volume of traffic and complexity of a website. We recognize perpetual license revenue at the time of product delivery, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met. When we license our software on a perpetual basis through an MSP or systems integrator, we recognize revenue upon delivery of the licensed software to the MSP or systems integrator only if (a) the customer of the MSP or systems integrator is identified in a written arrangement between the MSP or systems integrator and us and (b) all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.

 

Maintenance and Services Revenue

 

Maintenance and services revenue is generated from sales of (a) maintenance, including software updates and upgrades and technical support associated with the sale of perpetual software licenses and (b) services, including implementation, training, consulting, and reimbursable travel.

 

Maintenance.  We sell maintenance on perpetual licenses that includes technical support and software updates and upgrades on a when and if available basis. Revenue is deferred at the time the maintenance agreement is initiated and is recognized ratably over the term of the maintenance agreement.

 

Services.  We sell implementation services and training on a time-and-materials basis and generally recognize revenue when the services are performed; however, in certain circumstances these services may be priced on a fixed-fee basis and recognized as revenue using the proportional performance method. For services and subscription fees combined into a single unit of accounting where both are recognized ratably over the expected economic life of an arrangement, we report the services portion of these revenues separately based on vendor-specific objective evidence, or VSOE, of fair value for those services. Services revenue also includes billable travel, lodging and other out-of-pocket expenses incurred as part of delivering services to our customers.

 

Subscription Revenue

 

We also market our software under subscription arrangements, typically as an on demand offering or as a term license. The software in a term license arrangement is either installed on the end-user customer’s premises or it is hosted by an MSP. Under a subscription agreement, we typically invoice the customer in annual or quarterly installments in advance. When fair value of the subscription element in an arrangement cannot be established, revenue is recognized ratably over the expected customer relationship period commencing on the date at which all services under related work orders are completed.

Cost of Revenue

 

Cost of license revenue for perpetual license agreements consists primarily of (a) salaries, other labor related costs and share-based compensation related to documentation personnel, (b) facilities and other related overhead, (c) third-party royalties for licensed technology incorporated into our current product offerings, (d) amortization of acquired developed technology and (e) amortization of capitalized software development costs.

 

Cost of maintenance and services revenue consists primarily of (a) salaries, other labor related costs, share-based compensation, facilities and other overhead related to professional services and technical support personnel, (b) expenses for services provided by subcontractors for professional services and related out-of-pocket expenses, and (c) amortization of internal-use software costs.

 

Cost of subscription revenue includes an allocation of labor related and overhead costs associated with technical support, documentation and professional services personnel as well as costs associated with hosting-related activities.

 

Operating Expenses

 

Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of (a) salaries, other labor-related costs and share-based compensation related to sales and marketing personnel, (b) commissions and bonuses, (c) travel, lodging and other out-of-pocket expenses, (d) marketing programs such as trade shows and advertising, and (e) facilities and other related overhead. The total amount of commissions earned for a perpetual license, subscription or maintenance arrangement are recorded as expense when revenue recognition for that arrangement commences.

 

Research and Development.  Research and development expense consists primarily of (a) salaries, other labor related costs and share-based compensation related to employees working on the development of new products, enhancement of existing products, quality assurance and testing and (b) facilities and other related overhead. During the years ended September 30, 2009, 2008 and 2007, we capitalized $818,000, $477,000 and $136,000 respectively, related to software development costs incurred.

 

General and Administrative.  General and administrative expense consists primarily of (a) salaries, other labor related costs and share-based compensation related to personnel performing general and administrative activities, (b) accounting, legal and other professional fees, and (c) facilities and other related overhead.

 

Restructuring Charges.  Restructuring expense in fiscal 2007 reflects the restructuring, initiated in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, of certain of our operations in France to realign our resources in that region. These costs include salaries, severance and legal fees. In the first quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company reduced its workforce by approximately 4% and recorded a restructuring charge of $711,000 for one-time termination benefits to employees. The strategic reduction of workforce was designed to streamline the Company’s organization and improve its corporate performance. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company approved a plan to implement a strategic reduction of its workforce designed to streamline its organization and improve its corporate operating performance. In connection with this plan, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company reduced its workforce by approximately 13% and recorded a restructuring charge of $2.3 million for one-time termination benefits to employees.

 

Amortization of Acquired Intangible Assets.  Cost of revenue includes the amortization of developed core technology acquired in our recent acquisitions. Operating expenses include the amortization of acquired customer contracts and related customer relationships as well as the amortization of trade names.

 

Share-Based Compensation.  We account for share-based compensation awards by estimating the fair value of such employee awards and recording the related expense in the consolidated financial statements. We selected the Black-Scholes option-pricing model as the most appropriate fair-value model for our awards and recognize compensation cost on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the awards.

Acquisitions

 

On July 12, 2007, we acquired by merger MarketingCentral, L.L.C. (“MarketingCentral”), a provider of web-based marketing management solutions. The merger consideration consisted of $12.5 million in cash, as well as transaction costs and the assumption of liabilities of MarketingCentral. The acquisition was accounted for as a purchase transaction and our operating results therefore include the results of MarketingCentral beginning on the acquisition date.

 

Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates

 

Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP. The application of GAAP requires that we make estimates that affect our reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ significantly from these estimates.

 

Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements. We believe that the following accounting policies involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our financial condition and results of operations.

 

Revenue Recognition

 

We sell our software products and services together in a multiple-element arrangement under perpetual and subscription agreements. We use the residual method to recognize revenues from perpetual license arrangements that include one or more elements to be delivered at a future date, when evidence of the fair value of all undelivered elements exists. Under the residual method, the fair value of the undelivered elements based on VSOE is deferred and the remaining portion of the arrangement fee is allocated to the delivered elements. Each license arrangement requires that we analyze the individual elements in the transaction and determine the fair value of each undelivered element, which typically includes maintenance and services. We allocate revenue to each undelivered element based on its fair value, with the fair value determined by the price charged when that element is sold separately.

 

For perpetual license agreements, we generally estimate the fair value of the maintenance portion of an arrangement based on the maintenance renewal price for that arrangement. In multiple-element perpetual license arrangements where we sell maintenance for less than fair value, we defer the contractual price of the maintenance plus the difference between such contractual price and the fair value of maintenance over the expected life of the product. We make a corresponding reduction in license revenue. The fair value of the professional services portion of perpetual license arrangements is based on the rates that we charge for these services when sold separately. If, in our judgment, evidence of fair value cannot be established for the undelivered elements in a multiple-element arrangement, the entire amount of revenue from the arrangement is deferred until evidence of fair value can be established, or until the elements for which evidence of fair value could not be established are delivered.

 

Revenue for implementation services of our software products that are not deemed essential to the functionality of the software products is recognized separately from license and subscription revenue. Generally these services are priced on a time-and-materials basis and recognized as revenue when services are performed; however, in certain circumstances these services may be priced on a fixed-fee basis and recognized as revenue under the proportional performance method. In cases where VSOE of fair value does not exist for the undelivered elements in a software license arrangement, services revenue is deferred and recognized over the period of performance of the final undelivered element. The Company also defers the direct and incremental costs of providing the services and amortizes those costs over the period revenue is recognized.

If we were to determine that services are essential to the functionality of software in an arrangement, the license or subscription and services revenue from the arrangement would be recognized pursuant to the accounting for performance of construction-type contracts and certain production-type contracts. In such cases, we expect that we would be able to make reasonably dependable estimates relative to the extent of progress toward completion by comparing the total hours incurred to the estimated total hours for the arrangement and, accordingly, we would apply the percentage-of-completion method. If we were unable to make reasonably dependable estimates of progress towards completion, then we would use the completed-contract method, under which revenue is recognized only upon completion of the services. If total cost estimates exceed the anticipated revenue, then the estimated loss on the arrangement is recorded at the inception of the arrangement or at the time the loss becomes apparent.

 

We generally enter into subscription arrangements for term licenses that include, on a bundled basis, (a) the right to use our software for a specified period of time, (b) updates and upgrades to our software on a when and if available basis, and (c) technical support. In subscription arrangements for term licenses, where services are not deemed essential to the functionality of the software products, and fair value has not been established for the subscription element, revenue for both the subscription and services is recognized ratably over the longer of the term of the arrangement or the expected customer relationship period, once the only remaining undelivered element to the arrangement is post-contract customer support.

 

Subscription arrangements for on demand services generally include: (a) a subscription fee for hosted services and technical support and (b) optional professional services for consulting, training and other services. Revenue related to subscription fees for on demand services is recognized ratably over the expected customer relationship period commencing at the point when the end-user is provided access to the underlying software. Revenue related to professional services is recognized ratably over the expected customer relationship period commencing at the point when such services are delivered, provided that the end-user is given access to the underlying software.

 

For all of our software arrangements, we do not recognize revenue until we can determine that persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable and we deem collection to be probable. In making these judgments, we evaluate these criteria as follows:

 

 

When we license our software through an MSP or systems integrator, we begin to recognize revenue upon delivery of the licensed software to the MSP or systems integrator only if (a) the customer of the MSP or systems integrator is identified in a written arrangement between us and the MSP or systems integrator and (b) all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.

In our agreements with customers and MSPs, we provide a limited warranty that our software will perform in a manner consistent with our documentation under normal use and circumstances. In the event of a breach of this limited warranty, we must repair or replace the software or, if those remedies are insufficient, provide a refund. These agreements generally do not include any other right of return or any cancellation clause or conditions of acceptance.

 

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

 

In addition to our initial credit evaluations at the inception of arrangements, we regularly assess our ability to collect outstanding customer invoices and in so doing must make estimates of the collectibility of accounts receivable. We provide an allowance for doubtful accounts when we determine that the collection of an outstanding customer receivable is not probable. We specifically analyze accounts receivable and historical bad debts experience, customer creditworthiness, and changes in our customer payment history when evaluating the adequacy of the allowance for doubtful accounts. If any of these factors change, our estimates may also change, which could affect the level of our future provision for doubtful accounts.

 

Share-Based Compensation

 

The fair value of each option to purchase common stock is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes pricing model, which requires us to make assumptions as to volatility, risk-free interest rate, expected term of the awards, and expected forfeiture rate. The computation of expected volatility is based on a study of historical volatility rates of comparable companies during a period comparable to the expected option term. The estimated risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury risk-free interest rate in effect at the time of grant. The computation of expected option term is based on an average of the vesting term and the maximum contractual life of the Company’s stock options. Computation of expected forfeitures is based on historical forfeiture rates of the Company’s stock options.

 

For options to purchase common stock and other share-based compensation awards, the Company recognizes compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the award. In addition, certain tax effects of share-based compensation are reported as a financing activity rather than an operating activity in the statement of cash flows.

 

Goodwill, Other Intangible Assets and Long-Lived Assets

 

Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of net assets associated with various acquisitions and is not subject to amortization. We allocated a portion of each purchase price to intangible assets, including customer contracts and related customer relationships, developed technology, trade names and acquired licenses that are being amortized over their estimated useful lives of one to 14 years. We also allocated a portion of each purchase price to tangible assets and assessed the liabilities to be recorded as part of the purchase price. The estimates we made in allocating each purchase price to tangible and intangible assets, and in assessing liabilities recorded as part of the purchase, involved the application of judgment and the use of estimates, which could significantly affect our operating results and financial position.

 

We review the carrying value of goodwill for impairment annually and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of goodwill may exceed its fair value. Conditions that could trigger a more frequent impairment assessment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in certain agreements, significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, an economic downturn in customers’ industries, increased competition, a significant reduction in the Company’s stock price for a sustained period or a reduction of our market capitalization relative to net book value. We evaluate impairment by comparing the estimated fair value of each reporting unit to its carrying value. We estimate fair value using the income approach as well as the market approach. The income approach is based upon discounted cash flows estimated by management for each reporting unit, while the market approach uses trading and transaction multiples, for companies considered comparable to Unica, to estimate fair value. Actual results may differ materially from these estimates. The estimates we make in determining the fair value of each reporting unit involve the application of judgment, including the amount and timing of future cash

flows, short- and long-term growth rates, and the weighted average cost of capital, which could affect the timing and size of any future impairment charges. Impairment of our goodwill could significantly affect our operating results and financial position.

 

We continually evaluate whether events or circumstances have occurred that indicate that the estimated remaining useful life of our long-lived assets, including intangible assets, may warrant revision or that the carrying value of these assets may be impaired. Any write-downs are treated as permanent reductions in the carrying amount of the assets. We must use judgment in evaluating whether events or circumstances indicate that useful lives should change or that the carrying value of assets has been impaired. Any resulting revision in the useful life or the amount of an impairment also requires judgment. Any of these judgments could affect the timing or size of any future impairment charges. Revision of useful lives or impairment charges could significantly affect our operating results and financial position.

 

Software Development Costs

 

We evaluate whether to capitalize or expense development costs of computer software to be sold or leased in accordance with established accounting standards. We sell products in a market that is subject to rapid technological change, new product development and changing customer needs. Accordingly, we have concluded that technological feasibility is not established until the development stage of the product is nearly complete. We define technological feasibility as the completion of a working model. We amortize capitalized software development costs over their estimated useful lives of two years. During the years ended September 30, 2009, 2008 and 2007, we capitalized $212,000, $132,000 and $136,000, respectively, of software development costs.

 

We capitalize certain costs of software developed or obtained for internal use. The costs incurred in the preliminary stages of development are expensed as incurred. Once an application has reached the development stage, internal and external costs, if direct and incremental, are capitalized until the software is substantially complete and ready for its intended use. Capitalization ceases upon completion of all substantial testing. We amortize internal-use software development costs over their estimated useful lives of three years. During the years ended September 30, 2009, 2008 and 2007, $606,000, $345,000 and $0, respectively, of internal-use software development costs were capitalized.

 

Income Taxes

 

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, and we use estimates in determining our provision for income taxes. Significant changes to these estimates could have a material impact on our effective tax rate. Deferred tax assets, related valuation allowances, current tax liabilities and deferred tax liabilities are determined separately by tax jurisdiction. In making these determinations, we estimate tax assets, related valuation allowances, current tax liabilities and deferred tax liabilities and assess temporary differences resulting from differing treatment of items for tax and accounting purposes. We assess the likelihood that deferred tax assets will be realized, and we recognize a valuation allowance if it is more likely than not that all or some portion of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. This assessment requires judgment as to the likelihood and amounts of future taxable income by tax jurisdiction.

 

The accounting standards for income taxes require that deferred tax assets be reduced by a valuation allowance if, based on the weight of available evidence, it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. The valuation allowance must be sufficient to reduce the deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. Future realization of deferred tax assets ultimately depends on the existence of sufficient taxable income of the appropriate character in either the carryback or carryforward period under the tax laws. Based on the weight of all of the available evidence, we have determined that it is more likely than not that all of our U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets will not be realized and as a result we provide a full valuation allowance against all of our U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets. As a result, we have not recorded any tax benefit for the estimated U.S. federal and state tax net operating losses or research and development tax credits generated during fiscal 2009.

We have historically provided a full valuation allowance against all of the deferred tax assets of our wholly owned subsidiary in France. This was primarily due to the uncertainty of generating sufficient future taxable income in order to realize these assets. However, during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, we restructured the operations of our subsidiary in France to a cost plus model, and we believe this will result in future taxable income from our operations in France. In addition, net operating losses generated in France have no expiration date and can be carried forward indefinitely. As a result of this positive evidence, we believe that it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets of our subsidiary in France will now be realized and that the valuation allowance is no longer required. Accordingly, we reversed all of the previously established valuation allowance on the deferred tax assets of our subsidiary in France.

 

Contingencies

 

From time to time and in the ordinary course of business, we may be subject to various claims, charges and litigation. In some cases, the claimants may seek damages, as well as other relief, which, if granted, could require significant expenditures. We accrue the estimated costs of settlement or damages when a loss is deemed probable and such costs are estimable. We accrue for legal costs related to a loss contingency when a loss is probable and such amounts are estimable. Otherwise, these costs are expensed as incurred. If the estimate of a probable loss or defense costs is a range and no amount within the range is more likely, we accrue the minimum amount of the range.

 

Valuation of Business Combinations

 

We record intangible assets acquired in business combinations under the purchase method of accounting. We allocate the amounts we pay for each acquisition to the assets we acquire and liabilities we assume based on their fair values at the date of acquisition. We then allocate the purchase price in excess of net tangible assets acquired to identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer contracts and related customer relationships, tradenames and in-process research and development. The fair value of identifiable intangible assets is based on detailed valuations that use information and assumptions provided by management. We allocate any excess purchase price over the fair value of the net tangible and intangible assets acquired to goodwill. The use of alternative purchase price allocations and alternative estimated useful life assumptions could result in different intangible asset amortization expense in current and future periods.

 

The valuation of in-process research and development represents the estimated fair value at the dates of acquisition related to in-process projects. Our in-process research and development represents the value of in-process projects that have not yet reached technological feasibility and have no alternative future uses as of the date of acquisition. We expense the value attributable to these in-process projects at the time of the acquisition.

Results of Operations

 

Comparison of Years Ended September 30, 2009 and 2008

 

Revenue

 

 

Total revenue for fiscal 2009 was $100.6 million, a decrease of 17%, or $20.5 million, from fiscal 2008. Total revenue decreased as a result of lower license sales relating to our product suite, partially offset by an increase in subscription revenue primarily related to the increased sales through our MSP channel and increased sales of our on-demand products.

 

Total license revenue for fiscal 2009 was $18.8 million, a decrease of 56%, or $24.1 million, from fiscal 2008. This decrease in license revenue was primarily attributable to lower sales of our product suite, primarily related to delays in our sales cycles and cautious buying behavior on the part of our customers. We believe that the overall global macroeconomic environment has caused customers to re-evaluate spending on purchases of information technology assets. While we continue to see demand for our products, selling cycles have nonetheless been extended and license revenue has decreased compared to the corresponding period in the prior year. Until we experience a positive change in the overall global macroeconomic environment, we anticipate the sales cycle will continue to be extended.

 

Maintenance fees revenue is associated with maintenance agreements in connection with the sales of perpetual licenses to our existing installed customer base and to new customers. Maintenance fees revenue for fiscal 2009 was $44.7 million, which is relatively unchanged from fiscal 2008.

 

Services revenue for fiscal 2009 was $17.1 million, a decrease of $3.0 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in services revenue was primarily the result of a decline in revenue related to implementations from new license sales, offset by $1.0 million of previously deferred revenue recorded upon the termination of an arrangement with a customer, to which we have no further performance obligations.

 

Total subscription revenue for fiscal 2009 was $20.0 million, an increase of 46%, or $6.3 million, from fiscal 2008. The increase in subscription revenue was primarily attributable to higher sales of our on-demand products and increased sales through our MSP channel, and includes $1.4 million of previously deferred revenue recorded upon the termination of an arrangement with a customer, to which we have no further performance obligations. We anticipate that subscription revenue will continue to increase in future quarters as we enter into additional subscription agreements and expand our on-demand product offerings, and as our customers may prefer subscription-based licenses during the current economic environment.

Recurring Revenue

 

 

We generate recurring revenue from both subscription and maintenance agreements, which is generally recognized ratably over the life of the arrangement.

 

Recurring revenue for fiscal 2009 was $64.7 million, an increase of 11%, or $6.6 million, from fiscal 2008. The increase in recurring revenue resulted from additional subscription revenue related to sales through our MSP channel and sales of our on-demand products, which includes $1.4 million of previously deferred revenue recorded upon the termination of an arrangement with a customer, to which we have no further performance obligations. Recurring revenue as a percentage of total revenue was 64% for fiscal 2009 as compared to 48% for fiscal 2008, which is primarily the result of a change in the mix of subscription versus license revenue.

 

Revenue by Geography

 

 

For purposes of this discussion, we designate revenue by geographic regions based on the locations of our customers. North America is comprised of revenue from the United States and Canada. International is comprised of revenue from the rest of the world. Depending on the timing of new customer contracts, revenue mix from geographic region can vary widely from period to period.

 

Total revenue for North America for the fiscal year 2009 was $70.9 million, a decrease of 8%, or $6.2 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in total revenue for North America was primarily related to a decrease in license revenue, partially offset by an increase in subscription revenue. Total revenue for international for fiscal 2009 was $29.7 million, a decrease of 33%, or $14.3 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in total revenue for International was primarily related to a decrease in license revenue.

Cost of Revenue

 

 

Cost of license revenue for fiscal 2009 was $1.9 million, a decrease of 38%, or $1.2 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in cost of license revenue was primarily due to (a) a $532,000 decrease in labor-related costs, (b) a $327,000 decrease in amortization of acquired technology as certain intangible assets have become fully amortized, and (c) a $25,000 decrease in royalties. Royalties paid for third-party licensed technology represented 4% of total license revenue for fiscal 2009. Royalties related to license revenue may fluctuate based on the mix of products we sell. We expect royalties paid for third-party licensed technology to be between 1% and 4% of total license revenue. Gross margin on license revenue was 90% in fiscal 2009 compared to 93% in fiscal 2008. The decrease in license gross margin is primarily the result of decreased sales volume.

 

Cost of maintenance and services for fiscal 2009 was $19.4 million, a decrease of 24%, or $6.1 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in cost of maintenance and services revenue was primarily due to (a) a $4.2 million decrease in labor-related costs and other direct consulting costs and (b) a $1.9 million decrease in subcontractor costs. The reduction in labor-related and subcontractor costs was primarily related to a decrease of implementation services in connection with new license sales. Gross margin on maintenance and services revenue fluctuates based on the mix of revenues from services and maintenance and the degree to which we use subcontractor services.

 

Cost of subscription revenue for fiscal year 2009 was $4.7 million, an increase of 63%, or $1.8 million, from fiscal 2008. The increase in cost of subscription revenue was due to an increase in labor-related expenses and hosting-related activities.

 

Operating Expenses

 

 

 

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Sales and Marketing.  Sales and marketing expense for fiscal 2009 was $41.8 million, a decrease of 16%, or $8.0 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease was primarily the result of a $7.8 million decrease in labor-related expenses due to decreased headcount and decreased commission expense, which was a result of a reduction in revenues. Sales and marketing expense is expected to decrease slightly in absolute dollars during fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009.

 

Research and Development.  Research and development expense for fiscal 2009 was $19.9 million, a decrease of 13%, or $3.1 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in research and development was primarily the result of (a) a $2.9 million decrease in labor related expenses, principally due to decreased headcount, and (b) a $275,000 decrease in share-based compensation expense. Capitalized software development costs were $818,000 and $477,000 for fiscal 2009 and 2008, respectively. Research and development expense is expected to remain relatively unchanged in absolute dollars during fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009.

 

General and Administrative.  General and administrative expense for fiscal 2009 was $16.0 million, a decrease of 16%, or $3.1 million, from fiscal 2008. The decrease in general and administrative expense was primarily the results of (a) a $1.5 million decrease in labor-related expenses, principally due to decreased headcount, (b) a $681,000 decrease in share-based compensation expense and (c) a $946,000 decrease in professional service cost. General and administrative expense is expected to remain relatively unchanged in absolute dollars during fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009.

 

Restructuring Charges.  In the first quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company reduced its workforce by approximately 4% and recorded a restructuring charge of $711,000 for one-time termination benefits to employees. The strategic reduction of workforce was designed to streamline the Company’s organization and improve its corporate performance. The restructuring accrual at September 30, 2009 was $128,000, and is expected to be paid by the end of fiscal 2010.

 

The following is a rollforward of the accrual related to the restructuring initiated in the first quarter of fiscal 2009:

 

 

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company approved a plan to implement a strategic reduction of its workforce designed to streamline its organization and improve its corporate operating performance. The Company reduced its workforce by approximately 13% and recorded a restructuring charge of $2.3 million for one-time termination benefits to employees. The restructuring accrual at September 30, 2009 was $1.9 million, and is expected to be paid by the end of fiscal 2010.

 

The following is a rollforward of the accrual related to the restructuring initiated in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009:

 

 

Goodwill Impairment.  In the second quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company changed the structure of its reporting units, which resulted in the Company having two remaining reporting units. Two previously separate reporting units were combined into one reporting unit. Given the change in reporting units as well as the decline in the Company’s market capitalization and overall operating results, the Company performed an interim impairment assessment of its goodwill at March 31, 2009 related to the three reporting units previously existing before the structure change. As part of this assessment, the Company applied a weighting to the income approach and the market approach of 60% and 40%, respectively, for two of the reporting units and

90% and 10%, respectively, for the remaining reporting unit. The weightings were determined based upon the degree of comparability of companies and acquisitions in the marketplace. As a result of the goodwill impairment assessment, during the three months ended March 31, 2009, the Company recorded a $15.3 million charge relating to the impairment of goodwill. Of the $15.3 million goodwill impairment charge, $5.7 million related to goodwill from the acquisition of MarketingCentral and $9.6 million related to goodwill from the acquisition of Sane Solutions LLC. The Company also performed a subsequent impairment assessment on the newly combined reporting unit after the change in structure, which did not indicate a further impairment. The Company determined that its other long-lived assets, including definite-lived intangible assets, were not impaired.

 

During fiscal 2009, the Company performed its annual impairment assessment of goodwill at September 30, 2009, and as a result of this assessment there was no indication of impairment.

 

Amortization of Acquired Intangible Assets.  Amortization of acquired intangible assets was $1.2 million and $1.6 million for fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2008, respectively. The reduction primarily relates to certain acquired intangible assets becoming fully amortized during fiscal 2009.

 

Other Income

 

 

Interest income, net was $586,000 for fiscal 2009, an $862,000 decrease from fiscal 2008. Interest income is generated from the investment of our cash balances, less related bank fees. The decrease in interest income, net principally reflected lower invested cash balances, due to sales and maturities of investments in fiscal 2009, and lower interest rates in invested cash balances.

 

Other expense, net consisted of foreign currency translation and transaction gains and losses. The change in other income, net was primarily driven by unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates as compared to the corresponding period in the prior year.

 

Provision for Income Taxes

 

 

Benefit from income taxes was $1.5 million, or an effective tax rate of (6.5%) for the year ended September 30, 2009, an $8.9 million decrease from the tax provision recorded during the year ended September 30, 2008. The decrease primarily relates to the $7.9 million net increase in the valuation allowance included in the fiscal 2008 tax provision which is not included in the fiscal 2009 tax provision, and approximately $1.8 million of tax benefits related to the reduction in the Company’s valuation allowance

during fiscal 2009. These tax benefits were offset by approximately $795,000 of taxes paid in foreign tax jurisdictions.

 

For the year ended September 30, 2009, our effective tax rate was lower than the federal statutory rate primarily due to the tax benefits recorded during the year and secondarily due to the mix of jurisdictional earnings, foreign withholding taxes, and adjustments to our valuation allowance recorded against deferred tax assets. For the year ended September 30, 2008, our effective tax rate was different from the federal statutory rate due to the impact of recording the valuation allowance during fiscal 2008 against the company’s U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets and accounting for share-based compensation.

 

During the three months ended September 30, 2009, we reversed all of the valuation allowance that was previously established against the deferred tax assets of our wholly owned subsidiary in France, which resulted in an income tax benefit of $248,000. We had historically provided a valuation allowance against all of these deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty of generating sufficient taxable income in future periods. However, during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, we restructured the operations of our subsidiary in France to a cost plus model, and we believe this will result in future taxable income from our operations in France. In addition, net operating losses generated in France have no expiration date and can be carried forward indefinitely. As a result of this positive evidence, we believe that it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets of our subsidiary in France will now be realized and that the valuation allowance is no longer required.

 

Comparison of Years Ended September 30, 2008 and 2007

 

Revenue

 

 

Total revenue for fiscal 2008 was $121.1 million, an increase of 18%, or $18.9 million, from fiscal 2007. Total revenue increased as a result of higher sales of our product suite, an increase in international professional service revenue, and higher subscription revenue primarily related to the MarketingCentral acquisition and higher sales of Unica NetInsight.

 

Total license revenue for fiscal 2008 was $42.9 million, an increase of 10%, or $3.9 million, from fiscal 2007. This increase in license revenue was primarily attributable to higher sales of our enterprise products.

 

Maintenance fees revenue is associated with maintenance agreements in connection with the sales of perpetual licenses to our existing installed customer base and to new customers. Maintenance fees revenue for fiscal 2008 was $44.4 million, an increase of 11%, or $4.4 million from fiscal 2007. The increase primarily reflects maintenance fees from the sale of new licenses in fiscal 2007.

 

Services revenue for fiscal 2008 was $20.1 million, an increase of 40%, or $5.8 million, from fiscal 2007. The increase in services revenue was primarily the result of growth in the number of implementation services performed in Europe and Asia related to new license agreements.

Total subscription revenue for fiscal 2008 was $13.7 million, an increase of 53%, or $4.8 million, from fiscal 2007. The increase in subscription revenue was primarily attributable to the impact of the MarketingCentral acquisition, higher sales of Unica NetInsight and increased sales through our MSP channel.

 

Recurring Revenue

 

 

We generate recurring revenue from both subscription and maintenance agreements, which is recognized ratably over the life of the arrangement.

 

Recurring revenue for fiscal 2008 was $58.1 million, an increase of 19%, or $9.2 million from fiscal 2007. The increase in recurring revenue resulted from (a) an increase in subscription revenue attributable to the impact of the MarketingCentral acquisition, (b) an increase in maintenance fees on sales of new license and (c) additional subscription revenue related to sales of Unica NetInsight. Recurring revenue as a percentage of total revenue was 48% for both fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2007.

 

Revenue by Geography