Item 1. Business

In this report, the words “we,” “our,” “us,” “CoStar” or the “Company” refer to CoStar Group, Inc. and its direct and indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. This report also refers to our websites, but information contained on those sites is not part of this report.

CoStar Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, founded in 1987, is the number one provider of information, analytics and online marketplaces to the commercial real estate industry in the United States (“U.S.”) and United Kingdom (“U.K.”) based on the fact that we offer the most comprehensive commercial real estate database available; have the largest research department in the industry; own and operate leading online marketplaces for commercial real estate and apartment listings in the U.S. based on the numbers of unique visitors and site visits per month; provide more information, analytics and marketing services than any of our competitors and believe that we generate more revenues than any of our commercial real estate information competitors. We created and compiled our standardized platform of information, analytics and online marketplace services where industry professionals and consumers of commercial real estate, including apartments, and the related business communities, can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently accessing and exchanging accurate and standardized real estate-related information. Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, retail, industrial, multifamily, commercial land, mixed-use and hospitality. We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being North America, which includes the U.S. and Canada, and International, which includes the U.K., Spain, Germany and France.

Strategy

Our strategy is to provide industry professionals and consumers of commercial real estate and apartments with critical knowledge to explore and complete transactions by offering the most comprehensive, timely and standardized information on commercial real estate and apartments and the right tools to be able to effectively utilize that information. Over time, we have expanded our services for commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces in an effort to continue to meet the needs of the industry as it grows and evolves. We have also extended our offering of comprehensive commercial real estate information geographically to include the U.K., Canada, Spain, Germany and France, through acquisitions and internal growth and development. Information about CoStar’s revenues from, and long-lived assets and total assets located in, foreign countries is included in Notes 2 and 12 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Revenues; net income (loss) before interest and other income (expense), income taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”); and total assets and liabilities for each of our segments are set forth in Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements. Information about risks associated with our foreign operations is included in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.”

We deliver our commercial real estate information content to our U.S. customers primarily via an integrated suite of online service offerings that includes information about space available for lease, comparable sales information, information about properties for sale, tenant information, Internet marketing services, analytical capabilities, information for clients’ websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, data integration and industry news. We also operate complementary online marketplaces for commercial real estate listings and apartment rentals. We strive to cross-sell our services to our customers and to upsell services that may best suit their needs.

We have five flagship brands - CoStar®, LoopNet®, Apartments.com^TM, BizBuySell® and LandsofAmerica^TM. Our subscription-based services consist primarily of information, analytics and online marketplace services offered over the Internet to commercial real estate industry and related professionals. Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar Suite® services. CoStar Suite is sold as a platform of service offerings consisting of CoStar Property Professional®, CoStar COMPS Professional®and CoStar Tenant® and through our mobile application, CoStar Go®. CoStar Suite is our primary service offering in our North America and International operating segments.

Our LoopNet subscription-based online marketplace enables commercial property owners, landlords, and real estate agents working on their behalf to list properties for sale or for lease and to submit detailed information about property listings. Commercial real estate agents, buyers and tenants use LoopNet extensively to search for available property listings that meet their criteria.

Apartments.com^TM is part of our network of apartment marketing sites, which also includes ApartmentFinder.com^TM, ApartmentHomeLiving.com^TM, WestsideRentals.com®, and Apartamentos.com^TM, our recently launched apartment-listing site offered exclusively in Spanish. Our apartment marketing network of subscription-based services offers renters a searchable database of apartment listings and provides professional property management companies and landlords with an advertising destination. Our apartment marketing network draws on and leverages CoStar’s multifamily database, which contains detailed information on apartment properties. We designed the Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com and Apartamentos.com websites, which were launched in February 2015, December 2015 and February 2017, respectively, to meet renter preferences and demands, which we believe will drive traffic to those sites and attract advertisers who prefer to advertise on heavily trafficked apartment websites. The sites provide a comprehensive selection of rentals, information on actual availabilities and rents, and in-depth data on neighborhoods, including restaurants, nightlife, history, schools and other facts important to renters. To help renters find the information that meets their needs, the sites also offer innovative search tools such as the Polygon^TM Search tool, which allows renters to specifically define the area in which they want to find an apartment. Apartments.com and Apartamentos.com also offer Plan Commute tools, which allow renters to search property listings that meet their transportation needs. On January 31, 2017, we acquired WestsideRentals.com, an apartment marketing site specializing in Southern California real estate rentals, and added it to our network of apartment marketing sites.

We are the exclusive third party provider of listings in apartment communities with 50 units or more to websites owned and operated by News Corp. subsidiary Move, Inc. - realtor.com®, move.com, and doorsteps.com - with advertiser content from Apartments.com and ApartmentFinder.com. This arrangement enables us to promote the apartment communities of our advertisers across the “Apartments Network” consisting of Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Apartamentos.com, WestsideRentals.com, realtor.com, move.com and doorsteps.com - eight major apartment and real estate rental websites, increasing traffic across our network of apartment marketing websites, and in turn increasing the lead flow to our advertisers’ communities.

Our BizBuySell services, which include BizQuest®, provide an online marketplace for businesses for sale. Our LandsofAmerica services, which include LandAndFarm, provide an online marketplace for rural lands for sale that is also accessible via our Land.com domain.

We provide market research, consulting and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our CoStar Portfolio Strategy and CoStar Market Analytics service offerings; portfolio and debt analysis, management and reporting capabilities through our CoStar Investment Analysis and CoStar Risk Analytics service offerings; and real estate and lease management solutions, including lease administration and abstraction services, through our CoStar Real Estate Manager service offerings. We have created and are continually improving our standardized platform of information, analytics and online marketplaces where members of the commercial real estate and related business community can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently accessing and exchanging accurate and standardized commercial real estate information.

Our standardized platform includes the most comprehensive proprietary database in the industry; the largest research department in the industry; proprietary data collection, information management and quality control systems; a large in-house product development team; a broad suite of web-based information, analytics and online marketplaces; a large team of analysts and economists; and a large, diverse base of clients. Our database has been developed and enhanced for more than 29 years by a research department that makes thousands of daily database updates. In addition to our internal efforts to grow the database, we have obtained and assimilated approximately 100 proprietary databases. Our comprehensive commercial real estate database powers our information services, sources data used in our analytic services and provides content for most of our online marketplace services. Our ability to utilize the same commercial real estate information across our standardized platform creates efficiencies in operations and improves data for our customers.

Our subscription-based services consist primarily of information, analytics, and online marketplace services offered over the Internet to commercial real estate industry and related professionals. Our services are typically distributed to our clients under subscription-based license agreements that renew automatically, a majority of which have a term of one year. Upon renewal, many of the subscription contract rates may change in accordance with contract provisions or as a result of contract renegotiations. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based services rather than charging fees based on actual system usage or number of paid clicks. Depending on the type of service, contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client's business focus, geography, the number and types of services to which a client subscribes, the number of properties a client advertises and the prominence and placement of a client's advertised properties in the search results. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.

Expansion and Growth

Acquisitions

We have continually expanded the geographical coverage of our existing information services and developed new information, analytics and online marketplace services. In addition to internal growth, we have grown our business through strategic acquisitions. Our more recent acquisitions include the April 1, 2014 purchase of certain assets and assumption of certain liabilities related to the Apartments.com business (collectively referred to as “Apartments.com”), a national online apartment rentals resource for renters, property managers and owners, from Classified Ventures, LLC (“CV”). On June 1, 2015, to further support our expansion into the multifamily vertical, we acquired Network Communications, Inc. (“NCI”), including its Apartment Finder business (collectively referred to as “Apartment Finder”). Apartment Finder provides lead generation, advertising, and Internet marketing solutions to property managers and owners through its main service, ApartmentFinder.com. On July 1, 2015, we acquired the assets of Belbex Corporate, S.L. (“Belbex”), a small commercial real estate information provider operating in Madrid, Spain. On May 3, 2016, we acquired Thomas Daily GmbH (“Thomas Daily”), a commercial real estate news and information provider operating in Freiburg, Germany. Most recently, on January 31, 2017, we acquired Koa Lei, Inc. (doing business as Westside Rentals and now known as Westside Rentals, LLC), an online marketplace specializing in Southern California real estate rentals, and its affiliated entity Westside Credit Services, LLC, a provider of credit checks and tenant screening for landlords in the Southern California real estate rental market.

Development and Expansion

We expect to continue our software development efforts to improve existing services, introduce new services, integrate and cross-sell existing services, and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research, sales and marketing organizations. We are committed to supporting and improving our information, news, analytic and online marketplace solutions.

The launch of the Apartments.com website and the ApartmentFinder.com website in 2015 are examples of our software development efforts to improve existing services, introduce new services, and integrate and cross-sell existing services. We believe the improved sites, enhanced search capabilities, availability of information regarding real-time vacancies and our continued development and introduction of enhancements to our online apartment rental marketplaces have attracted more consumers, making the sites more attractive to property managers, which has also increased our cross-selling opportunities. In addition, we recently launched Apartamentos.com, an apartment-listing site offered exclusively in Spanish built and tailored to meet the needs of Spanish language households in the U.S., which is believed to represent approximately 20 percent of the U.S. renter population. We believe greater functionality makes our services valuable to an even broader audience and helps us increase sales of our services to brokers, banks, owners, institutional investors and other industry participants. We expect technology enhancements to drive continued revenue growth in 2017 and the foreseeable future.

In 2016, we began working to further integrate the backend systems of the LoopNet and CoStar databases, so that the two services will share a unified database of information in order to create operating efficiencies and improve the data available to our customers. We also hope to increase the quantity and quality of the listing information available by enabling select brokers and other industry participants to load information directly into the integrated system, simultaneously reducing the time and costs associated with researching and maintaining our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information.

We evaluate potential changes to our service offerings from time to time in order to better align the services we offer with customers’ needs. Further, in some cases, when integrating and coordinating our services and assessing industry and client needs, we may decide to combine, shift focus from, de-emphasize, phase out, or eliminate a service that, among other things, overlaps or is redundant with other services we offer. In the event that we eliminate or phase out particular service offerings, we may experience reduced revenues and earnings. The decision to eliminate or phase out a service offering may also ultimately result in increased revenues and earnings from sales of other services we offer in lieu of the eliminated or phased out services. We continue to assess the timing and potential impact of transitioning the LoopNet marketplace to a pure marketing site for commercial real estate where, eventually, all listings would be paid and users could search the site for free. When we implement this shift, we will seek to convert LoopNet information customers to higher value, more profitable annual subscription information services, which should increase revenues and earnings over time. However, we cannot predict with certainty the amount or timing of any reductions in revenues and earnings or subsequent increases in revenues and earnings, if any, resulting from the elimination or phasing out of the LoopNet information services or any other service offering, if implemented.

Our revenues have increased as a result of revenues from acquired businesses and from cross-selling opportunities among the customers of CoStar and the acquired companies. We expect to continue to increase revenues as a result of such cross-selling opportunities. We may incur increased expenses in connection with any marketing and sales campaigns involving cross-selling opportunities and initiatives, and in connection with promotion of our new services and brands.

We are expanding the geographic reach of our North America services. In 2014, we began offering our services in Toronto, Canada. Building on our experience in Toronto, we have expanded and are continuing to expand our research into additional Canadian cities. In the second quarter of 2015, we began offering services in Calgary and Vancouver. In the second quarter of 2016, we began offering services in Ottawa and in the third quarter of 2016, we began offering services in Edmonton. On July 1, 2015, we expanded our International services into Madrid, Spain through the acquisition of the assets of Belbex, a small commercial real estate information provider operating in Madrid, Spain. Further, on May 3, 2016, we expanded our International services into key markets in Germany, through the acquisition of Thomas Daily, a commercial real estate news and information provider operating in Freiburg, Germany. We believe that our integration efforts and continued investments in our services, including expansion of our existing service offerings, have created a platform for long-term revenue growth. We expect these investments to result in further penetration of our subscription-based services and the successful cross-selling of our services to customers in existing markets.

We have invested in the expansion and development of our field sales force to support the growth and expansion of our company and our service offerings in North America and internationally. We plan to continue to invest in, evaluate and strategically position our sales force as the Company continues to develop and grow. We are also investing in our research operations to support continued growth of our information and analytics offerings, to support the Apartments.com network, to expand into additional Canadian markets and to provide services in Madrid, Spain and key markets in Germany. We recently established our research operations headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, and plan to expand our research team and continue investing in research operations to meet the growing content needs of our clients. While we believe investments we make in our business create a platform for growth, those investments may reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.

We intend to continue to assess the need for additional investments in our business, in addition to the investments discussed above, in order to develop and distribute new services within our current platform or expand the reach of our current service offerings. Any future product development or expansion of services, combination and coordination of services or elimination of services or corporate expansion, development or restructuring efforts could reduce our profitability and increase our capital expenditures. Any new investments, changes to our service offerings or other unforeseen events could cause us to generate losses and negative cash flow from operations in the future. We expect to continue our software development efforts to improve existing services, introduce new services, integrate products and services, cross-sell existing services, and expand and develop supporting technologies for our research and sales and marketing organizations. We are committed to continuing to support and improve our information, analytics and online marketplace solutions.

Industry Overview

The market for commercial real estate information and analysis is vast based on the variety, volume and value of transactions related to commercial real estate. Each transaction has multiple participants and multiple information requirements, and in order to facilitate transactions, industry participants must have extensive, accurate and current information and analysis. Members of the commercial real estate and related business community require daily access to current data such as space availability, properties for sale, rental units available, rental rates, vacancy rates, tenant movements, sales comparables, supply, new construction, absorption rates and other important market developments to carry out their businesses effectively. Market research (including historical and forecast conditions) and applied analytics have also become instrumental to the success of commercial real estate industry participants operating in the current economic environment. There is a strong need for an efficient marketplace, where commercial real estate professionals can exchange information, evaluate opportunities using standardized data and interpretive analyses, and interact with each other on a continuous basis.

A large number of parties involved in the commercial real estate and related business community make use of the services we provide in order to obtain information they need to conduct their businesses, including:

•	Sales and leasing brokers	•	Government agencies
•	Property owners	•	Mortgage-backed security issuers
•	Property managers	•	Appraisers
•	Design and construction professionals	•	Pension fund managers
•	Real estate developers	•	Reporters
•	Real estate investment trust managers	•	Tenant vendors
•	Investment bankers	•	Building services vendors
•	Commercial bankers	•	Communications providers
•	Mortgage bankers	•	Insurance companies’ managers
•	Mortgage brokers	•	Institutional advisors
•	Retailers	•	Investors and asset managers

The commercial real estate and related business community historically operated in an inefficient marketplace because of the fragmented approach to gathering and exchanging information within the marketplace. Various organizations, including hundreds of brokerage firms, directory publishers and local research companies, collected data on specific markets and developed software to analyze the information they independently gathered. This highly fragmented methodology resulted in duplication of effort in the collection and analysis of information, excessive internal cost and the creation of non-standardized data containing varying degrees of accuracy and comprehensiveness, resulting in a formidable information gap.

The creation of a standardized information platform for commercial real estate requires infrastructure including a standardized database, accurate and comprehensive research capabilities, experienced analysts, easy to use technology and intensive participant interaction. By combining our extensive database, researchers and outside contractors, our experienced team of analysts and economists, technological expertise and broad customer base, we believe that we have created such a platform.

Within the apartment rental community, most apartment listing websites primarily supply only the listings that property owners pay to advertise and often return results that are inconsistent with the renter's search criteria. These limited results generally do not provide information about the actual rental availabilities. We believe that consumers expect accurate, actionable and comprehensive apartment rental information. To create the Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com, and Apartamentos.com websites, we drew on our multifamily database and undertook a research effort collecting and verifying information and visiting and photographing properties. With the Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com and Apartamentos.com websites, we believe that we created easily searchable sites with a comprehensive selection of rentals, information on actual rental availabilities and rents, and in-depth data on neighborhoods, including restaurants, nightlife, history, schools and other important facts.

CoStar’s Comprehensive Database

CoStar has spent more than 29 years building and acquiring a database of commercial real estate information, which includes information on leasing, sales, comparable sales, tenants, and demand statistics, as well as digital images. This highly complex database is comprised of hundreds of data fields, tracking such categories as location, site and zoning information, building characteristics, space and unit availability, tax assessments, ownership, sales and lease comparables, space requirements, number of retail stores, number of listings, mortgage and deed information, for-sale and for-lease listings, income and expense histories, tenant names, lease expirations, contact information, historical trends, demographic information and retail sales per square foot. The database also includes building photographs, aerial photographs, 3D virtual apartment tours, plat maps and floor plans.

CoStar Research

We have developed a sophisticated data collection organization utilizing a multi-faceted research process. In 2016, our full time researchers and contractors conducted millions of interviews of brokers, owners, tenants, apartment community owners and property managers. We recently established our research operations headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. We expect the Richmond research headquarters will be a technology innovation hub, powering the software development necessary to support the content within our information, analytics and marketing services.

Research Department. Our research professionals undergo an extensive training program so that we can maintain consistent research methods and processes throughout our research department. Our researchers collect and analyze commercial real estate information through millions of phone calls, e-mails and Internet updates each year, in addition to field inspections, public records review, news monitoring and direct mail. We have also set up direct feeds from larger apartment sites and have put in place an automated system that compiles information sourced from the Internet in order to provide the most up-to-date information on rental availabilities.

Our researchers are responsible for maintaining the accuracy and reliability of our database information. As part of their update process, researchers develop cooperative relationships with industry professionals that allow them to gather useful information. Because of the importance commercial real estate professionals place on our data and our prominent position in the industry, many of these professionals routinely take the initiative and proactively report available space and transactions to our researchers.

CoStar has an extensive field research effort that includes physical inspection of properties in order to research new markets, find additional property inventory, photograph properties and verify existing information. In 2016, our field researchers drove millions of miles and conducted hundreds of thousands of on-site building inspections. CoStar's field research effort also includes creating high quality videos of interior spaces (including walk-through videos and 3D virtual apartment tours of apartment communities), amenities and exterior features of properties. CoStar utilizes high-tech, field research vehicles across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Spain. A significant majority of these vehicles are customized, energy efficient hybrid cars that are equipped with computers, proprietary Global Positioning System tracking software, high resolution digital cameras and handheld laser instruments to help precisely measure buildings, geo-code them and position them on digital maps. Each CoStar vehicle uses wireless technology to track and transmit field data. A typical site inspection consists of photographing the building, measuring the building, geo-coding the building, capturing “For Sale” or “For Lease” sign information, counting parking spaces, assessing property condition and construction, and gathering tenant information. Certain researchers canvass properties, collecting tenant data suite by suite. We also utilize a low-flying airplane to conduct aerial research of commercial real estate. We place researchers on the low-flying aircraft to scout additional commercial developments and take aerial photographs and videos.

Data and Image Providers. We license a small portion of our data and images from public record providers and third-party data sources. Licensing agreements with these entities allow us to use a variety of commercial real estate information, including property ownership, tenant information, demographic information, maps, aerial photographs and 3D virtual apartment tours of apartment communities, all of which enhance various CoStar services. These license agreements generally grant us a non-exclusive license to use the data and images in the creation and supplementation of our information, analytics and online marketplaces and include what we believe are standard terms, such as a contract term ranging from one to five years, automatic renewal of the contract and fixed periodic license fees or a combination of fixed periodic license fees plus additional fees based upon our usage.

Management and Quality Control Systems. Our research processes include automated and non-automated controls to ensure the integrity of the data collection process. A large number of automated data quality tests check for potential errors, including occupancy date conflicts, available square footage greater than building area, typical floor space greater than land area and expired leases. We also monitor changes to critical fields of information to ensure all information is kept in compliance with our standard definitions and methodology. Our non-automated quality control procedures include:

• calling our information sources on recently updated properties to re-verify information;

• performing periodic research audits and field checks to determine if we correctly canvassed buildings;

• providing training and retraining to our research professionals to ensure accurate data compilation; and

• compiling measurable performance metrics for research teams and managers for feedback on data quality.

Finally, one of the most important and effective quality control measures we rely on is feedback provided by the commercial real estate professionals using our data every day.

Proprietary Technology

CoStar’s information technology professionals focus on developing new services for our customers, improving and maintaining existing services, integrating our current services, securing our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information and delivering research automation tools that improve the quality of our data and increase the efficiency of our research analysts.

Our information technology team is responsible for developing, improving and maintaining CoStar's information, analytics and online marketplace services. Our information technology team is also responsible for developing the infrastructure necessary to support CoStar’s business processes, our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces and our extensive image library. The team implements technologies and systems that introduce efficient workflows and controls designed to increase the production capacity of our research teams and improve the quality of our data. Over the years, the team has developed data collection and quality control mechanisms that we believe are unique within the commercial real estate industry. The team continues to develop and modify our enterprise information management system that integrates CoStar's sales, research, field research, customer support and accounting information. We use this system to maintain our commercial real estate research information, manage contacts with the commercial real estate community, provide research workflow automation and conduct daily automated quality assurance checks. In addition, our information technology team has also developed fraud-detection technology to detect and prevent unauthorized access to our services.

Our information technology professionals maintain the servers and network components necessary to support CoStar services and research systems. CoStar's core services are served from multiple data centers to support uninterrupted service for our customers. CoStar’s services are continually monitored in an effort to ensure our customers fast and reliable access.

CoStar's comprehensive data protection policy provides for use of secure networks, strong passwords, encrypted data fields, off-site storage and other protective measures in an effort to ensure the availability and security of all core systems.

Services

Our suite of information, analytics and online marketplaces is branded and marketed to our customers. Our services are primarily derived from a database of building-specific information and offer customers specialized tools for accessing, analyzing and using our information. Over time, we expect to continue to enhance our existing information, analytics and online marketplaces and develop additional services that make use of our comprehensive database to meet the needs of our existing customers as well as potential new categories of customers.

Our principal information, analytics and online marketplace services as of January 31, 2017, are described in the following paragraphs:

CoStar

CoStar Property Professional® CoStar Property Professional, or “CoStar Property,” is the Company’s flagship service. It provides subscribers a comprehensive inventory of office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties and land in markets throughout the U.S., the U.K. and parts of Canada, including for-lease and for-sale listings, historical data, building photographs, maps and floor plans. Commercial real estate professionals use CoStar Property to identify available space for lease, evaluate leasing and sale opportunities, value assets and position properties in the marketplace. Our clients also use CoStar Property to analyze market conditions by calculating current vacancy rates, absorption rates or average rental rates, and forecasting future trends based on user selected variables. CoStar Property provides subscribers with powerful map-based search capabilities as well as a user controlled, password protected extranet (or electronic “file cabinet”) where brokers may share space surveys and transaction-related documents online, in real time, with team members. When used together with CoStar Connect®, CoStar Property enables subscribers to share space surveys and transaction-related documents with their clients, accessed through their corporate website. CoStar Property, along with all of CoStar’s other core information, analytics and online marketplaces, is delivered solely via the Internet.

• CoStar Lease Analysis® CoStar Lease Analysis is an integrated workflow tool that allows subscribers to incorporate CoStar data with their own data to perform in-depth lease analyses. CoStar Lease Analysis can be used to produce an understandable cash flow analysis as well as key metrics about any proposed or existing lease. It combines financial modeling with CoStar’s comprehensive property information, enabling the subscriber to compare lease alternatives.

CoStar COMPS Professional® CoStar COMPS Professional, or “CoStar COMPS,” provides comprehensive coverage of comparable commercial real estate sales information in the U.S., the U.K. and parts of Canada. It is the industry’s most comprehensive database of comparable sales transactions and is designed for professionals who need to research property comparables, identify market trends, expedite the appraisal process and support property valuations. CoStar COMPS offers subscribers numerous fields of property information, access to support documents (e.g., deeds of trust) for new comparables, demographics and the ability to view for-sale properties alongside sold properties in three formats – plotted on a map, aerial image or in a table.

CoStar Tenant® CoStar Tenant is a detailed online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool providing commercial real estate professionals with the most comprehensive commercial real estate-related tenant information available in the U.S., the U.K. and parts of Canada. CoStar Tenant profiles tenants occupying space in commercial buildings and provides updates on lease expirations - one of the service’s key features - as well as occupancy levels, growth rates and numerous other facts. Delivering this information via the Internet allows users to target prospective clients quickly through a searchable database that identifies only those tenants meeting certain criteria.

CoStar Go® CoStar Go is an iPad application that integrates and provides subscribers of CoStar Suite mobile access to our comprehensive property, comparable sales and tenant information in our suite of online service offerings – consisting of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS Professional and CoStar Tenant. CoStar Go provides a single, location-centric mobile interface that allows users to access and display comprehensive information on millions of properties and gain instant access to analytic data and demographic information from the field.

CoStar Market Analytics^TM CoStar Market Analytics is an analytics platform for owners, investors and lenders, and provides a comprehensive view of the commercial real estate market, including competitive properties, sale comparables, lease comparables, market trends, economic forecasting, etc.

CoStar Lease Comps CoStar Lease Comps, included as part of CoStar Suite® services, provides subscribers an integrated solution that captures, manages and maintains their lease data. CoStar Lease Comps also analyzes lease data.

CoStar Advertising®CoStar Advertising offers property owners and brokers a highly targeted and cost effective way to market a space for lease or a property for sale directly to CoStar subscribers looking for that type of space through interactive advertising. Our advertising model is based on varying levels of exposure, enabling the advertiser to target as narrowly or broadly as its budget permits. With the CoStar Advertising program, when the advertiser’s listings appear in a results set, they receive priority positioning and are enhanced to stand out. The advertiser can also purchase exposure in additional submarkets, or the entire market area so that this ad will appear even when this listing would not be returned in a results set.

CoStar Portfolio Strategy®CoStar Portfolio Strategy services are designed to meet the research and risk management needs of commercial real estate owners, investors, lenders and government regulators. CoStar Portfolio Strategy leverages its staff of analysts, economists, and strategists to consult with clients on investment and lending strategies, including custom strategic research and portfolio strategy, target market selection, capital-raising initiatives, relative value and custom scenario analyses, and acquisition and disposition studies.

• CoStar Risk Analytics® COMPASS CoStar Risk Analytics COMPASS is a commercial real estate risk management tool. It allows users to calculate Probability of Default, Loss Given Default, Expected Loss and Unexpected Loss at various confidence levels for a loan or a portfolio. It provides direct comparisons of credit risk and refinance risk across Time, Market, Property Type and Loan Structure for all macroeconomic forecast (including Federal Stress Testing / Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (“CCAR”)) scenarios. CoStar Risk Analytics COMPASS is used by lenders, issuers, servicers, ratings agencies and regulators to estimate required loss reserves, economic capital and regulatory capital, target lending opportunities, set pricing strategy, objectively compare/price loans, more effectively allocate capital, manage refinance risk and conduct stress testing. Clients for CoStar Risk Analytics COMPASS services or data include most of the Systemically Important Financial Institutions (“SIFIs”) as well as a large number of other top-500 banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and government financial regulators.

CoStar Investment Analysis® Portfolio Maximizer CoStar Investment Analysis Portfolio Maximizer is an industry leading real estate portfolio management software solution. CoStar Investment Analysis Portfolio Maximizer allows users to model partnership structures, calculate waterfall distributions and fees, model and analyze debt obligations and create multiple “what if” scenarios for alternative investment decisions.

CoStar Investment Analysis® Request CoStar Investment Analysis Request is the first business intelligence software solution built specifically for managing commercial real estate investments. CoStar Investment Analysis Request helps users eliminate some of the difficulties of consolidating real estate investment data from disparate sources and facilitates standardization of information presentation and reporting across an organization. CoStar Investment Analysis Request also provides a platform for users to develop business intelligence and reporting capabilities.

CoStar Real Estate Manager® Corporate Edition CoStar Real Estate Manager Corporate Edition is a real estate management software solution designed for corporate real estate managers, company executives, business unit directors, brokers and project managers. CoStar Real Estate Manager Corporate Edition helps users connect real estate initiatives with company strategic goals, streamline portfolio operations, automate the process for collecting and managing space requests, reduce occupancy costs with analytics that track location performance against targets, and maximize location performance through proactive portfolio management. CoStar Real Estate Manager also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.

CoStar Real Estate Manager® Retail Edition CoStar Real Estate Manager Retail Edition is a real estate management software solution designed for company executives, real estate dealmakers and store planning and construction managers. CoStar Real Estate Manager Retail Edition helps users to utilize comprehensive and real-time data to establish goals and store strategies, manage the execution of real estate strategies, summarize critical portfolio data to drive cost-saving decisions and benchmark prerequisite store-level information and metrics for maximizing location performance through proactive portfolio management. CoStar Real Estate Manager also provides lease abstraction and data review services in order to facilitate the effective implementation of this software solution.

CoStar Private Sale Network® CoStar Private Sale Network provides clients with custom-designed and branded websites to market their listings directly to investors. CoStar Private Sale Network allows investors to customize a commercial real estate website and build and send email communications to announce listings, calls for offers and bid deadlines.

CoStar Brokerage Applications® CoStar Brokerage Applications provides users with access to the latest tools to effectively manage and optimize business operations. These structured and consistent project management tools allow users to track critical dates, employee or organization-wide results and current and prospective projects.

LoopNet

LoopNet® Basic and Premium Membership We offer two types of memberships on the LoopNet marketplace, basic and premium. Basic membership is available free-of-charge to anyone who registers at our LoopNet website and enables members to experience some of the benefits of the LoopNet offering, with limited functionality. As of January 31, 2017, LoopNet had approximately 10.8 million registered members, of which 82,000 were premium members.

• LoopNetPremium Lister® LoopNet Premium Lister is designed for commercial real estate professionals and other customers who seek the broadest possible exposure for their listings, access to leads lists, and advanced marketing and searching tools. LoopNet Premium Lister provides subscribers with the ability to market their listings to all LoopNet.com visitors, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Lister is available for a quarterly or annual subscription.

• LoopNet Premium Searcher^TM LoopNet Premium Searcher is designed for members searching for commercial real estate who need commercial real estate marketplace searching access, reports and other marketing and searching tools. LoopNet Premium Searcher provides subscribers with full access to all LoopNet property listings, including Premium and Basic Listings, as well as numerous other features. LoopNet Premium Searcher is available for a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription.

LoopLink® LoopLink is an online real estate marketing and database services suite that enables commercial real estate firms to showcase their available properties both on the LoopNet marketplace and on the brokerage firm’s own website using hosted search software. Within LoopNet, each LoopLink listing is branded with the client’s logo and is hyperlinked to the client’s website. Additionally, the LoopLink service provides customizable, branded property search and results screens that can be integrated into the client’s website. The LoopNet import service offers the opportunity to simplify the process of submitting listings to LoopNet from the client’s internal databases, and features advanced data matching and data integrity rules and file conversion capabilities. LoopNet charges a monthly subscription fee to commercial real estate firms for the LoopLink service. Key features of LoopLink include comprehensive reporting and listing administration tools, property mapping for geographic and feasibility analysis, thumbnail photos and expanded property descriptions in search results.

Apartments.com

Apartments.com^TM Apartments.com, part of our network of apartment marketing sites, provides a variety of ad packages and enhancements that allow property managers and owners to fully showcase their apartment community through increased exposure and interactions that allow renters to view, engage and connect with the community, including featured community listings, customized flyers and brochures, and special offer coupons.

ApartmentHomeLiving.com^TM ApartmentHomeLiving.com, part of our network of apartment marketing sites, provides renters with another national online apartment rentals resource that showcases apartments for rent with official prices, pictures, floor plans and detailed information on each apartment.

ApartmentFinder.com^TM ApartmentFinder.com, part of our network of apartment marketing sites, provides lead generation, advertising and Internet marketing solutions to property managers and owners through its main service, ApartmentFinder.com.

Apartamentos.com^TM Apartamentos.com, part of our network of apartment marketing sites, provides Spanish speaking renters with a national online apartment rentals resource offered exclusively in Spanish, with the same primary features found on Apartments.com.

WestsideRentals.com® WestsideRentals.com, part of our network of apartment marketing sites, specializes in Southern California real estate rentals.

LandsofAmerica

LandsofAmerica^TM and LandAndFarm^TM LandsofAmerica.com and LandAndFarm.com are leading online marketplaces for rural land for sale. Sellers pay a fee to list their land for sale, and interested buyers can search the respective sites' listings for free. The LandsofAmerica.com and LandAndFarm.com websites are also accessible via our Land.com domain.

BizBuySell

BizBuySell® and BizQuest® BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com are leading online marketplaces for operating businesses for sale. Business sellers pay a fee to list their operating businesses for sale, and interested buyers can search the respective sites' listings for free. The BizBuySell and BizQuest Franchise Directories allow interested business buyers to search hundreds of franchise opportunities, and franchisors can list their availabilities in the directory on a cost per lead basis.

Clients

We draw clients from across the commercial real estate and related business community, including commercial real estate brokers, owners, developers, landlords, property managers, financial institutions, retailers, vendors, appraisers, investment banks, government agencies and other parties involved in commercial real estate. For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, no single client accounted for more than 5% of our revenues.

Sales and Marketing

Our sales teams are primarily located in field sales offices throughout the U.S. and in offices outside of the U.S., including, among others, London, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Madrid, Spain; and Freiburg, Germany. Our inside sales teams are primarily located in our Washington, DC and Chicago, Illinois offices. These teams prospect for new clients and perform product and service demonstrations exclusively by telephone and over the Internet to support the direct sales force.

Our local offices typically serve as the platform for our in-market sales, customer support and field research operations for their respective regions. The sales force is responsible for selling to new prospects, training new and existing clients, providing ongoing customer support, renewing existing client contracts and identifying cross-selling opportunities. In addition, the sales force has primary front line responsibility for customer care. Our customer service and support staff is charged with ensuring high client satisfaction by providing ongoing customer support. In 2016, we formed a customer relationship team consisting of client relationship managers in the sales organization, to drive even greater usage of our products and services. The client relationship managers are responsible for training existing users, sharing market specific research with clients, ensuring accurate and timely listings and ensuring client driven product enhancement ideas are shared with our product development team.

Our sales strategy is to aggressively attract new clients, while providing ongoing incentives for existing clients to subscribe to additional products and services in order to achieve high renewal rates. We actively manage client accounts in order to retain clients by providing frequent service demonstrations as well as company-client contact and communication. We place a premium on training new and existing client personnel on the use of our services so as to promote maximum client utilization and satisfaction with our services. Our strategy also involves entering into multi-year, multi-market license agreements with our larger clients.

We seek to make our services essential to our clients’ businesses. To encourage clients to use our services regularly, we generally charge a fixed monthly amount for our subscription-based information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates for subscription-based services are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography, the number and types of services to which a client subscribes, the number of properties a client advertises and the prominence and placement of a client's advertised properties in the search results. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.

Our primary marketing methods include: service demonstrations; face-to-face networking; web-based marketing; direct marketing; communication via our corporate website and news services; participation in trade show and industry events; Company-sponsored events; print advertising in trade magazines and other business publications; client referrals; and CoStar Advisor^TM, LoopNews^TM and other company newsletters distributed via email to our clients and prospects. In 2015, we launched the current Apartments.com and ApartmentFinder.com websites, each of which has a cleaner look, information about actual rental availabilities, rents and other fees, and better search functionality. To generate brand awareness and site traffic for Apartments.com after launch, we utilized a marketing campaign featuring television and radio advertising, online/digital advertising, social media and out-of-home ads and reinforced that advertising with Search Engine Marketing. We also support Apartment Finder through Search Engine Marketing. In early 2016, we ran a Super Bowl ad to continue to generate brand awareness and site traffic for Apartments.com. We currently plan to continue to utilize these marketing methods and will continue to work to determine the optimal level of marketing investment for our services for future periods.

Web-based marketing and direct marketing are effective means for us to find prospective clients. Our web-based marketing efforts include search engine optimization, paid advertising with major search engines, social media and display advertising on commercial real estate news and business websites and mobile applications, and our direct marketing efforts include television, radio, out-of-home ads, direct mail, email and telemarketing, and, when applicable, make extensive use of our unique, proprietary database. Once we have identified a prospective client, our most effective sales method is a service demonstration. We use various forms of advertising to build brand identity and reinforce the value and benefits of our services. We also sponsor and attend local association activities and events, including industry-leading events for commercial real estate brokers, owner/investors and retail and financial services institutions, and attend and/or exhibit at industry trade shows and conferences to reinforce our relationships with our core user groups.

We currently offer dozens of webinars each year aimed at helping customers learn more about the commercial real estate industry and how to use our services. The webinars are available both as live presentations and as on-demand programs hosted on our website. On a monthly basis, we issue the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sales Index ("CCRSI"), a comprehensive set of benchmarks that investors and other market participants can use to better understand commercial real estate price movements. CCRSI is produced using our underlying data and is publicly distributed by CoStar through the news media and made available online at http://www.costargroup.com/costar-news/ccrsi.

Our sales and marketing efforts have focused and will continue to focus on cross-selling and marketing our services. Similar to our prior acquisitions, we have been cross-selling, and plan to continue to cross-sell, the services offered by Apartments.com and ApartmentFinder.com and the other services we offer, including, but not limited to CoStar Market Analytics. We will also continue to focus on upselling LoopNet information users to CoStar as we phase out the LoopNet information service offerings.

Competition

The market for information, analytics and online marketplaces generally is competitive and rapidly changing. In the commercial real estate and apartment rentals industries, we believe the principal competitive factors affecting these services and providers are:

• quality and depth of the underlying databases;

• ease of use, flexibility and functionality of the software;

• intuitiveness and appeal of the user interface;

• timeliness of the data, including listings;

• breadth of geographic coverage and services offered;

• completeness and accuracy of content;

• client service and support;

• perception that the service offered is the industry standard;

• price;

• effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts;

• proprietary nature of methodologies, databases and technical resources;

• vendor reputation;

• brand loyalty among customers; and

• capital resources.

We compete directly and indirectly for customers with the following categories of companies:

• online marketing services or websites targeted to commercial real estate brokers, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate properties, insurance companies, mortgage brokers and lenders, such as commercialsearch.com, PropertyLine.com, Reed Business Information Limited, officespace.com, MrOfficeSpace.com, TenantWise, www.propertyshark.com, Rofo, BuildingSearch.com, CIMLS, CompStak, Rightmove, estatesgazette.com and DebtX;

• publishers and distributors of information, analytics and marketing services, including regional providers and national print publications, such as Xceligent, eProperty Data, CBRE Economic Advisors, Marshall & Swift, Yale Robbins, Reis, Real Capital Analytics, The Smith Guide, Yardi Matrix, Axiometrics, Inc., ReScour, Inc. and RealMassive;

• Internet listing services featuring apartments for rent, such as ApartmentGuide.com, ForRent.com, Zillow Rentals, Trulia Rent, Craigslist, ApartmentList.com, Rent.com and Move.com;

• locally controlled real estate boards, exchanges or associations sponsoring property listing services and the companies with whom they partner, such as Xceligent, Catalyst, the National Association of Realtors, CCIM Institute, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, the Commercial Association of Realtors Data Services and the Association of Industrial Realtors;

• real estate portfolio management software solutions, such as Cougar Software, MRI Software, Altus and Intuit;

• real estate lease management and administration software solutions, such as Accruent, Tririga, Manhattan Software, Lucemex and AMT;

• in-house research departments operated by commercial real estate brokers; and

• public record providers.

As the market for information, analytics and online marketplaces develops, additional competitors (including companies which could have greater access to data, financial, product development, technical, analytic or marketing resources than we do) may enter the market and competition may intensify. For example, a company like Bloomberg L.P. has the resources, and has previously announced an intention, to move into the commercial real estate information business. Further, a company like Google, which has a far-reaching web presence and substantial data aggregation capabilities, could enter the commercial real estate marketing arena. A company like Zillow, which already has a presence in residential real estate and the apartment rentals industry, could use its resources to further expand in the online apartment rentals industry creating greater competition among Internet listing services for the marketing budgets of property managers and property owners. While we believe that we have successfully differentiated ourselves from existing competitors, current or future competitors could materially harm our business.

Proprietary Rights

To protect our proprietary rights in our methodologies, database, software, trademarks and other intellectual property, we depend upon a combination of:

• trade secret, misappropriation, copyright, trademark, computer fraud, database protection and other laws;

• registration of copyrights and trademarks;

• nondisclosure, noncompetition and other contractual provisions with employees and consultants;

• license agreements with customers;

• patent protection; and

• technical measures.

We seek to protect our software’s source code, our database and our photography as trade secrets and under copyright law. Although copyright registration is not a prerequisite for copyright protection, we have filed for copyright registration for many of our databases, photographs, software and other materials. Under current U.S. copyright law, the arrangement and selection of data may be protected, but the actual data itself may not be. Certain U.K. database protection laws provide additional protections for our U.K. databases. We license our services under license agreements that grant our clients non-exclusive, non-transferable rights. These agreements restrict the disclosure and use of our information and prohibit the unauthorized reproduction or transfer of any of our proprietary information, methodologies or analytics.

We also attempt to protect our proprietary databases, our trade secrets and our proprietary information through confidentiality and noncompetition agreements with our employees and consultants. Our services also include technical measures designed to detect, discourage and prevent unauthorized copying of our intellectual property. We have established an internal antipiracy team that uses fraud-detection technology to continually monitor use of our services to detect and prevent unauthorized access, and we actively prosecute individuals and firms that engage in this unlawful activity.

We maintain U.S. and international trademark registrations for CoStar’s core service names and proactively file U.S. and international trademark applications covering our new and planned service names. Our federally registered trademarks include CoStar®, CoStar Property®, CoStar COMPS Professional®, CoStar Tenant®, CoStar Go®, CoStar Lease Analysis®, CoStar Showcase®, and LoopNet®, among many others. In the U.S., trademarks are generally valid as long as they are in use and have not been found to be generic. We consider our trademarks in the aggregate to constitute a valuable asset. In addition, we maintain a patent portfolio that protects certain of our systems and methodologies. We currently have one granted patent in the U.K., which expires in 2021, covering, among other things, certain of our field research methodologies and seven patents in the U.S. which expire in 2020, 2021 (2 patents), 2022 (2 patents), 2025 and 2032, respectively, covering, among other things, critical elements of CoStar’s proprietary field research technology and mapping tools. We regard the rights protected by our patents as valuable to our business, but do not believe that our business is materially dependent on any single patent or on our portfolio of patents as a whole.

Employees

As of January 31, 2017, we employed 3,064 employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union. We have experienced no work stoppages. We believe that our employee relations are excellent. In common with many German companies, employees in our German subsidiary, Thomas Daily GmbH, have elected three fellow employees to form a Works Council, which represents our employees at the location and has certain rights to receive information from us and engage us in discussions under applicable law.

Available Information

Our investor relations Internet website is http://www.costargroup.com/investors. The reports we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report, quarterly reports and current reports, as well as amendments to those reports, are available free of charge on our Internet website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may review and copy any of the information we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Commission's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You may obtain information regarding the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the Securities and Exchange Commission at 1-800-SEC-0330. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the Commission at http://www.sec.gov.

CSGP - Costar Group, Inc.