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Ziff Davis, Inc. (ZD)

Q4 2011 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 14, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the j2 Global Q4 and Year End Results Conference Call. It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Scott Turicchi, President of j2 Global Communications. Thank you. Mr. Turicchi, you may begin.

R. Turicchi

Management

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and welcome to the j2 Global investor conference call for fourth quarter of 2011. As the operator just mentioned, I'm Scott Turicchi, President of j2 Global. And with me today is Hemi Zucker, our CEO; and Kathy Griggs, our CFO. In this call, we will be discussing our Q4 and fiscal year 2011 financial results, provide an outlook on our opportunities for 2012 and release our 2012 financial guidance. In addition, our board has authorized a 5 million share repurchase program that replaces our existing share repurchase program and increased the quarterly dividend to $0.21 a share. We will use the presentation as a roadmap for today's call. A copy of that presentation is available at our website. When you launch the webcast, there is a button on the viewer on the right-hand side which will allow you to expand the slides. If you've not received the copy of the press release, you may access it through our corporate website at j2global.com/press. In addition, you will be able to access the webcast from the site. After completing the presentation, we will conduct the Q&A session. The operator will instruct you at that time regarding the procedures for asking a question. In addition, you may email questions anytime to investor@j2global.com. Before we begin our prepared remarks, allow me to read the Safe Harbor language. As you know, this call and the webcast will include forward-looking statements. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties that would cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results. Some of those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors that we have disclosed in our various SEC filings, including our 10-K filings, recent 10-Q filings, various proxy statements and 8-K filings, as well as…

Kathleen Griggs

Management

Thank you, Scott. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Please refer to Slide 8 in the presentation for a recap of our Q4 GAAP and the non-GAAP operating results. Our fourth quarter revenues of $85.1 million represent our best Q4 ever, exceeding Q4 2010 revenues by more than $14 million or 20%. As a reminder, during Q4 2010, we already own both Venali and Protus for a full or partial quarter. Q4 revenues were impacted by 4 factors versus last quarter: first, we had fewer business days resulting in $600,000 less variable revenue; second, the stronger U.S. dollar had a negative impact of approximately $400,000; third, Q4 was the first full quarter without revenues from certain unprofitable Venali customers we elected to discontinue last quarter; and fourth, $800,000 less than marketing spend driven by seasonality resulting in approximately 30,000 fewer gross sign-ups. Our other revenues increased by $0.5 million due to our successful patent licensing efforts during the quarter. DIDs grew by more than 9,000 in the quarter with growth adversely impacted by the aforementioned $800,000 reduction in spend due to seasonality, which resulted in 30,000 fewer sign-ups. Corporate fax was the biggest gainer for the quarter with 6 new large contracts signed and 6 upgraded to large contracts. Our cancel rate for the quarter increased slightly to 2.6% but remained near historic lows. ARPU decreased to $12.91 per DID for this quarter versus $13.27 last quarter for 3 reasons: one, less variable revenue due to seasonality; two, less fixed revenue due in part to currency translation; and three, the full quarter of high ARPU but low margin Venali customers that were let go in Q3. On a non-GAAP basis, our earnings for the quarter were a record $30.6 million, an increase of 10% from Q4 2010. Non-GAAP gross and operating…

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Thank you, Kathy, and good afternoon, everybody. 2011 was an amazing year for j2. We integrated substantially all of the 8 acquisitions that we purchased in 2010. We significantly outperformed our budget for 2012. And midyear to remind you, we raised our guidance. We generated $157 million of cash flow -- free cash flow and initiated the dividend. 2012 is a year when we will make substantial investment in these new opportunities for j2. Geographical expansion is an important effort led by Japan. We are planning to add more countries and we'll announce them later as they come on board. Let's now turn to Slide 11. Slide 11. Increased investment in Japan. We are very happy and we have just announced that we reached 10,000 paying customers in Japan. Additional coverage of 45% so we move from 18 cities to 26 by adding another 8 cities in Japan. We added mobile apps both for the iPhone and the Android, and they are substantially and very important for our added customers. As you know, mobile is very important worldwide and especially important in Japan. We are planning to double our efforts, double our spending, double our investment, employees in Japan, in the country. And our goal for 2012 is 20,000 customers -- paying subscribers by the end of the year. Next investment on Page 12. Slide 12. We have just acquired Landslide CRM. It is a promising company out of Boston and they provide an easy-to-use, cloud-based CRM focused on small and midsized businesses, very simple to use, step-by-step kind of usage that helps you to close the deal, they're integrated with social media. They have very strong leadership, 15 team members in the East Coast, great product and a small but growing customer base. We are just planning, and our…

R. Turicchi

Management

Thank you, Hemi. On Slide 17, we have our guidance for the fiscal year. I'll just remind everybody that as a matter of course, we give an annual guidance of revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share. It is the intention to build in the case of a range, a range such that throughout the course of the year notwithstanding a variety of influences that may cause results to fall somewhere within that range or those results to be in that range. So we do not look to get into a situation where we're constantly revising the guidance either up or down. Our revenues are between -- expected to be between $345 million and $365 million. This does not assume any major or large acquisitions. We look for non-GAAP EPS to be roughly equal or approximately equal to that of 2011. As Hemi mentioned, there are numerous initiatives on the table, each of which requires meaningful investment to the extent possible, even if we are to perform better than the midpoint of the range of revenues. The goal would be to take those incremental profits and reinvest them in those opportunities. We assume approximately 48 million shares outstanding on an effective basis for the calculation of fully diluted EPS. And for those who would like to go to a full GAAP, there will be an additional $9 million to $10 million of noncash comp expense. Finally, the quarterly dividend. This will be the third payment of the dividend since it was initiated in August of 2011. The record date is February 27, the payment date will be March 12. As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, the dividend was raised to $0.21 per share, remaining consistent with it being approximately 30% of our non-GAAP earnings, which were $0.64 for the quarter, approximately $10 million of cash will be paid out. As we stated previously, this dividend is designed not to impact either our operational opportunities or M&A activities. At this time, I would ask the operator to come back online and instruct you in terms of how to queue for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Shyam Patil from Raymond James & Associates.

Shyam Patil

Analyst

I guess around the investments, j2 has been very, very prudent with investing in the past. It's always been very ROI-focused. When you guys look out beyond '12, what kind of growth do you think or do you expect these investments to drive?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

It's Hemi. The investments are meant to provide us with both organic growth in new areas so that we can enter with knowledge and experience. So I believe that may be during 2012 but definitely in 2013, you will see growth coming out of those areas that are all non-fax, non-DIDs today. If you know today, only 20% of our revenue is not fax. And all those initiatives are going to leverage the base that we have and the access that we have to customers into new and exciting spaces, all of them, as you know, are very, very big.

Shyam Patil

Analyst

Okay. And, Hemi, I think this is the second quarter in a row where in the press release you talked about having an appetite for larger M&A. I've always thought of fax and voice as being the 2 areas where the company's ready to do large acquisitions. It seems like IP backup may be another area. But just -- what are the areas where you think j2 is ready to do a large deal?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

I think that all the product that we have experience with are areas that we are comfortable. So we are comfortable with fax. We are comfortable with voice. We are comfortable with everything. CRM is totally new for us so we need some time. But all the rest are areas that we're comfortable. j2 is very strong in anything that has subscription in the cloud, recurring revenue. We know how to manage it very effectively. All those things that are geared towards businesses, small and are popular. We -- because of the nature of j2, when we sell online, we are looking for services that are popular, that most of the people need them. So if we have a product that most businesses need, this is our sweet spot.

Shyam Patil

Analyst

Okay. And then just a last question, Scott. Around the share repurchase, is the intention to exhaust that by the expiration date? Or is it to be more opportunistic?

R. Turicchi

Management

Well, I think as you know in the past, our share buybacks have always been designed for 2 purposes: one, to be opportunistic; and two, as a release valve if a combination of the cash on the balance sheet and free cash flow is such that given particularly the M&A opportunities in front of us, there's just so much that we probably will not spend it with any given fiscal year. So this is, as you pointed out, basically a 12-month program. I don't know how much will get purchased under the program because it's in part a function of what other opportunities are available to us. So we remain flexible and fluid in the allocation of capital between the M&A, which is we've consistently said is always our preference. But recognize that we've already built back the cash position almost to where we were pre the Protus acquisition, which is only 15, 16 months ago.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tavis McCourt from Morgan Keegan.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

This is Tavis. A couple of follow-ups. I was wondering, I mean you mentioned 25% of your business is non-fax at this point. I think in the past, you've talked about the number of voice subscribers and I was wondering if you're willing to give round figures there?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes. So 20% of our business is not faxed. The voice run rate -- and Scott, correct me if I'm wrong, is 42 now with the new acquisition. Am I right?

R. Turicchi

Management

It's right around -- yes, it's a little over 40, right around 40.

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes, about 40.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

You're talking about dollars, not...

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes, we're talking dollars. Yes. I said $40 million. And it is one of the fastest-growing part of our business here and in Europe. And there are interesting opportunities there. And I cannot talk too much because we are talking with some of them.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

And if we look at your breakdown of revenues between DID and non-DID, are all the DID-based revenues either fax or voice at this point?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

And so -- I'm trying to figure out how do we measure the success going forward in some of these investments and especially in the new services. The vast majority of the new service growth we should see picking up in non-DID-based revenue, is that correct?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Correct. So Scott and I have been talking. There are metrics like seeds [ph] et cetera. Because we have a garden variety of things like we have email accounts, we have that. We are still thinking about how to better help you there. We are -- for 2012, we are still seeing a growth in the DIDs, so it's still going to be important especially if you include the voice opportunities and the fax opportunities in the world and the globalization. I did mention some other countries since we are aggressively trying to close deals or trying to enter markets. So hopefully, towards the beginning of Q1, we will be able to think about a different metric. It's kind of complex because there are so many different ones.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

And if you look at some of the newer services, non-fax, non-voice services, how -- I mean you've been testing a lot of these things for a while in quasi-test mode. How confident are you that kind of your historic strength in online acquisition is applicable to these services? And then also, if you could talk about as they scaled up a bit kind of how are they trending from a margin perspective and business model perspective relative to what you guys have experienced historically?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

So both businesses, let's say Campaigner and KeepItSafe have grown last year organically, very impressive. Of course, on a smaller base it's easier. But the organic growth there is good because the acquisition there is low. The margins are high, not as high as fax but really high. Not as high as fax. And we are helping them by the fact that the fax business brings the ability to get a very advantageous credit card processing and our -- and also they are benefiting from the heavy systems that we have built here. They are a little bit less on the margin but not all of them. Because as you sell some of those services -- and you see I tried to talk about the KeepItSafe positioning, it is a one-stop for multinational company. There's not a lot of competition there. We can expect premium prices there. So most of those services, unlike fax, the cost keeps on going down. And the fax, it's down, it's where it should be. But in KeepItSafe and in Campaigner, the cost is still going down all the time. So I believe that the margins will -- as the business mature, will come very close or similar to fax. On the CRM business, it's just new. I'm hesitant to talk about this. We are very encouraged about it, looks good. But the first year is not a year that we are planning to make profit.

R. Turicchi

Management

And I would just add one comment on that. The real difference is in the OpEx. So the COGS are very consistent across the board as you would expect in any cloud-based service. They are very high-gross margins. Some may be somewhat lower than 80%, some will be in excess of 80%. Where the real decision comes in is the number of unique talent for a specific space or service, which obviously, as we enter a space, is not going to be fully leveraged. As Hemi mentioned, we have 15 people for CRM on a very small base of customers. So that's not anywhere near fully leveraged. And the second piece would be in the sales and marketing component. Or to the extent that a customer comes through a cross-sell effort or an internal effort, then there's almost no direct marketing costs associated. And as a result, the EBITDA or the EBIT contribution margin's very high. Conversely, if the brand is not very well known or the service is not very well known in the target community, then your marketing cost will be higher. So those are the 2 real areas to focus on and we'll look at the investment this year. And if you go through the sixth slide that Hemi went through, most of the investment is in people, in either jurisdictions or around product sets that we were not previously in, and around marketing of those services or in those jurisdictions.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

And I guess one of the points I was trying to get at was the historic strength in kind of online marketing. Historically, your business, I always look at it in terms of kind of total sales and marketing divided by gross adds and you kind of get to a number in the mid-80s of cost of acquisition. I'm sure, you have a much more accurate way to view it. But are these new services similar to kind of similar acquisition costs? Or are they going to take different acquisition model that might kind of change the sales and marketing intensity of the businesses?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

I'd say that if they were standalone because of the early stage, it would be more expensive because -- but because we intend to take the 2 million customers that we have and give them free ride on cross and upsell, it will balance it back to the numbers that we used to. We have an advantage there. All those competitors do not have 2 million people. They trust them and are willing to do business with them. When we sell through cross sell, the cost is 0. We'll pay a very small commission to the telesales people. But it doesn't even come close to competing on keywords and advertising. So this is the way that we are going to do it. And we will be able to compensate there.

R. Turicchi

Management

And I can tell you the other thing that occurs over time -- and we've seen this both with the brand eFax and eVoice and also even though it's only under our ownership for 15 months, MyFax, is that as a brand is marketed over a longer duration and also with an amount of money -- could be short duration with a lot of money or a longer duration with a little bit amount of money in each period, you start to see more free customer acquisition, meaning customers coming directly to you, which then lowers your overall subscriber acquisition costs, even though you're paying more on the margin for programs, whether it's search or some of the display ads or affiliate programs. So you got new brands. We've got new brands like KeepItSafe, which is basically unknown in the United States. Landslide, which would be relatively new and not as well known, although it has some degree of brand recognition in the CRM space. Those are going to take some time for them to get straight customer-to-site acquisition which will then overtime drive down the subscriber acquisition cost. We've seen it in fax and we've seen it in voice.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

Got you. And then final follow-up on that, I promise. But -- so there's roughly 2 million customers and cross selling is kind of key to keeping the business model on these new services at a low enough CPGA that would make sense. Where are -- I think you've done some cross-selling this year. And what I'm trying to understand is why wouldn't we have already seen the benefits of cross-selling already? Or am I misunderstanding it and you're kind of launching much bigger initiatives going forward?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes. The cross-selling that we did so far was minimal and based on -- customer we're calling and the sales person who would say something that was on the speaker or their screen. Now this automation that we're just starting. And through an analyzation of it, we will have more to offer. So I think we encouraged by the test. They're going to do more of it in automation. So this should ride also the major focus on the cross sell was actually eVoice. We did not do -- so the vast majority of what we did was eVoice. And now, we will start -- you see you have to develop a special formula. And we call it the right product in the right time in the right price. And that's key. It's not that easy because you have always to figure out when a customer calls what exactly to offer, what was offered last time, was it rejected. So all of these are things that we are working on now. And I am confident that we get better as we move along the growth.

Tavis McCourt

Analyst

That's great. So by the end of this year, we should have a good understanding of whether or not these are services that are attractive to your core customer base because you will have to touch them all through some kind of cross-selling initiative?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes.

R. Turicchi

Management

And I think one of the point of what Hemi just said, you have to remember that 2 things. One, consistent with our philosophy, we wanted some data and some -- basically through a test to make sure the cross-sell effort justifies the amount of time and the monetary and the engineering investment. So that was what the goal was last year. Also last year, those technical resources were substantially focused on the integration of all the acquisitions, specifically the Venali and the Protus acquisition. So as that time frees up, more of it can be allocated to putting the systems in place, to build the cross sell and upsell system, if you will. And it justifies it because we got almost 12 months of results. And Hemi highlighted some of them in the presentation and we talked about some of them in the previous presentations.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of James Breen from William Blair.

James Breen

Analyst

Can you just talk about across the different geographies what you're seeing in terms of sales growth? Are there certain areas when you look from an M&A perspective that you think of more attractive than others geographically going forward?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes. So first and foremost. So organically, we are seeing more growth in markets that's outside the U.S. I talked about Japan. I will talk about Canada. I will talk about Australia. I will talk about the rest of the world. Some markets are virgin so it's easy. Some markets are -- we don't have a strong competition. So on those markets, we see very good returns into -- on our dollars. The problem is those markets are relatively small. So you can spend so much money and then it dries up. Now from an M&A perspective, I'm very hesitant to tell you the countries. But you won't be wrong if you will get that we are more comfortable to operate in countries where they speak English, countries where they have economies that have this certain ethics on them. So those are the countries that are easier and we have numerous discussions and you just have to wait and see our releases once we close those deals. But definitely, the geographies are those that are modern, talk English and have good -- we have good confident that we can do business in those countries without compromising any of our ethical standards.

James Breen

Analyst

So is it fair to say that the international markets are driving the top line from an organic growth perspective but the cash flow is really coming from the U.S. market?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes and no, because we are very profitable also in the non-U.S. markets. Yes. But the U.S., of course, it's bigger. So we are more efficient. So a profit -- gross margin profits are the same but we have no people in those countries relative into the size of the business. So it impacts under the margin.

R. Turicchi

Management

And the OpEx.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matt Hedberg from RBC Capital.

Matthew Hedberg

Analyst

Congratulations on all the recent deals, but I guess I'm wondering on Landslide in particular. Obviously, when you guys went into the backup market, you stayed originally in U.K. and you moved over here via an acquisition in the states. I guess I'm wondering what are your expectations for bringing some of that functionality may be over to Europe?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

It's totally new to us and we will start with figuring out what's the best thing to do. We're only in it for only a few weeks. We have a very strong team that have been added. I think that it's fair to say that we will start with the U.S. We were thinking about the branding. Do we like the name or do we give them a name that has more j2 cliché [ph] to it? But even though we have not decided, it seems to me it's going to be easier to start with the U.S. Also the U.S. is as a certain way of generating leads, talking with the customers, not all the countries are the same. I think also in the U.S., more than other countries, these are being done without face-to-face meeting in many countries that are in Europe still developed countries because of the nature of the distance and everything. They prefer to work with resellers and face-to-face meetings out, of course, is much better when you have communication with the customer both -- or more than one level, not only face-to-face and telephone, the email and all those kinds of things. So I think it's fair to say we start in the U.S. But it's too early. Maybe in another 2 earning calls, I will be more intelligent about this.

Matthew Hedberg

Analyst

That's great. And then I mean you guys are clearly moving down into just more of the app space, email and now CRM. How attractive would -- like an ERP or your human capital management because it seems like a natural way to go sort of as you continue to digest some of these recent acquisitions?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

It's one of the things that we are considering. There's so much you can take. We said in previous earning calls, Matt, that we are looking into CRM also on online invoicing. The trick on selling on a low cost is you want to have something that is very popular, that is used by most businesses and most businesses need it. Small businesses, ERP, it's a hell of discussion. So we are not saying that we won't do it. But if we get into those spaces, we'd rather go big with an existing established brand that we can just better manage and add. But starting small on something like that probably will be less likely.

Matthew Hedberg

Analyst

That's great. And then if I could just ask 2 housekeeping questions. So I'm wondering total headcount for the year and at the end of last year about 600. And then how many large enterprise deals did you have in the quarter?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

So people wise, we had 600 people in the end of 2000...

R. Turicchi

Management

Little high.

Kathleen Griggs

Management

That's at the end of 2011.

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Sorry. In the end of 2010, we have 600 people. In the end of 2011, we have a few less. So maybe 10 or 15 people or less. So 680-some -- 580-some, sorry. So just -- I didn't give you organized answer, so let me organize myself. At the end of 2010, 600 people. At the end of 2011, a little bit less, so 587, 590, something like this. The final numbers will come soon. For 2012, we are planning to increase the headcount. Year end to year end is not a very good way to measure cost but I would be -- to answer, calling for additional year end to year end, 30, 40 people. We have to remind you that several of those are the replacement of customer support that we actually moved from India into -- from outsourced to becoming employees. We have now have a very few outsourced people. So most of the people that were outsourced are now converted to employees. This does not include future acquisitions that might come with people. Did I answer you?

Kathleen Griggs

Management

10 or 16 [ph].

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes, I already said it Landslide came with 16 here.

Matthew Hedberg

Analyst

That's great. And then in terms of enterprise deals?

R. Turicchi

Management

There were 12 this quarter, 6 new large contracts and then there were 6 that were upgraded, meaning, they were smaller customers, and in the renewal process, they became bigger.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Latimore from Northland Capital Markets.

Mike Latimore

Analyst

On the voice side of the business, you had kind of a run rate there. What is the sort of the year-over-year growth in -- in voice today?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

You mean '11 over '10, right?

Mike Latimore

Analyst

Yes, fourth quarter maybe versus fourth in [ph]?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

I need a moment. I've come -- before the end of the call, I'll provide you the number. Kathy will check. But what else, Mike?

Mike Latimore

Analyst

Great. And is part of the strategy on the voice side of things to move upstream may be in the little bit bigger businesses? Or are you going to stay at kind of the current target market there?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

We are trying to move a little bit higher but without sacrificing the margins because larger companies tend to focus on cost there versus the functionality. One thing that I was planning to mention in my slides but I didn't, we are going to add much, much more voice-to-text. Voice-to-text up to now was: a, expensive; b, not so reliable. The recent technology upgrades and some changes that we did in our system and with our partners allow us to give much better quality and in a better pricing. So what we will do now -- up to now, we will ask you, do you want it? Tempt you to try it, temptation. And this and that and hope that you will sign up. Now we are going to have much more of it included because we can guarantee better quality. And I believe that it is still very essential. I'm surprised that back in the U.K. nobody really offers it. And the idea here is I believe as a user, that the voice-to-text, while people don't talk about it a lot, is very, very key because it helps you not only to save the time reading versus listening, also the ability to forward it and to analyze and to search it. And if you want to build statistics on the type of calls that you are getting, think about CRM. When you get it in a format of text, you can do much more with it. So we are going to add it this year to our voice products. I didn't mention it but I originally planned. So you can expect from us to see this feature added more generously in our packages included and built-in already.

Mike Latimore

Analyst

Great. And then on the -- in terms of percent of DID, do you have a rough percent of DID that are in kind of that large enterprise category and then also into the low-price alternative fax category?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

I think, 500,000 of...

R. Turicchi

Management

Well, I think, Mike, you mean the largest of the large, the enterprise deals which would map to the 12 accounts that I just referenced. Of the roughly 2 million DIDs, approximately 15% are in the largest to the large category. And there's roughly an equal amount in the -- slightly less but roughly equal, in the secondary or now, if you will, tertiary brands for individuals and micro businesses.

Nehemia Zucker

Management

And Mike, give me a quarter or 2 again. The MyFax customers, we are still sorting them a little bit into what buckets to put them. Some of them have small 4 accounts but actually, when you start to work with what you see is actually one company signing in 3 different periods. So we still have to clean it up a little bit there.

Mike Latimore

Analyst

And how was the churn or the cancel rate look so far this quarter?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Similar to...

R. Turicchi

Management

I think it's in line and our budget assumes basically a consistent cancel rate with what we experienced last year, which averaged probably something slightly in excess of 2.5%.

Mike Latimore

Analyst

Okay. And last question, just good free cash flows in fiscal '11. Do you think that the kind of free cash flow to revenue ratio that's on '11, do you think that is something that should play out in 2012 as well? Or do you see ...

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Yes.

R. Turicchi

Management

That's a no. Yes, generally. However, you have to recognize -- and it's footnoted throughout the various quarters, that in 2011, there was a significant amount of exercise of stock options that were expiring in December of '11. And they had a very low strike price of $0.94. So if I recall correctly, that exercise and maybe some additional ones generated $35 million roughly of tax deductions that do not affect the GAAP tax rate but they do affect your cash tax payments. So at 40% margin, there's about $15 million of benefit there. So it's obviously very difficult to predict to what extent options will be exercised in this current fiscal year and what benefit, if any, will come to the company in terms of deductions. What I would do -- what we're looking at is the midpoint of Kathy's range that we gave for the guidance is 25%. So to be safe or conservative, you could impute a 25% cash tax rate on the pretax earnings and then add back the depreciation and amortization and subtract out a few million dollars for CapEx to come up with the free cash flow number for '12.

Nehemia Zucker

Management

And Mike, when I said yes, I mean the operational cash flow not the one that Scott just mentioned, which are activities that derive from tax and from stock purchasing. But from the operational standpoint, yes. We are learning to have another strong year of free cash flow from operations.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joanna Makris from Mizuho Securities.

Joanna Makris

Analyst

So you spent a bit of time talking about adding to your people and marketing resources as you think about the OpEx focus for next year. As you further penetrate the corporate market and you're moving into more complex apps, do you believe that online is going to mean your primary go-to market for the corporate market? Or do you see having to add to your direct sales to your telesales presence in order to further penetrate the corporate market?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

And to answer your question, j2, including the corporate, sees belief versus close coming online. Today, people that look for cloud solutions go to the cloud to find them and research them. So we are seeing more leads versus direct sign-ups for our products. As far as the sales force, the people that we have -- and we have several levels of sales people, we have a group of less than 15 that are actually situated around the world and they would not only take a call, they will also pay a visit to large customers. We are growing those but insignificantly 2 or 3. So on the grand scheme of things, they don't -- it doesn't mean all a lot. On the telesales, when they do those medium-sized deals, we are adding, it is already in the numbers. And again, we are adding another 5 maybe. Those people are relatively -- their compensation is driven by commissions. And -- so to answer your questions, we are not seeing a reduction of the important and the leads that are coming from the online which are just different. They come in many times in leads. Sometimes they came with the free tests. But j2 is continuing to be a company that is selling online with low touch -- lowering the touch is always the goal here.

Joanna Makris

Analyst

And do you think that will kind of apply, again, as you think about more complex apps like the CRM app. And if so, why?

Nehemia Zucker

Management

The companies we acquired and as I said, we acquired a few weeks ago, they are like j2. Everything was done online. They have only one sales guy and one sales manager. So they are online company. You call, they give it a try. It's very simple. If you have a simpler product that is -- I encourage you to go and try the Landslide product. It's extremely simple. It's simple. There's no significant download or anything. So it's easy and definitely low touch is something that we can do there. So now, the other question that came from Mike -- Mike Latimore. And Kathy, why won't you say it?

Kathleen Griggs

Management

Okay, to answer your question, Mike. For the period Q4 2011 over Q4 2010, we increased our voice revenues by approximately 8%. And then for the full year, we increased 13% 2011 over 2010.

Operator

Operator

There are no other questions in the queue. I'd like to hand the call back over to Mr. Turicchi for closing comments.

R. Turicchi

Management

Okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate all of you for joining us on this call today to discuss the past year's financial results and looking forward to 2012. We will be making announcements about conferences that we'll be attending over the next several weeks. I know there's one coming up in the end of February in San Francisco, followed by a conference in Orlando in early March. And then we'll put an announcement in April regarding the timing of the May conference call to discuss Q1 results. Thank you.

Nehemia Zucker

Management

Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.