J2 GLOBAL, INC. (Exact Name of Registrant As Specified in Its Charter)

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K ☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 OR ☐ 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: 0-25965 J2 GLOBAL, INC. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 47-1053457 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 700 S. Flower Street, 15th Floor, Los Angeles, California 90017, (323) 860-9200 (Address and telephone number of principal executive offices) Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Common Stock, $0.01 par value JCOM 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. Yes x No o Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No x Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No o 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). Yes x No o 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,” “small reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer o Non-accelerated filer o 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. o Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No x As of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the approximate aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates, based upon the closing price of the common stock as quoted by the NASDAQ Global Select Market was $2,989,464,390. Shares of common stock held by executive officers, directors and holders of more than 5% of the outstanding common stock have been excluded. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes. As of February 25, 2020, the registrant had 48,712,833 shares of common stock outstanding. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE: Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to stockholders in connection with the Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held May 7, 2020 are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K. This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes 131 pages with the Index to Exhibits located on page 126. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I. Item 1. Business 3 Item 1A. Risk Factors 11 Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 34 Item 2. Properties 34 Item 3. Legal Proceedings 34 Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 35 PART II. Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity 36 Securities Item 6. Selected Financial Data 40 Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 41 Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 58 Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 60 Item 9. Changes In and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure 121 Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 121 Item 9B. Other Information 124 PART III. Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 124 Item 11. Executive Compensation 124 Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters 124 Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence 124 Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 124 PART IV. Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 124 Item 16. Form 10-K Summary 127 -2- PART I Item 1. Business Overview J2 Global, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (“J2 Global”, “our”, “us” or “we”), is a leading provider of internet services. Through our Cloud Services business, we provide cloud-based subscription services to consumers and businesses and license our intellectual property (“IP”) to third parties. In addition, the Cloud Services business includes fax, security, privacy, data backup, email marketing and voice products. Our Digital Media business specializes in the technology, gaming, broadband, business to business, healthcare, and international markets, offering content, tools and services to consumers and businesses. We were incorporated in 2014 as a Delaware corporation through the creation of a new holding company structure, and our Cloud Services business, operated by our wholly owned subsidiary, J2 Cloud Services, LLC (formerly J2 Cloud Services, Inc.), and its subsidiaries, was founded in 1995. Our Cloud Services business generates revenues primarily from customer subscription and usage fees and from IP licensing fees. Our Digital Media business generates revenues from advertising and sponsorships, subscription and usage fees, performance marketing and licensing fees. In addition to growing our business organically, on a regular basis we acquire businesses to grow our customer bases, expand and diversify our service offerings, enhance our technologies, acquire skilled personnel and enter into new markets. Our consolidated revenues are currently generated from three basic business models, each with different financial profiles and variability. Our Cloud Services business is driven primarily by subscription revenues that are relatively higher margin, stable and predictable from quarter to quarter with some seasonal weakness in the fourth quarter. The Cloud Services business also includes the results of our IP licensing business, which can vary dramatically in both revenues and profitability from period to period. Our Digital Media business is driven primarily by advertising revenues, has relatively higher sales and marketing expense and has seasonal strength in the fourth quarter. We continue to pursue additional acquisitions, which may include companies operating under business models that differ from those we operate under today. Such acquisitions could impact our consolidated profit margins and the variability of our revenues. Cloud Services Consumers and businesses of all sizes are increasingly subscribing to cloud-based services to meet their communication, messaging, security, privacy, data backup, hosting, customer marketing and other needs. Cloud-based services represent a model for delivering and consuming, independent of location, real time business technology services, resources and solutions over the internet. Their goal is to reduce or eliminate costs, increase sales and enhance productivity, mobility, business continuity and security. Our eFax®, MyFax® and sFax® online fax services enable users to securely send and receive faxes via the internet and email. Our Vipre security solutions protect our customers from cyber threats with endpoint and email security and threat intelligence. IPVanish and encrypt.me provide virtual private networks that encrypt our customers’ data and activity on the internet. KeepItSafe®, LiveVault®, OffsiteDataSync and Livedrive® enable our customers to securely back up their data and dispose of tape or other physical systems. Campaigner®, iContact and SMTP provide our customers enhanced email marketing and delivery solutions. eVoice®, Onebox® and Line2 provide our customers a virtual phone system with various available enhancements. All of these services represent software-as-a-service solutions except online backup which represents both a software-as-a-service solution and an infrastructure-as-a- service solution. We believe these services represent more efficient and less expensive solutions than many existing alternatives, and provide increased security, privacy, flexibility and mobility. We generate substantially all of our Cloud Services revenues from “fixed” subscription revenues for basic customer subscriptions and, to a lesser extent, “variable” usage revenues generated from actual usage by our subscribers. Our online fax, virtual phone, email, customer marketing and online backup products have both a fixed and variable subscription component with the substantial majority of revenues derived from the fixed portion. In addition, the cost structures of all our Cloud Services are very similar in terms of fixed and variable components and include capital expenditures that are in proportion

Load more