PART I

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements are based upon current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about Travelzoo Inc. and our industry. These forward-looking statements are subject to the many risks and uncertainties that exist in our operations and business environment that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Travelzoo to be different from those expected or anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. For example, words such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “potential”, “continue”, “strategy”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “intends”, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Travelzoo's actual results and the timing of certain events could differ significantly from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such a discrepancy include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this Report in Part I Item 1A and the risks discussed in our other Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings. The forward-looking statements included in this Report reflect the beliefs of our management on the date of this Report. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events or circumstances occur in the future.

Item 1.  Business

Overview

Travelzoo Inc. (the “Company” or “Travelzoo”) is a global Internet media company. We inform over 26 million subscribers in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, as well as millions of website users, about the best travel, entertainment and local deals available from thousands of companies. Our deal experts source, research and test-book offers, recommending only those that meet Travelzoo's rigorous quality standards. We provide travel, entertainment, and local businesses with a fast, flexible, and cost effective way to reach millions of consumers. Our revenues are generated primarily from advertising fees. In Asia Pacific, the Travelzoo business is operated by Travelzoo (Asia) Limited and Travelzoo Japan K.K. under a license agreement with Travelzoo Inc. and is not owned by the Company.

Our publications and products include the Travelzoo websites (www.travelzoo.com, www.travelzoo.ca, www.travelzoo.co.uk, www.travelzoo.de, www.travelzoo.es, www.travelzoo.fr, among others), the Travelzoo iPhone and Android applications, the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter, and the Newsflash e-mail alert service. We operate SuperSearch , a pay-per-click travel search tool, and the Travelzoo Network , a network of third-party websites that list deals published by Travelzoo. We also operate Fly.com , a travel search engine that allows users to quickly and easily find the best prices on flights from hundreds of airlines and online travel agencies. In addition, we operate Local Deals and Getaway services, which allow our subscribers to purchase vouchers for deals from local businesses such as spas, hotels and restaurants through the Travelzoo website and mobile applications. Voucher promotional offers are redeemable at the local businesses during the promotional period. We receive a percentage of the face value of the voucher from the local businesses.

In 2009, we sold our Asia Pacific operating segment to Azzurro Capital Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Travelzoo (Asia) Limited and Travelzoo Japan K.K. The results of operations of the Asia Pacific operating segment have been classified as discontinued operations for all periods presented. We have not had significant ongoing involvement with the operations of the Asia Pacific operating segment and have not had material economic interests in the Asia Pacific operating segment since the completion of the sale. Starting November 1, 2009, the Travelzoo websites in Asia Pacific (cn.travelzoo.com, www.travelzoo.co.jp, www.travelzoo.com.au, www.travelzoo.com.hk, www.travelzoo.com.tw, among others), the Travelzoo iPhone and Android applications in Asia Pacific, the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletters in Asia Pacific and the Newsflash e-mail alert service in Asia Pacific have been published by Travelzoo (Asia) Limited and Travelzoo Japan K.K., under a license agreement with the Company. There is a reciprocal revenue-sharing agreement among the entities operating the Travelzoo business in Asia Pacific and the Company related to cross-selling audiences.

More than 2,000 companies use our services, including Air New Zealand, Apple Vacations, British Airways, Harrah's Entertainment, Expedia, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Hotels, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Key Tours International, Liberty Travel, Marriott Hotels, Royal Caribbean, Spirit Airlines, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Travelocity, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

Our revenues are advertising revenues, consisting primarily of listing fees paid by travel, entertainment and local businesses to advertise their offers on Travelzoo's media properties. Listing fees are based on audience reach, placement, number of listings, number of impressions, number of click-throughs, number of referrals, or percentage of the face value of vouchers sold. Insertion orders are typically for periods between one month and twelve months and are not automatically renewed. Merchant agreements for Local Deals and Getaway advertisers are typically for twelve months and are not automatically renewed. Our revenues have grown on an annual basis since we began operations in 1998. Our revenues increased from approximately $84,000 for the period from May 21, 1998 (inception) to December 31, 1998, to approximately $158 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 .

We have two operating segments based on geographic regions: North America and Europe. North America consists of our operations in Canada and the U.S. Europe consists of our operations in France, Germany, Spain, and the U.K. For the year ended December 31, 2013 , European operations were 29% of revenues. Financial information with respect to our business segments and certain financial information about geographic areas appears in Note 8 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

Our principal business office is located at 590 Madison Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, New York 10022.

Ralph Bartel, who founded Travelzoo and who is a Director of the Company, is the sole beneficiary of the Ralph Bartel 2005 Trust, which is the controlling shareholder of Azzurro Capital Inc. As of December 31, 2013 , Azzurro is the Company's largest stockholder, holding approximately 48.2% of the outstanding shares.

As of December 31, 2013, there were 14,991,179 shares of common stock outstanding.

The Company was formed as a result of a combination and merger of entities founded by the Company's principal stockholder, Ralph Bartel. In 1998, Mr. Bartel founded Travelzoo.com Corporation, a Bahamas corporation, which issued approximately 5 million shares via the Internet to approximately 700,000 “Netsurfer stockholders” for no cash consideration, but subject to certain eligibility conditions. In April 2002, Travelzoo.com Corporation was merged into Travelzoo Inc. Holders of promotional shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation who established they had satisfied certain conditions were allowed a period of two years following the effective date to receive one share of Travelzoo Inc. in exchange for each share of common stock of Travelzoo.com Corporation. After April 2004, two years following the effective date, the Company ceased issuing shares to the former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation. Many of the “Netsurfer stockholders,” who had applied to receive shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 for no cash consideration, did not elect to receive their shares, which were issuable in the merger prior to the end of the two-year period. A total of 4 million of our shares which had been reserved for issuance in the merger were not claimed.

Since completion of the merger in April 2004, most states have made claims that the former “Netsurfer stockholders” of Travelzoo.com Corporation, which remained unexchanged by April 2004, represent unclaimed property subject to escheatment to the states. Although the Company’s position is that such shares were a promotional incentive and were issuable only to persons who established their eligibility as stockholders in the 2002 merger, the Company determined that it was in its best interest to seek to resolve these claims made by various states.

In April 2011, the Company entered into an agreement which required a $20.0 million cash payment to the State of Delaware resolving all claims relating to the State of Delaware’s unclaimed property review, which related primarily to the Company’s unexchanged promotional shares contingency. In addition, based on multiple other state claims and settlements with the Company regarding the unexchanged promotional shares contingency, the Company recorded a $3.0 million and $22.0 million charge in the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively. The Company made cash payments of $12.3 million to the settled states after completion of the required due diligence in the year ended December 31, 2013. The Company has maintained estimated reserves related to the remaining states for potential claims and future settlements.

The Company is continuing its program under which it makes cash payments to people who establish that they satisfied the conditions to receive shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who failed to submit requests to convert their shares into shares of Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. This program is not available for individuals whose promotional shares have been escheated to a state by the Company. The accompanying consolidated financial statements include a charge for payments under this program in general and administrative expenses of $ 23,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 .

See Note 1 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further information on the unexchanged promotional shares contingency and related cash program.

Travelzoo is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “TZOO.”

Our Industry

While our mission is to provide our subscribers and users the highest quality information about the best travel, entertainment and local deals, our revenues are generated from advertising fees. According to BIA Advisory Services and the Kelsey Group's (BIA/Kelsey) U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast (2012-2017), U.S. local advertising revenues will be $136.6 billion in 2014 and reach $148.8 billion by 2017 (source: BIA Advisory Services/The Kelsey Group, 2013). We believe that traditional media outlets such as newspapers, television and radio continue to be another medium for travel, entertainment and local businesses to advertise their offers, though the percentage spent on advertising in these traditional media outlets is decreasing. In addition, the continued rise in smart phones has changed the ground rules for online marketing, with the consumption of online advertising rapidly moving to mobile devices. BIA/Kelsey anticipates that total mobile advertising spending will grow from $7.0 billion in 2013 to $20.7 billion in 2017.

We believe that several factors are causing and will continue to cause travel, entertainment and local businesses to increase their spending on Internet and mobile advertising of offers:

The Internet Is Consumers' Preferred Information Source.  Market research shows that the Internet has become consumers' preferred information source for travel.

Benefits of Internet Advertising vs. Print, TV and Radio Advertising.  Internet advertising provides advertisers advantages compared to traditional advertising. These advantages include real-time listings, real-time updates, and performance tracking. See “Benefits to Travel, Entertainment and Local Businesses” below.

New Advertising Opportunities.  The Internet allows advertisers to advertise their sales and specials in a fast, flexible, and cost-effective manner that has not been possible before.

Suppliers Selling Directly.  We believe that many travel suppliers prefer to sell directly to consumers through suppliers' websites versus selling through travel agents. Internet advertising attracts consumers to suppliers' websites.

Mobile advertising extends our products and services by providing mobile-specific features to mobile device users. Mobile advertising is still in its early stage, though mobile devices are quickly becoming the world's newest gateway for information. We are focused on developing easy-to-use mobile applications to help advertisers extend their reach, help create revenue opportunities for our customers, and deliver relevant and useful ads to users on the go. We continue to invest in improving users' access to our services through such devices.

Problems Travel, Entertainment and Local Businesses Face and Limitations of Newspaper, TV and Radio Advertising

We believe that travel, entertainment and local businesses often face the challenge of being able to effectively and quickly market and sell their excess inventory (i.e. airline seats, hotel rooms, cruise cabins, theater seats, spa appointments or restaurant seats that are likely to be unfilled). The success of marketing excess inventory can have a substantial impact on a company's profitability. Almost all costs of these services are fixed. That is, the costs do not vary significantly with sales. A relatively small amount of unsold inventory can have a significant impact on the profitability of a company.

We believe that travel, entertainment and local businesses need a fast, flexible, and cost-effective solution for marketing excess inventory. The solution must be fast, because services are a quickly expiring commodity. The period between the time when a company realizes that there is excess inventory and the time when the service has become worthless is very short. The solution must be flexible, because the demand for excess inventory is difficult to forecast. It is difficult for travel, entertainment and local businesses to price excess inventory and to forecast the marketing effort needed to sell excess inventory. The marketing must be cost-effective, because excess inventory is often sold at highly discounted prices, which lowers margins.

We believe that newspaper, TV and radio advertising, with respect to advertising excess inventory, suffers from a number of limitations which do not apply to the Internet:

Our Products and Services

We provide airlines, hotels, cruise lines, vacation packagers, other travel suppliers, entertainment and local businesses with a fast, flexible, and cost-effective way to reach millions of Internet users. Our publications include the Travelzoo websites, the Travelzoo Top 20 e-mail newsletter, the Newsflash e-mail alert service, and the Local Deals and Getaway e-mail alert services. We operate SuperSearch, a pay-per-click travel search tool and the Travelzoo Network , a network of third-party websites that list deals published by Travelzoo. We also operate Fly.com , a travel search engine that enables users to find and compare the best flight options from multiple sources, including airline and online travel agency websites. While our products provide advertising opportunities for travel, entertainment and local businesses, they also provide Internet users with a free source of information on current sales and specials from thousands of travel, entertainment and local businesses.

As travel, entertainment and local businesses increasingly utilize the Internet to promote their offers, we believe that our products will enable them to take advantage of the lower cost and real-time communication enabled by the Internet. Our listing management software allows our advertisers to add, update, and delete special offer listings on a real-time basis. Our software also provides our advertisers with real-time performance tracking, enabling them to optimize their marketing campaigns. Mobile advertising extends our products and services by providing mobile-specific features to mobile device users. We are focused on developing easy-to-use mobile applications to help advertisers extend their reach, help create revenue opportunities for our customers, and deliver relevant and useful ads to users on the go. We continue to invest in improving users' access to our services through such devices. In addition, we are in the process of developing a hotel booking platform that will facilitate our users to more easily book stays at hotel deals we present on our website and mobile devices.

The following table presents an overview of our products:

Product		Content		Publication Schedule		Reach/Usage*		Advertiser Benefits		Consumer Benefits
Travelzoo websites		Websites in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and the U.K. listing thousands of outstanding sales and specials from more than 2,000 travel, entertainment and local businesses		24/7		10.8 million unique visitors per month		Broad reach, sustained exposure, targeted placements by destination and travel segment		24/7 access to deals, ability to search and browse by destination or keyword
Travelzoo Top 20		Popular e-mail newsletter listing 20 of the week's most outstanding deals		Weekly		22.3 million subscribers		Mass “push” advertising vehicle to quickly stimulate incremental travel and entertainment purchases		Weekly access to 20 outstanding, handpicked deals chosen from among thousands
Newsflash		Regionally-targeted e-mail alert service with a single time-sensitive and newsworthy travel and entertainment offer		Within two hours of an offer being identified		21.3 million subscribers		Regional targeting, 100% share of voice for advertiser, flexible publication schedule		Breaking news offers delivered just-in-time
Local Deals and Getaway		Locally-targeted e-mail alert service with a single time-sensitive and newsworthy offer from local merchants such as spas and restaurants		Twice per week in active markets		Over 175 local markets		Local targeting by zip code,100% share of voice for the local businesses, flexible publication schedule		Breaking news offers delivered just-in-time
Travelzoo Network		A network of third-party websites that list outstanding deals published by Travelzoo		24/7		Over 300 third-party websites		Drives qualified users with substantial distribution beyond the Travelzoo audience		Contextually relevant travel deals that have been handpicked and professionally reviewed
Travelzoo Mobile Applications		iPhone and Android applications that allow users to discover the best Travel, Entertainment and Local Deals.		On-demand		2.4 million downloads		Allows Travel, Entertainment and Local Deals advertisers to reach our audience that is on the go.		24/7 access to Travel, entertainment and Local Deals for consumers that are on the go.
SuperSearch		Travel search tool using a proprietary algorithm to recommend sites and enable one-click searching		On-demand		4.1 million monthly searches		Drives qualified traffic directly to advertiser site on a pay-per-click basis		Saves time and money by recommending the sites most likely to have great rates for a specific itinerary
Fly.com		Travel search engine that enables users to find and compare the best flight, hotel and rental car options from multiple sources		On-demand		3.3 million monthly searches		Provides advertisers a low cost distribution channel and retention of the user engagement on the advertiser's website		Free access to real-time price comparisons from airlines and online travel agencies

 

In 2013 , 71% of our total revenues were generated from our North America operations, and 29% of our total revenues were generated from our European operations. See Note 12 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

Our Audience

We attract a high-quality audience of travel and leisure enthusiasts across multiple digital platforms, including e-mail, web, social media and mobile apps. We inform our audience about travel, entertainment and local deals available at over 2,000 companies. 26 million subscribers receive our e-mail newsletters, published in 11 countries worldwide, including those in Asia Pacific where our brand is operated under license. Travelzoo’s website is visited by 10.8 million unique visitors each month. We reach an audience of over 60 million Internet users each month via the Travelzoo Network, a network of websites that syndicate our deal content, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. We have over 3 million fans on Facebook and Twitter. Our mobile apps have been downloaded 2.4 million times.

Benefits to Travel, Entertainment and Local Businesses

Our advertisers benefit from accessing our large high-quality audience. Due to the nature of our content, we attract an older, wealthier demographic who have a strong interest in travel and leisure.

Key features of our solution for travel and entertainment companies include:

Key features of our solution for local businesses include:

As discussed in Note 12 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements, we did not have any advertisers that accounted for 10% or more of our total revenues during the years ended December 31, 2013 , 2012 and 2011 . The agreements with certain advertisers are in the form of multiple insertion orders and merchant agreements from groups of entities under common control. It is possible that we may have an advertiser or advertisers that account for 10% or more of our total revenues in future years because management believes there is a high concentration in the online travel agency industry.

Sales and Marketing

As of December 31, 2013 , our advertising sales force and sales support staff consisted of 131 employees worldwide. We intend to grow our advertiser base by expanding over time the size of our sales force.

We currently utilize online marketing and direct marketing to promote our brand to consumers. In addition, we utilize an online marketing program to acquire new subscribers for our e-mail publications. We believe that we build brand awareness by product excellence that is promoted by word-of-mouth. We utilize sponsorships at industry conferences and public relations to promote our brands.

Technology

We have designed our technology to serve a large volume of Web traffic and send a large volume of e-mails in an efficient and scalable manner.

We co-locate our production servers with Equinix, Inc. (“Equinix”), a global provider of hosting, network, and application services. Equinix's facilities include features such as power redundancy, multiple egress and peering to other ISPs, fire suppression and access to our own separate physical space. We believe our arrangements with Equinix will allow us to grow without being limited by our own physical and technological capacity, and will also provide us with sufficient bandwidth for our anticipated needs. Because of the design of our websites, our users are not required to download or upload large files from or to our websites, which allows us to continue increasing the number of our visitors and page views without adversely affecting our performance or requiring us to make significant additional capital expenditures.

Our software is written using widely used standards, such as Visual Basic Script, and HTML, and interfaces with products from Microsoft and ITA software. We have generally standardized our hardware platform on HP servers and Cisco switches.

Competition

We compete for advertising dollars with large Internet portal sites such as MSN and Yahoo! that offer listings or other advertising opportunities to travel, entertainment and local businesses. We compete with search engines like Google and Bing that offer pay-per-click listings. We compete with travel meta-search engines like Kayak and online travel and entertainment deal publishers. We compete with large online travel agencies like Expedia and Priceline that also offer advertising placements and capture consumer interest. We compete with companies like Groupon and LivingSocial that sell vouchers for deals from local businesses such as spas, hotels, restaurants and activity companies. We expect to face increased competition from other Internet and technology-based businesses such as Google and Microsoft, each of which has launched initiatives which are directly competitive to our Local Deals and Getaway products. In addition, we compete with newspapers, magazines and other traditional media companies that operate websites which provide advertising opportunities. We expect to face additional competition as other established and emerging companies, including print media companies, enter our market. We believe that the primary competitive factors are price, performance and audience quality.

Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger advertiser bases than we do. In addition, current and potential competitors may make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships to expand their businesses or to offer more comprehensive solutions.

New technologies could increase the competitive pressures that we face. The development of competing technologies by market participants or the emergence of new industry standards may adversely affect our competitive position. Competition could result in reduced margins on our services, loss of market share or less use of our products by our advertisers and consumers. If we are not able to compete effectively with current or future competitors as a result of these and other factors, our business could be materially adversely affected.

Government Regulation and Legal Uncertainties

There are increasing numbers of laws and regulations pertaining to the Internet, including laws and regulations relating to user privacy, liability for information retrieved from or transmitted over the Internet, online content regulation, and domain name registration. Moreover, the applicability to the Internet of existing laws governing issues such as intellectual property ownership and infringement, copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, obscenity, libel and personal privacy is uncertain and developing.

Privacy Concerns.  U.S. government agencies are considering adopting regulations regarding the collection and use of personal identifying information obtained from individuals when using Internet sites or e-mail services. While we have implemented and intend to implement additional programs designed to enhance the protection of the privacy of our users, these programs may not conform to any regulations which may be adopted by these agencies. In addition, these regulatory and enforcement efforts may adversely affect our ability to collect demographic and personal information from users, which could have an adverse effect on our ability to provide advertisers with demographic information. The European Union (the “EU”) has adopted a directive that imposes restrictions on the collection and use of personal data. The directive could impose restrictions that are more stringent than current Internet privacy standards in the U.S. The directive may adversely affect our operations in Europe.

Anti-Spam Legislation.  The CAN-SPAM Act, a federal anti-spam law, pre-empts various state anti-spam laws and establishes a single standard for e-mail marketing and customer communications. We believe that this law, on an overall basis, benefits our business as we do not use spam techniques or practices and may benefit now that others are prohibited from doing so.

Domain Names . Domain names are the user's Internet “addresses.” The current system for registering, allocating and managing domain names has been the subject of litigation and of proposed regulatory reform. We have registered travelzoo.com, travelzoo.ca, travelzoo.co.jp, travelzoo.com.au, travelzoo.com.tw, travelzoo.co.uk, travelzoo.de, travelzoo.fr, travelzoo.org, travelzoo.net, weekend.com, and weekends.com, among other domain names, and have registered “Travelzoo” as a trademark in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. In January 2009, we purchased the domain name Fly.com . Because of these protections, it is unlikely, yet possible, that third parties may bring claims for infringement against us for the use of our domain name and trademark. In the event such claims are successful, we could lose the ability to use our domain names. There can be no assurance that our domain names will not lose their value, or that we will not have to obtain entirely new domain names in addition to or in lieu of our current domain names if changes in overall Internet domain name rules result in a restructuring in the current system of using domain names which include “.com,” “.net,” “.gov,” “.edu” and other extensions.

Jurisdictions.  Due to the global nature of the Internet, it is possible that, although our transmissions over the Internet originate primarily in California, the governments of other states and foreign countries might attempt to regulate our business activities. In addition, because our service is available over the Internet in multiple states and foreign countries, these jurisdictions may require us to qualify to do business as a foreign corporation in each of these states or foreign countries, which could subject us to additional taxes and other regulations.

Intellectual Property

Our success depends to a significant degree upon the protection of our brand names, including Travelzoo ^® and Top 20 ^® . If we were unable to protect the Travelzoo and Top 20 brand names, our business could be materially adversely affected. We rely upon a combination of copyright, trade secret and trademark laws to protect our intellectual property rights. We have registered the Travelzoo and Top 20 trademarks, among others, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We have registered the Travelzoo and Travelzoo Top 20 trademarks with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Community. We have registered the Travelzoo trademark in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights, however, may not be adequate to deter misappropriation of proprietary information. We are defending ourselves against current patent infringement claims as described further in Note 5 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

We may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our proprietary information or take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. In addition, the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property in Internet-related industries are uncertain and still evolving. The laws of other countries in which we may market our services in the future are uncertain and may afford little or no effective protection of our intellectual property.

Employees

As of December 31, 2013 , we had 436 employees in Europe and North America. None of our employees are represented under collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relations with our employees to be good. Because of our anticipated continued growth, we expect that the number of our employees will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.

Internet Access to Other Information

We make available free of charge, on or through our website (www.travelzoo.com), annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as proxy statements, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Information included on our website does not constitute part of this report.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Any or all of the risks listed below as well as other variables affecting our operating results could have a material adverse effect on our business, our quarterly and annual operating results or financial condition, which could cause the market price of our stock to decline or cause substantial volatility in our stock price, in which event the value of your common stock could decline. You should also keep these risk factors in mind when you read forward-looking statements.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Business Model

We cannot assure you that we will be profitable.

In the years ended December 31, 2013 , 2012 and 2011 , we incurred a net loss of $5.0 million and generated a net income of $18.2 million and $3.3 million, respectively. Although we were profitable in 2012 and 2011 , there is no assurance that we will continue to be profitable in the future. We forecast our future expense levels based on our operating plans and our estimates of future revenues. We may find it necessary to significantly accelerate expenditures relating to our sales and marketing efforts or otherwise increase our financial commitment to creating and maintaining brand awareness among Internet users and advertisers. If our revenues grow at a slower rate than we anticipate, or if our spending levels exceed our expectations or cannot be adjusted to reflect slower revenue growth, we may not generate sufficient revenues to be profitable. Any of these developments could result in a significant decrease in the trading price of our common stock.

Fluctuations in our operating results may negatively impact our stock price.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly in the future due to a variety of factors that could affect our revenues or our expenses in any particular period. You should not rely on quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations as an indication of future performance. Factors that may affect our quarterly results include:

We may significantly increase our operating expenses related to advertising campaigns for the Travelzoo and Fly.com brands, as well as our planned launch of our hotel booking platform, for a certain period if we see a unique opportunity for a brand marketing campaign, if we find it necessary to respond to increased brand marketing by a competitor, or if we decide to accelerate our acquisition of new subscribers.

If revenues fall below our expectations in any quarter and we are unable to quickly reduce our operating expenses in response, our operating results would be lower than expected and our stock price may fall.

Our expansion of our product offering to include Local Deals and Getaway formats and the addition of a hotel booking platform may result in additional costs that exceed revenue and may trigger additional stock volatility.

During the third quarter of 2010, we launched our Local Deals format of advertising and during the second quarter of 2011, we launched our Getaway format of advertising, under which we sell vouchers directly to consumers to advertise promotional deals provided by merchants. For example, a consumer could buy a voucher for $99 for a dinner for two at a merchant’s restaurant that would normally be valued at $199, representing a promotional value of $100 to the consumer. This format may require investments to maintain and grow the business including additional sales force hiring, building a customer service organization, marketing, technology tracking systems and payment processing. This format, introduced to the market in recent years, has resulted in many competitors entering the marketplace, thereby creating a very competitive marketplace. This competitive landscape along with the required investments to start, maintain and grow this format create a risk that our costs may exceed our revenues in the short and long term, which may materially impact our results of operation and financial condition. Operating this format may introduce additional volatility to our stock price due to the performance of this format by the Company and/or the overall market valuations that are being determined by the market for companies operating this format of advertising.

In addition, our plan to add a hotel booking platform which may result in an increase in costs to develop the platform in the near-term and an increase in cost structure in the long-term, which may be in excess of incremental revenue. If our hotel booking platform is not embraced by our users or our advertising partners, our business and financial results could be adversely affected. In addition, the hotel booking platform will be sensitive to fluctuations in hotel supply, occupancy and average daily rates and a fluctuation in any of these factors could negatively impact our hotel booking revenue. We can give no assurances that the planned hotel booking platform will yield the benefits we expect and will not result in additional costs or have adverse impacts on our business.

Recent trends in consumer adoption and use of mobile devices create new challenges.

Widespread adoption of mobile devices, such as the iPhone, Android-enabled smart phones, and tablets such as the iPad, coupled with the improved web browsing functionality and development of thousands of useful “apps” available on these devices, is driving substantial traffic and commerce activity to mobile platforms. We have experienced a significant shift of business to mobile platforms and our advertising partners are also seeing a rapid shift of traffic to mobile platforms. Our major competitors and certain new market entrants are offering mobile applications for travel products and other functionality, including proprietary last-minute discounts for hotel bookings. Advertising and distribution opportunities may be more limited on mobile devices given their smaller screen sizes. The gross profit earned on a mobile transaction may be less than that earned from a typical desktop transaction due to different consumer purchasing patterns. For example, hotel reservations made on a mobile device typically are for shorter lengths of stay and are not made as far in advance as hotel reservations made on desktop. Further, given the device sizes and technical limitations of tablets and smartphones, mobile consumers may not be willing to download multiple applications from multiple travel service providers and instead prefer to use one or a limited number of applications for their mobile travel activity. As a result, the consumer experience with mobile applications, as well as brand recognition and loyalty, are likely to become increasingly important. We have made progress creating mobile offerings which have received strong reviews and have shown solid download trends. We believe that mobile bookings present an opportunity for growth. Further development of our mobile offerings is necessary to maintain and grow our business as consumers increasingly turn to mobile devices instead of personal computers and to mobile applications instead of a web browser. Further, many consumers use a mobile device based web browser instead of an application. As a result, it is increasingly important for us to develop and maintain effective mobile websites optimized for mobile devices to provide customers with appealing easy-to-use mobile website functionality. If we are unable to continue to rapidly innovate and create new, user-friendly and differentiated mobile offerings and efficiently and effectively advertise and distribute on these platforms, or if our mobile applications are not downloaded and used by travel consumers, we could lose market share to existing competitors or new entrants and our future growth and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We may have exposure to additional tax liabilities .    

As an international company providing online advertising services, we are subject to income taxes as well as non-income based taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. Although we believe that our tax estimates are reasonable, there is no assurance that the final determination of tax audits or tax disputes will not be different from what is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals. Changes in tax laws or tax rulings may have a significantly adverse impact on our effective tax rate.

We are also subject to non-income based taxes, such as value-added, payroll, sales, use, net worth, property and goods and services taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. From time to time, we are under audit by tax authorities with respect to these non-income based taxes and may have exposure to additional non-income based tax liabilities. The Company's 2009 and 2010 federal income returns are currently under examination, including a review of the impact of the sale of Asia Pacific business segment in 2009. The Company is not able to predict the ultimate amount or outcome of this tax audit and we may incur additional costs in defending any claims that may arise, even if we ultimately are not liable for any additional taxes.

Adverse application of state and local tax laws could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operation.

Our expansion of our product offering to include a hotel booking platform may subject us to state and local tax laws and result in additional tax liabilities. A number of jurisdictions in the United States have initiated lawsuits against other on-line travel companies, related to, among other things, the payment of hotel occupancy and other taxes (i.e., state and local sales tax). In addition, a number of municipalities have initiated audit proceedings, issued proposed tax assessments or started inquiries relating to the payment of hotel occupancy and other taxes.

Given that we intend for our hotel booking platform to consist of an agency model whereby we will facilitate reservations on behalf of a hotel, the payment of hotel occupancy taxes and other taxes should be the responsibility of the merchant hotel. The intended business practice for our hotel booking platform will primarily be for the hotels to be responsible for remitting applicable taxes to the various tax authorities. Nevertheless, to the extent that any tax authority succeeds in asserting that we have a tax collection responsibility, or we determine that we have one, with respect to future transactions, we may collect any such additional tax obligation from our customers, which would have the effect of increasing the cost of hotel room reservations to our customers and, consequently, could make our hotel service less competitive (i.e., versus the websites of other online travel companies or hotel company websites) and reduce hotel reservation transactions. Either step could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. We will continue to assess the risks of the potential financial impact of additional tax exposure.

Our business model may not be adaptable to a changing market.

Our current revenue model depends primarily on advertising fees paid by travel and entertainment companies. If current clients decide not to continue advertising their offers with us and we are unable to replace them with new clients, our business may be adversely affected. To be successful, we must provide online marketing solutions that achieve broad market acceptance by travel and entertainment companies. In addition, we must attract sufficient Internet users with attractive demographic characteristics to our products. It is possible that we will be required to further adapt our business model and products in response to changes in the online advertising market or if our current business model is not successful. For example, the trend toward mobile online traffic will require us to adapt our product offering to facilitate consumers use of our products. If we do not adapt to this trend fully or quickly enough, we may lose advertising revenue as consumer usage may decline from our non-mobile traffic. If we are not able to anticipate changes in the online advertising market or if our business model is not successful, our business could be materially adversely affected.

If we fail to retain existing advertisers or add new advertisers, our revenue and business will be harmed.

We depend on our ability to attract and retain advertisers (hotels, spas, restaurants, vacation packagers, airlines, etc.) that are prepared to offer products or services on compelling terms to our subscribers. We do not have long-term arrangements to guarantee the availability of deals that offer attractive quality, value and variety to consumers or favorable payment terms to us. We must continue to attract and retain advertisers in order to increase revenue and maintain profitability. If new advertisers do not find our marketing and promotional services effective, or if existing advertisers do not believe that utilizing our products provides them with a long-term increase in customers, revenue or profit, they may stop making offers through our marketplace. In addition, we may experience attrition in our advertisers in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, including losses to competitors and advertiser closures or bankruptcies. If we are unable to attract new advertisers in numbers sufficient to grow our business, or if too many advertisers are unwilling to offer products or services with compelling terms to our subscribers or offer favorable payment terms to us, we may sell less advertising, and our operating results will be adversely affected. For example, we may lose advertisers due to market conditions or performance, such as our recent loss of revenue

from certain online booking engines, airlines and vacation packagers. We may not add enough additional revenue, such as hotel revenue from Getaway or the planned hotel booking platform, in order to replace the lost revenue. Furthermore, the new revenue may cost more to generate compared to the costs that the lost revenue required to generate, thereby adversely impacting our operating results.

Our existing advertisers may shift from one advertising service to another, which may adversely affect our revenue.

Existing advertisers may shift from one advertising service (e.g. Top 20 ) to another (e.g. Local Deals, Getaway or the planned hotel booking platform). These shifts between advertising services by advertisers could result in no incremental revenue or less revenue than in previous periods depending on the amount purchased by the advertisers, and in particular with Local Deals and Getaway , depending on how many vouchers are purchased by subscribers. In addition, we are anticipating a shift from our existing hotel revenue to commission-based revenue as we obtain the hotel booking platform capabilities, which may result in lower revenue depending on volume of hotel bookings.

An increase in our refund rates related to our Local Deals and Getaway could reduce our liquidity and profitability.

We provide refunds related to our Local Deals and Getaway voucher sales. As we increase our revenue, our refund rates may exceed our historical levels. A downturn in general economic conditions may also increase our refund rates. An increase in our refund rates could significantly reduce our liquidity and profitability.

As we do not have control over our merchants and the quality of products or services they deliver, we rely on a combination of our historical experience with our merchants over time and the type of refunds provided for development of our estimate for refund claims. Our actual level of refund claims could prove to be greater than the level of refund claims we estimate. If our refund reserves are not adequate to cover future refund claims, this inadequacy could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and profitability.

Our standard agreements with our merchants generally limit the time period during which we may seek reimbursement for subscriber refunds or claims. Our subscribers may make claims for refunds with respect to which we are unable to seek reimbursement from our merchants. Our inability to seek reimbursement from our merchants for refund claims could have an adverse effect on our liquidity and profitability.

If our advertisers do not meet the needs and expectations of our subscribers, our business could suffer.

Our business depends on our reputation for providing high-quality deals, and our brand and reputation may be harmed by actions taken by advertisers that are outside our control. In particular, this is the case with our Local Deals and Getaway merchants, since we are selling vouchers on behalf of the merchants directly to our subscribers as opposed to the remainder of our business in which we are only collecting the advertising fee from the advertiser and the subscribers are booking the deal directly with the advertiser. Any shortcomings of one or more of our merchants, particularly with respect to an issue affecting the quality of the deal offered or the products or services sold, may be attributed by our subscribers to us, thus damaging our reputation, brand value and potentially affecting our results of operations. In addition, negative publicity and subscriber sentiment generated as a result of fraudulent or deceptive conduct by our merchants could damage our reputation, reduce our ability to attract new subscribers or retain our current subscribers, and diminish the value of our brand.

Our business relies heavily on e-mail and other messaging services, and any restrictions on the sending of e-mails or messages or a decrease in subscriber willingness to receive messages could adversely affect our revenue and business.

Our business is highly dependent upon e-mail and other messaging services. Deals offered through e-mails and other messages sent by us, or on our behalf by our affiliates, generate a substantial portion of our revenue. Because of the importance of e-mail and other messaging services to our businesses, if we are unable to successfully deliver e-mails or messages to our subscribers or potential subscribers, or if subscribers decline to open our e-mails or messages, our revenue and profitability would be adversely affected. New laws and regulations regulating the sending of commercial e-mails, including those enacted in foreign jurisdictions, may affect our ability to deliver of e-mails or messages to our subscribers or potential subscribers and may also result in increased compliance costs. Further, actions by third parties to block, impose restrictions on, or charge for the delivery of, e-mails or other messages could also materially and adversely impact our business. From time to time, Internet service providers block bulk e-mail transmissions or otherwise experience technical difficulties that result in our inability to successfully deliver e-mails or other messages to third parties. In addition, our use of e-mail and other messaging services to send communications about our website or other matters may result in legal claims against us, which if successful might limit or prohibit our ability to send e-mails or other messages. Any disruption or restriction on the distribution of e-mails or other messages or any increase in the associated costs would materially and adversely affect our revenue and profitability. In addition, the shift in our website traffic originating from mobile devices accessing our services may decrease our subscribers' willingness to use our services if they are not satisfied with our mobile user experience and could decrease their willingness to be an e-mail subscriber, which could adversely affect our revenue and profitability.

Our reported total number of subscribers may be higher than the number of our actual individual subscribers and may not be representative of the number of persons who are active potential customers.

The total number of subscribers we report may be higher than the number of our actual individual subscribers because some subscribers have multiple registrations, other subscribers have died or become incapacitated and others may have registered under fictitious names. Given the challenges inherent in identifying these subscribers, we do not have a reliable system to accurately identify the number of actual individual subscribers, and thus we rely on the number of total subscribers shown on our records as our measure of the size of our subscriber base. In addition, the number of subscribers we report includes the total number of individuals that have completed registration through a specific date, less individuals who have unsubscribed. Those numbers may include individuals who do not receive our e-mails because our e-mails have been blocked or are otherwise undeliverable. As a result, the reported number of subscribers should not be considered as representative of the number of persons who continue to actively consider our deals by reviewing our e-mail offers.

We may not be able to obtain sufficient funds to grow our business and any additional financing may be on terms adverse to your interests.

For the year ended December 31, 2013 , our cash and cash equivalents increased by $5.1 million to $66.2 million, of which $48.4 million was held outside the U.S. in certain of our foreign operations. We intend to continue to grow our business and fund our current operations using cash on hand. However, this may not be sufficient to meet our needs, including the payments required under additional settlements relating to escheat claims, as described under Note 1 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements. We may not be able to obtain financing on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.

If additional financing is not available when required or is not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to fund our expansion, successfully promote our brand name, develop or enhance our products and services, take advantage of business opportunities, or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we choose to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity securities, you may experience significant dilution of your ownership interest and holders of the additional equity securities may have rights senior to those of the holders of our common stock. If we obtain additional financing by issuing debt securities or bank borrowings, the terms of these arrangements could restrict or prevent us from paying dividends and could limit our flexibility in making business decisions.

Our business may be sensitive to recessions.

The demand for online advertising may be linked to the level of economic activity and employment in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically, our business is primarily dependent on the demand for online advertising from travel and entertainment companies. The recent recession decreased consumer travel and caused travel and entertainment companies to reduce or postpone their marketing spending generally, and their online marketing spending in particular. Continued or future recessions could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition. Moreover, declines or disruptions in the travel industry could adversely affect our launch of our hotel booking platform and financial performance.

Our operations could be significantly hindered by the occurrence of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.

Our operations are susceptible to outages due to fire, floods, power loss, telecommunications failures, unexpected technical problems in the systems that power our websites and distribute our e-mail newsletters, break-ins and similar events. In addition, a significant portion of our network infrastructure is located in Northern California, an area susceptible to earthquakes. We do not have multiple site capacity to protect us against any such occurrence. Outages could cause significant interruptions of our service. In addition, despite our implementation of network security measures, our servers are vulnerable to computer viruses, physical and electronic break-ins, and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems. We do not carry business interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur as a result of any of these events.

Technological or other assaults on our service could harm our business.

We are vulnerable to coordinated attempts to overload our systems with data, which could result in denial or reduction of service to some or all of our users for a period of time. We have experienced denial of service attacks in the past, and may experience such attempts in the future. Any such event could reduce our revenue and harm our operating results and financial condition. We do not carry business interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur as a result of any of these events.

We are subject to payments-related risks.

We accept payments for the sale of vouchers using a variety of methods, including credit cards and debit cards. We pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating expenses and lower profitability. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of credit cards and debit cards, and it could disrupt our business if these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. Moreover, under payment card rules and our contracts with our card processors, if there is a security breach of payment card information that we store, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for their cost of issuing new cards and related expenses. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, we may be subject to fines and higher transaction fees and lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments, process electronic funds transfers, or facilitate other types of online payments, and our business and results of operations could be adversely affected. If one or more of these contracts are terminated and we are unable to replace them on similar terms, or at all, it could adversely affect our results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Markets and Strategy

Our international expansion may result in operating losses, and is subject to other material risks.

In May 2005, we began operations in the U.K. In 2006, we began operations in Canada, Germany, and Spain. In 2007, we began operations in France.

Our revenues in Europe increased 9.2% in 2013 compared to 2012 , and our operations in Europe generated an operating income before tax of $7.7 million and $7.0 million in 2013 and 2012 , respectively. We intend to continue adding a significant number of subscribers in selected countries in which we operate as we believe this is one of the factors that will allow us to increase our advertising rates and increase our revenues in Europe.

If we incur losses from our operations in the future, these losses may not have any recognizable tax benefit. We expect that this would have a material negative impact on our net income and cash flows. Any of these developments could result in a significant decrease in the trading price of our common stock. In addition to uncertainty about our ability to generate net income from our foreign operations and expand our international market position, there are certain risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:

We may not be able to continue developing awareness of our brand names.

We believe that continuing to build awareness of the Travelzoo and Fly.com brand names is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our business. Brand recognition is a key differentiating factor among providers of online advertising opportunities, and we believe it could become more important as competition in our industry increases. In order to maintain and build brand awareness, we must succeed in our marketing efforts. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brands, incur significant expenses in promoting our brands and fail to generate a corresponding increase in revenue as a result of our branding efforts, or encounter legal obstacles which prevent our continued use of our brand names, our business could be materially adversely affected.

If we fail to retain our existing subscribers or acquire new subscribers, our revenue and business will be harmed.

We spent $5.5 million, $5.4 million and $7.6 million on online marketing initiatives relating to subscriber acquisition for years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional subscribers. We must continue to retain and acquire subscribers in order to maintain or increase revenue. We cannot assure you that the revenue from subscribers we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring new subscribers. If subscribers do not perceive our offers to be of high value and quality or if we fail to introduce new and more relevant deals, we may not be able to acquire or retain subscribers. If we reduce our subscriber acquisition costs, we cannot assure you that this will not adversely impact our ability to acquire new subscribers. If we are unable to acquire new subscribers who purchase our deals directly or indirectly in numbers sufficient to grow our business, or if subscribers cease to purchase our deals directly or indirectly through our advertisers, the revenue we generate may decrease and our operating results will be adversely affected. If the level of usage by our subscriber base declines or does not grow as expected, we may suffer a decline in subscriber growth or revenue. A significant decrease in the level of usage or subscriber growth would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business may be sensitive to events affecting the travel industry in general.

Events like the Middle East conflicts or the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001 or the recent global financial crisis have a negative impact on the travel industry. We are not in a position to evaluate the net effect of these circumstances on our business. In the longer term, our business might be negatively affected by financial pressures on the travel industry. However, our business may also benefit if travel companies increase their efforts to promote special offers or other marketing programs. If such events result in a long-term negative impact on the travel industry, such impact could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may not be able to attract travel and entertainment companies or Internet users if we do not continually enhance and develop the content and features of our products and services.

To remain competitive, we must continually improve the responsiveness, functionality, and features of our products and services. We may not succeed in developing features, functions, products, or services that travel and entertainment companies and Internet users find attractive. This could reduce the number of travel and entertainment companies and Internet users using our products and materially adversely affect our business.

We may lose business if we fail to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and client needs.

Our success is dependent on our ability to develop new and enhanced software, services, and related products to meet rapidly evolving technological requirements for online advertising. Our current technology may not meet the future technical requirements of travel and entertainment companies. Trends that could have a critical impact on our success include:

If we are unable to timely and successfully develop and introduce new products and enhancements to existing products in response to our industry’s changing technological requirements, our business could be materially adversely affected.

Our business and growth will suffer if we are unable to hire and retain highly skilled personnel.

Our future success depends on our ability to attract, train, motivate, and retain highly skilled employees. We may be unable to retain our skilled employees, or attract, assimilate, and retain other highly skilled employees in the future. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. If we are unable to hire and retain skilled personnel, our growth may be restricted, which could adversely affect our future success.

We may not be able to effectively manage our expanding operations.

Since the commencement of our operations, we have experienced a period of rapid growth. In order to execute our business plan, we must continue to grow significantly. As of December 31, 2013 , we had 436 employees, up from 417 employees as of December 31, 2012 . We expect that the number of our employees will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. This growth has placed, and our anticipated future growth will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, systems, and resources. We expect that we will need to continue to improve our financial and managerial controls and reporting systems and procedures. We will also need to continue to expand and maintain close coordination among our sales, production, marketing, IT, and finance departments. We may not succeed in these efforts. Our inability to expand our operations in an efficient manner could cause our expenses to grow disproportionately to revenues, our revenues to decline or grow more slowly than expected and could otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business.

Intense competition may adversely affect our ability to achieve or maintain market share and operate profitably.

We compete for advertising dollars with large Internet portal sites, such as MSN and Yahoo!, that offer listings or other advertising opportunities to travel, entertainment and local businesses. These companies have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger advertiser bases. We compete with search engines like Google and Bing that offer pay-per-click listings. We compete with travel metasearch engines like Kayak and online travel and entertainment deal publishers. We compete with large online travel agencies like Expedia and Priceline that also offer advertising placements and capture consumer interest. We compete with companies like Groupon and LivingSocial that sell vouchers for deals from local businesses such as spas, hotels and restaurants. We expect to face increased competition from other Internet and technology-based businesses such as Google and Microsoft, each of which has launched initiatives which are directly competitive to our Local Deals and Getaway products. Google has introduced its hotel search product which negatively impacted our ability to efficiently purchase Google hotel search traffic to drive our Search product revenues. To the extent that Google, or other leading search or metasearch engines that have a significant presence in our key markets, offer comprehensive travel planning or shopping capabilities, or refer those leads to suppliers directly, or to other favored partners, there could be an adverse impact on our business and financial performance. We also have seen that some competitors will accept lower margins, or negative margins, to attract attention and acquire new subscribers. If competitors engage in group buying initiatives in which merchants receive a higher percentage of the face value than we currently offer, we may be forced to pay a higher percentage of the face value than we currently offer, which may reduce our revenue. In addition, we compete with newspapers, magazines and other traditional media companies that operate websites which provide online advertising opportunities. We expect to face additional competition as other established and emerging companies, including print media companies, enter the online advertising market. Competition could result in reduced margins on our services, loss of market share or less use of Travelzoo by advertisers and consumers. If we are not able to compete effectively with current or future competitors as a result of these and other factors, our business could be materially adversely affected.

Loss of any of our key management personnel could negatively impact our business.

Our future success depends to a significant extent on the continued service and coordination of our management team, particularly Christopher Loughlin, our Chief Executive Officer. The loss or departure of any of our officers or key employees could materially adversely affect our ability to implement our business plan. We do not maintain key person life insurance for any member of our management team. In addition, we expect new members to join our management team in the future. These individuals will not previously have worked together and will be required to become integrated into our management team. If our key management personnel are not able to work together effectively or successfully, our business could be materially adversely affected.

We may not be able to access third party technology upon which we depend.

We use technology and software products from third parties including Microsoft and ITA Software. Technology from our current or other vendors may not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Our business will suffer if we are unable to access this technology, to gain access to additional products or to integrate new technology with our existing systems. This could cause delays in our development and introduction of new services and related products or enhancements of existing products until equivalent or replacement technology can be accessed, if available, or developed internally, if feasible. If we experience these delays, our business could be materially adversely affected.

Acquisitions, investments and joint ventures could result in operating difficulties, dilution, and other harmful consequences that may adversely impact our business and results of operations.

We may evaluate and consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions as part of our overall business strategy, including business combinations, acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, technologies, services, and other assets, as well as strategic investments and joint ventures. At any given time we may be engaged in discussions or negotiations with respect to one or more of these types of transactions. Any of these transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations.

These transactions involve significant challenges and risks. Some of the areas where we may face risks or difficulties include:

Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions or investments, incur unanticipated liabilities, and harm our business generally.

Future acquisitions may also require us to issue additional equity securities, spend our cash, or incur debt (and increased interest expense), liabilities and amortization expenses related to intangible assets or write-offs of goodwill, which could adversely affect our results of operations and dilute the economic and voting rights of our stockholders. Also, the anticipated benefit of many of our acquisitions may not materialize.

Risks Related to the Market for our Shares

Our stock price has been volatile historically and may continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations. During the twelve months ended February 12, 2014 , the closing price of our common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market ranged from $20.28 to $32.68. Our stock price may fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, such as quarterly variations in operating results; announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors; changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts; the operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors may deem comparable to us; and news reports relating to trends in our markets or general economic conditions. Our stock price may be volatile given that operating results may vary from the expectations of securities analysts and investors, which are beyond our control. In the event that our operating results fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the trading price of our common shares may decline significantly. Moreover, fluctuations in our stock price and our price-to-earnings multiple may have made our stock attractive to hedge or day-trading investors who often shift funds into and out of stocks rapidly, exacerbating price fluctuations in either direction, particularly when viewed on a quarterly basis.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the market prices for Internet-related companies in particular, have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of such companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the price of our stock, regardless of our operating performance.

We have a principal stockholder.

Ralph Bartel, who founded Travelzoo and who is a Director of the Company is the sole beneficiary of the Ralph Bartel 2005 Trust, which is the controlling shareholder of Azzurro Capital Inc. As of December 31, 2013 , Azzurro is the Company's largest stockholder, holding approximately 48.2% of our outstanding shares.

Risks Related to Legal Uncertainty

We may become subject to shareholder lawsuits over securities violations due to volatile stock price and this can be burdensome to management and costly to defend.

Shareholder lawsuits for securities violations are often launched against companies whose stock price is volatile. Such lawsuits involving the Company would require management’s attention to defend, which may distract attention from operating the Company. In addition, the Company may incur substantial costs to defend itself and/or settle such claims, which may be considered advisable to minimize the distraction and costs of defense. Such lawsuits would result in judgments against the Company requiring substantial payments to claimants. Such costs may materially impact our results of operations and financial condition. Between August 2011 and January 2012, numerous class action and derivative lawsuits were filed against the Company. See further disclosure in Note 5 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements included in this report.

We may become subject to burdensome government regulations and legal uncertainties affecting the Internet which could adversely affect our business.

To date, governmental regulations have not materially restricted use of the Internet in our markets. However, the legal and regulatory environment that pertains to the Internet is uncertain and may change. Uncertainty and new regulations, including those enacted in foreign jurisdictions, could increase our costs of doing business, prevent us from delivering our products and services over the Internet, or slow the growth of the Internet. For example, new laws and regulations regulating online advertisements, including those enacted in foreign jurisdictions, may affect our advertising revenue and may also result in decreased traffic to our websites. In addition to new laws and regulations being adopted, existing laws may be applied to the Internet. New and existing laws may cover issues which include:

The implementation of the CARD Act and similar state and foreign laws may harm our Local Deals business.

Vouchers which are issued under our Local Deals and Getaway may be considered gift cards, gift certificates, stored value cards or prepaid cards and therefore governed by, among other laws, the Credit Card Act of 2009 (the "CARD Act"), and state laws governing gift cards, stored value cards and coupons. Other foreign jurisdictions have similar laws in place, in particular European jurisdictions where the European E-Money Directive regulates the business of electronic money institutions. Many of these laws contain provisions governing the use of gift cards, gift certificates, stored value cards or prepaid cards, including specific disclosure requirements and prohibitions or limitations on the use of expiration dates and the imposition of certain fees. For example, if the vouchers are subject to the CARD Act and are not included in the exemption for promotional programs, it is possible that the purchase value, which is the amount equal to the price paid for the voucher, or the promotional value, which is the add-on value of the voucher in excess of the price paid, or both, may not expire before the later of (i) five years after the date on which the voucher was issued; (ii) the voucher’s stated expiration date (if any); or (iii) a later date provided by applicable state law. Purported class actions against other companies have been filed in federal and state court claiming that coupons similar to the vouchers are subject to the CARD Act and various state laws governing gift cards and that the defendants have violated these laws by issuing the coupons with expiration dates and other restrictions. In addition, investigations by certain state attorney general offices have been launched against other companies with regards to similar issues. If similar claims are asserted against the Company in respect of the Local Deals and Getaway vouchers and are successful, we may become subject to fines and penalties and incur additional costs. In addition, if federal or state laws require that the face value of our vouchers have a minimum expiration period beyond the period desired by a merchant for its promotional program, or no expiration period, this may affect the willingness of merchants to issue vouchers in jurisdictions where these laws apply. For unredeemed vouchers, similar laws in other jurisdictions require us or merchants to honor the face value of vouchers sold, after the redemption period. For example, in Germany, certain consumer protection laws require us to refund consumers for almost four years after the purchase date for the amount of the face value of purchased vouchers which remains unredeemed at the end of the redemption period. Therefore, we do not recognize the unredeemed amounts as revenue until after we are not subject to these laws. There may be similar laws in other countries or provinces that require similar practices. Such developments may materially and adversely affect the profitability or viability of our Local Deals and Getaway .

If we are required to materially increase the estimated liability recorded in our financial statements with respect to unredeemed Local Deals and Getaway vouchers due to application of certain gift card laws, our net income could be materially and adversely affected.

In certain states and foreign jurisdictions, our Local Deals and Getaway vouchers may be considered a gift card. Some of these states and foreign jurisdictions include gift cards under their unclaimed and abandoned property laws which require companies to remit to the government the value of the unredeemed balance on the gift cards after a specified period of time (generally between one and five years) and impose certain reporting and recordkeeping obligations. The analysis of the potential application of the unclaimed and abandoned property laws to our vouchers is complex, involving an analysis of constitutional and statutory provisions and factual issues, including our relationship with subscribers and merchants and our role as it relates to the issuance and delivery of a voucher. In the event that one or more states or foreign jurisdictions successfully challenges our position on the application of its unclaimed and abandoned property laws to vouchers, or if the estimates that we use in projecting the likelihood of vouchers being redeemed prove to be inaccurate, our liabilities with respect to unredeemed vouchers may be materially higher than the amounts shown in our financial statements. If we are required to materially increase the estimated liability recorded in our financial statements with respect to unredeemed gift cards, our net income could be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, a successful challenge to our position could subject us to penalties or interest on unreported and unremitted sums, and any such penalties or interest would have a further material adverse impact on our net income.

New tax treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our services and our financial results.

Due to the global nature of the Internet, it is possible that various states or foreign countries might attempt to regulate our transmissions or levy sales, income or other taxes relating to our activities. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce. New or revised international, federal, state or local tax regulations may subject us or our subscribers to additional sales, income and other taxes. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income or other taxes on commerce over the Internet. New or revised taxes and, in particular, sales taxes, VAT and similar taxes would likely increase the cost of doing business online and decrease the attractiveness of advertising and selling goods and services over the Internet. New taxes could also create

significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data, and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We may suffer liability as a result of information retrieved from or transmitted over the Internet and claims related to our service offerings.

We may be sued for defamation, civil rights infringement, negligence, patent, copyright or trademark infringement, invasion of privacy, personal injury, product liability, breach of contract, unfair competition, discrimination, antitrust or other legal claims relating to information that is published or made available on our websites or service offerings we make available (including provision of an application programming interface platform for third parties to access our website, mobile device services and geolocation applications). These types of claims have been brought, sometimes successfully, against online services in the past. The fact that we distribute information via e-mail or text message may subject us to potential risks, such as liabilities or claims resulting from unsolicited e-mail or spamming, lost or misdirected messages, security breaches, illegal or fraudulent use of e-mail or interruptions or delays in e-mail or mobile service. These risks are enhanced in certain jurisdictions outside the U.S., where our liability for such third-party actions may be less clear and we may be less protected. In addition, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending such claims, even if we ultimately are not found liable. If any of these events occurs, our business could be materially and adversely affected.

We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our websites and applications, including consumer data, content that is produced by our editorial staff and errors or omissions related to our product offerings. Such information, whether accurate or inaccurate, may result in our being sued by our advertisers, merchants, subscribers or third parties and as a result our revenue and goodwill could be materially and adversely affected.

In addition, we may acquire personal or confidential information from users of our websites and mobile applications, related to our Local Deals and planned hotel booking platform. Security breaches or the unauthorized disclosure of customer personal information could result in negative publicity, damage our reputation, expose us to risk of loss or litigation and possible liability and subject us to regulatory penalties and sanctions. Any failure or perceived failure by us, or our service providers, to comply with the privacy policies, privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or privacy related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other user data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation or public statements against the company by consumer advocacy groups or others and could cause our customers and members to lose trust in the company, which could have an adverse effect on our business.

Claims have been asserted against us relating to shares not issued in our 2002 merger.

The merger of Travelzoo.com Corporation into the Company became effective on April 25, 2002. Holders of promotional shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation who established they had satisfied certain prerequisite qualifications were allowed a period of two years following the effective date to receive one share of Travelzoo Inc. in exchange for each share of common stock of Travelzoo.com Corporation. After April 25, 2004, two years following the effective date, we ceased issuing shares to the former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation. Many of the “Netsurfer stockholders,” who had applied to receive shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 for no cash consideration, did not elect to receive their shares which were issuable in the merger prior to the end of the two-year period. A total of 4,115,532 of our shares which had been reserved for issuance in the merger were not claimed.

As discussed under Note 1 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements, on April 21, 2011, we settled all claims by the State of Delaware relating to a previously-announced unclaimed property review relating to shares of Travelzoo which have not been claimed by former Netsurfers stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, which remained unexchanged in the 2002 merger, as discussed in the preceding paragraph. Unclaimed shares which were properly issuable would have been subject to escheat to the State of Delaware because the Company is organized under Delaware law. Under applicable law, unclaimed property held by a corporation is subject to escheat to the jurisdiction of incorporation if the address of the owner is unknown.

As discussed in Note 1 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements, since March 2012, the Company has become subject to unclaimed property reviews by most of the other states in the U.S. that relate primarily to the unexchanged promotional merger shares, which were not covered by the settlement and release by the State of Delaware. During the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Company recorded a $3.0 million charge related to this unexchanged promotional shares contingency.

In October 2013, the Company entered into settlement agreements with 35 additional states to resolve those states’ claims related to similar unclaimed property audits. The multi-state settlement relates to approximately 700,000 additional shares of the Company that were not claimed by residents of those states following the merger, which those states claimed were subject to escheat. While the Company disputes the states’ claims, the Company determined that it was in its best interest to resolve the disputes and settle with these states. The remaining states have or may raise claims on approximately 400,000 additional shares that were not claimed following the merger by residents in those states.

During the three months ended September 30, 2013, the Company recorded a $22 million charge related to the settlements it entered into and for potential future settlements with the remaining states. During the three months ended December 31, 2013, the Company made cash payments of $12.3 million to the settled states after completion of the required due diligence.

The Company intends to continue to challenge the applicability of escheat rights with the remaining states, in that, among other reasons, the shares of the predecessor Bahamas corporation were offered for free as part of a promotional incentive program to qualified individuals. In addition, there were certain conditions applicable to the issuance of shares to so-called “Netsurfer” stockholders, including requirements that (i) they be at least 18 years of age, (ii) they be residents of the U.S. or Canada, and (iii) they not apply for shares more than once. The Netsurfer stockholders were advised that failure to comply could result in cancellation of their shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation. Travelzoo.com Corporation was not able to verify that the applicants met the requirements referred to above at the time of their applications for issuance of shares, and the remaining Netsurfer stockholders who have not qualified to receive shares in the Company, or who have not participated in the cash payments program referred to below, have not demonstrated their actual compliance with the conditions to the issuance of shares by Travelzoo.com Corporation. The Company does not know how many of the requests for shares originally received by Travelzoo.com Corporation in 1998 were valid, but the Company believes that only a portion of such requests were valid. In response to the pending reviews referred to above, and in response to other persons claiming to be former stockholders of Travelzoo.com Corporation, the Company intends to assert that the claimant must establish that the original Netsurfer stockholders complied with the conditions to issuance of their shares.

The ultimate resolution of this matter with the remaining states may take longer than one year; however, we have included the estimated loss for these remaining states potential claims in our reserves. The total amount of exposure of this contingency is dependent upon the manner in which each state applies its unclaimed property laws, including whether penalties and interest are applicable.

The Company is continuing its program under which it makes cash payments to people who establish that they satisfy the conditions to receive shares of Travelzoo.com Corporation, and who failed to submit requests to convert their shares into shares of Travelzoo Inc. within the required time period. This program is not available for individuals whose promotional shares have been escheated to a state by the Company. The accompanying consolidated financial statements include a charge for payments under this program in general and administrative expenses of $ 23,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 .

The total cost of this program is not reliably estimable because it is based on the ultimate number of valid requests received and future levels of the Company’s common stock price, and would be affected by any settlement of the pending reviews referred to above. The Company’s common stock price affects the liability because the amount of cash payments under the program is based in part on the recent level of the stock price at the date valid requests are received. As noted above, in order to receive payment under the program, a person is required to establish that such person validly held shares in Travelzoo.com Corporation.

Federal laws and regulations, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act and similar foreign laws, could be expanded to include Local Deals and Getaway vouchers.

Various federal laws, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act and foreign laws and regulations, such as the European Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing, impose certain anti-money laundering requirements on companies that are financial institutions or that provide financial products and services. For these purposes, financial institutions are broadly defined to include money services businesses such as money transmitters, check cashers and providers of prepaid access cards. Examples of anti-money laundering requirements imposed on financial institutions include customer identification and verification programs, suspicious activity monitoring and reporting, record retention policies and procedures and transaction reporting. We do not believe that we are a financial institution subject to these laws and regulations based, in part, upon the closed loop nature and other characteristics of vouchers and our role with respect to the distribution of vouchers to subscribers. However, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury tasked with implementing the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, recently issued final rules regarding the scope and requirements for non-bank parties involved in stored value or prepaid access cards, including obligations on sellers or providers of “prepaid access”. Under the final rule, providers or sellers of closed loop vouchers, such as those offered through the Local Deals program, would only be subject to registration if the voucher exceed $2,000 in total value or if they are sold in aggregate amounts exceeding $10,000 to any single person in one day. Should the $2,000 limit be exceeded or should more than $10,000 in aggregate vouchers be sold to any individual person (sales to businesses for resale or distribution are excluded) then we may be deemed either a seller or provider of prepaid access subject to regulation. In the event that we become subject to the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act or any other anti-money laundering law or regulation imposing obligations on us as a money services business, our regulatory compliance costs to meet these obligations would likely increase which could reduce our net income. In addition, the costs for third parties to sell vouchers would increase, which may restrict our ability to enlist third parties to issue vouchers.

Our internal control over financial reporting may not be effective, and our independent auditors may not be able to certify as to the effectiveness of such internal controls, which could have a significant and adverse effect on our business.

We are obligated to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting in order to allow management to report on, and our independent auditors to opine on, our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the rules and regulations of the SEC, which we collectively refer to as Section 404. In our Section 404 evaluation, we have identified areas of internal controls that may need improvement and have instituted remediation efforts where necessary. Currently, none of our identified areas that need improvement has been categorized as material weaknesses. We may identify conditions that may result in significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the future.

We may be unable to protect our registered trademark or other proprietary intellectual property rights.

Our success depends to a significant degree upon the protection of the Travelzoo brand name. We rely upon a combination of copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, as well as non-disclosure and other contractual arrangements to protect our intellectual property rights. The steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights, however, may not always succeed in deterring misappropriation of proprietary information.

We have registered the Travelzoo trademark in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the EU and the U.K. If we are unable to protect our rights in the mark in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, where we have licensed the trademark as described above under “overview”, a key element of our strategy of promoting Travelzoo as a brand could be disrupted and our business could be adversely affected. We may not always be able to detect unauthorized use of our proprietary information or take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. In addition, the validity, enforceability, and scope of protection of intellectual property in Internet-related industries are uncertain and still evolving. The laws of countries in which we may market our services in the future are uncertain and may afford little or no effective protection of our intellectual property. The unauthorized reproduction or other misappropriation of our proprietary technology could enable third parties to benefit from our technology and brand name without paying us for them. If this were to occur, our business could be materially adversely affected.

We may face liability from intellectual property litigation that could be costly to prosecute or defend and distract management’s attention with no assurance of success.

We cannot be certain that our products, content and brand names do not or will not infringe valid patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We expect that infringement claims in our markets will increase in number as more participants enter the markets. We may be subject to legal proceedings and claims from time to time relating to the intellectual property of others in the ordinary course of our business. We may incur substantial expenses in defending against these third party infringement claims, regardless of their merit, and such claims could result in a significant diversion of the efforts of our management personnel. Successful infringement claims against us may result in monetary liability or a material disruption in the conduct of our business. As discussed under Note 5 to the consolidated financial statements included in this report, a lawsuit was filed against us by a non-practicing entity, commonly referred to as a "patent troll", claiming that the trip-planning metasearch service available on Fly.com infringes one or more claims of certain asserted patents. The plaintiff has asserted similar claims against other metasearch websites, including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, Yahoo! Inc., American Express, Kayak and BookIt. We endeavor to defend our intellectual property rights diligently, but intellectual property litigation is extremely expensive and time consuming, and has and is likely to continue to divert managerial attention and resources from our business objectives. Successful infringement claims against us could result in monetary liability and resolution of claims may require us to obtain licenses to use intellectual property rights belonging to third parties, which may be expensive to procure.

Item 1B.  Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2.  Properties

We are headquartered in New York, New York, where we occupy approximately 13,500 square feet of leased office space. In addition to our New York office, we have several leased offices throughout the U.S. and Canada for our North America operations, including offices in Chicago, Illinois; Austin, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Mountain View, California; San Francisco, California; Toronto, Ontario; and Vancouver, British Columbia.

We also have leased offices for our Europe operations in France, Germany, Spain, and the U.K., including offices in Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Manchester, Munich, and Paris.

We believe that our leased facilities are adequate to meet our current needs; however, we intend to expand our operations and therefore may require additional facilities in the future. We believe that such additional facilities are available.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

The information set forth under “Note 5 - Commitments and Contingencies” to the accompanying consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this report is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosure

Not applicable.