Edgar Filing: Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.

Document

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)



x	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018



¨	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number: 001-37461

ALARM.COM HOLDINGS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)



Delaware		26-4247032
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)
8281 Greensboro Drive, Suite 100, Tysons, Virginia		22102
(Address of principal executive offices)		(zip code)

Tel: (877) 389-4033

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

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



Title of each class		Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share		The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

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. þ Yes ¨ No

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 þ No

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. þ Yes ¨ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted 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 such files). þ Yes ¨ No

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) 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. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.



Large accelerated filer	þ	Accelerated filer	¨
Non-accelerated filer	¨	Smaller reporting company	¨
Emerging growth company	¨

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

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

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 29, 2018 was $1.3 billion, based on a closing price of $40.38 per share of the registrant's common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market. For purposes of this computation, all officers, directors, and 10% beneficial owners of the registrant are deemed to be affiliates. Such determination should not be deemed to be an admission that such officers, directors or 10% beneficial owners are, in fact, affiliates of the registrant.

As of February 20, 2019, there were 48,182,307 outstanding shares of the registrant's common stock, $0.01 par value per share.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A in connection with the registrant’s 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed subsequent to the date hereof, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days following the end of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.

LARM.CO

ALARM.COM HOLDINGS, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS



		Page
PART I.
Item 1.	Business	3
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	15
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	39
Item 2.	Properties	39
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	39
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	41
PART II.
Item 5.	Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	42
Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	44
Item 7.	Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	47
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk	68
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	69
	Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm	70
	Consolidated Statements of Operations	72
	Consolidated Balance Sheets	73
	Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	74
	Consolidated Statements of Equity	76
	Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements	77
	Schedule II. Valuation and Qualifying Accounts	111
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	112
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	112
Item 9B.	Other Information	112
PART III.
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	113
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	113
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	113
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence	113
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	113
PART IV.
Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	114
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	116
	Signatures	117

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, or this Annual Report, contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, that reflect our current expectations regarding future events, our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in Part I, Item 1. "Business," Part I, Item 1A. "Risk Factors," and Part II, Item 7. "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," but are also contained elsewhere in this Annual Report. Forward-looking statements include any statement that does not directly relate to a current or historical fact. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "objective," "ongoing," "plan," "predict," "project," "potential," "should," "will," or "would," or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this prospectus, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our expectations of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Forward-looking statements include statements about:


•	our ability to continue to increase revenue, maintain existing subscribers and sell new services to new and existing subscribers;


•	our ability to add new service provider partners, maintain existing service provider partner relationships and increase the productivity of our service provider partners;


•	the effects of increased competition as well as innovations by new and existing competitors in our market;


•	our ability to adapt to technological change and effectively enhance, innovate and scale our solution;


•	our ability to effectively manage or sustain our growth;


•	potential acquisitions and integration of complementary business and technologies;


•	our ability to maintain, or strengthen awareness of, our brand;


•	perceived or actual security, integrity, reliability, quality or compatibility problems with our solutions, including related to security breaches in our systems, our subscribers’ systems, unscheduled downtime, or outages;


•	statements regarding future revenue, hiring plans, expenses, capital expenditures, capital requirements and stock performance;


•	our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and key personnel and further expand our overall headcount;


•	our ability to develop relationships with service provider partners in order to expand internationally;


•	our ability to stay abreast of new or modified laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to our business both in the United States and internationally;


•	our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property;


•	costs associated with defending intellectual property infringement and other claims; and


•	other risks detailed below in Item 1A. "Risk Factors."

You should refer to Item 1A. "Risk Factors" section of this Annual Report for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this Annual Report.

Except as otherwise indicated herein or as the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report to "Alarm.com," the "company," "we," "us," "our" and similar references refer to Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. and, where appropriate, our consolidated subsidiaries.

PART I.

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Overview

Alarm.com is the leading platform for the intelligently connected property. We offer a comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions for smart residential and commercial properties, including interactive security, video monitoring, intelligent automation, energy management and wellness solutions. Millions of property owners depend on our technology to intelligently secure, monitor and manage their residential and commercial properties. In the last year alone, our platforms processed more than 200 billion data points generated by over 90 million connected devices. We believe that this scale of subscribers, connected devices and data operations makes us the leader in the connected property market.

We enter into contracts with our service provider partners that establish pricing for access to our platform solutions and for the sale of hardware. These contracts typically have an initial term of one year, with subsequent renewal terms of one year. Our service provider partners typically enter into contracts with our subscribers, which our service provider partners have indicated range from three to five years in length. Our service provider partners are free to market and sell our products under their own guidelines at prices to the consumer that they establish independently. We believe that the length of the service relationship with residential and commercial property owners, combined with our robust SaaS platforms and over 15 years of operating experience, contribute to a compelling business model.

We have experienced significant growth since our company's inception in 2000. We generated total revenue of $420.5 million, $338.9 million and $261.1 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Our SaaS and license revenue was $291.1 million, $236.3 million and $173.5 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, representing a compound annual growth rate of 29.5%. We also generated net income of $21.5 million, $29.3 million and $10.2 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, as well as Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric, of $93.1 million, $71.6 million and $49.0 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. See footnote 4 to the table contained in the section of this Annual Report titled "Selected Financial Data" for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP.

Our Solutions and Integrated Platforms

Our technology platforms are designed to make connected properties safer, smarter and more efficient. Our solutions are used in both smart residential and commercial properties, which we refer to as the connected property market and we have designed our technology platforms for all market participants. This includes not only the residential and commercial property owners who subscribe to our services, but also the hardware partners who manufacture devices that integrate with our platforms and the service provider partners who install and maintain our solutions.

Our service provider partners can deploy our interactive security, video monitoring, intelligent automation and energy management solutions as stand-alone offerings or as combined solutions to address the needs of a broad range of customers. Our technology enables subscribers to seamlessly connect to their property through our family of mobile apps, websites, and new engagement platforms like voice control through Amazon Echo and Google Home, wearable devices like the Apple Watch, and TV platforms such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

Subscriber Solutions

Interactive Security

Interactive security is the entry point for most of our smart home and business subscribers. Our dedicated, two-way cellular connection between the property and our platforms is designed to be tamper resistant and to meet the high reliability standards for life safety services. Our solution integrates monitoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with emergency response through trusted and integrated central monitoring stations. Subscribers can use our services to control and monitor their security systems, as well as connected security devices including motion sensors, door locks, garage doors, thermostats and video cameras. The capabilities associated with this solution include:


◦	Alarm Transmission. We transmit alarm signals from monitored properties through our platforms to over 1,000 third-party central monitoring stations staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with live operators ready to initiate emergency response.


◦	Always-On Monitoring. Whether the security system is armed or disarmed, sensors continuously monitor activity at the property so subscribers can be made aware of system events in all kinds of situations.

◦

Insights Engine. Our proprietary machine learning algorithms help safeguard connected properties by learning the unique activity patterns at the property and automatically notifying the subscriber of unexpected activity. Facial recognition technology enhances unexpected activity alerts by enabling certain security panels with built-in cameras to proactively monitor for unauthorized sharing or theft of an authorized user's security system codes. By analyzing pictures taken when the security panel is disarmed, the system can associate a specific person with a specific user code. If a different person uses that same code, Alarm.com can send an alert to the home or business owner, providing an added layer of security, awareness and control.


◦	Real-Time Alerts. Notifications for any type of system event are delivered through push notifications, short message service, or SMS, or email, based on the subscriber's preference.


◦	Managed Access and Enterprise Control. Subscribers can manage their property through permission-based access, including individualized user codes and rules based on time and day. Property managers and business owners can utilize our Enterprise Control service to remotely manage employees’ access to the security system, door locks and property partitions across multiple locations.


◦	Wellness. Our technology can learn daily living patterns of an aging family member through monitoring of activity data from security and specialized sensors and identify anomalies in real-time that may indicate a problem. Alerts can be sent to notify family members or caregivers when there are critical changes in patterns or an emergency is detected.

Video Monitoring

Our high definition video monitoring solution can provide a direct view into the property, capture footage of critical events and provide visual peace of mind. We offer indoor and outdoor camera solutions for residential and commercial properties at varying price points. We also provide a doorbell video camera solution that supports two-way audio with guests at the door.

The capabilities associated with our video monitoring solution include:

◦

Video Analytics: Our video analytics engine provides an intelligent new layer of security and awareness for residential and commercial property owners. Object classification and object tracking technology can distinguish between people, vehicles and animals, determine an object's direction of movement and measure the duration of activity. Our subscribers can selectively control and manage notifications and assign virtual zones and multi-directional "tripwires" so they can monitor their properties for highly specific activity.


◦	Live Streaming. Subscribers can securely access live video feeds through the web and mobile apps at any time.


◦	Smart Clip Capture. Our video solutions can automatically record clips based on motion detection or system events, like an alarm, a door opening or someone disarming the security panel.


◦	Secure Cloud Storage. Video clips are uploaded to our cloud-based storage system for secure storage and remote viewing.


◦	Video Alerts. Smart clips can be automatically sent via SMS, push notifications or email as soon as they are recorded.


◦	Continuous High Definition Recording. Onsite recording up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week is enabled through our Stream Video Recorder, or SVR, and can be played back securely, from anywhere, through the web and mobile apps.


◦	Commercial Video Surveillance. Tailored for small and medium sized businesses, our commercial video surveillance offering provides leading commercial-grade network cameras to support a wide range of business needs, enabling multi-camera installations with continuous recording, cloud based storage and mobile access.

Intelligent Automation and Energy Management

Our solution provides enhanced monitoring and control for a large ecosystem of connected devices, including thermostats, lights, locks, power meters, shades and other devices. Increasing awareness of energy usage and providing intelligent control

over connected devices enables subscribers to create personalized automation rules and schedules. We believe our solutions can reduce energy waste as well as increase comfort and convenience for our subscribers. The capabilities associated with this solution include:


◦	Scenes. A customizable scenes button within the Alarm.com app provides the ability to adjust multiple devices in the property with a single command. For example, a homeowner leaving the house can arm the security system, lock the front door, close the garage door and adjust the thermostat with a single command.


◦	Smart Thermostat Schedules. Machine learning algorithms analyze system activity patterns to recommend thermostat schedules that increase energy efficiency when the property is not likely to be occupied.


◦	Responsive Savings. Smart thermostats connected to our platforms can automatically respond to sensors and other devices in the property to conserve energy. For example, when the security system is armed away, an arming state used when the property is not occupied, the thermostat can automatically adjust to save energy.


◦	Precision Comfort. Remote temperature sensors enable a subscriber to manage comfort in a specific area within their property. For example, a homeowner can set a desired temperature for a child's nursery to improve the child’s comfort. Subscribers can easily customize detailed schedules and rules to have the right temperature in the right location at the right time.


◦	Energy Usage Monitoring. Real-time and historical energy usage data for the entire property and individual devices can give subscribers greater insight into the property’s energy consumption profile, which could encourage more efficient use of energy-consuming devices.


◦	Environmental Monitoring. Subscribers can utilize environmental sensors with our platforms to monitor and control their property. For example, a leak detected by a basement water sensor can automatically shut off a water line, or a property owner can be alerted to a sump-pump failure and react accordingly.

◦

Geo-Services. Geo-Services use a phone’s geo-location to determine when to notify a subscriber of specific system conditions, or to automatically adjust system settings. Subscribers who have enabled Geo-Services can be notified if they leave home and forgot to lock a door, close the garage door, arm their security system or close a window. Additionally, smart thermostats and lights can be automatically adjusted based on the subscriber's location. Subscribers can create multiple geo-fences and customize the opt-in feature to meet their specific needs.

◦

Demand Response Programs. Utilities can reduce or shift power consumption during peak demand periods by accessing connected thermostats and other connected appliances that participate in the utility's program. Managed at scale, these voluntary programs can significantly reduce costs for utilities. In addition to enabling subscribers to participate in these programs through our energy management solution, our EnergyHub subsidiary aggregates a diverse set of smart thermostats, enabling utilities to leverage these devices to operate demand response programs and improve the results of certain demand response events through our SaaS platforms.

Commercial Solutions

In addition to our residential solutions, we offer Alarm.com for Business, a security solution for small and medium businesses, ranging from single-site to multi-location enterprises. Alarm.com for Business combines intelligent intrusion detection, video surveillance, access control and energy management into a single solution through Alarm.com's app and online interfaces. Our Smarter Access Control solution, part of the unified Alarm.com for Business platform, helps solve many of the challenges faced by small business owners, with an array of always-on operational tools that can improve management and control. Our solution enhances and simplifies business operations, streamlines security, saves energy and provides insights into customer habits. Additionally, our business insights tools provide actionable intelligence, including open and close trends by location, peak periods of activity and customer traffic and energy savings opportunities. Key benefits of the commercial offering include:


◦	Daily Safeguards. Smarter business security keeps subscribers' properties and business locations secure with automatic arming at a certain time each day or after a certain period of inactivity.

◦

Commercial Grade Video Solutions. Connected commercial cameras communicate with the security system, capturing clips as activity occurs, and clips are uploaded to our cloud-based storage system for secure storage and remote viewing. Subscribers can receive real-time alerts and instantly view footage through the web or mobile apps if the alarm goes off, a door is unlocked, or unexpected activity occurs outside of normal business hours. Business owners can assess the situation and take appropriate action at any time of day and from any location.


◦	Energy Savings. Our smarter thermostat helps subscribers reduce energy costs automatically, even if someone forgets to adjust the temperature when they're closing up at the end of the day, generating a return on investment.


◦	Protection for Valuables and Inventory. Quick notifications keep business owners in the know about individuals entering or exiting the back office, the supply room, or any other specific rooms or doors.


◦	Access Control. Business owners and managers can easily add and delete access for new employees and departing employees in a few clicks, without calling the alarm company or worrying about spare keys.


◦	Operational Insights. Visibility into activity patterns and trends can help business owners make smarter decisions around staffing, promotions, energy use and more. Reports show activity patterns across the business, helping owners spot new opportunities for staffing, traffic flow and promotions.


◦	Early Problem Identification. Early identification of activity such as unexpected entry after hours, or doors propped open that could cause energy waste or safety concerns, helps business owners quickly respond to problematic situations. Alarm.com provides a time stamped log of which users armed or disarmed the system or entered the property using their keycard.


◦	Simple to Use. Alarm.com’s smartphone app is intuitive to use, with visibility and control of every solution available within a single dashboard.


◦	Professionally Supported. Smarter business security powered by Alarm.com is supported by our authorized service provider partners from start to finish, with installation, configuration and technical support included. Our service provider partners are trained and equipped with Alarm.com’s advanced digital tools.


◦	Easy to Maintain. Alarm.com’s solutions are cloud-based, so no additional IT resources are needed.

Service Provider Solutions

We also offer a comprehensive suite of enterprise-grade business management solutions for our service provider partners. We are committed to helping our service provider partners grow their businesses, efficiently manage their customer bases and maximize the value of their Alarm.com accounts. We believe these services strengthen our partnerships with service providers as they build their businesses on our platforms. Capabilities associated with these solutions include:


◦	Service Provider Portal. Our permission-based online portal provides account management, sales, marketing, training and support tools. Through this portal, our service provider partners can activate and manage their Alarm.com customer accounts, order equipment, access invoices and billing, remotely program customer systems, obtain sales and marketing services and engage in training.


◦	Installation and Support. The ease of installation and cost of supporting connected property solutions are critical considerations for our service provider partners. We support the end-to-end process for deploying and managing our solutions with tools that make installation and support more efficient.

•

MobileTech Application and Remote Toolkit. Our installation and troubleshooting mobile app, designed for service provider technicians, facilitates the successful installation, programming and support of equipment while either on-site at subscribers’ properties or while working remotely. Service provider technicians and customer service personnel can access a collection of remote system management tools and panel settings through the Remote Toolkit using the MobileTech application and our service provider portal, including service appointment reminders, device notes, quick links and MobileTech Podcasts. These features help to increase accuracy of installations, decrease time spent on-site and reduce support calls and return visits, which saves subscribers and service providers money while increasing subscriber satisfaction.


◦	Business Management. Our services deeply integrate with our service provider partners’ offerings and provide increased business insight into their customer base and key business health metrics.


•	Web Services. Our web services allow our service provider partners to integrate their existing customer management software and tools with our platforms. This creates a unified interface for our service provider partners to seamlessly perform functions like creating a new customer account or upgrading a service plan.


•	Business Intelligence. Our powerful business intelligence tools provide service providers with crucial insights into the performance of their Alarm.com subscriber account base. Business Intelligence provides key operational metrics related to account plan adoption, attrition and service quality to help service provider partners grow their business and improve customer retention.


•	Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Our SecurityTrax offering enhances our platforms with a cloud-based CRM and enterprise resource planning solution. Expressly developed for security service providers, SecurityTrax automates business processes across the entire customer lifecycle for more efficient customer management and support operations.


◦	Sales, Marketing & Training. Our comprehensive customer lifecycle sales and marketing services are available to help our service provider partners effectively market and sell our solutions.


•	Marketing Portal. We provide a broad suite of marketing and sales tools and resources for our service provider partners, including our MobileSales app, co-brandable landing pages, mobile optimized websites with integrated lead capture, social media, videos, images, collateral, direct mail and event materials.


•	Alarm.com Academy. We offer comprehensive in-person training programs to our service provider partners. Additionally, we offer online courses through a learning management system, enabling our service provider partners to access training on the full suite of Alarm.com solutions anytime.


•	Customer Connections. We help our service provider partners maximize the value of existing accounts by offering targeted in-app messaging and e-mail communications to existing subscribers. These campaigns are designed to increase engagement, drive upsell opportunities and enable referrals for our service provider partners.

◦

Home Builder Program. Our home builder program includes hardware and service plans designed to facilitate partnerships between home builders and our service provider partners. Home builders can rapidly deploy a full-range of our smart home solutions in new communities and model homes, while minimizing risks and costs by depending on our nationwide network of service provider partners for hardware installation and ongoing support.

Benefits of Our Solutions

Residential and commercial properties are ripe for reinvention. The intersection of significant technology trends, like the broad adoption of mobile devices, the emergence of the Internet of Things, or IoT, the power of big data and the extensibility of the cloud, makes the connected property possible. Security systems, thermostats, door locks, video cameras, lights, garage doors and other devices that were once inert can now be intelligent and connected. Our intelligently connected property solutions provide a wealth of benefits to our subscribers and our service provider partners.

Benefits to Subscribers:


◦	Single Connected Platform. Our cloud-based platforms provide subscribers with a single point of integrated control across a diverse ecosystem of IoT devices. Solutions are easily personalized to suit the individual subscriber’s needs.


◦	Reliable Network Communications. Our platforms utilize a highly secure, highly reliable, dedicated cellular connection which mitigates common vulnerabilities of systems that are connected via the phone line or wired networks, such as power outages, cut phone lines, or broadband connectivity issues.

◦

Intelligent and Actionable. Our platforms aggregate real-time, multi-point data about property activity and system status. We have developed a highly scalable data analytics engine to deliver unique features and capabilities based on insights derived from this growing set of data. For example, learning detailed activity patterns in a property enables our platforms to proactively alert the subscriber about unexpected events. Our platforms continue to learn and adapt to become more personalized over time.


◦	Broad Device Compatibility. Our platforms support a wide variety of connected devices and communications protocols, allowing seamless integration and automation of many devices, as well as the addition of new devices in the future.


◦	Accessible and Affordable. Our platforms offer an affordable alternative to expensive automation systems, legacy residential and commercial control products and disparate point product solutions.


◦	Trusted Provider. We have established a reputation and brand as a trusted and reliable technology provider. We respect the privacy of our subscribers and do not sell their data. Our reputation is strengthened through our network of over 8,000 service provider partners, who have significant expertise in the delivery of our SaaS platforms and suite of solutions.

Benefits to Service Provider Partners:

◦

New Revenue Generation Opportunities. Our solutions help broaden our service provider partners' offerings beyond traditional security to also include comprehensive smart residential and commercial solutions like intelligent automation, video monitoring and energy management. They can access new market opportunities and drive incremental recurring monthly revenue by expanding their offerings with our solutions. We offer training, tools and other resources to help our service provider partners fully leverage the breadth and depth of our platforms.


◦	Expanded Set of Value-Added Services. We provide value-added services to our service provider partners, including training, marketing, installation and support tools and business intelligence analytics. This support helps our service provider partners more efficiently acquire, install and support their customers on our platforms.

◦

Improved Service Provider Economics. Our cloud-based platforms can help reduce our service provider partners’ service delivery and support costs. Remote Toolkit enables our service provider partners to remotely configure, support and upgrade their customer's hardware or software, eliminating the cost of an in-person service call. In addition, we believe our service provider partners can generate more revenue from each subscriber by providing services beyond traditional security.

◦

Broad Device Interoperability. We have an open platform which allows service provider partners to respond to market innovation and consumer demands for connected devices. Device hardware is deeply integrated into our platforms to provide a more cohesive experience than stand-alone products deliver. For example, we launched video analytics in October 2018 to help our service provider partners address growing consumer interest with a differentiated and fully integrated solution. Furthermore, our platforms support various broadly adopted communications protocols used in many automation devices, including Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, cellular and broadband. Our open platforms and interoperability give our service provider partners a wide selection of devices to suit their customers' needs now and in the future.

Competitive Advantages

We believe the benefits we can deliver to our subscribers and our service provider partners create a significant competitive advantage in the connected property market.

◦

Scale of Subscriber Base and Service Provider Coverage. Our platforms currently support millions of residential and commercial subscribers and we have over 8,000 service provider partners who market, sell and support Alarm.com solutions. In 2018, our platforms processed more than 200 billion data points generated by over 90 million connected devices. We believe the combination of the size of our subscriber base, service provider network and the volume of data generated by the integrated devices on our platforms creates a competitive advantage for us.


◦	Security Grade, Cloud-Based Architecture. We built our platforms with a cloud-based, multi-tenant architecture that allows for real-time updates and upgrades. Our platforms were purpose-built from the ground up with life safety standards at the core.


◦	Highly Scalable Data Analytics Engine. We processed more than 200 billion data points in 2018. As consumer preferences shift towards more proactive, intelligence-based features, we believe that our investments in proprietary analytics give us a competitive advantage.


◦	Trusted Brand. We believe that our leading position in our space is an indicator that we have developed a trusted brand with service providers and consumers for innovative and reliable technology and service. Our iOS and Android mobile apps have each been downloaded millions of times and both apps consistently have impressive user ratings.

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Commitment to Innovation. We are a pioneer in the intelligently connected property market and we continue to make significant investments in innovative research and development. Our investment has resulted in 193 issued patents as of December 31, 2018 and numerous patent applications pending which we believe can help ensure that our technology remains competitively differentiated and legally protected.

Growth Strategy

We intend to maintain our leadership position by continuing to develop and deploy innovative technologies and by expanding our ecosystem of partners. Our key growth strategies include:


◦	Drive SaaS and license revenue growth and add new service providers. We will continue to focus on helping our service provider partners succeed in driving adoption of our full suite of services. We offer sales and marketing resources to help our service provider partners become more effective in selling our solutions and we will continue to

make significant investments to support our service provider network. In addition, we plan to continue to expand our network of service provider partners.

◦

Upgrade traditional security customers to our solutions. We believe there is a significant opportunity for our service provider partners to expand adoption of our connected solutions within their customer base. We intend to leverage our status as a trusted provider to drive consumer interest in our offerings and enable our service provider partners to upgrade their legacy security customers to our connected property solutions.

◦

Continue to invest in our platforms. As a pioneer in connected home and business solutions, we have made significant investments in building our platforms over the last 19 years. We intend to continue to invest heavily to add additional innovative offerings and broaden our suite of solutions. As the market for IoT grows and more devices become connected, we are building technology and partnerships to connect these devices to our platforms.

◦

Expand international presence. We are investing in international expansion because we believe there is a significant global market opportunity for our products and services. Today, our products are currently localized and available in approximately 40 countries outside of North America, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. We intend to continue to grow our number of international subscribers by strengthening our presence in existing markets and expanding to additional markets.

◦

Expand into the small and medium business market segment. We believe there is significant opportunity to expand our products and services to small and medium businesses, ranging from single-site to multi-location enterprises. We intend to leverage many of our existing solutions and our newly introduced Alarm.com for Business solution to provide such businesses with visibility into their key operational activities, keep businesses secure, provide facility access to employees and vendors remotely and manage their energy costs.

◦

Channel expansion. Today, many consumers purchase connected devices through a security service provider. Continued growth in the connected property market has invited new participants into the space that can complement our current partner ecosystem. We intend to continue to develop partnerships with heating, ventilation and air conditioning installers, property management companies, utility companies, insurance providers and other services companies to expand avenues into residential and commercial properties.


◦	Pursue selective strategic acquisitions. We may selectively pursue future acquisitions of businesses, technologies, or products that complement our platforms or align with our overall growth strategy. Such acquisitions could expand our team and/or technology portfolio to help us add new features to our platforms, accelerate the pace of our innovation or help us access attractive markets.

Market Opportunity

Our addressable market consists of both residential and commercial properties. Our residential subscribers are typically owners of single-family homes and our commercial subscribers often include retail businesses, restaurants, commercial facilities and professional offices.

We believe there is an opportunity to significantly increase the adoption of our solutions as more residential and commercial property owners look to add monitored security systems. According to research data published by IHS Markit in 2018, approximately 20% of U.S. broadband households had professionally monitored security systems in 2017 and this percentage is expected to grow to approximately 23% by 2022.

We also believe that the major technology trends of mobile access, the IoT, big data and cloud technology will continue to create opportunities to connect people with their properties in new ways. These trends will continue to make connected services and devices more broadly available and affordable for property owners across North America and worldwide. According to a 2017 Parks Associates industry report, 26% of U.S. broadband households owned at least one smart home device in 2017. Parks Associates’ research suggests that sales of smart home devices will continue to grow as nearly 55 million devices are expected to be sold in 2020 alone. We believe that the trends highlight a significant opportunity for market participants, including Alarm.com.

Our Technology

Cloud Services Platform

Our internal engineering teams have designed and developed our core technology. As an industry leader, we believe we have robust cloud service platforms for the intelligently connected property. Our cloud services platforms manage communication with the system at the property, intelligently direct alerts and notifications, learn patterns and identify anomalies and manage

video processing and storage. Additionally, our platforms enable device integrations through application program interfaces, or APIs, and offer our service provider partners extensive workflow efficiency services.

Since our inception, we have utilized a multi-tenant SaaS platform architecture to enable rapid innovation in a scalable environment. Our platforms are architected to scale and our technology team has developed proprietary cloud-based applications to support our service provider partners and subscribers. Security and life safety are mission critical components of our service offering; thus, we are committed to high reliability standards. We operate our Alarm.com cloud services platform through two redundant network operations centers located in Phoenix, Arizona and Ashburn, Virginia. Each center is designed to run the entire Alarm.com platform independent of the other.

Cybersecurity

The solutions we provide rely on technology and data, and cybersecurity is a crucial part of our business. We dedicate substantial resources to the protection of our data, systems and infrastructure. We have implemented and continue to maintain a comprehensive information security program consisting of policies, procedures, and technology designed to maintain the privacy, security and integrity of our data, confidential information, systems and networks. Among other things, the program includes controls designed to limit and monitor access to our systems, networks and data, prevent inappropriate or unauthorized access or modification, and monitor for threats or vulnerability.

Hardware and Manufacturing

We are involved in designing and manufacturing various types of hardware that enable our solutions, including:

◦

Cellular Communication Modules. We offer cellular communications modules that are tightly integrated with security system control panels, sensors and other devices. We regularly pioneer technical advances in this space, including the expansion of our deployment of security services hardware with 4G LTE cellular network connections. All of our modules, designed by our device engineering team and manufactured in the United States by a contract manufacturing partner, provide a dedicated and fully managed two-way cellular connection between the subscriber’s property and our cloud platforms. The modules run our proprietary firmware and enable:


•	Real-time analysis of system events reported by security sensors and other devices.


•	Local automation rule execution.


•	The management of message transmissions to our cloud platforms for further processing.

◦

Image Sensor. Our image sensor, designed by our device engineering team and manufactured in the United States by a contract manufacturing partner, is a wireless, battery-operated, passive infrared motion sensor that captures images based on various system triggers. These images are transmitted by our cellular communications module to our cloud platforms. Subscribers can securely view images through our website and mobile apps, as well as customize their notification settings to have new images automatically sent via SMS and email.

◦

Video Cameras. We offer a suite of high definition, Internet Protocol, or IP, video cameras to enable our video monitoring services. Our indoor, outdoor, and video doorbell cameras include options for night vision capabilities as well as wireless or Power over Ethernet communication features. We also offer a network video recording device, the SVR, for on premise, continuous video recording seamlessly connected to our cloud platforms for remote playback through our user interfaces. Our video cameras and SVRs are specified to our platforms through proprietary software.

◦

Alarm.com Smart Thermostat. Our Smart Thermostat combines elegant design, sophisticated cloud services and advanced energy management features. It was designed by our Building 36 and device engineering teams to work in concert with other devices in the connected property. It communicates with the Alarm.com communications module via Z-wave and supports both battery power and common wire power installation.


•	Remote temperature sensors can pair with our Smart Thermostat to enable temperature set points for any room in the property, not just the room where the thermostat is installed. Our Smart Thermostat supports multiple remote temperature sensors for precise temperature control for a residential or commercial property.


•	We designed our Smart Thermostat to be easy to install and support remotely. The MobileTech app assists in proper wiring and installation and Remote Toolkit enables remote access to the thermostat settings for easy troubleshooting and support.

Research and Development

We invest substantial resources in research and development to enhance our platforms and applications, support our technology infrastructure, develop new capabilities and conduct quality assurance testing. We expect to invest significantly in continued research and development efforts to expand the capabilities of our technology. Our research and development of new products and services is a multidisciplinary effort across our product management, program management, software engineering, device engineering, quality engineering, configuration management and network operations teams. As of December 31, 2018, we had 500 employees engaged in research and development functions.

Service Provider Network

Our trusted service provider partner network is key in driving the adoption of connected home and commercial solutions. Our solutions are sold, installed, and serviced by a network of independent licensed, professional service provider partners. Our channel network currently consists of over 8,000 active service provider partners, including smaller local providers, larger regional providers and national service providers with thousands of employees. We have also seen growth in other areas of our channel network, including new providers in the intelligent automation, HVAC, property management and insurance markets.

We believe this highly trusted, established network is a core strength that enables an efficient and scalable customer acquisition model, allowing us to focus on technology innovation. We also believe that the combination of our solutions and our service provider partners’ expertise is the most effective way to drive mass market adoption of the intelligently connected property.

The traditional security and home automation market is highly fragmented with approximately 15,000 security dealers nationally. According to the February 2019 Barnes Buchanan Conference Report, the top 5 dealers represented 35% of all industry recurring monthly revenue in 2018. The distribution of revenue among our service provider partners is reflective of the industry overall. Monitronics International, Inc., rebranded and now doing business as Brinks Home Security, represented greater than 10% but not more than 15% of our revenue in 2016 and 2017. ADT LLC represented greater than 15% but not more than 20% of our revenue in 2017 and 2018.

Subscribers

Our platforms currently support millions of residential and commercial subscribers. We define the number of subscribers as the number of residential or commercial properties to which we are delivering at least one of our solutions. A subscriber who subscribes to one of our service level packages as well as one or more of our a la carte add-ons is counted as one subscriber. Our number of subscribers does not include the customers of our service provider partners to whom we license our intellectual property, as they do not utilize one of our SaaS platforms. Our subscriber acquisition cost payback period has historically been less than one year.

Sales and Marketing

The goal of our sales team is to help our service provider partners succeed in selling, installing and supporting our full suite of solutions. Our sales team is also responsible for recruiting new service provider partners to Alarm.com. We also have a global business development team dedicated to establishing new service provider and distribution relationships in international markets.

Our marketing team is focused on empowering our service provider partners to effectively promote and sell our solutions. We design, develop and provide end-to-end marketing services including tools and content for lifecycle marketing to help our service providers build awareness, create interest, activate subscribers, develop and maintain the ongoing customer relationship, increase customer engagement, and generate upsell and referral opportunities. While we offer tools and services to assist our service providers when they are marketing to potential subscribers, we do not control or influence the marketing activities performed by our service providers, as they are free to select the marketing tools they believe will be the most effective. Our contracts with our service providers require that they comply with all applicable rules and laws when engaging in marketing activities. We also offer comprehensive training opportunities through our Alarm.com Academy, including in-person training courses and an online learning management system.

We believe our sales and marketing approach enables us to expand our breadth of service providers, provide highly customized services and scale quickly. As of December 31, 2018, we had 288 employees engaged in sales and marketing functions.

Service Provider Support

We support the full suite of software and hardware products on the Alarm.com platform through a highly trained and experienced team of professionals based in the United States. We primarily support our service provider partners. Our service provider partners, in turn, support their customers, who are our subscribers. To that end, subscribers occasionally reach us directly with support needs and we either assist the subscriber directly or, when appropriate, route the subscriber to the appropriate service provider partner for additional assistance.

We offer high-quality support to our service providers via phone, web ticketing and email. With every interaction, our team is committed to exceptional customer satisfaction and industry-leading response times. We use a tiered structure to efficiently escalate and resolve issues of varying complexity and to scale our support organization as we grow. Our staff is multilingual and we continue to grow our language capabilities to support our international expansion.

Our Competition

The market in which we participate for connected property solutions is fragmented, highly competitive and constantly evolving. We expect competition to continue from existing competitors as well as potential new market entrants in the interactive security, video monitoring, intelligent automation and energy management markets. Our current competitors include providers of other technology platforms for the connected property with interactive security, including Honeywell International Inc., Resideo Technologies Inc., Telular Corporation (acquired by AMETEK, Inc.), SecureNet Technologies, LLC, Alula (formed following the merger of ipDatatel, LLC and Resolution Products, LLC), and United Technologies Corporation, which sell solutions to service providers, cable operators, technology retailers and other residential and commercial automation providers. We also compete with interactive, monitored security solutions sold directly to subscribers by firms like Scout and SimpliSafe. In addition, our service provider partners compete with managed service providers, such as cable television, telephone and broadband companies like Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Charter Communications, Inc., and providers of point products, including Google Inc.'s Nest Labs, Inc. which offers the Nest Secure security system as well as a smart thermostat, the Nest Protect smart smoke detector and video cameras. Amazon.com offers Amazon Home Services security packages with bundled equipment and professional installation, and Amazon Key, a security camera and smart lock integration feature. Ring Inc., owned by Amazon.com, offers a connected video doorbell, video cameras and an integrated security system, Ring Alarm. Samsung's SmartThings offers a security system and a home automation and awareness hub. Arlo Technologies, Inc. offers connected video cameras, a connected video doorbell, and smart security devices. Apple Inc. offers a feature that allows some manufacturers’ connected devices and accessories to be controlled through its HomeKit service available in Apple’s iOS operating system. Additionally, Canary and other companies offer all in one video monitoring and awareness devices. In addition, we may compete with other large technology companies that offer control capabilities among their products, applications and services, and that may have ongoing development efforts to address the broader connected home market.

Many of our competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing, distribution and other resources than we have. We expect to encounter new competitors as we enter new markets as well as increased competition, both domestically and internationally, from other established and emerging residential and commercial security monitoring, video monitoring and automation, wellness, and energy management companies as well as large technology companies. In addition, there may be new technologies that are introduced that reduce demand for our solutions or make them obsolete. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties and rapidly acquire significant market share, or they may acquire third-party technology or solution providers that we partner with and choose not to offer those solutions on our platforms. Increased competition could also result in price reductions and loss of market share, any of which could result in lower revenue and negatively affect our ability to grow our business. We believe the principal competitive factors in the connected property market include the following:

•simplicity and ease of use;

•ability to offer persistent awareness, control, and intelligent automation;

•breadth of features and functionality provided;

•flexibility of the solutions and ability to personalize for the individual consumer;

•compatibility with a wide selection of third-party devices;

•pricing, affordability, and accessibility;

•sales reach and local installation and support capabilities; and

•brand awareness and reputation.

We believe that we compete favorably with respect to each of these factors. Additionally, we believe that our cloud-based software platforms, intelligently connected property solutions, and proven scalability help further differentiate us from competitors. Nevertheless, our competitors may have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, greater brand recognition, larger sales and marketing budgets and broader distribution channels than we do.

Our Intellectual Property

Our success and ability to compete effectively depend in part on our ability to protect our proprietary technology and to establish and adequately protect our intellectual property rights. To accomplish these objectives, we rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as license agreements, confidentiality agreements and other contractual protections.

As of December 31, 2018, we owned 188 issued United States utility patents, one issued United States design patent, three issued Canadian patents and one issued Australian patent that are scheduled to expire between 2021 and 2037. We continue to file patent applications and as of December 31, 2018, we had 178 pending utility patent applications and 45 provisional patent applications filed in the United States. We also had ten pending patent applications in Canada, nine pending patent applications in Europe, eight pending patent applications in Australia and 20 international patent applications pending under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The claims for which we have sought patent protection apply to both our platforms and solutions. Our patent and patent applications generally apply to the features and functions of our platforms, and solutions and the applications associated with our platforms. We also have, and may be required to seek, licenses under patents or intellectual property rights owned by third parties, including open-source software and other commercially available software.

We also rely on several registered and unregistered trademarks to protect our brand. We have 19 registered trademarks in the United States, including Alarm.com and the Alarm.com logo and design, and six registered trademarks in Canada.

We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by requiring our employees and independent contractors involved in development to enter into agreements acknowledging that all inventions, trade secrets, works of authorship, developments, concepts, processes, improvements and other works generated by them on our behalf are our intellectual property, and assigning to us any rights, including intellectual property rights, that they may claim in those works.

We expect that products in our industry may be subject to third-party infringement lawsuits as the number of competitors grows and the functionality of products in different industry segments overlaps. We have brought infringement claims against third parties in the past and may do so in the future to defend our intellectual property position. In addition, from time to time, we may face claims by third parties that we infringe upon or misappropriate their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon or to have misappropriated such rights. In the future, we, or our service providers or subscribers, may be the subject of legal proceedings alleging that our solutions or underlying technology infringe or violate the intellectual property rights of others.

Employees

As of December 31, 2018, we had 884 full-time employees. We also engage consultants and temporary employees from time to time. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.

Corporate Information

We were founded in 2000 as a business unit within MicroStrategy Incorporated. We were incorporated in 2003 under the name Alarm.com Incorporated as a majority-owned subsidiary of MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy sold all its interests in Alarm.com Incorporated in 2009 and we established Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. in connection with the sale transaction. Our principal executive offices are located at 8281 Greensboro Drive, Suite 100, Tysons, Virginia 22102. Our telephone number is (877) 389-4033. We completed our initial public offering in July 2015 and our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "ALRM."

On January 1, 2017, we acquired certain assets of ObjectVideo, Inc., or ObjectVideo, that constituted a business now called ObjectVideo Labs, LLC, or ObjectVideo Labs, including products, technology portfolio and engineering team. ObjectVideo is a pioneer in the fields of video analytics and computer vision with technology that extracts meaning and intelligence from video streams in real-time to enable object tracking, pattern recognition and activity identification.

On March 8, 2017, we acquired certain assets related to the Connect business unit of Icontrol Networks, Inc., or Icontrol, and all of the outstanding equity interests of the two subsidiaries through which Icontrol conducted its Piper business. Connect provides a custom, on-premise interactive security and home automation platform for ADT Pulse® and several other service providers. Piper provides an all-in-one video and home automation hub.

Available Information

Our website is located at www.alarm.com and our investor relations website is located at http://investors.alarm.com. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, are available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information. The address of the SEC’s website is www.sec.gov.

Webcasts of our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community are on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our business and financial performance, SEC filings, investor events, and our press and earnings releases, as part of our investor relations website. Investors and others can receive real-time notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website by signing up for email alerts and RSS feeds. Further corporate governance information, including our corporate governance guidelines and board committee charters, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading "Corporate Governance." The contents of our websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Our business is subject to numerous risks. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as our other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated and are likely to continue to fluctuate. As a result, we may fail to meet or exceed the expectations of investors or securities analysts, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our quarterly operating results, including the levels of our revenue, gross margin, cash flow and deferred revenue, may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, including revenue related to the product mix that we sell, the relative sales related to our platforms and solutions and other factors which are outside of our control. If our quarterly revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Fluctuations in our results of operations may be due to a number of factors, including:


•	the portion of our revenue attributable to software as a service, or SaaS, and license versus hardware and other sales;


•	our ability to manage the businesses we have acquired, and to integrate and manage any future acquisitions of businesses;


•	fluctuations in demand, including due to seasonality, for our platforms and solutions;


•	changes in pricing by us in response to competitive pricing actions;


•	our ability to increase, retain and incentivize the service provider partners that market, sell, install and support our platforms and solutions;


•	the ability of our hardware vendors to continue to manufacture high-quality products and to supply sufficient products to meet our demands;


•	the timing and success of introductions of new solutions, products or upgrades by us or our competitors and the entrance of new competitors;


•	changes in our business and pricing policies or those of our competitors;


•	the ability to accurately forecast revenue as we generally rely upon our service provider partner network to generate new revenue;


•	our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses and the costs of the hardware we purchase;


•	changes in U.S. trade policies, including new or potential tariffs or penalties on imported products;


•	competition, including entry into the industry by new competitors and new offerings by existing competitors;


•	issues related to introductions of new or improved products such as shortages of prior generation products or short-term decreased demand for next generation products;


•	perceived or actual problems with the security, integrity, reliability, quality or compatibility of our solutions, including those related to security breaches in our systems, our subscribers’ systems, unscheduled downtime, or outages;


•	the amount and timing of expenditures, including those related to expanding our operations, including through acquisitions, increasing research and development, introducing new solutions or paying litigation expenses;


•	the ability to effectively manage growth within existing and new markets domestically and abroad;


•	changes in the payment terms for our platforms and solutions;


•	collectibility of receivables due from service provider partners and other third parties;


•	the strength of regional, national and global economies; and


•	the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events or man-made problems such as terrorism or global or regional economic, political and social conditions.

Due to the foregoing factors and the other risks discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should not rely on quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations as an indication of our future performance. You should not consider our recent revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth or results of one quarter as indicative of our future performance. See the Non-GAAP Measures section of Item 7. "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," for a discussion of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most comparable GAAP measurement, for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

We may not sustain our growth rate and we may not be able to manage any future growth effectively.

We have experienced significant growth and also have substantially expanded our operations in a short period of time. Our revenue increased from $167.3 million in 2014 to $420.5 million in 2018. We do not expect to achieve similar growth rates in future periods. You should not rely on our operating results for any prior quarterly or annual periods as an indication of our future operating performance. If we are unable to maintain expected revenue growth in both absolute dollars and as a percentage of prior period revenue, our financial results could suffer and our stock price could decline.

Our future operating results depend, to a large extent, on our ability to successfully manage our anticipated expansion and growth. To successfully manage our growth and obligations as a public company, we believe we must effectively, among other things:


•	maintain our relationships with existing service provider partners and add new service provider partners;


•	increase our subscriber base and help our service provider partners maintain and improve their revenue retention rates, while also expanding their cross-sell effectiveness;


•	manage our relationships with our hardware vendors and other key suppliers;


•	add, train and integrate sales and marketing personnel;


•	expand our international operations; and


•	continue to implement and improve our administrative, financial and operational systems, procedures and controls.

We intend to continue to invest in research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative functions and other areas to grow our business. We are likely to recognize the costs associated with these increased investments earlier than some of the anticipated benefits and the return on these investments may be lower, or may develop more slowly, than we expect, which could adversely affect our operating results.

If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities or develop new solutions or enhancements to our existing solutions and we may fail to satisfy subscriber and service provider partner requirements, maintain the quality of our solutions, execute on our business plan or respond to competitive pressures, which could result in our financial results suffering and a decline in our stock price.

We have expanded our business rapidly in recent periods. If we fail to manage the expansion of our operations and infrastructure effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service or address competitive challenges adequately.

We increased our number of full-time employees from 400 as of December 31, 2014 to 884 as of December 31, 2018. Our growth has placed, and may continue to place, a significant strain on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial and other resources. We intend to further expand our overall business, service provider partner network, subscriber base, headcount and operations, including by acquiring other businesses. Creating a global organization and managing a geographically dispersed workforce will require substantial management effort and significant additional investment in our infrastructure. We will be required to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting procedures to ensure timely and accurate reporting of our operational and financial results and we may not be able to do so effectively. As such, we may be unable to manage our expenses effectively in the future, which may negatively impact our gross profit or operating expenses in any particular quarter. If we fail to manage our anticipated growth and change in a manner that preserves the key aspects of our corporate culture, the quality of our solutions may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to retain and attract service provider partners and consumers.

From time to time, we are involved in legal proceedings where a negative outcome, including an adverse litigation judgment or settlement, could expose us to monetary damages or limit our ability to operate our business, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We are involved and have been involved in the past in legal proceedings from time to time. For example, on June 2, 2015, Vivint filed a lawsuit against us alleging that our technology directly and indirectly infringes six patents purchased by Vivint. On December 30, 2015, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against us, alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA. On October 25, 2018, we entered into a definitive settlement agreement, or the Settlement Agreement, with the plaintiffs to settle the class action lawsuit for $28.0 million. On December 19, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, or the Court, granted preliminary approval of the Settlement Agreement. The settlement is not final, however, unless and until the Settlement Agreement is approved by the Court following a notice period and a fairness hearing. See the section of this Annual Report titled "Legal Proceedings" for additional information on each of these matters. We may not be able to accurately assess the risks related to any of these suits, and we may be unable to accurately assess our level of exposure as the results of any such litigation, investigations and other legal proceedings are inherently unpredictable and expensive. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation, damage our reputation, require significant amounts of management time and divert significant resource. Companies in our industry have been subject to claims related to patent infringement, regulatory matters, and product liability, as well as contract and employment-related claims. As a result of patent infringement and other intellectual property proceedings, we have, and may be required to seek in the future, licenses under patents or intellectual property rights owned by third parties, including open-source software and other commercially available software, which can be costly, or cross-license agreements relating to our and third-party intellectual property. The outcome of legal claims and proceedings against us cannot be predicted with certainty, and a negative outcome could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Our business operates in a regulated industry.

Our business, operations and service provider partners are subject to various U.S. federal, state and local consumer protection laws, licensing regulation and other laws and regulations, and, to a lesser extent, similar Canadian laws and regulations. Our advertising and sales practices and that of our service provider partner network are subject to regulation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, in addition to state consumer protection laws. The FTC and the Federal Communications Commission have issued regulations that place restrictions on, among other things, unsolicited automated telephone calls to residential and wireless telephone subscribers by means of automatic telephone dialing systems and the use of prerecorded or artificial voice messages. If our service provider partners were to take actions in violation of these regulations, such as telemarketing to individuals on the "Do Not Call" registry or using automatic telephone dialing systems and prerecorded or artificial voice messages, we could be subject to fines, penalties, private actions or enforcement actions by government regulators. For example, on December 30, 2015, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against us, alleging violations of the TCPA. On December 19, 2018, the Court granted preliminary approval of a Settlement Agreement we entered into with the plaintiffs to settle the case. In connection with the Settlement Agreement, which remains subject to final Court approval, we have agreed, among other things, to pay total cash consideration of $28.0 million into a settlement fund, and to implement certain business practice changes to increase awareness of TCPA compliance. See the section of this Annual Report titled "Legal Proceedings" for additional information on this matter. Although we have taken steps to insulate ourselves from any such wrongful conduct by our service provider partners, and to contractually require our service provider partners to comply with these laws and regulations, no assurance can be given that we will not be exposed to liability as result of our service provider partners’ conduct. Further, to the extent that any changes in law or regulation further restrict the lead generation activity of our service provider partners, these restrictions could result in a material reduction in subscriber acquisition opportunities, reducing the growth prospects of our business and adversely affecting our financial condition and future cash flows. In addition, most states in which we operate have licensing laws directed specifically toward the monitored security services industry. Our business relies heavily upon cellular telephone service to communicate signals. Cellular telephone companies are currently regulated by both federal and state governments. Changes in laws or regulations could require us to change the way we operate, which could increase costs or otherwise disrupt operations. In addition, failure to comply with any such applicable laws or regulations could result in substantial fines or revocation of our operating permits and licenses, including in geographic areas where our services have substantial penetration, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. Further, if these laws and regulations were to change or if we fail to comply with such laws and regulations as they exist today or in the future, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The markets in which we participate are highly competitive and many companies, including large technology companies, broadband and security service providers and other managed service providers, are actively targeting the home automation, security monitoring, video monitoring and energy management markets. If we are unable to compete effectively with these companies, our sales and profitability could be adversely affected.

We compete in several markets, including security, video, automation, energy management and wellness solutions. The markets in which we participate are highly competitive and competition may intensify in the future.

Our ability to compete depends on a number of factors, including:


•	our platforms and solutions’ functionality, performance, ease of use, reliability, availability and cost effectiveness relative to that of our competitors’ products;


•	our success in utilizing new and proprietary technologies to offer solutions and features previously not available in the marketplace;


•	our success in identifying new markets, applications and technologies;


•	our ability to attract and retain service provider partners;


•	our name recognition and reputation;


•	our ability to recruit software engineers and sales and marketing personnel; and


•	our ability to protect our intellectual property.

Consumers may prefer to purchase from their existing suppliers rather than a new supplier regardless of product performance or features. In the event a consumer decides to evaluate a new home automation, security monitoring, video monitoring, energy management, or wellness solution, the consumer may be more inclined to select one of our competitors whose product offerings are broader than those that we offer.

Our current competitors include providers of other technology platforms for the connected property with interactive security, including Honeywell International Inc., Resideo Technologies Inc., Telular Corporation (acquired by AMETEK, Inc.), SecureNet Technologies, LLC, Alula (formed following the merger of ipDatatel, LLC and Resolution Products, LLC), and United Technologies Corporation, which sell solutions to service providers, cable operators, technology retailers and other residential and commercial automation providers. We also compete with interactive, monitored security solutions sold directly to subscribers by firms like Scout and SimpliSafe. In addition, our service provider partners compete with managed service providers, such as cable television, telephone and broadband companies like Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Charter Communications, Inc., and providers of point products, including Google Inc.'s Nest Labs, Inc. which offers the Nest Secure security system as well as a smart thermostat, the Nest Protect smart smoke detector and video cameras. Amazon.com offers Amazon Home Services security packages with bundled equipment and professional installation, and Amazon Key, a security camera and smart lock integration feature. Ring Inc., owned by Amazon.com, offers a connected video doorbell, video cameras and an integrated security system, Ring Alarm. Samsung's SmartThings offers a security system and a home automation and awareness hub. Arlo Technologies, Inc. offers connected video cameras, a connected video doorbell, and smart security devices. Apple Inc. offers a feature that allows some manufacturers’ connected devices and accessories to be controlled through its HomeKit service available in Apple’s iOS operating system. Additionally, Canary and other companies offer all in one video monitoring and awareness devices. In addition, we may compete with other large technology companies that offer control capabilities among their products, applications and services, and have ongoing development efforts to address the broader connected home market.

Many of our competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing, distribution and other resources than we have. We expect to encounter new competitors as we enter new markets as well as increased competition, both domestically and internationally, from other established and emerging home automation, security monitoring, video monitoring and automation, wellness, and energy management companies as well as large technology companies. In addition, there may be new technologies that are introduced that reduce demand for our solutions or make them obsolete. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties and rapidly acquire significant market share. Increased competition could also result in price reductions and loss of market share, any of which could result in lower revenue and negatively affect our ability to grow our business.

Aggressive business tactics by our competitors may reduce our revenue.

Increased competition in the markets in which we compete may result in aggressive business tactics by our competitors, including:


•	selling at a discount;


•	offering products similar to our platforms and solutions on a bundled basis at no charge;


•	announcing competing products combined with extensive marketing efforts;


•	providing financing incentives to consumers; and


•	asserting intellectual property rights irrespective of the validity of the claims.

Our service provider partners may switch and offer the products and services of competing companies, which would adversely affect our sales and profitability. Competition from other companies may also adversely affect our negotiations with service provider partners and suppliers, including, in some cases, requiring us to lower our prices. Opportunities to take market share using innovative products, services and sales approaches may also attract new entrants to the field. We may not be able to compete successfully with the offerings and sales tactics of other companies, which could result in the loss of service provider partners offering our platforms and solutions and, as a result, our revenue and profitability could be adversely affected.

If we fail to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, or if our current or future competitors employ aggressive business tactics, including those described above, demand for our platforms and solutions could decline, we could experience cancellations of our services to consumers, or we could be required to reduce our prices or increase our expenses.

The proper and efficient functioning of our network operations centers and data back-up systems is central to our solutions.

Our solutions operate with a hosted architecture and we update our solutions regularly while our solutions are operating. If our solutions and/or upgrades fail to operate properly, our solutions could stop functioning for a period of time, which could put our users at risk. Our ability to keep our business operating is highly dependent on the proper and efficient operation of our network operations centers and data back-up systems. Although our network operations centers have back-up computer and power systems, if there is a catastrophic event, natural disaster, terrorist attack, security breach or other extraordinary event, we may be unable to provide our subscribers with uninterrupted monitoring service or may be unable to adequately protect confidential information and data from unauthorized access or loss. Furthermore, because data back-up systems are susceptible to malfunctions and interruptions (including those due to equipment damage, power outages, human error, computer viruses, computer hacking, data corruption and a range of other hardware, software and network problems), we cannot guarantee that we will not experience data back-up failures in the future. A significant or large-scale, security breach, malfunction or interruption of our network operations centers or data back-up systems could adversely affect our ability to keep our operations running efficiently or could result in unauthorized access to or loss of data. If such an event results in unauthorized access to or loss of service provider partner, subscriber, employee or other personally identifiable data subject to data privacy and security laws and regulations, then it could result in substantial fines by U.S. federal and state authorities, foreign data privacy authorities in the European Union, or the EU, Canada, and other countries, and/or private claims by companies or individuals. If a malfunction or security breach results in a wider or sustained disruption, it could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

We sell security and life safety solutions and if our solutions fail for any reason, we could be subject to liability and our business could suffer.

We sell security and life safety solutions, which are designed to secure the safety of our subscribers and their residences or commercial properties. If these solutions fail for any reason, including due to defects in our software, a carrier outage, a failure of our network operations centers, a failure on the part of one of our service provider partners or user error, we could be subject to liability for such failures and our business could suffer.

Our platforms and solutions may contain undetected defects in the software, infrastructure, third-party components or processes. If our platforms or solutions suffer from defects, we could experience harm to our branded reputation, claims by our subscribers or service provider partners or lost revenue during the period required to address the cause of the defects. We may find defects in new, acquired or upgraded solutions, resulting in loss of, or delay in, market acceptance of our platforms and solutions, which could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

Since solutions that enable our platforms are installed by our service provider partners, if they do not install or maintain such solutions correctly, our platforms and solutions may not function properly. If the improper installation or maintenance of our

platforms and solutions leads to service or equipment failures after introduction of, or an upgrade to, our platforms or a solution, we could experience harm to our branded reputation, claims by our subscribers or service provider partners or lost revenue during the period required to address the cause of the problem. Further, we rely on our service provider partners to provide the primary source of support and ongoing service to our subscribers and, if our service provider partners fail to provide an adequate level of support and services to our subscribers, it could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

Any defect in, or disruption to, our platforms and solutions could cause consumers not to purchase additional solutions from us, prevent potential consumers from purchasing our platforms and solutions or harm our reputation. Although our contracts with our service provider partners limit our liability to our service provider partners for these defects, disruptions or errors, we nonetheless could be subject to litigation for actual or alleged losses to our service provider partners or our subscribers, which may require us to spend significant time and money in litigation or arbitration, or to pay significant settlements or damages. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, could be costly, divert management's attention and affect our ability to obtain or maintain liability insurance on acceptable terms and could harm our business. Although we currently maintain some warranty reserves, we cannot assure you that these warranty reserves will be sufficient to cover future liabilities.

Failure to maintain the security of our information and technology networks, including information relating to our service provider partners, subscribers and employees, could adversely affect us.

We are dependent on information technology networks and systems, including the Internet, to process, transmit and store electronic information and, in the normal course of our business, we collect and retain certain information pertaining to our service provider partners, subscribers and employees, including credit card information for many of our service provider partners and certain of our subscribers. If security breaches in connection with the delivery of our solutions allow unauthorized third parties to access any of this data or obtain control of our subscribers’ systems, our reputation, business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed.

The legal, regulatory and contractual environment surrounding information security, privacy and credit card fraud is constantly evolving and companies that collect and retain such information are under increasing attack by cyber-criminals around the world. Further, as the regulatory focus on privacy issues continues to increase and worldwide laws and regulations concerning the protection of personal information expand and become more complex, these potential risks to our business will intensify. A significant actual or potential theft, loss, fraudulent use or misuse of service provider partner, subscriber, employee or other personally identifiable data, whether by third parties or as a result of employee malfeasance or otherwise, non-compliance with our contractual or other legal obligations regarding such data or a violation of our privacy and security policies with respect to such data could result in loss of confidential information, damage to our reputation, early termination of our service provider partner contracts, litigation, regulatory investigations or actions and other liabilities or actions against us, including significant fines by U.S. federal and state authorities, foreign data privacy authorities in the EU, Canada, and other countries and private claims by companies and individuals for violation of data privacy and security regulations. Moreover, to the extent that any such exposure leads to credit card fraud or identity theft, we may experience a general decline in consumer confidence in our business, which may lead to an increase in attrition rates or may make it more difficult to attract new subscribers. If any one of these risks materializes our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

If our security measures are breached, including any breaches caused by cyber-attacks, our reputation may be damaged, we may be exposed to significant liabilities under U.S. and foreign laws, and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Cyber-attacks from computer hackers and cyber criminals and other malicious Internet-based activity continue to increase generally, and perpetrators of cyber-attacks may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms, ransomware, malware, DNS attacks, wireless network attacks, attacks on our cloud networks, phishing attempts, distributed denial of service attacks and other advanced persistent threats or malicious software programs that attack our products and services, our networks and network endpoints or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of our products, services and networks. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target. As a result, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. We cannot be certain that advances in cyber-capabilities or other developments will not compromise or breach the technology protecting the networks that access our platforms and solutions, and we can make no assurance that we will be able to detect, prevent, timely and adequately address or mitigate the negative effects of cyber-attacks or other security breaches.

Security breaches of, or sustained attacks against, our networks and infrastructure could create system disruptions and shutdowns that could result in disruptions to our operations or unauthorized access to or loss of our data. If such an event results in unauthorized access to or loss of any data subject to data privacy and security laws and regulations, then we could be subject to substantial fines by U.S. federal and state authorities, foreign data privacy authorities in the EU, Canada, and other countries, and private claims by companies or individuals. A system disruption, shutdown, or loss of data may result in adverse publicity and therefore adversely affect the market's perception of the security and reliability of our services. A cyber-attack may cause

additional costs, such as investigative and remediation costs, and the costs of providing individuals and/or data owners with notice of the breach, legal fees and the costs of any additional fraud detection activities required by law, a court or a third-party. Additionally, some of our customer contracts require us to indemnify customers from damages they may incur as a result of a breach of our networks and systems. There can be no assurance that the limitation of liability provisions in our contracts for a security breach would be enforceable or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. While we maintain general liability insurance coverage and coverage for technology errors or omissions, we cannot assure you that such coverage will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims related to a breach, will continue to be available on acceptable terms or at all. If any one of these risks materializes our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We rely on our service provider partner network to acquire additional subscribers, and the inability of our service provider partners to attract additional subscribers or retain their current subscribers could adversely affect our operating results.

Substantially all of our revenue is generated through the sales of our platforms and solutions by our service provider partners, who incorporate our solutions in certain of the products and packages they sell to their customers, and our service provider partners are responsible for subscriber acquisition, as well as providing customer service and technical support for our platforms and solutions to the subscribers. We provide our service provider partners with specific training and programs to assist them in selling and providing support for our platforms and solutions, but we cannot assure that these steps will be effective. In addition, we rely on our service provider partners to sell our platforms and solutions into new markets in the intelligent and connected property space. If our service provider partners are unsuccessful in marketing, selling and supporting our platforms and solutions, our operating results could be adversely affected.

In order for us to maintain our current revenue sources and grow our revenues, we must effectively manage and grow relationships with our service provider partners. Recruiting and retaining qualified service provider partners and training them in our technology and solutions requires significant time and resources. If we fail to maintain existing service provider partners or develop relationships with new service provider partners, our revenue and operating results would be adversely affected. In addition, to execute on our strategy to expand our sales internationally, we must develop relationships with service provider partners that sell into these markets.

Any of our service provider partners may choose to offer a product from one of our competitors instead of our platforms and solutions, elect to develop their own competing solutions or simply discontinue their operations with us. For example, we entered into a license agreement in November 2013 with Vivint Inc., or Vivint, pursuant to which we granted a license to use the intellectual property associated with our connected home solutions. Under the terms of this arrangement, Vivint has transitioned from selling our solutions directly to its customers to selling its own home automation product to its new customers. We now generate revenue from a monthly fee charged to Vivint on a per customer basis from sales of this service provider partner’s product; however, these monthly fees are less on a per customer basis than fees we receive from our SaaS solutions. Therefore, we receive less revenue on a per customer basis from Vivint compared to our SaaS subscriber base, which may result in a lower revenue growth rate. We must also work to expand our network of service provider partners to ensure that we have sufficient geographic coverage and technical expertise to address new markets and technologies. While it is difficult to estimate the total number of available service provider partners in our markets, there are a finite number of service provider partners that are able to perform the types of technical installations required for our platforms and solutions. In the event that we saturate the available service provider pool, or if market or other forces cause the available pool of service providers to decline, it may be increasingly difficult to grow our business. If we are unable to expand our network of service provider partners, our business could be harmed.

As the consumers’ product and service options grow, it is important that we enhance our service provider partner footprint by broadening the expertise of our service provider partners, working with larger and more sophisticated service provider partners and expanding the mainstream solutions our service provider partners offer. If we do not succeed in this effort, our current and potential future service provider partners may be unable or unwilling to broaden their offerings to include our connected property solutions, resulting in harm to our business.

We receive a substantial portion of our revenue from a limited number of service provider partners, and the loss of, or a significant reduction in, orders from one or more of our major service provider partners would result in decreased revenue and profitability.

Our success is highly dependent upon establishing and maintaining successful relationships with a variety of service provider partners. We market and sell our platforms and solutions through a channel assisted sales model and we derive substantially all of our revenue from these service provider partners. We generally enter into agreements with our service provider partners outlining the terms of our relationship, including service provider pricing commitments, installation, maintenance and support requirements, and our sales registration process for registering potential sales to subscribers. These contracts typically have an initial term of one year, with subsequent renewal terms of one year, and are terminable at the end of the initial term or renewal terms without cause upon written notice to the other party. In some cases, these contracts provide the

service provider partner with the right to terminate prior to the expiration of the term without cause upon 30 days written notice, or, in the case of certain termination events, the right to terminate the contract immediately. While we have developed a network of over 8,000 service provider partners to sell, install and support our platforms and solutions, we receive a substantial portion of our revenue from a limited number of channel partners and significant customers. During the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, our 10 largest revenue service provider partners accounted for 57%, 60% and 60% of our revenue. Monitronics International, Inc., rebranded and now doing business as Brinks Home Security, represented greater than 10% but not more than 15% of our revenue in 2016 and 2017. ADT LLC represented greater than 15% but not more than 20% of our revenue in 2017 and 2018.

We anticipate that we will continue to be dependent upon a limited number of service provider partners for a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future and, in some cases, a portion of our revenue attributable to individual service provider partners may increase in the future. The loss of one or more key service provider partners, a reduction in sales through any major service provider partners or the inability or unwillingness of any of our major service provider partners to pay for our platforms and solutions would reduce our revenue and could impair our profitability.

Substantially all of the revenues associated with the non-hosted software platform, or Software platform, are from a single customer and the loss of this customer could harm our operating results.

In March 2017, we acquired certain assets related to the Connect business unit of Icontrol Networks, Inc., or Icontrol, and all of the outstanding equity interests of the two subsidiaries through which Icontrol conducted its Piper business, which we refer to in this report as the Acquisition. Historically, ADT LLC, or ADT, has accounted for substantially all of the revenue of the Connect business unit. While we amended our master service agreement with ADT to cover services provided with respect to the Software platform, we cannot assure you that we will be able to meet the conditions set forth in the amended agreement or that ADT will use the Software platform for its new customers or keep its existing customers on the Software platform. In addition, even if ADT continues to use the Software platform, we cannot assure you that the revenue from ADT or new accounts added by ADT will reach or exceed historical levels in any future period. We may not be able to offset any unanticipated decline in revenue from ADT with revenues from new customers or other existing customers. Because the Software platform relies on ADT for substantially all of its revenue, any negative developments in ADT’s business, or any decrease in revenue from or loss of ADT as a customer could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We have relatively limited visibility regarding the consumers that ultimately purchase our solutions, and we often rely on information from third-party service providers to help us manage our business. If these service providers fail to provide timely or accurate information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed.

We sell our solutions through service provider partners. These service provider partners work with consumers to design, install, update and maintain their connected home and commercial installations and manage the relationship with our subscribers. While we are able to track orders from service provider partners and have access to certain information about the configurations of their Alarm.com systems that we receive through our platforms, we also rely on service provider partners to provide us with information about consumer behavior, product and system feedback, consumer demographics and buying patterns. We use this channel sell-through data, along with other metrics, to forecast our revenue, assess consumer demand for our solution, develop new solutions, adjust pricing and make other strategic business decisions. Channel sell-through data is subject to limitations due to collection methods and the third-party nature of the data and thus may not be complete or accurate. If we do not receive consumer information on a timely or accurate basis, or if we do not properly interpret this information, our ability to quickly react to market changes and effectively manage our business may be harmed.

Consumers may choose to adopt point products that provide control of discrete functions rather than adopting our connected property platforms. If we are unable to increase market awareness of the benefits of our unified solutions, our revenue may not continue to grow, or it may decline.

Many vendors have emerged, and may continue to emerge, to provide point products with advanced functionality for use in connected properties, such as a video doorbell or thermostat that can be controlled by an application on a smartphone. We expect more and more consumer electronic and consumer appliance products to be network-aware and connected — each very likely to have its own smart device (phone or tablet) application. Consumers may be attracted to the relatively low costs of these point products and the ability to expand their connected property control solution over time with minimal upfront costs, despite some of the disadvantages of this approach, may reduce demand for our connected property solutions. If so, our service provider partners may switch and offer the point products and services of competing companies, which would adversely affect our sales and profitability. If a significant number of consumers in our target market choose to adopt point products rather than our connected property solutions, then our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve sustained growth or our business may decline.

Mergers or other strategic transactions involving our competitors could weaken our competitive position, which could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively and harm our results of operations.

Our industry is highly fragmented, and we believe it is likely that some of our existing competitors will consolidate or be acquired. In addition, some of our competitors may enter into new alliances with each other or may establish or strengthen cooperative relationships with systems integrators, third-party consulting firms or other parties. Any such consolidation, acquisition, alliance or cooperative relationship could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively and lead to pricing pressure and our loss of market share and could result in a competitor with greater financial, technical, marketing, service and other resources, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We are dependent on our connected property solutions, and the lack of continued market acceptance of our connected property solutions would result in lower revenue.

Our connected property solutions account for substantially all of our revenue and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As a result, our revenue could be reduced by:


•	any decline in demand for our connected property solutions;


•	the failure of our connected property solutions to achieve continued market acceptance;


•	the introduction of products and technologies that serve as a replacement or substitute for, or represent an improvement over, our connected property solutions;


•	technological innovations or new communications standards that our connected property solutions do not address; and


•	our inability to release enhanced versions of our connected property solutions on a timely basis.

We are vulnerable to fluctuations in demand for Internet-connected devices in general and interactive security systems in particular. If the market for connected home and commercial solutions grows more slowly than anticipated or if demand for connected home and commercial solutions does not grow as quickly as anticipated, whether as a result of competition, product obsolescence, technological change, unfavorable economic conditions, uncertain geopolitical environments, budgetary constraints of our consumers or other factors, we may not be able to continue to increase our revenue and earnings and our stock price would decline.

A significant decline in our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We generally bill our service provider partners based on the number of subscribers they have on our platforms and the features being utilized by subscribers on a monthly basis in advance. Subscribers could elect to terminate our services in any given month. If our efforts and our service provider partners’ efforts to satisfy our existing subscribers are not successful, we may not be able to retain them or sell additional functionality to them and, as a result, our revenue and ability to grow could be adversely affected. We track our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate on an annualized basis, as reflected in the section of this Annual Report titled "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Other Business Metrics — SaaS and License Revenue Renewal Rate." However, our service provider partners, who resell our services to our subscribers, have indicated that they typically have three to five-year service contracts with our subscribers. Our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate is calculated across our entire subscriber base, including subscribers whose contract with their service provider reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, as well as subscribers whose contract with their service provider has not reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, and is not intended to estimate the rate at which our subscribers renew their contracts with our service provider partners. As a result, we may not be able to accurately predict future trends in renewals and the resulting churn. Subscribers may choose not to renew their contracts for many reasons, including the belief that our service is not required for their needs or is otherwise not cost-effective, a desire to reduce discretionary spending, or a belief that our competitors’ services provide better value. Additionally, our subscribers may not renew for reasons entirely out of our control, such as moving a residence or the dissolution of their business, which is particularly common for small to mid-sized businesses. A significant increase in our churn would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

If we are unable to develop new solutions, sell our platforms and solutions into new markets or further penetrate our existing markets, our revenue may not grow as expected.

Our ability to increase sales will depend, in large part, on our ability to enhance and improve our platforms and solutions, introduce new solutions in a timely manner, sell into new markets and further penetrate our existing markets. The success of any enhancement or new solution or service depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction and market acceptance of enhanced or new solutions, the ability to maintain and develop relationships with service providers, the ability to attract, retain and effectively train sales and marketing personnel and the effectiveness of our marketing programs. Any new product or service we develop or acquire may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, and may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue. Any new markets into which we attempt to sell our platforms and solutions, including new vertical markets and new countries or regions, may not be receptive. Our ability to further penetrate our existing markets depends on the quality of our platforms and solutions and our ability to design our platforms and solutions to meet consumer demand.

We benefit from integration of our solutions with third-party platform providers. If these developers choose not to partner with us, or are acquired by our competitors, our business and results of operations may be harmed.

Our solutions are incorporated into the hardware of our third-party platform providers. For example, our hardware platform partners produce control devices that deliver our platform services to subscribers. It may be necessary in the future to renegotiate agreements relating to various aspects of these solutions or other third-party solutions. The inability to easily integrate with, or any defects in, any third-party solutions could result in increased costs, or in delays in new product releases or updates to our existing solutions until such issues have been resolved, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows, results of operations and future prospects and could damage our reputation. In addition, if these third-party solution providers choose not to partner with us, choose to integrate their solutions with our competitors’ platforms, or are unable or unwilling to update their solutions, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed. Further, if third-party solution providers that we partner with or that we would benefit from partnering with are acquired by our competitors, they may choose not to offer their solutions on our platforms, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We rely on wireless carriers to provide access to wireless networks through which we provide our wireless alarm, notification and intelligent automation services, and any interruption of such access would impair our business.

We rely on wireless carriers to provide access to wireless networks for machine-to-machine data transmissions, which are an integral part of our services. Our wireless carriers may suspend wireless service to expand, maintain or improve their networks, or may discontinue or sunset older wireless networks as new technology evolves. Any suspension or other interruption of services would adversely affect our ability to provide our services to our service provider partners and subscribers and may adversely affect our reputation. In addition, the inability to provide uninterrupted services, maintain our existing contracts with our wireless carriers or enter into new contracts with such wireless carriers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

If we are unable to adapt to technological change, including maintaining compatibility with a wide range of devices, our ability to remain competitive could be impaired.

The market for connected home and commercial solutions is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent introductions of new products and evolving industry standards. Our ability to attract new subscribers and increase revenue from existing subscribers will depend in significant part on our ability to anticipate changes in industry standards, to continue to enhance our existing solutions or introduce new solutions on a timely basis to keep pace with technological developments, and to maintain compatibility with a wide range of connected devices in residential and commercial properties. We may change aspects of our platforms and may utilize open source technology in the future, which may cause difficulties including compatibility, stability and time to market. The success of this or any enhanced or new product or solution will depend on several factors, including the timely completion and market acceptance of the enhanced or new product or solution. Similarly, if any of our competitors implement new technologies before we are able to implement them, those competitors may be able to provide more effective products than ours, possibly at lower prices. Any delay or failure in the introduction of new or enhanced solutions could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

The technology we employ may become obsolete, and we may need to incur significant capital expenditures to update our technology.

Our industry is characterized by rapid technological innovation. Our platforms and solutions interact with the hardware and software technology of systems and devices located at our subscribers’ properties and we depend upon cellular, broadband and other telecommunications providers to provide communication paths to our subscribers in a timely and efficient manner. We may be required to implement new technologies or adapt existing technologies in response to changing market conditions, consumer preferences or industry standards, which could require significant capital expenditures. The discontinuation of cellular communication technology, cellular networks or other services by telecommunications service providers can affect our services and require our subscribers to upgrade to alternative and potentially more expensive, technologies.

It is also possible that one or more of our competitors could develop a significant technical advantage that allows them to provide additional or superior quality products or services, or to lower their price for similar products or services, which could put us at a competitive disadvantage. Our inability to adapt to changing technologies, market conditions or consumer preferences in a timely manner could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

We depend on our suppliers, and the loss of any key supplier could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Our hardware products depend on the quality of components that we procure from third-party suppliers. Reliance on suppliers, as well as industry supply conditions, generally involves several risks, including the possibility of defective parts, which can adversely affect the reliability and reputation of our platforms and solutions, and a shortage of components and reduced control over delivery schedules and increases in component costs, which can adversely affect our profitability. We have several large hardware suppliers from which we procure hardware on a purchase order basis, including one supplier that supplied products and components in an amount equal to 25% of our hardware and other revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018. If these suppliers are unable to continue to provide a timely and reliable supply, we could experience interruptions in delivery of our platforms and solutions to our service provider partners, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. If we were required to find alternative sources of supply, qualification of alternative suppliers and the establishment of reliable supplies could result in delays and a possible loss of sales, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Growth of our business will depend on market awareness and a strong brand, and any failure to develop, maintain, protect and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to retain or attract subscribers.

We believe that building and maintaining market awareness, brand recognition and goodwill in a cost-effective manner is important to our overall success in achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future solutions and is an important element in attracting new service provider partners and subscribers. An important part of our business strategy is to increase service provider and consumer awareness of our brand and to provide marketing leadership, services and support to our service provider partner network. This will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide high-quality solutions, and we may not be able to do so effectively. While we may choose to engage in a broader marketing campaign to further promote our brand, this effort may not be successful. Our efforts in developing our brand may be hindered by the marketing efforts of our competitors and our reliance on our service provider partners and strategic partners to promote our brand. If we are unable to cost-effectively maintain and increase awareness of our brand, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed.

We operate in the emerging and evolving connected property market, which may develop more slowly or differently than we expect. If the connected property market does not grow as we expect, or if we cannot expand our platforms and solutions to meet the demands of this market, our revenue may decline, fail to grow or fail to grow at an accelerated rate, and we may incur operating losses.

The market for solutions that bring objects and systems not typically connected to the Internet, such as home automation, security monitoring, video monitoring, energy management and wellness solutions, into an Internet-like structure is in an early stage of development, and it is uncertain how rapidly or how consistently this market will develop and the degree to which our platforms and solutions will be accepted into the markets in which we operate. Some consumers may be reluctant or unwilling to use our platforms and solutions for a number of reasons, including satisfaction with traditional solutions, concerns about additional costs, concerns about data privacy and lack of awareness of the benefits of our platforms and solutions. Our ability to expand the sales of our platforms and solutions into new markets depends on several factors, including the awareness of our platforms and solutions, the timely completion, introduction and market acceptance of our platforms and solutions, the ability to attract, retain and effectively train sales and marketing personnel, the ability to develop relationships with service providers, the effectiveness of our marketing programs, the costs of our platforms and solutions and the success of our competitors. If we are unsuccessful in developing and marketing our platforms and solutions into new markets, or if consumers do not perceive or value the benefits of our platforms and solutions, the market for our platforms and solutions might not continue to develop or might develop more slowly than we expect, either of which would harm our revenue and growth prospects.

Risks of liability from our operations are significant.

The nature of the solutions we provide, including our interactive security solutions, potentially exposes us to greater risks of liability for employee acts or omissions, or technology or system failure than may be inherent in other businesses. Substantially all of our service provider partner agreements contain provisions limiting our liability to service provider partners and our subscribers in an attempt to reduce this risk. However, in the event of litigation with respect to these matters, we cannot assure you that these limitations will be enforced, and the costs of such litigation could have a material adverse effect on us. In addition, there can be no assurance that we are adequately insured for these risks. Certain of our insurance policies and the laws of some states may limit or prohibit insurance coverage for punitive or certain other types of damages or liability arising from gross negligence.

Our strategy includes pursuing acquisitions, and our potential inability to successfully integrate newly-acquired technologies, assets or businesses may harm our financial results. Future acquisitions of technologies, assets or businesses, which are paid for partially or entirely through the issuance of stock or stock rights, could dilute the ownership of our existing stockholders.

We believe part of our growth will continue to be driven by acquisitions of other companies or their technologies, assets and businesses. On March 8, 2017, we acquired Icontrol's Connect and Piper business units and we have acquired other businesses in the past. For example, we acquired EnergyHub, Inc. in 2013, we acquired the assets of Horizon Analog, Inc. and Secure-i, Inc., in December 2014, we acquired the assets of HiValley Technology Inc. in March 2015 and we acquired certain assets of ObjectVideo, Inc. in January 2017. These acquisitions and any other acquisitions we may complete in the future will give rise to certain risks, including:


•	incurring higher than anticipated capital expenditures and operating expenses;


•	failing to assimilate and integrate the operations and personnel or failing to retain the key personnel of the acquired company or business;


•	failing to retain customers, service providers and other third-party business partners seeking to terminate or renegotiate their relationships with us;


•	failing to integrate the acquired technologies, or incurring significant expense to integrate acquired technologies into our platforms and solutions;


•	disrupting our ongoing business;


•	encountering complexities associated with managing a larger, more complex and growing business;


•	diverting our management’s attention and other company resources;


•	failing to maintain uniform standards, controls and policies;


•	incurring significant accounting charges;


•	impairing relationships with employees, service provider partners or subscribers;


•	finding that the acquired technology, asset or business does not further our business strategy, that we overpaid for the technology, asset or business or that we may be required to write off acquired assets or investments partially or entirely;


•	failing to realize the expected synergies of the transaction;


•	being exposed to unforeseen liabilities and contingencies that were not identified prior to acquiring the company; and


•	being unable to generate sufficient revenue and profits from acquisitions to offset the associated acquisition costs.

Fully integrating an acquired technology, asset or business into our operations may take a significant amount of time. We may not be successful in overcoming these risks or any other problems encountered with acquisitions. To the extent we do not successfully avoid or overcome the risks or problems related to any such acquisitions, or fail to manage the acquired business or execute our integration and growth strategy in an efficient and effective manner, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed. Acquisitions also could impact our financial position and capital requirements, or could cause fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results of operations. Acquisitions could include significant goodwill and intangible

assets, which may result in future impairment charges that would reduce our stated earnings. We may incur significant costs in our efforts to engage in strategic transactions and these expenditures may not result in successful acquisitions.

We expect that the consideration we might pay for any future acquisitions of technologies, assets or businesses could include stock, rights to purchase stock, cash or some combination of the foregoing. If we issue stock or rights to purchase stock in connection with future acquisitions, net income per share and then-existing holders of our common stock may experience dilution.

We may pursue business opportunities that diverge from our current business model, which may cause our business to suffer.

We may pursue business opportunities that diverge from our current business model, including expanding our platforms and solutions and investing in new and unproven technologies. We can offer no assurance that any such new business opportunities will prove to be successful. Among other negative effects, our pursuit of such business opportunities could reduce operating margins and require more working capital, subject us to additional federal state, and local laws and regulations, materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

Evolving government and industry regulation and changes in applicable laws relating to the Internet and data privacy may increase our expenditures related to compliance efforts or otherwise limit the solutions we can offer, which may harm our business and adversely affect our financial condition.

As Internet commerce continues to evolve, federal, state or foreign agencies have adopted and could in the future adopt regulations covering issues such as user privacy and content. We are particularly sensitive to these risks because the Internet is a critical component of our SaaS business model. In addition, taxation of products or services provided over the Internet or other charges imposed by government agencies or by private organizations for accessing the Internet may be imposed. Any regulation imposing greater fees for Internet use or restricting information exchange over the Internet could result in a decline in the use of the Internet and the viability of Internet-based services, which could harm our business.

Our platforms and solutions enable us to collect, manage and store a wide range of data related to our subscribers’ interactive security, intelligent automation, video monitoring, energy management and wellness systems. A valuable component of our platforms and solutions is our ability to analyze this data to present the user with actionable business intelligence. We obtain our data from a variety of sources, including our service provider partners, our subscribers and third-party providers. We cannot assure you that the data we require for our proprietary data sets will be available from these sources in the future or that the cost of such data will not increase. The United States federal government and various state governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, storage and use of personal information. Several foreign jurisdictions, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, have adopted legislation (including directives or regulations) that is more rigorous governing data collection and storage than in the United States.

On June 28, 2018, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, which is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA governs the collection, sale and use of California residents’ personal information, and it will have significant impacts on businesses’ handling of personal information and existing privacy policies and procedures. The CCPA, as well as data privacy laws that have been proposed in other states, may limit our ability to use, process and store certain data, which may decrease adoption of our platforms and solutions, increase our costs for compliance, and harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. In addition, the CCPA may subject us to regulatory fines by the State of California, individual claims, and increased commercial liabilities.

The United States and the European Union, or EU, have a cooperative program for transferring personal data, referred to as the Privacy Shield, that went into effect on August 1, 2016. We have self-certified our compliance with the Privacy Shield framework since September 2016, and we use Model Contracts to transfer personal data from the EU to the United States in compliance with the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection. However, the validity of these data transfer mechanisms is continually being challenged in EU courts and by the EU Parliament. Further uncertainty may result if the United Kingdom, or UK, and the EU are unable to finalize an agreement on a transition period during which EU law would continue to apply to the UK beyond the UK’s potential withdrawal from the EU on March 29, 2019. As a result of these ongoing challenges, there will continue to be significant regulatory uncertainty surrounding the validity of data transfers from the EU and the UK to the United States.

The EU issued a new General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, that went into effect on May 25, 2018. Prior to May 25, 2018, we updated existing privacy and data security measures to comply with GDPR. As guidance on compliance with GDPR from the EU data protection authorities evolves over time, our privacy or data security measures may be deemed or perceived to be in noncompliance with current or future laws and regulations, which may subject us to litigation, regulatory investigations or other liabilities. Further, in the event of a breach of personal information that we hold, we may be subject to governmental fines, individual claims, remediation expenses and/or harm to our reputation. Moreover, if future laws and regulations limit our ability to use and share this data or our ability to store, process and share data over the Internet, demand for our platforms and solutions

could decrease, our costs could increase, and our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed.

In April 2018, we introduced a solution for certain service provider partners who may be subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and its implementing regulations, or HIPAA, which regulates the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information, or PHI. As a result, we are subject to HIPAA when PHI is accessed, created, maintained or transmitted through our solution by these service provider partners. We have implemented additional privacy and security policies and procedures, as well as administrative, physical and technical safeguards to enable our solution to be HIPAA compliant. Additionally, HIPAA compliance has required us to put in place certain agreements with contracting partners and to appoint a Privacy Officer and Security Officer. If our privacy and security policies or other safeguards for PHI are deemed to be in noncompliance by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, we may be subject to litigation, regulatory investigations or other liabilities. Further, in the event of a breach of PHI that we hold, we may be subject to governmental fines, individual claims under state privacy laws governing personal health information, remediation expenses and/or harm to our reputation. Furthermore, if future changes to HIPAA or state privacy laws governing PHI expand the definition of PHI or put more restrictions on our ability to use, process and store PHI, then HIPAA compliance for our solutions as currently constituted may be costly both financially and in terms of administrative resources. Ongoing compliance efforts may take substantial time and require the assistance of external resources, such as attorneys, information technology, and/or other consultants and advisors.

We rely on the performance of our senior management and highly skilled personnel, and if we are unable to attract, retain and motivate well-qualified employees, our business and results of operations could be harmed.

We believe our success has depended, and continues to depend, on the efforts and talents of senior management and key personnel, including Stephen Trundle, our Chief Executive Officer, and our senior information technology managers. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. Qualified individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract them. In addition, the loss of any of our senior management or key personnel could interrupt our ability to execute our business plan, as such individuals may be difficult to replace. If we do not succeed in attracting well-qualified employees or retaining and motivating existing employees, our business and results of operations could be harmed.

We provide minimum service level commitments to certain of our service provider partners, and our failure to meet them could cause us to issue credits for future services or pay penalties, which could harm our results of operations.

Certain of our service provider partner agreements currently, and may in the future, provide minimum service level commitments regarding items such as uptime, functionality or performance. If we are unable to meet the stated service level commitments for these service provider partners or suffer extended periods of service unavailability, we are or may be contractually obligated to provide these service provider partners with credits for future services, provide services at no cost or pay other penalties, which could adversely impact our revenue. We do not currently have any reserves on our balance sheet for these commitments.

We have indemnity obligations to certain of our service provider partners for certain expenses and liabilities, which could force us to incur substantial costs.

We have indemnity obligations to certain of our service provider partners for certain claims regarding our platforms and solutions, including security breach, product recall, epidemic failure, and product liability claims. As a result, in the case of any such claims against these service provider partners, we could be required to indemnify them for losses resulting from such claims or to refund amounts they have paid to us. We expect that some of our service provider partners may seek indemnification from us in the event that such claims are brought against them. In addition, we may elect to indemnify service provider partners where we have no contractual obligation to do so and we will evaluate each such request on a case-by-case basis. If a service provider partner elects to invest resources in enforcing a claim for indemnification against us, we could incur significant costs disputing it. If we do not succeed in disputing it, we could face substantial liability.

The Acquisition subjects us to significant additional liabilities for which we will not be indemnified.

In connection with the Acquisition, we assumed certain historic liabilities of the Connect and Piper business units, including pre-closing liabilities relating to current and former employees of the Connect and Piper business units, pre-closing compliance by the Connect and Piper business units with applicable laws and pre-closing performance by the Connect and Piper business units of the assumed contracts. In addition, we assumed any liabilities that may arise from certain pending intellectual property litigation. In addition to the known liabilities we assumed, there could be unasserted claims or assessments that we failed or were unable to discover or identify in the course of performing due diligence investigations and there may be liabilities that are neither probable nor estimable at this time which may become probable and estimable in the future. Further, while the terms of the Acquisition transaction documents provide for us to be indemnified for breaches of certain representations and warranties made about the Connect and Piper business units, the liabilities that arise may not entitle us to contractual indemnification or our

contractual indemnification may not be effective. Any such liabilities, individually or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our business and our prospects.

We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.

In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions or unforeseen circumstances and may determine to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into credit facilities for other reasons. In the future, we may not be able to timely secure debt or equity financing on favorable terms or at all. Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be limited.

Goodwill and other identifiable intangible assets represent a significant portion of our total assets, and we may never realize the full value of our intangible assets.

As of December 31, 2018, we had $142.7 million of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets. Goodwill and other identifiable intangible assets are recorded at fair value on the date of acquisition. We review such assets for impairment at least annually. Impairment may result from, among other things, deterioration in performance, adverse market conditions, adverse changes in applicable laws or regulations, including changes that restrict the activities of or affect the solutions we offer, challenges to the validity of certain registered intellectual property, reduced sales of certain products or services incorporating registered intellectual property, increased attrition and a variety of other factors. The amount of any quantified impairment must be expensed immediately as a charge to results of operations. Depending on future circumstances, it is possible that we may never realize the full value of our intangible assets. Any future determination of impairment of goodwill or other identifiable intangible assets could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations.

Comprehensive tax reform bills could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

The U.S. government has enacted comprehensive tax legislation that includes significant changes to the taxation of business entities. These changes include, among others, (i) a permanent reduction to the corporate income tax rate, (ii) a partial limitation on the deductibility of business interest expense, (iii) a shift of the U.S. taxation of multinational corporations from a tax on worldwide income to a territorial system (along with certain rules designed to prevent erosion of the U.S. income tax base) and (iv) a one-time tax on accumulated offshore earnings held in cash and illiquid assets, with the latter taxed at a lower rate. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of this tax reform is uncertain, and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We may be subject to additional tax liabilities, which would harm our results of operations.

We are subject to income, sales, use, value added and other taxes in the United States and other countries in which we conduct business, which laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect sales, use, value added or other taxes on our sales may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. These determinations are highly complex and require detailed analysis of the available information and applicable statutes and regulatory materials. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits and any related litigation could be different from our historical tax practices, provisions and accruals. If we receive an adverse ruling as a result of an audit, or we unilaterally determine that we have misinterpreted provisions of the tax regulations to which we are subject, our tax provision, results of operations or cash flows could be harmed. In addition, liabilities associated with taxes are often subject to an extended or indefinite statute of limitations period. Therefore, we may be subject to additional tax liability (including penalties and interest) for a particular year for extended periods of time.

Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism or global or regional economic, political and social conditions.

A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, hurricane, fire, flood, or a significant power outage could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. Natural disasters could affect our hardware vendors, our wireless carriers or our network operations centers. Further, if a natural disaster occurs in a region from which we derive a significant portion of our revenue, such as metropolitan areas in North America, consumers in that region may delay or forego purchases of our platforms and solutions from service providers in the region, which may harm our results of operations for a

particular period. In addition, terrorist acts or acts of war could cause disruptions in our business or the business of our hardware vendors, service providers, subscribers or the economy as a whole. More generally, these geopolitical, social and economic conditions could result in increased volatility in worldwide financial markets and economies that could harm our sales. Given our concentration of sales during the second and third quarters, any disruption in the business of our hardware vendors, service provider partners or subscribers that impacts sales during the second or third quarter of each year could have a greater impact on our annual results. All of the aforementioned risks may be augmented if the disaster recovery plans for us, our service provider partners and our suppliers prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above results in delays or cancellations of orders, or delays in the manufacture, deployment or shipment of our platforms and solutions, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations would be harmed.

Downturns in general economic and market conditions and reductions in spending may reduce demand for our platforms and solutions, which could harm our revenue, results of operations and cash flows.

Our revenue, results of operations and cash flows depend on the overall demand for our platforms and solutions. Concerns about the systemic impact of a potential widespread recession, energy costs, geopolitical issues, the availability and cost of credit and the global housing and mortgage markets have contributed to increased market volatility, decreased consumer confidence and diminished growth expectations in the U.S. economy and abroad. The current unstable general economic and market conditions have been characterized by a dramatic decline in consumer discretionary spending and have disproportionately affected providers of solutions that represent discretionary purchases. While the decline in consumer spending has recently moderated, these economic conditions could still lead to continued declines in consumer spending over the foreseeable future, and may have resulted in a resetting of consumer spending habits that may make it unlikely that such spending will return to prior levels for the foreseeable future.

During weak economic times, the available pool of service providers may decline as the prospects for home building and home renovation projects diminish, which may have a corresponding impact on our growth prospects. In addition, there is an increased risk during these periods that an increased percentage of our service provider partners will file for bankruptcy protection, which may harm our reputation, revenue, profitability and results of operations. In addition, we may determine that the cost of pursuing any claim may outweigh the recovery potential of such claim. Likewise, consumer bankruptcies can detrimentally affect the business stability of our service provider partners. Prolonged economic slowdowns and reductions in new home construction and renovation projects may result in diminished sales of our platforms and solutions. Further worsening, broadening or protracted extension of the economic downturn could have a negative impact on our business, revenue, results of operations and cash flows.

Failure to comply with laws and regulations could harm our business.

We conduct our business in the United States and are expanding internationally in various other countries. We are subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including, but not limited to, agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, antitrust laws, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations.

We are subject to the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.S. Travel Act, and possibly other anti-bribery laws, including those that comply with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and other international conventions. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit our company from authorizing, offering, or providing directly or indirectly improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private-sector. Certain laws could also prohibit us from soliciting or accepting bribes or kickbacks. Our company has direct government interactions and in several cases uses third-party representatives, including dealers, for regulatory compliance, sales and other purposes in a variety of countries. These factors increase our anti-corruption risk profile. We can be held liable for the corrupt activities of our employees, representatives, contractors, partners and agents, even if we did not explicitly authorize such activity. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with anti-corruption laws, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents will comply with these laws and policies.

We are also subject to data privacy and security laws, anti-money laundering laws (such as the USA PATRIOT Act), and import/export laws and regulations in the United States and in other jurisdictions.

Our global operations require us to import from and export to several countries, which geographically stretches our compliance obligations. Our platforms and solutions are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. Exports of our platforms and solutions must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to substantial civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export or import privileges; fines, which may be imposed on us and responsible employees or managers; and, in extreme cases, the incarceration of

responsible employees or managers. In addition, if our service provider partners fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or authorizations, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm and penalties. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular sale may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. In addition, changes in our platforms or solutions or changes in applicable export or import laws and regulations may create delays in the introduction and sale of our platforms and solutions in international markets, prevent our service provider partners with international operations from deploying our platforms and solutions or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our platforms and solutions to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Any change in export or import laws and regulations, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing laws and regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such laws and regulations, could also result in decreased use of our platforms and solutions, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our platforms and solutions to existing or potential service provider partners with international operations. Any decreased use of our platforms and solutions or limitation on our ability to export or sell our platforms and solutions would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

In addition, our software contains encryption technologies, certain types of which are subject to U.S. and foreign export control regulations and, in some foreign countries, restrictions on importation and/or use. Any failure on our part to comply with encryption or other applicable export control requirements could result in financial penalties or other sanctions under the U.S. export regulations, including restrictions on future export activities, which could harm our business and operating results. Regulatory restrictions could impair our access to technologies needed to improve our platforms and solutions and may also limit or reduce the demand for our platforms and solutions outside of the United States.

Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions programs prohibit the shipment of certain products and services to countries, governments and persons that are subject to U.S. economic embargoes and trade sanctions. Even though we take precautions to prevent our platforms and solutions from being shipped or provided to U.S. sanctions targets, our platforms and solutions could be shipped to those targets or provided by third-parties despite such precautions. Any such shipment could have negative consequences, including government investigations, penalties and reputational harm. Furthermore, any new embargo or sanctions program, or any change in the countries, governments, persons or activities targeted by such programs, could result in decreased use of our platforms and solutions, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our platforms and solutions to existing or potential service provider partners, which would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Changes in laws that apply to us could result in increased regulatory requirements and compliance costs which could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. In certain jurisdictions, regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, sanctions, settlements, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with certain governments or other customers, the loss of export privileges, multi-jurisdictional liability, reputational harm, and other collateral consequences. If any governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in defense costs and other professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could further harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

If the U.S. insurance industry were to change its practice of providing incentives to homeowners for the use of alarm monitoring services, we could experience a reduction in new subscriber growth or an increase in our subscriber attrition rate.

It has been common practice in the U.S. insurance industry to provide a reduction in rates for policies written on residences that have monitored alarm systems. There can be no assurance that insurance companies will continue to offer these rate reductions. If these incentives were reduced or eliminated, new homeowners who otherwise may not feel the need for alarm monitoring services would be removed from our potential subscriber pool, which could hinder the growth of our business, and existing subscribers may choose to disconnect or not renew their service contracts, which could increase our attrition rates. In either case, our results of operations and growth prospects could be adversely affected.

We face many risks associated with our international business operations and our plans to expand internationally, which could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

We anticipate that our efforts to operate and continue to expand our business internationally will entail additional costs and risks as we establish our international offerings and develop relationships with service provider partners to market, sell, install, and support our platforms, solutions and brand in other countries. Revenue in countries outside of North America accounted for 2%, 1% and less than 1% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016. We have limited experience in selling our platforms and solutions in international markets outside of North America or in conforming to the local cultures, standards, or policies necessary to successfully compete in those markets, and we may be required to invest significant

resources in order to do so. We may not succeed in these efforts or achieve our consumer acquisition, service provider expansion or other goals. In some international markets, consumer preferences and buying behaviors may be different, and we may use business or pricing models that are different from our traditional model to provide our platforms and solutions to consumers in those markets or we may be unsuccessful in implementing the appropriate business model. Our revenue from new foreign markets may not exceed the costs of establishing, marketing, and maintaining our international offerings. In addition, the current instability in the eurozone could have many adverse consequences on our international expansion, including sovereign default, liquidity and capital pressures on eurozone financial institutions, reducing the availability of credit and increasing the risk of financial sector failures and the risk of one or more eurozone member states leaving the euro, resulting in the possibility of capital and exchange controls and uncertainty about the impact of contracts and currency exchange rates.

In addition, conducting expanded international operations subjects us to additional risks that we do not generally face in our North American markets. These risks include:


•	localization of our solutions, including the addition of foreign languages and adaptation to new local practices, as well as certification and other regulatory requirements;


•	lack of experience in other geographic markets;


•	strong local competitors;


•	the cost and burden of complying with, lack of familiarity with, and unexpected changes in, foreign legal and regulatory requirements, including the development of policies and procedures for different countries when requirements under privacy regulations in such countries may conflict or be inconsistent with one another;


•	difficulties in managing and staffing international operations;


•	increased costs due to new or potential tariffs, penalties, trade restrictions and other trade barriers;


•	fluctuations in currency exchange rates or restrictions on foreign currency;


•	potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of transfer pricing, value added or other tax systems, double taxation and restrictions and/or taxes on the repatriation of earnings;


•	dependence on third parties, including commercial partners with whom we do not have extensive experience;


•	increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;


•	political, social, and economic instability, terrorist attacks, and security concerns in general; and


•	reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries.

Operating in international markets also requires significant management attention and financial resources. The investment and additional resources required to establish operations and manage growth in other countries may not produce desired levels of revenue or profitability.

Our software contains encryption technologies, certain types of which are subject to U.S. and foreign export control regulations and, in some foreign countries, restrictions on importation and/or use. Any failure on our part to comply with encryption or other applicable export control requirements could result in financial penalties or other sanctions under the U.S. export regulations, including restrictions on future export activities, which could harm our business and operating results. Regulatory restrictions could impair our access to technologies needed to improve our platforms and solutions and may also limit or reduce the demand for our platforms and solutions outside of the United States.

The incurrence of debt may impact our financial position and subject us to additional financial and operating restrictions.

On October 6, 2017, we entered into a $125.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility, or the 2017 Facility, with Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, as administrative agent, PNC Bank, National Association, as documentation agent, and a syndicate of lenders. Upon entry into the 2017 Facility, we borrowed $72.0 million, which was used to repay the previously outstanding balance under our previous credit facility. The outstanding balance of the 2017 Facility was $67.0 million as of December 31, 2018. On November 30, 2018, we amended the 2017 Facility to incorporate the parameters that must be met for us to repurchase our outstanding common stock under the stock repurchase program authorized by our board of directors on November 29, 2018.

Our overall leverage and certain covenants and obligations contained in the related documentation could adversely affect our financial health and business and future operations by, among other things:


•	making it more difficult to satisfy our obligations, including under the terms of the 2017 Facility;


•	limiting our ability to refinance our debt on terms acceptable to us or at all;


•	limiting our flexibility to plan for and adjust to changing business and market conditions and increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;


•	limiting our ability to use our available cash flow to fund future acquisitions, working capital, business activities, and other general corporate requirements; and


•	limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, to fund growth or for general corporate purposes, even when necessary to maintain adequate liquidity.

Furthermore, substantially all of our assets, including our intellectual property, secure the 2017 Facility. If an event of default under the credit agreement occurs and is continuing, SVB may request the acceleration of the related debt and foreclose on the underlying security interests.

In addition, our 2017 Facility restricts our ability to make dividend payments and requires us to maintain certain leverage ratios, which may restrict our ability to invest in future growth. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

The LIBOR calculation method may change and LIBOR is expected to be phased out after 2021.

Our 2017 Facility permits interest on the outstanding principal balance to be calculated based on LIBOR, plus an applicable margin based on our consolidated leverage ratio. On July 27, 2017, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, or the FCA, announced that it will no longer require banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. In the meantime, actions by the FCA, other regulators or law enforcement agencies may result in changes to the method by which LIBOR is calculated. At this time, it is not possible to predict the effect of any such changes or any other reforms to LIBOR that may be enacted in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.

Our financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles applicable to us.

Our accounting policies are critical to the manner in which we present our results of operations and financial condition. Many of these policies are highly complex and involve many assumptions, estimates and judgments. A change in accounting standards or practices, in particular with respect to revenue recognition, could harm our operating results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. GAAP rules are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC and other various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. For example, we adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)" or Topic 842, effective January 1, 2019, which requires lessees to recognize operating and financing lease liabilities and corresponding right-of-use assets on the balance sheet. Refer to Note 2, "Recent Accounting Pronouncements," in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information about the impact of this accounting standard and other new accounting pronouncements. Implementation of new accounting standards could have a significant effect on our financial results, and any difficulties in implementing these pronouncements could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us.

Our accounting is becoming more complex, and relies upon estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies. If our accounting is erroneous or based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results could fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes, and also to comply with many complex requirements and standards. We devote substantial resources to compliance with accounting requirements and we base our estimates on our best judgment, historical experience, information derived from third parties, and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. However, various factors are causing our accounting to become complex. For example, as a result of our acquisition of the Connect business unit of Icontrol, we now recognize revenue relating to the delivery of software relating to the Software platform under different revenue recognition standards than those that apply to delivery of our services under the Alarm.com platforms. Ongoing evolution of our business, and any future acquisitions, may compound these complexities. Our operating results may be adversely affected if we make accounting errors or our judgments prove to be wrong, assumptions change or actual

circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors or guidance we may have provided, resulting in a decline in our stock price and potential legal claims. Significant judgments, assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, business combinations, and income taxes.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

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

We believe that our proprietary technology is essential to establishing and maintaining our leadership position. We seek to protect our intellectual property through trade secrets, copyrights, confidentiality, non-compete and nondisclosure agreements, patents, trademarks, domain names and other measures, some of which afford only limited protection. We also rely on patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright laws to protect our intellectual property. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our technology or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Our means of protecting our proprietary rights may not be adequate or our competitors may independently develop similar or superior technology, or design around our intellectual property. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to as great an extent as the laws of the United States. Intellectual property protections may also be unavailable, limited or difficult to enforce in some countries, which could make it easier for competitors to capture market share. Our failure or inability to adequately protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights could harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

To prevent substantial unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, it may be necessary to prosecute actions for infringement and/or misappropriation of our proprietary rights against third parties. See the section of this Annual Report titled "Legal Proceedings" for additional information on such actions. Any such action could result in significant costs and diversion of our resources and management's attention, and we cannot assure you that we will be successful in such action. Furthermore, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights than we do. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property.

An assertion by a third party that we are infringing its intellectual property could subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation or expensive licenses that could harm our business and results of operations.

The industries in which we compete are characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and by frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We have been involved with patent litigation suits in the past and we may be involved with and subject to similar litigation in the future to defend our intellectual property position. For example, on June 2, 2015, Vivint filed a lawsuit against us in U.S. District Court, District of Utah, alleging that our technology directly and indirectly infringes six patents that Vivint purchased. Vivint is seeking permanent injunctions, enhanced damages and attorneys' fees. See the section of this Annual Report titled "Legal Proceedings" for additional information on this matter. Should Vivint prevail on its claims that one or more elements of our solution infringe one or more of its patents, we could be required to pay damages of Vivint’s lost profits and/or a reasonable royalty for sales of our solution, enjoined from making, using, and selling our solution if a license or other right to continue selling such elements is not made available to us or we are unable to design around such patents, and required to pay ongoing royalties and comply with unfavorable terms if such a license is made available to us. While we believe we have valid defenses to Vivint’s claims, any of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we were to prevail, this litigation could continue to be costly and time-consuming, divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations and dissuade potential customers from purchasing our solution, which would also materially harm our business. During the course of litigation, we anticipate announcements of the results of hearings and motions, and other interim developments related to the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the market price of our common stock may decline.

We might not prevail in any intellectual property infringement litigation given the complex technical issues and inherent uncertainties in such litigation and our service provider partner contracts may require us to indemnify them against certain liabilities they may incur as a result of our infringement of any third party intellectual property. Defending such claims, regardless of their merit, could be time-consuming and distracting to management, result in costly litigation or settlement, cause development delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements. In addition, we currently have a limited portfolio of issued patents compared to our larger competitors, and therefore may not be able to effectively utilize our intellectual property portfolio to assert defenses or counterclaims in response to patent infringement claims or litigation brought against us by third parties. Further, litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant products or revenues and against which our potential patents provide no deterrence, and many other potential litigants have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Given that our platforms and solutions integrate with many aspects of a property, the risk that our platforms and solutions may be subject to these allegations is exacerbated. As we seek to extend our platforms and solutions, we could be constrained by the intellectual property rights of others. If our platforms and solutions exceed the scope of in-bound licenses or

violate any third party proprietary rights, we could be required to withdraw those solutions from the market, re-develop those solutions or seek to obtain licenses from third parties, which might not be available on reasonable terms or at all. Any efforts to re-develop our platforms and solutions, obtain licenses from third parties on favorable terms or license a substitute technology might not be successful and, in any case, might substantially increase our costs and harm our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. If we were compelled to withdraw any of our platforms and solutions from the market, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed.

We have indemnity obligations to certain of our service provider partners for certain expenses and liabilities resulting from intellectual property infringement claims regarding our platforms and solutions, which could force us to incur substantial costs.

We have indemnity obligations to certain of our service provider partners for intellectual property infringement claims regarding our platforms and solutions. As a result, in the case of infringement claims against these service provider partners, we could be required to indemnify them for losses resulting from such claims or to refund amounts they have paid to us. We expect that some of our service provider partners may seek indemnification from us in connection with infringement claims brought against them. In addition, we may elect to indemnify service provider partners where we have no contractual obligation to indemnify them and we will evaluate each such request on a case-by-case basis. If a service provider partner elects to invest resources in enforcing a claim for indemnification against us, we could incur significant costs disputing it. If we do not succeed in disputing it, we could face substantial liability.

The use of open source software in our platforms and solutions may expose us to additional risks and harm our intellectual property.

Some of our platforms and solutions use or incorporate software that is subject to one or more open source licenses and we may incorporate open source software in the future. Open source software is typically freely accessible, usable and modifiable. Certain open source software licenses require a user who intends to distribute the open source software as a component of the user's software to disclose publicly part or all of the source code to the user's software. In addition, certain open source software licenses require the user of such software to make any derivative works of the open source code available to others on potentially unfavorable terms to us or at no cost.

The terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and accordingly there is a risk that those licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our platforms and solutions. In that event, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our platforms and solutions, to re-develop our platforms and solutions, to discontinue sales of our platforms and solutions or to release our proprietary software code under the terms of an open source license, any of which could harm our business. Further, given the nature of open source software, it may be more likely that third parties might assert copyright and other intellectual property infringement claims against us based on our use of these open source software programs. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions.

Although we are not aware of any use of open source software in our platforms and solutions that would require us to disclose all or a portion of the source code underlying our core solutions, it is possible that such use may have inadvertently occurred in deploying our platforms and solutions. Additionally, if a third party software provider has incorporated certain types of open source software into software we license from such third party for our platforms and solutions without our knowledge, we could, under certain circumstances, be required to disclose the source code to our platforms and solutions. This could harm our intellectual property position as well as our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

The market price of our common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile.

The market price of our common stock may be highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially as a result of a variety of factors, some of which are related in complex ways. Since shares of our common stock were sold in our initial public offering in June 2015 at a price of $14.00 per share, our stock price has ranged from an intraday low of $10.26 to an intraday high of $60.20 through December 31, 2018. The market price of our common stock may decline regardless of our operating performance, resulting in the potential for substantial losses for our stockholders, and may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the factors listed below and other factors described in this "Risk Factors" section:


•	actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition and operating results;


•	the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;


•	failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of our company, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;


•	ratings changes by any securities analysts who follow our company;


•	variance in our financial performance from expectations of securities analysts;


•	announcements by us or our competitors of significant business developments, technical innovations, acquisitions or new solutions;


•	changes in the prices of our platforms and solutions;


•	changes in our projected operating and financial results;


•	changes in laws or regulations applicable to our platforms and solutions or marketing techniques, or our industry in general;


•	our involvement in any litigation, including any lawsuits threatened or filed against us;


•	our sale of our common stock or other securities in the future;


•	changes in senior management or key personnel;


•	trading volume of our common stock;


•	changes in the anticipated future size and growth rate of our market; and


•	general economic, regulatory and market conditions in the United States and abroad.

The stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, regulatory and market conditions, may negatively impact the market price of our common stock. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their securities have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future, which could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could cause our market price to decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and significant stockholders, may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock. Additionally, the shares of common stock subject to outstanding options under our equity incentive plans and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans, as well as shares issuable upon vesting of restricted stock awards, will become eligible for sale in the public market in the future, subject to certain legal and contractual limitations. Moreover, some holders of shares of our common stock have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders. We have also registered shares of common stock that we may issue under our employee equity incentive plans. Accordingly, these shares may be able to be sold freely in the public market upon issuance as permitted by any applicable vesting requirements.

Our actual operating results may differ significantly from any guidance provided.

Our guidance, including forward-looking statements, is prepared by management and is qualified by, and subject to, a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. We generally state possible outcomes as high and low ranges which are intended to provide a sensitivity analysis as variables are changed but are not intended to represent that actual results could not fall outside of the suggested ranges.

Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions of the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. In particular, guidance relating to the anticipated

results of operations of an acquired business is inherently more speculative in nature than other guidance as management will, necessarily, be less familiar with the business, procedures and operations of the acquired business. Accordingly, any guidance with respect to our projected financial performance, in particular with respect to our projected post-Acquisition financial performance, is necessarily only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date the guidance is given. Actual results will vary from the guidance and the variations may be material. Investors should also recognize that the reliability of any forecasted financial data will diminish the farther in the future that the data is forecasted.

Actual operating results may be different from our guidance, and such differences may be adverse and material. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged to put the guidance in context and not to place undue reliance on it. In addition, the market price of our common stock may reflect various market assumptions as to the accuracy of our guidance. If our actual results of operations fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially.

We are obligated to develop and maintain a system of effective internal controls over financial reporting. These internal controls may be determined to be not effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

We have been and are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an annual basis. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal controls are effective and would be required to disclose any material weaknesses identified in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. While we have established certain procedures and control over our financial reporting processes, we cannot assure you that these efforts will prevent restatements of our financial statements in the future.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is also required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. For future reporting periods, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our controls are documented, designed or operating. We may not be able to remediate any future material weaknesses, or to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion.

If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective, investors could lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by regulatory authorities, including the SEC and Nasdaq. Failure to remediate any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or publish negative reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock depends, in part, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If our financial performance fails to meet analyst estimates or one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future and, as a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and subject to the restrictions on paying dividends in our 2017 Facility and any future indebtedness. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

Concentration of ownership among our current directors, executive officers and their affiliates may limit an investor's ability to influence significant corporate decisions.

As of December 31, 2018, our directors and executive officers, together with their affiliates, beneficially own a significant percentage of our outstanding capital stock. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have substantial influence over the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets. This concentration of ownership could delay, defer or prevent a change in control of the company, merger, consolidation, takeover or other business combination, which in turn could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our common stock.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:


•	authorize our board of directors to issue preferred stock, without further stockholder action and with voting liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our common stock;


•	require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent, and limit the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings;


•	establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for director nominees;


•	establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, with directors in each class serving three-year staggered terms;


•	require the approval of holders of two-thirds of the shares entitled to vote at an election of directors to adopt, amend or repeal our bylaws or amend or repeal the provisions of our certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors and the ability of stockholders to take action by written consent or call a special meeting;


•	prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors; and


•	provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by the vote of a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum.

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any "interested" stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an "interested" stockholder. Any of the foregoing provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, and they could deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you would receive a premium for your common stock in an acquisition.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.

Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (3) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws or (4) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this choice of forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our common stock is deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing provision. The forum selection clause in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our Facilities

Our principal offices, located in Tysons, Virginia, occupy 160,406 square feet of commercial space under a lease that we entered into in August 2014 and expires in 2026. We have amended our lease to expand our square footage as we continue to grow. Our Alarm.com segment uses this facility for sales and marketing, research and development, customer service and administrative purposes.

Our Alarm.com segment also has offices in Bloomington, Minnesota; Boston Massachusetts; Centennial, Colorado; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Lawrence, Kansas; Provo, Utah; Redwood City, California; and Amsterdam, Netherlands, and owns demonstration homes in Falls Church, Virginia and Boca Raton, Florida. We and our subsidiaries use these properties for sales and training, research and development, technical support and administrative purposes.

Our Other segment has offices in Brooklyn, New York; Nags Head, North Carolina; Needham, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; and Ottawa, Canada. Our subsidiaries use these properties for sales and training, research and development, technical support and administrative purposes.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

In September 2014, Icontrol Networks, Inc., or Icontrol, filed a Complaint in the United States District Court, District of Delaware, asserting that SecureNet Technologies, LLC, or SecureNet, infringes certain U.S. Patents owned by Icontrol, patents now owned by Alarm.com through a subsidiary. In March 2015, Icontrol voluntarily agreed to dismiss the case, reserving the right to refile. In September 2015, Icontrol refiled the case against SecureNet in the same district court alleging infringement of some of the same patents. In March 2017, Alarm.com acquired certain assets and intellectual property from Icontrol, including the patents in suit and the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit. The Court conducted a jury trial in February 2019, which resulted in a finding that upheld the validity of the patent claims in one of the patents at issue, but that SecureNet did not infringe certain claims of the three Icontrol patents in suit. Any appeal of the verdict will be due 30 days after the Court enters a final judgment.

On August 24, 2017, Alarm.com Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary ICN Acquisition, LLC, filed a patent infringement complaint against ipDatatel, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The parties subsequently stipulated to transfer the case to the Southern District of Texas. The complaint seeks injunctive relief to stop the further sale of the infringing ipDatatel’s products and systems, and damages for the infringement of Alarm.com’s patents. The complaint asserts that the technology in the ipDatatel products infringe one or more claims of Alarm.com’s patents: United States Patent Numbers 7,113,090; 7,633,385; 7,956,736; 8,478,871; and 9,141,276. If the litigation is successful, Alarm.com will be entitled to receive monetary damages, injunctive relief, and any other relief, including attorneys' fees, from ipDatatel. The Court has scheduled commencement of trial in August 2019. ipDatatel's motion for dismissal based on alleged patent ineligibility as to each patent in suit was denied without prejudice but ipDatatel renewed the motion. On July 26, 2018, ipDatatel answered the complaint by denying the patent infringement allegations and asserting several affirmative defenses, including invalidity and unenforceability. ipDatatel also asserted antitrust counterclaims based on alleged inequitable conduct in connection with the prosecution of one or more patents-in-suit. In September 2018, ipDataTel filed petitions for inter partes review of four of the patents-in-suit before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB. On October 19, 2018, the Court issued a claim construction which, among other things, determined that certain claim terms of two of the patents-in-suit were indefinite. Fact discovery is ongoing and opening expert reports are due in March 2019.

On April 25, 2017, Alarm.com Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary ICN Acquisition, LLC, filed a patent infringement complaint against Protect America, Inc., or Protect America, and SecureNet Technologies, LLC, or SecureNet, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint seeks injunctive relief to stop the further sale of the infringing Protect America and SecureNet products and systems, and damages for the infringement of Alarm.com’s patents. The complaint asserts that the technology in the Protect America and SecureNet Alarm Systems products infringe one or more claims of Alarm.com’s patents: United States Patent Numbers 7,113,090; 7,633,385; 8,395,494; 8,493,202; 8,612,591; 8,860,804; and 9,141,276. If the litigation is successful, Alarm.com will be entitled to receive monetary damages, injunctive relief, and any other relief, including attorneys' fees, from Protect America and SecureNet. In June 2017, Alarm.com filed an amended complaint against Protect America only and voluntarily dismissed SecureNet from the suit, reserving the right to refile. In September 2017, Alarm.com voluntarily dismissed the amended complaint in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia and refiled a complaint against Protect America, with substantially the same allegations, in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. The parties subsequently stipulated to transfer the case to the Western District of Texas. The Court has scheduled a claim construction hearing for May 2019, but has not yet scheduled a jury trial.

On June 2, 2015, Vivint, Inc., or Vivint, filed a lawsuit against us in U.S. District Court, District of Utah, alleging that our technology directly and indirectly infringes six patents that Vivint purchased. Vivint is seeking permanent injunctions, enhanced damages and attorneys' fees. We answered the complaint on July 23, 2015. Among other things, we asserted defenses based on non-infringement and invalidity of the patents in question. On August 19, 2016, the U.S. District Court, District of Utah stayed the litigation pending inter partes review by the PTAB of five of the patents in suit. In March 2017, the PTAB issued final written decisions relating to two patents finding all challenged claims unpatentable. In May 2017, the PTAB issued final written decisions relating to the remaining three patents that found certain claims unpatentable, while certain other claims were not found to be unpatentable. Vivint appealed the decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, or the Federal Circuit, and we cross-appealed. In July 2018, the Federal Circuit issued orders affirming the PTAB’s March 2017 decisions that invalidated all challenged claims of two patents. The U.S. District Court, District of Utah lifted the stay on the litigation on June 26, 2017, with Vivint proceeding with its case on four of the six patents in its complaint. No trial date has been set. In September 2017, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or PTO, ordered ex parte reexaminations of certain claims of two of the remaining patents in suit, at our request. On October 30, 2018 and November 5, 2018, the PTO issued final office actions in the pending reexaminations rejecting all claims being examined as unpatentable over the prior art. On December 7, 2018, the U.S. District Court, District of Utah ordered that (i) litigation regarding the nine claims (from two patents) rejected by the PTO during the reexaminations be stayed until May 15, 2019 and (ii) a hearing on the parties’ cross motions for claim construction and Alarm.com’s motions for partial summary judgment as to invalidity and infringement be set for April 3, 2019. On December 20, 2018, the Federal Circuit issued an order regarding the inter partes review of three of the remaining patents in suit that vacated, reversed and remanded the PTAB’s ruling with regard to the construction of a term (“communication device identification code”) as requested by Alarm.com and affirmed the PTAB’s May 2017 rulings invalidating certain of the Vivint patents in all other respects.

Should Vivint prevail in proving Alarm.com infringes one or more of its patent claims, we could be required to pay damages of Vivint’s lost profits and/or a reasonable royalty for sales of our solution, enjoined from making, using and selling our solution if a license or other right to continue selling such elements is not made available to us or we are unable to design around such patents, and required to pay ongoing royalties and comply with unfavorable terms if such a license is made available to us. While we believe we have valid defenses to Vivint’s claims, any of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we were to prevail, this litigation could continue to be costly and time-consuming, divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations and dissuade potential customers from purchasing our solution, which would also materially harm our business. During the course of litigation, we anticipate announcements of the results of hearings and motions, and other interim developments related to the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the market price of our common stock may decline.

On December 30, 2015, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, or the Court, alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA. The complaint does not allege that Alarm.com itself violated the TCPA, but instead seeks to hold us responsible for the marketing activities of one of our service providers as well as calls made by one of this service provider’s sub-dealer agents under principles of agency and vicarious liability. On August 30, 2018, we reached an agreement in principle to settle the case for total cash consideration of $28.0 million. On October 25, 2018, we entered into a definitive settlement agreement, or Settlement Agreement, and submitted it to the Court for approval. In entering into the definitive settlement agreement, we are making no admission of liability.

Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, among other things, (1) we agreed to pay total cash consideration of $28.0 million into a settlement fund, (2) we agreed to implement certain business practice changes to increase awareness of TCPA compliance, (3) each party to the Settlement Agreement agreed to a mutual release of claims relating to any claim or potential claim relating to the marketing activities described in the complaint, and (4) each party covenanted not to sue the other with regard to the released claims. In addition, we have agreed to no longer allow the service provider identified in the litigation as purportedly violating the TCPA to continue activating new accounts for Alarm.com products and services after preliminary Court approval of the Settlement Agreement.

On December 19, 2018, the Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary approval of the Settlement Agreement and certified the class for settlement purposes. The Preliminary Approval Order provides that the administrator must commence the notice process no later than February 18, 2019. Class members will have sixty days from the commencement of notice to file claims, opt out of the settlement or object to the settlement. The Final Approval Hearing is currently scheduled for August 13, 2019.

We made an initial payment of $5.0 million to the settlement administrator on January 2, 2019, and the remaining payment will take place ten business days after the effective date of the Settlement Agreement, which is five business days following the later of the following events: (1) the date upon which the time expires for filing a notice of appeal of the Court’s Final Approval Order and Judgment; or (2) if there is an appeal or appeals of the Final Approval Order and Judgment, and the appellate court enters an order either dismissing the appeal(s) or affirming the Final Approval Order and Judgment without material modification, the date upon which the time expires for seeking review of that order. The release of claims includes all alleged damages incurred related to the lawsuit. Any attorneys’ fees awarded by the Court and all costs of notice and claims administration will be paid from the settlement fund.

On August 14, 2017, Alarm.com filed a lawsuit against ABS Capital Partners, Inc., ABS Partners V, LLC, ABS Partners VII, LLC, and Ralph Terkowitz in the Delaware Court of Chancery, or the Chancery Court. On September 22, 2017, Alarm.com filed an amended complaint against ABS Capital Partners, Inc., ABS Partners V, LLC, and ABS Partners VII, LLC, alleging claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and misappropriation of confidential information. The amended complaint seeks damages, declaratory relief, and injunctive relief enjoining the defendants from using Alarm.com’s trade secrets and confidential information to compete with Alarm.com. On October 6, 2017, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. On June 15, 2018, the Chancery Court dismissed our complaint. On July 13, 2018, Alarm.com filed a Notice of Appeal with the Delaware Supreme Court. On August 30, 2018, Alarm.com filed its Opening Brief in the Delaware Supreme Court. The defendants filed a response on October 1, 2018, and Alarm.com filed a reply on October 16, 2018. On February 6, 2019, the Supreme Court of Delaware heard oral argument on the appeal, and on February 7, 2019, the Supreme Court of Delaware summarily affirmed the Chancery Court’s dismissal of our complaint.

On March 29, 2018, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against us by Nick Fisher in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging violations of the TCPA, and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, or TCFAPA. The complaint alleged that Alarm.com and another defendant, Nortek Security & Control LLC, violated the TCPA and TCFAPA through purportedly unauthorized telephone calls to Fisher, and sought to hold us responsible for the alleged calls, including under principles of agency and vicarious liability. The complaint sought monetary damages under the TCPA and TCFAPA, injunctive relief, and other relief, including attorneys' fees. We answered the complaint and filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on June 18, 2018. On November 1, 2018, the Court granted our motion to dismiss the complaint without prejudice as to plaintiff’s claims alleging vicarious liability for violations of the TCPA, and with prejudice as to plaintiff’s remaining claims.

In addition to the matters described above, we may be a party to litigation and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business, and we may be required to provide indemnification to certain of our service provider partners for certain claims regarding our solutions. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we currently believe that the final outcome of these ordinary course matters will not have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

PART II.

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information

Our common stock commenced trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on June 26, 2015 and trades under the symbol “ALRM.” Prior to June 26, 2015, there was no public market for our common stock. On February 20, 2019, the closing price of our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market was $64.70 per share.

Holders

As of February 20, 2019, there were 51 stockholders of record of our common stock, one of which is Cede & Co., a nominee for Depository Trust Company, or DTC. All of the shares of common stock held by brokerage firms, banks and other financial institutions as nominees for beneficial owners are deposited into participant accounts at DTC, and are considered to be held of record by Cede & Co. as one stockholder.

Dividends

We cannot provide any assurance that we will declare or pay cash dividends on our common stock in the future. We currently anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings, if any, for use in the operation and expansion of our business and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Additionally, our ability to pay dividends on our common stock is limited by restrictions under the terms of the agreements governing our 2017 Facility with Silicon Valley Bank, as amended, as further disclosed under "Sources of Liquidity" in Part II Item 7. "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Payment of future cash dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of the board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs, the requirements of current or then-existing debt instruments and other factors the board of directors deems relevant.

Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed "soliciting material" or to be "filed" with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our filings under the Securities Act.

The following graph shows a comparison for the period June 26, 2015 (the date our common stock commenced trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market) through December 31, 2018 of the cumulative total return for (i) our common stock, (ii) the Nasdaq Composite Index and (iii) Standard & Poor's 500 Index, or S&P 500 Index assuming an initial investment of $100 on June 26, 2015 and reinvestment of all dividends. The returns in the graph are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common stock.



	June 26, 2015		December 31, 2015		December 31, 2016		December 31, 2017		December 31, 2018
Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.	$	100	$	99	$	165	$	224	$	307
Nasdaq Composite	100		99		106		136		131
S&P 500	100		97		107		127		119

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Use of Proceeds

None.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Stock Repurchase Program. On November 29, 2018, our board of directors authorized a stock repurchase program, under which we are authorized to purchase up to an aggregate of $75.0 million of our outstanding common stock from time to time on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, block trades, tender offers and by any combination of the foregoing, in accordance with federal securities laws, during the two-year period ending November 29, 2020. To date, we have not purchased any shares pursuant to this stock repurchase program.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Annual Report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future. The selected financial data should be read together with Item 7. "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial and other data for the years ended and as of December 31, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands, except share and per share data). Information about prior period acquisitions that may affect the comparability of the selected financial information presented below is included in Item 1. Business. Further information about the $28.0 million expense recorded in general and administrative expense in 2018, which relates to the agreement reached to settle the legal matter alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, and may affect the comparability of the selected financial information presented below, is disclosed in Item 3. “Legal Proceedings.”



	Year Ended December 31,
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:	2018			2017			2016			2015			2014
Revenue:
SaaS and license revenue	$	291,072		$	236,283		$	173,540		$	140,936		$	111,515
Hardware and other revenue	129,422			102,654			87,566			67,952			55,797
Total revenue	420,494			338,937			261,106			208,888			167,312
Cost of revenue⁽¹⁾:
Cost of SaaS and license revenue	44,933			35,610			30,229			25,722			23,007
Cost of hardware and other revenue	100,782			80,578			69,151			51,652			44,172
Total cost of revenue	145,715			116,188			99,380			77,374			67,179
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing⁽²⁾	55,902			43,490			38,980			32,240			25,836
General and administrative⁽²⁾	95,750			55,396			57,926			35,473			26,113
Research and development⁽²⁾	89,204			72,755			44,272			40,002			23,193
Amortization and depreciation	21,721			17,734			6,490			5,808			3,991
Total operating expenses	262,577			189,375			147,668			113,523			79,133
Operating income	12,202			33,374			14,058			17,991			21,000
Interest expense	(2,918		)	(2,199		)	(190		)	(178		)	(196		)
Other income / (expense), net	2,415			1,066			513			(348		)	(485		)
Income before income taxes	11,699			32,241			14,381			17,465			20,319
(Benefit from) / provision for income taxes	(9,825		)	2,990			4,227			5,697			6,817
Net income	21,524			29,251			10,154			11,768			13,502
Dividends paid to participating securities	—			—			—			(18,987		)	—
Income allocated to participating securities	(3		)	(13		)	(12		)	—			(12,939		)
Net income / (loss) attributable to common stockholders	$	21,521		$	29,238		$	10,142		$	(7,219	)	$	563



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016		2015			2014
Per share information attributable to common stockholders:
Net income / (loss) per share:
Basic	$	0.45	$	0.63	$	0.22	$	(0.30	)	$	0.25
Diluted	$	0.43	$	0.59	$	0.21	$	(0.30	)	$	0.14
Weighted average common shares outstanding:
Basic	47,633,739		46,682,141		45,716,757		24,108,362			2,276,694
Diluted	49,692,184		49,153,948		47,875,522		24,108,362			3,890,121
Cash dividends declared per share	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	0.36		$	—



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016			2015			2014
Other Financial and Operating Data:
SaaS and license revenue renewal rate⁽³⁾	93		%	93		%	94		%	93		%	93		%
Adjusted EBITDA⁽⁴⁾	$	93,081		$	71,628		$	49,034		$	34,370		$	28,321



	As of December 31,
	2018		2017		2016		2015		2014
Balance sheet and other data:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	146,061	$	96,329	$	140,634	$	128,358	$	42,572
Working capital⁽⁵⁾	152,793		119,433		150,485		131,971		45,854
Total assets	440,985		371,641		261,245		226,095		120,932
Redeemable convertible preferred stock	—		—		—		—		202,456
Total long-term obligations	88,126		94,311		30,297		26,885		17,572
Total stockholders' equity / (deficit)	277,589		232,827		191,249		170,131		(121,844		)

_____________________

⁽¹⁾Excludes amortization and depreciation shown in operating expenses below.

⁽²⁾ Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016		2015		2014
Stock-based compensation expense data:
Sales and marketing	$	1,196	$	561	$	536	$	372	$	338
General and administrative	4,901		2,638		1,430		2,486		1,862
Research and development	7,332		4,214		2,035		1,266		1,067
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	13,429	$	7,413	$	4,001	$	4,124	$	3,267

⁽³⁾ We measure our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate on a trailing 12-month basis by dividing (a) the total SaaS and license revenue recognized during the trailing 12-month period from subscribers on our Alarm.com platform who were subscribers on the first day of the period, by (b) total SaaS and license revenue we would have recognized during the period from those same subscribers assuming no terminations, or service level upgrades or downgrades. The SaaS and license revenue renewal rate represents both residential and commercial properties. Our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate is expressed as an annualized percentage. Our service provider partners, who resell our services to our subscribers, have indicated that they typically have three to five-year service contracts with our subscribers. Our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate is calculated across our entire subscriber base on the Alarm.com platform, including subscribers whose contract with their service provider reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, as well as subscribers whose contract with their service provider has not reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, and is not intended to estimate the rate at which our subscribers renew their contracts with our service provider partners. We believe that our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate allows us to measure our ability to retain and grow our SaaS and license revenue and serves as an indicator of the lifetime value of our subscriber base.

⁽⁴⁾ We define Adjusted EBITDA as our net income before interest and other income / (expense), net, provision for income taxes, amortization and depreciation expense, stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and legal costs and settlement fees incurred in connection with non-ordinary course litigation and other disputes, particularly costs involved in ongoing intellectual property litigation. We do not consider these items to be indicative of our core operating performance. The non-cash items include amortization and depreciation expense, stock-based compensation expense related to stock options and the sale of common stock, goodwill and intangible impairment charges and gain from the release of an acquisition-related contingent liability. Included in 2015 stock-based compensation expense is $0.8 million related to the repurchase of an employee's stock awards. We do not adjust for ordinary course legal expenses resulting from maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property portfolio and license agreements. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure calculated in accordance with GAAP. See the table below for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

We have included Adjusted EBITDA in this report because it is a key measure that our management uses to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, to generate future operating plans, to make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital and to make investments in initiatives that are focused on cultivating new markets for our solutions. We also use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including Adjusted EBITDA, as performance measures under our executive bonus plan. Further, we believe the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA facilitates comparisons of our operating performance on a period-to-period basis and, in the case of exclusion of acquisition-related expense and certain historical legal expenses, excludes items that we do not consider to be indicative of our core operating performance. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.

Our use of Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are: (a) although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements; (b) Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; (c) Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation; (d) Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us; and (e) other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA or similarly titled measures differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Because of these and other limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside our other GAAP-based financial performance measures, net income and our other GAAP financial results. The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, for each of the periods indicated (in thousands).



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018			2017		2016			2015		2014
Adjusted EBITDA:
Net income	$	21,524		$	29,251	$	10,154		$	11,768	$	13,502
Adjustments:
Interest expense and other income, net	503			1,133		(323		)	526		681
(Benefit from) / provision for income taxes	(9,825		)	2,990		4,227			5,697		6,817
Amortization and depreciation expense	21,721			17,734		6,490			5,808		3,991
Stock-based compensation expense	13,429			7,413		4,001			4,124		3,267
Acquisition-related expense	—			5,895		11,098			100		—
Litigation expense	45,729			7,212		13,387			6,347		63
Total adjustments	71,557			42,377		38,880			22,602		14,819
Adjusted EBITDA	$	93,081		$	71,628	$	49,034		$	34,370	$	28,321

⁽⁵⁾ In the fourth quarter of 2015, we retrospectively adopted ASU 2015-17, "Income Taxes (Topic 740) Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes," which simplifies the presentation of deferred income taxes and requires entities to classify deferred income tax liabilities and assets for each jurisdiction as noncurrent on the balance sheet. Due to the adoption of this pronouncement, we retrospectively reclassified the previously reported current portion of deferred tax assets to long-term deferred tax assets for the balance sheet and other data table above resulting in a change in working capital as of December 31, 2014.

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review Item 1A. "Risk Factors" and "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in this Annual Report for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Overview

Our solutions are delivered through an established network of over 8,000 trusted service providers, who are experts at selling, installing and supporting our solutions. We primarily generate Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, and license revenue through our service provider partners, who resell these services and pay us monthly fees. Our service provider partners have indicated that they typically have three to five-year service contracts with residential and commercial property owners who use our solutions. We also generate hardware and other revenue, primarily from our service provider partners and distributors. Our hardware sales include connected devices that enable our services, such as video cameras, gateway modules and smart thermostats. We believe that the length of service relationship with residential and commercial property owners, combined with our robust platforms and over 15 years of operating experience, contribute to a compelling business model.

Executive Overview and Highlights of 2018 and 2017 Results

We primarily generate SaaS and license revenue, our largest source of revenue, through our service provider partners who resell our services and pay us monthly fees. Our service provider partners sell, install and support Alarm.com solutions that enable residential and commercial property owners to intelligently secure, connect, control and automate their properties. Our service provider partners have indicated that they typically have three to five-year service contracts with residential or commercial property owners. Our subscribers consist of all of the properties maintained by those residential and commercial property owners to which we are delivering at least one of our solutions. We derive a portion of our revenue from licensing our intellectual property to third parties on a per customer basis. SaaS and license revenue represented 69%, 70% and 66% of our revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

We also generate SaaS and license revenue from monthly fees charged to service providers on a per subscriber basis for access to our non-hosted software platform, or Software platform. The non-hosted software for interactive security, automation and related solutions is typically deployed and operated by the service provider in its own network operations center. Software license revenue represented 10%, 9% and 0% of our revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

We also generate revenue from the sale of hardware, including video cameras, cellular radio modules, thermostats, image sensors and other peripherals, that enables our solutions. We have a rich history of innovation in cellular technology that enables our robust SaaS offering. Hardware and other revenue represented 31%, 30% and 34% of our revenue in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We typically expect hardware and other revenue to fluctuate as a percentage of total revenue.

Highlights of our financial performance for the periods covered in this Annual Report include:


•	SaaS and license revenue increased 23% to $291.1 million in 2018 from $236.3 million in 2017. SaaS and license revenue increased 36% to $236.3 million in 2017 from $173.5 million in 2016.


•	Total revenue increased 24% to $420.5 million in 2018 from $338.9 million in 2017. Revenue increased 30% to $338.9 million in 2017 from $261.1 million in 2016.


•	Net income was $21.5 million in 2018, $29.3 million in 2017 and $10.2 million in 2016.


•	Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance, increased to $93.1 million in 2018 from $71.6 million in 2017. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $71.6 million in 2017 from $49.0 million in 2016.

Please see Non-GAAP Measures below in this section of this Annual Report for a discussion of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP measure) and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most comparable measurement in accordance with GAAP, for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

Geographic Areas

We believe there is significant opportunity to expand our international business, as 2% of our total revenue during the year ended December 31, 2018 originated from customers located outside of North America. Our products are currently localized and available in approximately 40 countries outside of North America.

Recent Developments

In October 2018, we launched our newly deployed video analytics service that leverages our artificial intelligence architecture. Our video analytics engine provides an intelligent new layer of security and awareness for residential and commercial property owners. Object classification and object tracking technology can distinguish between people, vehicles and animals, determine an object's direction of movement and measure the duration of activity. Our subscribers can selectively control and manage notifications and assign virtual zones and multi-directional "tripwires" so they can monitor their properties for highly specific activity.

On November 29, 2018, our board of directors authorized a stock repurchase program, under which we are authorized to purchase up to an aggregate of $75.0 million of our outstanding common stock from time to time on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, block trades, tender offers and by any combination of the foregoing, in accordance with federal securities laws, during the two-year period ending November 29, 2020. The stock repurchase program does not obligate us to purchase any stock and the number of shares repurchased, if any, and the timing of repurchases will depend on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, stock price, trading volume and general market conditions and other factors. The repurchase program may be suspended, modified or discontinued at any time in our discretion. To date, we have not purchased any shares pursuant to this stock repurchase program. We intend to finance any repurchases under the stock repurchase program using cash on hand.

Other Business Metrics

We regularly monitor a number of financial and operating metrics in order to measure our current performance and estimate our future performance. Our other business metrics may be calculated in a manner different than similar other business metrics used by other companies and include the following (dollars in thousands):



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
SaaS and license revenue	$	291,072		$	236,283		$	173,540
Adjusted EBITDA	93,081			71,628			49,034

	Twelve Months Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
SaaS and license revenue renewal rate	93		%	93		%	94		%

SaaS and License Revenue

We believe that SaaS and license revenue is an indicator of the productivity of our existing service provider partners and their ability to activate and maintain subscribers using our intelligently connected property solutions, our ability to add new service provider partners reselling our solutions, the demand for our intelligently connected property solutions and the pace at which the market for these solutions is growing.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA represents our net income before interest expense, other income, net, (benefit from) / provision for income taxes, amortization and depreciation expense, stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and legal costs and settlement fees incurred in connection with non-ordinary course litigation and other disputes, particularly costs involved in ongoing intellectual property litigation. We do not consider these items to be indicative of our core operating performance. The non-cash items include amortization and depreciation expense and stock-based compensation expense. We do not adjust for ordinary course legal expenses resulting from maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property portfolio and license agreements.

Adjusted EBITDA is a key measure that our management uses to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends to generate future operating plans, to make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital, and to make investments in initiatives that are focused on cultivating new markets for our solutions. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA facilitates comparisons of our operating performance on a period-to-period basis and, in the case of exclusion of acquisition-related adjustments and certain historical legal expenses, excludes items that we do not consider to be indicative of our core operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure calculated in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Please see Non-GAAP Measures in this section for a discussion of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most comparable GAAP measurement, for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

SaaS and License Revenue Renewal Rate

We measure our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate on a trailing 12-month basis by dividing (a) the total SaaS and license revenue recognized during the trailing 12-month period from our subscribers on our Alarm.com platform who were subscribers on the first day of the period, by (b) total SaaS and license revenue we would have recognized during the period from those same subscribers assuming no terminations, or service level upgrades or downgrades. The SaaS and license revenue renewal rate represents both residential and commercial properties. Our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate is expressed as an annualized percentage. Our service provider partners, who resell our services to our subscribers, have indicated that they typically have three to five-year service contracts with our subscribers. Our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate is calculated across our entire subscriber base on the Alarm.com platform, including subscribers whose contract with their service provider reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, as well as subscribers whose contract with their service provider has not reached the end of its contractual term during the measurement period, and is not intended to estimate the rate at which our subscribers renew their contracts with our service provider partners. We believe that our SaaS and license revenue renewal rate allows us to measure our ability to retain and grow our SaaS and license revenue and serves as an indicator of the lifetime value of our subscriber base.

Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)

In May 2014, the Financing Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, and International Accounting Standards Board jointly issued Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, 2014-09, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)," a new revenue recognition standard that provides a framework for addressing revenue issues, improves the comparability of revenue recognition practices across industries, provides useful information to users of financial statements through improved disclosure requirements and simplifies the presentation of financial statements. On January 1, 2018, we adopted Topic 606 by applying the modified retrospective transition method to all of our contracts. Comparative information has not been restated and continues to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for the periods presented.

The adoption of Topic 606 did not have a material impact on our revenue recognition policies, however, as a result of adopting the new standard, we changed our treatment of commissions paid to employees, which we previously expensed as incurred. Under the new standard, we capitalize a portion of our commission costs as an incremental cost of obtaining a contract and amortize our commission costs over a period of three years, which is consistent with the period over which the products and services related to the commission are transferred to the customer. Based on the results of our evaluation, the adoption of Topic 606 did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018. Additionally, the cumulative effect to the opening balance sheet on January 1, 2018 from the adoption of Topic 606 was not material.

Components of Operating Results

Our fiscal year ends on December 31. The key elements of our operating results include:

Revenue

We derive our revenue from three primary sources: the sale of cloud-based SaaS services on our integrated Alarm.com platform, the sale of licenses and services on the Software platform and the sale of hardware products. We sell our platform and hardware solutions to service provider partners that resell our solutions and hardware to residential and commercial property owners, who are the service provider partners’ customers.

SaaS and License Revenue. We generate the majority of our SaaS and license revenue primarily from monthly fees charged to our service provider partners sold on a per subscriber basis for access to our cloud-based intelligently connected property platform and related solutions. Our fees per subscriber vary based upon the service plan and features utilized.

We offer multiple service level packages for our platform solutions including a range of solutions and a range of a la carte add-ons for additional features. The fee paid by our service provider partners each month for the delivery of our solutions is based on the combination of packages and add-ons enabled for each subscriber. We utilize tiered pricing plans where our service provider partners may receive prospective pricing discounts driven by volume.

We also generate SaaS and license revenue from the fees paid to us when we license our intellectual property to third parties for use of our patents. In addition, in certain markets our EnergyHub subsidiary sells its demand response service for an annual service fee, with pricing based on the number of subscribers or amount of aggregate electricity demand made available for a utility’s or market’s control.

Software License Revenue. Our SaaS and license revenue also includes our software license revenue from monthly fees charged to service providers sold on a per subscriber basis for access to our Software platform. The non-hosted software for interactive security, automation and related solutions is typically deployed and operated by the service provider in its own network operations center. Our agreements for the Software platform solution typically include software and services, such as post-contract customer support, or PCS.

Hardware and Other Revenue. We generate hardware and other revenue primarily from the sale of video cameras and cellular radio modules that provide access to our cloud-based platforms and, to a lesser extent, the sale of other devices, including image sensors and peripherals. We primarily transfer hardware to our customers upon delivery to the customer, which corresponds with the time at which the customer obtains control of the hardware. We record a reserve against revenue for hardware returns based on historical returns.

Hardware and other revenue may also include activation fees charged to some of our service provider partners for activation of a new subscriber account on our platforms, as well as fees paid by service provider partners for our marketing services. The decision whether to charge an activation fee is based in part on the expected number of subscribers to be added by our service provider partners and as a result, many of our largest service provider partners do not pay an activation fee.

Cost of Revenue

Our cost of SaaS and license revenue primarily includes the amounts paid to wireless network providers and, to a lesser extent, the costs of running our network operations centers which are expensed as incurred, as well as patent and royalty costs in connection with technology licensed from third-party providers. Our cost of SaaS and license revenue also includes our cost of software license revenue, which primarily includes the payroll and payroll-related costs of the department dedicated to providing service exclusively to those service providers that host the Software platform. Our cost of hardware and other revenue primarily includes cost of raw materials, tooling and amounts paid to our third-party manufacturer for production and fulfillment of our cellular radio modules and image sensors, and procurement costs for our video cameras, which we purchase from an original equipment manufacturer, and other devices. Our cost of hardware and other revenue also includes royalty costs in connection with technology licensed from third-party providers.

We record the cost of SaaS and license revenue as expenses are incurred, which corresponds to the delivery period of our services to our subscribers. We record the cost of hardware and other revenue when the hardware and other services are delivered to the service provider partner, which occurs when control of the hardware and other services transfers to the service provider partner. Our cost of revenue excludes amortization and depreciation.

Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses consist of sales and marketing, general and administrative, research and development and amortization and depreciation expenses. Salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, benefits and other personnel related

costs are the most significant components of each of these expense categories, excluding amortization and depreciation. We include stock-based compensation expense in connection with the grant of stock options and other forms of equity compensation in the applicable operating expense category based on the respective equity award recipient’s function (sales and marketing, general and administrative or research and development). We grew from 784 employees as of January 1, 2018 to 884 employees as of December 31, 2018, and we expect to continue to hire new employees to support the projected future growth of our business.

Sales and Marketing Expense. Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of personnel and related expenses for our sales and marketing teams, including salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, benefits, travel, and commissions. Our sales and marketing teams engage in sales, account management, service provider partner support, advertising, promotion of our products and services and marketing.

The number of employees in sales and marketing functions increased from 242 as of January 1, 2018 to 288 as of December 31, 2018. We expect to continue to invest in our sales and marketing activities to expand our business both domestically and internationally and, as a result, expect our sales and marketing expense to increase on an absolute dollar basis. We intend to increase the size of our sales force and our service provider partner support team to provide additional support to our existing service provider partner base to drive their productivity in selling our solutions as well as to enroll new service provider partners in North America and in international markets.

General and Administrative Expense. General and administrative expense consists primarily of personnel and related expenses for our administrative, legal, human resources, finance and accounting personnel, including salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, benefits and other personnel costs. Additional expenses included in this category are legal costs, including those that are incurred to defend and license our intellectual property, as well as non-personnel costs, such as travel related expenses, rent, subcontracting and professional fees, audit fees, tax services, and insurance expenses. Also included in general and administrative expenses are acquisition-related expenses, which consist primarily of legal, accounting and professional service fees directly related to acquisitions, valuation gains or losses on acquisition-related contingent liabilities.

The number of employees in general and administrative functions increased from 95 as of January 1, 2018 to 96 as of December 31, 2018. Excluding intellectual property litigation and acquisition-related costs, we expect general and administrative costs to increase prospectively as our business grows. This includes cost increases related to accounting, finance, and legal personnel, additional external legal, audit fees and other expenses associated with regulations governing public companies. While somewhat unpredictable, we also expect to continue to incur costs related to litigation involving intellectual property. See the section of this Annual Report titled "Legal Proceedings" for additional information on litigation.

Research and Development Expense. Research and development expense consists primarily of personnel and related expenses for our employees working on our product development and software and device engineering teams, including salaries, bonuses, stock-based compensation, benefits and other personnel costs. Also included are non-personnel costs such as consulting and professional fees paid to third-party development resources.

The number of employees in research and development functions grew from 447 as of January 1, 2018 to 500 as of December 31, 2018. Our research and development efforts are focused on innovating new features and enhancing the functionality of our platforms and the solutions we offer to our service provider partners and subscribers. We will also continue to invest in efforts to extend our platforms to adjacent markets and internationally. We expect research and development expenses to increase on an absolute dollar basis and as a percentage of revenue in the short term to maintain our leadership position in the development of intelligently connected property technology, and continued enhancement of our Enterprise Tools platform for our service provider partners.

Amortization and Depreciation. Amortization and depreciation consists of amortization of intangible assets originating from our acquisitions as well as our internally-developed capitalized software. Our depreciation expense is related to investments in property and equipment. Acquired intangible assets include developed technology, customer related intangibles, trademarks and trade names. We expect in the near term that amortization and depreciation may fluctuate based on our acquisition activity, development of our platforms and capitalized expenditures.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists of interest expense associated with our credit facilities. On October 6, 2017, we entered into a $125.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility, or the 2017 Facility, with SVB, as administrative agent, PNC Bank, National Association, as documentation agent, and a syndicate of lenders. The 2017 Facility is available to us to refinance existing debt and for general corporate and working capital purposes as permitted under the terms of the 2017 Facility. Interest expense is expected to remain relatively consistent in 2019 as compared to 2018.

Other Income, Net

Other income, net consists of our portion of the income or loss from our minority investments in other businesses accounted for under the equity method and interest income earned on our cash and cash equivalents and our notes receivable.

Provision for Income Taxes

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017. This legislation made significant changes in U.S. tax law, including a reduction in the corporate tax rate, changes to net operating loss carryforwards and carrybacks and a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax. The legislation reduced the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%.

We are subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes as well as foreign income taxes. During the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. As a result, we recognize tax liabilities based on estimates of whether additional taxes will be due. Our effective tax rates were different from the statutory rate primarily due to the tax windfall benefits from employee stock-based payment transactions, research and development tax credits claimed, and state taxes, partially offset by the impact of non-deductible meal and entertainment expenses. We recognize excess tax windfall benefits on a discrete basis in the quarter in which it occurs, and we anticipate that our effective tax rate will vary from quarter to quarter depending on our stock price and exercises of stock options under our equity incentive plans each period.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our selected consolidated statements of operations and data as a percentage of revenue for the periods presented (in thousands):

Consolidated Statements of Operations



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018					2017					2016
	$			%		$			%		$			%
Revenue:
SaaS and license revenue	$	291,072		69	%	$	236,283		70	%	$	173,540		66	%
Hardware and other revenue	129,422			31		102,654			30		87,566			34
Total revenue	420,494			100		338,937			100		261,106			100
Cost of revenue: ⁽¹⁾
Cost of SaaS and license revenue	44,933			11		35,610			10		30,229			12
Cost of hardware and other revenue	100,782			24		80,578			24		69,151			26
Total cost of revenue	145,715			35		116,188			34		99,380			38
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing ⁽²⁾	55,902			13		43,490			13		38,980			15
General and administrative ⁽²⁾	95,750			23		55,396			16		57,926			22
Research and development ⁽²⁾	89,204			21		72,755			22		44,272			17
Amortization and depreciation	21,721			5		17,734			5		6,490			2
Total operating expenses	262,577			62		189,375			56		147,668			56
Operating income	12,202			3		33,374			10		14,058			6
Interest expense	(2,918		)	(1	)	(2,199		)	—		(190		)	—
Other income, net	2,415			1		1,066			—		513			—
Income before income taxes	11,699			3		32,241			10		14,381			6
(Benefit from) / provision for income taxes	(9,825		)	(2	)	2,990			1		4,227			2
Net income	$	21,524		5	%	$	29,251		9	%	$	10,154		4	%

_______________


⁽¹⁾	Excludes amortization and depreciation shown in operating expenses below.


⁽²⁾	Operating expenses include stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Stock-based compensation expense data:
Sales and marketing	$	1,196	$	561	$	536
General and administrative	4,901		2,638		1,430
Research and development	7,332		4,214		2,035
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	13,429	$	7,413	$	4,001

The following table sets forth the components of cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Components of cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue:
Cost of SaaS and license revenue as a percentage of SaaS and license revenue	15	%	15	%	17	%
Cost of hardware and other revenue as a percentage of hardware and other revenue	78	%	78	%	79	%
Total cost of revenue as a percentage of total revenue	35	%	34	%	38	%

Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2018 to December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2017 to December 31, 2016

Revenue



	Year Ended December 31,						% Change
Revenue	2018		2017		2016		2018 vs. 2017		2017 vs. 2016
SaaS and license revenue	$	291,072	$	236,283	$	173,540	23	%	36	%
Hardware and other revenue	129,422		102,654		87,566		26	%	17	%
Total revenue	$	420,494	$	338,937	$	261,106	24	%	30	%

2018 Compared to 2017

The $81.6 million increase in total revenue in 2018 compared to 2017 was the result of a $54.8 million, or 23%, increase in our SaaS and license revenue and a $26.8 million, or 26%, increase in our hardware and other revenue. Our software license revenue included within SaaS and license revenue increased $11.6 million to $41.3 million in 2018 compared to as compared to $29.7 million during the same period in the prior year. The increase in our Alarm.com segment SaaS and license revenue in 2018 was primarily due to growth in our subscriber base, including the revenue impact from subscribers we added in 2017. Additionally, the increase in the software license revenue was due to the timing of the acquisition of certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of the Connect line of business and all of the outstanding equity interests of the two subsidiaries through which Icontrol conducted its Piper line of business in June 2016, or the Acquisition. To a lesser extent, SaaS and license revenue increased in the period due to an increase in license fees. The increase in hardware and other revenue in 2018 compared to 2017 was primarily due to an increase in the volume of video cameras sold. Our Other segment contributed 8% of the increase in SaaS and license revenue and 7% of the increase in hardware and other revenue in 2018 compared to 2017. The increase in SaaS and license revenue for our Other segment in 2018 was from our remote access management solution and our energy management and demand response solutions. The increase in hardware and other revenue for our Other segment in 2018 was primarily due to the timing of hardware sales related to our remote access management solution.

2017 Compared to 2016

The $77.8 million increase in total revenue in 2017 compared to 2016 was the result of a $62.7 million, or 36%, increase in our SaaS and license revenue and a $15.1 million, or 17%, increase in our hardware and other revenue. The increase in our Alarm.com segment SaaS and license revenue in 2017 was primarily due to growth in our subscriber base, including the revenue impact from subscribers we added in 2016 and due to service providers and their subscribers on our Software platform. To a lesser extent, SaaS and license revenue increased in the period due to an increase in license fees. The increase in hardware and other revenue in 2017 compared to 2016 was due to an increase in the volume of video cameras sold including several new product offering releases in 2017, and due to increases in volume of other peripherals sold including the system enhancement module. Our Other segment contributed 6% of the increase in SaaS and license revenue and 12% of the increase in hardware and other revenue in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in SaaS and license revenue for our Other segment in 2017 was from our remote access management solution and our energy management and demand response solutions. The

increase in hardware and other revenue for our Other segment in 2017 was primarily due to an increase in video cameras sold and hardware sold to support our remote access management solution.

Cost of Revenue



	Year Ended December 31,									% Change
	2018			2017			2016			2018 vs. 2017		2017 vs. 2016
Cost of revenue⁽¹⁾
Cost of SaaS and license revenue	$	44,933		$	35,610		$	30,229		26	%	18	%
Cost of hardware and other revenue	100,782			80,578			69,151			25	%	17	%
Total cost of revenue	$	145,715		$	116,188		$	99,380		25	%	17	%
% of total revenue	35		%	34		%	38		%

________________

⁽¹⁾Excludes amortization and depreciation shown in operating expenses.

2018 Compared to 2017

The $29.5 million increase in cost of revenue in 2018 compared to 2017 was the result of a $20.2 million, or 25%, increase in cost of hardware and other revenue and a $9.3 million, or 26%, increase in cost of SaaS and license revenue. Our cost of software license revenue included within cost of SaaS and license revenue increased $0.4 million to $1.7 million during 2018 as compared to $1.2 million during the same period in the prior year. The increase in cost of Alarm.com segment hardware and other revenue related primarily to an increase in the number of hardware units shipped in 2018 compared to 2017. The increase in cost of Alarm.com segment SaaS and license revenue related primarily to the growth in our subscriber base, which drove a corresponding increase in amounts paid to wireless network providers and, to a lesser extent, the costs of running our network operations centers. Additionally, the increase in the cost of software license revenue was due to the timing of the Acquisition. Cost of hardware and other revenue as a percentage of hardware and other revenue remained relatively consistent at 78% for 2018 and 2017. Cost of SaaS and license revenue as a percentage of SaaS and license revenue remained relatively consistent at 15% for 2018 and 2017. Cost of software license revenue as a percentage of software license revenue remained relatively consistent at 4% during 2018 and 2017.

2017 Compared to 2016

The $16.8 million increase in cost of revenue in 2017 compared to 2016 was the result of a $5.4 million, or 18%, increase in cost of SaaS and license revenue and an $11.4 million, or 17%, increase in cost of hardware and other revenue. The increase in cost of Alarm.com segment SaaS and license revenue related primarily to the growth in our subscriber base, which drove a corresponding increase in amounts paid to wireless network providers and, to a lesser extent, the costs of running our network operations centers. Cost of SaaS and license revenue as a percentage of SaaS and license revenue was 15% for 2017 and 17% for 2016. The decrease in cost of sales relative to our revenue growth was due to the achievement of economies of scale related to the growth in our subscriber base including the addition of the subscribers of our Software platform, which has a higher gross margin profile but lower revenue per subscriber. The increase in cost of hardware and other revenue related primarily to our increase in hardware and other revenue. Cost of hardware and other revenue as a percentage of hardware and other revenue was 78% for 2017 and 79% for 2016. The decrease in cost of hardware as a percentage of hardware and other revenue is a reflection of the mix of product sales during the periods.

Sales and Marketing Expense



	Year Ended December 31,									% Change
	2018			2017			2016			2018 vs. 2017		2017 vs. 2016
Sales and marketing	$	55,902		$	43,490		$	38,980		29	%	12	%
% of total revenue	13		%	13		%	15		%

2018 Compared to 2017

The $12.4 million increase in sales and marketing expense in 2018 compared to 2017 was primarily due to increases in our marketing programs to support our service provider partners’ efforts to enroll new subscribers and expand the adoption of our solutions. Additionally, the increase in sales and marketing was due to increases in headcount for our service provider partner support team to support our growth. As a result, our marketing expense for our Alarm.com segment increased $8.0 million during 2018 as compared to 2017. Our personnel and related costs for our Alarm.com segment, including salary, benefits, stock-based

compensation and travel expenses, increased by $3.0 million during 2018 and our expenses for external consultants increased by $0.5 million. Sales and marketing expense from our Other segment remained relatively consistent during 2018 as compared to 2017. The overall number of employees in our sales and marketing teams increased from 242 as of December 31, 2017 to 288 as of December 31, 2018. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue was 13% for 2018 and 2017.

2017 Compared to 2016

The $4.5 million increase in sales and marketing expense in 2017 compared to 2016 was primarily due to increases in headcount for our sales force, service provider partner support team, and use of consultants to support our growth and for international expansion and marketing initiatives. As a result, our personnel and related costs for our Alarm.com segment, including salary, benefits, stock-based compensation and travel expenses, increased by $3.5 million in 2017. This increase was partially offset by a $1.6 million decrease in marketing expense for our Alarm.com segment due to a marketing initiative we undertook in 2016 that did not recur in 2017. Sales and marketing expense from our Other segment increased by $2.2 million in 2017 due to an increase in employee headcount and associated personnel and related costs as well as expenses related to the use of consultants to support our growth. The overall number of employees in our sales and marketing teams increased from 219 as of December 31, 2016 to 242 as of December 31, 2017. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue was 13% and 15% for 2017 and 2016, respectively.

General and Administrative Expense



	Year Ended December 31,									% Change
	2018			2017			2016			2018 vs. 2017		2017 vs. 2016
General and administrative	$	95,750		$	55,396		$	57,926		73	%	(4	)%
% of total revenue	23		%	16		%	22		%

2018 Compared to 2017

The $40.4 million increase in general and administrative expense in 2018 compared to 2017 was due in part to a $39.9 million increase in legal expenses primarily resulting from a $28.0 million expense for the agreement reached to settle the legal matter alleging violations of the TCPA by one of our service providers as well as this service provider's sub-dealer agents within our Alarm.com segment. Additionally, there was a $3.0 million increase in personnel and related costs for our Alarm.com segment due to an increase in employee headcount to support our operational growth. Finally, there was a $3.3 million impairment recorded on a secured subordinate convertible promissory note, or Promissory Note, provided to one of our suppliers during 2018 that did not occur in 2017. These increases were partially offset by a $5.0 million decrease in acquisition-related expenses related to the Acquisition. General and administrative expenses from our Other segment increased by $0.5 million during 2018 as compared to 2017, primarily due to a $0.8 million increase in expense for external consultants offset by a decrease in employee-related expenses. The overall number of employees in general and administrative functions increased from 95 as of December 31, 2017 to 96 as of December 31, 2018.

2017 Compared to 2016

The $2.5 million decrease in general and administrative expense in 2017 compared to 2016 was due in part to a $6.2 million decrease in legal expenses related to ongoing intellectual property litigation within our Alarm.com segment as well as a $6.4 million decrease in acquisition-related expenses related to the Acquisition. These decreases were partially offset by a $5.0 million increase in personnel and related costs for our Alarm.com segment due to an increase in employee headcount to support our operational growth and from our acquisitions in the first quarter of 2017. In addition, there was a $2.3 million increase in expense for external consultants within our Alarm.com segment to support our growth and compliance with the regulations governing public companies as well as a $1.3 million increase in rent expense. General and administrative expenses from our Other segment decreased by $1.0 million in 2017 compared to 2016 primarily due to a $1.3 million decrease in personnel and related costs primarily as a result of a $1.2 million adjustment during the third quarter of 2016 to increase the fair value of subsidiary stock awards granted to the employees of one of our subsidiaries. The overall number of employees in general and administrative functions increased from 68 as of December 31, 2016 to 95 as of December 31, 2017.

Research and Development Expense



	Year Ended December 31,								% Change
	2018			2017			2016		2018 vs. 2017		2017 vs. 2016
Research and development	$	89,204		$	72,755		$	44,272	23	%	64	%
% of total revenue	21		%	22		%