During 20202021 and going forward, we will continue to innovate, improve and build new applications into and with our platform, with the ultimate objective of developing applications in combination,integrated application solutions that are not offered by our competitors. As a company focused on technology offerings, we understand the importance of advancements and fully appreciate the risks and consequences of losing our market position - a very common mistake many technology companies have made.position. The pursuit of technological innovation is and has been a part of our overall strategy as an organization over the last several years.

Each year we bring to market certain platform upgrades, add-ons, and new offerings that we believe will round outcomplement our overall platform solutions. We believe our innovation and technological efficiencies continue to be a competitive advantage and focus for us.

We will continue to evaluate complimentary verticals and systemsbusinesses that we can integrate well into our current platforms. Thesecommunications platform. While we typically focus on accretive acquisition opportunities, typically needwe will also evaluate technology acquisitions that we believe would be strategic to be accretive and consistent with what we have done in the past.our overall business. We will continue to maintain our product and technologyacquisition focus so it is likelyin the communications industry. Specifically, we will look for acquisitions in areas we currently generate revenues and/or see clear opportunities to leverage our strengths to disrupt existing markets. In these potential transactions, we will look forcommunications products and businesses that have recurring long-term revenues, customers and leading technologies that will further enhance our overall market position.

During 2020, we will continuecontinued to strengthen our brands in the market by working aggressively to expand our new customer footprint and continue to cross sell to increase average revenue per user.customer. Since our platform, systems and operations are built to handle growth, we can leverage them to produce consistently high margins and increased cash flows without a proportional increase in our capital or operating expenses.

Our sales organization is responsible for generating new customer opportunities and expanding our current customers. We ended 20192020 with a multi-tier organization of sales personnel, made upconsisting of Sales Development Representatives, Business Development Managers and Strategic Account ManagersManagers. During 2020, we created a new inbound digital sales and Business Development Managers.marketing group to manage all inbound leads and focus on e-commerce and digital marketing relating to the portions of our platform we believe may be attractive for online purchases. We believe this structured approach is the most efficient and effective way to reach new customers and also grow our current install base. The total compensation packages for these teams are heavily weighted with commission compensation to incent sales.sales and retention. All members of the sales team have sales quotas. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed 2029 full-time equivalent sales and marketing personnel compared to 1625 as of December 31, 2018. During the first quarter of 2020, we have also created a new inbound digital sales and marketing group to manage all inbound leads, e-commerce and digital marketing focused on the portions of our platform we believe can be purchased online.2019.

The business servicescompliance industry as it relates to compliance and communications is highly fragmented, with hundreds of independent service companies that provide a range of financial reporting, document management services and withservices. There is also a wide range of printing and technology software providers. The demands for many of our services historically have been cyclical and reliant on capital market activity. Over the past few years, we have investedbeen offering subscriptions which combine both compliance software and service in several new product offerings beyond our traditional compliance reporting and transaction services business.one annual contract. We believe thesethis new offerings will affordoffering affords us the ability to reduce our revenue seasonality and provide a new baseline of recurring annualized contracts under our new subscription-based business.

Despite some significant consolidation in recent years, our industry remainsthe communications and compliance industries remain both highly fragmented and extremely competitive. The success of our products and services are generally based on price, quality and the ability to service customer demands. Management has been focused on offsetting these risks relating to competition as well as the seasonality by introducing our cloud-based subscription platforms, with higher margins, clear competitive advantages, higher customer stickiness and scalability to withstand market and pricing pressures.

We also review our operations on a regular basis to balance growth with opportunities to maximize efficiencies and support our long-term strategic goals. We believe by blending our workflow technologies with our legacy service offerings we are able tocan offer a comprehensive set of products and solutions to each of our customers within one platform that most competitors cannot offer today.

We believe we are positioned to be the public companycommunications platform of choice as a cost-effective alternative to both small regional providers and global providers. We also believe we benefit from our location in Raleigh, North Carolina, as we do not experience significant competition forcan hire and retain sales, customer service or production personnel.personnel in the area at a reasonable cost. However, there are areas we have strong competition in hiring, such as research and development and qualified sales individuals with communications industry experience.

Our customers include a wide variety of public and private companies, mutual funds, law firms, brokerage firms, investment banks, individuals, and other institutions. For the year ended December 31, 2019,2020, we worked with 2,242 publicly traded customers and 4,426 private customers, compared to 2,169 publicly traded customers and 2,691 private customers compared to 2,103 publicly traded customers and 2,265 private customers for the year ended December 31, 2018.2019. The increase in private companies is primarily related to additional agencies we began to partner with during the year as well as direct sales to private companies in our newswire business. We did not have any customers during the year ended December 31, 20192020 that accounted for more than 10% of our revenue or more than 10% of our year end accounts receivable balance as of December 31, 2019.2020.

As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed seventy-nineeighty-six employees and engaged sixfive independent contractors, none of which are represented by a union. Our employees work in our corporate offices in North Carolina and in other offices throughout North America.

Our headquarters are located in Raleigh, North Carolina. In October 2019, we began a new lease for 9,766 square feet of office space, which expires December 31, 2027.

As part of our acquisition of VWP, we assumed a three-year lease for an office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and a short termmonth-to-month lease for an office in New York City, New York. Additionally, we have an office in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is also on a short termshort-term lease. As a result of an increase in our remote workforce, we are examining the needs for these satellite locations and have already vacated the New York City office after year-end. The Company intends to monitor the needs of its employees both in a remote and on-site basis and will make the necessary adjustments to its locations on that basis.

We maintain both a general business liability, policycyber-security and an errors and omissions policypolicies specific to our industry and operations. We believe that our insurance policies provide adequate coverage for all reasonable risks associated with operating our business. Additionally, we maintain a Directors and Officers insurance policy, which is standard for our industry and size. We also maintain key person life insurance on our C level executives, and one other key individuals.individual.

The securities and financial services industries generally are subject to regulation in the United States and elsewhere. Regulatory policies in the United States and the rest of the world are tasked with safeguarding the integrity of the securities and financial markets and with protecting the interests of both issuers and shareholders.

In the United States, corporate issuers are subject to regulation under both federal and state laws, which often require public disclosure and regulatory filings. At the federal level, the SEC regulates the securities industry, along with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, formally known as NASD, and NYSE market regulations, various stock exchanges, and other self-regulatory organizations (“SRO”).

In the European Union (EU), the securities and reporting authorities tend to be based on exchanges as well as individual country disclosure requirements. We currently work with our stock exchange partners to deliver our solutions. We believe this is the best approach as this market is highly complex and divided in comparison to our North American markets.

We operate our filing agent business and transfer agent business under the supervision and regulations of the SEC.

Our transfer agency business, Direct Transfer, LLC, is subject to certain regulations, which are governed, without limitation by the SEC, with respect to registrationregistered with the SEC and is subject to SEC regulations relating to, among other things, annual reporting, examination, internal controls, tax reporting and escheatment services. Our transfer agency is currently approved to handle the securities of NYSE, NASDAQ and OTC securities.Markets.

Our mission is to assist corporate issuers with these regulations, communication and compliance of rules imposed by regulatory bodies. The majority of our business involves the distribution of content, either electronically or on paper, to governing bodies and shareholders alike. We are licensedrecognized under these regulations to disseminate, communicate and or solicit on behalf of our customers, the issuers.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Prospective investors should carefully consider the following risks and uncertainties and all other information contained or referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before investing in our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently deem immaterial, also may become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose some or all of your investment.

The market for our solutions depends in part on the requirements of the SEC and other regulatory bodies. Any legislation or rulemaking substantially affecting the content or method of delivery of documents to be filed with these regulatory bodies could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, evolving market practices in light of regulatory developments could adversely affect the demand for our solutions. Uncertainty caused by political change in the United States and European Union (particularly Brexit) heightens regulatory uncertainty in these areas. For example, the White HouseSEC has proposed a rule to require certain over-the-counter (“OTC”) companies to provide greater transparency to investors and Congressional leadership haveother market participants by requiring that information about the issuer be current and publicly announcedavailable, which could cause a goaldecrease in the number of repealing or amending parts of the Dodd Frank Act, as well as certain regulations affecting the financial services industry.publicly traded companies. New legislation, or a significant change in rules, regulations, directives or standards could reduce demand for our products and services. Regulatory changes could also increase expenses as we modify our products and services to comply with new requirements and retain relevancy, impose limitations on our operations, and increase compliance or litigation expense, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Competition across all of our businesses is intense. The speed and accuracy with which we can meet customers’ needs, the price of our services and the quality of our products and supporting services are factors in this competition.

These competitive pressures to any aspect of our business could reduce our revenue and earnings.

Our Platform and Technologyproduct solutions are complex and we often release new features. As such, our solutions could have errors, defects, viruses or security flaws that could result in unanticipated downtime for our customers and harm our reputation and our business. Internet-based software may contain undetected errors or security flaws when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. We might from time to time find such defects in our solutions, the detection and correction of which could be time consuming and costly. Since our customers use our solutions for important aspects of their business, any errors, defects, disruptions in access, security flaws, viruses, data corruption or other performance problems with our solutions could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs, customers could elect not to renew, could delay or withhold payment to us or may make warranty or other claims against us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable or the expense and risk of litigation. We could also lose future sales. In addition, a security breach of our solutions could result in our future business prospects being materially adversely impacted.

Since 2013, we have experienced overall growth in our business, customer base, employee headcount and operations, and we expect to continue to grow our business over the next several years. This growth places a significant strain on our executive management team and employees and on our operating and financial systems. To manage our future growth, we must continue to scale our business functions, improve our financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures and expand and train our work force. In particular, we grew from twenty-four employees and contractors as of December 31, 2012 to eighty-fiveninety-one (including 5 independent contractors) as of December 31, 2019.2020. We anticipate that additional investments in sales personnel, infrastructure and research and development spending will be required to:

We cannot assure you that our controls, systems and procedures will be adequate to support our future operations or that we will be able to manage our growth effectively. We also cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to expand our market presence in the United States and other current markets or successfully establish our presence in other markets. Failure to effectively manage growth could result in difficulty or delays in deploying customers, declines in quality or customer satisfaction, increases in costs, difficulties in introducing new features or other operational difficulties, and any of these difficulties could adversely impact our business performance and results of operations.

Our ability to grow and our future success will depend to a significant extent on the continued contributions of our key executives, managers and employees. In addition, many of our individual technical and sales personnel have extensive experience in our business operations and/or have valuable customer relationships that would be difficult to replace. Their departure, if unexpected and unplanned, could cause a disruption to our business. Our competition for these individuals is intense in certain areas of our business. We may not succeed in identifying and retaining the appropriate personnel in key positions. Further, competitors and other entities have in the past recruited and may in the future attempt to recruit our employees, particularly our sales personnel. The loss of the services of our key personnel, the inability to identify, attract and retain qualified personnel in the future or delays in hiring qualified personnel, particularly technical and sales personnel, could make it difficult for us to manage our business and meet key objectives, such as the timely introduction of new technology-based products and services, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.results

If we fail to keep customers’ proprietary information and documentation confidential, we may lose existing customers and potential new customers and may expose them to significant loss of revenue based on the premature release of confidential information. While we have security measures in place to protect customer information and prevent data loss and other security breaches, these measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures.

In addition, our service providers (including, without limitation, hosting facilities, disaster recovery providers and software providers) may have access to our customers’ data and could suffer security breaches or data losses that affect our customers’ information.

If an actual or perceived security breach or premature release occurs, our reputation could be damaged and we may lose future sales and customers. We may also become subject to civil claims, including indemnity or damage claims in certain customer contracts, or criminal investigations by appropriate authorities, any of which could harm our business and operating results. Furthermore, while our errors and omissions insurance policies include liability coverage for these matters, if we experienced a widespread security breach that impacted a significant number of our customers for whom we have these indemnity obligations, we could be subject to indemnity claims that exceed such coverage.

We generally recognize subscription and support revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscription agreements, which are typically on a quarterly or annual cycle and automatically renew for additional periods. As a result, a substantial portion of the revenue we report in each quarter will be derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be immediately reflected in our revenue results for that quarter. This decline, however, will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our solutions and potential changes in our rate of renewals may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our subscription revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term. In addition, we may be unable to adjust our cost structure to reflect the changes in revenue, which could adversely affect our operating results.

In 2015, we began our transition from a services company to a software as a servicecloud-based platform company. As a result of this transition, our ability to forecast our future operating results is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described herein. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties (which we use to plan our business) are incorrect or change due to changes in our markets, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations and our business could suffer.

From time to time, we may be involved in disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business. We expect that the number and significance of these potential disputes may increase as our business expands and we grow larger. While most of our agreements with customers limit our liability for damages arising from our solutions, we cannot assure you that these contractual provisions will protect us from liability for damages in the event we are sued. Although we carry general liability insurance coverage, our insurance may not cover all potential claims to which we are exposed or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation, require significant amounts of management time, and result in the diversion of significant operational resources. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The computation of sales and use taxes and our provision for income tax is complex, as it is based on the laws of multiple taxing jurisdictions and requires significant judgment on the application of complicated rules governing accounting for such tax provisions under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Additionally, provisions for income tax for interim quarters are based on forecasts of our U.S. and non-U.S. effective tax rates for the year and contain numerous assumptions. Various items cannot be accurately forecasted and future events may be treated as discrete to the period in which they occur. Our provision for income tax can be materially impacted by things such as changes in our business, internal restructuring and acquisitions, changes in tax laws and accounting guidance and other regulatory, legislative developments, tax audit determinations, changes in uncertain tax positions, tax deductions attributed to equity compensation and changes in our determination for a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets. For all of these reasons, our actual income taxes may be materially different than our provision for income tax.

We manage private and confidential information and documentation related to our customers’ finances and transactions, often prior to public dissemination. The use of insider information is highly regulated in the United States and abroad, and violations of securities laws and regulations may result in civil and criminal penalties. In addition, we are subject to the data privacy and protection laws and regulations adopted by federal, state and foreign legislatures and governmental agencies. Data privacy and protection is highly regulated and may become the subject of additional regulation in the future. Privacy laws restrict our storage, use, processing, disclosure, transfer and protection of non-public personal information by our customers or collected from visitors of our website. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, policies and legal obligations relating to privacy and data protection. However, it is possible that these requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with federal, state or international laws, including laws and regulations regulating privacy, payment card information, personal health information, data or consumer protection, could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others.

Our ability to increase sales and deliver and sell our service offerings profitably is subject to a number of risks, including changes to corporate disclosure requirements, regulatory filings and distribution of proxy materials, competitive risks such as the entrance of additional competitors into our market, pricing and competition and risks associated with the marketing of new services in order to remain competitive.

The acceptance of our services depends on a number of factors, including the nature and size of the potential customer base, the effectiveness of our system, and the extent of the commitment being made by the potential customer, and is difficult to predict. Currently, our sales and marketing expenses per customer are fairly low. If potential customers take longer than we expect to decide whether to use our services and require that we travel to their sites, present more marketing material, or spend more time in completing the sales process, our selling expenses could increase, and decrease our profitability.

A greater portion of our printing, distribution and solicitation of proxy materials business will be processed during the second quarter of our fiscal year. Therefore, the seasonality of our revenue makes it difficult to estimate future operating results based on the results of any specific quarter and could affect an investor’s ability to compare our financial condition and results of operations on a quarter-by-quarter basis. To balance the seasonal activity of print, distribution and solicitation of proxy materials, we will attempt to continue to grow other revenues linked to predictable periodic activity that is not cyclical in nature.

In the past few years, we have expended significant resources to develop and introduce new technology-based products and improve and enhance our existing technology-based products in an attempt to maintain or increase our sales. The long-term success of new or enhanced technology-based products may depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the following: anticipating and effectively addressing customer preferences and demand, the success of our sales and marketing efforts, timely and successful development, changes in governmental regulations and the quality of or defects in our products.

The development of our technology-based products is complex and costly, and we typically have multiple technology-based products in development at the same time. Given the complexity, we occasionally have experienced, and could experience in the future, delays in completing the development and introduction of new and enhanced technology-based products. Problems in the design or quality of our products or services may also have an adverse effect on our brand, business, financial condition, and operating results. Unanticipated problems in developing technology-based products could also divert substantial development resources, which may impair our ability to develop new technology-based products and enhancements of such products, and could substantially increase our costs. If new or enhanced product and service introductions are delayed or not successful, we may not be able to achieve an acceptable return, if any, on our development efforts, and our business may be adversely affected.

The stock prices of smaller public companies can experience extreme price and volume fluctuations. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or out of proportion to the operating performance of such companies. We expect our stock price to be similarly volatile. These broad market fluctuations may continue and could harm our stock price. Any negative change in the public’s perception of our prospects or companies in our market could also depress our stock price, regardless of our actual results. Factors affecting the trading price of our common stock may include:

The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us adversely change their recommendation regarding our common stock, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the trading price of our common stock could decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the trading price of our common stock or trading volume to decline.

Market conditions may result in volatility in the level of, and fluctuations in, market prices of stocks generally and, in turn, our common stock and sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the market, in each case being unrelated or disproportionate to changes in our operating performance. A weak global economy could also contribute to extreme volatility of the markets, which may have an effect on the market price of our common stock.

We paid dividends in 2012, part of 2013 and from the fourth quarter of 2015 through the third quarter of 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we announced that we would no longer be declaring quarterly dividends for the foreseeable future in order to invest such money in our business. There can be no assurances that dividends will be paid in the future in the form of either cash or stock.

We currently have authorized but unissued “blank check” preferred stock. Without the vote of our shareholders, the Board of Directors may issue such preferred stock with both economic and voting rights and preferences senior to those of the holders of our common stock. Any such issuances may negatively impact the ultimate benefits to the holders of our common stock in the event of a liquidation event and may have the effect of preventing a change of control and could dilute the voting power of our common stock and reduce the market price of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue up to 20,000,000 shares of common stock. Future sales and issuances of our capital stock or rights to purchase our capital stock could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders. We may sell common stock, convertible securities and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, investors may be materially diluted, which could result in downward pressure on the price of our common stock. New investors in subsequent transactions could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. In addition, if outstanding stock options are exercised or when outstanding restricted stock units are settled in shares, current shareholders will experience dilution.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that would not be incurred as a private company. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), and are required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Compliance with these requirements has increased our legal and financial compliance costs and made some activities more time consuming and costly. Many of these costs recur annually. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. If we have a material weaknesses or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to prevent fraud. As a result, our failure to satisfy the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on a timely basis could result in us being subject to regulatory action and a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, both of which in turn could cause the market value of our common stock to decline and affect our ability to raise capital.

Because we are a smaller reporting company, our independent registered public accounting firm was not required to and did not perform an audit of our internal control over financial reporting for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.2020.

None.

Our headquarters are located in Raleigh, North Carolina. In October 2019, we began a new lease for 9,766 square feet of office space, which expires December 31, 2027.

As part of our acquisition of VWP, we assumed a three-year lease for an office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and a short termmonth-to-month lease for an office in New York City, New York. Additionally, we have an office in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is also on a short termshort-term lease. As a result of an increase in our remote workforce, we are examining the needs for these satellite locations and have already vacated the New York City office after year-end. The Company intends to monitor the needs of its employees both in a remote and on-site basis and will make the necessary adjustments to its locations on that basis.

From time to time, we may be involved in litigation that arises through the normal course of business. As of the date of this filing, we are neither a party to any litigation nor are we aware of any such threatened or pending litigation that might result in a material adverse effect to our business.

Not applicable.

Our common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol "ISDR". The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low closing prices of our common stock for the following periods.

As of December 31, 2019,2020, there were approximately 150 registered holders of record of our common stock and 3,786,3983,770,752 shares outstanding.

On August 7, 2019, the Company publicly announced a share repurchase program under which the Company is authorized to repurchase up to $1,000,000 of its common shares. On March 16, 2020, the Company publicly announced an increase to the share repurchase program to repurchase up to $2,000,000 of its common shares. As of December 31, 2019,2020, the Company repurchased a total of 76,170160,068 shares at an aggregate cost of $769,000$1,552,000 (not including commissions of $4,000)$7,000) as shown in the table below ($ in 000’s, except share or per share amounts):

 

We did not pay any dividends during the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. During the year ended December 31, 2018, we paid dividends totaling $460,000 or $0.15 per share. There can be no assurances that dividends will be paid in the future. The declaration and payment of dividends in the future will be determined by our Board of Directors in light of conditions then existing, including our earnings, financial condition, capital requirements and other factors.

This chart compares the five-year cumulative total return on our common stock with that of the Russell MicroCap index and a custom peer group, which was selected by the Company. The chart assumes $100 was invested on December 31, 2014,2015, in our common stock, the Russell MicroCap index and the peer group, and that any dividends were reinvested. The Peer Group is composed of: Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., Cision, Ltd.Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc., and Workiva, Inc. The peer group index utilizes the same method of presentation and assumptions for the total return calculation as does Issuer Direct Corporation (ISDR) and the Russell MicroCap index. All companies in the peer group index are weighted in accordance with their market capitalizations.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this Form 10-K include certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which are intended to be covered by safe harbors. Those statements include, but are not limited to, all statements regarding our and management’s intent, belief and expectations, such as statements concerning our future and our operating and growth strategy. We generally use words such as "believe," "may," "could," "will," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements for many reasons including our ability to implement our business plan, our ability to raise additional funds and manage consumer acceptance of our products, our ability to broaden our customer base, our ability to maintain a satisfactory relationship with our suppliers and other risks described in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Item 1A of this Report on Form 10-K. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and our future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, the factors set forth under the Risk Factors section of this report. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that our objectives and plans will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K are based on information presently available to our management. We do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this document to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

Total revenue increased by $2,063,000,$2,231,000, or 14%, to $16,295,000$18,526,000 during the year ended December 31, 2019,2020, as compared to $14,232,000$16,295,000 in 2018. Customers obtained from2019. The increase is attributable to an increase in revenue in our acquisitions of VWP and FSCwire contributed $2,175,000 of revenue during the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to 2018. A portion of this revenue is recognized in the Platform and Technology revenue stream and a portion in the Services revenue stream.Communications business.