Edgar Filing: COSTAR GROUP INC

form_10-k.htm

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, 2009

Commission file number 0-24531

CoStar Group, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware		52-2091509
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

2 Bethesda Metro Center, 10th Floor, Bethesda, Maryland 20814

(Address of principal executive offices) (zip code)

(301) 215-8300

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, $.01 par value	NASDAQ Global Select Market

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

None

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

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange 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 of the past 90 days. Yes x No o

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

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Large accelerated filer o	Accelerated filer x
Non-accelerated filer o	Smaller reporting company o

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

Based on the closing price of the common stock on June 30, 2009 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Nasdaq Global Select Market, the aggregate market value of registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $641 million.

As of February 19, 2010, there were 20,581,462 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement, which is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I
Item 1.	Business	3
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	15
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	21
Item 2.	Properties	21
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	22
Item 4.	Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders	22

PART II
Item 5.	Market for the Registrant’s Common Stock, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	23
Item 6.	Selected Consolidated Financial and Operating Data	26
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	27
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk	41
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	42
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	42
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	42
Item 9B.	Other Information	43

PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	44
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	44
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	44
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	44
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	44

PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	44
	Signatures	46
	Index to Exhibits	47
	Index to Consolidated Financial Statements	F-1

PART I

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 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, is the number one provider of information, marketing and analytic services 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, provide more information, marketing and analytic services than any of our competitors and believe we generate more revenues than any of our competitors. CoStar’s integrated suite of services offers customers online access to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, which has been researched and verified by our team of researchers, currently covering the U.S., as well as London and other parts of the U.K. and parts of France. Prior to 2007, CoStar operated within one segment. Due to the increased size, complexity and funding requirements associated with our international expansion, in 2007 we began to manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France.

Since our founding in 1987, CoStar’s strategy has been to provide commercial real estate professionals with critical knowledge to explore and complete transactions, by offering the most comprehensive, timely and standardized information on U.S. commercial real estate. As a result of our January 2003 acquisition of Focus Information Limited (now, CoStar U.K. Limited), June 2004 acquisition of Scottish Property Network, December 2006 acquisition of Grecam S.A.S., February 2007 acquisition of Property Investment Exchange Limited, and July 2009 acquisition of Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (“PPR”) and its wholly owned U.K. subsidiary, Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. (“PPR UK”) we have extended our offering of comprehensive commercial real estate information to include London and other parts of the U.K. and parts of France. Information about CoStar’s revenues from, and long-lived assets located in, foreign countries is included in Notes 2 and 12 to our consolidated financial statements. CoStar’s revenues, net income, assets and liabilities, broken out by segment are set forth in Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements. Information about risks attendant to our foreign operations is included in “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.”

We deliver our 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, tenant information, information about properties for sale, internet marketing services, property information for clients’ websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, analytic information, data integration, and industry news. We also provide market research and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our PPR service offerings. We have created and are continually improving a standardized information platform where the commercial real estate industry and related businesses can continuously interact and easily facilitate transactions due to the efficient exchange of accurate information we have supplied.

We have a number of assets that provide a unique foundation for our standardized platform, including 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, marketing and analytic services; a large team of analysts and economists and a large base of clients. Our database has been developed and enhanced for more than 22 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 over 51 proprietary databases.

We intend to continue to grow our standardized platform of commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services. In 2004, we began research for a 21-market U.S. expansion effort. By the end of the first quarter of 2006, we had successfully launched service in each of those 21 markets. In addition, following our acquisition of National Research Bureau in January 2005, we launched various research initiatives as part of our expansion into real estate information for retail properties. We launched the new retail component of our flagship product, CoStar Property Professional, in May 2006. In July 2006, we announced our intention to commence actively researching

commercial properties in approximately 81 new Core Based Statistical Areas (“CBSAs”) across the U.S. in an effort to expand the geographical coverage of our service offerings, including our new retail service. In the fourth quarter of 2007, we released our CoStar Property Professional service in the 81 new CBSAs across the U.S. In 2008, we released CoStar Showcase, an internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings accessible to all visitors to our public website, www.CoStar.com.

During the second half of 2009, as part of our strategy for providing subscribers with tools for conducting primary research and analysis on commercial real estate, we expanded subscribers’ capabilities to use our database of research-verified commercial property information to conduct in-depth analysis and generate online reports of trends in sales and leasing activity. Furthermore, in July 2009, we added analytic and market forecasting services to our platform of research and marketing services with our acquisition of PPR and in October 2009 we acquired Resolve Technology, Inc., (“Resolve Technology”) adding business intelligence and portfolio management software used by institutional real estate investment companies.

We also intend to continue to grow and expand the coverage of our service offerings within our International segment. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S., a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services, located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited, a provider of commercial property information and operator of an online investment property exchange located in London, England. Our July 2009 acquisition of PPR and PPR UK also expanded the market research capabilities of our U.K. operations. CoStar intends to integrate its U.K. and French operations more fully with its U.S. operations and eventually to introduce a consistent international platform of service offerings. Further information about CoStar’s acquisitions is included in Note 3 to our consolidated financial statements.

We intend to introduce a consistent worldwide platform of service offerings. Following our acquisitions of PPR and Resolve Technology in 2009, we began integrating their respective product and service offerings with our own, including the services we have successfully integrated following our prior acquisitions. In 2007, we introduced the “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our worldwide operations. We believe that our recent U.S. and International expansion and integration efforts have created a platform for long-term growth.

Our subscription-based information services, consisting primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional and FOCUS services, currently generate more than 95% of our total revenues. Our contracts for our subscription-based information services typically have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically. Upon renewal, subscription contract rates may increase 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 fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis.

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 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:

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Sales and leasing brokers

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Government agencies

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Property owners

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Mortgage-backed security issuers

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Property managers

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Appraisers

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Design and construction professionals

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Pension fund managers

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Real estate developers

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Reporters

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Real estate investment trust managers

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Tenant vendors

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Investment bankers

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Building services vendors

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Commercial bankers

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Communications providers

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Mortgage bankers

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Insurance companies’ managers

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Mortgage brokers

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Institutional advisors

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Retailers

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Investors and asset managers

The commercial real estate and related business community generally has 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, collect data on specific markets and develop software to analyze the information they have independently gathered. This highly fragmented methodology has 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 an infrastructure including a standardized database, accurate and comprehensive research capabilities, experienced analysts, easy to use technology and intensive participant interaction. By combining its extensive database, over 975 researchers and outside contractors, experienced team of analysts and economists, technological expertise and broad customer base, we believe that we have created such a platform.

The U.S. and global economies have changed adversely over the past year or more, and the commercial real estate industry has been negatively impacted. The commercial real estate market has seen a reduction in property sales and leasing activity, lower absorption rates, climbing vacancy rates and decreases in rental rates and sales prices. The full extent of the impact of our current financial crisis is not yet clear. As our customers continue to look for ways to reduce spending, we may continue to see reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. However, we believe that even in a weakened economy there is a continuing need for accurate, standardized commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services. We believe that access to continuously researched and verified commercial real estate information becomes even more valuable in a down market, as industry players assess where market conditions are heading, how their businesses should adapt, determine what properties are worth, and try to market their properties, among other things. Moreover, outsourcing the labor-intensive task of conducting basic real estate research may result in cost savings for our clients.

CoStar’s Comprehensive Database

CoStar has spent more than 22 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.

As of January 29, 2010, our database of real estate information covered the U.S., as well as London, England and other parts of the U.K. and parts of France, and contained:

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More than 1.4 million sale and lease listings;

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Approximately 3.7 million total properties;

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Approximately 10.5 billion square feet of sale and lease listings;

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Approximately 7.2 million tenants;

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Approximately 1.6 million sales transactions valued in the aggregate at approximately $3.4 trillion; and

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More than 9.5 million digital attachments, including building photographs, aerial photographs, plat maps and floor plans.

This highly complex database is comprised of hundreds of data fields, tracking such categories as:

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Location

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Mortgage and deed information

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Site and zoning information

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For-sale information

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Building characteristics

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Income and expense histories

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Space availability

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Tenant names

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Tax assessments

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Lease expirations

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Ownership

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Contact information

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Sales and lease comparables

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Historical trends

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Space requirements

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Demographic information

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Number of retail stores

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Retail sales per square foot

CoStar Research

We have developed a sophisticated data collection organization utilizing a multi-faceted research process. In 2009, our full time researchers and contractors drove millions of miles, conducted hundreds of thousands of on-site building inspections, and conducted millions of interviews of brokers, owners and tenants.

Research Department. As of January 29, 2010, we have approximately 975 commercial real estate research professionals and outside contractors performing research. 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, internet updates and faxes each year, in addition to field inspections, public records review, news monitoring and direct mail. Each researcher is responsible for maintaining the accuracy and reliability of 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 inventory, photograph properties and verify existing information.

CoStar utilizes 146 high-tech field research vehicles in 39 states and the U.K. Of these vehicles, 99 are custom-designed 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. Some of our researchers also use custom-designed trucks with the same equipment as well as pneumatic masts that extend up to an elevation of twenty-five feet to allow for unobstructed building photographs from “birds-eye” views. 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, interviewing tenants suite by suite. In addition, many of our field researchers are photographers who take photographs of commercial real estate properties to add to CoStar’s database of digital images.

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 provide for our use of a variety of commercial real estate information, including property ownership, tenant information, demographic information, maps and aerial photographs, 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, marketing and analytic services 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

As of January 29, 2010, CoStar had a staff of 122 product development, database and network professionals. CoStar’s information technology professionals focus on developing new services for our customers 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 and maintaining CoStar products, including CoStar Property Professional, CoStar COMPS, CoStar Tenant, CoStar Showcase, CoStar Commercial MLS, CoStar Connect, FOCUS, SPN, Shopproperty, PPR products and services, Resolve Portfolio Maximizer and Request. In 2007, to better support our retail customers, we added significant features to CoStar Property Professional including tenant proximity and demographic search capability, mapping layers, detailed retail tenant information and demographics. In 2008, CoStar released CoStar Showcase, an internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings accessible to all visitors to our public website, www.CoStar.com.

Our information technology team is responsible for developing the infrastructure necessary to support CoStar’s business processes, our comprehensive database of commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services and our extensive image library. The team implements technologies and systems that introduce efficient workflows and controls that 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 to the commercial real estate industry. The team continues to develop and modify our enterprise information management system that integrates CoStar 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 also maintain the servers and network components necessary to support CoStar services and research systems. Our encrypted virtual private network provides remote researchers and salespeople secure access to CoStar applications and network resources. CoStar maintains a comprehensive data protection policy that provides for use of encrypted data fields and off-site storage of all system backups, among other protective measures. CoStar’s services are continually monitored in an effort to ensure our customers fast and reliable access.

Services

Our suite of information, marketing and analytic services is branded and marketed to our customers. Our services are 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 enhance our existing information, marketing and analytic services 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 various information, marketing and analytic services are described in detail in the following paragraphs as of January 29, 2010:

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., 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, marketing and analytic services, is delivered solely via the internet.

CoStar COMPS Professional® CoStar COMPS Professional, or “COMPS Professional,” provides comprehensive coverage of comparable sales information in the U.S. commercial real estate industry. 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. COMPS Professional 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 U.S. tenant information available. CoStar Tenant profiles tenants occupying space in commercial buildings across the U.S. 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 Showcase® CoStar Showcase offers commercial real estate professionals a simple way to get their for-sale and for-lease listings in front of a broad internet audience who search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Showcase.com and Costar.com to find commercial properties. When customers sign up for CoStar Showcase, their listings become accessible to visitors to Showcase.com and Costar.com, who can search those listings for free. To drive traffic to CoStar Showcase subscriber listings, CoStar invests in Google, Yahoo and Bing keyword based pay-per-click advertising to capture the high volume traffic of users actively searching for commercial properties on those search engines. As part of their CoStar Showcase subscription, subscribers also receive customized websites for each of their brokers that displays their bio, photo, contact information and updated listings that they can use to promote their services. CoStar Showcase can be purchased as a firm-wide annual subscription by firms who want all of their brokers to be able to access the service, or it can be purchased by individual brokers on a month-to-month basis. When individual brokers sign up for CoStar Showcase, they also receive access to CoStar Commercial MLS.

CoStar Property Express® CoStar Property Express provides access, via an annual subscription, to a “light” or scaled down version of CoStar Property. Commercial real estate professionals use CoStar Property Express to look up and search for-lease and for-sale listings in CoStar’s comprehensive national database. CoStar Property Express provides base building information, photos, floor plans, maps and a limited number of reports.

CoStar Listings Express® CoStar Listings Express provides access via an annual subscription to a listings only version of CoStar Property Express. Commercial real estate professionals use CoStar Listings Express to look up and search for lease and for sale listings in CoStar’s comprehensive national database. CoStar Listings Express provides base building information, photos, floor plans, maps and a limited number of reports on only properties that are either for lease or for sale. CoStar Listings Express does not provide information on fully leased properties, as found in CoStar Property Professional and CoStar Property Express.

CoStar COMPS Express® CoStar COMPS Express provides users with immediate, subscription free access with payment by credit card to the CoStar COMPS Professional system on a report-by-report basis. Subscribers also use this on-demand service to research comparable sales information outside of their subscription markets.

CoStar Connect® CoStar Connect allows commercial real estate firms to license CoStar’s technology and information to market their U.S. property listings on their corporate websites. Customers enhance the quality and depth of their listing information through access to CoStar’s database of content and digital images. The service automatically updates via the CoStar Property database and manages customers’ online property information, providing comprehensive listings coverage and significantly reducing the expense of building and maintaining their websites’ content and functionality.

CoStar Commercial MLS® CoStar Commercial MLS is the industry’s most comprehensive collection of researched for sale listings. CoStar Commercial MLS draws upon CoStar’s large database of digital images and includes office, industrial, multifamily and retail properties, as well as shopping centers and raw land. CoStar Commercial MLS represents an efficient means for sellers to market their properties to a large audience and for buyers to easily identify target properties.

CoStar Advertising® CoStar Advertising offers property owners a highly targeted and cost effective way to market a space for lease or a property for sale directly to the individuals 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 Professional Directory® CoStar Professional Directory, a service available exclusively to CoStar Property Professional subscribers, provides detailed contact information for approximately 1.3 million commercial real estate professionals, including specific information about an individual’s current and prior activities such as completed transactions, current landlord representation assignments, sublet listings, major tenants and owners represented and local and national affiliations. Commercial real estate brokers can input their biographical information and credentials and upload their photo to create personal profiles. Subscribers use CoStar Professional Directory to network with their peers, identify and evaluate potential business partners, and maintain accurate mailing lists of other industry professionals for their direct mail marketing efforts.

CoStar Market Report™ The CoStar Market Report provides in-depth current and historical analytical information covering office, industrial and retail properties across the U.S. Published quarterly, each market report includes details such as absorption rates, vacancy rates, rental rates, average sales prices, capitalization rates, existing inventory and current construction activity. This data is presented using standard definitions and calculations developed by CoStar, and offers real estate professionals critical and unbiased information necessary to make intelligent commercial real estate decisions. CoStar Market Reports are available to CoStar Property Professional subscribers at no additional charge.

Metropolis™ The Metropolis service is a single interface that combines commercial real estate data from multiple information providers into a comprehensive resource. The Metropolis service allows a user to input a property address and then view detailed information on that property from multiple information providers, including CoStar services. This technology offers commercial real estate professionals a simple and convenient solution for integrating a wealth of third party information and proprietary data, and is currently available for the Southern California markets.

PPR® Our subsidiary PPR, and its U.K. subsidiary, PPR UK, offer products and services designed to meet the research needs of commercial real estate investors and lenders. PPR covers metropolitan areas throughout the United States, the U.K., Europe, and Asia, with offerings including historical and forecast market data and analysis by market and property type, and services including access to PPR’s analysts, economists, and strategists to develop and deliver custom research solutions.

Resolve Portfolio Maximizer® Resolve Portfolio Maximizer is an industry leading real estate portfolio management software solution. Resolve 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.

Request™ Request is the first business intelligence software solution built specifically for managing commercial real estate investments. 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. Request also provides a platform for users to develop business intelligence and reporting capabilities.

FOCUS™ CoStar’s U.K. subsidiary, CoStar U.K. Limited, offers several services; its primary service is FOCUS. FOCUS is a digital online service offering information on the U.K. commercial real estate market. This service seamlessly links data on individual properties and companies across the U.K., including comparable sales, available space, requirements, tenants, lease deals, planning information, socio-economics and demographics, credit ratings, photos and maps.

SPN™ SPN provides users online access to a comprehensive database of information for properties located in Scotland, including available space, comparable sales and lease deals.

Propex™ Propex gives users access to the commercial property investment market. It is used by U.K. investment agencies and professional investors and is a secure online exchange through which investment deals may be introduced. It is a primary channel for the distribution of live transaction data and property research data in the U.K. investment market. Propex also provides private investors with a gateway into the commercial property investment market. It is a free-access listing website, which provides details of commercial property investments. It is used by U.K. agencies to sell investments suitable for the private investor.

Shopproperty.co.uk™ Shopproperty is a listing database of available retail units across the U.K. on a free-access website. Shopproperty.co.uk is the only specialist listing website with fully licensed Goad street-trader plans.

Grecam™ Our French subsidiary, Grecam S.A.S., provides commercial real estate information throughout the Paris region through its Observatoire Immobilier D’ Entreprise (“OIE”) service offering. The OIE service provides commercial property availability and transaction information to its subscribers through both an online service and market reports.

Clients

We draw clients from across the commercial real estate and related business community. Commercial real estate brokers have traditionally formed the largest portion of CoStar clients, however, we also provide services to owners, landlords, financial institutions, retailers, vendors, appraisers, investment banks, governmental agencies, and other parties involved in commercial real estate. The following chart lists U.S. and U.K. clients that are well known or have the highest annual subscription fees in each of the various categories, each as of January 29, 2010.


Brokers	Lenders, Investment Bankers	Institutional Advisors, Asset Managers
CB Richard Ellis	Deutsche Bank	BlackRock
CB Richard Ellis — U.K.	Wells Fargo	Prudential
Colliers	JP Morgan Chase Bank	Prudential — U.K.
Colliers Conrad Ritblat Erdman — U.K.	Key Bank	Metropolitan Life
Cushman & Wakefield	TD Bank	ING Clarion Partners
Cushman & Wakefield — U.K.	Citibank	Duke Realty Corporation
Weichert Commercial Brokerage	AEGON USA Realty Advisors, Inc.	USAA Real Estate Company
Jones Lang LaSalle	Capmark Financial Group, Inc.	NorthMarq Capital
Jones Lang LaSalle — U.K.	East West Bank	AEW Capital Management LP
Grubb & Ellis	Q10 Bonneville Mortgage Company	Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.
Gerald Eve — U.K.
Drivers Jonas — U.K.
Lambert Smith Hampton — U.K.
Charles Dunn Company, Inc.	Owners, Developers	Appraisers, Accountants
Marcus & Millichap	Hines	Integra
Mohr Partners	LNR Property Corp	Deloitte
Newmark & Company Real Estate	Shorenstein Company, LLC	Marvin F. Poer
CRESA Partners	Tishman Speyer	KPMG
Studley	Manulife Financial	GE Capital
Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT	Industrial Developments International (IDI)	PGP Valuation
UGL Equis	Land Securities — U.K.	Thomson Reuters
FirstService Williams
Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial
Binswanger
Re/Max
Carter	Retailers	Government Agencies
USI Real Estate Brokerage Services	Nationwide Insurance	U.S. General Services Administration
DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services	In-N-Out Burger	County of Los Angeles
HFF	Merle Norman Cosmetics, Inc.	Internal Revenue Service
U.S. Equities Realty	Massage Envy	City of Chicago
Sperry Van Ness	7-Eleven	Cook County Assessor’s Office
DTZ — U.K.	Dollar General Corporation	U.S. Department of Housing and
Savillis Commercial — U.K.	Walgreens	Urban Development
NB Real Estate — U.K.	Town Fair Tire	Corporation of London — U.K.
GVA Grimley — U.K.	Rent-A-Center	Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Vail Williams — U.K.	Spencer Gifts LLC	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation




REITs	Property Managers	Vendors
Simon Property Group, Inc.	Transwestern Commercial Services	Turner Construction Company
Brandywine Realty Trust	Lincoln Property Company	Kastle Systems
Brookfield Properties	PM Realty Group	Comcast Corporation
Boston Properties	Navisys Group	ADT Security
Liberty Property Trust	Osprey Management Company	Cox Communications, Inc.
Kimco Realty Corporation	Leggat McCall Properties	DirectTV
Vornado Realty Trust	Asset Plus Corporation	Verizon Communications, Inc.

For the years ended December 31, 2007, 2008 and 2009, no single client accounted for more than 5% of our revenues.

Sales and Marketing

As of January 29, 2010, we had 276 sales, marketing and customer support employees, with the majority of our direct sales force located in field sales offices. Our sales teams are primarily located in 25 field sales offices throughout the U.S. and in London, England; Manchester, England; Glasgow, Scotland and Paris, France. Our inside sales team is located in our Bethesda, Maryland office. This team prospects for new clients and performs 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 sales strategy is to aggressively attract new clients, while providing ongoing incentives for existing clients to subscribe to additional services. 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 services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis. In addition, through CoStar COMPS Express, clients can access our database of commercial real estate information without a subscription on a pay per use basis.

Our customer service and support staff is charged with ensuring high client satisfaction by providing ongoing customer support.

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; print advertising in trade magazines and other business publications; client referrals; and CoStar Advisor™, the Company’s newsletter, which is distributed to our clients and prospects. Web-based marketing and direct marketing are the most cost-effective means for us to find prospective clients. Our web-based marketing efforts include paid advertising with major search engines and commercial real estate news sites and our direct marketing efforts include direct mail, email and telemarketing, and 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, and attend and/or exhibit at industry trade shows and conferences to reinforce our relationships with our core user groups, including industry-leading events for commercial brokers and retail and financial services institutions.

In May 2008, we released CoStar Showcase®, an internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings available to all visitors to our public websites, www.CoStar.com and Showcase.com, and allows each visitor to search those property listings for free. CoStar Showcase draws additional traffic to our website through searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Commercial real estate listings are derived from our database and are researched and verified by CoStar researchers. CoStar Showcase subscribers need only designate their listings for inclusion in the free property search tool. In addition, CoStar Showcase customers who have not subscribed for our other services, serve as leads for additional cross-selling opportunities.

Competition

The market for information, marketing and analytic services generally is competitive and rapidly changing. In the commercial real estate industry, the principal competitive factors for commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services and providers are:

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quality and depth of the underlying databases;

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

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timeliness of the data;

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breadth of geographic coverage and services offered;

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client service and support;

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perception that the service offered is the industry standard;

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price;

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effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts;

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proprietary nature of methodologies, databases and technical resources;

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vendor reputation;

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brand loyalty among customers; and

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capital resources.

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

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online 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 LoopNet, Inc., Cityfeet.com, Inc., Reed Business Information Limited, officespace.com, MrOfficeSpace.com, TenantWise, Inc., WorkplaceIQ and RealPoint LLC;

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publishers and distributors of information, marketing and analytic services, including regional providers and national print publications, such as Black’s Guide, CBRE Economic Advisors, Marshall & Swift, Yale Robbins, Inc., Reis, Inc., Real Capital Analytics, Inc. and The Smith Guide, Inc.;

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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 (SIOR) the Commercial Association of Realtors Data Services and the Association of Industrial Realtors (AIR);

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

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public record providers.

As the commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic services marketplace 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, the National Association of Realtors and Bloomberg L.P. have moved into the commercial real estate information business and intend to compete with us in the commercial real estate information space. Similarly, a company like Google, which has a far-reaching web presence and substantial data aggregation capabilities, could easily enter the commercial real estate marketing arena, something Google has already done with residential real estate. While we believe that we have successfully differentiated ourselves from existing competitors, competition 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:

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trade secret, copyright, trademark, database protection and other laws;

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

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license agreements with customers;

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patent protection; and

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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. In addition, with respect to our U.K. databases, certain database protection laws provide additional protections of these databases. We license our services under license agreements that grant our clients non-exclusive, non-transferable licenses. These agreements restrict the disclosure and use of our information and prohibit the unauthorized reproduction or transfer of the information, marketing and analytic services we license.

We also attempt to protect the secrecy of our proprietary database, 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 discourage and detect unauthorized copying of our intellectual property. We have established an internal antipiracy team that uses fraud-detection technology to continually monitor our services to detect and prevent unauthorized access, and we actively prosecute individuals and firms that engage in this unlawful activity.

We have filed trademark applications to register trademarks for a variety of names for CoStar services and other marks, and have obtained registered trademarks for a variety of our marks, including “CoStar,” “COMPS,” “CoStar Property,” “CoStar Tenant,” “CoStar Showcase” and “CoStar Group.” Depending upon the jurisdiction, trademarks are generally valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained and they have not been found to become generic. We consider our trademarks in the aggregate to constitute a valuable asset. In addition, we have filed several patent applications covering certain of our methodologies and software and currently have one patent in the U.K. which expires in 2021 covering, among other things, certain of our field research methodologies, and six patents in the U.S. which expire in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (2 patents) and 2025, covering, among other things, critical elements of CoStar’s proprietary field research technology and mapping tools. We regard the rights under our patents as valuable to our business but do not believe that our business is materially dependent on any single patent.

Employees

As of January 29, 2010, we employed 1,438 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.

Available Information

Our investor relations internet website is http://www.costar.com/investors.aspx. The reports we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report, quarterly reports and current 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 SEC 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.

Item 1A.

Risk Factors

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

We have made forward-looking statements in this Report and make forward-looking statements in our press releases and conference calls that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include information that is not purely historic fact and include, without limitation, statements concerning our financial outlook for 2010 and beyond, our possible or assumed future results of operations generally, and other statements and information regarding assumptions about our revenues, EBITDA, fully diluted net income, taxable income, cash flow from operating activities, available cash, operating costs, amortization expense, intangible asset recovery, net income per share, diluted net income per share, weighted-average outstanding shares, capital and other expenditures, effective tax rate, equity compensation charges, future taxable income, purchase amortization, financing plans, geographic expansion, acquisitions, contract renewal rate, capital structure, contractual obligations, legal proceedings and claims, our database, database growth, services and facilities, employee relations, future economic performance, our ability to liquidate or realize our long-term investments, management’s plans, goals and objectives for future operations, and growth and markets for our stock. Sections of this Report which contain forward-looking statements include “Business,” “Risk Factors,” “Properties,” “Legal Proceedings,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk,” “Controls and Procedures” and the Financial Statements and related Notes.

Our forward-looking statements are also identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “thinks,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates” or similar expressions. You should understand that these forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting our judgment, beliefs and expectations, not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. The following important factors, in addition to those discussed or referred to under the heading “Risk Factors,” and other unforeseen events or circumstances, could affect our future results and could cause those results or other outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements: general economic conditions; commercial real estate market conditions; changes or consolidations within the commercial real estate industry; customer retention; our ability to attract new clients; our ability to sell additional services to existing clients; competition; foreign currency fluctuations; our ability to identify, acquire and integrate acquisition candidates; our ability to obtain any required financing on favorable terms; global credit market conditions affecting investments; our ability to integrate our U.S. and international product offerings; our ability to continue to expand successfully; our ability to effectively penetrate the market for retail real estate information and gain acceptance in that market; our ability to control costs; litigation; changes in accounting policies or practices; release of new and upgraded services by us or our competitors; data quality; development of our sales force; employee retention; technical problems with our services; managerial execution; changes in relationships with real estate brokers and other strategic partners; legal and regulatory issues; and successful adoption of and training on our services.

Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of, and are based on information available to us on, the date of this Report. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Risk Factors

A continuing decline or consolidation in the commercial real estate industry may decrease customer demand for our services. A continuing decline in the commercial real estate industry’s leasing activity, rental rates and absorption rates or a sustained downturn in the commercial real estate market’s for sale activity may continue to hamper our ability to generate revenues and may lead to more cancellations by our current or future customers, either of which could cause our revenues to decline and reduce our profitability. A depressed commercial real estate market has a negative impact on our core customer base, which could decrease demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. Also, companies in this industry are consolidating, often in order to reduce expenses. Consolidation, or other cost-cutting measures by our customers, may lead to more cancellations of our information, marketing and analytic services by our customers, reduce the number of our existing clients, reduce the size of our target market or increase our clients’ bargaining power, all of which could cause our revenues to decline and reduce our profitability.

Negative general economic conditions could increase our expenses and reduce our revenues. Our business and the commercial real estate industry are particularly affected by negative trends in the general economy. The success of our business depends on a number of factors relating to general global, national, regional and local economic conditions, including perceived and actual economic conditions, recessions, inflation, deflation, exchange rates, interest rates, taxation policies, availability of credit, employment levels, and wage and salary levels. Negative general economic conditions could continue to adversely affect our business by reducing our revenues and profitability. Further, continuing bank failures and freezing of the credit markets generally, other adverse national and global economic events, as well as any significant terrorist attack, are likely to have a further dampening effect on the economy in general, which could negatively affect our financial performance and our stock price. Market disruptions may also contribute to extreme price and volume fluctuations in the stock market that may affect our stock price for reasons unrelated to our operating performance. In addition, a significant increase in inflation could increase our expenses more rapidly than expected, the effect of which may not be offset by corresponding increases in revenue. Conversely, deflation resulting in a decline of prices could reduce our revenues. In the current economic environment, it is difficult to predict whether we will experience significant inflation or deflation in the near future. A significant increase in either could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. As a result of the negative economic conditions that have persisted for more than a year, we have seen increased customer cancellations, reductions of services and failures to timely pay amounts due to us. If we continue to experience greater cancellations and more reductions of services and failures to timely pay and we do not acquire new clients or sell new services to our existing clients, our revenues may decline and our financial position would be adversely affected.

Our revenues and financial position will be adversely affected if we are not able to attract and retain clients. Our success and revenues depend on attracting and retaining subscribers to our information, marketing and analytic services. Our subscription-based information, marketing and analytic services generate the largest portion of our revenues. However, we may be unable to attract new clients, and our existing clients may decide not to add, not to renew or to cancel subscription services. In addition, in order to increase our revenue, we must continue to attract new customers, continue to keep our cancellation rate low and continue to sell new services to our existing customers. We may not be able to continue to grow our customer base, keep the cancellation rate for customers and services low or sell new services to existing customers as a result of several factors, including without limitation: economic pressures, a decision that customers have no need for our services; a decision to use alternative services; customers’ and potential customers’ pricing and budgetary constraints; consolidation in the real estate and/or financial services industries; data quality; technical problems; or competitive pressures. If clients decide to cancel services or not to renew their subscription agreements, and we do not sell new services to our existing clients or attract new clients, then our renewal rate, and revenues may decline.

If we are unable to hire qualified persons for, or retain and continue to develop, our sales force, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues could be adversely affected. In order to support revenues and future revenue growth, we need to continue to develop, train and retain our sales force. Our ability to build and develop a strong sales force may be affected by a number of factors, including: our ability to attract, integrate and motivate sales personnel; our ability to effectively train our sales force; the ability of our sales force to sell an increased number of services; our ability to manage effectively an outbound telesales group; the length of time it takes new sales personnel to become productive; the competition we face from other companies in hiring and retaining sales personnel; and our ability to effectively manage a multi-location sales organization. If we are unable to hire qualified sales personnel and develop and retain the members of our sales force, including sales force management, or if our sales force is unproductive, our revenues or growth rate could decline and our expenses could increase.

If we are unable to increase our revenues or our operating costs are higher than expected, our profitability may continue to decline and our operating results may fluctuate significantly. We may not be able to accurately forecast our revenues or future revenue growth rate. Many of our expenses, particularly personnel costs and occupancy costs, are relatively fixed. As a result, we may not be able to adjust spending quickly enough to offset any unexpected increase in expenses or revenue shortfall. We may experience higher than expected operating costs, including increased personnel costs, occupancy costs, selling and marketing costs, investments in geographic

expansion, acquisition costs, communications costs, travel costs, software development costs, professional fees and other costs. If operating costs exceed our expectations and cannot be adjusted accordingly, our profitability may be reduced and our results of operations and financial position will be adversely affected. In 2009, we were unable to sustain our historic revenue growth rates, and in fact, our annual revenues declined in 2009 compared to 2008. We may not be able to return to our historic revenue growth rates and our revenues may continue to decline. Our ability to increase our revenues and operating profit will depend on increased demand for our services. Our sales are affected by, among other things, general economic and commercial real estate conditions. Reduced demand, whether due to changes in customer preference, a further weakening of the U.S. or global economy, competition or other reasons, may result in decreased revenue and growth, adversely affecting our operating results.

Competition could render our services uncompetitive. The market for information systems and services in general is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Competition in this market may increase further as a result of current recessionary economic conditions, as customer bases and customer spending decrease and service providers are competing for fewer customer resources. Our existing competitors, or future competitors, may have greater name recognition, larger customer bases, better technology or data, lower prices, easier access to data, greater user traffic or greater financial, technical or marketing resources than we have. Our competitors may be able to undertake more effective marketing campaigns, obtain more data, adopt more aggressive pricing policies, make more attractive offers to potential employees, subscribers, distribution partners and content providers or may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies or changes in user requirements. If we are unable to retain customers or obtain new customers, our revenues could decline. Increased competition could result in lower revenues and higher expenses, which would reduce our profitability.

Litigation or government investigations in which we become involved may significantly increase our expenses and adversely affect our stock price. Currently and from time to time, we are a party to various lawsuits. Any lawsuits, threatened lawsuits or government investigations in which we are involved could cost us a significant amount of time and money to defend, could distract management’s attention away from operating our business, could result in negative publicity, and could adversely affect our stock price. In addition, if any claims are determined against us or if a settlement requires us to pay a large monetary amount or take other action that materially restricts or impedes our operations, our profitability could be significantly reduced and our financial position could be adversely affected. We cannot make assurances that we will have any or sufficient insurance to cover any litigation claims.

Fluctuating foreign currencies may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Due to our acquisitions of CoStar U.K. Limited (formerly FOCUS Information Limited), SPN, Grecam S.A.S., Propex, and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. a portion of our business is denominated in the British Pound and Euro and as a result, fluctuations in foreign currencies may have an impact on our business, results of operations and financial position. Foreign currency exchange rates have fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate. Significant foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations may negatively impact our international revenue, which in turn affects our consolidated revenue. Currencies may be affected by internal factors, general economic conditions and external developments in other countries, all of which can have an adverse impact on a country’s currency. Currently, we are not party to any hedging transactions intended to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. We may seek to enter into hedging transactions in the future, but we may be unable to enter into these transactions successfully, on acceptable terms or at all. We cannot predict whether we will incur foreign exchange losses in the future. Further, significant foreign exchange fluctuations resulting in a decline in the British Pound or Euro may decrease the value of our foreign assets, as well as decrease our revenues and earnings from our foreign subsidiaries, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.

We may be subject to legal liability for collecting, displaying or distributing information. Because the content in our database is collected from various sources and distributed to others, we may be subject to claims for breach of contract, defamation, negligence, unfair competition or copyright or trademark infringement or claims based on other theories. We could also be subject to claims based upon the content that is accessible from our website through links to other websites or information on our website supplied by third parties. Even if these claims do not result in liability to us, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending against any claims. Our potential liability for information distributed by us to others could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us to expend substantial resources and limit the attractiveness of our information, marketing and analytic services to users.

An impairment in carrying value of goodwill could negatively impact our consolidated results of operations and net worth. Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets not subject to amortization are tested annually by each reporting unit on October 1st of each year for impairment and are tested for impairment more frequently based upon the existence of one or more indicators. We consider our operating segments, U.S. and International, as our reporting units under Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) authoritative guidance for consideration of potential impairment of goodwill. We assess the impairment of long-lived assets, identifiable intangibles and goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. The existence of one or more of the following indicators could cause us to test for impairment prior to the annual assessment.

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Significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results;

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Significant changes in the manner of our use of acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business;

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Significant negative industry or economic trends; or

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Significant decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period.

These types of events or indicators and the resulting impairment analysis could result in goodwill impairment charges in the future, which would reduce our profitability. Impairment charges could negatively affect our financial results in the periods of such charges, which may reduce our profitability. As of December 31, 2009, we had $80.3 million of goodwill, $55.2 million in our U.S. segment and $25.1 million in our International segment.

Our stock price may be negatively affected by fluctuations in our financial results. Our operating results, revenues and expenses may fluctuate as a result of changes in general economic conditions and also for many other reasons, many of which are outside of our control, such as: cancellations or non-renewals of our services; competition; our ability to control expenses; loss of clients or revenues; technical problems with our services; changes or consolidation in the real estate industry; our investments in geographic expansion and to increase coverage in existing markets; interest rate fluctuations; the timing and success of new service introductions and enhancements; successful execution of our expansion plans; data quality; the development of our sales force; managerial execution; employee retention; foreign currency and exchange rate fluctuations; inflation; successful adoption of and training on our services; litigation; acquisitions of other companies or assets; sales, brand enhancement and marketing promotional activities; client support activities; changes in client budgets; or our investments in other corporate resources. In addition, changes in accounting policies or practices may affect our level of net income. Fluctuations in our financial results, revenues and expenses may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

Market volatility may have an adverse effect on our stock price. The trading price of our common stock has fluctuated widely in the past, and we expect that it will continue to fluctuate in the future. The price could fluctuate widely based on numerous factors, including: economic factors; quarter-to-quarter variations in our operating results; changes in analysts’ estimates of our earnings; announcements by us or our competitors of technological innovations or new services; general conditions in the commercial real estate industry; developments or disputes concerning copyrights or proprietary rights or other legal proceedings; and regulatory developments. In addition, in recent years, the stock market in general, and the shares of internet-related and other technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price fluctuations. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities issued by many companies for reasons unrelated to the operating performance of the specific companies and may have the same effect on the market price of our common stock.

Negative conditions in the global credit markets may affect the liquidity of a portion of our long-term investments. Currently, our long-term investments include mostly AAA rated auction rate securities (“ARS”), which are primarily student loan securities supported by guarantees from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”) of the U.S. Department of Education. Continuing negative conditions in the global credit markets have prevented some investors from liquidating their holdings of auction rate securities because the amount of securities submitted for sale has exceeded the amount of purchase orders for such securities. As of December 31, 2009, we held $32.8 million par value of ARS, all of which failed to settle at auctions. When an auction fails for ARS in which we have invested, we may be unable to liquidate some or all of these securities at par. In the event we need or desire to immediately access these funds, we will not be able to do so until a future auction on these investments is successful, a buyer is found outside the auction process or an alternative action is determined. If a buyer is found but is unwilling to purchase the investments at par, we may incur a loss, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.

Our ARS investments are not currently trading and therefore do not currently have a readily determinable market value. Accordingly, the estimated fair value of the ARS no longer approximates par value. We have used a discounted cash flow model to determine the estimated fair value of our investment in ARS as of December 31, 2009. The assumptions used in preparing the discounted cash flow model include estimates for interest rates, credit spreads, timing and amount of cash flows, liquidity risk premiums, expected holding periods and default risk of the ARS. Based on this assessment of fair value, as of December 31, 2009, we determined there was a decline in the fair value of our ARS investments of approximately $3.0 million. The decline was deemed to be a temporary impairment and recorded as an unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity. If the issuers of these ARS are unable to successfully close future auctions and their credit ratings deteriorate, we may be required to record additional unrealized losses in accumulated other comprehensive loss or an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings on these investments, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.

International operations expose us to additional business risks, which may reduce our profitability. Our international operations and expansion subject us to additional business risks, including: currency exchange rate fluctuations; adapting to the differing business practices and laws in foreign countries; difficulties in managing foreign operations; limited protection for intellectual property rights in some countries; difficulty in collecting accounts receivable and longer collection periods; costs of enforcing contractual obligations; impact of recessions in economies outside the U.S.; and potentially adverse tax consequences. In addition, international expansion imposes additional burdens on our executive and administrative personnel, systems development, research and sales departments, and general managerial resources. If we are not able to manage our international operations successfully, we may incur higher expenses and our profitability may be reduced. Finally, the investment required for additional international expansion could exceed the profit generated from such expansion, which would reduce our profitability and adversely affect our financial position.

Our expansion into the commercial real estate analytics sector may not be successful or may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into the commercial real estate market research and forecasting arena imposes additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general management resources. During 2010, we expect to continue to expand our presence in the commercial real estate analytics sector. If we are unable to manage this expansion effectively or if our costs for this effort exceed our expectations, our financial position could be adversely affected. In addition, if we incur additional costs to expand our analytics services and we are not successful in marketing or selling these expanded services, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.

If we are unable to enforce or defend our ownership and use of intellectual property, our business, competitive position and operating results could be harmed. The success of our business depends in large part on the intellectual property involved in our methodologies, database, services and software. We rely on a combination of trade secret, patent, copyright and other laws, nondisclosure and noncompetition provisions, license agreements and other contractual provisions and technical measures to protect our intellectual property rights. However, current law may not provide for adequate protection of our databases and the actual data. In addition, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of proprietary rights in internet related businesses are uncertain and evolving, and we cannot assure you of the future viability or value of any of our proprietary rights. Our business could be significantly harmed if we are not able to protect our content and our other intellectual property. The same would be true if a court found that our services infringe other persons’ intellectual property rights. Any intellectual property lawsuits or threatened lawsuits in which we are involved, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant, could cost us a significant amount of time and money and distract management’s attention from operating our business. In addition, if we do not prevail on any intellectual property claims, this could result in a change to our methodology or information, marketing and analytic services and could reduce our profitability.

Our current or future geographic expansion plans may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into new markets and investing resources towards increasing the depth of our coverage within existing markets imposes additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general managerial resources. During 2010, we plan to continue to increase the depth of our coverage in the U.S. and U.K. If we are unable to manage our expansion efforts effectively, if our expansion efforts take longer than planned or if our costs for these efforts exceed our expectations, our financial position could be adversely affected. In addition, if we incur significant costs to improve data quality within existing markets, or are not successful in marketing and selling our services in these markets or in new markets, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.

We may not be able to successfully introduce new or upgraded information, marketing and analytic services, which could decrease our revenues and our profitability. Our future business and financial success will depend on our ability to continue to introduce new and upgraded services into the marketplace. To be successful, we must adapt to rapid technological changes by continually enhancing our information, marketing and analytic services. Developing new services and upgrades to services imposes heavy burdens on our systems department, management and researchers. This process is costly, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully develop and enhance our services. In addition, successfully launching and selling a new service puts pressure on our sales and marketing resources. If we are unable to develop new or upgraded services, then our customers may choose a competitive service over ours and our revenues may decline and our profitability may be reduced. In addition, if we incur significant costs in developing new or upgraded services, are not successful in marketing and selling these new services or upgrades, or our customers fail to accept these new services, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations by decreasing our revenues and reducing our profitability.

Our continuing expansion into the retail real estate sector may not be completed successfully or may not result in increased revenues, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial position. Expanding into the retail real estate sector imposed and continues to impose additional burdens on our research, systems development, sales, marketing and general managerial resources. During the next year, we expect to continue to expand the number of retail properties contained within our database. If we are unable to manage this expansion effectively, if this expansion effort takes longer than planned or if our costs for this effort exceed our expectations, our financial position could be adversely affected. In addition, if we incur significant costs to expand our retail sector services and we are not successful in marketing and selling these expanded services, or customers fail to accept these new services, our expansion may have a material adverse effect on our financial position by increasing our expenses without increasing our revenues, adversely affecting our profitability.

Technical problems that affect either our customers’ ability to access our services, or the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services, could lead to reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our business increasingly depends upon the satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our website, the internet and our service providers. Problems with our website, the internet or the services provided by our local exchange carriers or internet service providers could result in slower connections for our customers or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, marketing and analytic services. If we experience technical problems in distributing our services, we could experience reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. In addition, the software, internal applications and systems underlying our services are complex and may not be efficient or error-free. Our careful development and testing may not be sufficient to ensure that we will not encounter technical problems when we attempt to enhance our software, internal applications and systems. Any inefficiencies, errors or technical problems with our software, internal applications and systems could reduce the quality of our services or interfere with our customers’ access to our information, marketing and analytic services, which could reduce the demand for our services, lower our revenues and increase our costs.

If we are not able to obtain and maintain accurate, comprehensive or reliable data, we could experience reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services. Our success depends on our clients’ confidence in the comprehensiveness, accuracy and reliability of the data and analysis we provide. The task of establishing and maintaining accurate and reliable data and analysis is challenging. If our data, including the data we obtain from third parties, or analysis is not current, accurate, comprehensive or reliable, we could experience reduced demand for our services or legal claims by our customers, which could result in lower revenues and higher expenses. Our U.S. researchers use integrated internal research processes to update our database. Any inefficiencies, errors, or technical problems with this application could reduce the quality of our data, which could result in reduced demand for our services, lower revenues and higher costs.

If we are not able to successfully identify, finance and/or integrate acquisitions, our business operations and financial position could be adversely affected. We have expanded our markets and services in part through acquisitions of complementary businesses, services, databases and technologies, and expect to continue to do so in the future. Our strategy to acquire complementary companies or assets depends on our ability to identify, and the availability of, suitable acquisition candidates. In addition, acquisitions involve numerous risks, including managing the integration of personnel and products; including those of PPR and Resolve Technology; managing geographically remote operations, such as SPN in Scotland, Grecam S.A.S. in France, CoStar U.K. Limited, Propex and Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. in the U.K.; the diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns; the inherent risks in entering markets and sectors in which we have either limited or no direct experience; and the potential loss of key employees or clients of the acquired companies. We may not successfully integrate any acquired businesses or assets and may not achieve anticipated benefits of any acquisition. Acquisitions could result in dilutive issuances of equity securities, the incurrence of debt, one-time write-offs of goodwill and substantial amortization expenses of other intangible assets. Obtaining credit in the current economic environment may be difficult and cost prohibitive. We may be unable to obtain financing on favorable terms, or at all, if necessary to finance future acquisitions making it impossible or more costly to acquire complementary businesses. If we are able to obtain financing, the terms may be onerous and restrict our operations.

Temporary or permanent outages of our computers, software or telecommunications equipment could lead to reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs. Our operations depend on our ability to protect our database, computers and software, telecommunications equipment and facilities against damage from potential dangers such as fire, power loss, security breaches, computer viruses and telecommunications failures. Any temporary or permanent loss of one or more of these systems or facilities from an accident, equipment malfunction or some other cause could harm our business. If we experience a failure that prevents us from delivering our information, marketing and analytic services to clients, we could experience reduced demand for our information, marketing and analytic services, lower revenues and increased costs.

Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices may affect our financial results or presentation of results, which may affect our stock price. Changes in accounting and reporting policies or practices could reduce our net income, which reductions may be independent of changes in our operations. These reductions in reported net income could cause our stock price to decline. For example, in 2006, we adopted authoritative guidance for stock compensation, which required us to expense the value of granted stock options.

Our business depends on retaining and attracting highly capable management and operating personnel. Our success depends in large part on our ability to retain and attract management and operating personnel, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Florance, and our other officers and key employees. Our business requires highly skilled technical, sales, management, web development, marketing and research personnel, who are in high demand and are often subject to competing offers. To retain and attract key personnel, we use various measures, including employment agreements, awards under a stock incentive plan and incentive bonuses for key executive officers. These measures may not be enough to retain and attract the personnel we need or to offset the impact on our business of the loss of the services of Mr. Florance or other key officers or employees.

Item 1B.

Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2.

Properties

Our corporate headquarters currently is located in Bethesda, Maryland, where we occupy approximately 60,000 square feet of office space. This facility is used primarily by our U.S. segment. Our main lease for our Bethesda, Maryland headquarters expires on October 15, 2010.

In February 2010, we purchased a 169,429 square-foot LEED Gold certified office building located at 1331 L Street, NW in downtown Washington, D.C. together with the tenancy in the underlying ground lease for the property. This facility will be used primarily by our U.S. segment. We intend to begin relocating our Bethesda-based employees and infrastructure to our new building starting in the second quarter of 2010. We currently expect to complete our relocation by October 2010 and allow the lease for our Bethesda property to expire.

Our principal facility in the U.K. is located in London, England, where we occupy approximately 11,000 square feet of office space. Our lease for this facility has a maximum term ending October 20, 2018, with early termination at our option on October 18, 2013, with advance notice. This facility is used primarily by our International segment.

In addition to our Bethesda, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and London, England facilities, our research operations are principally run out of leased spaces in San Diego, California; Columbia, Maryland; White Marsh, Maryland; Glasgow, Scotland; and Paris, France. Additionally, we lease office space in a variety of other metropolitan areas, which generally house our field sales offices. These locations include, without limitation, the following: New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; San Francisco; Boston; Manchester, England; Orange County, California; Philadelphia; Houston; Atlanta; Phoenix; Detroit; Pittsburgh; Iselin, New Jersey; Fort Lauderdale; Denver; Dallas; Kansas City; Cleveland; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Austin; Salt Lake City; Seattle; and St. Louis.

We believe these facilities are suitable and appropriately support our business needs.

Item 3.

Legal Proceedings

Currently, and from time to time, we are involved in litigation incidental to the conduct of our business. We are not a party to any lawsuit or proceeding that, in the opinion of our management based on consultations with legal counsel, is likely to have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations.

Item 4.

Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

We did not submit any matters to a vote of our security holders during the quarter ended December 31, 2009.

PART II

Item 5.

Market for the Registrant’s Common Stock, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Price Range of Common Stock. Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “CSGP.” The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low daily closing prices per share of our common stock, as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

	High		Low

Year Ended December 31, 2008
First Quarter	$	45.31	$	36.55
Second Quarter	$	51.36	$	44.39
Third Quarter	$	56.70	$	43.57
Fourth Quarter	$	45.20	$	27.00

Year Ended December 31, 2009
First Quarter	$	35.93	$	24.23
Second Quarter	$	40.09	$	31.10
Third Quarter	$	41.57	$	33.97
Fourth Quarter	$	44.43	$	38.35

As of February 1, 2010, there were 359 holders of record of our common stock.

Dividend Policy. We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors, subject to applicable limitations under Delaware law, and will be dependent upon our results of operations, financial position and other factors deemed relevant by our Board of Directors. We do not anticipate paying any dividends on our common stock during the foreseeable future, but intend to retain any earnings for future growth of our business.

Recent Issues of Unregistered Securities. On July 17, 2009, we acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of PPR from DMG Information, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“DMGI”), the sole stockholder of PPR, in exchange for an aggregate of 572,999 shares of CoStar common stock, which had a value of approximately $20.9 million as of that date. On July 17, 2009, we issued 433,667 shares of common stock as initial consideration, and on September 28, 2009, we issued the remaining 139,332 shares of common stock as deferred purchase price after taking into account post-closing adjustments. We issued the shares of common stock in reliance upon the exemption from registration under Section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 as issuances not involving a public offering based upon the fact that, among other things, PPR had only one stockholder and there was no general solicitation.

On October 19, 2009, we issued 25,886 shares of common stock to an individual as the stock portion of the consideration in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Resolve Technology. The stock portion of the purchase price was approximately $1.1 million, and the shares are subject to a three-year lockup period. We issued the shares of common stock in reliance upon the exemption from registration under Section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 as issuances not involving a public offering based upon the fact that, among other things, Resolve Technology had only one stockholder and there was no general solicitation.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities. The following table is a summary of our repurchases of common stock during each of the three months in the quarter ended December 31, 2009:

ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Month, 2009

Total Number of Shares Purchased

Average Price Paid per Share

Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs

Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs

October 1 through 31

November 1 through 30

December 1 through 31

4,070

(1)

41.96

Total

4,070

41.96

(1) The number of shares purchased consists of shares of common stock tendered by employees to the Company to satisfy the employees’ tax withholding obligations arising as a result of vesting of restricted stock grants under the Company’s 1998 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, and the Company’s 2007 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, which shares were purchased by the Company based on their fair market value on the vesting date. None of these share purchases were part of a publicly announced program to purchase common stock of the Company.

Stock Price Performance Graph

The stock performance graph below shows how an initial investment of $100 in our common stock would have compared to:

·	An equal investment in the Standards & Poor's Stock 500 (“S&P 500”) Index.

·	An equal investment in the S&P 500 Application Software Index.

The comparison covers the period beginning December 31, 2004, and ending on December 31, 2009, and assumes the reinvestment of any dividends. You should note that this performance is historical and is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.

Company / Index	12/31/04		12/31/05		12/31/06		12/31/07		12/31/08		12/31/09
CoStar Group, Inc.		100		93.48		115.98		102.32		71.33		90.45
S&P 500 Index		100		104.91		121.48		128.16		80.74		102.11
S&P 500 Application Software Index		100		110.69		116.59		129.51		70.79		113.14

Item 6.

Selected Consolidated Financial and Operating Data

(in thousands, except per share data and other operating data)

The following table provides selected consolidated financial and other operating data for the five years ended December 31, 2009. The consolidated statement of operations data shown below for each of the three years ended December 31, 2007, 2008, and 2009 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2008 and 2009 are derived from audited consolidated financial statements that are included in this report. The consolidated statement of operations data for each of the years ended December 31, 2005 and 2006 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2005, 2006, and 2007 shown below are derived from audited consolidated financial statements for those years that are not included in this report.

	Year Ended December 31,
Consolidated Statement of Operations Data:	2005		2006		2007		2008		2009
Revenues	$	134,338	$	158,889	$	192,805	$	212,428	$	209,659
Cost of revenues		44,286		56,136		76,704		73,408		73,714
Gross margin		90,052		102,753		116,101		139,020		135,945
Operating expenses		82,710		88,672		98,249		99,232		104,110
Income from operations		7,342		14,081		17,852		39,788		31,835
Interest and other income, net		3,455		6,845		8,045		4,914		1,253
Income before income taxes		10,797		20,926		25,897		44,702		33,088
Income tax expense , net		4,340		8,516		9,946		20,079		14,395
Net income	$	6,457	$	12,410	$	15,951	$	24,623	$	18,693
Net income per share - basic	$	0.35	$	0.66	$	0.84	$	1.27	$	0.95
Net income per share - diluted	$	0.34	$	0.65	$	0.82	$	1.26	$	0.94
Weighted average shares outstanding - basic		18,453		18,751		19,044		19,372		19,780
Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted		19,007		19,165		19,404		19,550		19,925

	As of December 31,
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:	2005		2006		2007		2008		2009
Cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments	$	134,185	$	158,148	$	187,426	$	224,590	$	255,698
Working capital		124,501		154,606		167,441		183,347		203,660
Total assets		248,059		275,437		321,843		334,384		404,579
Total liabilities		23,263		25,327		40,038		30,963		45,573
Stockholders’ equity		224,796		250,110		281,805		303,421		359,006

	As of December 31,
Other Operating Data	2005		2006		2007		2008		2009
Number of subscription client sites		11,464		13,257		14,467		15,920		16,020
Millions of properties in database		1.8		2.1		2.7		3.2		3.6

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains “forward-looking statements,” including statements about our beliefs and expectations. There are many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated above in Item 1A. under the headings “Risk Factors ¾ Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements” and “¾Risk Factors,” as well as those described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are based on information available to us on the date of this filing and we assume no obligation to update such statements. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the consolidated financial statements and related notes in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Overview

CoStar Group, Inc. (“CoStar”) is the number one provider of information, marketing and analytic services to the commercial real estate industry in the U.S. and the 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, provide more information, marketing and analytic services than any of our competitors and believe we generate more revenues than any of our competitors. We have created a standardized information, marketing and analytic platform where members of the commercial real estate and related business community can continuously interact and facilitate transactions by efficiently exchanging accurate and standardized commercial real estate information. Our integrated suite of online service offerings includes information about space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, information about properties for sale, internet marketing services, information for clients' websites, information about industry professionals and their business relationships, data integration, and industry news. We also provide market research and analysis for commercial real estate investors and lenders via our PPR service offerings. Our service offerings span all commercial property types, including office, industrial, retail, land, mixed-use, hospitality and multifamily.

Since 1994, we have expanded the geographical coverage of our existing information and marketing services and developed new information, marketing and analytic services. In addition to internal growth, this expansion included the acquisitions of Chicago ReSource, Inc. in Chicago in 1996 and New Market Systems, Inc. in San Francisco in 1997. In August 1998, we expanded into the Houston region through the acquisition of Houston-based real estate information provider C Data Services, Inc. In January 1999, we expanded further into the Midwest and Florida by acquiring LeaseTrend, Inc. and into Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth by acquiring Jamison Research, Inc. In February 2000, we acquired COMPS.COM, Inc., a San Diego-based provider of commercial real estate information. In November 2000, we acquired First Image Technologies, Inc., a California-based provider of commercial real estate software. In September 2002, we expanded further into Portland, Oregon through the acquisition of certain assets of Napier Realty Advisors (doing business as REAL-NET). In January 2003, we established a base in the U.K. with our acquisition of London-based FOCUS Information Limited. In May 2004, we expanded into Tennessee through the acquisition of Peer Market Research, Inc., and in September 2004, we extended our coverage of the U.K. through the acquisition of Scottish Property Network. In September 2004, we strengthened our position in Denver, Colorado through the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of RealComp, Inc., a local comparable sales information provider.

In January 2005, we acquired National Research Bureau, a Connecticut-based provider of U.S. shopping center information. In December 2006, our U.K. subsidiary, CoStar Limited, acquired Grecam S.A.S. (“Grecam”), a provider of commercial property information and market-level surveys, studies and consulting services located in Paris, France. In February 2007, CoStar Limited also acquired Property Investment Exchange Limited (“Propex”), a provider of commercial property information and operator of an electronic platform that facilitates the exchange of investment property located in London, England. In April 2008, we acquired the assets of First CLS, Inc. (doing business as the Dorey Companies and DoreyPRO), an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information. Most recently, in July 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (“PPR”), a provider of real

estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analytics to the commercial real estate industry, and its wholly owned U.K. subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., and in October 2009, we acquired Massachusetts-based Resolve Technology, Inc. (“Resolve Technology”), a provider of business intelligence and portfolio management software serving the institutional real estate investment industry. The First CLS, Inc., PPR and Resolve Technology acquisitions are discussed later in this section under the heading “Recent Acquisitions.”

In 2004, we began our expansion into 21 new metropolitan markets throughout the U.S. and began expanding the geographical coverage of many of our existing U.S. and U.K. markets. We completed our expansion into the 21 new markets in the first quarter of 2006. In early 2005, in conjunction with the acquisition of National Research Bureau, we launched a major effort to expand our coverage of retail real estate information. The retail component of our flagship product, CoStar Property Professional, was unveiled in May 2006 at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ convention in Las Vegas.

During the second half of 2006, in order to expand the geographical coverage of our service offerings, we began actively researching commercial properties in 81 new Core Based Statistical Areas (“CBSAs”) in the U.S., we increased our U.S. field research fleet by adding 89 vehicles and we hired researchers to staff these vehicles. We released our CoStar Property Professional service in the 81 new CBSAs across the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2007. Throughout our recent expansion efforts, we have remained focused on ensuring that CoStar continues to provide the quality of information our customers expect. As such, in 2009 we expanded our research operations, and we plan to continue to grow our research operations slightly in 2010, in order to continue to meet customer expectations.

During the second half of 2009, as a part of our strategy to provide subscribers with tools for conducting primary research and analysis on commercial real estate, we expanded subscribers’ capabilities to use CoStar’s database of research-verified commercial property information to conduct in-depth analysis and generate reports on trends in sales and leasing activity online. Further, in July 2009, we acquired PPR and its wholly owned subsidiary, providers of real estate investment analysis and market forecasting services.

In connection with our acquisitions of Propex, Grecam and PPR’s wholly owned subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., we intend to expand the coverage of our service offerings within the U.K. and to integrate our international operations more fully with those in the U.S. We have gained operational efficiencies as a result of consolidating a majority of our U.K. research operations in one location in Glasgow and combining the majority of our remaining U.K. operations in one central location in London.

We intend to eventually introduce a consistent international platform of service offerings. In 2007, we introduced the “CoStar Group” as the brand encompassing our international operations. We believe that our recent U.S. and international expansion and integration efforts have created a platform for long-term growth.

We expect to continue to develop and distribute new services, expand existing services within our current platform, consider strategic acquisitions and expand and develop our sales and marketing organization. For instance, in May 2008, we released CoStar Showcase®, an internet marketing service that provides commercial real estate professionals the opportunity to make their listings accessible to all visitors to our public website, www.CoStar.com. More recently, in July 2009, we expanded subscribers’ analytic capabilities to use our online database to conduct in-depth analysis and generate reports on sales and leasing activity through our acquisition of PPR and in October 2009, we acquired Resolve Technology, which enabled us to provide our customers with additional tools for analyzing commercial real estate markets. Any future expansion could reduce our profitability and increase our capital expenditures. Therefore, while we expect current service offerings to remain profitable, driving overall earnings throughout 2010 and providing substantial cash flow for our business, it is possible that any new investments could cause us to generate losses and negative cash flow from operations in the future.

Current general economic conditions in the U.S. and the world are negatively affecting business operations for our clients and are resulting in more business consolidations and, in certain circumstances, failures. As a result of these economic conditions, we continue to see customer cancellations, reductions of services and failures to pay amounts due to us, although at a slower pace than in previous quarters. If cancellations, reductions of services and failures to pay continue at the current rate or increase, and we are unable to offset the resulting decrease in revenue by increasing sales to new or existing customers, our revenues may decline or grow at reduced rates. Additionally,

current economic conditions may cause customers to reduce expenses, and customers may be forced to purchase fewer services from us or cancel all services. We compete against many other commercial real estate information, marketing and analytic service providers for business. If customers choose to cancel our services for cost-cutting or other reasons, our revenue could decline. The extent and duration of any future continued weakening of the economy is unknown. The extent and duration of any benefits resulting from any of the governmental or private sector initiatives designed to strengthen the economy are currently unknown and there can be no assurance that those initiatives will be successful in the future. Because of these uncertainties, we may not be able to accurately forecast our revenue or earnings. However, we continue to believe that the Company is positioned to generate continued, sustained earnings in 2010.

Our financial reporting currency is the U.S. dollar. Changes in exchange rates can significantly affect our reported results and consolidated trends. We believe that our increasing diversification beyond the U.S. economy through our international businesses benefits our stockholders over the long term. We also believe it is important to evaluate our operating results before and after the effect of currency changes, as it may provide a more accurate comparison of our results of operations over historical periods. Currency volatility may continue, which may impact (either positively or negatively) our reported financial results and consolidated trends and comparisons.

We currently issue stock options and/or restricted stock to our officers, directors and employees, and as a result we record additional compensation expense in our consolidated statements of operations. We plan to continue the use of stock-based compensation for our officers, directors and employees, which may include, among other things, restricted stock or stock option grants that typically will require us to record additional compensation expense in our consolidated statements of operations and reduce our net income.

Our subscription-based information services, consisting primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, and FOCUS services currently generate more than 95% of our total revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. The majority of our contracts for our subscription-based information services typically have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically. 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 information services rather than fees based on actual system usage. Contract rates are generally based on the number of sites, number of users, organization size, the client’s business focus, geography and the number of services to which a client subscribes. Our subscription clients generally pay contract fees on a monthly basis, but in some cases may pay us on a quarterly or annual basis. We recognize this revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of the contract. Annual and quarterly advance payments result in deferred revenue, substantially reducing the working capital requirements generated by accounts receivable.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, our contract renewal rate was approximately 85% and 89%, respectively. As discussed above, our trailing twelve-month contract renewal rate may continue to decline if continuing negative economic conditions lead to greater business failures and/or consolidations, further reductions in customer spending or decreases in the customer base.

Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and revenues and expenses during the period reported. The following accounting policies involve a “critical accounting estimate” because they are particularly dependent on estimates and assumptions made by management about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the accounting estimates are made. In addition, while we have used our best estimates based on facts and circumstances available to us at the time, different estimates reasonably could have been used in the current period. Changes in the accounting estimates we use are reasonably likely to occur from period to period, which may have a material impact on the presentation of our financial condition and results of operations. We review these estimates and assumptions periodically and reflect the effects of revisions in the period that they are determined to be necessary.

Valuation of Long-Lived and Intangible Assets and Goodwill

We assess the impairment of long-lived assets, identifiable intangibles and goodwill whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Judgments made by management relate to the expected useful lives of long-lived assets and our ability to realize any undiscounted cash flows of the carrying amounts of such assets. The accuracy of these judgments may be adversely affected by several factors, including the factors listed below:

•

Significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results;

•

Significant changes in the manner of our use of the acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business;

•

Significant negative industry or economic trends; or

•

Significant decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period.

When we determine that the carrying value of long-lived and identifiable intangible assets may not be recovered based upon the existence of one or more of the above indicators, we test for impairment.

Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets not subject to amortization are tested annually by each reporting unit on October 1 of each year for impairment and are tested for impairment more frequently based upon the existence of one or more of the above indicators. We consider our operating segments, U.S. and International, as our reporting units under FASB authoritative guidance for consideration of potential impairment of goodwill.

The goodwill impairment test is a two-step process. The first step is to determine the fair value of each reporting unit. We estimate the fair value of each reporting unit based on a projected discounted cash flow model that includes significant assumptions and estimates including our future financial performance and a weighted average cost of capital. The fair value of each reporting unit is compared to the carrying amount of the reporting unit. If the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds the fair value, then the second step of the process is performed to measure the impairment loss. We measure impairment loss based on a projected discounted cash flow method using a discount rate determined by our management to be commensurate with the risk in our current business model. A 50% decrease in the fair value of our International reporting unit as of December 31, 2009 would have no impact on the carrying value of our goodwill.

Accounting for Income Taxes

As part of the process of preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to estimate our income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. This process requires us to estimate our actual current tax exposure and assess the temporary differences resulting from differing treatment of items, such as deferred revenue or deductibility of certain intangible assets, for tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included within our consolidated balance sheets. We must then also assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be recovered from future taxable income, and, to the extent we believe that it is more-likely-than not that some portion or all of our deferred tax assets will not be realized, we must establish a valuation allowance. To the extent we establish a valuation allowance or change the allowance in a period, we must reflect the corresponding increase or decrease within the tax provision in the statements of operations.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We prepare and publicly release quarterly unaudited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. We also disclose and discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in our public releases. Currently, the non-GAAP financial measure that we disclose is EBITDA, which is our net income (loss) before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. We disclose EBITDA on a consolidated and an operating segment basis in our earnings releases, investor conference calls and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The non-GAAP financial measures that we use may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Also, in the future, we may disclose different non-GAAP financial measures in order to help our investors more meaningfully evaluate and compare our future results of operations to our previously reported results of operations.

We view EBITDA as an operating performance measure and as such we believe that the GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to it is net income (loss). In calculating EBITDA, we exclude from net income (loss) the financial items that we believe should be separately identified to provide additional analysis of the financial components of the day-to-day operation of our business. We have outlined below the type and scope of these exclusions and the material limitations on the use of this non-GAAP financial measure as a result of these exclusions. EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as a measure of liquidity, as an alternative to net income (loss) or as an indicator of any other measure of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Investors and potential investors in our securities should not rely on EBITDA as a substitute for any GAAP financial measure, including net income (loss). In addition, we urge investors and potential investors in our securities to carefully review the reconciliation of EBITDA to net income (loss) set forth below, in our earnings releases and in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and to carefully review the GAAP financial information included as part of our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Annual Reports on Form 10-K that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as our quarterly earnings releases, and compare the GAAP financial information with our EBITDA.

EBITDA is used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and by investors as a supplemental financial measure to evaluate the performance of our business that, when viewed with our GAAP results and the accompanying reconciliation, we believe provides additional information that is useful to gain an understanding of the factors and trends affecting our business. We have spent more than 22 years building our database of commercial real estate information and expanding our markets and services partially through acquisitions of complementary businesses. Due to the expansion of our information, marketing and analytic services, which included acquisitions, our net income (loss) has included significant charges for purchase amortization, depreciation and other amortization. EBITDA excludes these charges and provides meaningful information about the operating performance of our business, apart from charges for purchase amortization, depreciation and other amortization. We believe the disclosure of EBITDA helps investors meaningfully evaluate and compare our performance from quarter to quarter and from year to year. We also believe EBITDA is a measure of our ongoing operating performance because the isolation of non-cash charges, such as amortization and depreciation, and non-operating items, such as interest and income taxes, provides additional information about our cost structure, and, over time, helps track our operating progress. In addition, investors, securities analysts and others have regularly relied on EBITDA to provide a financial measure by which to compare our operating performance against that of other companies in our industry.

Set forth below are descriptions of the financial items that have been excluded from our net income (loss) to calculate EBITDA and the material limitations associated with using this non-GAAP financial measure as compared to net income (loss):

Purchase amortization in cost of revenues may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the use of our acquired database technology, which is one of the sources of information for our database of commercial real estate information. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.

Purchase amortization in operating expenses may be useful for investors to consider because it represents the estimated attrition of our acquired customer base and the diminishing value of any acquired trade names. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.

Depreciation and other amortization may be useful for investors to consider because they generally represent the wear and tear on our property and equipment used in our operations. We do not believe these charges necessarily reflect the current and ongoing cash charges related to our operating cost structure.

The amount of net interest income we generate may be useful for investors to consider and may result in current cash inflows or outflows. However, we do not consider the amount of net interest income to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.

Income tax expense (benefit) may be useful for investors to consider because it generally represents the taxes which may be payable for the period and the change in deferred income taxes during the period and may reduce the amount of funds otherwise available for use in our business. However, we do not consider the amount of income tax expense (benefit) to be a representative component of the day-to-day operating performance of our business.

Management compensates for the above-described limitations of using non-GAAP measures by using a non-GAAP measure only to supplement our GAAP results and to provide additional information that is useful to gain an understanding of the factors and trends affecting our business.

The following table shows our EBITDA reconciled to our net income and our cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities for the indicated periods (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2007			2008			2009
Net income	$	15,951		$	24,623		$	18,693
Purchase amortization in cost of revenues		2,170			2,284			2,389
Purchase amortization in operating expenses		5,063			4,880			3,412
Depreciation and other amortization		8,914			9,637			8,875
Interest income, net		(8,045	)		(4,914	)		(1,253	)
Income tax expense, net		9,946			20,079			14,395
EBITDA	$	33,999		$	56,589		$	46,511

Cash flows provided by (used in)
Operating activities	$	51,732		$	40,908		$	39,569
Investing activities	$	(40,331	)	$	52,430		$	3,408
Financing activities	$	8,161		$	11,475		$	2,172

Consolidated Results of Operations

The following table provides our selected consolidated results of operations for the indicated periods (in thousands of dollars and as a percentage of total revenue):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2007					2008				2009
Revenues	$	192,805		100.0	%	$	212,428	100.0	%	$	209,659	100.0	%
Cost of revenues		76,704		39.8			73,408	34.6			73,714	35.2
Gross margin		116,101		60.2			139,020	65.4			135,945	64.8
Operating expenses:
Selling and marketing		51,777		26.9			41,705	19.6			42,508	20.3
Software development		12,453		6.5			12,759	6.0			13,942	6.6
General and administrative		36,569		19.0			39,888	18.8			44,248	21.1
Gain on lease settlement, net		(7,613	)	(3.9	)		¾	0.0			¾	0.0
Purchase amortization		5,063		2.6			4,880	2.3			3,412	1.6
Total operating expenses		98,249		51.0			99,232	46.7			104,110	49.7
Income from operations		17,852		9.3			39,788	18.7			31,835	15.2
Interest and other income, net		8,045		4.2			4,914	2.3			1,253	0.6
Income before income taxes		25,897		13.4			44,702	21.0			33,088	15.8
Income tax expense, net		9,946		5.2			20,079	9.5			14,395	6.9
Net income	$	15,951		8.3	%	$	24,623	11.6	%	$	18,693	8.9	%

Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 2009 and Year Ended December 31, 2008

Revenues. Revenues decreased to $209.7 million in 2009, from $212.4 million in 2008. Revenues from customers in our International operations decreased $4.3 million primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations. The decrease in International revenues was partially offset by an increase in U.S. revenues of approximately $1.5 million. The increase in U.S. revenues is primarily due to additional revenue of approximately $8.5 million from our July 2009 acquisition of PPR partially offset by decreased sales resulting from a difficult commercial real estate and economic environment. Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, FOCUS services and Propex services. As of December 31, 2009, our subscription-based information services represented more than 95% of our total revenues.

Gross Margin. Gross margin decreased to $135.9 million in 2009, from $139.0 million in 2008. The gross margin percentage decreased to 64.8% in 2009, from 65.4% in 2008. The decrease in the amount and percentage of gross margin was principally due to a $2.8 million decrease in revenue in 2009.

Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses increased to $42.5 million in 2009, from $41.7 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 20.3% in 2009, from 19.6% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of selling and marketing expenses was primarily due to additional selling and marketing expenses of approximately $1.7 million incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR. The increase was offset by an approximately $900,000 decrease due to foreign currency fluctuations.

Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses increased to $13.9 million in 2009, from $12.8 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 6.6% in 2009, from 6.0% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of software development expenses was due to additional software development expenses of approximately $600,000 incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR as well as additional development expenses of approximately $400,000 incurred by Resolve Technology, and included as a result of our October 2009 acquisition of Resolve Technology.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $44.2 million in 2009, from $39.9 million in 2008, and increased as a percentage of revenues to 21.1% in 2009, from 18.8% in 2008. The increase in the amount and percentage of general and administrative expenses was principally a result of an increase of acquisition and deal related costs of approximately $700,000, an increase in legal fees of $2.0 million and additional general and administrative expenses of approximately $1.1 million incurred by PPR and included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR.

Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization decreased to $3.4 million in 2009, from $4.9 million in 2008, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 1.6% in 2009, from 2.3% in 2008. The decrease in purchase amortization expense is due to the completion of amortization for certain identifiable intangible assets in 2009.

Interest and Other Income, Net. Interest and other income, net decreased to $1.3 million in 2009, from $4.9 million in 2008. Interest and other income, net decreased due to lower average interest rates in 2009 compared to 2008.

Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net decreased to $14.4 million in 2009, from $20.1 million in 2008. This decrease was due to lower income before income taxes as a result of our decreased profitability.

Comparison of Business Segment Results for Year Ended December 31, 2009 and Year Ended December 31, 2008

We manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France. Management relies on an internal management reporting process that provides segment revenue and EBITDA, which is our net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Management believes that segment EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operational performance of our segments. EBITDA is used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and to evaluate the performance of our business. However, this measure should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, income from operations or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Segment Revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. U.S. revenues increased to $191.6 million from $190.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. This increase in U.S. revenue is due to additional revenues of approximately $8.5 million included as a result of our July 2009 acquisition of PPR, partially offset by a decrease of approximately $7.0 million in U.S. revenues due to decreased sales resulting from a difficult commercial real estate and economic environment. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. International revenues decreased approximately $4.3 million primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations, partially offset by intersegment revenues of approximately $900,000 attributable to services performed by Property and Portfolio Research Ltd. for PPR. Intersegment revenues are eliminated from total revenues.

Segment EBITDA. U.S. EBITDA decreased to $47.7 million from $58.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The decrease in U.S. EBITDA was due primarily to additional costs incurred by PPR, which we acquired in July of 2009 and increased legal fees. International EBITDA decreased to a loss of $1.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2009 from a $2.2 million loss for the year ended December 31, 2008. This decreased loss is primarily due to a lower corporate allocation in 2009 as compared to 2008. International EBITDA includes a corporate allocation of approximately $500,000 and $1.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. The corporate allocation represents costs incurred for U.S. employees involved in international management and expansion activities.

Comparison of Year Ended December 31, 2008 and Year Ended December 31, 2007

Revenues. Revenues grew to $212.4 million in 2008, from $192.8 million in 2007. This increase in revenue was due to further penetration of our subscription-based information and marketing services, and successful cross-selling of our services to our customers in existing markets, combined with continued high renewal rates. Our subscription-based information services consist primarily of CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, CoStar COMPS Professional, FOCUS services and Propex services. As of December 31, 2008, our subscription-based information and marketing services represented more than 90% of our total revenues.

Gross Margin. Gross margin increased to $139.0 million in 2008, from $116.1 million in 2007. The gross margin percentage increased to 65.4% in 2008, from 60.2% in 2007. The increase in the gross margin resulted principally from revenue growth from our subscription-based information and marketing services and a decrease in cost of revenues. Cost of revenues decreased to $73.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008, from $76.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2007 principally due to expansion costs that were incurred in 2007 that were not incurred in 2008.

Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses decreased to $41.7 million in 2008, from $51.8 million in 2007, and decreased as a percentage of revenues to 19.6% in 2008, from 26.9% in 2007. The decrease was principally due to a reduction in personnel costs of approximately $5.4 million primarily due to the fact that the sales force sold services with a smaller average price point in 2008, which resulted in lower average contract values compared to 2007. Additionally, there was a decrease in marketing initiatives of approximately $2.3 million in 2008.

Software Development Expenses. Software development expenses slightly increased to $12.8 million in 2008, from $12.5 million in 2007, and slightly decreased as a percentage of revenues to 6.0% in 2008, from 6.5% in 2007. The decrease in the percentage was primarily due to increased revenues in 2008.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $39.9 million in 2008, from $36.6 million in 2007, and decreased slightly as a percentage of revenues to 18.8% in 2008, from 19.0% in 2007. The increase in the amount of general and administrative expenses was principally a result of an increase of approximately $2.5 million in legal fees and an increase of $1.6 million in bad debt expense.

Gain on Lease Settlement, Net. On September 14, 2007, CoStar U.K Limited, a wholly owned U.K. subsidiary of CoStar, entered into an agreement with Trafigura Limited to assign to Trafigura our leasehold interest in our office space located in London. The lease assignment was effective on December 19, 2007. As a result, CoStar U.K. Limited was paid $7.6 million, net of expenses, for the assignment of the lease. There were no gains on lease settlements in 2008.

Purchase Amortization. Purchase amortization slightly decreased to $4.9 million in 2008, from $5.1 million in 2007, and slightly decreased as a percentage of revenues to 2.3% in 2008, from 2.6% in 2007.

Interest and Other Income, Net. Interest and other income, net decreased to $4.9 million in 2008, from $8.0 million in 2007. Although, cash and cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments were higher in 2008 than in 2007, our interest and other income decreased due to lower average interest rates in 2008 compared to 2007.

Income Tax Expense, Net. Income tax expense, net increased to $20.1 million in 2008, from $9.9 million in 2007. This increase was primarily due to higher income before income taxes for 2008 due to our growth and profitability, in addition to a higher effective tax rate in 2008. The effective tax rate was lower in 2007 due to the gain on lease settlement in the U.K. that was completed in December 2007. The lease settlement resulted in income in the U.K., which reduced the overall effective tax rate.

Comparison of Business Segment Results for Year Ended December 31, 2008 and Year Ended December 31, 2007

Due to the increased size, complexity and funding requirements associated with our international expansion, in 2007 we began to manage our business geographically in two operating segments, with our primary areas of measurement and decision-making being the U.S. and International, which includes the U.K. and France. Management relies on an internal management reporting process that provides segment revenue and EBITDA, which is our net income before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Management believes that segment EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operational performance of our segments. EBITDA is used by management to internally measure our operating and management performance and to evaluate the performance of our business. However, this measure should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, income from operations or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Segment Revenues. CoStar Property Professional, CoStar Tenant, and CoStar COMPS Professional are generally sold as a suite of similar services and comprise our primary service offering in our U.S. operating segment. U.S. revenues increased to $190.1 million from $170.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively. This increase in U.S. revenue is due to further penetration of our U.S. subscription-based information and marketing services and the successful cross-selling of our service to our customers, combined with a continued high renewal rate. FOCUS is our primary service offering in our International operating segment. International revenues slightly decreased to $22.4 million from $22.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively. This decrease is due to foreign currency fluctuations. In their functional currency, International revenues increased 7.2% for the year ended December 31, 2008 compared to the year ended December 31, 2007.

Segment EBITDA. U.S. EBITDA increased to $58.8 million from $32.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively. The increase in U.S. EBITDA was due to increased revenues, and lower sales and marketing personnel costs, partially offset by an increase in legal fees and bad debt expense. International EBITDA decreased to a loss of $2.2 million from $1.1 million earnings for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively. This decrease is primarily due to gain on lease settlement of $7.6 million in 2007 that did not occur in 2008. International EBITDA also includes a corporate allocation of approximately $1.1 million and $2.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively. The corporate allocation represents costs incurred for U.S. employees involved in international management and expansion activities.

Consolidated Quarterly Results of Operations

The following tables summarize our consolidated results of operations on a quarterly basis for the indicated periods (in thousands, except per share amounts, and as a percentage of total revenues):

	2008								2009
	Mar. 31		Jun. 30		Sep. 30		Dec. 31		Mar. 31		Jun. 30		Sep. 30		Dec. 31
Revenues	$	52,264	$	53,478	$	53,757	$	52,929	$	51,370	$	50,064	$	53,590	$	54,635
Cost of revenues		19,721		18,341		17,613		17,733		16,894		16,744		19,149		20,927
Gross margin		32,543		35,137		36,144		35,196		34,476		33,320		34,441		33,708
Operating expenses		25,313		26,627		24,864		22,428		23,735		25,129		27,490		27,756
Income from operations		7,230		8,510		11,280		12,768		10,741		8,191		6,951		5,952
Interest and other income, net		1,938		1,243		951		782		442		322		263		226
Income before income taxes		9,168		9,753		12,231		13,550		11,183		8,513		7,214		6,178
Income tax expense, net		4,126		4,318		5,586		6,049		5,077		3,897		2,889		2,532
Net income	$	5,042	$	5,435	$	6,645	$	7,501	$	6,106	$	4,616	$	4,325	$	3,646
Net income per share - basic	$	0.26	$	0.28	$	0.34	$	0.39	$	0.31	$	0.24	$	0.22	$	0.18
Net income per share - diluted	$	0.26	$	0.28	$	0.34	$	0.38	$	0.31	$	0.24	$	0.22	$	0.18

	2008												2009
	Mar. 31			Jun. 30			Sep. 30			Dec. 31			Mar. 31			Jun. 30			Sep. 30			Dec. 31
Revenues		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%		100.0	%
Cost of revenues		37.7			34.3			32.8			33.5			32.9			33.4			35.7			38.3
Gross margin		62.3			65.7			67.2			66.5			67.1			66.6			64.3			61.7
Operating expenses		48.5			49.8			46.2			42.4			46.2			50.2			51.3			50.8
Income from operations		13.8			15.9			21.0			24.1			20.9			16.4			13.0			10.9
Interest and other income, net		3.7			2.3			1.8			1.5			0.9			0.6			0.5			0.4
Income before income taxes		17.5			18.2			22.8			25.6			21.8			17.0			13.5			11.3
Income tax expense, net		7.9			8.0			10.4			11.4			9.9			7.8			5.4			4.6
Net income		9.6	%		10.2	%		12.4	%		14.2	%		11.9	%		9.2	%		8.1	%		6.7	%

Recent Acquisitions

First CLS, Inc. On April 1, 2008, we acquired certain assets of First CLS, Inc. (doing business as the Dorey Companies and DoreyPRO), an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information for $3.0 million in initial cash consideration and deferred consideration of $1.7 million paid during the third quarter of 2009.

PPR. On July 17, 2009, we acquired all of the issued and outstanding equity securities of PPR, and its wholly owned subsidiary Property and Portfolio Research Ltd., providers of real estate analysis, market forecasts and credit risk analytics to the commercial real estate industry. We acquired PPR from DMG Information, Inc. (“DMGI”) in exchange for 572,999 shares of CoStar common stock, which had an aggregate value of approximately $20.9 million as of the closing date. On July 17, 2009, 433,667 shares of our common stock were issued to DMGI, and the remaining 139,332 shares were issued to DMGI on September 28, 2009 after taking into account post-closing purchase price adjustments.

Resolve Technology. On October 19, 2009, we acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Resolve Technology, a Delaware corporation, for approximately $4.5 million, consisting of approximately $3.4 million in cash and 25,886 shares, or approximately $1.1 million, of CoStar restricted common stock, which shares are subject to a three-year lockup. The purchase price is subject to certain post-closing adjustments. Additionally, the seller may be entitled to receive (i) a potential deferred cash payout two years after closing based on the incremental growth of Resolve Technology’s revenue, and (ii) other potential deferred cash payouts for successful completion of operational and sales milestones during the period from closing through June 30, 2013, which period may be subject to extension to a date no later than December 31, 2014.

Accounting Treatment. These acquisitions were accounted for using purchase accounting. The purchase price for the First CLS, Inc. acquisition was primarily allocated to acquired customer base and goodwill. For each of the PPR and Resolve Technology acquisitions, the purchase price was allocated to various working capital accounts, developed technology, customer base, trademarks, non-competition agreements and goodwill. The acquired customer base for the acquisitions, which consists of one distinct intangible asset for each acquisition and is composed of acquired customer contracts and the related customer relationships, is being amortized on a 125% declining balance method over ten years. The identified intangibles will be amortized over their estimated useful lives. Goodwill for these acquisitions will not be amortized, but is subject to annual impairment tests. The results of operations of First CLS, Inc., PPR, and Resolve Technology have been consolidated with those of the Company since the respective dates of the acquisitions and are not considered material to our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, pro forma financial information has not been presented for any of the acquisitions.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our principal sources of liquidity are cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $226.0 million at December 31, 2009 compared to $195.3 million at December 31, 2008. The increase in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments for the year ended December 31, 2009 was primarily due to net cash from operating activities of approximately $39.6 million, net cash provided from financing activities of approximately $2.2 million, partially offset by purchases of property and equipment and other assets of approximately $10.5 million, and net cash paid for acquisitions of approximately $3.2 million.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2009 was $39.6 million compared to $40.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. The $1.3 million decrease in net cash provided by operating activities is primarily due to a decrease of approximately $5.5 million from net income plus non-cash items, a decrease of approximately $4.7 million due to changes in prepaid expenses and deposits, and decreased cash receipts for deferred revenue of $1.1 million, partially offset by decreased payments for accounts payable and other liabilities of approximately $5.7 million and $4.3 million in increased cash receipts on receivables.

Net cash provided by investing activities was $3.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, compared to net cash provided by investing activities of $52.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. This $49.0 million decrease in net cash provided by investing activities was primarily due to the decision in 2008 to invest in money market funds and U.S. treasuries instead of short-term investment instruments, which resulted in a net sale of investments of approximately $59.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2008 compared to sales of investments of approximately $17.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $2.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2009 compared to $11.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. The change is due to decreased proceeds from exercise of stock options.

Contractual Obligations. The following table summarizes our principal contractual obligations at December 31, 2009 and the effect such obligations are expected to have on our liquidity and cash flows in future periods (in thousands):

	Total		2010			2011-2012		2013-2014	2015 and thereafter
Operating leases	$	26,225	$	10,530	$	11,751	$	3,061	$	883
Purchase obligations(1)		7,036		2,927		2,746		763		600
Total contractual principal cash obligations	$	33,261	$	13,457	$	14,497	$	3,824	$	1,483

(1)Amounts do not include (i) contracts with initial terms of twelve months or less, or (ii) multi-year contracts that may be terminated by a third party or us. Amounts do not include unrecognized tax benefits of $1.9 million due to uncertainty regarding the timing of future cash payments.

In February 2010, we purchased a 169,429 square-foot LEED Gold certified office building located at 1331 L Street, NW in downtown Washington, D.C. for a purchase price of $41.25 million in cash.

During 2009, we incurred capital expenditures of approximately $10.5 million. We expect to make capital expenditures in 2010 of approximately $20.0 million to $25.0 million.

To date, we have grown in part by acquiring other companies and we may continue to make acquisitions. Our acquisitions may vary in size and could be material to our current operations. We may use cash, stock, debt or other means of funding to make these acquisitions. We paid $3.0 million in initial cash consideration in April 2008 and $1.7 million in deferred consideration in August 2009 for the online commercial real estate information assets of First CLS, Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of local commercial real estate information. In the third quarter of 2009, we issued 572,999 shares of common stock to DMGI, Inc. for all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of PPR and its wholly owned subsidiary. In October 2009, we acquired Resolve Technology for approximately $3.4 million ($2.9 million was paid upon acquisition and $450,000 was deferred until February 2010) in cash and 25,886 shares of CoStar common stock. Additionally, the seller may be entitled to receive (i) a potential deferred cash payout two years after closing based on the incremental growth of Resolve Technology’s revenue, and (ii) other potential deferred cash payouts for successful completion of additional operational and sales milestones during the period from closing through June 30, 2013, which period may be subject to extension to a date no later than December 31, 2014.

Based on current plans, we believe that our available cash combined with positive cash flow provided by operating activities should be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months.

As of December 31, 2009, we had $32.8 million par value of long-term investments in student loan auction rate securities (“ARS”), which failed to settle at auctions. The majority of these investments are of high credit quality with AAA credit ratings and are primarily securities supported by guarantees from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”) of the U.S. Department of Education. While we continue to earn interest on these investments, the investments are not liquid in the short term. In the event we need to immediately access these funds, we may have to sell these securities at an amount below par value. Based on our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and other short-term investments and our expected operating cash flows, we do not anticipate having to sell these investments below par value in order to operate our business in the foreseeable future.

On December 23, 2008, the Company initiated a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) arbitration against Credit Suisse First Boston (“CSFB”) related to CSFB’s purchase of ARS for the Company’s account. Our complaint asserts breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other causes of action. An arbitration hearing was originally scheduled to begin during the week beginning December 7, 2009, but was rescheduled at the request of CSFB and is now set to begin on March 8, 2010. We expect to receive a ruling on its claim during the second quarter of 2010. Since the outcome of this legal proceeding is uncertain at this time, we cannot estimate the amount of gain or loss, if any, that could result from the resolution of this matter.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In February 2007, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on the fair value option for financial assets and financial liabilities, which permits entities to choose to measure many financial instruments and certain other items at fair value that are not currently required to be measured at fair value. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning on or after December 31, 2007. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2008 and have not elected to apply the fair value option to any of our financial instruments. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.

In December 2007, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on business combinations, which changes the accounting for any business combination we enter into with an acquisition date after December 31, 2008. Under this guidance, an acquiring entity is required to recognize all the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a transaction at the acquisition date fair value with limited exceptions. This guidance changes the accounting treatment and disclosure for certain specific items in a business combination. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009 and have recorded assets acquired and liabilities assumed at fair value.

In December 2007, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on non-controlling interest, which establishes new accounting and reporting standards for the non-controlling interest in a subsidiary and for the deconsolidation of a subsidiary. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning on or after December 15, 2008. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.

In April 2008, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on existing intangibles or expected future cash flows from those intangibles, which is effective for all fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2008. Early adoption of this guidance is not permitted. This guidance requires additional footnote disclosures about the impact of our ability or intent to renew or extend agreements related to existing intangibles or expected future cash flows from those intangibles, how we account for costs incurred to renew or extend such agreements, the time until the next renewal or extension period by asset class, and the amount of renewal or extension costs capitalized, if any. For any intangibles acquired after December 31, 2008, this guidance requires that we consider our experience regarding renewal and extensions of similar arrangements in determining the useful life of such intangibles. If we do not have experience with similar arrangements, this guidance requires that we use the assumptions of a market participant putting the intangible to its highest and best use in determining the useful life. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.

In June 2008, the FASB issued authoritative guidance related to determining whether instruments granted in share-based payment transactions are participating securities. This guidance clarifies that unvested share-based payment awards with a right to receive non-forfeitable dividends are participating securities. This guidance is effective for all annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2008. Adoption of this standard will require the two-class method of calculating basic earnings per share to the extent that unvested share-based payments have the right to receive non-forfeitable dividends. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.

In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance related to the initial recognition, measurement and subsequent accounting for assets and liabilities arising from pre-acquisition contingencies in a business combination. It requires that such assets acquired or liabilities assumed be initially recognized at fair value at the acquisition date if fair value can be determined during the measurement period. When fair value cannot be determined, companies should typically account for the acquired contingencies using existing guidance. This guidance requires that companies expense acquisition and deal-related costs that were previously allowed to be capitalized. This guidance also requires that a systematic and rational basis for subsequently measuring and accounting for the assets or liabilities be developed depending on their nature. This guidance was effective for contingent assets or liabilities arising from business combinations with an acquisition date on or after January 1, 2009. The adoption of this guidance changes the accounting treatment and disclosure for certain specific items in a business combination with an acquisition date subsequent to December 31, 2008. We adopted this guidance on January 1, 2009, and expensed acquisition and deal-related costs associated primarily with the acquisitions of PPR and Resolve Technology.

In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance for determining whether a market is active or inactive, and whether a transaction is distressed. This guidance is applicable to all assets and liabilities (financial and non-financial) and will require enhanced disclosures. We adopted this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did require additional disclosures in our financial statements.

In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance requiring disclosures in interim reporting periods concerning the fair value of financial instruments that were previously only required in the annual financial statements. We adopted the provisions of this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did require additional disclosures in our financial statements.

In April 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that redefines what constitutes an other-than-temporary impairment, defines credit and non-credit components of an other-than-temporary impairment, prescribes their financial statement treatment, and requires enhanced disclosures relating to such impairments. We adopted this guidance for our interim period ending June 30, 2009. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial position, but did require additional disclosures in our financial statements.

In May 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which establishes general standards of accounting for and disclosure of events that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are issued. This guidance was effective for all interim and annual reporting periods ending after June 15, 2009. This guidance has not and is not expected to result in significant changes in the subsequent events that we report, either through recognition or disclosure, in our financial statements.

In June 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance to amend the manner in which entities evaluate whether consolidation is required for variable interest entities (VIE). Previously, variable interest holders were required to determine whether they had a controlling financial interest in a VIE based on a quantitative analysis of the expected gains and/or losses of the entity. The new guidance requires an enterprise with a variable interest in a VIE to qualitatively assess whether it has a controlling financial interest in the entity, and if so, whether it is the primary beneficiary. This guidance also requires that companies continually evaluate VIEs for consolidation, rather than assessing whether consolidation is required based upon the occurrence of triggering events. This guidance enhances disclosures to provide financial statement users with greater transparency about transfers of financial assets and a transferor’s continuing involvement with transferred financial assets. This guidance will be effective for the first annual reporting period beginning after November 15, 2009. This guidance is not expected to materially impact our results of operations, financial position or related disclosures.

In June 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance which replaced the previous hierarchy of U.S. GAAP and establishes the FASB Codification as the single source of authoritative U.S. GAAP recognized by the FASB to be applied by nongovernmental entities. This guidance is effective for financial statements issued for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This guidance did not materially impact our results of operations or financial position, but did require changes to our disclosures in our financial statements.

In July 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance to improve the consistency with which companies apply fair value measurements guidance to liabilities. This guidance is effective for interim and annual periods beginning after September 30, 2009. This guidance is not expected to materially impact our results of operations, financial position or related disclosures.

In October 2009, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends existing guidance for identifying separate deliverables in a revenue-generating transaction where multiple deliverables exist, and provides guidance for measuring and allocating revenue to one or more units of accounting. In addition, the FASB issued authoritative guidance on arrangements that include software elements. Under this guidance, tangible products containing software components and non-software components that are essential to the functionality of the tangible product will no longer be within the scope of the software revenue recognition guidance. This guidance is effective using the prospective application or the retrospective application for revenue arrangements entered into or materially modified in fiscal years beginning on or after June 15, 2010 with earlier application permitted. We are currently assessing the impacts adoption of this guidance may have on our financial statements.

In January 2010, the FASB issued authoritative guidance that amends the disclosure requirements related to recurring and nonrecurring fair value measurements. This guidance requires new disclosures on the transfers of assets and liabilities between Level 1 (assets and liabilities measured using observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets) and Level 2 (assets and liabilities measured using inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable) of the fair value measurement hierarchy, including the amount and reason of the transfers. Additionally, this guidance requires a roll forward of activities on purchases, sales, issuance, and settlements of the assets and liabilities measured using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3 fair value measurements). This guidance is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2009, with the exception of the additional disclosure for Level 3 assets and liabilities, which is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2010, and for interim periods within those fiscal years. This guidance is not expected to materially impact our results of operations or financial position, but will require changes to our disclosures in our interim and annual financial statements.

Item 7A.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

We provide information, marketing and analytic services to the commercial real estate and related business community in the U.S., U.K. and France. Our functional currency for our operations in the U.K. and France is the local currency. As such, fluctuations in the British Pound and Euro may have an impact on our business, results of operations and financial position. For the year ended December 31, 2009, revenue denominated in foreign currencies was approximately 9.1% of total revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2009, our revenue would have decreased by approximately $1.9 million if the U.S. dollar exchange rate used strengthened by 10%. In addition, we have assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. A 10% strengthening of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against all currencies with which we have exposure at December 31, 2009 would have resulted in an increase of approximately $210,000 in the carrying amount of net assets. For the year ended December 31, 2009, our revenue would have increased by approximately $1.9 million if the U.S. dollar exchange rate used weakened by 10%. In addition, we have assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. A 10% weakening of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against all currencies with which we have exposure at December 31, 2009 would have resulted in a decrease of approximately $210,000 in the carrying amount of net assets. We currently do not use financial instruments to hedge our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations with respect to our foreign subsidiaries. We may seek to enter hedging transactions in the future to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations, but we may be unable to enter into hedging transactions successfully, on acceptable terms or at all. As of December 31, 2009, accumulated other comprehensive loss included a loss from foreign currency translation adjustments of approximately $4.9 million.

We do not have material exposure to market risks associated with changes in interest rates related to cash equivalent securities held as of December 31, 2009. As of December 31, 2009, we had $226.0 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. If there is an increase or decrease in interest rates, there will be a corresponding increase or decrease in the amount of interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Based on our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and our expected operating cash flows, we do not believe that increases or decreases in interest rates will impact our ability to operate our business in the foreseeable future.

Included within our long-term investments are investments in mostly AAA rated student loan ARS. These securities are primarily securities supported by guarantees from the FFELP of the U.S. Department of Education. As of December 31, 2009, auctions for $32.8 million of our investments in auction rate securities failed. As a result, we may not be able to sell these investments at par value until a future auction on these investments is successful. In the event we need to immediately liquidate these investments, we may have to locate a buyer outside the auction process, who may be unwilling to purchase the investments at par, resulting in a loss. Based on an assessment of fair value of these investments in ARS as of December 31, 2009, we determined that there was a decline in the fair value of our ARS investments of approximately $3.0 million, which was deemed to be a temporary impairment and recorded as an unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss in stockholders’ equity. If the issuers are unable to successfully close future auctions and their credit ratings deteriorate, we may be required to adjust the carrying value of these investments as a temporary impairment and recognize a greater unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss or as an other-than-temporary impairment charge to earnings. Based on our ability to access our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and our expected operating cash flows, we do not anticipate having to sell these securities below par value in order to operate our business in the foreseeable future. See Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements for further discussion.

We have approximately $103.7 million in intangible assets as of December 31, 2009. As of December 31, 2009, we believe our intangible assets will be recoverable, however, changes in the economy, the business in which we operate and our own relative performance could change the assumptions used to evaluate intangible asset recoverability. In the event that we determine that an asset has been impaired, we would recognize an impairment charge equal to the amount by which the carrying amount of the assets exceeds the fair value of the asset. We continue to monitor these assumptions and their effect on the estimated recoverability of our intangible assets.

Item 8.

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Financial Statements meeting the requirements of Regulation S-X are set forth beginning at page F-1. Supplementary data is set forth in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” under the caption “Consolidated Results of Operations.”

Item 9.

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A.

Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow for timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

As of December 31, 2009, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures. Based on the foregoing, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective and were operating at the reasonable assurance level.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Management of CoStar is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for the assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. As defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or supervised by, the Company’s principal executive and principal financial officers, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is supported by written policies and procedures, that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the Company’s assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of the Company’s management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

In connection with the preparation of the Company's annual financial statements, management of the Company has undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2009 based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“the COSO Framework”). Management's assessment included an evaluation of the design of the Company's internal control over financial reporting and testing of the operational effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting.

Based on this assessment, management did not identify any material weakness in the Company's internal control, and management has concluded that the Company's internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2009.

Ernst & Young, LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the Company's financial statements included in this report, has issued an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, a copy of which is included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during our most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Item 9B.

Other Information.

None.

PART III

Item 10.

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance