CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CoStar Group Shareholder Meeting. I will now turn things over to Chairman of the Board, Michael Klein.

Good morning. I'm Mike Klein, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CoStar Group, Inc., and I'll be acting as Chairman of this meeting today. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the company's 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. It's now 10 a.m., and the meeting is now called to order. As you know, in light of the current public health concerns, as a result of COVID-19, we are holding this year's annual meeting with shareholders through this virtual format. I'm pleased to announce that other members of management and the Board are with us and also by phone this morning. And we also have Wes Epton from Ernst & Young, the company's independent registered public accounting firm, who will be available to answer questions during the Q&A portion of the meeting. I have proof by affidavit from Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. that the notice of this meeting and notices of access to the proxy materials and voting has been duly given to all shareholders of record as of April 8, 2020, which is the record date for this meeting. CoStar Group's list of registered stockholders as of the record date is available for inspection during the meeting by clicking on the link at the bottom of the screen. These documents will be filed with the corporate records of the company. Jaye Campbell has been appointed to act as inspector of elections for this meeting. Ms. Campbell has signed her oath of office, and that will be filed also with the records of this meeting. I've been informed by the inspector of elections that we have present in person and by proxy a sufficient number of shares to constitute a quorum on all matters being presented at the meeting and so the meeting itself is duly constituted. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the agenda and the rules of conduct that have been posted on the virtual annual meeting website to ensure fairness to all shareholders in attendance and an orderly meeting. We ask that you, participants, abide by these rules and thank you in advance for your cooperation. The polls were opened at the beginning of the meeting, and we will close the polls on all matters immediately after the presentation of today's proposals. If you are a stockholder of CoStar Group that logged in using your unique control number, you can vote your shares during the meeting by clicking on the Click Here button on the bottom right-hand side of your screen. If you have already voted your shares, there's no need to vote again during today's meeting unless you'd like to change your vote. [Operator Instructions] After we give an overview of the items of business being considered at the meeting, we will respond to any questions regarding the proposals, close the polls and then report on the preliminary results of the vote. Then we will seek to answer questions submitted that are appropriate to CoStar Group's business in a general question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I will turn to the formal portion of the meeting, the agenda for the meeting, which should be visible on the top right-hand side of your screen. I will now introduce the 3 agenda items in the order presented in the proxy statement. One, election of directors. The first item of business is the election of 8 directors named in the proxy statement to serve until the company's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors are elected and qualified. The second item of business is to ratify the appointment of the firm of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company's fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. The third and final order of business, to approve on a nonbinding advisory basis our executive compensation. As you know, our Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that you vote for approval of all 3 proposals. You can find more information about them in the proxy statement which you can access, along with the annual report, in the meeting materials section of the meeting website. There are no other proposals to come before this meeting. We will now see if there are any questions or comments regarding these proposals. There seem to be no active questions, so the polls are now closed for voting. Jaye Campbell, the inspector of elections will now present the results of the voting. Jaye?

Thank you, Mike. Based on all the proxies and ballots received, the company's 8 nominees have been elected to the Board of Directors. The appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the current fiscal year has been ratified. And finally, the advisory resolution on executive compensation has been approved. Back to you, Mike.

Thank you. This then concludes the business matters for the meeting and the formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned. We will now file the final report of the inspector of elections with the records of the meeting, and we will expect to report the results of the voting on a Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within 4 business days of this meeting. If any stockholder has submitted questions through the web portal where now appropriate -- that are now appropriate to CoStar Group's business, we will attempt to answer them now. As a reminder, we will only respond to questions that comply with the guidelines set on the rules. It appears that there are no questions that have been submitted relating to CoStar Group's business. And therefore, we will now conclude the Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Please stay safe and well, and thank you for joining us.