Use these links to rapidly review the document
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20182019
or
☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number: 001-36376
2U, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware | 26-2335939 | |||
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |||
7900 Harkins Road | Lanham, | MD | 20706 | |
| (Address of | (Zip Code) | |||
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which | ||
| Common | TWOU | The Nasdaq Global Select Market | ||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yesx☒ No o☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o☐Nox☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yesx☒ No o☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yesx☒ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ☒ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | ||||
| Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | Smaller reporting company | ☐ | ||||
Emerging growth company | ☐ | ||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes o☐ No x☒
The aggregate market value of the 49,091,15147,449,901 shares of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 201828, 2019 (computed based on the closing price on such date as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market) was $4,102,056,578.$1,786,014,274.
As of February 20, 2019,24, 2020, there were 58,141,86063,627,643 shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Company’s definitive proxy statement, to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, for its 20192020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, or an amendment on Form 10-K/A are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K.
2U, Inc.
FORM 10-K
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||||
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and which are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “objective,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue” and “ongoing,” or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our expectations of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Factors whichthat may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to:
trends in the higher education market and the market for online education, and expectations for growth in those markets;
the acceptance, adoption and growth of online learning by colleges and universities, faculty, students, employers, accreditors and state and federal licensing bodies;
the impact of competition on our industry and innovations by competitors;
our ability to comply with evolving regulations and legal obligations related to data privacy, data protection and information security;
our expectations about the potential benefits of our cloud-based software-as-a-service, or SaaS, technology and technology-enabled services to university clients and students;
our dependence on third parties to provide certain technological services or components used in our platform;
our ability to meet the anticipated launch dates of our graduatedegree programs, short courses and short courses;boot camps;
our expectations about the predictability, visibility and recurring nature of our business model;
our ability to acquire new university clients and expand our graduatedegree programs, and short courses and boot camps with existing university clients;
our ability to successfully integrate the operations of Get Educated International Proprietary Limited,our acquisitions, including Trilogy Education Services, Inc., or GetSmarter,Trilogy, achieve the expected benefits of the acquisitionour acquisitions and manage, expand and grow the combined company;
our ability to service our substantial indebtedness and comply with the financial and other restrictive covenants contained in the credit agreement governing our senior secured term loan facility;
our ability to refinance our indebtedness on attractive terms, if at all, to better align with our focus on profitability;
our ability to generate sufficient future operating cash flows from recent acquisitions to ensure related goodwill is not impaired;
our ability to execute our growth strategy in the international, undergraduate and non-degree alternative markets;
our ability to continue to acquirerecruit prospective students for our graduate programs and short courses;offerings;
our ability to affectmaintain or increase student retention rate in our graduatedegree programs;
our ability to attract, hire and retain qualified employees;
our expectations about the scalability of our cloud-based platform;
our expectations regarding future expenses in relation to future revenue;
potential changes in regulations applicable to us or our university clients; and
our expectations regarding the amount of time our cash balances and other available financial resources will be sufficient to fund our operations.operations; and
the impact and cost of stockholder activism.
You should refer to the risks described in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
You should read this Annual Report on Form 10-K completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “2U,” “Company,“our company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to 2U, Inc. and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a global leader inleading provider of education technology. Fortechnology for nonprofit colleges and universities. We build, deliver, and support more than a decade,400 digital and in-person educational offerings, including graduate degrees, undergraduate degrees, professional certificates, boot camps, and short courses, across the career curriculum continuum. Together with our university clients, we have beenpositively transformed the lives of more than 200,000 students.
Our comprehensive platform of tightly integrated technology and services provides the digital infrastructure that universities need to attract, enroll, educate and support students at scale. With our platform, students can pursue their education anytime, anywhere, without quitting their jobs or moving; and university clients can provide broader access to their educational offerings, thereby improving lives by powering world-classoutcomes, skills attainment, and career prospects for a greater number of students.
We are leading the way in helping nonprofit colleges and universities succeed in the digital education. Asage and we have become a trusted partner and brand steward of great universities, we build, deliver, and support online graduate programs and certificates for working adults. Our industry-leading short courses, offered by GetSmarter, are designed to equip life-long learners with in-demand career skills.
Business Segments
We have two reportable segments: the Graduate Program Segment and the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment.
In our Graduate Program Segment, we target studentsprovide the technology and services to nonprofit colleges and universities to enable the online delivery of degree programs. Students enrolled in these programs are generally seeking a fullan undergraduate or graduate degree of the same quality they would receive on-campus. on campus.
In our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment, we targetprovide premium online short courses and technical, skills-based boot camps through relationships with nonprofit colleges and universities. Students enrolled in these offerings are generally working professionals seeking career advancement through skills attainment.
Our Platform
Our platform, which we refer to as the 2U Operating System, or 2UOS, consists of a seamlessly integrated ecosystem of technology, people and data. Through 2UOS, we provide our university clients with front-end and back-end cloud-based SaaS technology and technology-enabled services. These two componentsservices, which are tightly integrated and optimized with data analysis and machine learning techniques. Our 2UOS delivers technology with a human touch and is the keystone of our commitment to provide our university clients the tools they need to lead the digital transformation in education.
Data-Driven Approach to students enrolled inSelecting Offerings
Through our offeringsexperience launching and to faculty members and university administrators supporting our offerings:
Pre-Launch Technology and Services
2UOS provides the following before launching an offering:
| • | Technology Infrastructure. We use a variety of proprietary technologies to unify our suite of applications and automate the setup of technology infrastructure for new degree programs. We also have proprietary technology that translates school-specific code into a common language to streamline launching new degree programs with multiple schools. |
| • | Marketing. We use data analytics and proprietary algorithms to develop digital marketing campaigns to engage prospective students efficiently. Our marketing services include the following: |
| ◦ | Attract Prospective Students - Our marketing team uses best-in-class digital marketing strategies to attract prospective students, including Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization. |
| ◦ | Brand Identity - Our brand marketing team works with each university client to develop offering-specific content and ensure that the right message is presented to the consumer. |
| ◦ | Data Analysis - Using data analytics and machine learning techniques, we focus our marketing efforts on finding prospective students for appropriate offerings at times when conversion is more likely. We also believe that our continuously expanding selection of educational offerings increases our marketing efficiency across our portfolio. |
| • | Compliance. Many of our degree programs are subject to authorization requirements in states in which students reside. We typically work with our university clients to identify and comply with a complex array of state authorization requirements to ensure that students can enroll in our degree programs no matter where they live. |
Recruiting and Enrollment Technology and Services
2UOS provides the following technology and services to streamline the admissions and enrollment process for students and university clients:
| • | Recruiting. We use third-party and proprietary technologies to support prospective students through the admissions process. We provide prospective students with transparent information regarding admissions requirements, the application process, curriculum, financial information, and time to completion. For our degree programs, while our clients make admissions decisions, we organize and route completed student application packages to the university’s admissions office. |
| • | Technology Tools. The following systems and applications automate and simplify admissions-related processes for our university clients: |
| ◦ | Customer Relationship Management. We deploy a customer relationship management system for each degree program we enable. This system serves as the data hub for student recruiting activities, application progress, university admissions review, registration and student support. We and our university clients use this information to ensure proper coordination and support as a student progresses through the program. |
| ◦ | University Systems Integration Applications. We use a proprietary application to integrate our technology with our university clients’ student information systems. This application automates the student enrollment process, allowing for efficient and timely student enrollments. |
| ◦ | Admissions Application Processing Portal. Our proprietary admissions application system, known as the Online Application and Recommendation System, or OARS, automates the admissions application process for degree programs. OARS is customized to meet each degree program’s unique application requirements. |
Learning and Student Success Technology and Services
2UOS provides the following technology and services to develop engaging curriculum for our offerings and to support the student learning experience:
| • | Learning Technology. Our online learning platform is an end-to-end learning and teaching platform that allows our university clients to deliver high-quality educational content. For our degree programs, our online learning platform provides a live and engaging classroom environment that is accessible through proprietary web, mobile and TV applications, as well as offline for convenient consumption of asynchronous coursework. Our STEM-based education tools and collaborative annotation technology significantly enhance the learning experience for degree program students and instruction capabilities for faculty. Offerings in our Alternative Credential Segment are delivered through our proprietary learning platforms that share many of the core features of our degree program learning platform. |
| • | Live classes. Our offerings feature live, online, face-to-face classes, in addition to asynchronous content and coursework. |
| • | Curriculum. For many of our offerings, our production staff and course developers collaborate with faculty to produce high-quality, engaging, online coursework and content. We use a content management system that facilitates reviewing and deploying asynchronous content. For our boot camp offerings, we use an application to make real-time updates to |
our boot camp curriculum and keep our offerings current in quickly evolving fields such as coding, data analytics and machine learning techniques to focus our marketing efforts on finding prospective students for the right offerings at times when conversion is more likely. cybersecurity.
| • | Placements. Using our global network of clinics, hospitals, schools and other sites, our field placement team secures local placements for students enrolled in degree programs such as nursing, social work, teaching and other programs that require field placements to satisfy curriculum and accreditation requirements. |
| • | Hybrid Experiences. Many of our university clients’ degree programs require students to attend in-person immersions. These experiences provide students with collaborative learning experiences where they develop invaluable personal and professional relationships. We provide the resources and technology to support our clients in facilitating these experiences. |
| • | Accessibility. Our platform provides many features to accommodate the accessibility needs of students with disabilities, including clear navigation, flexible, robust content display, and compatibility with screen-reading and assistive keyboard technologies. Working with our university clients, we support certain accommodations requested by students with disabilities, including providing real-time sign language and captioning for live classes and audio descriptions of video content we produce. |
| • | Student Success. We augment each student’s academic experience by providing ongoing, personalized non-academic support. For degree programs, we provide a dedicated team to support and train university administration and faculty on how to use our platform to facilitate outstanding live instruction. In addition, we help our university clients succeed by assisting with faculty recruiting efforts, including attracting, cultivating and vetting a pool of faculty candidates for our university clients. In our boot camp offerings, we use a proprietary analytics platform to capture the sentiment of students in our classes. We use this data to improve our curricula, calibrate differences across classrooms and offer targeted support to students. |
Key Benefits to University Clients
| • | Extend Institutional Mission and Reach. Our platform enables our university clients to extend their brands and fulfill their missions by delivering high quality education offerings to students anywhere in the world, while maintaining their academic rigor and admissions standards. |
| • | Low Financial Risk. We make the initial investment required to launch new offerings across our portfolio. In our Graduate Program Segment, in particular, we make significant investments in technology, integration, content production, marketing, student and faculty support, and other services. Our revenue-share model, combined with long contractual terms in this segment, enables us to make these investments without significant financial risk to our clients. |
| • | Turnkey Solution. Our platform provides a broad set of capabilities that would otherwise require universities to purchase multiple, disparate point solutions, and significantly increase headcount in marketing, data analytics, technology and other areas. |
| • | Qualified Student Enrollment. Our robust marketing capabilities enable us to find qualified students for our university clients’ degree programs who meet the university’s admissions criteria. |
Key Benefits to Students
| • | Flexibility. Many students require flexible learning environments to accommodate work and personal responsibilities. Often, these students are working adults who are looking to either complete a full degree, or who want to gain a credential to accelerate or change careers. Our spectrum of offerings provides students with the flexible, high-quality offerings they need to achieve their goals. |
| • | Outcomes. Our platform allows students to pursue a wide range of high-quality education offerings provided by leading universities. Through these offerings, students obtain valuable skills and credentials that can create upward career mobility, facilitate a transition to a new field or lead to personal enrichment. |
| • | Lower Cost-Burden. Students do not need to move or quit their jobs to enroll in our offerings. As a result, many students incur lower total costs than they otherwise would on-campus. |
| • | Support. High-quality student support is a central pillar of our platform. Prior to enrollment, our support teams work with prospective students as they consider and apply to a particular offering. Once enrolled, we augment each student’s academic experience by assigning a dedicated advisor to provide ongoing individualized non-academic support. We also help improve retention rates by using data analysis to predict when students may need additional support. |
Our Growth Strategy
We intend to continue our industry leadership as a provider of a digital education platform that enables well-recognized nonprofit colleges and universities to deliver education online. Our approach to growth is disciplined and focused on long-term success. The principal elements of our strategy are to:
| • | Adding Degree Programs. We intend to add degree programs in select academic disciplines where we believe we have a strategic advantage, such as degrees that require field placements to satisfy curriculum and accreditation requirements, as well as to continue to expand into the undergraduate market. |
| • | Adding Alternative Credential Offerings. We intend to add short courses with globally recognized universities and broadly deploy our existing boot camp offerings across our university client base. |
| • | Expanding our Reach. We believe that there are significant opportunities to provide multiple types of offerings to our current university clients and prospective students. We also intend to provide short course and boot camp offerings to enterprise clients looking to offer valuable training and reskilling opportunities to their employees. |
Clients
Graduate Program Segment
Our long-term university client contracts, which typically have 10 to 15 year initial terms, generally do not include termination rights for convenience. Most contracts impose liquidated damagesconvenience, and require universities to pay teach-out fees for a university client’s non-renewal, unless the university client otherwise terminates due to our uncured breach.
Our contracts also set forth the parties’ respective rights to offer competitive programs. For example, some contracts permit us to offer competitive programs with other schools whose potential students are not academically qualified or otherwise interested in the program we offer with our client. Other contracts prohibit us from offering competitive programs with a specific list of schools, expressed either by reference to a certain ranking on U.S. News & World Report’s “best” schools list or as a specifically enumerated list of schools negotiated with our university client. In addition, any limitation on our ability to offer competitive programs becomes inapplicable if a university client either refuses to scale the program to accommodate all students qualifying for admission into the program, or raises the program admissions standards above those at the time of contract execution. In addition, our contracts generally prohibit our university clients from offering any online competitive program. Most of our more recent contracts either do not restrict our ability to offer competitive programs or provide for only limited restrictions.
For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, 15% and 2017, 21% and 27%, respectively, of our consolidated revenue was derived from our programs with University of Southern California, or USC, including our two longest running programs, launched in 2009 and 2010. We expect that these programs will continue to account for a large portion of our revenue until our other university client graduate programs become more mature and achieve significantly higher enrollment levels.revenue.
Our programs with Simmons University accounted for 13%8% and 17%13% of our consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 20182019 and 2017,2018, respectively. Our programs with theSyracuse University of North Carolina accounted for less than 10%8% and 10% of our consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 20182019 and 2017, respectively. Our programs with Syracuse University accounted for 10% and 11% of our consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2018, and 2017, respectively.
In our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment, as of December 31, 2019, we currently have nine university clients we are collaborating with to offerhad more than 90 courses. Our250 offerings with 60 university client contractsclients. Revenue in our Short Course Segment are typically shorter in length and less restrictive than our contracts in our Graduate Program Segment.
Competition
The overall market for technology solutions that enable higher education providers to deliver education online is highly fragmented, rapidly evolving and subject to changing technology, shifting needs of students and educators and frequent introductions of new delivery methods. Several competitors provide platforms that compete with some of the capabilities of our platform.
Two suchof our largest competitors are Pearson Online Learning Services and Wiley Education Services, owned by Pearson and John Wiley & Sons, respectively, both of which are large education and publishing companies. In addition, traditional massive open online course providers have evolved from providing massive open online courses to providing degrees, short course certificates nano degrees and similar non-degree alternatives and wealternatives. We also face competition from companies providing corporate training programs, boot camps and online courses taught outside the university environment (e.g., by experts in various fields). Many of these companies provide components of the technology and services we provide, and these companies may choose to pursue some of the institutions we target. Moreover, nonprofit colleges and universities may elect to continue using or develop their own online learning solutions in-house.
We expect that the competitive landscape will expand as the market for online education offerings at nonprofit institutions matures. We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:
robustness and evolution of technology solutions and content;
brand awareness and reputation;
ability of online graduatedegree programs, and short courses and boot camps to deliver desired student outcomes;
breadth and depth of service offering;
ability to make significant investments in launching and operating graduatedegree programs;
expertise in marketing, student acquisition and student retention;
ease of deployment and use of technology solutions;
level of customization, configurability, integration, security, scalability and reliability of technology solutions; and
quality of university client base and track record of performance.
We believe we compete favorably on the basis of these factors. Our ability to remain competitive will depend, to a great extent, uponon our ability to consistently deliver our high-quality platform,offerings; meet university client needs for content development, acquire,development; attract, support and retain studentsstudents; and deliver desired student, faculty and university outcomes.
Seasonality
We experience seasonality in our marketing and sales expensesexpense in both our Graduate Program Segment and our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment. We typically reduce our paid search and other marketing and sales efforts during late November and December because these efforts areof less productivedemand during the holiday season. We generally do not experience pronounced seasonality in our revenue, although revenue can fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter due to variations driven by the varying academic schedules of our graduate programsofferings and short courses.university clients.
Intellectual Property
We protect our intellectual property by relying on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and contractual agreements. For example, we rely on trademark protection in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions to protect our rights to various marks, including 2U, NO BACK ROW, GETSMARTER, TRILOGY and other distinctive logos associated with our brand. We continue to evaluate developing and expanding our intellectual property rights in patents, trademarks and copyrights, as available through registration in the United States and internationally.
We ensure that we own intellectual property created for us by signing agreements with employees, independent contractors, consultants, companies, and any other third party that creates intellectual property for us that assign any intellectual property rights to us.
We have also established business procedures designed to maintain the confidentiality of our proprietary information, including the use of confidentiality agreements with employees, independent contractors, consultants and companies with which we conduct business.
We also purchase or license technology that we incorporate into our technology or services. While it may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of our technology and services, we believe, based upon past experience and industry practice, such licenses generally could be obtained on commercially reasonable terms.
For important additional information related to our intellectual property position, please review the information set forth in “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Intellectual Property.”
Education Laws and Regulations
The higher education industry is heavily regulated. Institutions of higher education that award degrees and certificates to signify the successful completion of an academic program are subject to regulation from three primary entities: the U.S. Department of Education, or DOE, accrediting agencies and state licensing authorities. Each of these entities promulgates and enforces its own laws, regulations and standards, which we refer to collectively as education laws.
We contract with postsecondary institutions that are subject to education laws. In addition, we ourselves are required to comply with certain education laws as a result of our role as a service provider to institutions of higher education, either directly or indirectly through our contractual arrangements with university clients. Our failure, or that of our university clients, to comply with education laws could adversely impact our operations. As a result, we work closely with our university clients to maintain compliance with education laws.
Federal Laws and Regulations
Under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, or the HEA, institutions offering postsecondary education must comply with certain laws and related regulations promulgated by the DOE in order to participate in the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. Most of our university clients participate in the Title IV programs.
The HEA and the regulations promulgated thereunder are frequently revised, repealed or expanded. Congress historically has reauthorized and amended the HEA in regular intervals, approximately every seven years. The re-authorization process is currently under way.
The re-authorization of the HEA could alter the regulatory landscape of the higher education industry, and thereby impact the manner in which we conduct business and serve our university clients. In addition, the DOE is independently conducting an ongoing series of rulemakings. The DOE also issues formal and informal guidance instructing institutions of higher education and other covered entities how to comply with various federal laws and regulations. DOE guidance is subject to change and may impact our business model.
Although we are not considered an institution of higher education and we do not directly participate in Title IV programs, we are required to comply with certain regulations promulgated by the DOE as a result of our role as a service provider to institutions that do participate in Title IV programs. These include, for example, regulations governing student privacy under Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. While online short courses and boot camps are typically not eligible for Title IV aid, when offered by or on behalf of Title IV eligible institutions, many education laws, such as FERPA, remain applicable to us or our university clients even in the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment.
Incentive Compensation Rule
The HEA provides that any institution that participates in the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs must agree with the DOE that the institution will not provide any commission, bonus or other incentive payment to any person or entity engaged in any student recruiting or admission activities.activities as those terms are defined in DOE regulations.
compensates its employees.” But the DCL also provides an important exception to the ban on tuition revenue-sharing arrangements between institutions and third parties. According to the DCL, the DOE does not consider payment based on the amount of tuition generated by an institution to violate the incentive compensation ban if the payment compensates an “unaffiliated third party” that provides a set of “bundled services” that includes recruitment services, such as those we provide. Example 2-B in the DCL is described as a “possible business model” developed “with the statutory mandate in mind.” Example 2-B describes the following as a possible business model:
“A third party that is not affiliated with the institution it serves and is not affiliated with any other institution that provides educational services, provides bundled services to the institution including marketing, enrollment application assistance, recruitment services, course support for online delivery of courses, the provision of technology, placement services for internships, and student career counseling. The institution may pay the entity an amount based on tuition generated for the institution by the entity’s activities for all the bundled services that are offered and provided collectively, as long as the entity does not make prohibited compensation payments to its employees, and the institution does not pay the entity separately for student recruitment services provided by the entity.”
The DCL guidance indicates that an arrangement that complies with Example 2-B will be deemed to be in compliance with the incentive compensation provisions of the HEA and the DOE’s regulations. Our business model and contractual arrangements with our university clients closely follow Example 2-B in the DCL. In addition, we assure that none of our “covered employees” isare paid any bonus or other incentive compensation in violation of the rule.
Because the bundled services rule was promulgated in the form of agency guidance issued by the DOE in the form of a DCL and is not codified by statute or regulation, the rule could technically be altered or removed without prior notice, public comment period or other administrative procedural requirements that accompany formal agency rulemaking. Similarly, a court could technically invalidate the rule in an action involving our company or our university clients, or in an action that does not involve us at all. Finally, while most states defer to DOE regulations, different versions of the federal incentive compensation rule exist under state law, and such statutes or rules, or their interpretation, may change at any time. The revision, removal or invalidation of the bundled services rule by Congress, the DOE or a court could technically require us to change our business model.model, and separate revisions at the state level could require us to amend certain of our contracts.
Misrepresentation Rule
The HEA prohibits an institution that participates in the Title IV programs from engaging in any “substantial misrepresentation” regarding three broad subject areas: (1)(i) the nature of the school’s education programs, (2)(ii) the school’s financial charges and (3)(iii) the employability of the school’s graduates. In 2010, as part of the program integrity rules, the DOE revised its regulations in order to significantly expand the scope of the misrepresentation rule. Although some of the DOE’s most expansive amendments to the misrepresentation rule were overturned by the courts in 2012, most of the 2010 amendments survived and remain in effect.
Under the rule, “misrepresentation” is defined broadly as any false, erroneous or misleading statement, written, visual or oral. This includesmay include even statements that “have the likelihood or tendency to deceive.” Therefore, a statement need not be intentionally deceitful to qualify as a misrepresentation. “Substantial misrepresentation” is defined loosely as a misrepresentation on which the person to whom it was made could reasonably be expected to rely, or has reasonably relied, to that person’s detriment.
The current regulation also expands the scope of the original rule to covercovers statements made by any representative of an institution, including agents, employees and subcontractors, and statements made directly or indirectly to any third party, including state agencies, government officials or the public, and not just statements made to students or prospective students.
Violations of the misrepresentation rule are subject to various sanctions by the DOE and violations may be used as a basis for legal action by third parties.parties or as a defense to the obligation to repay student loans. Similar rules apply under state laws or are incorporated in institutional accreditation standards, and the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, applies similar rules prohibitingthat prohibit any unfair or deceptive marketing practices toby vendors in the education sector. As a result, we and our employees and subcontractors, as agents of our university clients, must use a high degree of care to comply with such rules and are prohibited by contract from making any false, erroneous or misleading statements about our university clients. To avoid an issue under the misrepresentation rule and similar state and federal rules, we assure that all marketing materials are approved in advance by our university clients before they are used by our employees and we carefully monitor our subcontractors.employees.
Accreditation Rules and Standards
Accrediting agencies primarily examine the academic quality of the instructional programs of an educational institution, and a grant of accreditation is typically viewed as confirmation that an institution or an institution’s programs meet generally accepted academic standards. Accrediting agencies also review the administrative and financial operations of the institutions they accredit to ensure that each institution has the resources to perform its educational mission. The DOE also relies on accrediting agencies to determine whether institutions qualify to participate in Title IV programs.
In addition to institutional accreditation, colleges and universities may require specialized programmatic accreditation for particular educational programs. Many states and professional associations require professional programs to be accredited, and require individuals to have graduated from accredited programs in order to sit for professional license exams. Programmatic accreditation, while not a sufficient basis for institutional Title IV Program certification by the DOE, assists graduates to practice or otherwise secure appropriate employment in their chosen field. Common fields of study subject to programmatic accreditation include teaching and nursing.
Although we are not an accredited institution and are not required to maintain accreditation, accrediting agencies are responsible for reviewing an accredited institution’s third-party contracts with service providers like us and may require an institution to obtain approval from or to notify the accreditor in connection with such arrangements. One purpose of the notification and approval requirements is to verify that the accredited institution remains responsible for providing academic instruction leading to a credential and provides oversight of other activities undertaken by third parties like us that are within the scope of its accreditation. We work closely with our university clients to assure that the standards of their respective accreditors are met and are not adversely impacted by us.
Accrediting agencies are also responsible for assuring that any “written arrangements” to outsource academic instruction meet accrediting standards and related regulations of the DOE. Our operations are generally not subject to such “written arrangements” rules because academic instruction is provided by our university client institutions and not by us; however, the “written arrangements” rules may apply to online programs in the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment to the extent such courses are outsourced by university clients. The “written arrangements” rule is under review by the current administration. Any changes are not expected to be final until later in 2020.
State Laws and Regulations
Each state has at least one licensing agency responsible for the oversight of educational institutions operating within its jurisdiction. Continued approval by such agencies is necessary for an institution to operate and grant degrees, diplomas or certificates in those states. Moreover, under the HEA, approval by such agencies is necessary to maintain eligibility to participate in Title IV programs. State attorneys general are also active in enforcing education laws, and the level of regulatory oversight varies substantially from state to state.
We and our university clients may be subject to regulation in each state in which we or they own facilities, provide distance education or recruit students. State laws establish standards for, among other things, student instruction, qualifications of faculty, location and nature of facilities, recruiting practices and financial policies. The need to comply with applicable state laws and regulations may limit or delay our ability to market or expand our offerings. In addition, the interpretation of state authorization regulations is subject to substantial discretion by the state agency responsible for enforcing the regulations.
Finally, many programs leading to professional licensure, such as graduate degree programs in nursing or teaching, also require approval from, and are subject to ongoing oversight by separate state agencies such as state nursing boards. Membership in SARA does not encompass approvals by professional licensing boards, which must be obtained separately.
We monitor state law developments closely and work closely with our university clients to assist them with obtaining any required approvals.
Other Laws
Our activities are also subject to other federal and state laws. These regulations include, but are not limited to, consumer marketing and unfair trade practices laws and regulations, including those promulgated and enforced by the FTC, as well asstate and federal consumer lending laws, student accessibility requirements and federal and state data protection and privacy requirements.
Culture and Employees
2U was founded on a set of “guiding principles” that are core to our culture and guide big and small decisions every day. New employees are introduced to the guiding principles in orientation and are expected to bring these guiding principles to life as they work with their teams, interact with our university clients and students or otherwise represent 2U in the community.
| • | Cherish each opportunity. Life is short, so treasure every moment. |
| • | Give a damn. Care about what you do each day. |
| • | Strive for excellence. Don’t settle for second best. |
| • | Be bold and fearless. Question the status quo and embrace change. |
| • | Be candid, honest and open. Listen to others and offer respectful feedback. |
| • | Have fun. Fun is important. Fun is simply better. |
| • | Make service your mission. Give the highest level of support to our partners and to one another. |
| • | Don’t let the skeptic win. “No” is easy. “Yes” is hard. Fight for “yes.” |
| • | Relationships matter. Invest the time, build trust, and value differences. |
Other Information
We were incorporated as a Delaware corporation in April 2008 and completed our initial public offering in April 2014. We acquired Get Educated International Proprietary Limited, or GetSmarter, in July 2017, and acquired Trilogy in May 2019.
Our principal executive offices are located at 7900 Harkins Road, Lanham, MD 20706, and our telephone number is (301) 892-4350.
You can obtain copies of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, and all amendments to these filings, free of charge from our website at investor.2u.com or on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov as soon as reasonably
practicable following our filing of any of these reports with the SEC. The contents of these websites are not incorporated into this filing. Further, our references to the URLs for these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
In addition to the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should carefully consider the factors discussed in the “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risks Related to Our Business Model, Our Operations and Our Growth Strategy
We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to predict our future financial and operating results, and we may not achieve our expected financial and operating results in the future.
We were incorporated in 2008 and launched our first graduate program in 2009. In July 2017, we acquired GetSmarter and extended our offerings to include premium online short courses, offeredand in collaboration with universities.May 2019, we acquired Trilogy and further extended our offerings to include skills-based boot camps. As a result of our limited operating history, our ability to forecast our future operating results, including revenue, cash flows and profitability, is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in the technology industry. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties are incorrect or change due to factors impacting our targeted markets, or if we do not manage these risks successfully, our operating and financial results may differ materially from our expectations and our business may suffer.
We have incurred significant net losses since inception, and we expectare uncertain about our operating expenses to increase significantly in the foreseeable future which may make it more difficult for us to achieve and maintain profitability.
We incurred net losses of $235.2 million, $38.3 million $29.4 million and $20.7$29.4 million during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 2017 and 2016,2017, respectively. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels in future periods to become profitable, and, even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase our level of profitability. We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we undertake increasedexpect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on, technology and production efforts to support a growing number of offerings and increase our marketing and sales efforts to drive the acquisition of potential students. In addition, as a public company, we will continue to incur significant accounting, legal and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. These expenditures will make it harder for us to achieve and maintain profitability. Our efforts to grow our business may be more costly than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our higher operating expenses. If we are forced to reduce our expenses, our growth strategy could be compromised. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown events. As a result, we may be unable to achieve and maintain profitability, and the value of our company and our common stock could decline significantly.
Our financial performance depends heavily on our ability to recruit qualified potential students for our offerings, and our ability to do so may be affected by circumstances beyond our control.
Building awareness of our offerings is critical to our ability to recruit prospective students for our university clients’ offerings and generate revenue. A substantial portion of our expenses is attributable to marketing and sales efforts dedicated to attracting potential students to our offerings. Because we generate revenue based on a portion of the tuition and fees that students pay, it is critical to our success that we identify qualified prospective students for our offerings in a cost-effective manner, and that enrolled students remain active in our offerings until graduation or completion.
The following factors, many of which are largely outside of our control, may prevent us from successfully driving and maintaining student enrollment in our offerings in a cost-effective manner or at all:
| • | Negative perceptions about online learning programs. As a non-traditional form of education delivery, prospective students will subject our university clients’ online offerings to increased scrutiny. Online offerings that we or our competitors provide may not be successful or operate efficiently, and new entrants to the field of online learning also may not perform well. Such underperformance could create the perception that online offerings in general are not an effective way to educate students, whether or not our offerings achieve satisfactory performance, which could make it difficult for us to successfully attract prospective students. Students may be reluctant to enroll in online educational offerings for fear that the learning experience may be substandard, that employers may be averse to hiring students who received their education online, or that organizations granting professional licenses or certifications may be reluctant to grant them based on degrees earned through online education. |
| • | Unsuccessful marketing efforts. We invest substantial resources in developing and implementing data-driven marketing strategies that focus on identifying the right potential student at the right time. These marketing efforts make substantial use of search engine optimization, paid search, social media and custom website development and deployment and we rely on a small number of internet search engines and marketing partners. If our execution of this strategy proves to be inefficient or unsuccessful in generating a sufficient quantity of qualified prospective students, or if the costs associated with the execution of this strategy increase, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability could be adversely affected. |
| • | Damage to university client reputation. Because we market a specific offering to each potential student and use the university client’s brand in connection with our marketing efforts, the reputations of our university clients are critical to our ability to enroll students. Many factors affecting our university clients’ reputations are beyond our control and can change over time, including their academic performance, ranking among nonprofit educational institutions and university leadership positions. |
| • | Lack of interest in an offering. We may encounter difficulties attracting qualified students for offerings that are not highly desired or that are relatively new within their fields. Macroeconomic conditions beyond our control may diminish interest in employment in a field, and that could contribute to a lack of interest in offerings in the disciplines related to that field. |
| • | Our lack of control over our university clients’ admissions standards and admissions decisions for degree programs. Even if we are able to identify prospective students for a degree program, there is no guarantee that students will be admitted to that program. In the Graduate Program Segment, the university clients retain complete discretion over setting admissions standards and making admissions decisions, and any changes to admissions |
standards, or inconsistent application of admissions standards, could affect student enrollment and our ability to generate revenue.
| • | Inability of students to secure funding. Like traditional college and university students, many of the students in our university clients’ offerings, in particular degree programs, rely on the availability of third-party financing to pay for the costs of their educations, including tuition. This tuition assistance may include federal or private student loans, scholarships and grants, or benefits or reimbursement provided by the students’ employers. Any developments that reduce the availability of financial aid for higher education generally, or for our university clients’ offerings, could impair students’ abilities to meet their financial obligations, which in turn could result in reduced enrollment and harm our ability to generate revenue. |
| • | General economic conditions. Student enrollment in our offerings may be affected by changes in global economic conditions. An improvement in economic conditions and, in particular, an improvement in the economic conditions in the U.S. and the U.S. unemployment rate, may reduce demand among potential students for educational services, as they may find adequate employment without additional education. Conversely, a worsening of economic and employment conditions may reduce the willingness of employers to sponsor educational opportunities for their employees or discourage existing or potential students from pursuing additional education due to a perception that there are insufficient job opportunities, increased economic uncertainty or other factors, any of which could adversely impact our ability to attract qualified students to our offerings. If one or more of these factors reduces student demand for our offerings, enrollment could be negatively affected, our costs associated with student acquisition and retention could increase, or both, any of which could materially compromise our ability to grow our revenue or achieve profitability. These developments could also harm our reputation and make it more difficult for us to engage new and existing university clients for new offerings, which would negatively impact our ability to expand our business. |
Our business depends heavily on the adoption by colleges and universities of online delivery of their educational offerings. If we fail to attract new university clients, or if new leadership at existing university clients does not have an interest in continuing or expanding online delivery of their educational offerings, our revenue growth and profitability may suffer.
The success of our business depends in large part on our ability to enter into agreements with additional nonprofit colleges and universities to offer their graduate programs and short coursesofferings online. In particular, to engage new university clients, we need to convince potential university clients, many of which have been educating students in generally the same types of on-campus programs for hundreds of years, to invest significant time and resources to adjust the manner in which they teach students. The delivery of online education at leading nonprofit colleges and universities is nascent, and many administrators and faculty members have expressed concern regarding the perceived loss of control over the education process that might result from offering content online, as well as skepticism regarding the ability of colleges and universities to provide high-quality education online that maintains the standards they set for their on-campus programs. It may be difficult to overcome this resistance, and online programs of the kind we develop with our university clients may not achieve significant market acceptance. In addition, our university clients have regular turnover in their leadership positions, and there is no guarantee that any new leader will have an interest in continuing or expanding online delivery of the university’s educational offerings. If new leaders at our university clients do not embrace online delivery of educational offerings, we may not be able to add additional offerings with the university client and the university client may attempt to terminate or may not renew their relationship with us.
Disruption to or failures of our platform could reduce university client and student satisfaction with our offerings and could harm our reputation.
The performance and reliability of our platform is critical to our operations, reputation and ability to attract new university clients, as well as our student acquisition and retention efforts. Our university clients rely on this technology to offerprovide their programs and coursesofferings online, and students access this technology on a frequent basis as an important part of their educational experience. Because our platform is complex and incorporates a variety of hardware and proprietary and third-party software, our platform may have errors or defects that could result in unanticipated downtime for our university clients and students. WebWeb- and mobilemobile- based applications frequently contain undetected errors when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released, and we have from time to time found errors and defects in our technology and new errors and defects may be detected in the future. In addition, we have experienced and may in the future experience temporary system interruptions to our platform for a variety of reasons including network failures, power failures, problems with third-party firmware updates, as well as an overwhelming numbers of users trying to access our platform. Any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems with our platform could damage our or our university clients’ reputations, decrease student satisfaction and retention and impact our ability to attract new students and university clients. If any of these problems occur, our university clients could attempt to terminate their agreements with us, or make indemnification or other claims against us. In addition, sustained or recurring disruptions in our platform could adversely affect our and our university clients’ compliance with applicable regulations and accrediting body standards.
We rely upon Amazon Web Services to host certain aspects of our platform and any disruption of or interference with our use of Amazon Web Services could impair our ability to deliver our platform to university clients and students, resulting in university client and student dissatisfaction, damage to our reputation, and harm to our business.
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, provides a distributed computing infrastructure platform for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a cloud computing service. We have designed our technology and technology-enabled services to use data processing, storage capabilities and other services provided by AWS. Currently, our online learning platform and certain of our front-end and back-end technology and services are run on AWS. Given this, along with the fact that we cannot easily switch our AWS operations to another cloud provider, any disruption of, or interference with our use of, AWS would impact our operations and our business would be adversely impacted. AWS provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. AWS may terminate the agreement without cause by providing 30 days’ prior written notice, and may terminate the agreement for cause with 30 days’ prior written notice, including any material default or breach of the agreement by us that we do not cure within the 30-day period. Additionally, AWS has the right to terminate the agreement immediately with notice to us in certain scenarios such as if AWS believes providing the services could create a substantial economic or technical burden or material security risk for AWS, or in order to comply with the law or requests of governmental entities. If any of our arrangements with AWS is terminated, we could experience interruptions in our software as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging new facilities and services.
We utilize third-party data center hosting facilities operated by AWS. Our operations depend, in part, on AWS’s abilities to protect these facilities against damage or interruption from natural disasters, power or telecommunications failures, criminal acts and similar events. The occurrence of spikes in usage volume, a natural disaster, an act of terrorism, vandalism or sabotage, a decision to close a facility without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems at a facility could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our platform, which would result in harm to our business. In the event of a system failure, the backup systems and disaster recovery services provided by AWS may be insufficient or fail. Also, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. These factors in turn could further reduce our revenue, subject us to liability or cause our university clients to fail to renew or terminate their contracts, any of which could harm our business.
Our ability to deliver our services is dependent on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Internet by third parties.
The infrastructure of the Internet consists of multiple fragmented networks. Multiple third-party organizations run this infrastructure together under the governance of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (“ICANN”) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority under the stewardship of ICANN. The Internet has experienced outages and other delays resulting from damage to portions of infrastructure, denial-of-service attacks or related cyber incidents, and the Internet could face outages and delays in the future. These outages and delays could reduce the level of Internet usage or result in fragmentation of the Internet, resulting in multiple separate networks lacking interconnection. These scenarios are outside of our control and could impair the delivery of our platform to our university clients and students. Resulting interruptions in our platform or the ability of our university clients or students to access our platform could result in a loss of potential or existing university clients and students, subject us to liability or harm our business.
Our student acquisition efforts depend in large part upon the availability of advertising space through a variety of media.
We depend upon the availability of advertising space through a variety of media, including third-party applications on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to direct traffic to, our offerings and acquirerecruit new students for, our offerings. The availability of advertising space varies, and a shortage of advertising space in any particular media or on any particular platform, or the elimination of a particular medium on which we advertise, could limit our ability to direct traffic to our offerings and acquirerecruit new students on a cost-effective basis, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The market for our offerings may be limited based on the types of nonprofit colleges and universities we target.
Our target market of selectiveselect nonprofit colleges and universities is necessarily limited. Some of the contracts we have entered into or may enter into with our university clients contain limitations on our ability to contract with other institutions to provide the same or a similar offering. In addition, in order to maintain good relations with our university clients, we may decide not to approach certain institutions that our university clients regard as their direct competitors to offer similar programs or courses, even if we are allowed to do so under our contracts.
We have agreed to incur, and we may incur in the future, costs to terminate some or all of the exclusivity obligations in certain of our university client contracts.
Certain of our contracts with our university clients limit our ability to enable competitive offerings with other schools. In our Graduate Program Segment, we have determined that enabling some of these contractually prohibited competitive programs may be part of our business strategy. To eliminate some or all of the exclusivity obligations in certain university clients’ contracts with us, we have agreed with certain university clients in our Graduate Program Segment to do some or all of the following: make fixed and contingent cash payments over time, reduce our revenue share over time, and/or make minimum investments in marketing under certain conditions.
We may determine in the future that enabling additional contractually prohibited competitive programs or coursesofferings is desirable, and we may therefore agree with additional university clients to incur costs similar to those noted above to reduce or eliminate the exclusivity obligations contained in their contracts with us.
If the competitive programs or coursesofferings we ultimately enable fail to reach scale or cannot be scaled at a reasonable cost, or if we need to incur contingent costs in connection with offeringenabling competitive programs or courses,offerings, our ability to grow our business and achieve profitability would be impaired.
Attracting new university clients for the launch of new offerings is complex and time-consuming. If we pursue unsuccessful opportunities, we may forgo more profitable opportunities and our operating results and growth would be harmed.
The process of identifying new offerings at selectiveselect nonprofit colleges and universities, and then negotiating contracts with potential university clients, is complex and time-consuming. Because of the initial reluctance on the part of some nonprofit colleges and universities to embrace a new method of delivering their education services and the complicated approval process within universities, our sales process to attract and engage a new university client can be lengthy. Depending on the particular college or university and the particular offering, we may face resistance from university administrators or faculty members during the process.
The sales cycle for a new university client often spans one year or longer. In addition, our sales cycle can vary substantially because of a number of factors, including the university client’s approval processes or disagreements over the terms of our offerings. We spend substantial time and management resources on these sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will result in the launch of a new program or course.offering. If we invest substantial resources pursuing unsuccessful opportunities, we may forgo other more profitable university client relationships, which would harm our operating results and growth.
To launch a new graduatedegree program, we must incur significant expense in technology and content development, as well as in marketing and sales to identify and attract prospective students, and it may be several years, if ever, before we generate revenue from a new program sufficient to recover our costs.
To launch a new graduatedegree program, we must integrate components of our platform with the various student information and other operating systems our university clients use to manage functions within their institutions. In addition, our content development staff must work closely with thatthe university client’s faculty members to produce engaging online coursework and content, and we must commence student acquisition activities. This process of launching a new graduatedegree program is time-consuming and costly and, under our agreements with our university clients, we are primarily responsible for the significant costs of this effort, even before we generate any revenue. Additionally, during the life of our university client agreements, we are responsible for the costs associated with continued marketing, maintaining our platform and providing non-academic and other support for students enrolled in the graduatedegree program. We invest significant resources in these new graduate
degree programs from the beginning of our relationship with a university client, and there is no guarantee that we will ever recoup these costs.
If new offerings do not scale efficiently and in the time frames we expect, our reputation and our revenue will suffer.
Our continued growth and profitability depends on our and our university clients’ ability to successfully scale newly launched offerings. As we continue aggressively growing our business, we plan to continue to hire new employees, at a rapid pace, particularly in our
marketing and sales team and our technology and content development teams. If we cannot adequately train these new employees, we may not be successful in acquiringrecruiting potential students for our offerings, which would adversely impact our ability to generate revenue, and our university clients and the students in their programs and coursesofferings could lose confidence in the knowledge and capability of our employees. If we cannot quickly and efficiently scale our technology to handle growing student enrollment and new offerings, our university clients’ and their students’ experiences may suffer, which could damage our reputation among colleges and universities and their faculty and students.students and impact our ability to acquire new university clients.
In addition, in our Graduate Program Segment, if our university clients cannot quickly develop the infrastructure and hire sufficient faculty and administrators to handle growing student enrollments, our university clients’ and their students’ experiences with our platform may suffer, which could damage our reputation among colleges and universities and their faculty and students.
Our ability to effectively manage any significant growth of new offerings and increasing student enrollment will depend on a number of factors, including our ability to:
satisfy existing students in, and attract and enroll new students for, our offerings;
assist our university clients in recruiting qualified faculty to support their expanding enrollments;
assist our university clients in developing and producing an increased volume of course content;
successfully introduce new features and enhancements and maintain a high level of functionality in our platform; and
deliver high-quality support to our university clients and their faculty and students.
Establishing new offerings or expanding existing offerings will require us to make investments in management and key staff, increase capital expenditures, incur additional marketing expenses and reallocate other resources. If student enrollment in our offerings does not increase, if we are unable to launch new offerings in a cost-effective manner or if we are otherwise unable to manage new offerings effectively, our ability to grow our business and achieve profitability would be impaired, and the quality of our platform and the satisfaction of our university clients and their students could suffer.
Our financial performance depends heavily on student retention within our offerings, and factors influencing student retention may be out of our control.
Once a student is enrolled in a program or course,an offering, we and our university client must retain the student over the life of the program or courseoffering to generate ongoing revenue. Our strategy involves offering high-quality support to students enrolled in these programs and coursesofferings to support their retention. If we do notare unable to help students quickly resolve any educational, technological or logistical issues they encounter, otherwise provide effective ongoing support to students or deliver the type of high-quality, engaging educational content that students expect, students may withdraw from the program or course,offering, which would negatively impact our revenue.
In addition, student retention could be compromised by the following factors, many of which are largely outside of our control:
| • | Reduced support from our university clients. Because revenue from a particular offering is directly attributable to the level of student enrollment in the offering, our ability to grow our revenue from a university client relationship depends on the growth of enrollment in that offering. Our university clients could limit enrollment in their offerings, cease providing the offerings altogether or significantly curtail or inhibit our ability to promote their offerings, any of which would negatively impact our revenue. |
| • | Lack of support from faculty members in our university clients’ degree programs. It takes a significant time commitment and dedication from our university clients’ faculty members to work with us to develop course content for their degree programs and courses designed for an online learning environment. Our university clients’ faculty may be unfamiliar with the development and production process, may not understand the time commitment involved to develop the course content, or may otherwise be resistant to changing the ways in which they present the same content in an on-campus class. Our ability to maintain high student retention will depend in part on our ability to convince our university clients’ faculty of the value in the time and effort they will spend developing the course content. Lack of support from faculty could cause the quality of our degree programs to decline, which could contribute to decreased student satisfaction and retention in our Graduate Program Segment. |
| • | Student dissatisfaction. Enrolled students may drop out of our offerings based on their individual perceptions of the value they are getting from the offering. For example, we may face retention challenges as a result of students’ |
| • | Personal factors. Factors impacting a student’s willingness and ability to stay enrolled in an offering include personal factors, such as ability to continue to pay tuition, ability to meet the rigorous demands of the offering, and lack of time to continue classes, all of which are generally beyond our control. |
If student retention is compromised by any of these factors, it could significantly reduce the revenue that we generate from our offerings, which would negatively impact our return on investment for the particular offering, and could compromise our ability to grow our business and achieve profitability.
Of the graduatedegree programs we operate, only a small number contribute a significant portion of our revenue, and loss or material underperformance of any one of these programs could have a disproportionate effect on our business.
In our Graduate Program Segment, we currently have, and for the foreseeable future expect to continue to have, a small number of graduatedegree programs that contribute a meaningful portion of our revenue and generate positive earnings and cash flow.flows. Therefore, if any of these programs were to materially underperform for any reason or if the university client for these programs terminate or dodoes not renew their relationship with us, it would hurt our future financial performance.
A significant portion of our revenue is currently attributable to graduatedegree programs with fourthree university clients. The loss of, or a decline in enrollment in, these programs could significantly reduce our revenue.
We expect that our programs with our fourthree largest university clients in the Graduate Program Segment will continue to account for a large portion of our revenue until our other university client programs become more mature and achieve significantly higher enrollment levels. Any decline in reputation, any increase in tuition, or any changes in policies or leadership at these university clients, could adversely affect the number of students that enroll in these programs. Further, the faculty or administrators of these university clients could become resistant to offering their online programs through our platform, making it more difficult for us to attract and retain students. These university clients are not required to expand student enrollment in these online programs, and, upon the expiration of their contracts, they are not required to continue using us as the provider of these or other online programs. If certain of these programs were to materially underperform for any reason or if any of these university clients terminated or did not renew their relationships with us, it would significantly reduce our revenue.
A significant portion of our revenue in the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment is attributable to short courses with threeone university clients.client. The loss of any of these clients,the university client, or a decline in enrollment in certain of theseshort courses offered with this university client, could significantly reduce our revenue in this segment.
We expect that our short courses with our three largest university clientsclient in the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment will continue to account for a large portion of our revenue in this segment. Any decline in thesethis university clients’ reputationsreputation or any increase in the fees charged by the university clientsclient for theits short courses could adversely affect the number of students that enroll in these short courses. Further, thesethis university clientsclient could become resistant to offering online short courses through our platform. These university clients areplatform, and it is not required to continue using us as theirits provider for online short courses. If any of thesethis university
The loss, or material underperformance, of any one of our graduatedegree programs could harm our reputation, which could in turn affect our profitability.future revenue growth.
We rely on our reputation for delivering high-quality online graduatedegree programs and recommendations from existing university clients to attract potential new university clients. Therefore, the loss of any single graduatedegree program, or the failure of any university client to renew its agreement with us upon expiration, could harm our reputation and impair our ability to pursue our growth strategy and ultimately to become profitable.
If our security measures or those of our third-party service providers are breached or fail and result in unauthorized disclosure of data, we could lose university clients, fail to attract new university clients and be exposed to protracted and costly litigation.
Our platform and computer systems store and transmit proprietary and confidential university, student, and company information, which may include personal information of students, prospective students, faculty and employees, that are subject to stringent legal and regulatory obligations. As a technology company, we face an increasing number of threats to our platform and computer systems, including unauthorized activity and access, system viruses, worms, malicious code, denial of service
attacks, phishing attacks, and organized cyberattacks, any of which could breach our security and disrupt our platform and our university clients’ offerings. The techniques used by computer hackers and cyber criminals to obtain unauthorized access to data or to sabotage computer systems change frequently and generally are not detected until after an incident has occurred. We have implemented certain safeguards and processes to thwart hackers and protect the data in our platform and computer systems. However, our efforts to maintain the security and integrity of our platform, and the cybersecurity measures taken by our third-party service providers may be unable to anticipate, detect or prevent all attempts to compromise our systems. If our security measures are breached or fail as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, it could result in the loss or misuse of proprietary and confidential university, student (including prospective student), employee and company information, which could subject us to liability, or interrupt our business, potentially over an extended period of time. Any or all of these issues could harm our reputation, adversely affect our ability to attract new university clients and students, cause existing university clients to scale back their offerings or elect not to renew their agreements, cause prospective students not to enroll or existing students to not stay enrolled in our offerings, or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability. Further, any reputational damage resulting from breach of our security measures could create distrust of our company by prospective university clients or students. In addition, our insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover losses associated with such events, and in any case, such insurance may not cover all of the types of costs, expenses and losses we could incur to respond to and remediate a security breach. As a result, we may be required to expend significant additional resources to protect against the threat of these disruptions and security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by such disruptions or breaches.
Many governments have enacted laws that require companies and institutions to notify impacted individuals of data breach incidents, usually in writing. Under the terms of our contracts with our university clients, we would be responsible for the costs of investigating and disclosing data breaches to the university clients’ students. In addition to costs associated with investigating and fully disclosing a data breach, we could be subject to substantial monetary fines or private claims by affected parties and our reputation would likely be harmed.
We have experienced rapid growth in a relatively short period of time, which has placed, and will continue to place, a significant strain on our administrative and operational infrastructure, facilities and other resources. Our ability to manage our operations and growth willmay require us to continue to expand our marketing and sales personnel, technology team, finance and administration teams, as well as our facilities and infrastructure. We will also be required to refine our operational, financial and management controls and reporting systems and procedures. If we fail to manage this expansion of our business efficiently, our costs and expenses may increase more than we plan and we may not successfully expand our university client base, enhance our platform, develop new offerings with new and existing university clients, attract a sufficient number of qualified students in a cost-effective manner, satisfy the requirements of our existing university clients, respond to competitive challenges or otherwise execute our business plan. Accordingly, our historical revenue growth rate may not continue in the future.
Our ability to manage any significant growth of our business effectively will depend on a number of factors, including our ability to:
effectively recruit, integrate, train and motivate a large number of new employees, including our marketing and technology teams, while retaining existing employees;
maintain the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture and effectively execute our business plan;
continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls;
protect and further develop our strategic assets, including our intellectual property rights; and
make sound business decisions in light of the scrutiny associated with operating as a public company.
These activities will require significant capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources, and our growth will continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure.
We may not be able to effectively manage any future growth in an efficient, cost-effective or timely manner, or at all. In particular, any failure to implement systems enhancements and improvements successfully will likely negatively impact our ability to manage our expected growth, ensure uninterrupted operation of key business systems and comply with the rules and regulations that are applicable to public reporting companies. Moreover, if we do not manage the growth of our business and
operations effectively, the quality of our platform could suffer, which could negatively affect our reputation, results of operations and overall business.
We may expand by acquiring or investing in other companies or technologies, which may divert our management’s attention, result in dilution to our shareholders and consume resources that are necessary to sustain our business.
We have in the past and may in the future acquire complementary products, services, technologies or businesses. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to complete these transactions may often be subject to conditions or approvals that are beyond our control. In addition, we have limited experience in acquiring other companies or technologies. We may not be able to identify desirable additional acquisition targets, may incorrectly estimate the value of an acquisition target or may not be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular target. Consequently, these transactions, even if undertaken and announced, may not close.
An acquisition, investment, or new business relationship may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. It is also possible that the integration process could result in material challenges, including, without limitation:
the diversion of management’s attention from ongoing business concerns and performance as a result of the devotion of management’s attention to acquisition or integration activities;
managing a larger combined company;
maintaining employee morale and retaining key management and other employees;
the possibility of faulty assumptions underlying expectations regarding the integration process;
retaining existing business and operational relationships and attracting new business and operational relationships;
consolidating corporate and administrative infrastructures and eliminating duplicative operations and inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures and policies;
coordinating geographically separate organizations;
unanticipated issues in integrating information technology, communications and other systems;
undetected errors or unauthorized use of a third party’s code in the products of the acquired companies or in the technology acquired;
breaches toof our cybersecurity measures if there are cybersecurity issues we are not aware of at the time of the acquisition;
entry into highly competitive markets in which we have no or limited direct prior experience and where competitors have stronger market positions; and
exposure to unknown liabilities, including claims and disputes by third parties against the companies we acquire.
Many of these factors will be outside of the combined company’s control and any one of them could result in delays, increased costs, decreased revenuesrevenue and diversion of management’s time and energy, which could materially affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
If we experience difficulties with the integration process following an acquisition, the anticipated benefits of the acquisition may not be realized fully or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may not be realized.
In addition, in connection with an acquisition, investment or new business relationship we may:
issue additional equity securities that would dilute current shareholders;
use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business;
incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay or that may place burdensome restrictions on our operations;
incur large charges or substantial liabilities; or
become subject to adverse tax consequences.
Any of these outcomes could harm our business and operating results.
We face competition from established and emerging companies, which could divert university clients or students to our competitors, result in pricing pressure and significantly reduce our revenue.
We expect that the online learning market will continue to expand and that the number of degree and non-degree offerings available online will proliferate.
Particularly in the Graduate Program Segment, the number of new competitive entrants into the online learning market has expanded rapidly in recent years. As the number of online degree programs expands, we face increasing competition to enroll students in our offerings. This expansion has also resulted in an increase in regional online degree program offerings for potential students. In addition to making enrollment decisions based on factors such as program quality and university brand strength, we have observed potential students giving preference to universities located in their region, which has further impacted the competitive landscape in our Graduate Program Segment.
In our Alternative Credential Segment, which has a lower barrier to entry, we are facing increasing competition from traditional massive open online course providers, which have evolved from providing massive open online courses to providing short course certificates, nano-degrees and similar non-degree alternatives, as well as from companies that provide corporate training programs and online courses taught outside the university environment (e.g., by experts in various fields).
We expect existing competitors and new entrants to the online learning market to revise and improve their business models constantly in response to challenges from competing businesses, including ours. If these or other market participants introduce new or improved delivery of online education and technology-enabled services that we cannot match or exceed in a timely or cost-effective manner, our ability to grow our revenue and achieve profitability could be compromised.
Some of our competitors and potential competitors have significantly greater resources than we do. Increased competition may result in pricing pressure for us in terms of the percentage of tuition and fees we are able to negotiate to receive. The competitive landscape may also result in longer and more complex sales cycles with a prospective university client or a decrease in our market share among selectiveselect nonprofit colleges and universities seeking to offer online graduate programs or short courses,educational offerings, any of which could negatively affect our revenue and future operating results and our ability to grow our business.
A number of competitive factors could cause us to lose potential university client and student opportunities or force us to offer our platform on less favorable economic terms, including:
competitors may develop service offerings that our potential university clients or students find to be more compelling than ours;
competitors may adopt more aggressive pricing policies and offer more attractive sales terms, adapt more quickly to new technologies and changes in university client and student requirements, and devote greater resources to the acquisition of qualified students than we can;
current and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to enhance their products and expand their markets, and our industry is likely to see an increasing number of new entrants and increased consolidation. Accordingly, new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share; and
colleges and universities may choose to continue using or to develop their own online learning solutions in-house, rather than pay for our platform.
We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors. In addition, competition may intensify as our competitors raise additional capital and as established companies in other market segments or geographic markets expand into our market segments or geographic markets. If we cannot compete successfully against our competitors, our ability to grow our business and achieve profitability could be impaired.
If for-profit postsecondary institutions, which offer online education alternatives different from ours, or online program management providers perform poorly or continue to attract negative publicity, it could tarnish the reputation of online education as a whole, which could impair our ability to grow our business.
For-profit postsecondary institutions, many of which provide course offerings predominantly online, remain under intense regulatory and other scrutiny, even under the current administration, which has led to media attention that has portrayed
that sector in an unflattering light. Some for-profit online school operators have been subject to governmental investigations alleging the misuse of public funds, financial irregularities, exaggerated promises to students, and failure to achieve positive outcomes for students, including the inability to obtain employment in their fields. These allegations have attracted significant adverse media coverage and have prompted ongoing legislative hearings and actions as well as regulatory responses.responses at both the state and federal level. These investigations have focused on specific companies and individuals, and the entire industriesindustry in the case of marketing and recruiting practices by for-profit higher education companies. Even though we do not market our platform to thesefor-profit institutions, and have a different business model from them, this negative media attention may nevertheless add tofoster skepticism about online higher education generally includingand our platform.company specifically. Allegations of abuse of federal financial aid funds and other statutory violations against for-profit higher education companies, even if unfounded, could negatively impact our opportunity to succeed due to increased regulation or decreased demand for our offerings. More recently, our company has been the subject of articles and decreased demand.inquires by critics of for-profit education models more generally, and such critics have advocated for changes in law and regulation at the state and federal level that would be adverse to our business model and sought information regarding the business practices of online program management companies generally. Efforts to further regulate for-profit institutions or our own business model could increase in the event of a change in political party control of the U.S. Congress or the executive branch. Any of these factors could negatively impact our ability to increase our university client base and grow our offerings and our revenue, which would make it difficult to continue to grow our business.
Our internal information technology systems are critical to our business. System integration and implementation issues could disrupt our operations, which could have a material adverse impact on our business or result in significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our internal controls.
We rely on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of complex information technology systems, including systems for billing, human resources, enterprise resource planning, and customer relationship management. As our business has grown in size and complexity, the growth has placed, and will continue to place, significant demands on our internal information technology systems. To effectively manage this growth, we must commit significant financial resources and personnel to maintain and enhance existing systems and develop or acquire new systems to keep pace with continuing changes in our business and information processinginformation-processing technology as well as evolving industry, regulatory, and accounting standards. If the information we rely upon to run our businesses is determined to be inaccurate or unreliable, or if we fail to properly maintain or enhance our internal information technology systems, we could have operational disruptions, significant deficiencies, or material weaknesses in our internal controls, incur increased operating and administrative expenses, lose our ability to produce timely and accurate financial reports, or suffer other adverse consequences.
If we do not retain our senior management team and key employees, we may not be able to sustain our growth or achieve our business objectives.
Our future success is substantially dependent on the continued service of our senior management team. Because of our small number of university clients and the significant nature of each new university client relationship, our senior management team is heavily involved in the university client identification and sales process, and their expertise is critical in navigating the complex approval processes of large nonprofit colleges and universities. We do not maintain key-person insurance on any of our employees, including our senior management team. The loss of the services of any individual on our senior management team, or failure to find a suitable successor, could make it more difficult to successfully operate our business and achieve our business goals.
Our future success also depends heavily on the retention of our marketing and sales, technology and content development and support teams to continue to attract and retain qualified students, in our university clients’ programs and courses, thereby generating revenue for us. In particular, our highly-skilled technology and content development employees provide the technical expertise underlying our bundled technology-enabled services that support our university clients’ programs and coursesofferings and the students enrolled in these offerings. Competition for these employees is intense. As a result, we may be unable to attract or retain these key personnel that are critical to our success, resulting in harm to our relationships with university clients, loss of expertise or know-how and unanticipated recruitment and training costs.
In addition, as a result of business acquisitions, current and prospective employees of 2U and any acquired company may experience uncertainty about their future roles following the acquisition. If our employees or the employees of any acquired company depart because of issues relating to uncertainty or perceived difficulties of integration, our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of an acquisition could be adversely impacted.
We have incurred substantial transaction and integration expenses related to the acquisition of GetSmarterTrilogy and expect to incur additional integration expenses related to the Trilogy acquisitions that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.
We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, a number of non-recurring costs associated with the GetSmarterTrilogy acquisition and combining the operations of the two companies.associated integration activities. For example, we expect to incur costs related to formulating and implementing integration plans, including facilities and systems consolidation costs and employment-related costs. We continue to assess the magnitude of these costs, and additional unanticipated costs may be incurred in the integration of the two companies’ businesses.process. Any expected efficiencies to offset these costs may not be achieved in the near term, or at all.
We may need additional capital in the future to pursue our business objectives. Additional capital may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, which could compromise our ability to grow our business.
We may need to raise additional funds to respond to business challenges or opportunities, accelerate our growth, develop new offerings or enhance our platform. If we seek to raise additional capital, it may not be available on favorable terms or may not be available at all. In addition, if we have borrowings outstanding under our credit facility, we may be restricted from using the net proceeds of financing transactions for our operating objectives. Lack of sufficient capital resources could significantly limit our ability to manage our business and to take advantage of business and strategic opportunities. Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or debt securities with an equity component would dilute our stock ownership. If adequate additional funds are not available if and when needed, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate material parts of our business strategy.
We maintain offices outside of the United States, have international residents that apply to and enroll in our offerings and plan to expand our international business, which exposes us to risks inherent in international operations.
the need to localize and adapt online offerings for specific countries, including translation into foreign languages and ensuring that these offerings enable our university clients to comply with local education laws and regulations;
the burden of complying with a wide variety of laws, including those relating to labor and employment matters, education, data protection and privacy;
difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations, including different pricing environments, longer sales cycles, longer accounts receivable payment cycles and collections issues;
lack of familiarity with and unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements;
challenges inherent in efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits and compliance programs;
new and different sources of competition, and practices which may favor local competitors;
weaker protection for intellectual property and other legal rights than in the United States and practical difficulties in enforcing intellectual property and other rights outside of the United States;
compliance challenges related to the complexity of multiple, conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including employment, tax, education, privacy and data protection, and anti-bribery laws and regulations such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act;
increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
restrictions on the transfer of funds;
adverse tax consequences, including liabilities for indirect taxes or the potential for required withholding taxes for our overseas employees;
terrorist attacks, acts of violence or war and adverse environmental conditions;
unstable regional and economic political conditions; and
fluctuations in currency exchange rates or restrictions on foreign currency, and the resulting effect on our revenue and expenses.
Our expansion efforts may not be successful. Our experience with attracting university clients and students in the U.S. may not be relevant to our ability to attract clients and students in other markets. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our international operations and are unable to attract university clients and students successfully and in a timely manner, our business and operating results will be harmed.
Our international operations expose us to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.
After the GetSmarter and Trilogy acquisitions, we conduct a more substantial portion of our business outside the U.S. and we accordingly make certain business and resource decisions considering assumptions about foreign currency. As a result, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates, in particular with respect to the volatility of the South African rand, or ZAR. While our reporting currency is in U.S. dollars, a portion of our consolidated revenue and expenses is denominated in ZAR, certain of our assets are denominated in ZAR and we have a significant employee base in South Africa. A decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar in relation to the ZAR could increase our cost of doing business in South Africa.
Alternatively, if the ZAR depreciates against the U.S. dollar, the value of our ZAR revenue, earnings and assets as expressed in our U.S. dollar financial statements will decline. We have not entered into any hedging transactions in an effort to reduce our exposure to foreign exchange risk. Our exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates, including the ZAR, could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flows.
In addition, local political events, financial instability and other factors can lead to economic uncertainty and currency exchange rate fluctuations. For example, the United Kingdom has recently left the European Union (“Brexit”) and is currently in a transition period, which will end at or after December 31, 2020. The uncertainties caused by Brexit resulted in significant volatility in the global stock markets and exchange rates.
The fluctuations of currencies in which we conduct business can both increase and decrease our overall revenue and expenses for any given fiscal period. Such volatility, even when it increases our revenue or decreases our expense, impacts our ability to accurately predict our future results and earnings.
Our operations in South Africa expose us to risks that could have an adverse effect on our business.
We expect to continue adding personnelhave a significant employee base in South Africa. We may incur costs complying with labor laws, rules and regulations in South Africa, including laws that regulate work time, provide for mandatory compensation in the event of termination of employment for operational reasons, and impose monetary penalties for non-compliance with administrative and reporting requirements in respect of affirmative action policies. Our reliance on a workforce in South Africa also exposes us to disruptions in the business, political, and economic environment in that region, as well as natural disasters and other environmental conditions. Maintenance of a stable political environment is important to our operations in South Africa, and terrorist attacks and acts of violence or war may directly affect our physical facilities and workforce or contribute to general instability. Our operations in South Africa require us to comply with complex local laws and regulatory requirements and expose us to foreign currency exchange rate risk. The economy of South Africa in the past has been, and in the future may continue to be, characterized by rates of inflation and interest rates that are substantially higher than those prevailing in the United States, which could increase our South-African basedSouth-African-based costs and decrease our operating margins. Our operations in South Africa may also subject us to trade restrictions, exchange control limitations, reduced or inadequate protection for intellectual property rights, security breaches, and other factors that may adversely affect our business. Negative developments in any of these areas could increase our costs of operations or otherwise harm our business.
We might not be able to utilize a portion of our net operating loss carryforwards, which could adversely affect our profitability.
As of December 31, 2018,2019, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards due to prior period losses, which, if not utilized, will begin to expire in 2029. Our gross state net operating loss carryforwards are equal to or less than the federal net operating loss carryforwards and expire over various periods based on individual state tax laws. These net operating loss carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our profitability. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. During the three-year period ended December 31, 2016, we determined that such an ownership change occurred. Absent a subsequent ownership change, however, all of our historical net operating losses should be available. Therefore, the occurrence of the ownership change during the three-year period ended December 31, 2016 is not expected to limit our ability to carry forward historical net
operating losses before expiration. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. If a future ownership change occurs and limits our ability to use our historical net operating loss carryforwards, it would harm our future financial statement results by increasing our future tax obligations. We also have net operating loss carryforwards in South Africa and the United Kingdom, and there is no guarantee that entities in these countries will generate enough taxable income to fully utilize them.
We engage some individuals classified as independent contractors, not employees, and if federal or state law mandates that they be classified as employees, our business would be adversely impacted.
We engage independent contractors and are subject to the Internal Revenue Service regulations and applicable state law guidelines regarding independent contractor classification. These regulations and guidelines are subject to judicial and agency interpretation, and it could be determined that the independent contractor classification is inapplicable. Further, if legal standards for classification of independent contractors change, it may be necessary to modify our compensation structure for these personnel, including by paying additional compensation or reimbursing expenses. In addition, if our independent contractors are determined to have been misclassified as independent contractors, we would incur additional exposure under federal and state law, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, labor, employment and tort laws, including for prior periods, as well as potential liability for employee benefits and tax withholdings. Any of these outcomes could result in substantial costs to us, could significantly impair our financial condition and our ability to conduct our business as we choose, and could damage our reputation and our ability to attract and retain other personnel.
We rely on certain third-party providers of software and services integral to provide certain componentsthe operations of our platform, which may be difficult to obtain or which could cause errors or failuresbusiness.
Certain aspects of the operation of our platform.
business depend on third party software and service providers. We rely on software licensedthat we license from third parties and services provided by third parties to offer certain components of our technology and services. In addition, we may need to obtain future licenses or services from third parties to use intellectual property necessary for the continued useprovision of our technology and services, which might not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If our agreements with third-party software or services vendors are not renewed or the third-party software or services become obsolete, fail to function properly, are defective or otherwise fail to provide quality service or address our or our university clients’ needs, there is no assurance that we would be able to replace the functionality provided by the third-party software or service provider with software or services from alternative providers. Any loss of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.
Our substantial indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the righteconomy or our industry, expose us to useinterest rate risk and prevent us from meeting our obligations with respect to our indebtedness.
As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately $254.5 million of indebtedness on a componentconsolidated basis. See Note 9 in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our substantial indebtedness could have important consequences. For example, it could:
limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, investments and other general corporate purposes;
require a substantial portion of our technologycash from operating activities to be dedicated to debt service payments and reduce the amount of cash available for working capital, capital expenditures, investments or servicesacquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
expose us to increased interest rate risk as a significant portion of our indebtedness is subject to variable interest rates;
place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to certain of our competitors who have less debt;
hinder our ability to adjust rapidly to changing market conditions;
limit our ability to secure adequate bank financing in the future with reasonable terms and conditions; and
increase our vulnerability to, and limit our flexibility in planning for or reacting to, a potential downturn in general economic conditions or in one or more of our businesses.
Our variable rate indebtedness may use LIBOR as a benchmark for establishing the rate. On July 27, 2017, the authority that regulates LIBOR announced that it intends to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR
after 2021. It is unclear whether new methods of calculating LIBOR will be established such that it continues to exist after 2021. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with a newly created index, calculated with a broad set of short-term repurchase agreements backed by treasury securities. It is not possible to predict the effect of these changes, other reforms or the establishment of alternative reference rates in the United Kingdom, the United States or elsewhere.
In addition, the Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan contains affirmative and negative covenants that limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our long-term best interests. Our failure to comply with those covenants could result in errorsan event of default which, if not cured or failures of our platform until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained and integrated, which could harm our business. Any errors or defects in third-party softwarewaived, could result in errors or a failurethe acceleration of all of our platform,debt.
Despite current indebtedness levels and existing restrictive covenants, we may still incur additional indebtedness that could further exacerbate the risks associated with our substantial financial leverage.
We may incur significant additional indebtedness in the future under the agreements governing our indebtedness. Although the Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan contains restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of thresholds, qualifications and exceptions, and the additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. Additionally, these restrictions permit us to incur obligations that, although preferential to our common stock in terms of payment, do not constitute indebtedness.
To service our indebtedness, we will require a significant amount of cash, and our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control.
Our ability to make cash payments on and to refinance our indebtedness will depend upon our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control.
If we are unable to generate sufficient cash from operating activities or are otherwise unable to obtain funds necessary to meet required payments of principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness or if we fail to comply with the various covenants in the instruments governing our indebtedness and we are unable to obtain waivers from the required lenders, we could be in default under the terms of the agreements governing such indebtedness. In the event of such default, the holders of our indebtedness could elect to declare all the funds borrowed to be due and payable, together with accrued and unpaid interest. As a result, we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.
Our debt obligations may limit our flexibility in managing our business.
The Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan requires us to comply with several customary financial and other restrictive covenants, such as maintaining leverage ratios in certain situations, maintaining insurance coverage, and restricting our ability to make certain investments. We are also required to maintain liquidity of $25.0 million of unrestricted cash as of the last day of each fiscal quarter, which may limit our ability to engage in new lines of business, make certain investments, pay dividends, or enter into various transactions. The Credit Agreement also includes covenants that require us to maintain minimum: (i) annualized last quarter Graduate Program Segment revenue (“Minimum Graduate LQAR”) and (ii) Alternative Credential Segment revenue for the last four consecutive fiscal quarters (“Minimum Alternative Credential LTMR”). For the quarter and four consecutive fiscal quarters ended December 31, 2019, our Minimum Graduate LQAR and Minimum Alternative Credential LTMR were $432.9 million and $218.8 million, respectively, which exceeded the requirements of $397.8 million and $185.0 million, respectively. In order to satisfy the Minimum Graduate LQAR covenant during the year ending December 31, 2020, we will be required to achieve minimum Graduate Program Segment revenue each fiscal quarter of various levels ranging from $92 million to $111 million. In order to satisfy the Minimum Alternative Credential LTMR covenant during the year ending December 31, 2020, we will be required to achieve Minimum Alternative Credential LTMR each fiscal quarter of various levels ranging from $204 million to $207 million. These covenants may limit the flexibility of our operations, and failure to meet either one of these minimum revenue covenants could result in defaults under the Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan even if we have satisfied our payment obligations. If such a default were to occur, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be materially adversely affected. See Note 9 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional details regarding our Credit Agreement.
We have incurred and may incur in the future significant charges due to impairment of our goodwill.
We review goodwill at least annually, and more frequently if indicators of impairment occur, at the reporting unit level. An interim goodwill impairment test performed during the reporting period indicated that the carrying value of Trilogy exceeded its fair value, primarily due to lower expectations of future performance of Trilogy that impacted estimated operating cash flows. As a result, we recorded an impairment charge of $70.4 million on our consolidated statements of operations and
comprehensive loss for the year ended December 31, 2019. Future changes in our circumstances or in the variables associated with the judgments, assumptions and estimates used in assessing the fair value of our reporting units could require us to record additional impairment charges, which could harmhave a material adverse effect on our business.business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Regulation of Our Business and That of Our University Clients
Our business model relies on university client institutions complying with federal and state laws and regulations.
Higher education is heavily regulated. All of our university clients in the United States and certain university clients outside of the United States participate in Title IV federal student financial assistance programs under the HEA of 1965, as amended, or HEA, and are subject to extensive regulation by the DOE, as well as various state agencies, licensing boards and accrediting commissions. To participate in the Title IV programs, an institution must receive and maintain authorization by the appropriate state education agencies, be accredited by an accrediting commission recognized by the DOE, and be certified by the DOE as an eligible institution. If a university client participating in Title IV was found to be in non-compliance with any of these laws, regulations, standards or policies, the university client could lose some or all of its access to Title IV program funds, lose the ability to offer certain programs or lose theirits ability to operate in certain states, any of which could cause our revenue from that university client’s program to decline.
The regulations, standards and policies applicable to our university clients change frequently and are often subject to interpretation. Changes in, or new interpretations of, applicable laws, regulations or standards could compromise our university clients’ accreditation, authorization to operate in various states, permissible activities or use of federal funds under Title IV programs. We cannot predict with certainty how the requirements applied by our university clients’ regulators will be interpreted, or whether our university clients will be able to comply with these requirements in the future.
Our activities are subject to federal and state laws and regulations and other requirements.
Although we are not an institution of higher education, we are required to comply with certain education laws and regulations as a result of our role as a service provider to higher education institutions, either directly or indirectly through our contractual arrangements with university clients. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations could result in breach of contract and indemnification claims and could cause damage to our reputation and impair our ability to grow our business and achieve profitability.
Activities of the U.S. Congress or Department of Education could result in adverse legislation or regulatory action.
The process of re-authorization of the HEA began in 2014 and is ongoing. Congressional hearings will continue to be scheduled by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce and other Congressional committees regarding various aspects of the education industry, including accreditation matters, student debt, student recruiting, cost of tuition, distance learning, competency-based learning, student success and outcomes and other matters.
The increased scrutiny and results-based accountability initiatives in the education sector, as well as ongoing policy differences in Congress regarding spending levels and other issues, could lead to significant changes in connection with the reauthorization of the HEA or otherwise. These changes may place new or additional regulatory burdens on postsecondary schools generally, and specific initiatives may be targeted at or have an impact upon companies like us that serve higher education. The adoption of any laws or regulations that limit our ability to provide our bundled services to our university clients could compromise our
ability to drive revenue through their programs or make our platform less attractive to them. Congress could also enact laws or authorize regulations that require us to modify our practices in ways that could increase our costs.costs, including as a result of new regulatory burdens.
In addition, regulatory activities and initiatives of the DOE may have similar consequences for our business even in the absence of Congressional action. For example, in September 2015, the DOE publicly released its College Scorecard website, a tool aimed at helping students make informed decisions about education options after high school (including 2 and 4-year degree programs, certificate programs and some degree programs). In May 2019, the DOE expanded the data available in College Scorecard and students can now view data regarding salary after completion or graduation, graduation rates, average cost, transfer rates, median debt after graduation, and earnings based on fields of study, among other data. College Scorecard data may not accurately reflect our university clients’ offerings because it only includes students who are recipients of Title IV program funds and does not distinguish between a university’s online and campus-based programs, however it may impact enrollment in our offerings if students have a negative impression of our university clients’ offerings based on the data presented. The DOE is expected to update the data annually to demonstrate how graduates’ earning prospects and debt levels
progress in years following completion or graduation. We cannot predict the impact that College Scorecard may have on enrollment in our offerings, reputation or operating results.
Our business model, which depends on our ability to receive a share of tuition revenue as payment from our university clients, has been validated by a DOE “dear colleague” letter, but such validation is not codified by statute or regulation and may be subject to change.
Each institution that participates in Title IV programs agrees it will not “provide any commission, bonus, or other incentive payment based in any part, directly or indirectly, upon success in securing enrollments or the award of financial aid, to any person or entity who is engaged in any student recruitment or admission activity, or in making decisions regarding the award of Title IV, HEA program funds.” All of our university clients participate in Title IV Programs.
Although this rule, referred to as the incentive compensation rule, generally prohibits entities or individuals from receiving incentive-based compensation payments for the successful recruitment, admission or enrollment of students, the DOE provided guidance in 2011 permitting tuition revenue-sharing arrangements known as the “bundled services rule.” Our current business model relies heavilyin part on the bundled services rule to enter into tuition revenue-sharing agreements with our university clients.
Because the bundled services rule was promulgated in the form of agency guidance issued by the DOE in the form of a “dear colleague” letter, or DCL, and is not codified by statute or regulation, there is risk that the rule could be altered or removed without prior notice, public comment period or other administrative procedural requirements that accompany formal agency rulemaking. Although the DCL represents the current policy of the DOE, the bundled services rule could be reviewed, altered or vacated in the future. In addition, the legal weight the DCL would carry in litigation over the propriety of any specific compensation arrangements under the HEA or the incentive compensation rule is uncertain. We can offer no assurances as to how the DCL would be interpreted by a court. The revision, removal or invalidation of the bundled services rule by Congress, the DOE or a court, whether in an action involving our company or our university clients, or in action that does not involve us, could require us to change our business model and renegotiate the terms of our university client contracts and could compromise our ability to generate revenue.
If we or our subcontractors or agents violate the incentive compensation rule, we could be liable to our university clients for substantial fines, sanctions or other liabilities.
Even though the DCL clarifies that tuition revenue-sharing arrangements with our university clients are permissible, we are still subject to other provisions of the incentive compensation rule that prohibit us from offering to our employees who are involved with or responsible for recruiting or admissions activities any bonus or incentive-based compensation based on the successful identification, admission or enrollment of students into any institution. If we or our subcontractors or agents violate the incentive compensation rule, we could be liable to our university clients for substantial fines, sanctions or other liabilities, including liabilities related to “whistleblower” claims under the federal False Claims Act. Any such claims, even if without merit, could require us to incur significant costs to defend the claim, distract management’s attention and damage our reputation.
If we or our subcontractors or agents violate the misrepresentation rule, or similar federal and state regulatory requirements, we could face fines, sanctions and other liabilities.
We are required to comply with other regulations promulgated by the DOE that affect our student acquisition activities, including the misrepresentation rule. The misrepresentation rule is broad in scope and applies to statements our employees, subcontractors or agents may make about the nature of a university client’s program, a university client’s financial charges or the employability of a university client’s program graduates. A violation of this rule, FTC rules or other federal or state regulations applicable to our marketing activities by an employee, subcontractor or agent performing services for university clients could hurt our reputation, result in the termination of university client contracts, require us to pay fines or other monetary penalties or require us to pay the costs associated with indemnifying a university client from private claims or government investigations.
If our university clients fail to maintain their state authorizations, or we or our university clients violate other state laws and regulations, students in their offerings could be adversely affected and we could lose our ability to operate in that state and provide services to these university clients.
Our university clients must be authorized in certain states to offer online educational offerings, engage in recruiting and operate externships, internships, clinical training or other forms of field experience, depending on state law. The loss of or
failure to obtain state authorization would, among other things, limit the ability of a university client to enroll students in that state, render the university client and its students ineligible to participate in Title IV programs in that state, diminish the
attractiveness of the university client’s offering and ultimately compromise our ability to generate revenue and become profitable.
In addition, if we or any of our university clients fail to comply with any state agency’s rules, regulations or standards beyond authorizations, the state agency or state attorney general could limit the ability of the university client to offer educational offerings in that state or limit our ability to perform our contractual obligations to our university client in that state.
If our university clients fail to maintain institutional or programmatic accreditation for their offerings, our revenue could be materially affected.
The loss or suspension of a university client’s accreditation or other adverse action by the university client’s institutional or programmatic accreditor would render the institution or its offerings ineligible to participate in Title IV programs, could prevent the university client from offering certain educational offerings and, for certain degree-granting programs, could make it impossible for the graduates of the university client’s program to obtain employment in the profession for which they trained. If any of these results occurs, it could hurt our ability to generate revenue from that offering.
Our future growth could be impaired if our university clients fail to obtain timely approval from applicable regulatory agencies to offer new programs, make substantive changes to existing programs or expand their programs into or within certain states.
Our university clients are required to obtain the appropriate approvals from the DOE and applicable state and accrediting regulatory agencies for new programs or locations, which may be conditioned, delayed or denied in a manner that could impair our strategic plans and future growth. Regulatory constraints have resulted in delays to various approvals our university clients are requesting, and such delays could in turn delay the timing of our ability to generate revenue from our university clients’ programs.
If more state agencies require specialized approval of our university clients’ offerings, our operating costs could riseincrease significantly, approval times could lag, or we could be prohibited from operating in certain states.
In addition to state licensing agencies, our university clients may be required to obtain approval from professional licensing boards in certain states to offer specialized programs in specific fields of study. Currently, relatively few states require institutions to obtain professional board approval for their online educational offerings. However, more states could pass laws requiring our university clients’ offerings, such as graduate programs in teaching or nursing, to obtain approval from state professional boards. If a significant number of states pass additional laws requiring schools to obtain professional board approval, the cost of obtaining all necessary state approvals could dramatically increase, which could make our platform less attractive to university clients, and these university clients could be barred from operating in some states entirely.
Evolving regulations and legal obligations related to data privacy, data protection and information security and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations, could have an adverse effect on our business.
The legislative and regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. In providing our platform to university clients and in operating our business, we collect and process regulated personal information from students, faculty, prospective students and employees. Our handling of this personal information is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, which have been adopted by federal, state and foreign governments to regulate the collection, distribution, use and storage of personal information. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with these privacy laws and regulations or any security incident that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of this personal information in our possession, could result in government enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, all of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business.
Various federal, state and foreign legislative, regulatory or other governmental bodies may enact new or additional laws or regulations, or issue rulings that invalidate prior laws or regulations concerning privacy, data storage and data protection that could materially adversely impact our business. For example, in April 2016, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union formally adopted a comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)(“GDPR”), which took effect in May 2018. The GDPR introduces new requirements for the protection of personal data of individuals in the EU and substantial fines for non-compliance. After the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU (“Brexit”), we will also be subject to the UK Data Protection Act 2018 which introduces certain UK-specific requirements and also imposes substantial fines for non-compliance. As another example, the European ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC), which obliges EU member states to introduce certain national laws regulating privacy in the electronic communications sector, will soon be replaced by the ePrivacy Regulation. As the text of the ePrivacy Regulation is still under development and in draft form, and as further guidance is issued and interpretations of both the ePrivacy Regulation and the GDPR develop, it is difficult to assess the impact of either on our business or operations, but it may require us to modify our
data practices and policies (e.g., in relation to management of cookies and direct marketing messages sent through
different media) and we could incur substantial costs as a result. We are also subject to evolving EU laws on data transfer, as we may transfer personal data from the European Economic Area to other jurisdictions. There is currently litigation challenging various EU mechanisms for adequate data transfers and it is uncertain whether various mechanisms, such as the “Privacy Shield” or “model contractual clauses” will be invalidated by the European courts. Brexit has also introduced significant uncertainty about data transfers from the EU to the UK and from the UK to other jurisdictions, which could affect our operations in the U.K. and EU.
Similarly, in the U.S., various states have either passed or proposed privacy laws that will go into effect in the next few years. For example, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)(“CCPA”) in 2018, (set to go intowhich took effect in 2020),January 2020, and Massachusetts recently proposed MA Bill SD 341, “An Act relative to consumer data privacy.” There are similar bills pending in a number of other states, as well. CCPA and MA Bill SD 341 each represent a trend toward stronger privacy protections and greater data transparency in the U.S..U.S. Currently, federal law legislates privacy on an industry by industry basis. Without an overarching federal law driving privacy compliance, the risk is high of a patchwork of privacy legislation formed by individual state laws, similar to the states’ approach to breach notification obligations. This could not only increase costs for compliance but also raise the risk of enforcement by individual state Attorneys General.attorneys general.
Complying with these and other changing requirements could cause us to incur substantial costs, or require us to change our business practices, any of which could materially adversely affect our business and operating results.
We are required to comply with Thethe Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and failure to do so could harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
FERPA generally prohibits an institution of higher education participating in Title IV programs from disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records without the student’s consent. Our university clients and their students disclose to us certain information that originates from or comprises a student education record under FERPA. As an entity that provides services to institutions participating in Title IV programs, we are indirectly subject to FERPA, and we may not transfer or otherwise disclose any personally identifiable information from a student record to another party other than in a manner permitted under the statute. If we violate FERPA, it could result in a material breach of contract with one or more of our university clients and could harm our reputation. Further, in the event that we disclose student information in violation of FERPA, the DOE could require a university client to suspend our access to theirits student information for at least five years.
In our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment, we are subject to risks and compliance rules and regulations related to the third-party credit card payment processing platform integrated within our websites or otherwise used by our business.
Students typically use a credit or debit card to pay application and enrollment fees and to make tuition payments for our short courses.courses and boot camps. We are 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. We believe that we and the payment processing service providers we use are compliant in all material respects with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. However, there is no guarantee that such compliance will be maintained or that compliance will prevent illegal or improper use of our systems that are integrated with our payment processing providers. If we or any of the third-party payment processors we use fails to be in compliance with applicable credit card rules and regulations, we may be required to migrate to an alternate payment processor which could result in transaction downtime during the migration and/or a loss of students and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
We operate in an industry with extensive intellectual property litigation. Claims of infringement against us may hurt our business.
Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to avoid infringing intellectual property rights owned by others and being able to resolve claims of intellectual property infringement without major financial expenditures or adverse consequences. The technology and software fields generally are characterized by extensive intellectual property litigation and many companies that own, or claim to own, intellectual property have aggressively asserted their rights. In addition, we face potential copyright and trademark infringement from the content we produce in connection with our marketing activities, including in websites related to our offerings. From time to time, we may be subject to legal proceedings and claims relating to the intellectual property rights of others, and we expect that third parties will assert intellectual property claims against us, particularly as we expand the complexity and scope of our business. In addition, our university client agreements require us to indemnify our university clients against claims that our platform infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties.
Future litigation may be necessary to defend ourselves or our university clients from intellectual property infringement claims or to establish our proprietary rights. Some of our competitors have substantially greater resources than we do and would be able to sustain the costs of complex intellectual property litigation to a greater degree and for longer periods of time than we could. In addition, patent holding companies that focus solely on extracting royalties and settlements by enforcing
patent rights may target us. Regardless of whether claims that we are infringing patents or other intellectual property rights have any merit, these claims are time-consuming and costly to evaluate and defend and could:
hurt our reputation;
adversely affect our relationships with our current or future university clients;
cause delays or stoppages in providing our platform;
divert management’s attention and resources;
require technology changes to our software that could cause us to incur substantial cost;
subject us to significant liabilities; and
require us to cease some or all of our activities.
In addition to liability for monetary damages against us, which may include attorneys’ fees, treble damages in the event of a finding of willful infringement, or, in some circumstances, damages against our university clients, we may be prohibited from developing, commercializing or continuing to provide some or all of our bundled technology-enabled platform unless we obtain licenses from, and pay royalties to, the holders of the patents or other intellectual property rights, which may not be available on commercially favorable terms, or at all.
We may incur liability, or our reputation may be harmed, as a result of the activities of our university clients and students or the content in our online learning environments.
We may be subject to potential liability for the activities of our university clients or students in connection with the data they post or store in our online learning platform. For example, university personnel or students, or our employees or independent contractors, may post to our online learning platform various articles or other third-party content for use in class discussions or within asynchronous lessons.
Various U.S. federal statutes may apply to us with respect to these activities. The Copyright Act of 1976 provides recourse to copyright owners who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed on the internet. Those rights can be limited by operation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, or DMCA, such that we may not be liable for infringing content posted by university clients or students, provided that we follow the procedures for handling copyright infringement claims set forth in the DMCA.
Although statutes and case law in the U.S. have generally shielded us from liability for these activities to date, court rulings in pending or future litigation may narrow the scope of protection afforded us under these laws. In addition, laws governing these activities are unsettled in many international jurisdictions. As a result, we could incur liability to third parties for the unauthorized duplication, distribution or other use of third-party content. Any such claims could subject us to costly litigation and impose a significant strain on our financial resources and management personnel regardless of whether the claims have merit. Our various liability insurance coverages may not cover potential claims of this type adequately or at all, and we may be required to alter or cease our uses of such material, which may include changing or removing content from courses or altering the functionality of our online learning platform, or to pay monetary damages.
Additionally, university personnel or students, or our employees or independent contractors could use our online learning platform to store or process regulated personal information without our knowledge. In the event that our systems experience a data security incident, or an individual or entity accesses information without, or in excess of, proper authorization, we could be subject to data security incident notification laws, as described elsewhere, which may require prompt remediation and notification to individuals. If we are unaware of the data and information stored on our systems, we may be unable to appropriately comply with all legal obligations, and we may be exposed to governmental enforcement or prosecution actions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity and these incidents could harm our reputation and business.
Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights could diminish the value of our platform, weaken our competitive position and reduce our revenue.
We regard the protection of our intellectual property, which includes trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and domain names, as critical to our success. We protect our proprietary information from unauthorized use and disclosure by entering into confidentiality agreements with any party whothat may come in contact with such information. We also seek to ensure that we own intellectual property created for us by signing agreements with employees, independent contractors, consultants, companies and any other third party whothat may create intellectual property for us and that assigns theirany copyright and patent rights to us.
However, these arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation of our proprietary information or deter independent development of similar technologies by others.
We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks and service marks in the United States and in jurisdictions outside the United States. However, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe on our trademark or service mark rights, third parties may challenge our trademark or service mark rights, and pending or future trademark or service mark applications may not be approved. In addition, effective trademark protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate. In any or all cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement or enforce our rights.
Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly. Our efforts to protect our proprietary rights may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property. Further, we may not be able to detect unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce, our intellectual property rights. Our competitors may also independently develop similar technology. In addition, the laws of many countries may not protect our proprietary rights to as great an extent as do the laws of the United States. Further, the laws in the United States and elsewhere change rapidly, and any future changes could adversely affect us and our intellectual property rights. Our failure to meaningfully protect our intellectual property could result in competitors offering services that incorporate our most technologically advanced features, which could seriously reduce demand for our platform. In addition, we may in the future need to initiate litigation such as infringement or administrative proceedings, to protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation, whether we are a plaintiff or a defendant, can be expensive, time-consuming and may divert the efforts of our technical staff and managerial personnel, whether or not such litigation results in a determination that is unfavorable to us. In addition, litigation is inherently uncertain, and thus we may not be able to stop our competitors from infringing upon our intellectual property rights.
The use of “open source” software in our platform could negatively affect our ability to offer our platform and subject us to possible litigation.
A substantial portion of our platform incorporates so-called “open source” software, and we may incorporate additional open source software in the future. Open source software is generally freely accessible, usable and modifiable. Certain open source licenses may, in certain circumstances, require us to offer our platform that incorporates the open source software for no cost, that weto make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and that weto license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. Our efforts to monitor the use of open source software in our platform to ensure that no open source software is used in such a way as to require us to disclose our source code when we do not wish to do so, may be unable to prevent such use from occurring. In addition, if a third-party software provider has incorporated certain types of open source software into software we license from such third party without our knowledge, we could, under certain circumstances, be required to comply with the foregoing conditions. If an author or other third party that distributes open source software that we use were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, including being enjoined from offering the component of our platform that contained the open source software and being required to comply with the foregoing conditions, which could disrupt our ability to offer certain components of our platform.
We could also be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. The terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts. Accordingly, there is a risk that those licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to offer our platform. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition and require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our products.
If internet search engines’ methodologies are modified, our search engine optimization capability in connection with our student recruiting efforts could be harmed.
Our search engine optimization capability in connection with our student acquisition efforts substantially depends on various internet search engines, such as Google, to direct a significant amount of traffic to websites related to our offerings. Our ability to influence the number of visitors directed to these websites through search engines is not entirely within our control. For example, search engines frequently revise their algorithms in an attempt to optimize their search result listings. In 2011, Google announced an algorithm change that affected nearly 12% of their U.S. query results. Future changes that may be made by Google or any other search engines could impact our ability to effectively utilize search engine
optimization as part of our student acquisition strategies in the long-term. Changes in the methodologies used by search engines to display results could cause the websites related to our offerings to receive less favorable placements, which could reduce the number of prospective students who visit these websites from search engines. Further, if our competitors’ search engine optimization efforts are more successful than ours, fewer prospective students may be directed to our websites. Any reduction in the number of prospective students directed to our websites could negatively affect our ability to generate prospective students, and ultimately revenue, through our student acquisition activities.
Individuals that appear in content hosted on our online learning platform may claim violation of their rights.
Faculty and students that appear in video segments hosted on our online learning platform may claim that proper assignments, licenses, consents and releases were not obtained for use of their likenesses, images or other contributed content. Our contracts typically require that our university clients ensure that proper assignments, licenses, consents and releases are obtained for their course material, but we cannot know with certainty that they have obtained all necessary rights. Moreover, the laws governing rights of publicity and privacy, and the laws governing faculty ownership of course content, are imprecise and adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, such that the enforcement of agreements to transfer the necessary rights is unclear. As a result, we could incur liability to third parties for the unauthorized duplication, display, distribution or other use of this material. Any such claims could subject us to costly litigation and impose a significant strain on our financial resources and management personnel regardless of whether the claims have merit. Our various liability insurance coverages may not cover potential claims of this type adequately or at all, and we may be required to alter or cease our use of such material, which may include changing or removing content from courses, or to pay monetary damages. Moreover, claims by faculty and students could damage our reputation, regardless of whether such claims have merit.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock and Our Status as a Public Company
Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and may do so in the future, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Our quarterly operating results have historically fluctuated due to seasonality and changes in our business, and our future operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. You should not rely on period-to-period comparisons of our operating results as an indication of our future performance. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly operating results include, but are not limited to, the following:
the timing of our costs incurred in connection with the launch of new graduatedegree programs and the delay in receiving revenue from these new programs, which delay may last for several years;
seasonal variation driven by the semester schedules for our university clients’ graduatedegree programs, which may vary from year to year;
changes in the student enrollment and retention levels in our university clients’ offerings;
changes in our key metrics or the methods used to calculate our key metrics;
changes in tuition rates;
the timing and amount of our marketing and sales expenses;
costs necessary to improve and maintain our platform;
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
costs related to any acquisition and integration of business and technology;
our ability to effectively integrate businesses and technologies that we acquire; and
changes in the prospects of the economy generally, which could alter current or prospective university clients’ or students’ spending priorities, or could increase the time it takes us to launch new offerings.
Our operating results may fall below the expectations of market analysts and investors in some future periods, which could cause the market price of our common stock to decline substantially.
The trading price of the shares of our common stock may be volatile, and purchasers of our common stock could incur substantial losses.
The trading price of the shares of our common stock price may be volatile. The stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their common stock at or above the price paid for the shares. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by many factors, including:
actual or anticipated variations in our operating results;
variations between our actual operating results and the expectations of securities analysts, investors and the financial community;
changes in financial estimates by us or by any securities analysts who might cover our stock;stock or our failure to meet these financial estimates;
conditions or trends in our industry, the stock market or the economy;
the level of demand for our stock, including the amount of short interest in our stock;
stock market price and volume fluctuations of comparable companies and, in particular, those that operate in the software and information technology industries;
announcements by us or our competitors of new product or service offerings, significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships or divestitures;
announcements of investigations or regulatory scrutiny of our operations or lawsuits filed against us;
capital commitments;
investors’ general perception of our company and our business;
actions instituted by activist shareholders or others;
lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
recruitment or departure of key personnel; and
sales of our common stock, including sales by our directors and officers or specific stockholders.
As described in the past,Part I, Item 3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, certain stockholders have initiated class action lawsuits against technology companies following periods of volatility in the market prices of these companies’ stock. Suchus. Our defense against this litigation if instituted against us, couldwill cause us to incur substantial costsadditional expenses and could divert management’s attention and resources from our business.
If equity research analysts do not continue to publish research or reports, or publish unfavorable research or reports, about us, our business or our market, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. Equity research analysts may elect not to initiate or to continue to provide research coverage of our common stock, and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Even if we do have equity research analyst coverage, we will not have any control over the analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our stock could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our stock or issue other unfavorable commentary or research. If one or more equity research analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline. In addition, if our operating results fail to meet the forecasts of analysts, our stock price would likely decline.
Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to change our management and hinder efforts to acquire a controlling interest in us, and the market price of our common stock may be lower as a result.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may make it difficult for a third party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control is considered favorable by you and other stockholders. For example, our board of directors has the authority to issue up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock. The board of directors can fix the price, rights, preferences, privileges, and restrictions of the preferred stock without any further vote or action by our stockholders. An issuance of shares of preferred stock may result in the loss of voting control to other stockholders, which could delay or prevent a change in control transaction. As a result, the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of our stockholders may be adversely affected.
Our charter documents also contain other provisions that could have an anti-takeover effect, including:
only one of our three classes of directors will beis elected each year;
| • | stockholders are not entitled to remove directors other than by a 66 |
stockholders are not permitted to take actions by written consent;
stockholders are not permitted to call a special meeting of stockholders;
stockholders are required to give us advance notice of their intention to nominate directors or submit proposals for consideration at stockholder meetings.
In addition, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which regulates corporate acquisitions by prohibiting Delaware corporations from engaging in specified business combinations with particular stockholders of those companies. These provisions could discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a change in control transaction. They could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for our common stock, including transactions that may be in your best interests. These provisions may also prevent changes in our management or limit the price that investors are willing to pay for our stock.
Concentration of ownership of our common stock among our existing executive officers, directors and large stockholders may prevent smaller stockholders from influencing significant corporate decisions.
Our executive officers, directors and current beneficial owners of 5% or more of our common stock and their respective affiliates, in the aggregate, beneficially own a substantial percentage of our outstanding common stock. These persons, acting together, are able to significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors, any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other significant corporate transactions.transaction. The interests of this group of stockholders may not coincide with our interests or the interests of other stockholders.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our Form 10-K filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This may require us to incur substantial additional professional fees and internal costs to further expand our accounting and finance functions and expend significant management efforts.
We may in the future discover material weaknesses in our system of internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that could result in a material misstatement of our financial statements. In addition, our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to errors or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If that were to happen, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the stock exchange on which our common stock is listed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, or other regulatory authorities.
Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gains and you may never receive a return on your investment.
You should not rely on an investment in our common stock to provide dividend income. We have not declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock to date. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, the terms of our existing credit facility preclude, and the terms of any future debt agreements isare likely to similarly preclude, us from paying dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common stock.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
Our headquarters are located in Lanham, Maryland, where we occupy approximately 225,000281,000 square feet under a lease that expires in 2028. We also occupy approximately 53,000Our other material properties are 121,000 square feet of leased office space in Denver, Colorado, 59,000 square feet of leased office space in Brooklyn, New York and approximately 100,00098,000 square feet of leased office space in Denver, Colorado.
We intend to add new facilities or expand existing facilities as we add employeesadjust our facility occupancy commensurate with our employee base and believe that we will be able to obtain additional facilitiesdo so on commercially reasonable terms.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
We are not presently involved in various claims and legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. We accrue a liability when a loss is considered probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated. See “Note 7. Commitments and Contingencies—Legal Contingencies” to our financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. While we do not expect that the ultimate resolution of any legal proceeding or other contingency that,existing claims and proceedings (other than the specific matter described below, if determined adversely, woulddecided adversely), individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on its business, operatingour financial position, an unfavorable outcome in some or all of these proceedings could have a material adverse impact on the results financial conditionof operations or cash flows. Accordingly, we do notflows for a particular period. This assessment is based on our current understanding of relevant facts and circumstances. As such, our view of these matters is subject to inherent uncertainties and may change in the future.
In re 2U, Inc., Securities Class Action
On August 7 and 9, 2019, Aaron Harper and Anne M. Chinn filed putative class action complaints against us, Christopher J. Paucek, our CEO, and Catherine A. Graham, our former CFO, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The district court consolidated the two actions on August 27, 2019, under the caption In re 2U, Inc., Securities Class Action, No. 1:19-cv-7390 (S.D.N.Y.). On November 26, 2019, the court transferred the case to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and the docket number is now 8:19-cv-345. The complaints allege violations of Section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and SEC Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, based upon allegedly false and misleading statements regarding our company’s business prospects and financial projections. The proposed class consists of all persons who acquired our company’s securities between February 26, 2018 and July 30, 2019.
We believe that there is a reasonable possibility that a material loss exceeding amounts already recognized may have been incurred asthe claims are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend against these claims. However, due to the complex nature of the datelegal and factual issues involved, the outcome of the balance sheets presented herein.this matter is not presently determinable.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
None.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our common stock has been listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market since March 28, 2014, under the symbol “TWOU.”
As of February 20, 2019,24, 2020, there were 3781 registered stockholders of record for our common stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also does not include stockholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.
Stock Performance Graph
The graph set forth below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on an initial investment of $100 in our common stock between March 28, 2014 (the datewith that of our initial public offering) and December 31, 2018, with the comparative cumulative total return of such amount over the same period on (i) the Nasdaq Composite Index, (ii)the Russell 3000 Index and the S&P North American Technology Software Index and (iii)for the five years ended December 31, 2019. The graph assumes that $100 was invested at the close of market on the last trading day of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 in the common stock of 2U, Inc., the Nasdaq Composite Index, the Russell 3000 Index and the S&P North American Technology Software Index. We have not paid any cash dividends and, therefore, the cumulative total return calculation for uson our common stock is based solely upon our stock price appreciation or depreciation and does not include any reinvestment of cash dividends. The graphdata for the Nasdaq Composite Index, the Russell 3000 Index and the S&P North American Technology Software Index assumes our closing sales price on March 28, 2014reinvestments of $13.98 per share as the initial value of our common stock.gross dividends. The comparisons shown in the graph below are based upon historical data, and are not necessarily indicative of, nor intended to forecast, the potential future stock performance of our common stock.
Comparison of Cumulative Total Return
Through December 31, 20182019
Assumes Initial Investment of $100
The information presented above in the stock performance graph shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C, except to the extent that we subsequently specifically request that such information be treated as soliciting material or specifically incorporate it by reference into a filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or a filing under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The following selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 2017 and 2016,2017, and the selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 20182019 and 20172018 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements in “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 20152016 and 2014,2015, and the selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2017, 2016 2015 and 20142015 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements except as otherwise noted, that are not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.10-K, except as otherwise noted. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future. The selected consolidated financial data should be read together with Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements, related notes, and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
| Year Ended December 31, | Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except share and per share amounts) | (in thousands, except share and per share amounts) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 411,769 | $ | 286,752 | $ | 205,864 | $ | 150,194 | $ | 110,239 | $ | 574,671 | $ | 411,769 | $ | 286,752 | $ | 205,864 | $ | 150,194 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Costs and expenses | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Curriculum and teaching | 23,290 | 6,609 | — | — | — | 63,270 | 23,290 | 6,609 | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Servicing and support | 67,203 | 50,767 | 40,982 | 32,047 | 26,858 | 98,890 | 67,203 | 50,767 | 40,982 | 32,047 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology and content development | 63,812 | 45,926 | 33,283 | 27,211 | 22,621 | 115,473 | 63,812 | 45,926 | 33,283 | 27,211 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marketing and sales | 221,015 | 150,923 | 106,610 | 82,911 | 65,218 | 342,395 | 221,015 | 150,923 | 106,610 | 82,911 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | 82,989 | 62,665 | 46,021 | 34,123 | 23,420 | 131,020 | 82,989 | 62,665 | 46,021 | 34,123 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Impairment charge | 70,379 | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total costs and expenses | 458,309 | 316,890 | 226,896 | 176,292 | 138,117 | 821,427 | 458,309 | 316,890 | 226,896 | 176,292 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Loss from operations | (46,540 | ) | (30,138 | ) | (21,032 | ) | (26,098 | ) | (27,878 | ) | (246,756 | ) | (46,540 | ) | (30,138 | ) | (21,032 | ) | (26,098 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income | 5,173 | 371 | 383 | 167 | 92 | 5,800 | 5,173 | 371 | 383 | 167 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (108 | ) | (87 | ) | (35 | ) | (552 | ) | (1,213 | ) | (13,419 | ) | (108 | ) | (87 | ) | (35 | ) | (552 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other expense, net | (1,722 | ) | (866 | ) | — | (250 | ) | — | (707 | ) | (1,722 | ) | (866 | ) | — | (250 | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (43,197 | ) | (30,720 | ) | (20,684 | ) | (26,733 | ) | (28,999 | ) | (255,082 | ) | (43,197 | ) | (30,720 | ) | (20,684 | ) | (26,733 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | 4,867 | 1,297 | — | — | — | 19,860 | 4,867 | 1,297 | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | (38,330 | ) | (29,423 | ) | (20,684 | ) | (26,733 | ) | (28,999 | ) | $ | (235,222 | ) | $ | (38,330 | ) | $ | (29,423 | ) | $ | (20,684 | ) | $ | (26,733 | ) | |||||||||||||
| Preferred stock accretion | — | — | — | — | (89 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss attributable to common stockholders | $ | (38,330 | ) | $ | (29,423 | ) | $ | (20,684 | ) | $ | (26,733 | ) | $ | (29,088 | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted | $ | (0.69 | ) | $ | (0.60 | ) | $ | (0.44 | ) | $ | (0.63 | ) | $ | (0.91 | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weighted-average common shares outstanding used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted | 55,833,492 | 49,062,611 | 46,609,751 | 42,420,356 | 32,075,107 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other Financial Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA (loss)* | $ | 17,655 | $ | 11,416 | $ | 4,541 | $ | (6,629 | ) | $ | (14,779 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss per share, basic and diluted | $ | (3.83 | ) | $ | (0.69 | ) | $ | (0.60 | ) | $ | (0.44 | ) | $ | (0.63 | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weighted-average common shares outstanding used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted | 61,393,666 | 55,833,492 | 49,062,611 | 46,609,751 | 42,420,356 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As of December 31, | As of December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consolidated Balance Sheets Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 449,772 | $ | 223,370 | $ | 168,730 | $ | 183,729 | $ | 86,929 | $ | 170,593 | $ | 449,772 | $ | 223,370 | $ | 168,730 | $ | 183,729 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Working capital* | 453,200 | 190,053 | 143,629 | 160,310 | 66,220 | 104,994 | 453,200 | 190,053 | 143,629 | 160,310 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Goodwill and amortizable intangible assets, net | 198,457 | 162,749 | 34,131 | 25,024 | 16,813 | 751,425 | 198,457 | 162,749 | 34,131 | 25,024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total assets | 807,354 | 482,062 | 244,320 | 231,041 | 113,039 | 1,186,830 | 807,354 | 482,062 | 244,320 | 231,041 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total liabilities | 102,345 | 94,230 | 49,083 | 35,252 | 25,028 | 475,580 | 102,345 | 94,230 | 49,083 | 35,252 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Additional paid-in capital | 957,631 | 588,289 | 371,455 | 351,324 | 216,818 | 1,197,379 | 957,631 | 588,289 | 371,455 | 351,324 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 705,009 | 387,832 | 195,237 | 195,789 | 88,011 | $ | 711,250 | $ | 705,009 | $ | 387,832 | $ | 195,237 | $ | 195,789 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | We define working capital as current assets minus current liabilities. |
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (38,330 | ) | $ | (29,423 | ) | $ | (20,684 | ) | $ | (26,733 | ) | $ | (28,999 | ) | ||||
| Adjustments: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income | (5,173 | ) | (371 | ) | (383 | ) | (167 | ) | (92 | ) | |||||||||
| Interest expense | 108 | 87 | 35 | 552 | 1,213 | ||||||||||||||
| Foreign currency loss | 1,722 | 866 | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization expense | 32,785 | 19,624 | 9,750 | 7,220 | 5,572 | ||||||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | (4,867 | ) | (1,297 | ) | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 31,410 | 21,930 | 15,823 | 12,499 | 7,527 | ||||||||||||||
| Total adjustments | 55,985 | 40,839 | 25,225 | 20,104 | 14,220 | ||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA (loss) | $ | 17,655 | $ | 11,416 | $ | 4,541 | $ | (6,629 | ) | $ | (14,779 | ) | |||||||
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review Item 1A “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this report for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
This section of this Form 10-K does not address certain items regarding the year ended December 31, 2017. For a discussion of our results of operations and liquidity and capital resources for the year ended December 31, 2017, including a year-over-year comparison between the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included in Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.
Overview
We are a leading provider of education technology company that well-recognizedfor nonprofit colleges and universities trust to bring them intouniversities. We build, deliver, and support more than 400 digital and in-person educational offerings, including graduate degrees, undergraduate degrees, professional certificates, boot camps, and short courses, across the digital age. career curriculum continuum. Together with our university clients, we have positively transformed the lives of more than 200,000 students.
Our comprehensive platform of tightly integrated technology and services provides the digital infrastructure that universities need to attract, enroll, educate and support students at scale. With our platform, students can pursue their education anytime, anywhere, without quitting their jobs or moving; and university clients can improveprovide broader access to their educational offerings, thereby improving outcomes, skills attainment and career prospects for a greater number of students.
We have two reportable segments: the Graduate Program Segment and the Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment.
Certain Trends and Uncertainties
The following represents a summary of certain trends and uncertainties, which could have a significant impact on our financial condition and results of operations. This summary is not intended to be a complete list of potential trends and uncertainties and should be considered along with the factors identified in the section titled “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and elsewhere in this report.
The risk of a data security breach or service disruption has increased as the frequency, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. While we make significant efforts to maintain the security and integrity of our services and computer systems, our cybersecurity measures and the cybersecurity measures taken by our third-party data center facilities may be unable to anticipate, detect or prevent all attempts to compromise our systems.
We and our university clients are subject to certain education regulations, such as the HEA, which are frequently revised, repealed or expanded. The re-authorization of the HEA is currently in process and the outcome could alter the
regulatory landscape of the higher education industry, and thereby impact the manner in which we conduct business and serve our university clients.
Our university clients have regular turnover in leadership positions. These changes can have a positive or negative impact on our business. If new leaders do not support online delivery of educational offerings, we may not be able to add additional offerings with the university client or the university client may not renew their relationship with us. New leaders may also make changes in university policies, which could result in changes to admissions standards or
application of admissions standards and negatively impact student enrollment in a university client’s 2U-powered graduatedegree programs.
Our Business Model and Components of Operating Results
The key elements of our business model and components of our operating results are described below.
Revenue Drivers
our ability to increase the number of graduatedegree programs and short courses offered,other offerings, either by adding new university clients or by adding graduate programs and short coursesexpanding the number of offerings we provide with current university clients;
our ability to acquireidentify and attract prospective students for graduateto our degree programs and short courses;other offerings; and
our ability, and that of our university clients, to retain the students who enroll in graduate programs and short courses.
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | ||||||
| University of Southern California | 21 | % | 27 | % | 34 | % | ||
| Simmons University | 13 | % | 17 | % | 18 | % | ||
| Syracuse University | 10 | % | 11 | % | <10% | |||
| University of North Carolina | <10% | 10 | % | 11 | % | |||
Marketing and Sales CostsExpense
Our most significant cost in each fiscal periodexpense relates primarily to student acquisitionmarketing and sales activities to attract students to our offerings across both of our segments. This includes the cost of online advertisingSearch Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and demand generation,Social Media Optimization, as well as cashpersonnel and non-cash compensation and benefit costs (including stock-based compensation)personnel-related expense for our graduate programmarketing and short course marketing, marketing analytics and admissions application counseling personnel.recruiting teams.
Graduate Program Segment
two-year period following initial enrollment. Accordingly, our marketing and sales expense in any period is an investment we make to generate revenue in future periods. Likewise, revenue generated in any period is largely attributable to the investment made in student acquisition activities in earlier periods. Because marketing and sales expense in any period is almost entirely unrelated to revenue generated in that period,Therefore, we do not believe it is meaningful to directly compare the two. We believe that the total revenue we will receive over time related to students who enroll in our graduate programs as a result of current period marketing and sales expense, will be significantly greater as a multiple of that current period expense than is implied by the multiple of current period revenue to current period marketing and sales expense as expressed in our financial statements.expense. Further, we believe that our marketing and sales expense in future periods will generally decline as a percentage of the revenue reported in those same periods as our revenue base from returning students in existing programs increases.
Other Costs and ExpensesOperating Expense
Our other costs and expensesoperating expense consist of the following:
Curriculum and teaching. Curriculum and teaching costs are associated with our Short Course Segment andexpense consists primarily relate toof amounts due to universities for licenses to use their brand names and other trademarks in connection with our university clients, whichshort course and boot camp offerings. The payments are based on contractually specified percentages of the gross proceeds associated withtuition and fees we receive from students in those offerings. Curriculum and teaching expense also includes personnel and personnel-related expense for our short course offerings for providing content and certifying courses. This also includes costs to compensate short course facilitators.boot camp instructional staff.
Servicing and support. Servicing and support costs consistexpense consists primarily of cashpersonnel and non-cash compensation and benefit costs (including stock-based compensation) related topersonnel-related expense associated with the management and operations of our graduate programs and short courses, providing support for our SaaS technology,educational offerings, as well as supporting students enrolled in our offerings and faculty members. ItServicing and support expense also includes software licensing, telecommunications, technicalcosts to support and other costs related to providing access to and support for our platform, for our university clients and students. In addition, servicing and support includes costs to
facilitate in-program field placements and student immersions, and other student enrichment experiences, as well as costs to assist our university clients with their state compliance requirements.
Technology and content development. Technology and content development costs consistexpense consists primarily of cashpersonnel and non-cash compensation and benefit costs (including stock-based compensation) and outsourced services costs related topersonnel-related expense associated with the ongoing improvement and maintenance of our platform, and the developed content for our graduate programs and short courses. It also includes the associated amortization expense related to capitalized technology and content development, as well as hosting and licensing costs. Technology and other costs associated with maintaining our platform in a cloud environmentcontent expense also includes the amortization of capitalized technology and support for our internal infrastructure.content.
General and administrative. General and administrative costs consistexpense consists primarily of cashpersonnel and non-cash compensation and benefit costs (including stock-based compensation)personnel-related expense for employees in our corporate departments, including executive administrative,management, legal, finance, and accounting, legal, communications and human resources, functions. Itand other departments that do not provide direct operational services. General and administrative expense also includes external legal, accounting and other professional fees and other corporate costs such as insurance and travel that are not related to another function.expense.
Net Interest Income (Expense)
Other Income (Expense),Expense, Net
Other income (expense),expense, net primarily consists of foreign currency gains and losses.
Income Tax BenefitTaxes
Results of Operations
Consolidated Operating Results
Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 20182019 and 20172018
The following table sets forth selected consolidated statement of operations data for each of the periods indicated.
| Year Ended December 31, | Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | Period-to-Period Change | 2019 | 2018 | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage | Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | (dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 411,769 | 100.0 | % | $ | 286,752 | 100.0 | % | $ | 125,017 | 43.6 | % | $ | 574,671 | 100.0 | % | $ | 411,769 | 100.0 | % | $ | 162,902 | 39.6 | % | ||||||||||||||||||
| Costs and expenses | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Curriculum and teaching | 23,290 | 5.7 | 6,609 | 2.3 | 16,681 | 252.4 | 63,270 | 11.0 | 23,290 | 5.7 | 39,980 | 171.7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Servicing and support | 67,203 | 16.3 | 50,767 | 17.7 | 16,436 | 32.4 | 98,890 | 17.2 | 67,203 | 16.3 | 31,687 | 47.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology and content development | 63,812 | 15.5 | 45,926 | 16.0 | 17,886 | 38.9 | 115,473 | 20.1 | 63,812 | 15.5 | 51,661 | 81.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marketing and sales | 221,015 | 53.7 | 150,923 | 52.6 | 70,092 | 46.4 | 342,395 | 59.6 | 221,015 | 53.7 | 121,380 | 54.9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | 82,989 | 20.2 | 62,665 | 21.9 | 20,324 | 32.4 | 131,020 | 22.8 | 82,989 | 20.2 | 48,031 | 57.9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Impairment charge | 70,379 | 12.2 | — | — | 70,379 | * | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total costs and expenses | 458,309 | 111.4 | 316,890 | 110.5 | 141,419 | 44.6 | 821,427 | 142.9 | 458,309 | 111.4 | 363,118 | 79.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Loss from operations | (46,540 | ) | (11.4 | ) | (30,138 | ) | (10.5 | ) | (16,402 | ) | 54.4 | (246,756 | ) | (42.9 | ) | (46,540 | ) | (11.4 | ) | (200,216 | ) | 430.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income | 5,173 | 1.3 | 371 | 0.1 | 4,802 | * | 5,800 | 1.0 | 5,173 | 1.3 | 627 | 12.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (108 | ) | — | (87 | ) | — | (21 | ) | 24.6 | (13,419 | ) | (2.3 | ) | (108 | ) | — | (13,311 | ) | * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other expense, net | (1,722 | ) | (0.4 | ) | (866 | ) | (0.3 | ) | (856 | ) | 98.7 | (707 | ) | (0.1 | ) | (1,722 | ) | (0.4 | ) | 1,015 | (58.9 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (43,197 | ) | (10.5 | ) | (30,720 | ) | (10.7 | ) | (12,477 | ) | 40.6 | (255,082 | ) | (44.3 | ) | (43,197 | ) | (10.5 | ) | (211,885 | ) | 490.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | 4,867 | 1.2 | 1,297 | 0.4 | 3,570 | * | 19,860 | 3.5 | 4,867 | 1.2 | 14,993 | 308.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (38,330 | ) | (9.3 | )% | $ | (29,423 | ) | (10.3 | )% | $ | (8,907 | ) | 30.3 | $ | (235,222 | ) | (40.8 | )% | $ | (38,330 | ) | (9.3 | )% | $ | (196,892 | ) | 513.7 | % | |||||||||||||
| * | Not meaningful for comparative purposes. |
| Year Ended December 31, | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue by segment* | ||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | $ | 348,361 | $ | 270,432 | $ | 77,929 | 28.8 | % | ||||||
| Short Course Segment | 63,408 | 16,320 | 47,088 | 288.5 | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 411,769 | $ | 286,752 | $ | 125,017 | 43.6 | |||||||
Revenue. Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018 wasincreased $162.9 million, or 39.6%, to $574.7 million as compared to $411.8 million anin 2018. This increase of $125.0 million, or 43.6%, from $286.8 million for the same period of 2017.in revenue was driven by a 19.8% increase in Graduate Program Segment revenue to $417.2 million as
compared to $348.4 million in 2018 and a 148.3% increase in Alternative Credential Segment revenue to $157.5 million as compared to $63.4 million in 2018. The increase in revenue from the Alternative Credential Segment includes incremental revenue of $74.3 million from Trilogy, which we acquired in May 2019.
Revenue from our Graduate Program Segment increased by $77.9$68.8 million, or 28.8%. This increase was19.8%, primarily due to growth in full course equivalent enrollments of 28,774,33,628, or 29.1%26.3%. Short Course
Revenue from our Alternative Credential Segment revenue increased by $47.1$94.1 million, or 288.5%. This increase was driven by both a148.3%, primarily due to growth in full course equivalent enrollments of 21,372,18,956, or 197.3%58.9%, andas well as an increase in the average revenue per full course equivalent enrollment, from $1,507$1,969 to $1,969. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates$3,296. These increases were primarily due to the addition of incremental full course equivalent enrollments from those prevailing in the same period of 2017 did not have a material impact on revenue.Trilogy.
Curriculum and Teaching. Curriculum and teaching costs for the year ended December 31, 2018 wereexpense increased $40.0 million, or 171.7%, to $63.3 million as compared to $23.3 million anin 2018. This increase of $16.7 million, or 252.4%, from $6.6 million for the same period of 2017. This was primarily due to the addition of incremental curriculum and teaching expense from Trilogy and an increase in the number of short courses takencourse enrollment in our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment.
Servicing and Support. Servicing and support costs for the year ended December 31, 2018 wereexpense increased $31.7 million, or 47.2%, to $98.9 million as compared to $67.2 million an increase of $16.4 million, or 32.4%, from $50.8 million for the same period of 2017.in 2018. This increase was primarily due to a $12.3$27.7 million increase in cashpersonnel and non-cash compensation and benefit costs, as we increased our headcount in servicing and support by 31%personnel-related expense to serve a growinggreater number of students and faculty in existing and new graduate programs and short courses. Additionally, $1.9offerings, including the incremental addition of Trilogy boot camps. The remaining $4.0 million of the increase relatedwas primarily due to student immersion costs, and $1.1 million of the increase related totravel, rent and other facilities costs. The remainder of the increase related to $1.1 million of higher travel and other servicing and support costs.expense.
Technology and Content Development. Technology and content development costs for the year ended December 31, 2018 wereexpense increased $51.7 million, or 81.0%, to $115.5 million as compared to $63.8 million an increase of $17.9 million, or 38.9%, from $45.9 million for the same period of 2017.in 2018. This increase was due in part to a $7.9$29.3 million increase related to higherin amortization expense associated with capitalized technology and content development to support the scaling of existinga $14.4 million increase in personnel and launching of new graduate programs and short courses. Additionally, $5.4 million of the increase related to cash and non-cash compensation and benefit costspersonnel-related expense (net of amounts capitalized for technology and content development), as we increased our headcount inincluding the addition of incremental technology and content development by 40% to support the scaling of existing and launching of new graduate programs and short courses and $3.0expense from Trilogy. In addition, $6.5 million of the increase relatedwas due to highernon-capitalized curriculum expense and hosting and licensing costs dueexpense to support the larger numberlaunch of courses that have been developed andnew programs, including the continued maintenance and supportincremental addition of our platform and internal infrastructure in a cloud environment.Trilogy boot camps. The remainderremaining $1.5 million of the increase relatedwas primarily due to $1.6 million of other net costs to support and maintain our internal software applications.
Marketing and Sales. Marketing and sales costs for the year ended December 31, 2018 wereexpense increased $121.4 million, or 54.9%, to $342.4 million as compared to $221.0 million an increase of $70.1 million, or 46.4%, from $150.9 million for the same period of 2017.in 2018. This increase was primarily due to higher direct interneta $72.7 million increase in marketing costs of $40.0 million, as we increased our student acquisition activitiesand sales expense to drive enrollments in ourattract prospective students to new and existing graduate programsofferings, including the addition of incremental marketing and short courses. Additionally, $21.7sales expense from Trilogy. In addition, $34.1 million of the increase was due to personnel and personnel-related expense, primarily related to higher cashthe addition of incremental personnel and non-cash compensationpersonnel-related expense from Trilogy. Amortization and benefit costs, as wemarketing infrastructure expense increased our headcount in$10.8 million to support an increased number of offerings, including the incremental addition of Trilogy boot camps. The remaining $3.8 million related to other marketing and sales by 32% to drive enrollment and revenue growth in existing and new graduate programs and short courses. The remainder of the increase related to $4.6 million of higher amortization expense related to acquired websites, a $1.9 million increase related to higher rent expense, $1.0 million of higher travel and entertainment costs and $0.9 million related to higher other net cost increases to support our graduate program and short course marketing efforts.expense.
General and Administrative. General and administrative costs for the year ended December 31, 2018 wereexpense increased $48.0 million, or 57.9%, to $131.0 million as compared to $83.0 million anin 2018. This increase of $20.3 million, or 32.4%, from $62.7 million for the same period of 2017. This was primarily due to a $17.8an $18.7 million increase in cashpersonnel and non-cash compensationpersonnel-related expense, including the addition of incremental personnel and benefit costs, as we increased our headcount in general and administrative by 27% to support our growing business. Additionally, $2.5personnel-related expense from Trilogy. In addition, $10.8 million of the increase was due to a restructuring-related charge associated with our September 2019 organizational restructuring. There was no corresponding restructuring-related charge in 2018. Lastly, $9.1 million of this increase was attributable to one-time transaction and integration-related expense from our acquisition of Trilogy and other expense related to higher consulting and other professional services, travel costs, depreciation and amortization expense, rent and other facilities costs, partially offset by reductions in year-over-year costs after the integration of our enterprise resource planning system that was completed in the second quarter of 2017.shareholder activism.
Net Interest Income (Expense). Net interest income of(expense) was $(7.6) million and $5.1 million compared to $284,000 for the same period of 2017,years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. This change was primarily due to a higher cash and cash equivalents balance resulting frominterest expense of $13.2 million related to our May 2018 public offering of common stock.Term Loan.
Other Expense, Net. Other expense, net was $0.7 million and $1.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. This decrease was primarily due to fluctuations in foreign currency rates impacting our operations in the Alternative Credential Segment.
Income Tax Benefit. For the year ended December 31, 2018, we incurred other expense, net, of $1.7 million, compared to $866,000 in the same period of 2017, primarily due to foreign currency rate fluctuations associated with the operations of our Short Course Segment.
loss and the amortizationreversal of taxable temporary differences of the acquired intangibles in our Short Course Segment that are expected to be realized through future reversing taxable temporary differences.Alternative Credential Segment. We expect to continue to recognize a tax benefit in the future for our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment to the extent that this segment continues to generate pre-tax losses while carrying a net deferred tax liabilities that are in excess of deferred tax assets.liability. To date, we have not been required to pay U.S. federal income taxes because of our current and accumulated net operating losses.
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||||||||
| Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage of Revenue | Amount | Percentage | ||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 286,752 | 100.0 | % | $ | 205,864 | 100.0 | % | $ | 80,888 | 39.3 | % | |||||||||
| Costs and expenses | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Curriculum and teaching | 6,609 | 2.3 | — | — | 6,609 | * | |||||||||||||||
| Servicing and support | 50,767 | 17.7 | 40,982 | 19.9 | 9,785 | 23.9 | |||||||||||||||
| Technology and content development | 45,926 | 16.0 | 33,283 | 16.2 | 12,643 | 38.0 | |||||||||||||||
| Marketing and sales | 150,923 | 52.6 | 106,610 | 51.8 | 44,313 | 41.6 | |||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | 62,665 | 21.9 | 46,021 | 22.4 | 16,644 | 36.2 | |||||||||||||||
| Total costs and expenses | 316,890 | 110.5 | 226,896 | 110.3 | 89,994 | 39.7 | |||||||||||||||
| Loss from operations | (30,138 | ) | (10.5 | ) | (21,032 | ) | (10.3 | ) | (9,106 | ) | 43.3 | ||||||||||
| Interest income | 371 | 0.1 | 383 | 0.2 | (12 | ) | (3.0 | ) | |||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (87 | ) | 0.0 | (35 | ) | 0.0 | (52 | ) | 150.0 | ||||||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | (866 | ) | (0.3 | ) | 0.0 | 0.0 | (866 | ) | * | ||||||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (30,720 | ) | (10.7 | ) | (20,684 | ) | (10.1 | ) | (10,036 | ) | 48.5 | ||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | 1,297 | 0.4 | — | — | 1,297 | * | |||||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (29,423 | ) | (10.3 | )% | $ | (20,684 | ) | (10.1 | )% | $ | (8,739 | ) | 42.3 | |||||||
| Year Ended December 31, | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue by segment* | ||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | 270,432 | 205,864 | 64,568 | 31.4 | % | |||||||||
| Short Course Segment | 16,320 | — | 16,320 | * | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 286,752 | $ | 205,864 | $ | 80,888 | 39.3 | |||||||
Business Segment Operating Results
We define segment profitability as net income or net loss, as applicable, before net interest income (expense), taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, foreign currency gains or losses, acquisition-related gains or lossesdeferred revenue fair value adjustments, transaction costs, integration costs, restructuring-related costs, shareholder activism costs, impairment charges, and stock-based compensation expense. Some or all of these items may not be applicable in any given reporting period.
The following table reconciles net loss to total segment profitability:
| Year Ended December 31, | Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2019 | 2018 | ||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (38,330 | ) | $ | (29,423 | ) | $ | (20,684 | ) | $ | (235,222 | ) | $ | (38,330 | ) | |||
| Adjustments: | ||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income | (5,173 | ) | (371 | ) | (383 | ) | (5,800 | ) | (5,173 | ) | ||||||||
| Interest expense | 108 | 87 | 35 | 13,419 | 108 | |||||||||||||
| Foreign currency loss | 1,722 | 866 | — | 707 | 1,722 | |||||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | (19,860 | ) | (4,867 | ) | ||||||||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization expense | 32,785 | 19,624 | 9,750 | 69,843 | 32,785 | |||||||||||||
| Income tax benefit | (4,867 | ) | (1,297 | ) | — | |||||||||||||
| Deferred revenue fair value adjustment | 11,175 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Transaction costs | 4,786 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Integration costs | 3,255 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Restructuring-related costs | 10,826 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Shareholder activism costs | 1,042 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Impairment charge | 70,379 | — | ||||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 31,410 | 21,930 | 15,823 | 51,504 | 31,410 | |||||||||||||
| Total adjustments | 55,985 | 40,839 | 25,225 | 211,276 | 55,985 | |||||||||||||
| Total segment profitability | $ | 17,655 | $ | 11,416 | $ | 4,541 | $ | (23,946 | ) | $ | 17,655 | |||||||
Years Ended December 31, 20182019 and 20172018
Revenue by segment and segment profitability for the years ended December 31, 20182019 and 20172018 were as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | Period-to-Period Change | Year Ended December 31, | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | Amount | Percentage | 2019 | 2018 | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | (dollars in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue by segment* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | $ | 348,361 | $ | 270,432 | $ | 77,929 | 28.8 | % | $ | 417,206 | $ | 348,361 | $ | 68,845 | 19.8 | % | ||||||||||||
| Short Course Segment | 63,408 | 16,320 | 47,088 | 288.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alternative Credential Segment | 157,465 | 63,408 | 94,057 | 148.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 411,769 | $ | 286,752 | $ | 125,017 | 43.6 | $ | 574,671 | $ | 411,769 | $ | 162,902 | 39.6 | % | |||||||||||||
| Segment profitability | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | $ | 16,839 | $ | 13,022 | $ | 3,817 | 29.3 | $ | 5,770 | $ | 16,839 | $ | (11,069 | ) | (65.7 | )% | ||||||||||||
| Short Course Segment | 816 | (1,606 | ) | 2,422 | (150.8 | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alternative Credential Segment | (29,716 | ) | 816 | (30,532 | ) | ** | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total segment profitability | $ | 17,655 | $ | 11,416 | $ | 6,239 | 54.6 | $ | (23,946 | ) | $ | 17,655 | $ | (41,601 | ) | (235.6 | )% | |||||||||||
| * |
** Not meaningful for comparative purposes.
| Year Ended December 31, | Period-to-Period Change | |||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | Amount | Percentage | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue by segment | ||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | 270,432 | $ | 205,864 | $ | 64,568 | 31.4 | % | |||||||
| Short Course Segment | 16,320 | — | 16,320 | * | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 286,752 | $ | 205,864 | $ | 80,888 | 39.3 | % | ||||||
| Segment profitability | ||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | 13,022 | $ | 4,541 | $ | 8,481 | 186.8 | % | |||||||
| Short Course Segment | (1,606 | ) | — | (1,606 | ) | * | ||||||||
| Total segment profitability | $ | 11,416 | $ | 4,541 | $ | 6,875 | 151.4 | % | ||||||
Alternative Credential Segment profitability decreased $30.5 million to $(29.7) million as compared to 2016.
date.
Key Business and Financial Performance Metrics
We use a number of key metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions. In addition to adjusted EBITDA (loss), which we discuss below, and revenue and the components of loss from operations in the section above entitled “Our Business Model and Components of Operating Results,” we utilize full course equivalent enrollments as a key metric to evaluate the success of our growth strategy.business.
Full Course Equivalent Enrollments in Our University Clients’ Offerings
We measure full course equivalent enrollments for each of the courses offered during a particular period by taking the number of students enrolled in that course and multiplying it by the percentage of the course completed during that period. We add the full course equivalent enrollments for each course within each segment to calculate the total full course equivalent enrollments per segment. This metric allows us to consistently view period over period changes in enrollments by accounting for the fact that many courses we enable straddle two or moremultiple fiscal quarters. For example, if a course had 25 enrolled students and 40% of the course was completed during a particular period, we would count the course as having 10 full course equivalent enrollments for that period. Any individual student may be enrolled in more than one course during a period.
Average revenue per full course equivalent enrollment represents our weighted-average revenue per course across the mix of courses being offered during a period in each of our operating segments. This number is derived by dividing the total revenue for a period for each of our operating segments by the number of full course equivalent enrollments within the applicable segment during that same period. This amount may vary from period to period depending on the academic calendars of our university clients, the relative growth rates of our graduatedegree programs, and short courses, and boot camps, as applicable, and varying tuition levels, among other factors.
The following table sets forth the full course equivalent enrollments and average revenue per full course equivalent enrollment in our Graduate Program Segment and Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment for the periods presented.
| Year Ended December 31, | Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2019 | 2018 | |||||||||||||||
| Graduate Program Segment | |||||||||||||||||||
| Full course equivalent enrollments | 127,678 | 98,904 | 77,344 | 161,306 | 127,678 | ||||||||||||||
| Average revenue per full course equivalent enrollment | $ | 2,728 | $ | 2,734 | $ | 2,662 | $ | 2,586 | $ | 2,728 | |||||||||
| Short Course Segment | |||||||||||||||||||
Alternative Credential Segment* | |||||||||||||||||||
| Full course equivalent enrollments | 32,202 | 10,830 | * | — | 51,158 | 32,202 | |||||||||||||
| Average revenue per full course equivalent enrollment | $ | 1,969 | $ | 1,507 | ** | $ | — | $ | 3,296 | ** | $ | 1,969 | |||||||
| * |
| ** | The calculation of |
Of the increase in full course equivalent enrollments in our Graduate Program Segment for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, 4,354 or 12.9% and 2017, 7,899 or 27.5% and 959 or 4.4%, respectively, were attributable to graduatedegree programs launched
during the preceding 12 months. Of the increase in full course equivalent enrollments in our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment for the yearyears ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, 7,106 or 37.5% and 7,266 or 34.0%, respectively, were attributable to short courses launched during the preceding 12 months.
Adjusted EBITDA (Loss)
In 2019, we revised our definition of adjusted EBTIDA (loss) to exclude the impact of (i) transaction costs, deferred revenue fair value adjustments, integration and restructuring-related costs and impairment charges, in each case, in connection with the acquisition of Trilogy and (ii) shareholder activism costs. We believe these changes are meaningful to investors because we did not have these costs in prior periods, and as a result, excluding the impact of such costs in 2019 facilitates a period-to-period comparison of our business. The revision to the definition of adjusted EBITDA (loss) had no material impact on our reported adjusted EBITDA (loss) for the years ended December 31, 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA (loss) is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve our annual budget and to develop short- and long-term operational plans.plans and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA (loss) can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA (loss) provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Adjusted EBITDA (loss) is not a measure calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and should not be considered as an alternative to any measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In addition, adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because other companies may not calculate adjusted EBITDA in the same manner as we do. We prepare adjusted EBITDA to eliminate the impact of stock-based compensation expense, which we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance.
Our use of adjusted EBITDA (loss) has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial results as reported under U.S. GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
although depreciation and amortization expense are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect acquisition related gains or losses such as, but not limited to, post-acquisition changes in the value of contingent consideration reflected in operations;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect transaction costs, integration costs, restructuring-related costs, impairment charges, or shareholder activism costs;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect the impact of deferred revenue fair value adjustments;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;
adjusted EBITDA (loss) does not reflect interest or tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us; and
other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA (loss) differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.
Because of these and other limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA (loss) alongside other U.S. GAAP-based financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and our other U.S. GAAP results. The following table presents a reconciliation of net loss to adjusted EBITDA (loss) for each of the periods indicated:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (38,330 | ) | $ | (29,423 | ) | (20,684 | ) | |||
| Adjustments: | |||||||||||
| Interest income | (5,173 | ) | (371 | ) | (383 | ) | |||||
| Interest expense | 108 | 87 | 35 | ||||||||
| Foreign currency loss | 1,722 | 866 | — | ||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization expense | 32,785 | 19,624 | 9,750 | ||||||||
| Income tax benefit | (4,867 | ) | (1,297 | ) | — | ||||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 31,410 | 21,930 | 15,823 | ||||||||
| Total adjustments | 55,985 | 40,839 | 25,225 | ||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 17,655 | $ | 11,416 | $ | 4,541 | |||||
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||
| 2019 | 2018 | ||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (235,222 | ) | $ | (38,330 | ) | |
| Adjustments: | |||||||
| Interest income | (5,800 | ) | (5,173 | ) | |||
| Interest expense | 13,419 | 108 | |||||
| Foreign currency loss | 707 | 1,722 | |||||
| Income tax benefit | (19,860 | ) | (4,867 | ) | |||
| Depreciation and amortization expense | 69,843 | 32,785 | |||||
| Deferred revenue fair value adjustment | 11,175 | — | |||||
| Transaction costs | 4,786 | — | |||||
| Integration costs | 3,255 | — | |||||
| Restructuring-related costs | 10,826 | — | |||||
| Shareholder activism costs | 1,042 | — | |||||
| Impairment charge | 70,379 | — | |||||
| Stock-based compensation expense | 51,504 | 31,410 | |||||
| Total adjustments | 211,276 | 55,985 | |||||
| Adjusted EBITDA (loss) | $ | (23,946 | ) | $ | 17,655 | ||
As of December 31, 2019, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and Liquiditycash equivalents totaling $170.6 million, which were held for working capital and general corporate purposes.
On May 22, 2019, we entered into a credit agreement with Owl Rock Capital Corporation, as administrative agent and collateral agent, for a $250 million senior secured Term Loan, which matures on May 22, 2024 (refer to Note 9 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements for more information).
To date, we have financed our operations primarily through payments from university clients and students for our technology and services, the Term Loan, and public and private equity financings. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with cash generated from operations, will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for the next 12 months.
Capital Expenditures
2019 2018 and 2017 is immaterial.
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cash (used in) provided by: | |||||||||||
| Operating activities | $ | (3,120 | ) | $ | 8,106 | $ | 5,210 | ||||
| Investing activities | (102,461 | ) | (149,374 | ) | (24,518 | ) | |||||
| Financing activities | 333,037 | 196,752 | 4,309 | ||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash | (1,054 | ) | (844 | ) | — | ||||||
| Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents | $ | 226,402 | $ | 54,640 | $ | (14,999 | ) | ||||
Operating Activities
Cash flows from operating activities have typically been generated from our net income (loss) and by changes in our operating assets and liabilities, particularly from accounts receivable, adjusted for non-cash expense items such as amortization and depreciation expense and stock-based compensation expense.
Cash used in operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $3.12019 consisted primarily of our net loss of $235.2 million, while cash provided by operating activitiesadjusted for the same periodnon-cash items including a $70.4 million impairment charge, $69.8 million of 2017 was $8.1depreciation and amortization expense, $51.5 million a change of $11.2stock-based compensation expense, and $11.7 million or 138.5%. This $11.2 millionof amortization of our right-of-use assets. The net change in operating assets and liabilities of $21.6 million was unfavorable to cash flows wasfrom operations primarily due to a $25.8$28.6 million changedecrease in working capitalother liabilities, net, as a result of a $17.5 million release of our tax valuation allowance and a $8.9$21.7 million increase in net loss. These changes in operating cash flows werepayments to university clients, partially offset by $22.0 million of cumulative favorable changes in accounts receivable and deferred revenue, and a $13.2$17.1 million increase in depreciationaccounts payable and amortization expense, a $9.5 million increaseaccrued expenses due to growth in stock-based compensation expense and an increaseour business.
Cash used in other net cash inflows of $0.8 million. Our cash flows from operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2018 includedconsisted primarily of our net loss of $38.3 million, adjusted for non-cash items including $32.8 million of depreciation and amortization expense and $31.4 million of stock-based compensation expense. The net change in operating assets and liabilities of $29.0 million was unfavorable to cash flows from operations primarily due to a full year$18.5 million increase in accounts receivable due to the delay in the fall term payments of operations relatedtwo university clients and an $11.3 million increase in payments to our Short Course Segment, whereas the same period of 2017 included only six months of such operations as the acquisition of GetSmarter occurred on July 1, 2017.university clients.
Investing Activities
Cash provided by operatingused in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 20172019 was $8.1$451.4 million, an increaseprimarily consisting of $2.9$388.0 million or 55.6% fromto acquire Trilogy, net of cash provided by operating activitiesacquired, $64.9 million of $5.2additions of amortizable intangible assets, $13.4 million for the same period of 2016. This was primarily due to a $8.7 million increase in net losspurchases of property, plant and a $5.2 million change in working capital. These decreases in cash wereequipment, partially offset by a $9.9$15.0 million increase in stock-based compensation expense and a $6.1 million increase in depreciation and amortization expense. Of the $8.1 million increase in cash provided by operating activities, $1.7 million is associated with the GetSmarter acquisition.
Cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $102.5 million, a decreaseprimarily consisting of $46.9$65.2 million from $149.4of additions of amortizable intangible assets, $12.0 million for the same period of 2017. This decrease was primarily due to the July 1, 2017 acquisition of GetSmarter for $97.1 million and a $15.3 million decrease in purchases of property, plant and equipment as we moved into new facilities in the prior year. These decreases in outflows were partially offset by an increase of $41.4 million in amortizable intangible assets to support a greater number of launched graduate programs and short courses. The increase in amortizable intangible assets included an increase of $17.3 million in acquisitions of technology to be integrated into our platform,
Financing Activities
Cash used in investingprovided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 20172019 was $149.4$244.5 million, an increaseprimarily consisting of $124.9 million from $24.5 million for the same period of 2016. This increase was primarily due to $97.1$242.7 million in proceeds, net cash paid to acquire GetSmarter, a $19.7 million increase in purchases of property and equipment forissuance costs, from our new office locations, and a $7.1 million increase in additions to amortizable intangible assets to support a greater number of launched graduate programs and short courses.
Cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $333.0 million, an increaseprimarily consisting of $136.3 million from $196.8 million for the same period of 2017. This increase was primarily due to an increase of $141.4$330.9 million in proceeds received from our public offering of common stock partially offset by an outflowin May 2018.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
The following table summarizes our obligations under our Term Loan, deferred government grant obligations, non-cancelable operating leases, commitments to certain of our university clients in exchange for contract extensions and various marketing and other rights, and purchase obligations as of December 31, 2018.2019. Future events could cause actual payments to differ from these amounts.
| Payment due by period | Payment due by period | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contractual Obligations | Less than 1 year | 1 - 3 years | 3 - 5 years | More than 5 years | Total | Less than 1 year | 1 - 3 years | 3 - 5 years | More than 5 years | Total | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | (in thousands) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior secured term loan facility | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 250,000 | $ | — | $ | 250,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deferred government grant obligations | $ | — | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 3,500 | $ | 3,500 | — | — | — | 3,500 | 3,500 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating lease obligations | 12,941 | 27,920 | 27,592 | 68,347 | 136,800 | 15,956 | 28,977 | 26,947 | 45,952 | 117,832 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Future minimum payments to university clients | 10,125 | 1,250 | 1,250 | 3,775 | 16,400 | 2,625 | 2,250 | 1,250 | 3,150 | 9,275 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purchase obligations | 7,234 | 6,550 | — | — | 13,784 | 8,434 | 2,305 | — | — | 10,739 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 30,300 | $ | 35,720 | $ | 28,842 | $ | 75,622 | $ | 170,484 | $ | 27,015 | $ | 33,532 | $ | 278,197 | $ | 52,602 | $ | 391,346 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other purchase orders made in the ordinary course of business are excluded from the table above. Any amounts for which we are liable under purchase orders are reflected on our consolidated balance sheets as accounts payable and accrued liabilities.
We have entered into an agreementagreements with onecertain of our university clientclients in our Graduate Program Segment under which we would be obligated to make future minimum program payments in the event that certain program metrics are not achieved. Due to the dependency of these calculationsachieved on future program performance, the timing and amounts ofan annual basis. We recognize any associatedestimated contingent payments cannot be reasonably estimated at this time,under these agreements as contra revenue over the period in which they relate, and have therefore been excluded fromrecord a liability in other current liabilities on the table above.consolidated balance sheets.
See Note 67 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Part II, Item 8 and “Legal Proceedings” contained in Part I, Item 3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding contingencies.
We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K, such as the use of unconsolidated subsidiaries, structured finance, special purpose entities or variable interest entities.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
This management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reported period. In accordance with U.S. GAAP, we base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates if conditions differ from our assumptions.
While our significant accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe the following accounting policies are critical to the process of making significant judgments and estimates in preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition, Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
On January 1, 2018, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) and the related amendments using the modified retrospective transition method and have concluded that doing so did not have a material impact on the amount and timing of either our revenue or costs. As part of our assessment, we completed reviews of our contracts and evaluated our costs, including costs of obtaining contracts with our university clients and costs associated with content development. Certain of these contract and content costs are capitalized under the new standard. The adoption of ASU 2014-09 did not have a material impact as of January 1, 2018, and no cumulative adjustment was recorded. Further, the amounts reported as of December 31, 2018 on our consolidated balance sheets and our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2018 reported on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss would not have been materially different than under legacy U.S. GAAP (i.e., Topic 605).
We generate substantially all of our revenue from contractual arrangements, with either our university clients or students, to provide a comprehensive platform of tightly integrated technology and technology-enabled services that support our graduate programs and short courses.offerings.
Performance Obligations
A performance obligation is a promise in a contract to transfer a distinct good or service to the customer. A contract’s transaction price is allocated to each distinct performance obligation and recognized as revenue when, or as, the performance obligation is satisfied. The transaction price is determined based on the consideration to which we will be entitled in exchange for transferring services to the customer. To the extent the transaction price includes variable consideration, we estimate the amount of variable consideration that should be included in the transaction price utilizing the expected value method. Variable consideration is included in the transaction price if, in our judgment, it is probable that a significant future reversal of cumulative revenue under the contract will not occur. Any estimates, including the effect of the constraint on variable consideration, are evaluated at each reporting period, and if necessary, we adjust our estimate of the overall transaction price. Revenue is then recognized over the remaining estimated period of performance using the cumulative catch-up method.
Our Graduate Program Segment derives revenue primarily from contractually specified percentages of the amounts our university clients receive from their students in 2U-enabled graduatedegree programs for tuition and fees, less credit card fees and other specified charges we have agreed to exclude in certain university contracts. Our contracts with university clients in this segment typically have terms of 10 to 15 year initial termsyears and have a single performance obligation, as the promises to provide a platform of tightly integrated technology and services that university clients need to attract, enroll, educate and support students are not distinct within the context of the contracts. The single performance obligation is delivered as the university clients receive and consume benefits, which occurs ratably over a series of academic terms. The amounts received from university clients over the term of the arrangement are variable in nature in that they are dependent upon the number of students that are enrolled in the program within each academic term. These amounts are allocated to and are recognized ratably over the related academic term, defined as the period beginning on the first day of classes through the last. Revenue is recognized net of an allowance, which is established for our expected obligation to refund tuition and fees to university clients.
Our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment derives revenue directlyprimarily from contracts with students for the tuition and fees paid to enroll in, and progress through, our short courses whichand boot camps. Our short courses run between six and 16 weeks, while boot camps run between 12 and 24 weeks. OurIn this segment, our contracts with students in this segment have multiple performance obligations asinclude the delivery of the short courseeducational and related student support services and are each considered distincttreated as either a single performance obligations. Theseobligation or multiple performance obligations, depending upon the offering being delivered. All performance obligations are each satisfied ratably over the same short course presentation period, which is defined as the period beginning on the first day of the course through the last. We recognize the gross proceeds received, net of any applicable pricing concessions, from the students enrolled and sharesshare contractually specified percentagesamounts received from students with ourthe associated university clients,client, in exchange for providing short course contentlicenses to use the university brand name and certification, whichother university trademarks. These amounts are recognized as curriculum and teaching costs on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. Our contracts with university clients in this segment are typically shorter and less restrictive than our contracts with university clients in our Graduate Program Segment.
We do not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations for our Graduate Program Segment because the variable consideration is allocated entirely to a wholly unsatisfied promise to transfer a service that forms part of a single performance obligation. We do not disclose the value of unsatisfied performance obligations for our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment because the performance obligation isobligations are part of a contractcontracts that has anhave original durationdurations of less than one year.
Contract Acquisition Costs
We pay commissions to certain of our employees to obtain contracts with university clients in our Graduate Program Segment. These costs are capitalized and recorded on a contract-by-contract basis and amortized using the straight-line method over the expected life, which is generally the length of the contract.
With respect to contract acquisition costs in our Short CourseAlternative Credential Segment, we have elected to apply the practical expedient in ASC Topic 606 to expense these costs as incurred, as the terms of contracts with students in this segment are less than one year.
Payments to University Clients
Pursuant to certain of our contracts in the Graduate Program Segment, we have made, or are obligated to make, payments to university clients at either execution of a contract or at the extension of a contract in exchange for various marketing and other rights. Generally, these amounts are capitalized and amortized as contra revenue over the life of the contract, commencing on the later of when payment is due or when contract revenue recognition begins.
Accounts Receivable, Contract Assets and Liabilities
Balance sheet items related to contracts consist of accounts receivable, net and deferred revenue on our consolidated balance sheets. Included in accounts receivable, net are trade accounts receivable, which are comprised of billed and unbilled revenue. Accounts receivable, net is stated at net realizable value, and we utilize the allowance method to provide for doubtful accounts based on management’s evaluation of the collectability of the amounts due. Our estimates are reviewed and revised periodically based on historical collection experience and a review of the current status of accounts receivable, net. Historically, actual write-offs for uncollectible accounts have not significantly differed from prior estimates. We recognize unbilled revenue when revenue recognition occurs in advance of billings. Unbilled revenue is recognized in our Graduate Program Segment because billings to university clients do not occur until after the academic term has commenced and final enrollment information is available. Unbilled accounts receivable is recognized in the Alternative Credential Segment once the presentation period commences for amounts to be invoiced to students under installment plans that are paid over the same presentation period. Our company’s unbilled revenue representsand accounts receivable represent contract assets.
Deferred revenue represents the excess of amounts billed or received as compared to amounts recognized in revenue on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as of the end of the reporting period, and such amounts are reflected as a current liability on our consolidated balance sheets. We generally receive payments for our share of tuition and fees from graduatedegree program university clients early in each academic term and from short course and boot camp students, either in full upon registration for the course or in full before the end of the course based on a payment plan, prior to completion of the service period. These payments are recorded as deferred revenue until the services are delivered or until our obligations are otherwise met, at which time revenue is recognized.
Acquired Intangible Assets. We capitalize purchased intangible assets, such as software, websites and domains, and amortize them on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful life. Historically, we have assessed the useful lives of these acquired intangible assets to be between three and ten years.
Capitalized Technology
Technology. Capitalized technology includes certain purchased software and technology licenses, direct third-party costs, and internal payroll and payroll-related costs used in the creation of our internal-use software. Software development projects generally include three stages: the preliminary project stage (all costs are expensed as incurred), the application development stage (certain costs are capitalized and certain costs are expensed as incurred) and the post-implementation/operation stage (all costs are expensed as incurred). Costs capitalized in the application development stage include costs of designing the application, coding, integrating our and the university’s networks and systems, and the testing of the software. Capitalization of costs requires judgment in determining when a project has reached the application development stage and the period over which we expect to benefit from the use of that software. Once the software is placed in service, these costs are amortized onusing the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the software, which is generally three to five years.
Capitalized Content Development
Development. We develop content for each offering on a course-by-course basis in conjunctioncollaboration with university client faculty and industry experts. Depending upon the faculty for each graduate program and short course. Universityoffering, we may use materials provided by university clients and their faculty, generally provide materials used for the course in an on-campus setting, including curricula, case studies, presentations and other reading materials, and presentations.materials. We are responsible for the conversioncreation of the materials into a format suitable for delivery through our online learning platform, including all expenses associated with this effort. With regardrespect to the Graduate Program Segment, the development of content is part of our single performance obligation and is considered a contract fulfillment cost.
The content development costs that qualify for capitalization are third-party direct costs, such as videography, editing and other services associated with creating digital content. Additionally, we capitalize internal payroll and payroll-related costs incurred to create and produce videos and other digital content utilized in the university clients’ offerings for delivery via our online learning platform. Capitalization ends when content has been fully developed by both us and the university client, at which time amortization of the capitalized content development costs begin.begins. The capitalized costs for each offering are recorded on a course-by-course basis and included in capitalized content costs in amortizable intangible assets, net on our consolidated balance sheets. These costs are amortized using the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the respective course, which is generally four to five years. The estimated useful life corresponds with the planned curriculum refresh rate. This refresh rate is consistent with expected curriculum refresh rates as cited by faculty members for similar on-campus offerings.
Evaluation of Long-Lived Assets
We review long-lived assets, which consist of property and equipment, capitalized technology costs, capitalized content development costs and acquired finite-lived intangible assets, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. In order to assess the recoverability of the capitalized technology and content development costs, the costs are grouped by the lowest level of independent cash flows (i.e., by degree program or short course, for content development costs).flows. Recoverability of a long-lived asset is measured by a comparison of the carrying value of an asset or asset group to the future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated by that asset or asset group. If such assets are not recoverable, the impairment to be recognized is measured by the amount by which the carrying value of an asset exceeds the estimated fair value (discounted cash flow) of the asset or asset group. Our impairment analysis is based upon cumulative results and forecasted performance.
Goodwill
Goodwill is the excess of purchase price over the fair value of identified net assets of businesses acquired. Our goodwill balance relates to the acquisitions of GetSmarter in July 2017 and Trilogy in May 2019. We review goodwill at least annually, as of October 1. Between annual tests, goodwill is reviewed for possible impairment if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying value. We test our goodwill at the reporting unit level, which is an operating segment or one level below an operating segment. We initially assess qualitative factors to determine if it is necessary to perform a quantitative goodwill impairment review. We review goodwill for impairment using a quantitative approach if we decide to bypass the qualitative assessment or determine that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value based on a qualitative assessment. Upon completion of a quantitative assessment, we may be required to recognize an impairment based on the difference between the carrying value and the fair value of the reporting unit.
We determine the fair value of a reporting unit by utilizing a weighted combination of the income-based and market-based approaches.
The income-based approach requires us to make significant assumptions and estimates. These assumptions and estimates primarily include, but are not limited to, the selection of appropriate peer group companies, discount rates, terminal growth rates, and forecasts of revenue, operating income, depreciation and amortization expense, capital expenditures and future working capital requirements. When determining these assumptions and preparing these estimates, we consider each reporting unit’s historical results and current operating trends, revenue, profitability, cash flow results and forecasts, and industry trends. These estimates can be affected by a number of factors including, but not limited to, general economic and regulatory conditions, market capitalization, the continued efforts of competitors to gain market share and prospective student enrollment patterns.
In addition, the value of a reporting unit using the market-based approach is estimated by comparing the reporting unit to other publicly-traded companies and/or to publicly-disclosed business mergers and acquisitions in similar lines of business. The value of a reporting unit is based on pricing multiples of certain financial parameters observed in the comparable companies. We also make estimates and assumptions for market values to determine a reporting unit’s estimated fair value.
In the third quarter of 2019, we recorded an impairment charge of $70.4 million on the consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss. Other than the reporting unit impaired in the third quarter of 2019, we had no reporting units whose estimated fair value exceeded their carrying value by less than 10% as of October 1, 2019, the date of our annual goodwill impairment assessment. It is possible that future changes in our circumstances, or in the variables associated with the judgments, assumptions and estimates used in assessing the fair value of our reporting units, could require us to record additional impairment charges in the future.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of FASB’s recent accounting pronouncements and their effect on us.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Market risk is the risk of loss to future earnings, values or future cash flows that may result from changes in the price of a financial instrument. The value of a financial instrument may change as a result of changes in interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices, equity prices and other market changes. Our exposure to market risk related to changes in foreign currency exchange rates is deemed moderate as further described below. In addition, we do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative, hedging or trading purposes, although in the future we may enter into exchange rate hedging arrangements to manage the risks described in the succeeding paragraphs.
Interest Rate Risk
We are subject to interest rate risk in connection with potential borrowings available under our bank line of credit which was procuredCredit Agreement that provides for a $250 million Term Loan that matures in December 2013 and amended in January 2017. Borrowings under the revolving line of credit bearMay 2024. The Term Loan currently bears interest, at our option, at variable rates.rates based on (i) a customary alternative base rate (with a floor of 2.00%) plus an applicable margin of 5.75% or (ii) an adjusted LIBOR rate (with a floor of 1.00%) for the interest period relevant to such borrowing plus an applicable margin of 6.75%. Increases in LIBOR or our lender’s primecustomary alternative base rate or LIBOR would increase the amount of interest payable on any borrowings outstanding under this line of credit. No amounts were outstanding asTerm Loan. As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.2019, the Term Loan had an outstanding balance of $250 million.
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
For the years ended December 31, 20182019 and 2017,2018, our foreign currency translation adjustment was a lossgain of $13.8$1.7 million and a gainloss of $5.3$13.8 million, respectively. For the years ended December 31, 20182019 and 2017,2018, we recognized foreign currency exchange losses of $1.7$0.7 million and $0.9$1.7 million, respectively, included on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.
the trailing 12 months ended December 31, 2019 was 10% and 7% for the South African rand and British pound, respectively. The foreign exchange rate volatility of the trailing 12 months ended December 31, 2018 was 13% and 6% for the South African rand and British pound, respectively. The foreign exchange rate volatility from the date of acquisition of GetSmarter to December 31, 2017 was 10% and 5% for the South African rand and British pound, respectively. A 10% fluctuation of foreign currency exchange rates would have had an immaterial effect on our results of operations and cash flows for all periods presented.
The fluctuations of currencies in which we conduct business can both increase and decrease our overall revenue and expenses for any given fiscal period. Such volatility, even when it increases our revenuesrevenue or decreases our expenses,expense, impacts our ability to accurately predict our future results and earnings.
Inflation
We do not currently believe that inflation currently has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations, though we continue to monitor costs we incur in higher inflationary economies. Additionally, we continue to monitor all inflation-driven costs, regardless of where they are incurred. If our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, the price increases implemented by our university clients and our own pricing strategies might not fully offset the higher costs, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
2U, Inc.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
| PAGE | |
| Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, | |
| Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 | |
| Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 | |
| Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 | |
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors
2U, Inc.:
Opinion on the ConsolidatedFinancial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of 2U, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 20182019 and 20172018, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, changes in stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-yearthree‑year period ended December 31, 2018,2019, and the related notes and financial statement Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 20182019 and 2017,2018, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-yearthree‑year period ended December 31, 2018,2019, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018,2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and our report dated February 26, 201927, 2020 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company has changed its method of accounting for revenues and related costs inrevenue as of January 1, 2018 due to the adoption effective January 1, 2018, of ASU No. 2014-09, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers.Customers.
As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company has changed its method of accounting for leases as of January 1, 2019 due to the adoption of Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 842, Leases.
Basis for Opinion
These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Assessment of capitalized technology costs incurred on software development projects
As discussed in Notes 2 and 5 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s capitalized technology includes certain purchased software and technology licenses, direct third party costs, and internal payroll and payroll-related costs used in the creation of internal-use software. The Company’s capitalized technology costs, net of
accumulated amortization, was $101.6 million as of December 31, 2019. The Company invested $64.9 million in additions to amortizable intangible assets during the year ended December 31, 2019, a portion of which related to internal-use software development projects.
We identified the assessment of capitalized technology costs incurred on software development projects as a critical audit matter. Specifically, assessing if the costs incurred on the software development project have met the capitalization criteria required a higher degree of auditor judgment. This included applying procedures to determine that the costs related to a project that had entered the application development stage, resulted in additional functionality, and for which it was probable that the project would be completed and used to perform the function intended. Evaluating these criteria required the assessment of the technical aspects of each individual project to which the capitalized costs are related.
The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included the following. We tested certain internal controls over the Company’s capitalized technology process, including those that address the determination that a software development project has reached the application development stage, results in additional functionality, and it was probable that the project would be completed and used for the function intended. For certain software development projects, we inspected the Company’s documentation to support the determination that the project had reached the application development stage, resulted in additional functionality, and it was probable that the project would be completed and used for the function intended. For those projects, we evaluated the Company’s documentation through direct inquiry with certain of the Company’s technology developers responsible for performing the software development activities.
Evaluation of acquisition-date fair value of acquired intangible asset
As discussed in Notes 2 and 3 to the consolidated financial statements, on May 22, 2019, the Company acquired Trilogy Education Services, Inc. (Trilogy) in a business combination. As a result of the transaction, the Company acquired a university client relationships intangible asset. The acquisition-date fair value for the intangible asset was $84.2 million.
We identified the evaluation of the initial measurement of the university client relationships intangible asset acquired in the Trilogy transaction as a critical audit matter. There was a high degree of subjectivity in evaluating the discounted cash flows used to measure the acquisition-date fair value of the intangible asset. In addition, the discounted cash flow model included the following internally-developed assumptions for which there was limited observable market information, and the measurement of the fair value of the intangible asset was sensitive to possible changes to these assumptions:
•forecasted revenue growth attributable to university client contracts;
•forecasted margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA margins); and
•estimated discount rate.
The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included the following. We tested certain internal controls over the Company’s acquisition-date valuation process to develop the assumptions, as listed above. We evaluated the Company’s forecasted revenue growth rates relating to existing university client relationships by comparing forecasted revenue growth assumptions to those of the Company’s peers. We compared the Company’s estimate of forecasted revenue growth and EBITDA margins to Trilogy’s historical actual results. In addition, we involved valuation professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, who assisted in:
•evaluating the Company’s discount rate by comparing it against a discount rate that was independently developed using publicly available third-party market data for comparable entities; and
•developing an estimate of the university client relationships intangible asset fair value using the forecasted cash flows and the independently developed discount rate, and comparing the results of our estimate of fair value to the Company’s fair value estimate.
Evaluation of goodwill impairment analysis of the boot camp reporting unit
As discussed in Notes 2 and 5 to the consolidated financial statements, the goodwill balance as of December 31, 2019 was $418 million, a substantial portion of which relates to the Company’s boot camp reporting unit. The Company determined that the carrying value of its boot camp reporting unit exceeded its fair value, resulting in an
impairment charge of $70.4 million. The Company used a weighted combination of the income-based and market-based approaches to determine the fair value of the boot camp reporting unit.
We identified the evaluation of the goodwill impairment analysis of the boot camp reporting unit as a critical audit matter. A high degree of subjectivity was required to evaluate the forecasted reporting unit cash flow and discount rate assumptions used in the income-based estimation methodology. Changes to these assumptions could have a substantial impact on the fair value of the boot camp reporting unit and the amount of the impairment charge.
The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included the following. We tested certain internal controls over the Company’s goodwill impairment analysis process, including controls related to the forecasted reporting unit cash flow and the development of the discount rate assumptions. We performed sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of reasonably possible changes to forecasted cash flow and discount rate assumptions on the reporting unit fair value. We evaluated the Company’s forecasted revenue growth rates included in the forecasted reporting unit cash flows by comparing to those of the Company’s peers. We compared the Company’s forecasted reporting unit cash flows to historical actual results. In addition, we involved a valuation professional with specialized skills and knowledge, who assisted in:
•evaluating the Company’s discount rate by comparing it against a discount rate that was independently developed using publicly available third-party market data for comparable entities; and
•developing an estimate of the boot camp reporting unit’s fair value using the reporting unit’s cash flow forecast and the independently developed discount rate, and comparing the results of our estimate of fair value to the Company’s fair value estimate.
| /s/ KPMG LLP | ||
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2013.
McLean, Virginia
February 26, 201927, 2020
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors
2U, Inc.:
Opinion on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
We have audited 2U, Inc. and subsidiaries’ (the Company) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018,2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.Commission. In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018,2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, and 2017, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, changes in stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2018,2019, and the related notes and financial statement Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts (collectively, the consolidated financial statements), and our report dated February 26, 201927, 2020 expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements.
The Company acquired Trilogy Education Services, Inc. (Trilogy) on May 22, 2019, and management excluded from its assessment of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, Trilogy’s internal control over financial reporting associated with 4.1% of total assets and 12.9% of total revenues included in the consolidated financial statements of the Company as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting of the Company also excluded an evaluation of the internal control over financial reporting of Trilogy.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
| /s/ KPMG LLP | ||
| McLean, Virginia | ||
| February | ||
2U, Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
| December 31, 2018 | December 31, 2017 | December 31, 2019 | December 31, 2018 | |||||||||||
| Assets | ||||||||||||||
| Current assets | ||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 449,772 | $ | 223,370 | $ | 170,593 | $ | 449,772 | ||||||
| Restricted cash | 19,276 | — | ||||||||||||
| Investments | 25,000 | — | — | 25,000 | ||||||||||
| Accounts receivable, net | 32,636 | 14,174 | 33,655 | 32,636 | ||||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other assets | 14,272 | 10,509 | 37,424 | 14,272 | ||||||||||
| Total current assets | 521,680 | 248,053 | 260,948 | 521,680 | ||||||||||
| Property and equipment, net | 52,299 | 49,055 | 57,643 | 52,299 | ||||||||||
| Right-of-use assets | 43,401 | — | ||||||||||||
| Goodwill | 61,852 | 71,988 | 418,350 | 61,852 | ||||||||||
| Amortizable intangible assets, net | 136,605 | 90,761 | 333,075 | 136,605 | ||||||||||
| University payments and other assets, non-current | 34,918 | 22,205 | 73,413 | 34,918 | ||||||||||
| Total assets | $ | 807,354 | $ | 482,062 | $ | 1,186,830 | $ | 807,354 | ||||||
| Liabilities and stockholders’ equity | ||||||||||||||
| Current liabilities | ||||||||||||||
| Accounts payable and accrued expenses | $ | 27,647 | $ | 22,629 | $ | 65,381 | $ | 27,647 | ||||||
| Accrued compensation and related benefits | 23,001 | 19,017 | 21,885 | 23,001 | ||||||||||
| Deferred revenue | 8,345 | 7,024 | 48,833 | 8,345 | ||||||||||
| Lease liability | 7,320 | — | ||||||||||||
| Other current liabilities | 9,487 | 9,330 | 12,535 | 9,487 | ||||||||||
| Total current liabilities | 68,480 | 58,000 | 155,954 | 68,480 | ||||||||||
| Deferred government grant obligations | 3,500 | 3,500 | ||||||||||||
| Long-term debt | 246,620 | 3,500 | ||||||||||||
| Deferred tax liabilities, net | 6,949 | 10,087 | 5,133 | 6,949 | ||||||||||
| Lease-related and other liabilities, non-current | 23,416 | 22,643 | ||||||||||||
| Lease liability, non-current | 66,974 | — | ||||||||||||
| Other liabilities, non-current | 899 | 23,416 | ||||||||||||
| Total liabilities | 102,345 | 94,230 | 475,580 | 102,345 | ||||||||||
| Commitments and contingencies (Note 6) | ||||||||||||||
| Commitments and contingencies (Note 7) | ||||||||||||||
| Stockholders’ equity | ||||||||||||||
| Preferred stock, $0.001 par value, 5,000,000 shares authorized, none issued | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| Common stock, $0.001 par value, 200,000,000 shares authorized, 57,968,493 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2018; 52,505,856 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2017 | 58 | 53 | ||||||||||||
| Common stock, $0.001 par value, 200,000,000 shares authorized, 63,569,109 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2019; 57,968,493 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2018 | 63 | 58 | ||||||||||||
| Additional paid-in capital | 957,631 | 588,289 | 1,197,379 | 957,631 | ||||||||||
| Accumulated deficit | (244,166 | ) | (205,836 | ) | (479,388 | ) | (244,166 | ) | ||||||
| Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) | (8,514 | ) | 5,326 | |||||||||||
| Accumulated other comprehensive loss | (6,804 | ) | (8,514 | ) | ||||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 705,009 | 387,832 | 711,250 | 705,009 | ||||||||||
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 807,354 | $ | 482,062 | $ | 1,186,830 | $ | 807,354 | ||||||