Integral Ad Science Holding Company (IAS), a digital advertising verification company, is no longer telling investors how many customers it has. In its latest quarterly filing, Integral inserted new language explaining why it will no longer disclose its customer count:

“We previously provided number of total advertising customers (as of end of the period) as a key business metric, however, starting with the second quarter of 2023, we have discontinued this metric as we no longer use it to evaluate our business or measure our performance.”

Not surprisingly, Integral’s total customer count declined year-over-year (YoY) in the previous quarter. It’s the first YoY decline in total customer count DuDil identified in Integral’s six previous quarterly filings dating back to August 2021.

In May 2023, the SEC sent Integral a letter requiring it to disclose more about its key business metrics, including the company’s customers. In its response, Integral provided additional detail and noted it uses key business metrics for its advertising customers to evaluate the business because those customers are the predominant source of the company’s revenue.

Three months later, Integral announced its customer count would become secret.

In prior filings, Integral told investors its customer count metric is a:

“...key indicator of our scale and growth and the adoption of our platform.”

Notably, the SEC letter also highlighted discrepancies in Integral’s financial statements.