Diluted Adjusted Net Income Per Share is computed by dividing Adjusted Net Income by the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding adjusted for the dilutive effect of all potential shares of common stock.
Our principal sources of liquidity are our cash and cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities. As of September 30, 2017,2023, we had $1,059.7 million$10.3 billion of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, customer funds cash and cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities. Customer funds cash and cash equivalents are funds we are holding on behalf of customers that are separate from the Company's corporate funds and are not available for corporate purposes. Investments in marketable debt securities which were held primarily in cash deposits, money market funds, reverse repurchase agreements, U.S. government and agency securities, commercial paper, and corporate bonds. We consider all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. Our investments in marketable debt securities are classified as available-for-sale. Excluding customer funds and undrawn amounts under our revolving credit facility, our total liquidity as of September 30, 2023 was $7.3 billion.
We experience significant day-to-day fluctuations in our cash and cash equivalents due to fluctuations in settlements receivable and customers payable, amounts.and hence working capital. These fluctuations are primarily due to:
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
On March 6, 2017, we issued $440.0 million in aggregate principal amount of Notes that mature on March 1, 2022, unless earlier converted or repurchased, and bear interest at a rate of 0.375% payable semi-annually on March 1 and September 1 of each year. See Note 10, Indebtedness, of the Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for more details on this transaction.
There were no other material changes in our commitments under contractual obligations, except for scheduled payments from the ongoing business, as disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements during the periods presented.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our critical accounting policies are disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.
Our critical accounting policies have not materially changed during the nine months ended September 30, 2017. Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. GAAP requires us to make certain estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported in our financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, anticipated future trends, and other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Because these accounting policies require significant judgment, our actual results may differ materially from our estimates.
There were no significant changes in our critical accounting estimates during the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2023 compared to those previously disclosed in “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See “Recent Accounting Pronouncements” described in Note 1, Description of theBusiness and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies within Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
WeThere have operations both within the United States and globally, and we are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business, including the effects of interest rate changes and foreign currency fluctuations. Information relating to quantitative and qualitative disclosures about these market risks is described below.
Interest Rate Sensitivity
Our cash and cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of September 30, 2017, were held primarily in cash deposits, money market funds, U.S. government and agency securities, commercial paper, and corporate bonds. The fair value of our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities would not be significantly affected by either an increase or decrease in interest rates due mainly to the short-term nature of a majority of these instruments. Additionally, we have the ability to hold these instruments until maturity if necessary to reduce our risk. Any future borrowings incurred under our credit facility would accrue interest at a floating rate based on a formula tied to certain market rates at the time of incurrence (as described above). A hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would not have abeen no material effect on our financial results.
Foreign Currency Risk
Most of our revenue is earned in U.S. dollars, and therefore our revenue is not currently subject to significant foreign currency risk. Our foreign operations are denominated in the currencies of the countries in which our operations are located, and may be subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changesmarket risk from the information presented in the Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, EuroPart II, Item 7A. "Quantitative and British Pound. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates may cause us to recognize transaction gains and lossesQualitative Disclosures About Market Risk" in our statement of operations. A 10% increase or decrease in current exchange rates would not have a material impactAnnual Report on our financial results.Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officerprincipal executive officer and our Chief Financial Officer,principal financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.10-Q (the "Evaluation Date"). The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures,
no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on such evaluation, our Chief Executive Officerprincipal executive officer and Chief Financial Officerprincipal financial officer have concluded that, as of such date,the Evaluation Date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rules 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Part II—Other Information
Item 1. Legal Proceedings
We are currently a party to, and may in the future be involved in, various litigation matters (including intellectual property litigation), legal claims, and government investigations.
We For information regarding legal proceedings in which we are involved, see “Litigation and Regulatory Matters” in a class action lawsuit concerning independent contractors in connection with our Caviar business. On March 19, 2015, Jeffry Levin, on behalf of a putative nationwide class, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against our wholly owned subsidiary, Caviar, Inc., which, as amended, alleges that Caviar misclassified Mr. LevinNote 18, Commitments and other similarly situated couriers as independent contractors and, in doing so, violated various provisions of the California Labor Code and California Business and Professions Code by requiring them to pay various business expenses that should have been borne by Caviar. The Court compelled arbitration of Mr. Levin’s individual claims on November 16, 2015 and dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety with prejudice on May 2, 2016. On June 1, 2016, Mr. Levin filed a Notice of Appeal of the Court’s order compelling arbitration with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Levin filed his opening appellate brief regarding the order compelling arbitration of his individual claims on October 7, 2016. We filed our answering brief on December 7, 2016, and Mr. Levin filed his reply on December 21, 2016. No hearing date has been set. Mr. Levin also sought an award of penalties pursuantContingencies within Notes to the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA). The parties stipulated that Mr. Levin would no longer pursue this PAGA claim but that it may instead be pursued by a different courier. Subsequently, couriers Nadezhda Rosen and La’Dell Brewster filed a new PAGA-only claim in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Francisco (Superior Court) on November 7, 2016. Plaintiffs claim that Caviar misclassified its couriers as independent contractors resulting in numerous violations of the California Labor Code, pursuant to which plaintiffs seek statutory penalties for those violations.In February 2017, we participated in a mediation with the parties in these Caviar misclassification suits to explore resolution of the matters at hand. After continued negotiation, the parties reached a global settlement of these suits,Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, which is subject to final confirmationincorporated herein by the Superior Court.reference.
In addition, from time to time, we are involved in various other litigationlegal matters, investigations, inquiries, claims, and disputes, arising in the ordinary course of business. including with regulatory bodies and governmental agencies. We cannot at this time fairly estimate a reasonable range of exposure, if any, of the potential liability with respect to these other matters. While we do not believe, at this time, that any ultimate liability resulting from any of these other matters will have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, or liquidity, we cannot give any assurance regarding the ultimate outcome of any of these other matters, and their resolution could be material to our operating results for any particular period, depending on the level of income for the period.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including the section titled “Management’sManagement’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”Operations and our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
The following description of risk factors includes any material changes to, and supersedes the description of, risk factors associated with the Company’s business previously disclosed in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 20162022 under the heading “Risk Factors.”
Risk Factors Summary
Our business operations are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those outside of our control, that could cause our actual results to be harmed, including risks regarding the following:
Risks related to our business and our industry:
•our ability to retain existing sellers and customers, attract new sellers and customers, and increase sales to both new and existing sellers and customers;
•our investments in our business and ability to maintain profitability;
•our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our brands;
•our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach;
•our ability to develop products and services to address the rapidly evolving market for payments and financial services;
•competition in our markets and industry;
•risks related to disruptions in or negative perceptions of the cryptocurrency market;
•any acquisitions, strategic investments, new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures, and other transactions that we may undertake;
•the ongoing integration of Afterpay with our business;
•risks related to our majority interest in TIDAL;
•operating or expanding our business globally;
•risks related to our BNPL platform;
•risks related to the banking ecosystem, including through our bank partnerships, and FDIC and other regulatory obligations;
•additional risks of Square Loans related to the availability of capital, seller payments, interest rate, deposit insurance premiums, and general macroeconomic conditions; and
•our participation in government relief programs set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Operational risks:
•real or perceived improper or unauthorized use of, disclosure of, or access to sensitive data;
•real or perceived security breaches or incidents or human error in administering our software, hardware, and systems;
•systems failures, interruptions, delays in service, catastrophic events, and resulting interruptions in the availability of our products or services or those of our sellers;
•any failure to safeguard the bitcoin we hold on behalf of ourselves and other parties;
•our risk management efforts;
•our dependence on payment card networks and acquiring processors;
•our reliance on third parties and their systems for a variety of services, including the processing of transaction data and settlement of funds;
•our dependence on key management and any failure to attract, motivate, and retain our employees;
•our operational, financial, and other internal controls and systems;
•any shortage, price increases, tariffs, changes, delay or discontinuation of our key components;
•our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products and adequately manage our product inventory;
•the integration of our services with a variety of operating systems and the interoperation of our hardware that enables merchants to accept payment cards with third-party mobile devices utilizing such operating systems; and
•difficulties estimating the amount payable under TIDAL's license agreements.
Economic, financial, and tax risks:
•a deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions;
•any inability to secure financing on favorable terms, or at all, or comply with covenants in our existing credit agreement, the indentures, or future agreements;
•our ability to service our debt, including our convertible notes and our senior notes;
•counterparty risk with respect to our convertible note hedge transactions;
•our bitcoin investments being subject to volatile market prices, impairment, and other risks of loss;
•foreign exchange rates risks; and
•any greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities or significant valuation allowances on our deferred tax assets.
Legal, regulatory, and compliance risks:
•extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas of our business;
•complex and evolving regulations and oversight related to privacy, data protection, and information security;
•litigation, including intellectual property claims, government investigations or inquiries, and regulatory matters or disputes;
•obligations and restrictions as a licensed money transmitter;
•regulatory scrutiny or changes in the BNPL space;
•regulation and scrutiny of our subsidiary Cash App Investing, which is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA, including net capital and other regulatory capital requirements;
•changes to our business practices imposed by FINRA based on our ownership of Cash App Investing;
•regulation and scrutiny of our subsidiary Square Financial Services, which is a Utah state-chartered industrial bank, including the requirement that we serve as a source of financial strength to it;
•supervision and regulation of Square Financial Services, including the Dodd-Frank Act and its related regulations;
•any inability to protect our intellectual property rights;
•assertions by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights by us; and
•increased scrutiny from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders relating to environmental, social, and governance issues.
Risks related to ownership of our common stock:
•the dual class structure of our common stock;
•volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock;
•the dual-listing of our Class A common stock on the NYSE and our CHESS Depositary Interests ("CDIs") on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX");
•our convertible note hedge and warrant transactions;
•anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws, and provisions of Delaware law; and
•exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
Our business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and any failure to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand would hurt our business.
We have developed a strong and trusted brand that has contributed significantly to the success of our business. Our brand is predicated on the idea that sellers and buyers will trust us and find value in building and growing their businesses with our products and services. Maintaining, protecting, and enhancing our brand is critical to expanding our base of sellers, buyers, and
other third-party partners, as well as increasing engagement with our products and services. This will depend largely on our ability to maintain trust, be a technology leader, and continue to provide high-quality and secure products and services. Any negative publicity about our industry or our company, the quality and reliability of our products and services, our risk management processes, changes to our products and services, our ability to effectively manage and resolve seller and buyer complaints, our privacy and security practices, litigation, regulatory activity, and the experience of sellers and buyers with our products or services, could adversely affect our reputation and the confidence in and use of our products and services. Harm to our brand can arise from many sources, including failure by us or our partners to satisfy expectations of service and quality; inadequate protection of sensitive information; compliance failures and claims; litigation and other claims; employee misconduct; and misconduct by our partners, service providers, or other counterparties. If we do not successfully maintain a strong and trusted brand, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
Our growth rate has slowed at times and may not be sustainableslow or decline in the future, and our growth rates in each of our reporting segments may vary. Future revenue and gross profit growth depends on our ability to retain existing sellers and customers, attract new sellers and customers, and increase sales to both new and existing sellers.sellers and customers.
Our total net revenue grew from $850.2 million in 2014 to $1,267.1 million in 2015 and to $1,708.7 million in 2016. During the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2017, our total net revenue grew from $1,256.8 million to $1,598.2 million, respectively. As our revenue has increased, our rate of revenue and gross profit growth has slowed at times and may decline in the future, and it may slow or decline more quickly than we expect for a variety of reasons, including the risks described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Additionally, our rate of revenue and gross profit growth may vary between our reporting segments. For example, in recent periods our Cash App segment revenue has grown at a high rate, which has varied and may continue to vary from the growth rate of our Square segment. Our sellers and other users of our servicescustomers have no obligation to continue to use our services, and we cannot assure you that they will. We generally do not have long-term contracts with our sellers and customers, and the difficulty and costs associated with switching to a competitor may not be significant for many of our services.the services we offer. Our sellers’ payment processing activity with us may decrease for a variety of reasons, including sellers’ level of satisfaction with our products and services, the effectiveness of our support services, our pricing and the pricing and quality of competing products or services, the effects of global economic conditions, or reductions in the aggregate spending of our sellers’ customers. Growth in transacting actives on Cash App and customers’ level of engagement with our products and services on Cash App are essential to our success and long-term financial performance. However, the growth rate of transacting actives has fluctuated over time, and it may slow or decline in the future. A number of factors have affected and could potentially negatively affect Cash App customer spending levels. In addition,growth, inflows, and engagement levels, including our ability to introduce new products and services that are compelling to our customers, changes to our systems, processes or other technical or operational requirements that impact how customers use or access our products and services, the impact on our network of other customers choosing whether to use Cash App, our decision to expand into or exit certain markets, technical or other problems that affect customer experience, failure to provide sufficient customer support, fraud and scams targeting Cash App customers, and harm to our reputation and brand. Further, certain events or programs, such as government stimulus programs may correlate with periods of significant growth, but such growth may not be sustainable. Additionally, the growth rate of Cash App revenue may be distorted by the prices of bitcoin, as bitcoin revenue may increase or decrease due to changes in the price of, and demand for, bitcoin and may not correlate to customer or engagement growth rates.
The growth of our business depends in part on our existing sellers and customers expanding their use of our products and services. If we are unable to encourage sellers to broaden theirbroader use of our products and services within each of our ecosystems by our existing sellers and customers, our growth may slow or stop, and our business may be materially and adversely affected. The growth of our business also depends on our ability to attract new sellers and customers, to encourage larger sellers and customers to use our products and services, and to introduce successful new products and services. We have invested and will continue to invest in improving our Square platformbusiness in order to offer better or new features, products, and services and to adjust our product offerings to changing economic conditions, but if those features, products, services, and serviceschanges fail to be successful on the expected timeline or at all, our growth may slow or decline.
Our business hasWe have generated significant net losses in the past, and we intend to continue to invest substantially in our business. Thus, we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
We generated net losses of $171.6 million, $212.0 million, and $154.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively. During the nine months ended September 30, 20172023 and 2016,September 30, 2022, we generated a net lossesloss of $47.2$178.9 million and $156.4net loss of $435.4 million, respectively.
As of September 30, 2017,2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $827.1737.0 million.
We intend to continue to make significant investments in our business, including with respect to our employee base; sales and marketing, including expenses relating to increased direct marketing efforts, referral programs, and free hardware and subsidized services;marketing; development of new products, services, and features; expansion of office space and otheracquisitions; infrastructure; expansion of international operations; and general administration, including legal, finance, and other compliance expenses related to being a public company.our business. If the costs associated with acquiring and supporting new or larger sellers, attracting and supporting new Cash App customers, or with developing and supporting our products and services materially riseincrease in the future, including the fees we pay to third parties to advertise our products and services, our expenses may rise significantly. In addition, increases in our seller base could cause us to incur increased losses because costs associated with new sellers are generally incurred up front, while revenue is recognized thereafterin future periods as sellers utilize our services.products and services are used by our sellers. Moreover, businesses we acquire may have different profitability than our existing business, which may affect our overall profitability, particularly until we are able to realize expected synergies. For example, prior to its acquisition, Afterpay historically generated net losses. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth and manage our expenses, we may continue to incur significant losses and may not achieve or maintain profitability.profitability on a consistent basis.
From time to time, we have made and may make decisions that may reducewill have a negative effect on our short-term operating results if we believe those decisions will improve the experiences of our sellers, their customers, and other users of our products and services, which we believe will improve our operating results over the long term. For example, from time to time, we have implemented expense cuts and reduced hiring to, among other things, align our cost structure with our business and longer term strategies, which may increase expenses in the short term and impact our ability to grow or quickly develop and introduce products. These decisions may not be consistent with the expectations of investors and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Our business depends on our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our brands.
Having a strong and trusted brand has contributed significantly to the success of our business. We believe that maintaining, promoting, and enhancing the Square brand, the Cash App brand, the TIDAL brand, and our other brands, in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services and expanding our base of customers. Maintaining and promoting our brands will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, secure, and innovative products and services, as well as our ability to maintain trust and be a technology leader. We may introduce, or make changes to, features, products, services, privacy practices, or terms of service that customers do not like, which may materially and adversely affect our brands. Our brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brands. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brands or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
The introduction and promotion of new products and services, as well as the promotion of existing products and services, may be partly dependent on our visibility on third-party advertising platforms, such as Google, Facebook, or X. Changes in the way these platforms operate or changes in their advertising prices, data use practices or other terms could make the maintenance and promotion of our products and services and our brands more expensive or more difficult. If we are unable to market and promote our brands on third-party platforms effectively, our ability to acquire new customers would be materially harmed. We also use retail partners to sell hardware and acquire sellers for Square. Our ability to acquire new sellers could be materially harmed if we are unable to enter into or maintain these partnerships on terms that are commercially reasonable to us, or at all.
Harm to our brands can arise from many sources, including failure by us or our partners and service providers to satisfy expectations of service and quality; inadequate protection or misuse of sensitive information; fraud committed by third parties using our products or applications; compliance failures and claims; litigation, regulatory and other claims; errors caused by us or our partners; and misconduct by our partners, service providers, or other counterparties. We have also been from time to time in the past, and may in the future be, the target of incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading or false statements about our company and our business that could damage our reputation and brands and deter customers from adopting our services or our products. In addition, negative statements about us can cause and have caused a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock, divert our management’s attention and resources, and could cause other adverse impacts to our business. Partners and influencers with whom we maintain relationships could engage in behavior or use their platforms to communicate directly with our sellers and customers in a manner that reflects poorly on our brands and such behavior or communications may adversely affect us. Further, negative publicity or commentary regarding the partners and influencers who are, or are perceived to be, affiliated with us may also damage our reputation, even if the negative publicity or commentary is not directly related to us. Any negative publicity about the industries we operate in or our company, the quality and reliability of our products and services, our risk management processes, changes to our products and services, our ability to effectively manage and resolve customer complaints, our privacy, data protection, and information security practices, litigation, regulatory activity, policy positions, and the experience of our customers with us, our products or services could adversely affect our reputation and the confidence in and use of our products and services. If we do not successfully maintain, protect or enhance our brands, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
Our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach, including through acquisitions, may not succeed and may reduce our revenue growth and profitability.
We intend to continue to broaden the scope of products and services we offer. However, we may not be successful in maintaining or growing our revenue, or deriving any significant new revenue streams from these products and services. Failure to successfully broaden the scope of products and services that are attractive may inhibit our growth and harm our business. Furthermore, we expect to continue to expand our markets in the future, and we may have limited or no experience in such newer markets. We cannot assure you that any of our products or services will be widely accepted in any market or that they will grow in revenue or contribute to our profitability. Our offerings may present new and difficult technological, operational, and regulatory risks, and other challenges, and if we experience service disruptions, failures, or other issues, our business may be materially and adversely affected. For example, some of our Cash App products are intended to make investing in certain assets, such as bitcoin, stocks, and exchange-traded funds, more accessible. However, as a result, our customers who use these Cash App products may experience losses or other financial impacts due to, among other things, market fluctuations in the prices of bitcoin and stocks. If our customers are adversely affected by such risks, they may cease using Cash App altogether and our business, brand, and reputation may be adversely affected. Moreover, our customers could attempt to seek compensation from us for their financial investment losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address. Our expansion into newer markets may not lead to growth and may require significant investment of financial resources and of management time and attention, and we may not be able to recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Our long-term success depends on our ability to develop products and services to address the rapidly evolving market for payments and financial services, and, if we are not able to implement successful enhancements and new features for our products and services, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
Rapid and significant technological changes continue to confront the industries in which we operate, including developments in omnichannel commerce, proximity payment devices (including contactless payments via NFC technology), digital banking, mobile financial apps, cryptocurrencies, tokenization (e.g., replacing sensitive data such as payment card information with symbols (tokens) to keep the data safe), blockchain, and artificial intelligence ("AI"), including machine learning.
These new and evolving services and technologies may be superior to, impair, or render obsolete the products and services we currently offer or the technologies we currently use to provide them. Our ability to develop new products and services may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, payment card networks, existing and future laws and regulations, resistance to change from our customers, which includes our sellers and their customers, or third parties’ intellectual property rights. Incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures and take considerable time, and we may not be successful in realizing a return on our efforts in a timely manner or at all.
Our success will depend on our ability to develop new technologies, to adapt to technology changes and evolving industry standards, to incorporate new technologies, such as generative AI, into our products and services, and to provide products and services that are tailored to specific needs and requirements of our customers. If we are unable to provide enhancements and new features for our products and services or to develop new products and services that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with rapid technological developments and evolving industry standards, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
We often rely, not only on our own initiatives and innovations, but also on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies and development of a robust market for these new products and technologies. Failure to accurately predict or to respond effectively to developments in our industry may significantly impair our business. In addition, because our products and services are designed to operate with a variety of systems, infrastructures, and devices, we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and services to keep pace with changes in technologies. Any failure of our products and services to continue to operate effectively with third-party infrastructures and technologies could reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction of our customers, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Substantial and increasingly intense competition in our markets and industry may harm our business.
We compete in markets characterized by vigorous competition, changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing customer needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. We expect competition to intensify in the future as existing and new competitors introduce new services or enhance existing services. For example, companies not traditionally associated with the payments industry have introduced products or services that are or may become competitive with our business. We compete against many companies to attract customers across our products and services, and some of these companies have greater financial resources and substantially larger bases of customers than we do, which may provide them with significant competitive advantages. These companies may devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services, may achieve economies of scale due to the size of their customer bases, and may more effectively introduce their own innovative products and services that adversely impact our growth. For example, a number of competitors offer BNPL products similar to Afterpay’s. Existing competitors and new entrants in the BNPL space have engaged in, and may continue to engage in, aggressive consumer acquisition campaigns, may develop superior technology offerings, or consolidate with other entities and achieve benefits of scale. Such competitive pressures may materially erode our existing market share in the BNPL space and may hinder our expansion into new markets. In addition, mergers and acquisitions by, and collaborations between, the companies we compete against may lead to even larger competitors with more resources.
Certain sellers have long-standing exclusive, or nearly exclusive, relationships with our competitors to accept payment cards and other services that compete with what we offer. These relationships can make it difficult or cost-prohibitive for us to conduct material amounts of business with them. Competing services tied to established brands may engender greater confidence in the safety and efficacy of their services. If we are unable to differentiate ourselves from and successfully compete with our competitors, our business will be materially and adversely affected.
We may also face pricing pressures from competitors. Some competitors may offer lower prices by cross-subsidizing certain services that we also provide through other products they offer. Such competition may result in the need for us to alter our pricing and could reduce our gross profit. Also, sellers may demand more customized and favorable pricing from us, and competitive pressures may require us to agree to such pricing, reducing our gross profit. We currently negotiate pricing discounts and other incentive arrangements with certain large sellers to increase acceptance and usage of our products and services. If we continue this practice and if an increasing proportion of our sellers are large sellers, we may have to increase the discounts or incentives we provide, which could also reduce our gross profit.
Disruptions in the cryptocurrency market subject us to additional risks.
We may experience material and adverse impacts to our business as a result of the global economic impacts of financial distress in the cryptocurrency market, such as bankruptcies filed by certain cryptocurrency market participants, including the loss of customer trust in cryptocurrencies and any recession or economic downturn that has occurred or may occur in the future.
The ultimate impact of the financial distress in the cryptocurrency market will depend on future developments, including, but not limited to, the downstream effects of the bankruptcies filed by certain cryptocurrency market participants, its severity, and the actions taken by regulators to address its impact. Recent enforcement actions by U.S. regulators against major crypto asset platforms and negative publicity associated with crypto asset activities may, among other things, result in a decline in confidence or interest in crypto assets. If the cryptocurrency environment further deteriorates, our customers may wish to sell their bitcoin at a price or volume that exceeds the market demand for bitcoin, which could cause disruptions in our operations and have a material and adverse effect on our business and financial condition. If our customers experience losses due to market fluctuations in the prices of bitcoin, they may reduce or cease their use of Cash App and our results of operations may be adversely impacted.
Our investments in bitcoin, our bitcoin ecosystem, and our Cash App feature that permits customers to transact in bitcoin, subject us to additional risks related to any further disruption or downturns in the cryptocurrency markets and the resulting impact on customer and investor behavior. Deteriorations in the cryptocurrency markets may have an adverse effect on our reputation, and any negative perception by our customers of one or more cryptocurrencies may lead to a loss of customer demand for our products and services, any of which could have an adverse impact on our business and financial condition. We may also suffer a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock due to any negative perception by our customers, investors, or the general public, of bitcoin or the cryptocurrency markets.
Acquisitions, strategic investments, new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures, and other transactions we enter into could fail to achieve strategic objectives, disrupt our ongoing operations or result in operating difficulties, liabilities and expenses, harm our business, and negatively impact our results of operations.
In pursuing our business strategy, we routinely conduct discussions and evaluate opportunities for possible acquisitions, strategic investments, new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures, and other transactions. We have in the past acquired or invested in, and we continue to seek to acquire or invest in, businesses, technologies, or other assets that we believe could complement or expand our business, including acquisitions of new lines of business that are adjacent to or outside of our existing ecosystems or geographic territories. As we grow, the pace and scale of our acquisitions may increase and may include larger acquisitions than we have done historically. The identification, evaluation, and negotiation of potential acquisition or strategic investment transactions may divert the attention of management and entail various expenses, whether or not such transactions are ultimately completed. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in identifying, negotiating, and consummating favorable transaction opportunities. In addition to transaction and opportunity costs, these transactions involve large challenges and risks, whether or not such transactions are completed, including risks that:
•the transaction may not advance our business strategy or may harm our growth, profitability, or reputation;
•we may not be able to secure required regulatory approvals or otherwise satisfy closing conditions for a proposed transaction in a timely manner, or at all;
•the transaction may subject us to additional regulatory burdens that affect our business in potentially unanticipated and significantly negative ways;
•we may not realize a satisfactory return on our investment or increase our revenue;
•we may experience difficulty, and may not be successful in, integrating technologies, IT or business enterprise systems, culture, or management or other personnel of the acquired business;
•we may incur significant acquisition costs and transition costs, including in connection with the assumption of ongoing expenses of the acquired business;
•we may not realize the expected benefits or synergies from the transaction in the expected time period, or at all, which may result in impairment charges, costs of winding down acquired operations or other negative impacts to our business;
•we may be unable to retain key personnel;
•acquired businesses or businesses that we invest in may not have adequate controls, processes, and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, including with respect to data privacy, data protection, and information security, and our due diligence process may not identify compliance issues or other liabilities. Moreover, acquired businesses’ technology stacks may add complexity, resource constraints, and legacy technological challenges that make it difficult and time consuming to achieve such adequate controls, processes, and procedures.
•we may fail to identify or assess the magnitude of certain liabilities, shortcomings, or other circumstances prior to acquiring or investing in a business, which could result in additional financial, legal, regulatory, or tax exposure and may subject us to additional controls, policies, procedures, liabilities, litigation, costs of compliance or remediation, or other adverse effects on our business, operating results, or financial condition;
•we may have difficulty entering into new market segments or new geographic territories;
•we may be unable to retain the customers, vendors, and partners of acquired businesses;
•there may be lawsuits or regulatory actions resulting from the transaction;
•there may be risks associated with undetected security weaknesses, cyberattacks, or security breaches or incidents at companies that we acquire or with which we may combine or partner;
•there may be local and foreign regulations applicable to the international activities of our business and the businesses we acquire; and
•acquisitions could result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt.
We have experienced certain of these risks in connection with our past acquisitions, and any of the foregoing could harm our business and negatively impact our results of operations.
We have in the past, and may in the future, also choose to divest certain businesses or product lines. If we decide to sell assets or a business, we may have difficulty obtaining terms acceptable to us in a timely manner, or at all. Additionally, we may experience difficulty separating out portions of, or entire, businesses, incur loss of revenue or experience negative impact on margins, or we may not achieve the desired strategic and financial benefits. Such potential transactions may also delay achievement of our strategic objectives, cause us to incur additional expenses, disrupt customer or employee relationships, and expose us to unanticipated or ongoing obligations and liabilities, including as a result of our indemnification obligations. Further, during the pendency of a divestiture, we may be subject to risks such as a decline in the business to be divested, loss of employees, customers, or suppliers and the risk that the transaction may not close, any of which would have a material adverse effect on the business to be divested and our retained business. If a divestiture is not completed for any reason, we may not be able to find another buyer on the same terms, and we may have incurred significant costs without any corresponding benefit.
Joint ventures and minority investments inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, thereby potentially increasing the financial, legal, operational, regulatory, and/or compliance risks associated with the joint venture or minority investment. In addition, we may be dependent on joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management, or other persons or entities who control them and who may have business interests, strategies, or goals that are inconsistent with ours. Business decisions or other actions or omissions of the joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management, or other persons or entities who control them may adversely affect the value of our investment, result in litigation or regulatory action against us, and may otherwise damage our reputation and brand.
The ongoing integration of Afterpay could disrupt our business and adversely affect our future results of operations.
Our ability to benefit from our acquisition of Afterpay depends on the successful integration of Afterpay with our business. The integration of Afterpay is complex and time consuming and there can be no assurance that the integration will be completed effectively or in a timely manner.
Difficulties that we have encountered and may continue to encounter in the integration process include the following:
•challenges and difficulties associated with managing the larger, more complex, combined company;
•conforming standards and controls and consolidating corporate infrastructures between the companies;
•integrating personnel from the two companies while maintaining focus on developing, producing and delivering consistent, high quality products and services;
•loss of key employees;
•coordinating geographically dispersed organizations;
•addressing differences in business backgrounds, corporate cultures, and management philosophies;
•potential unknown liabilities and unforeseen expenses;
•our ability to deliver on our strategy; and
•the diversion of management’s attention caused by integrating the companies’ operations.
TIDAL subjects us to risks and uncertainties related to the music industry.
TIDAL’s business is dependent on the various rights holders. We cannot provide assurances that we or TIDAL will be able to maintain or expand arrangements with partners and other third parties on acceptable terms, if at all. Further, the music industry is highly concentrated, which means we rely on a small number of entities that may take adverse actions or take advantage of their market power to pursue arduous financial or other terms that may adversely affect us or may restrict our ability to innovate and improve our streaming service. Our streaming service also competes for listeners on the basis of the presence and visibility of our app, which is distributed via app stores operated by Apple and Google. We face significant competition for listeners from these companies, which also promote their own music and content. In addition, our competitors’ streaming products may be pre-loaded or integrated into consumer electronics products or automobiles more broadly than our streaming product, which makes such competitors more visible to consumers. If we are unable to compete successfully for listeners against other media providers, then our TIDAL business may suffer.
We expect that the operation of our TIDAL business will require continued investment in operating expenses, headcount, and management time and attention, none of which will ensure that we will be successful. If we fail to successfully operate and grow our TIDAL business, we will not realize the benefits anticipated when we acquired a majority interest in the business, and any such failure could result in adverse effects on our business and financial results, including substantial impairment charges.
Operating or expanding our business globally subjects us to new challenges and risks.
We offer our services and products in multiple countries and we may continue expanding our business further globally. Our acquisition of Afterpay expanded our global presence. Expansion, whether in our existing or new global markets, will require additional resources and new or expanded controls, and offering our services and products in new geographic regions often requires substantial expenditures and takes considerable time. We may not be successful enough in these new geographies to recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. Such expansion, and the ongoing operation of our global business, subject our business to substantial risks, including:
•difficulty in attracting sellers and customers, or a lack of acceptance of our products and services in foreign markets;
•failure to anticipate competitive conditions and competition with service providers or other market-players that have greater experience in the foreign markets than we do;
•failure to conform with applicable business customs, including translation into foreign languages, cultural context, and associated expenses;
•increased costs and difficulty in protecting intellectual property and sensitive data;
•changes to the way we do business as compared with our current operations;
•inability to support and integrate with local third-party service providers;
•difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations in an environment of diverse cultures, laws, and customs, challenges caused by distance, language, and cultural differences, and the increased travel, infrastructure, and legal and compliance costs associated with global operations;
•difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified employees and maintaining our company culture;
•difficulty in gaining acceptance and maintaining compliance with industry self-regulatory bodies;
•compliance with multiple complex, potentially conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including with respect to payments, privacy, data protection, information security, and tax;
•compliance with U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-money laundering laws;
•enactment of tariffs, sanctions, fines, or other trade restrictions;
•exchange rate risk;
•increased exposure to public health issues such as pandemics, and related industry and governmental actions to address these issues; and
•regional economic and political instability and other geopolitical risks.
As a result of these risks, our efforts to expand our global operations may not be successful, which could limit our ability to grow our business.
Our BNPL platform increases our exposure to consumer defaults and merchant insolvency.
Revenue generated from BNPL products depends on our ability to recoup the purchase value of the goods or services that consumers have purchased using our BNPL platform. Although we rely on technology to assess consumers’ repayment capability for our BNPL products, there can be no guarantee that such processes will always accurately predict repayments. Miscalculation of consumers’ repayment ability or a material increase in repayment failures, whether due to inflation, the possibility of a recession, market volatility, or otherwise, may adversely impact our results of operations, profitability and prospects. In addition, if consumers who have purchased products or services using our BNPL platform do not receive the products or services, they may cease payment on their outstanding balances or request a refund on previous payments, and our business may be negatively impacted.
The performance of our BNPL platform depends also on the sales of products and services by retail merchants. Merchants’ sales may decrease as a result of factors outside of their control, including deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and supply chain disruptions. If a merchant ceases its operations, closes some or all of its locations, or fails to deliver goods or services to our consumers, the merchant may not be able to reimburse us for chargebacks or refunds or may not be able to repay the funds we have advanced to them, all of which could result in higher charge-off rates than anticipated. Moreover, if the financial condition of a merchant deteriorates significantly such that the merchant becomes subject to a bankruptcy proceeding, we may not be able to recover any amounts due to us from the merchant, and our financial results would be adversely affected.
We are subject to risks related to the banking ecosystem, including through Square Financial Services, our bank partnerships, and FDIC and other regulatory obligations.
Recent instability and volatility in the banking and financial services sectors, including bank failures, have increased uncertainty in the global economy and increased the risk of a recession. Volatility in the banking and financial services sectors may impact our bank partnerships and could negatively impact our business. For example, we offer certain FDIC-insured products through our partnerships with banks that are members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”). We believe our banking programs, including records maintained by us and our bank partners, comply with all applicable requirements for each eligible participant's deposits to be covered by FDIC insurance, up to the applicable maximum deposit insurance amount. However, if the FDIC were to disagree, the FDIC may not recognize the participants’ claims as covered by deposit insurance in the event a bank partner fails and enters receivership proceedings under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (“FDIA”). If the FDIC were to determine that funds held at a bank partner are not covered by deposit insurance, or if one or more of our bank partners were to fail and enter receivership proceedings under the FDIA, our sellers and customers may seek to withdraw their funds, or may not be able to withdraw all their funds in a timely manner, which could adversely affect our brand, business and results of operations, and may lead to claims or litigation, which may be costly to address. Additionally, in instances where we are a service-provider to or are otherwise in a third-party relationship with our bank partners in connection with these programs, we are subject to certain risk-management standards for third-party relationships in accordance with federal bank regulatory guidance and examinations by the federal banking regulators.
Further, as a FDIC-insured institution, our subsidiary Square Financial Services is subject to regulatory obligations, including the assessment of a quarterly deposit insurance premium, calculated based on its average consolidated total assets. We are generally unable to control the amount of premiums that we are required to pay for FDIC insurance. If there are additional bank or financial institution failures, we may be required to pay higher deposit insurance assessments or higher fees associated with FDIC-insured products offered through our bank partnerships, or we may be subject to higher capital requirements imposed by the FDIC, our bank partners, or federal banking regulators with authority over our bank partners, which could reduce our profitability, and negatively impact our business and operations.
We intend to continue to explore other products, models, and structures for our product offerings, including with bank partners. Certain of our current product offerings subject us to reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by applicable federal or state regulatory agencies, and our future product offerings may potentially require, or be deemed to require, additional data, procedures, partnerships, licenses, regulatory approvals, or capabilities that we have not yet obtained or developed. Should we fail to successfully expand and evolve our product offerings, or should our new products, models or structures, or new laws or regulations or interpretations of existing laws or regulations, impose requirements on us that are cumbersome or that we cannot satisfy, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Square Loans are subject to additional risks related to availability of capital, seller payments, interest rate, deposit insurance premiums, and general macroeconomic conditions.
Square Loans is our commercial lending program. Square Financial Services, as the originator of the loans provided by Square Loans in the U.S., is subject to risks in addition to those described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Maintaining and growing our Square Loans business is dependent on institutional third-party investors purchasing the eligible business loans originated by us. If such third parties fail to continue to purchase such business loans or reduce the amount of future loans they purchase, then we may need to reduce originations, or we would need to fund the purchase of additional business loans from our own resources. We then may have to reduce the scale of Square Financial Services, which could have a direct impact on our ability to grow. Additionally, Square Financial Services has certain customary repurchase obligations in its loan purchase and servicing agreements with such institutional third-party investors for breaches of certain eligibility representations and warranties. If third parties reduce the price they are willing to pay for these business loans or reduce the servicing fees they pay us in exchange for servicing the business loans on their behalf, then the financial performance of Square Financial Services would be harmed.
The business loans provided by Square Loans are generally unsecured obligations of our sellers, and they are not guaranteed or insured in any way. Adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions or the credit quality of our sellers could cause some sellers who utilize Square Loans to cease operating or to experience a decline in their payment processing volume, thereby rendering them unable to make payment on the business loan and/or extend the repayment period beyond the contractual repayment terms on the business loan. To the extent a seller breaches a contractual obligation, such as the requirement to make minimum payments or other breach, the seller would be liable for an accelerated business loan repayment, where our recourse is to the business and not to any individual or other asset. In addition, because the servicing fees we receive from third-party investors depend on the collectability of the business loans, if there is an increase in sellers who utilize Square Loans who are unable to repay their business loans, we will be unable to collect our entire servicing fee for such loans. While our exposure to loans that we sell to third parties is more limited, if the sellers who utilize Square Loans are unable to repay their loans, the risk of loss in our owned loan portfolio will increase and our business may be adversely affected.
In addition, adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions may lead to a decrease in the number of sellers eligible for Square Loans and may strain our ability to correctly identify such sellers or manage the risk of non-payment or fraud as servicer of the business loans. If we fail to correctly predict the likelihood of timely repayment or correctly price such business loans, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Square Financial Services’ profitability depends, in part, on its net interest income. Net interest income is the difference between interest income earned on interest-bearing assets, such as loans and securities, and interest expense paid on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowed funds. Changes in interest rates and monetary policy can impact the demand for new loans, the credit profile of our borrowers, the yields earned on loans and securities, and the rates paid on deposits and borrowings. The impact of any sudden and substantial move in interest rates and/or increased competition may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, as our net interest income may be adversely affected.
Our participation in government relief programs set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as facilitating loans to businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program may subject us to new risks and uncertainties.
As a participant in the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) administered by the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and enacted in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Square Capital provided small businesses two-year or five-year PPP loans. Square Capital approved and funded the last remaining PPP loan applications in May 2021 upon exhaustion of the funds in the program. While the vast majority of Square Capital’s PPP loans have been forgiven or guaranteed at this point, Square Capital’s documentation, review, underwriting, and servicing processes could be subject to further scrutiny by the SBA. We also may become subject to litigation arising as a result of our participation in the PPP, which could result in significant financial liability or could adversely affect our reputation. There can be no assurance that Square Capital will be successful in mitigating all of the risks associated with the PPP loans or that this lending will not have a negative impact on our business and results of operations.
Operational Risks
We, our sellers, our partners, and others who use our services obtain and process a large amount of sensitive data. Any real or perceived improper or unauthorized use of, disclosure of, or access to such data could harm our reputation as a trusted brand, as well as have a material and adverse effect on our business.
We, our sellers, and our partners, including third-party vendors and data centers that we use, obtain and process large amounts of sensitive data, including data related to our sellers, theircustomers, our sellers’ customers, and their transactions, as well as other users of our services,
such as Square Cash and Square Payroll.transactions. We face risks, including to our reputation as a trusted brand, in the handling and protection of this data, and thesedata. These risks will increase as our business continues to expand.expand to include new products and technologies, such as AI, and as we and our third-party vendors rely on an increasingly distributed workforce. Our operations involve the storage and transmission of sensitive informationdata of individuals and businesses using our services, including their names, addresses, social securitysecurity/tax ID numbers (or their foreign equivalents), government IDs, payment card numbers and expiration dates, bank account information, loans they have applied for or obtained, and data regarding the performance of our sellers’ businesses. We also obtain sensitive information regarding our sellers’ customers, including their contact information, payment card numbers and expiration dates, and purchase histories. Additionally, certain of our products and services are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (and the rules and regulations thereunder, as amended, including with respect to the HITECH Act) (HIPAA), and therefore we are required to take measures to safeguard protected health information of our health care entity-sellers' customers when using those products and services. Our services also provide third-party developers the opportunity to provide applications to sellers in the Square and Weebly app marketplaces. Sellers who choose to use such applications can grant permission allowing the applications to access content created or held by sellers in their customers.
We have administrative, technical, and physical security measures in place,Square or Weebly account. Should our internal or third-party developers experience or cause a breach, incident, or technological bug, that could lead to a compromise of the content of data held by such sellers, including personal data, our reputation may be harmed and we may be subject to significant fines, penalties or judgments. The growing use of AI in our products and services presents additional risks. AI algorithms or automated processing of data may be flawed, and datasets may be insufficient or may use third party AI with unclear intellectual property rights or interests. Inappropriate or controversial data practices by us or others could subject us to lawsuits, regulatory investigations, legal and financial liability, or reputational harm. Additionally, our use of AI may create additional cybersecurity risks or increase cybersecurity risks, including risks of security breaches and incidents.
Our products and services operate in conjunction with, and we are dependent upon, third-party products and components across a broad ecosystem. There have policiesbeen and proceduresmay continue to be significant attacks on third-party providers, and we cannot guarantee that our or our third-party developers or vendors’ systems and networks have not been breached or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in placea breach of or disruption to contractually requireour systems and networks or the systems and networks of third parties that support us and our products and services. If there is a security vulnerability, error, or other bug in one of these third-party products or components and if there is a security exploit targeting them, we could face increased costs, claims and liability, proceedings and litigation, reduced revenue, or harm to whomour reputation or competitive position. The natural sunsetting of third-party products and operating systems that we transfer datause requires our personnel to implementreallocate time and maintain appropriateattention to migration and updates, during which period potential security measures. However,vulnerabilities could be exploited.
More generally, if our privacy, data protection, or information security measures or those of the previously mentioned third partiesthird-party developers or vendors are inadequate or are breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance, malware, phishing, hacking attacks, system error, trickery, or otherwise compromised, and, as a result, there is improper disclosure of or someone obtains unauthorized access to or exfiltrates funds, bitcoin, investments, or other assets, or other sensitive information, including personally identifiable information or protected health information,data on our systems or our partners’ systems, or if we, our third-party developers or vendors suffer a ransomware or advanced persistent threat attack, or if any of the foregoing is reported or perceived to have occurred, our reputation and business could be damaged.damaged, and we could face liability and financial losses. If the sensitive information isdata or assets are lost or improperly accessed, misused, disclosed, destroyed, or altered or threatened to be improperly accessed, misused, disclosed, destroyed, or altered, we could incur significant financial losses and costs and liability associated with remediation and the implementation of additional security measures and be subject to claims, litigation, regulatory scrutiny, and penalties, includinginvestigations. For example, in April 2022 we announced that we determined that a former employee downloaded certain reports of our subsidiary Cash App Investing in December 2021 that contained some U.S. customer information without permission after the former employee’s employment ended, as disclosed in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on April 4, 2022. We have incurred costs associatedrelated to our investigation and response to this incident, and we could incur other losses, costs, and liabilities in connection with remediation.such incident.
Under payment card rules and our contracts with our card processors and other counterparties, if there is a breach of payment card information that we store or that is stored by our sellers or other third parties with which we do business, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for certain of their cost of issuing new cardscosts and other related expenses. Additionally, if our own confidential business information were improperly disclosed, accessed, or breached, our business could be materially and adversely affected. A core aspect of our business is the reliability and security of our payments platform.platforms. Any perceived or actual breach of security or other type of security incident or any type of fraud perpetrated by bad actors such as account takeovers or fake account scams, regardless of how it occurs or the extent or nature of the breach, incident, or fraud, could have a significant impact on our reputation as a trusted brand, cause us to lose existing sellers or other customers, prevent us from obtaining new sellers and other customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and incidents and to implement measures in an effort to prevent further breaches and incidents, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability including those resulting from governmental or regulatory investigations, class action litigation, and costs associated with remediation, such as fraud monitoring.monitoring and forensics. Any actual or perceived security breach or incident at a company providing services to us or our customers on our behalf could have similar effects. Further, any actual or perceived security breach or incident with respect to the bitcoin and blockchain ledger, regardless of whether such breach or incident directly affects our products and services, could have negative reputational effects and harm customer trust in us and our products and services.
While we maintain cybersecurity insurance, our insurance may be insufficient to cover all liabilities incurred by such attacks. We cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or information security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, premiums, or deductibles could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, operating results, and reputation.
Our products and services may not function as intended due to errors in our software, hardware, and systems, product defects, or due to security breaches or incidents or human error in administering these systems, which could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our software, hardware, systems, and processes may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities that could have a material adverse effect on our business, particularly to the extent such errors or vulnerabilities are not detected and remedied quickly. We have from time to time found defects and errors in our customer-facing software and hardware, internal systems, external facing communications, manual processes, and technical integrations with third-party systems, including as a result of ordinary course updates to our software and systems, and new errors or vulnerabilities may be introduced in the future. From time to time, such errors or defects in our software, hardware, systems, or external facing communications, including as a result of human errors, have negatively impacted our customers’ experience with us and led to negative publicity and harm to our brand and reputation. In connection with any such defects or errors, we may also face government inquiries or investigations, claims and litigation, and we may incur additional costs or expenses to remediate the issues. Additionally, we rely on a limited number of component and product suppliers located outside of the U.S. to manufacture our products. As a result, our direct control over production and distribution is limited, and it is uncertain what effect such diminished control will have on the quality of our products. If there are defects in the manufacture of our hardware products, we may face similar negative publicity, investigations, and litigation, and we may not be fully compensated by our suppliers for any financial or other liability that we suffer as a result. As our hardware and software services continue to increase in size and complexity, and as we integrate new, acquired subsidiaries with different technology stacks and practices, these risks may correspondingly increase as well.
In addition, we provide frequent incremental releases of product and service updates and functional enhancements, which increase the possibility of errors. The products and services we provide are designed to process complex transactions and deliver reports and other information related to those transactions, all at high volumes and processing speeds. Any errors, data leaks, security breaches or incidents, disruptions in services, or other performance problems with our products or services caused by external or internal actors could hurt our reputation and damage our and our customers’ businesses. Software and system errors, or human errors, could delay or inhibit settlement of payments, result in oversettlement, cause reporting errors, cause pricing irregularities or prevent us from collecting transaction-based fees, or negatively impact our ability to serve our customers, all of which have occurred in the past. Similarly, security breaches or incidents, which may be caused by or result from cyber-attacks by hackers or others, computer viruses, worms, ransomware, other malicious software programs, security vulnerabilities, employee or service provider theft, misuse or negligence, phishing, identity theft or compromised credentials, denial-of-service attacks, or other causes, have from time to time impacted our business and could disrupt the proper functioning of our software products or services, cause errors, allow loss or unavailability of, unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, proprietary, confidential or otherwise sensitive data of ours or our customers, and other destructive outcomes. Moreover, security breaches or incidents or errors in our hardware or software design or manufacture could cause product safety issues typical of consumer electronics devices. Any of the foregoing issues could lead to product recalls and inventory shortages, result in costly and time-consuming efforts to redesign and redistribute our products, give rise to regulatory inquiries and investigations, and result in reimbursement obligations, lawsuits and other liabilities and losses, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Additionally, electronic payment, hardware, and software products and services, including ours, have been, and could continue to be in the future, specifically targeted and penetrated or disrupted by hackers and other malicious actors. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to data, products, and services and to disable, degrade, or sabotage them change frequently and may be difficult to detect or remediate for long periods of time, we and our customers may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures to stop them. If we or our sellers or other userscustomers are unable to anticipate or prevent these attacks, our sellers' or other customers may be harmed, our reputation could be damaged, and we could incur significant liability.
Systems failures, interruptions, delays in service, catastrophic events, and resulting interruptions in the availability of our products or services, or those of our sellers, could harm our business and our brand, and subject us to substantial liability.
Our systems and those of our third-party vendors, including data center facilities, may experience service interruptions, outages, cyber-attacks and security breaches and incidents, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, pandemics, fires, other natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks and other geopolitical unrest, computer viruses, ransomware, and other malicious software, changes in social, political, or regulatory conditions or in laws and policies, or other changes or events. Our systems and facilities are also subject to break-ins, sabotage, and acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster-recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions and other financial services, we are subject to increased scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity and disaster recovery plans and more rigorous testing of such plans. This increased scrutiny may be costly and time-consuming and may divert our resources from other business priorities.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience denial-of-service and other cyber-attacks, system failures, outages, security incidents, and other events or conditions that interrupt the availability, data integrity, or reduce the speed or functionality of our products and services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. In addition, we may incur significant expense to repair or replace damaged equipment and remedy resultant data loss or corruption. The risk of security incidents is increasing as we experience an increase in electronic payments, e-commerce, and other online activity. Additionally, due to political uncertainty and military actions associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we and our service providers are vulnerable to heightened risks of security incidents and security and privacy breaches from or affiliated with nation-state actors, including attacks that could materially disrupt our systems, operations, supply chain, products, and services. We cannot provide assurances that our preventative efforts against such incidents will be successful. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the speed or other functionality of our products or services could materially harm our reputation and business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our products and services could cause customers to believe that our products and services are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our products and services, and could permanently harm our reputation and business. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in damages to customers or contractual counterparties, these customers and contractual counterparties could seek compensation from us for their losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
A significant natural or man-made disaster could have similar effects.a material and adverse impact on our business. Certain of our offices and data center facilities are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our offices or data centers could result in lengthy interruptions in our services or could result in related liabilities. We do not maintain insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that could result from disruptions to our services.
Significant natural or other disasters, including pandemics, could also have a material and adverse impact on our sellers or other customers, which, in the aggregate, could in turn adversely affect our results of operations.
The theft, loss, or destruction of private keys required to access the bitcoin we hold on behalf of ourselves and other parties, such as our customers and our trading partners, may be irreversible, and any failure to safeguard such bitcoin could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We hold bitcoin on behalf of ourselves and other parties such as our customers and our trading partners. Bitcoin can be accessed by the possessor of the unique cryptographic keys relating to the digital wallet in which the bitcoin is held. While the bitcoin and blockchain ledger require a public key relating to a digital wallet to be published when used in a transaction, private keys must be safeguarded and kept private in order to prevent a third-party from accessing the bitcoin held in such digital wallet. To the extent any of our private keys are lost, destroyed, or otherwise compromised and no backup of such private key is accessible, we will be unable to access the bitcoin we hold on behalf of ourselves and other parties. The vast majority of bitcoin we hold for ourselves and our customers is held in offline and air-gapped cold storage. To facilitate transactions, we hold a small portion of bitcoin in a networked hot wallet. At times, we may also utilize third-party custodians to custody our bitcoin or a portion of the bitcoin held for our customers on our behalf.
Any inappropriate access or theft of bitcoin held by us or any third-party custodian, or the third-party custodian’s failure to maintain effective controls over the custody and other settlement services provided to us, could materially and adversely affect us. We cannot provide assurance that the digital wallets used to store our and other parties’ bitcoin will not be hacked or compromised. The bitcoin and blockchain ledger, as well as other cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, have been, and may in the future be, subject to security breaches or incidents, hacking, or other malicious activities. Any loss of private keys relating to, or hack or other compromise of, digital wallets used to store our customers’ bitcoin could adversely affect our customers’ ability to access or sell their bitcoin and could harm customer trust in us and our products, require us to expend significant funds for remediation, and expose us to litigation, regulatory enforcement actions, and other potential liability. Additionally, any loss of private keys relating to, or hack or other compromise of, digital wallets used by third parties to store bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies could have negative reputational effects on us and harm customer trust in us and our products. As the number of customers who transact bitcoin on Cash App has increased and the amount of bitcoin we hold on behalf of such customers has grown, the risks and consequences of such adverse events have increased and could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our risk management efforts may not be effective, which could expose us to losses and liability and otherwise harm our business.
We offer managed payments and other products and services to a large number of customers,customers. We have programs to vet and we are responsible for vetting and monitoringmonitor these customers and determining whether the transactions we process for them are legitimate.as part of our risk management efforts, but such programs require continuous improvement and may not be effective in detecting and preventing fraud and illegitimate transactions. When our products andpayments services are used to process illegitimate transactions, and we settle those funds to sellerscustomers and are unable to recover them, we suffer losses and liability. These types of illegitimate transactions can also expose us to governmental and regulatory sanctions as well as potentially prevent us from satisfying our contractual obligations to our third party partners, which may cause us to be in breach of our obligations. The highly automated nature of, and liquidity offered by, our payments services make us a target for illegal or improper uses, including fraudulent or illegal sales of goods or services, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Identity thieves and those committing fraud using stolen or fabricated credit card or bank account numbers, or other deceptive or malicious practices, potentially can steal significant amounts of money from businesses like ours. In configuring our payments services, we face an inherent trade-off between security and customer convenience. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, to enable us to mitigate the risks we have identified, or to identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. As a greater number of larger sellers use our services, our exposure to material risk losses from a single seller, or from a small number of sellers, will increase. Illegitimate transactions can also expose us to governmental and regulatory enforcement actions and potentially prevent us from satisfying our contractual obligations to our third-party partners, which may cause us to be in breach of our obligations. The highly automated nature of, and liquidity offered by, our payments and peer-to-peer services make us and our customers a target for illegal or improper uses, including scams and fraud directed at our customers, fraudulent or illegal sales of goods or services, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Identity thieves and those committing fraud using stolen or fabricated credit card, debit card, or bank account numbers, or other deceptive or malicious practices such as account takeovers, potentially can steal significant amounts of money from businesses like ours or from our customers or third parties. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, to enable us to prevent or mitigate the risks we have identified, or to identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. Our current business, the changing and uncertain economic, geopolitical and regulatory environment, and our anticipated domestic and international growth will continue to place significant demands on our risk management and compliance efforts,efforts. As our ecosystems grow and our business becomes more complex, we will need to continue developing, improving, and improvingmaking investments into our existing risk management infrastructure, techniques, and processes. In addition, when we introduce new products or services, expand existing services, including online payment acceptance and expanded methods of instantly moving money, focus on new business types,areas, including consumer financing and loans, or begin to operate in markets where we have a limited history of fraud loss, we may be less able to forecast and carry appropriate reserves inon our books for those losses. Furthermore, ifAdditionally, certain Cash App functions are available to customers between the ages of 13 through 17 with the authorization of a parent or guardian. The risks and the potential harm to our risk management policies and processes contain errorsreputation are magnified in instances of fraud or are otherwise ineffective,unauthorized or inappropriate transactions involving minors.
While we maintain a program of insurance coverage for various types of liabilities, we may suffer large financial losses,self-insure against certain business risks and expenses where we may be subject to civilbelieve we can adequately self-insure against the anticipated exposure and criminal liability, and our business may be materially and adversely affected.risk or where insurance is either not deemed cost-effective or unavailable.
We are currently, and will continue to be, exposed to risks associated with chargebacks and refunds in connection with payment card fraud or relating to the goods or services provided by our sellers. In the event that a billing dispute between a cardholder and a seller is not resolved in favor of the seller, including in situations where the seller engaged in fraud, the transaction is typically “charged back” to the seller and the purchase price is credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with our sellers that promise future delivery of goods and services. Moreover, chargebacks typically increase during economic downturns due to sellers becoming insolvent or bankrupt or otherwise unable to fulfill their commitments for goods or services. Global supply chain disruptions and shortages may also negatively affect sellers' ability to deliver goods and services on time or at all, which increases the risk of chargebacks. If we are
unable to collect chargebacks or refunds from the seller’s account, or if the seller refuses to or is unable to reimburse us for chargebacks or refunds due to closure, bankruptcy, or other reasons, we, as the merchant of record, may bear the loss for the amounts paid to the cardholder. SinceWe collect and hold reserves for a limited number of sellers whose businesses are deemed higher risk in order to help cover potential losses from chargebacks and refunds, but this practice is limited and there can be no assurances that we will be successful in mitigating such losses. Our financial results would be adversely affected to the extent sellers do not fully reimburse us for the related chargebacks and refunds. In addition, if more of our sellers, or a number of our larger sellers, become insolvent or bankrupt as a result of the global economic downturn, our potential losses from chargebacks and refunds may increase and exceed our reserves, in which case we may suffer financial losses and our business may be adversely affected. Moreover, since October 2015, businesses that cannot process EMV chip cards are held financially responsible for certain fraudulent transactions conducted using chip-enabled cards. This has shifted an increased amount of the risk for certain fraudulent transactions from the issuing banks to these sellers, which has resulted in our having to seek an increased level of reimbursement for chargebacks from our sellers that do not deploy EMV-compliant card readers. Not all of the readers we offer to merchants are EMV-compliant. Our financial results would be adversely affected to the extent sellers do not fully reimburse us for the related chargebacks. We do not collect and maintain reserves from our sellers to cover these potential losses, and for customer relations purposes we sometimes decline to seek reimbursement for certain chargebacks. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with those of our sellers that promise future delivery of goods and services, which we allow on our Square platform. If we are unable to maintain our losses from chargebacks at acceptable levels, the payment card networks could fine us, increase our transaction-based fees, or terminate our ability to process payment cards. Any increase in our transaction-based fees could damage our business, and if we were unable to accept payment cards, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from managed payments services. Our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach may not succeed and may reduce our revenue growth.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from transaction-based fees we collect in connection with managed payments services. While we intend to continue to broaden the scope of products and services we offer, we may not be successful in deriving any significant revenue from these products and services. Failure to broaden the scope of products and services that are attractive may inhibit the growth of repeat business and harm our business, as well as increase the vulnerability of our core payments business to competitors offering a full suite of products and services. Furthermore, we may have limited or no experience in our newer markets. For example, we cannot assure you that If any of our productsrisk management policies and processes, including self-insurance or services outside of managed payments services willholding seller reserves, are ineffective, we may suffer large financial losses, we may be as widely accepted or that they will continuesubject to grow in revenue. These offerings may present newcivil and difficult technological, operational,criminal liability, and other challenges, and if we experience service disruptions, failures, or other issues, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Our newer activities may not recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Our success depends on our ability to develop products and services to address the rapidly evolving market for payments and point-of-sale, financial, and marketing services, and, if we are not able to implement successful enhancements and new features for our products and services, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
We expect that new services and technologies applicable to the industries in which we operate will continue to emerge and evolve. Rapid and significant technological changes continue to confront the industries in which we operate, including developments in e-commerce, mobile commerce, and proximity payment devices (including contactless payments via NFC technology). Other potential changes are on the horizon as well, such as developments in crypto-currencies and in tokenization, which replaces sensitive data (e.g., payment card information) with symbols (tokens) to keep the data safe in the event that it ends up in the wrong hands.
These new services and technologies may be superior to, impair, or render obsolete the products and services we currently offer or the technologies we currently use to provide them. Incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures and take considerable time, and we may not be successful in realizing a return on these development efforts in a timely manner or at all. There can be no assurance that any new products or services we develop and offer to our sellers will achieve significant commercial acceptance. Our ability to develop new products and services may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, payment card networks, laws and regulations, resistance to change from buyers or sellers, or third parties’ intellectual property rights. Our success will depend on our ability to develop new technologies and to adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards. If we are unable to provide enhancements and new features for our products and services or to develop new products and services that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with rapid technological developments and evolving industry standards, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
The success of enhancements, new features, and products and services depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction, and market acceptance of the enhancements or new features, products or services. We often rely not only on our own initiatives and innovations, but also on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies. Failure to accurately predict or to respond effectively to developments in our industry may significantly impair our business.
In addition, because our products and services are designed to operate with a variety of systems, infrastructures, and devices, we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and services to keep pace with changes in mobile, software, communication, and database technologies. We may not be successful in either developing these modifications and enhancements
or in bringing them to market in a timely and cost-effective manner. Any failure of our products and services to continue to operate effectively with third-party infrastructures and technologies could reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction of our sellers or their customers, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Substantial and increasingly intense competition in our industry may harm our business.
We compete in markets characterized by vigorous competition, changing technology, changing seller and buyer needs, evolving industry standards, and frequent introductions of new products and services. We expect competition to intensify in the future as existing and new competitors introduce new services or enhance existing services. We compete against many companies to attract customers, and some of these companies have greater financial resources and substantially larger bases of customers than we do, which may provide them with significant competitive advantages. These companies may devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services, and they may offer lower prices or more effectively introduce their own innovative products and services that adversely impact our growth. Mergers and acquisitions by these companies may lead to even larger competitors with more resources. We also expect new entrants to offer competitive products and services. Certain sellers have long-standing exclusive, or nearly exclusive, relationships with our competitors to accept payment cards and other services that we offer. These relationships may make it difficult or cost-prohibitive for us to conduct material amounts of business with them. Competing services tied to established brands may engender greater confidence in the safety and efficacy of their services. If we are unable to differentiate ourselves from and successfully compete with our competitors, our business will be materially and adversely affected.
We may also face pricing pressures from competitors. Some potential competitors are able to offer lower prices to sellers for similar services by cross-subsidizing their payments services through other services they offer. Such competition may result in the need for us to alter the pricing we offer to our sellers and could reduce our gross profit. In addition, as we grow, sellers may demand more customized and favorable pricing from us, and competitive pressures may require us to agree to such pricing, further reducing our gross profit. We currently negotiate pricing discounts and other incentive arrangements with certain large sellers to increase acceptance and usage of our products and services. If we continue this practice and if an increasing proportion of our sellers are large sellers, we may have to increase the discounts or incentives we provide, which could also reduce our gross profit.
We are dependent on payment card networks and acquiring processors, and any changes to their rules or practices could harm our business.
Our business depends on our ability to accept credit and debit cards, and this ability is provided by the payment card networks, including Visa, MasterCard,Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. InFor a majority of these cases,our transactions, we do not directly access the payment card networks that enable our acceptance of payment cards. As a result, we must rely on banks and acquiring processors to process transactions on our behalf. Our acquiring processor agreements have terms ranging from two to six years. Our three largest such agreements expire between the first quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2022. These banks and acquiring processors may fail or refuse to process transactions adequately, may breach or terminate their agreements with us, or may refuse to renegotiate or renew these agreements on terms that are favorable or commercially reasonable terms.reasonable. They might also take actions that degrade the functionality of our services, impose additional costs or requirements on us, or give preferential treatment to competitive services, including their own services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing, renegotiating, or maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with these payment card networks, banks, and acquiring processors, our business may be harmed.
The payment card networks and our acquiring processors require us to comply with payment card network operating rules, including special operating rules that apply to us as a “payment service provider”facilitator” providing payment processing services to merchants. The payment card networks set these network rules and have discretion to interpret themthe rules and change them.them at any time. Changes to these network rules or how they are interpreted could have a significant impact on our business and financial results. For example, changes in the payment card network rules regarding chargebacks may affect our ability to dispute chargebacks and the amount of losses we incur from chargebacks. Any changes to or interpretations of the network rules that are inconsistent with the way we or our acquiring processors currently operate may require us to make changes to our business that could be costly or difficult to implement. If we fail to make such changes or otherwise resolve the issue with the payment card networks, the networks could fine us or prohibit us from processing payment cards. In addition, violations of the network rules or any failure to maintain good relationships with the payment card networks could impact our ability to receive incentives from them, could increase our costs, or could otherwise harm our business. If we were unable to accept payment cards or were limited in our ability to do so, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
We are required to pay interchange and assessment fees, processing fees, and assessments to the payment card networks, as well asbank settlement fees to our acquiringthird-party payment processors, to process transactions.payment networks, and financial institutions. From time to time, payment card networks have increased, and may increase in the future, the interchange fees and assessments that they charge for each transaction processed using their networks. In addition,some cases, we have negotiated favorable pricing with acquiring processors and networks that are contingent on certain business commitments and other conditions. If we fail to meet such conditions, the fees we are charged will rise, and we may be required to pay back some or all of the favorable pricing benefits. Moreover, our acquiring processors and payment card networks may refuse to renew our agreements with them on terms that are favorable, commercially reasonable, terms or at all. Interchange fees or assessments are also subject to change from time to time due to government regulation. Because we
generally charge our sellers a flat rate for our managed payments services, rather than passing through interchange fees and assessments to our sellers directly, anyAny increase or decrease in interchange fees or assessments or in the fees we pay to our acquiringthird-party payment processors, payment networks, or financial institutions could increase our costs, make our pricing look less competitive, lead us to change our pricing model, or adversely affect our margins.margins, all of which could materially harm our business and financial results.
We could be, and in the past have been, subject to penalties from payment card networks if we fail to detect that sellers are engaging in activities that are illegal, contrary to the payment card network operating rules, or considered “high risk.” We must either prevent high-risk sellersindividuals from using our products and services or register such sellershigh-risk individuals with the payment card networks and conduct additional monitoring with respect to such sellers. Although the amount of thesehigh-risk individuals. Any such penalties has not been material to date, any additional penalties in the future could become material and could result in termination of our ability to accept payment cards or could require changes in our process for registering new sellers.sellers and customers. This could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our quarterly results of operationsWe rely on third parties and operating metrics fluctuate significantly and are unpredictable and subject to seasonality, which could result in the trading price of our Class A common stock being unpredictable or declining.
Our quarterly results of operations may fluctuate significantly and are not necessarily an indication of future performance. These fluctuations may be due totheir systems for a variety of factors, someservices, including the processing of which are outsidetransaction data and settlement of funds to us and our controlcustomers, and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Our limited operating history combined with the rapidly evolving markets in which we operate also contributesthese third parties’ failure to perform these fluctuations. Fluctuations in quarterly results mayservices adequately could materially and adversely affect our business.
To provide our products and services, we rely on third parties that we do not control, such as the predictabilitypayment card networks, our acquiring and issuing processors, the payment card issuers, a carrying broker, bank partners, various financial institution partners, systems like the Federal Reserve Automated Clearing House, and other partners. We rely on these third parties for a variety of services, including the transmission of transaction data, processing of chargebacks and refunds, settlement of funds to our sellers, certain brokerage services, storing customer funds, authorizing payment transactions under our various card programs, originating loans to customers, provide liquidity for Cash App’s feature that permits our customers to buy and sell bitcoin, and the provision of information and other elements of our business andservices. For example, we rely on a limited number of acquiring processors in some of the pricejurisdictions in which we offer our services. We are in the process of transitioning one of our Class A common stock.
Factorsacquiring processors, and we frequently review and assess third-party partners that provide services. Adding or transitioning to new acquiring or issuing processors or other third-party providers may cause fluctuationssignificantly disrupt our business or increase our costs. We have also in our quarterly financial results includethe past experienced outages with third parties we have worked with, which have affected our ability to attract and retain new customers; the timing, effectiveness, and costs of expansion and upgrades of our systems and infrastructure, as well as the success of those expansions and upgrades; the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims; our ability to maintain or increase revenue, gross margins, and operating margins; our ability to continue introducing newprovide services and process payments, including for cards issued under our own brands. In the event these third parties fail to continue convincing customersprovide these services adequately, including as a result of financial difficulty or insolvency, errors in their systems, outages or events beyond their control, or refuse to adopt additional offerings; increases inprovide these services or renew our agreements with them on terms acceptable to us or at all, and timing of expenses that we are not able to find suitable alternatives, our business may incur to growbe materially and expand our operations and to remain competitive; period-to-period volatility related to fraud and risk losses; system failures resulting in the inaccessibility of our products and services; changes in the regulatory environment, including with respect to security, privacy, or enforcement of laws and regulations by regulators, including fines, orders, or consent decrees; changes in global business or macroeconomic conditions; unusual weather conditions or natural disasters; general retail buying patterns; and the other risks described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.adversely affected.
We depend on key management, as well as our experienced and capable employees, and any failure to attract, motivate, and retain our employees could harm our ability to maintain and grow our business.
Our future success is significantly dependent upon the continued service of our executives and other key employees. If we lose the services of any member of management or any key personnel, we may not be able to locate a suitable or qualified replacement, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and train a replacement, which could severely disrupt our business and growth. Jack Dorsey, our co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Inc. This may at times adversely affect his ability to devote time, attention, and effort to Square.
To maintain and grow our business, we will need to identify, attract, hire, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled employees. Identifying, recruiting, training, integrating, and retaining qualified individualsThis requires significant time, expense, and attention. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our management team, including any new hires that we make, fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be harmed. Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area where our headquarters are located.intense. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. Historically, equity awards have been a key component of our employee compensation, and as a result, any decline in the price of our Class A common stock (directly or relative to the stock price of other companies with which we compete for talent) may adversely impact our ability to retain employees or to attract new employees. Additionally, potential changes in U.S. immigration policy may make it difficult to renew or obtain visas for any highly skilled personnel that we have hired or are actively recruiting. Negative sentiments towards the United States as a result of these potential changes may also adversely affect our international recruiting efforts. Furthermore, our international expansion and our business in general may be materially adversely affected if legislative or administrative changes to immigration or visa laws and regulations impair our hiring processes or projects involving personnel who are not citizens of the country where the work is to be performed. If we are not able to add and retain employees effectively, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely affected, and our business and growth prospects will be harmed.
If we do not continue to improve our operational, financial, and other internal controls and systems to manage growth effectively, our business could be harmed.
Our current business and anticipated growth, as well as our entry into new lines of business and our acquisitions, will continue to place significant demands on our management and other resources. In order to manage our growth effectively, we must continue to strengthen our existing infrastructure and operational procedures, enhance our internal controls and reporting systems, and ensure we timely and accurately address issues as they arise. In particular, our continued growth will increase the challenges involved in:
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| improving and implementing existing and developing new internal administrative infrastructure, particularly our operational, financial, communications and other internal systems and procedures; |
•improving existing and developing new internal administrative infrastructure, particularly our operational, financial, communications, and other internal systems and procedures; |
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| installing enhanced management information and control system; and |
•successfully expanding and implementing internal controls as they relate to our new lines of business and any acquired businesses; |
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| preserving our core values, strategies, and goals and effectively communicating these to our employees worldwide. |
•identifying and mitigating new and developing risks;
•installing enhanced management information and control systems; and
•preserving our core values, strategies, and goals and effectively communicating these to our employees worldwide.
These challenges have increased as we shift to a more distributed workforce. If we are not successful in developing and implementing the right processes and tools to manage our enterprise, our ability to compete successfully and achieve our business objectives could be impaired.
These efforts may require substantial financial expenditures, commitments of resources, developments of our processes, and other investments and innovations. As we grow and our business model evolves, we may not be ablemust balance the need for additional controls and systems with the ability to efficiently develop and launch new features for our products and servicesservices. However, it is likely that as we grow, we will not be able to launch new features, or respond to customer or market demands as quickly as a smaller, more efficient organization. If we do not successfully manage our growth, our business will suffer.
A deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions could materially and adversely affect
The metrics we use to measure our business and financial results.
Our performance is subject to economic conditions and their impactare calculated using internal company data based on levels of spending by businessesthe activity we measure on our platforms and their customers. Most of the sellers that use our services are small businesses, many of which are in the early stages of their development, and these businesses may be disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturnscompiled from multiple systems, including systems that are organically developed or acquired through business combinations. There are inherent challenges and limitations in measuring our business globally at scale, and the methodologies used to calculate our metrics inherently require certain assumptions and judgments. For example, we currently identify a Cash App transacting active as a Cash App account that has at least one financial transaction using any product or service within Cash App during a specified period although certain of these accounts may fail at a higher rate than largershare an alias identifier with one or more established businesses. If spending by their customers declines,other transacting active accounts (for example, families sharing one alias identifier or one customer with multiple accounts). Examples of transactions include sending or receiving a peer-to-peer payment, transferring money into or out of Cash App, making a purchase using Cash App Card, earning a dividend on a stock investment, paying back a loan, among others. We regularly review our processes for calculating these businesses would experience reduced salesmetrics, and process fewer payments with us or, if they cease to operate, stop using our products and services altogether. Small businesses frequently have limited budgets and limited access to capital, and they may choose to allocate their spending to items other than our financial or marketing services, especially in times of economic uncertainty or in recessions. In addition, if more of our sellers cease to operate, this may have an adverse impact not only on the growth of our payments services but also on our transaction and advance loss rates, and the success of our other services. For example, if sellers processing payments with us receive chargebacks after they cease to operate, we may incur additional losses. Additionally, the growth in the number of sellers qualifying for participation in the Square Capital program may slow, or business loans may be paid more slowly, or not at all. Further, our suppliers, distributors and other third party partners may suffer their own financial and economic challenges. Such suppliers and third parties may demand pricing accommodations, delay payment or become insolvent, which could harm our ability to meet end customer demands, collect revenue, or otherwise harm our business. Furthermore, our investment portfolio, which includes U.S. government and corporate securities, is subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks, which may be exacerbated by certain events that affect the global financial markets. If global credit and equity markets decline for extended periods, or if there is a downgrade of the securities within our portfolio, the investment portfolio may be adversely affected and we could determine that our investments have experienced an other-than-temporary decline in fair value, requiring impairment charges that could adversely affect our financial results. Thus, if general macroeconomic conditions deteriorate, our business and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.
We are also monitoring developments related to the decision by the U.K. government to leave the European Union (EU) following a referendum in June 2016 in which voters in the United Kingdom approved an exit from the EU (often referred to as "Brexit"), which could have significant implications for our business. In March 2017, the United Kingdom began the official process to leave the EU by April 2019. Brexit could lead to economic and legal uncertainty, including significant volatility in global stock markets and currency exchange rates, and increasingly divergent laws, regulations and licensing requirements for the Company as the United Kingdom determines which EU laws to replace or replicate. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could adversely affect our operations and financial results.
If we are unable to maintain, promote, and grow our brand through effective marketing and communications strategies, our brand and business may be harmed.
We believe that maintaining and promoting our brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services and to expanding our base of customers. Maintaining and promoting our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, and innovative products and services, which we may not do successfully. We may introduce, or make changes to, features, products, services, or terms of service that customers do not like,
which may materially and adversely affect our brand. Our brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
The introduction and promotion of new services, as well as the promotion of existing services, may be partly dependent on our visibility on third-party advertising platforms, such as Google, Twitter, or Facebook. Changes in the way these platforms operate or changes in their advertising prices or other terms could make the maintenance and promotion of our products and services and our brand more expensive or more difficult. If we are unable to market and promote our brand on third-party platforms effectively, our ability to acquire new sellers would be materially harmed.
We have received a significant amount of media coverage since our formation. We have also been from time to time in the past, andwe may in the future be, the target of incomplete, inaccurate, and misleadingmake adjustments to improve their accuracy or false statements about our company,relevance. Further, as our business and our products and servicesdevelops, we may revise or cease reporting metrics if we determine that could damage our brand and deter people and enterprises from adopting our services. Negative publicity about our company or our management, including about our product quality and reliability, changes to our products and services, privacy and security practices, litigation, regulatory enforcement, and other actions, as well as the actionssuch metrics are no longer appropriate measures of our performance. If investors, customers andor other users ofstakeholders do not believe our services, even if inaccurate, could cause a loss of confidence in us. Our ability to respond to negative statements about usreporting metrics accurately reflect our business or they disagree with our methodologies, our reputation may be limited by legal prohibitions on permissible public communications by us during future periods.
Expanding our business globally could subject us to new challengesharmed and risks.
We currently offer our services and products in multiple countries and plan to continue expanding our business further globally. Additional expansion, whether in our existing or new global markets, will require additional resources and controls, and offering our services in new geographic regions often requires substantial expenditures and takes considerable time, and we may not be successful enough in these new geographies to recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. Such expansion could also subject our business to substantial risks, including:
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| difficulty in attracting a sufficient number of sellers; |
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| failure to anticipate competitive conditions; |
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| conformity with applicable business customs, including translation into foreign languages and associated expenses; |
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| increased costs and difficulty in protecting intellectual property and sensitive data; |
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| changes to the way we do business as compared with our current operations or a lack of acceptance of our products and services; |
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| the ability to support and integrate with local third-party service providers; |
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| competition with service providers or other entrenched market-players that have greater experience in the local markets than we do; |
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| difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations in an environment of diverse culture, laws and customs, challenges caused by distance, language, and cultural differences, and the increased travel, infrastructure and legal and compliance costs associated with global operations; |
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| difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified employees and maintaining our company culture; |
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| difficulty in gaining acceptance from industry self-regulatory bodies; |
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| compliance with multiple, potentially conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including with respect to data privacy and security; |
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| compliance with U.S. and foreign anti-bribery laws; |
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| potential tariffs, sanctions, or other trade barriers including fines; |
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| compliance with potentially conflicting and changing laws of taxing jurisdictions where we conduct business and applicable U.S. tax laws, the complexity and adverse consequences of such tax laws and potentially adverse tax consequences due to changes in such tax laws; and |
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| regional economic and political instability. |
As a result of these risks, our efforts to expand our global operations may not be successful, which could limit our ability to grow our business.
We rely on third parties and their systems for a variety of services, including the processing of transaction data and settlement of funds to us and our sellers, and these third parties’ failure to perform these services adequately could materially and adversely affect our business.
To provide our managed payments solution and other products and services, we rely on third parties that we do not control, such as the payment card networks, our acquiring processors, the payment card issuers, various financial institution partners (including those for Square Capital and Square Cash), systems like the Federal Reserve Automated Clearing House, and other partners. We rely on these third parties for a variety of services, including the transmission of transaction data, processing of chargebacks and refunds, settlement of funds to our sellers, and the provision of information and other elements of our services. For example, we currently rely on three acquiring processors in the United States, Canada and Japan and two for each of Australia and the United Kingdom. While we believe there are other acquiring processors that could meet our needs, adding or transitioning to new providers may significantly disrupt our business and increase our costs. In the event these third parties fail to provide these services adequately, including as a result of financial difficulty or insolvency, errors in their systems or events beyond their control, or refuse to provide these services on terms acceptable to us or at all, and we are not able to find suitable alternatives, our business may be materially and adversely affected.impacted.
In addition, we use third-party technology and systems for a variety of our day-to-day business operations. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to prevent data loss and other security breaches, including systems and processes designed to reduce the impact of a security breach at a third-party vendor, such measures cannot provide absolute security.
Our services must integrate with a variety of operating systems, and the hardware that enables merchants to accept payment cards must interoperate with third-party mobile devices utilizing those operating systems. If we are unable to ensure that our services or hardware interoperate with such operating systems and devices, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We are dependent on the ability of our products and services to integrate with a variety of operating systems, as well as web browsers that we do not control. Any changes in these systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services, impose additional costs or requirements on us, or give preferential treatment to competitive services, including their own services, could materially and adversely affect usage of our products and services. In addition, we rely on app marketplaces, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play, to drive downloads of our mobile app. Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly make changes to their marketplaces, and those changes may make access to our products and services more difficult. In the event that it is difficult for our sellers to access and use our products and services, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly provide software updates, and such software updates may not operate effectively with our products and services, which may reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction by our sellers or their customers, and may materially and adversely affect our business.
In addition, our hardware interoperates with mobile devices developed by third parties. For example, the current version of our magstripe reader plugs into the audio jack of most smartphones and tablets. In September 2016, Apple introduced the iPhone 7, which does not have an audio jack, and instead Apple provided an adapter that can be inserted into a connectivity port. This change and other potential changes in the design of future mobile devices may limit the interoperability of our hardware and software with such devices and require modifications to our hardware or software. If we are unable to ensure that our hardware and software continue to interoperate effectively with such devices, if doing so is costly, or if existing merchants decide not to utilize additional parts necessary for interoperability, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Many of our key components are procured from a single or limited number of suppliers. Thus, we are at risk of shortage, price increases, tariffs, changes, delay, or discontinuation of key components, which could disrupt and materially and adversely affect our business.
Many of the key components used to manufacture our products, such as the custom parts of our magstripe reader, including its magnetic stripe-reading element, its plastic cover, and its application-specific integrated circuits, come from limited or single sources of supply, as do the plastic cover, connector, and security cage of our contactless and chip reader.supply. In addition, in some cases, we rely only on one manufacturer to fabricate, test, and assemble our products. For example, a single manufacturer assembles our magstripe reader and our contactless and chip reader, as well as manufactures those products’ plastic parts with custom tools that we own but that they maintainthe manufacturer maintains on theirits premises. The term of the agreement with that manufacturer automatically renews for consecutive one-year periods unless either party provides notice of non-renewal. In general, our contract manufacturers fabricate or procure components on our behalf, subject to certain approved procedures or supplier lists, and we do not have firm commitments from all of these manufacturers to provide all components, or to provide them in quantities and on timelines that we may require. For example, pursuant to a development and supply agreement, a component supplier provides design, development, customization, and related services for components of the magnetic stripe-reading element in some of our products. The term of the agreement renews for successive two-year termsconsecutive one-year periods unless either party provides notice of non-renewal. Similarly, a component provider develops certain application-specific integrated circuits for our products pursuant to our designs and specifications. The term of our agreement with this provider renews for consecutive one-year periodssuccessive two-year terms unless either party provides notice of non-renewal.
Due to our reliance on the components or products produced by suppliers such as these, we are subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times or other disruptions in the supply of certain components or products. We are still in the process of identifyingOur ongoing efforts to identify alternative manufacturers for the assembly of our products and for mostmany of the single-sourced components used in our products.products may not be successful. In the case of off-the-shelf components, we are subject to the risk that our suppliers may discontinue or modify them, or that the components may cease to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, component shortages or delays or other problems in product assembly, and the availability of these components or products may be difficult to predict. For example, our manufacturers may experience temporary or permanent disruptions in their manufacturing operations due to equipment breakdowns, labor strikes or shortages, natural disasters, the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness, component or material shortages, cost increases, acquisitions, insolvency, bankruptcy, business shutdowns, trade restrictions, changes in legal or regulatory requirements, or other similar problems.
Additionally, various sources of supply-chain risk, including strikes or shutdowns at delivery ports or loss of or damage to our products while they are in transit or storage, intellectual property theft, losses due to tampering, third-party vendor issues with quality or sourcing control, failure by our suppliers to comply with applicable laws and regulation, potential tariffs or other trade restrictions, or other similar problems could limit or delay the supply of our products or harm our reputation. In the event of a shortage or supply interruption from suppliers of these components, we may not be able to develop alternate sources quickly, cost-effectively, or at all. Any interruption or delay in manufacturing, component supply, any increases in component costs, or the inability to obtain these parts or components from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable amount of time, would harm our ability to provide our products to sellers on a timely basis.basis or impact our cost of goods sold. This could harm our relationships with our sellers, prevent us from acquiring new sellers, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Some of our hardware devices manufactured in China are subject to 25% tariffs when imported to the United States, while some other hardware devices are subject to tariffs at 7.5%. These tariffs negatively affect the gross margin on the impacted products, which only partially has been offset by adjustments to the prices of some of the affected products. Any future tariffs and actions related to items imported from China or elsewhere could also negatively impact our gross margin on the impacted products, and increases in our pricing as a result of tariffs would reduce the competitiveness of our products if our competitors do not make similar pricing adjustments. The impact of any increased or new tariffs or other trade restrictions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of future operations.
Our business could be harmed if we are unable to accurately forecast demand for our products and to adequately manage our product inventory.
We invest broadly in our business, and such investments are partially driven by our expectations of the future success of a product. For example, our products such as the Square Reader often require investments with long lead times. An inability to correctly forecast the success of a particular product could harm our business. We must forecast inventory needs and expenses and place orders sufficiently in advance with our third-party suppliers and contract manufacturers based on our estimates of future demand for particular products. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products could be affected by many factors, including an increase or decrease in demand for our products or for our competitors’ products, unanticipatedand changes in general market conditions, and the change inor economic conditions.
If we underestimate demand for a particular product, our contract manufacturers and suppliers may not be able to deliver sufficient quantities of that product to meet our requirements, and we may experience a shortage of that product available for sale or distribution. The shortage of a popular product could materially and adversely affect our brand, our seller relationships, and the acquisition of additional sellers. If we overestimate demand for a particular product, we may experience excess inventory levels for that product and the excess inventory may become obsolete or out-of-date. Inventory levels in excess of demandExcess inventory may also result in inventory write-downs or write-offs and the sale of excess inventorysales at further discounted prices, which could negatively impact our gross profit and our business.
Our services must integrate with a variety of operating systems, and the hardware that enables merchants to accept payment cards must interoperate with third-party mobile devices utilizing those operating systems. If we are unable to ensure that our services or hardware interoperate with such operating systems and devices, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We are dependent on the ability of our products and services to integrate with a variety of operating systems, as well as web browsers, that we do not control. Any changes in these systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services, impose additional costs or requirements on us, or give preferential treatment to competitive services, including their own services, could materially and adversely affect usage of our products and services. In addition, we rely on app marketplaces, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play, to drive downloads of our mobile apps. Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly make changes to their marketplaces, and those changes may make access to our products and services more difficult. In the event that it is difficult for our customers to access and use our products and services, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly provide software updates, and such software updates may not function as intended dueoperate effectively with our products and services, which may reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction by our customers, and may materially and adversely affect our business.
In addition, Square hardware interoperates with wired and wireless interfaces to errorsmobile devices developed by third parties. For example, the current versions of Square’s magstripe reader plug into an audio jack or a Lightning connector. The use of these connection types could change, and such changes and other potential changes in the design of future mobile devices could limit the interoperability of our software, hardware and systems, product defects,software with such devices and require modifications to our hardware or duesoftware. If we are unable to security breachesensure that our hardware and software continue to interoperate effectively with such devices, if doing so is costly, or human errorif existing merchants decide not to utilize additional parts necessary for interoperability, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Our TIDAL business depends upon maintaining complex licenses with copyright owners, and it is difficult to estimate the amount payable under our license agreements.
Under TIDAL’s license agreements and relevant statutes, we must pay all required royalties to record labels, music publishers, and other copyright owners in administering these systems,order to stream, distribute, and display content. The determination of the amount and timing of such royalty payments is complex and subject to a number of variables, including the type of content accessed, the country in which it is accessed, the service tier such content is streamed on, the identity of the license holder to whom royalties are owed, the current size of our subscriber base, the applicability of any most favored nations provisions, and any applicable fees, waivers, and discounts, among other variables. We may underpay/under-accrue or overpay/over-accrue the royalty amounts payable to record labels, music publishers, and other copyright owners. Failure to accurately pay our royalties may damage our business relationships, our reputation, and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Economic, Financial, and Tax Risks
A deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions could materially and adversely affect our business.business and financial results.
Our software, hardware,performance is subject to economic conditions and systemstheir impact on levels of spending by businesses and individuals. Most of the sellers that use our services are small businesses, many of which are in the early stages of their development, and these businesses are often disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturns and may fail at a higher rate than larger or more established businesses. In particular, inflation and economic uncertainty have impacted and may continue to impact consumer spending in general and at these businesses specifically. Small businesses frequently have limited budgets and limited access to capital, and they may choose to allocate their spending to items other than our financial or marketing services, especially in times of economic uncertainty or in recessions. In addition, if our sellers cease to operate, this may have an adverse impact not only on the growth of our payments services but also on our transaction and advance loss rates, and the success of our other services. For example, if sellers processing payments with Square receive chargebacks after they cease to operate, we may incur additional losses. We serve sellers across a variety of industry verticals and in an economic downtown, certain verticals, particularly those that may be viewed as discretionary by consumers, may be impacted to a greater degree than others, which may harm our business and financial results.
We may experience material and adverse impacts to our business as a result of the uncertainty and volatility in the banking and financial services sectors, deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, including inflation and interest rate increases, availability of credit, bankruptcies or insolvencies of customers, and recession or economic downturn. As a result of economic conditions, the growth in the number of Square sellers qualifying for participation in the Square Loans program may slow, or business loans may be paid more slowly, or not at all. In addition, as we expand our business to offer BNPL products and consumer loan products, such as Cash App Borrow, those customers may also be disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturns, which could negatively impact demand for these offerings or cause loss rates on such products to increase.
Further, our suppliers, distributors, and other third-party partners may suffer their own financial and economic challenges. Such suppliers and third parties may demand pricing accommodations, delay payment, or become insolvent, which could harm our ability to meet end customer demands or collect revenue or otherwise could harm our business. Furthermore, our investment portfolio, which includes U.S. government and corporate securities, is subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks, which may be exacerbated by certain events that affect the global financial markets. If global credit and equity markets decline for extended periods, or if there is a downgrade of the securities within our portfolio, our investment portfolio may be adversely affected and we could determine that our investments have experienced an other-than-temporary decline in fair value, requiring impairment charges that could adversely affect our financial results. In addition, from time to time we have reduced expenses and needed to restructure or reorganize certain portions of our operations in order to align our business with market conditions and our strategies, any of which can result in near term expense and harm to our growth prospects. Thus, if general macroeconomic conditions deteriorate, our business and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.
We are currently subletting some of our office space. An economic downturn or our work-from-home practices have caused and may in the future cause us to need less office space than we are contractually committed to leasing. We have, and may continue to, incur losses or recognize impairment charges in connection with any unused office space if we are unable to successfully sublease any unused office space, or if we are unable to successfully terminate any of our leasing commitments.
We may not be able to secure financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs, and our existing credit facility and our senior notes contain, and any future debt financing may contain, undetected errorscovenants that impact the operation of our business and pursuit of business opportunities.
We have funded our operations since inception primarily through debt and equity financings, bank credit facilities, finance lease arrangements, and cash from operations. While we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, marketable debt securities, and availability under our line of credit are sufficient to meet our working capital needs and planned capital expenditures, and service our debt, there is no guarantee that this will continue to be true in the future. In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, refinancing needs, business and financial challenges, regulatory surety bond requirements, acquisitions, or unforeseen circumstances and may decide to engage in equity, equity-linked, or debt financings or enter into additional credit facilities for other reasons. We may not be able to secure any such additional financing or refinancing on favorable terms, in a timely manner, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
Following our acquisition of Afterpay, we assumed Afterpay’s financing arrangements with financial institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom (collectively, the “Warehouse Facilities”). We use the Warehouse Facilities to partly fund our BNPL platform. The terms of the Warehouse Facilities contain covenants that may be triggered in certain situations (such as non-repayments on consumer borrowings exceeding certain monetary thresholds or key management resigning), which may negatively impact our ability to obtain additional funding under the Warehouse Facilities. If certain events of default occur under the Warehouse Facilities, we may not be able to draw future funding from those Warehouse Facilities or the debt outstanding under the Warehouse Facilities may be accelerated and our business and financial results could be adversely impacted.
Our credit facility contains affirmative and negative covenants, including customary limitations on the incurrence of certain indebtedness and liens, restrictions on certain intercompany transactions, and limitations on dividends and stock repurchases. The indentures pursuant to which our 2026 Senior Notes and 2031 Senior Notes (collectively, the “Senior Notes”) were issued contain covenants that restrict or could restrict, among other things, our business and operations. Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could also involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to operate our business, obtain additional capital, and pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and breaches of these covenants could result in a default under our existing credit facility or our senior notes and any future financing agreements into which we may enter. If not waived, these defaults could cause indebtedness outstanding under our credit facility, our Senior Notes, our other outstanding indebtedness, including our 2025 Convertible Notes, 2026 Convertible Notes, and 2027 Convertible Notes (collectively, the “Convertible Notes,” and together with the Senior Notes, the “Notes”), and any future financing agreements that we may enter into to become immediately due and payable.
If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or other securities convertible into equity, including convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any such securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock.
Changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could negatively affect the value of both our debt and equity securities and increase our borrowing costs. If our credit ratings are downgraded or other negative action is taken, our ability to obtain additional financing in the future on favorable terms or at all could be adversely affected.
Servicing our Notes may require a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash or the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the Convertible Notes in cash, repay the Notes at maturity, or repurchase the Notes as required following a fundamental change.
As of September 30, 2023, we had $1.0 billion outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2025 Convertible Notes, $575.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2026 Convertible Notes, $575.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2027 Convertible Notes, $1.0 billion outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2026 Senior Notes, and $1.0 billion outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2031 Senior Notes.
Prior to December 1, 2024, in the case of the 2025 Convertible Notes; February 1, 2026, in the case of the 2026 Convertible Notes; and August 1, 2027, in the case of the 2027 Convertible Notes; the applicable Convertible Notes are convertible at the option of the holders only under certain conditions or upon occurrence of certain events. If holders of the Convertible Notes of a series elect to convert such Convertible Notes when eligible, we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Convertible Notes being converted unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion. We currently expect to settle future conversions of our Convertible Notes solely in shares of our Class A common stock, which has the effect of including the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of the Convertible Notes of such series in our diluted earnings per share to the extent such shares are not anti-dilutive. We will reevaluate this policy from time to time as conversion notices are received from holders of the Convertible Notes.
In addition, holders of each series of Notes also have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes of such series upon the occurrence of a fundamental change (as defined in the applicable indenture governing the Notes) at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Convertible Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, or at a repurchase price equal to 101% of the principal amount of the Senior Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, as applicable. If the Notes of any series have not previously been converted or repurchased, we will be required to repay such Notes in cash at maturity.
Our ability to make required cash payments in connection with conversions of the Convertible Notes, repurchase the Notes in the event of a fundamental change, or to repay or refinance the Notes at maturity will depend on market conditions and our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive, and other factors beyond our control. We also may not use the cash proceeds we raised through the issuance of the Notes in an optimally productive and profitable manner. Since inception, our business has generated net losses in most quarters, and we may continue to incur significant losses. As a result, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to repurchase or repay the Notes or pay cash with respect to the Convertible Notes being converted.
In addition, our ability to repurchase or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes may be limited by law or regulatory authority. Our failure to repurchase Notes following a fundamental change or to pay cash upon conversion of our Convertible Notes (unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion) or at maturity of the Notes as required by the applicable indenture would constitute a default under such indenture. A default under the applicable indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under our credit facility, our other outstanding indebtedness, or agreements governing our future indebtedness and could have a material adverse effect on our business, particularlyresults of operations, and financial condition. If the payment of our other outstanding indebtedness or future indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay such indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or to pay cash upon conversion of the Convertible Notes or at maturity of the Notes.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the extentconvertible note hedge transactions.
In connection with the issuance of each series of our Convertible Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions with certain financial institutions, which we refer to as the "option counterparties." The option counterparties are financial institutions or affiliates of financial institutions, and we will be subject to the risk that one or more of such errors areoption counterparties may default under the convertible note hedge transactions. Our exposure to the credit risk of the option counterparties will not detected and remedied quickly. We have frombe secured by any collateral. If any option counterparty becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time to time found defectsunder the convertible note hedge transaction. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, the increase in our customer-facing softwareexposure will be correlated to the increase in our Class A common stock market price and hardware, internal systems,in the volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, upon a default by any option counterparty, we may suffer adverse tax consequences and technical integrationsdilution with third-party systems,respect to our Class A common stock. We can provide no assurance as to the financial stability or viability of any option counterparty.
Our investments in bitcoin are subject to volatile market prices, impairment, and new errorsother risks of loss.
As of September 30, 2023, we have made cumulative investments in bitcoin of $220.0 million. We may be introducedmake additional bitcoin purchases in the future. We relyThe price of bitcoin has been highly volatile and may continue to be volatile in the future, including as a result of various associated risks and uncertainties. The prevalence of bitcoin is a relatively recent trend, and the long-term adoption of bitcoin by investors, consumers, and businesses remains uncertain. Bitcoin’s lack of a physical form, its reliance on a limited numbertechnology for its creation, existence, and transactional validation, and its decentralization may subject its integrity to the threat of componentmalicious attacks and product suppliers located outsidetechnological obsolescence. To the extent the market value of the U.S.bitcoin we hold continues to manufacturedecrease relative to the purchase prices, our products. Asfinancial condition may be adversely impacted.
Moreover, bitcoin currently is considered an indefinite-lived intangible asset under current applicable accounting rules, meaning that any decrease in its market value below our book value for such asset at any time subsequent to its acquisition will require us to recognize impairment charges, whereas we may make no upward revisions for any market price increases until a result,sale, which may adversely affect our direct control over production and distribution is limited and it is uncertain what effectoperating results in any period in which such diminished control willimpairment occurs. We have on the quality of our products.recorded several such impairment charges. If there are defectsfuture changes in applicable accounting rules that require us to change the manufacture ofmanner in which we account for our hardware products, we may face negative publicity, government investigations, and litigation, and we may notbitcoin, there could be fully compensated by our suppliers for any financial or other liability that we suffer as a result.
In addition, we provide frequent incremental releases of product and service updates and functional enhancements, which increase the possibility of errors. The electronic payments products and services we provide are designed to process complex transactions and deliver reports and other information related to those transactions, all at high volumes and processing speeds. Since customers use our services for important aspects of their businesses, any errors, defects, third-party security breaches such as cyber-attacks or identify theft, malfeasance, disruptions in services, or other performance problems with our services could hurt our reputation and damage our customers’ businesses. Software and system errors, or human error, could delay or inhibit settlement of payments, result in oversettlement, cause reporting errors, or prevent us from collecting transaction-based fees, all of which have occurred in the past. Similarly, third-party security breaches such as cyber-attacks or identity theft could disrupt the proper functioning of our software products or services, cause errors, allow unauthorized access to sensitive, proprietary or confidential information of ours or our sellers, and other destructive outcomes. Moreover, third-party security breaches or errors in our hardware design or manufacture could cause product safety issues typical of consumer electronics devices. Such issues could lead to product recalls and inventory shortages, result in costly and time-consuming efforts to redesign and redistribute our products, give rise to regulatory inquiries and investigations, and result in lawsuits and other liabilities and losses, which could have a material and adverse effect on our financial results and the market price of our Class A common stock.
We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
Following our acquisition of Afterpay, our international operations account for a more significant portion of our overall operations and our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates has increased significantly, which could have a negative impact on our reported results of operations. From time to time, we may enter into forward contracts, options, and/or foreign exchange swaps related to foreign currency exposures that arise in the normal course of our business. These and other such hedging activities may not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
We may have exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities, which may materially and adversely affect our business.
Additionally, electronic payment productsWe are subject to income taxes and services, including ours, have beennon-income taxes in the United States and other countries in which we transact or conduct business, and such laws and rates vary by jurisdiction. We are subject to review and audit by U.S. federal, state, local, and foreign tax authorities. Such tax authorities may disagree with tax positions we take, and if any such tax authority were to successfully challenge any such position, our financial results and operations could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, we currently are, and expect to continue to be, subject to numerous federal, state, local and foreign tax audits relating to transfer pricing, income, sales and use, gross receipts, franchise, value-added (“VAT”), and other tax liabilities. While we have established reserves based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonably sufficient to cover such eventualities, any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have an adverse impact on our financial position and results of operations if the reserves prove to be insufficient.
Our tax liability could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, rates, regulations, and administrative practices. For example, various levels of government and international organizations, such as in the United States, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”), and the European Union (“EU”), have increasingly focused on tax reform and any result from this development may create changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our effective tax rate. On October 8, 2021, the OECD announced an international agreement with more than 130 countries to implement a new global minimum effective corporate tax rate of 15% for large multinational companies starting in 2023. Additionally, under the agreement, new rules have been introduced that will result in the reallocation of certain profits from large multinational companies to market jurisdictions where customers and users are located. On December 12, 2022, the EU Council unanimously agreed to implement the 15% global minimum tax rate, which EU member countries are required to adopt into their respective tax codes by the end of 2023. Although certain implementation details have yet to be developed and the enactment of these changes has not yet taken effect, these changes may have adverse tax consequences for us.
On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) was enacted in the United States, which introduced, among provisions, a new minimum corporate income tax on certain large corporations, an excise tax of 1% on certain share repurchases by corporations, and increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Although we do not anticipate the new corporate minimum income tax will currently apply to us, changes in our business and any future regulations or other guidance on the interpretation and application of the new corporate minimum tax may result in additional taxes payable by us, which could materially and adversely affect our financial results and operations.
Our income tax obligations are based on our corporate operating structure, including the manner in which we develop, value, and use our intellectual property and the scope of our international operations. The tax authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements. Additionally, tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate tax treatment of companies engaged in internet commerce and financial technology and attempting to broaden the classification and definitions of activities subject to taxation. For example, various states may attempt to broaden the definition of internet hosting, data processing, telecommunications, and other services to capture additional types of activities. These developing changes could affect our financial position and results of operations. In particular, it is possible that tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels may attempt to regulate our transactions or levy new or revised sales and use taxes, gross receipts, franchise, VAT, digital services taxes, digital advertising taxes, income taxes, loan taxes, or other taxes relating to our activities, which would likely increase the cost of doing business. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data and collect and remit taxes. Proposed or enacted laws regarding tax compliance obligations could require us to make changes to our infrastructure or increase our compliance obligation. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Moreover, an increasing number of states, the U.S. federal government, and certain foreign jurisdictions have considered or adopted laws or administrative practices that impose obligations for on-demand and streaming services, online marketplaces, payment service providers and other intermediaries. These obligations may deem parties, such as us, to be the legal agent of merchants and therefore may require us to collect and remit taxes on the merchants' behalf and take on additional reporting and record-keeping obligations. For example, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 requires businesses that process payments to report payments for goods and services on Form 1099-K when those transactions total $600 or more in a year for a given seller, which reporting requirement applies to Square and Cash for Business accounts. The new threshold is currently expected to apply to transactions occurring in 2023, subject to any changes implemented by the Internal Revenue Service. Any failure by us to prepare for and to comply with these and similar reporting and record-keeping obligations could result in substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions, adversely impact our ability to do business in certain jurisdictions, and harm our business.
The determination of our worldwide provision for income and other tax liabilities is highly complex and requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions during the ordinary course of business where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
We have in the past recorded, and may in the future specifically targetedrecord, significant valuation allowances on our deferred tax assets, which may have a material impact on our results of operations and penetrated or disrupted by hackers,cause fluctuations in such results.
As of September 30, 2023, we had a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets in the United States and in certain other countries. Our net deferred tax assets relate predominantly to the United States federal and state tax jurisdictions. The need for a valuation allowance requires an assessment of both positive and negative evidence when determining whether it is more likely than not that deferred tax assets are recoverable; such assessment is required on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. In making such an assessment, significant weight is given to evidence that can be objectively verified.
We continue to monitor the likelihood that we will be able to recover our data encryptiondeferred tax assets in the future. Future adjustments in our valuation allowance may be unable to prevent unauthorized use. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to data, products and services, and disable, alter, degrade, or sabotage them, change frequently and may be difficult to detect or remediate for long periodsrequired. The recording of time, we and our customers may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures to stop them. If we or our sellers are unable to anticipate or prevent these attacks, our sellers' businesses may be harmed, our reputation could be damaged, and we could incur significant liability.
Systems failures, interruptions, delays in service, catastrophic events, and resulting interruptions in the availability of our products or services, or those of our sellers, could harm our business and our brand, and subject us to substantial liability.
Our systems and those of our third-party data center facilities may experience service interruptions, denial-of-service and other cyber-attacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, other natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks and other geopolitical unrest, computer viruses, changes in social, political or regulatory conditions or in laws and policies, or other changes or events. Our systems are also subject to break-ins, sabotage, and acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster-recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions, we are subject to increased scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity and disaster recovery plans and more rigorous testing of such plans. This increased scrutiny may be costly and time-consuming and may divert our resources from other business priorities.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience denial-of-service attacks, system failures, and other events or conditions that interrupt the availability or reduce the speed or functionality of our products and services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. In addition, they could result in significant expense to repair or replace damaged equipment and remedy resultant data loss or corruption. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the speed or other functionality of our products or services could materially harm our reputation and business. Frequent or persistent interruptionsany future increases in our products and services could cause sellers to believe that our products and services are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our products and services, and could permanently harm our reputation and business. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in damages to customers or their businesses, these customers could seek compensation from us for their losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
A significant natural disastervaluation allowance could have a material and adverse impact on our business. Our headquartersreported results, and certainboth the recording and release of our data center facilities are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our headquarters or data centersvaluation allowance could result in lengthy interruptionscause fluctuations in our services or could result in related liabilities. We have implemented a disaster recovery program, which enables us to move production to a back-up data center in the event of a catastrophe. Although this program is functional, it may prove to be inadequate, increasing the risk of interruptions in our services, which could have a materialquarterly and adverse impact on our business. We do not maintain insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that could result from disruptions to our services.
Significant natural or other disasters could also have a material and adverse impact on our sellers, which, in the aggregate, could in turn adversely affect ourannual results of operations.
Square Capital is subject to additional risks relating to the availability of capital, seller payments, availability
Legal, Regulatory, and structure of its bank partnership, expansion of its products, and general macroeconomic conditions.Compliance Risks
Square Capital, which includes our wholly owned subsidiary Square Capital, LLC, is subject to risks in addition to those described elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Maintaining and growing Square Capital is dependent on institutional third-party investors purchasing the business loans originated by our bank partner. If such third parties fail to continue to purchase such business loans or reduce the amount of future loans they purchase, then our bank partner may need to reduce originations, or we would need to fund the purchase of additional business loans from our own resources. We then may have to reduce the scale of Square Capital, which could have a direct impact on our continued growth. If third parties reduce the price they are willing to pay for these business loans or reduce the servicing fees they pay us in exchange for servicing the business loans on their behalf, then the financial performance of Square Capital would be harmed.
The business loans are generally unsecured obligations of our Square sellers who utilize Square Capital, and they are not guaranteed or insured in any way. Adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions or the credit quality of our Square sellers could cause some Square sellers who utilize Square Capital to cease operating or to experience a decline in their payment processing volume, thereby rendering them unable to make payment on the business loan and/or extend the repayment period beyond the contractual repayment terms on the business loan. Sellers have multiple contractual obligations, including but not limited to, the obligation to use Square as their only card payment processing service until the agreed-upon fixed amount of repayment of business loans is made. To the extent a seller breaches an obligation, the seller would be liable for an accelerated business loan repayment, where Square Capital's recourse is to the business and not to any individual or other asset. In addition, because the servicing fees we receive from third party investors depend on the collectability of the business loans, if there is an increase in Square sellers who utilize Square Capital who are unable to make repayment of business loans, we will be unable to collect our entire servicing fee for such loans.
In addition, adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions could lead to a decrease in the number of sellers eligible for Square Capital facilitated business loans and strain our ability to correctly identify such sellers on behalf of our bank partner or manage the risk of non-payment or fraud as servicer of the business loans. Similarly, if we fail to correctly predict the likelihood of timely repayment of the business loans or correctly price the business loans to sellers utilizing Square Capital, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We have partnered with a Utah-chartered, member FDIC industrial bank to originate the business loans. Such bank is subject to oversight both by the FDIC and the State of Utah. Due to the fact that we are a service-provider to our bank partner, we are subject to audit standards for third-party vendors in accordance with FDIC guidance and examinations by the FDIC. There has been, and may continue to be, regulatory interest in and/or litigation challenging partnered lending arrangements where a bank makes loans and then sells and assigns such loans to a non-bank entity that is engaged in assisting with the origination and servicing of the loan. If our bank partner ceases to partner with us, ceases to abide by the terms of our agreement with them, or cannot partner with us on commercially reasonable terms, and we are not able to find suitable alternatives and/or make business loans ourselves pursuant to state licensing requirements, Square Capital may need to enter into a new partnership with another qualified financial institution, revert to the merchant cash advance (MCA) model, or pursue an alternative model for originating business loans, all of which may be time-consuming and costly and/or lead to a loss of institutional third-party investors willing to purchase such business loans or MCAs, and as a result Square Capital may be materially and adversely affected.
We intend to continue to explore other products, models and structures for Square Capital, including forming a Utah industrial loan corporation and other forms of credit and loan origination. Some of those models or structures may require, or be deemed to require, additional procedures, partnerships, licenses, regulatory approvals or capabilities that we have not yet obtained or developed. We recently launched a limited consumer lending pilot program. The licenses required in connection with such pilot and other activities related to the Square Capital program subject us to reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and
inspection by applicable state regulatory agencies. Should we fail to expand and evolve Square Capital in this manner, or should these new products, models or structures, or new regulations or interpretations of existing regulations, impose requirements on us that are impractical or that we cannot satisfy, the future growth and success of Square Capital may be materially and adversely affected.
Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation.
We are subject to a wide variety of local, state, federal, and international laws, regulations, licensing schemes, and industry standards in the United States and in other countries in which we operate. These laws, regulations, and regulationsstandards govern numerous areas that are important to our business, includingand include, or may in the future include, those relating to banking, lending, deposit-taking, cross-border and domestic money transmission, foreign exchange, payments services (such as payment processing and settlement services), cryptocurrency, trading in shares and fractional shares, personal income tax filing, fraud detection, consumer protection, privacy, fair lending, financial services, laboranti-money laundering, anti-bribery and employment, immigration, importanti-corruption, escheatment, sanctions regimes and export practices, product labeling, competition,controls, privacy, data protection and marketinginformation security, fiscalization and communications practices,compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of requirements designed to nameensure that all companies that process, store, or transmit payment card information maintain a few. Suchsecure environment to protect cardholder data.
These laws, rules, regulations, and standards are enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies in the United States, including federal agencies, such as the FDIC, the SEC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Office of Foreign Assets Control, self-regulatory organizations, and numerous state and local agencies, such as the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Outside of the United States, we are subject to additional regulators, authorities, and governing bodies. As we expand into new jurisdictions, expand our product offerings in existing jurisdictions, or as laws, regulations, and standards evolve, the number of foreign regulations and regulators, authorities, and governing bodies governing our business will expand as well. For example, in connection with our acquisition of Afterpay we established a secondary listing on the ASX, subjecting us to additional listing requirements. As our business and products continue to develop and expand, we may become subject to additional rules, regulations, and industry standards. We may not always be able to accurately predict the scope or applicability of certain regulations to our business, particularly as we expand into new areas of operations, which could have a significant negative effect on our existing business and our ability to pursue future plans.
Laws, regulations, and standards are subject to changes and evolving interpretations and application, including by means of legislative changes and/or executive orders, and it can be difficult to predict how they may be applied to our business and the way we conduct our operations, particularly as we introduce new products and services and expand into new jurisdictions. Any perceived
For example, Cash App includes a feature that permits our customers to buy and sell bitcoin. Bitcoin is not widely accepted as legal tender or actual breachbacked by governments around the world, and it has experienced price volatility, technological glitches, security compromises, and various law enforcement and regulatory interventions. Certain existing laws also prohibit transactions with certain persons and entities, and we have a risk-based program in place to prevent such transactions. Despite this, due to the nature of lawsbitcoin and regulationsblockchain technology, we may not be able to prevent all such transactions, and there can be no guarantee that our measures will be viewed as sufficient. The regulation of bitcoin, as well as cryptocurrency and crypto platforms is an evolving area, and we could resultbecome subject to additional legislation or regulation in investigations,the future. For example, Louisiana’s virtual currency regulatory inquiries, litigation, fines, or otherwise negatively impact our business.scheme became effective on January 1, 2023 and requires covered entities, such as us, to obtain a license to continue its feature permitting customers to buy and sell bitcoin. It is possible that other states may also issue similar licensing requirements. As another example, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has issued a proposed rule that would require bitcoin providers like us to keep additional records of and file additional reports to FinCEN of certain bitcoin transaction information. There are substantial uncertainties on how these proposed requirements would apply in practice, and we may face substantial compliance costs to operationalize and comply with these requirements should FinCEN finalize this rule as proposed. If we fail to comply with regulations or prohibitions applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions, potential fines, reputational harm, and other consequences. Further, we might not be able to continue operating the feature in Cash App, at least in current form, or might need to make other changes to our business, our products or our services, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decrease.
We are subject to audits, inspections, inquiries, and investigations from regulators, authorities, and governing bodies, as applicable, on an ongoing basis. Although we have a compliance program focused on the laws, rules, regulations, and standards applicable to our business, we have been and may still be subject to audits, inspections, inquiries, investigations, fines, or other actions or penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by regulators, including federal agencies, state Attorneys General and private plaintiffs who may be acting as private attorneys general pursuant to various applicable laws, as well as those levied by foreign regulators, authorities, and governing bodies. For example, we received inquiries from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice shortly after the publication of a short seller report in March 2023. We believe the inquiries primarily relate to the allegations raised in the short seller report. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include significant criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, increased licensure requirements, revocation of licenses or other enforcement actions. We have been and may be interpretedrequired to make changes to our business practices or applied incompliance programs as a manner that would prohibit, alter,result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, any perceived or impairactual failure by us to comply with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and standards could have a significant impact on our existing or planned productsreputation as a trusted brand and services; that could cause us to belose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches, and expose us to legal risk and potential criminal and civil liability.
Our business is subject to audits, inquiries, investigations, or lawsuits; that could result in fines, injunctive relief, or other liabilities; or that could require costly, time-consuming, or otherwise burdensome compliance measures from us.complex and evolving regulations and oversight related to privacy, data protection, and information security.
In particular, as we seek to build a trusted and secure platform for commerce, and as we expand our network of sellers and buyers and facilitate their transactions and interactions with one another, we will increasingly beWe are subject to laws and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, privacy, protection, security, and transfer of information, including the personally identifiablepersonal information of our employees and sellers and their customers. As with the other laws and regulations noted above, these laws and regulations may change or be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible they will be interpreted and applied in ways that will materially and adversely affect our business. For example, the European ParliamentUnion’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and similar legislation in the CouncilUnited Kingdom (“U.K.”) impose stringent privacy and data protection requirements and provide for greater penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of 4% of worldwide annual revenue or €20 million or £17.5 million, as applicable. The GDPR restricts international data transfers from the EU to other jurisdictions unless the rights of the individual data subjects in respect of their personal data is protected by an approved transfer mechanism, or one of a limited number of exceptions applies. The U.K.’s data protection regime contains similar requirements. When transferring personal data from the EU to other jurisdictions, we utilize standard contractual clauses published by the EU Commission (the "SCCs"). On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued a decision that may impose additional obligations on companies when relying on those SCCs. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission issued its “adequacy decision” for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, concluding that the DPF ensures U.S. protection of personal data transferred between the countries is comparable to that offered in 2016 adoptedthe EU. These and other developments relating to cross-border data transfer could result in increased costs of compliance and limitations on our customers and us. Additionally, legal or regulatory challenges or other developments relating to cross-border data transfer may serve as a Generalbasis for our personal data handling practices, or those of our customers and vendors, to be challenged and may otherwise adversely impact our business, financial condition, and operating results. In the U.K., the Data Protection Act and legislation referred to as the UK GDPR substantially enact the EU GDPR into U.K. law, with penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of £17.5 million or four percent of worldwide revenues. The European Commission has issued an adequacy decision under the GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive, pursuant to which personal data generally may be transferred from the EU to the U.K. without restriction, subject to a four-year “sunset” period, after which the European Commission’s adequacy decision may be renewed. During that period, the European Commission will continue to monitor the legal situation in the U.K. and may intervene at any time with respect to its adequacy decision. The UK’s adequacy determination therefore is subject to future uncertainty and may be subject to modification or revocation in the future. We could be required to make additional changes to the way we conduct our business and transmit data between the U.S., the U.K., the EU, and the rest of the world. Further, in addition to the GDPR, the European Commission has a draft regulation in the approval process that focuses on a person’s right to conduct a private life. The proposed legislation, known as the Regulation (GDPR)of Privacy and Electronic Communications (“ePrivacy Regulation”), effectivewould replace the current ePrivacy Directive. If adopted, it would carry broad potential impacts on the use of internet-based services and tracking technologies, such as cookies. We expect to incur additional costs to comply with the requirements of the ePrivacy Regulation as it is finalized for implementation. Additionally, on January 13, 2022, the Austrian data protection regulator published a decision ruling that the collection of personal data and transfer to the U.S. through Google Analytics and other analytics and tracking tools used by website operators violates the GDPR. The Dutch, French and Italian data protection regulators have adopted similar decisions. Other data protection regulators in May 2018, that will supersede currentthe EU increasingly are focused on the use of online tracking tools. Any of these changes or other developments with respect to EU data protection law could disrupt our business and otherwise adversely impact our business, financial condition, and operating results. In addition, some countries are considering or have enacted legislation addressing matters such as requirements for local storage and processing of data that could impact our compliance obligations, expose us to liability, and increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services.
Likewise, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) became effective on January 1, 2020 and was modified by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which was passed in November 2020 and became effective on January 1, 2023. The CCPA and CPRA impose more stringent data privacy and data protection requirements relating to personal information of California residents, and provide greaterfor penalties for noncompliance. Innoncompliance of up to $7,500 per violation. Aspects of the United Kingdom, a Data Protection Billinterpretation and enforcement of the CCPA and CPRA remain unclear. More generally, privacy, data protection, and information security continue to be rapidly evolving areas, and further legislative activity has been introducedarisen and will likely continue to arise in the U.S., the EU, and other jurisdictions. For example, several states in the U.S. have proposed or enacted laws that contain obligations similar to the HouseCCPA and CPRA that have taken effect or will take effect in coming years. The U.S. federal government also is contemplating federal privacy legislation. The effects of Lords that proposesrecently proposed or enacted legislation potentially are far-reaching and may require us to substantially implement the GDPR. Nevertheless, the Data Protection Bill must complete the legislative process, so it remains unclear what modifications will be mademodify our data processing practices and policies and to the final legislation.
We may not be ableincur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to respond quickly or effectively to regulatory, legislative and other developments, andcomply. Further, variances in these changes may in turn impair our ability to offer our existing or planned features, products and services and/or increase our cost of doing business. In addition, if our practices are not consistent or viewed as not consistent with changes in laws and regulations or newtheir interpretations of existing laws and regulations, we may become subject to audits, inquiries, investigations, lawsuits, penalties, and other liabilities that did not previously apply.increase our compliance costs.
We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with mandatoryevolving privacy, data protection, and information security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards, shifting consumer expectations, or contractual obligations. We post onLaws and regulations directed at privacy, data protection, and information security, and those that have been applied in those areas, can be challenging to comply with and may be subject to evolving interpretations or applications. In particular, with laws and regulations such as the GDPR in the EU and the CCPA, CPRA, and other laws in the U.S. imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations, and with the interpretation and application of these and other laws and regulations subject to evolving and uncertain interpretation and application, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our website our privacy policies and practices, concerning the collection, use, and disclosure of information.we may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so. Any failure, real or perceived, by us to comply with our posted privacy, data protection, or information security policies, changing consumer expectations, or with any evolving legal or regulatory requirements, industry standards, or orders orcontractual obligations could result in claims, demands, and litigation by private parties, investigations and other local, state, federal, or international privacy, data security or consumer protection-related lawsproceedings by regulatory authorities, and regulations couldfines, penalties and other liabilities, may harm our reputation and competitive position, and may cause sellers or theirour customers to reduce their use of our products and services, disrupt our supply chain or third-party vendor or developer partnerships, and materially and adversely affect our business.
We are subject to risks related to litigation, including intellectual property claims, government investigations or inquiries, and regulatory matters or disputes.
We are currently, and may continue to be, subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other actions or proceedings. The number and significance of our legal disputes and inquiries have increased as we have grown larger, as our business has expanded in scope and geographic reach, and as our products and services have increased in complexity, and we expect that we will continue to face additional legal disputes as we continue to grow and expand. We also receive significant media attention, which could result in increased litigation or other legal or regulatory reviews and proceedings. Moreover, legal disputes or government or regulatory inquiries or findings may cause follow-on litigation or regulatory scrutiny by additional parties. These claims, lawsuits, investigations, subpoenas, inquiries, audits and other actions may require significant time and expense even if we are successful in resolving the matter, and the outcomes can be uncertain and unpredictable and may involve material penalties, fines or restrictions on our business.
Some of the laws and regulations affecting the internet, mobile commerce, payment processing, BNPL, bitcoin and equity investing, streaming service, business financing, and employment were not written with businesses like ours in mind, and many of the laws and regulations, including those affecting us have been enacted relatively recently. As a result, there is substantial uncertainty regarding the scope and application of many of the laws and regulations to which we are or may be subject, which increases the risk that we will be subject to claims alleging violations of those laws and regulations. The scope, outcome, and impact of claims, lawsuits, government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other proceedings to which we are subject cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such investigations and legal proceedings can have a material and adverse impact on us due to their costs, diversion of our resources, and other factors. Plaintiffs may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or provisional rulings in the course of litigation, including preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle legal disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. We have also been accused of having, or may be found to have, infringed or violated third-party copyrights, patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights. If any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that we may not choose to appeal or that may not be reversed upon appeal. We have, from time to time, needed to obtain a license to continue existing practices as a result of changes in law or for which we are found to be in violation of a third-party’s rights. We may also need to change, restrict or cease certain practices altogether. If we are required, or choose to enter into, royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms or at all and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop or procure alternative non-infringing technology or discontinue use of technology, and doing so could require significant effort and expense or may not be feasible. In addition, the terms of any settlement or judgment in connection with any legal claims, lawsuits, or proceedings may require us to cease some or all of our operations or to pay substantial amounts to the other party and could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our business is subject to complex and evolving regulations and oversight related to our provision of payments services and other financial services.
The state and federal laws, rules, regulations, and licensing schemes that govern our business include or may in the future include those relating to banking, lending, deposit-taking, cross-border and domesticAs a licensed money transmission, foreign exchange, payments services (such as payment processing and settlement services), consumer financial protection, anti-money laundering, escheatment, international sanctions regimes, and compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store, or transmit payment card information maintain a secure environment to protect cardholder data. These laws, rules, and regulations are enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies in the United States, including the Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and numerous state and local agencies. Outside of the United States,transmitter, we are subject to additional laws, rules,important obligations and regulations related to the provision of payments and financial services, including those enforced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in Japan, those enforced by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, and those enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. As we expand into new jurisdictions, the number of foreignrestrictions.
regulations and regulators governing our business will expand as well. If we pursue additional or alternative means of growing Square Capital, additional state and federal regulations would apply. Similarly, if we choose to offer Square Payroll in more jurisdictions, additional regulations, including tax rules, will apply. In addition, as our business and products continue to develop and expand, we may become subject to additional rules and regulations.
Although we have a compliance program focused on applicable laws, rules, and regulations and are continually investing more in this program, we may still be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal, state or local regulators, including state Attorneys General and private plaintiffs who may be acting as private attorneys general pursuant to various applicable federal, state and local laws, as well as those levied by foreign regulators. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include significant criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, increased licensure requirements, or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us with respect to applicable laws, rules, and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation as a trusted brand and could cause us to lose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability.
We have obtained licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent)as other financial services institutions) in the United StatesU.S. and in the states where this is required.required, as well as in some non-U.S. jurisdictions, including but not limited to the EU, the U.K., and Australia. As a licensed money transmitter, we are subject to obligations and restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by state regulatory agencies concerning those aspects of our business considered money transmission. Evaluation of our compliance efforts, as well as the questions of whether and to what extent our products and services are considered money transmission, are matters of regulatory interpretation and could change over time. In the past, we have been subject to fines and other penalties by regulatory authorities due to their interpretations and applications to our business of their respective state money transmission laws. In the future, as a result of the regulations applicable to our business, we could be subject to investigations and resulting liability, including governmental fines, restrictions on our business, or other sanctions, and we could be forced to cease conducting certain aspects of our business with residents ofin certain jurisdictions, be forced to otherwise change our business practices in certain jurisdictions, or be required to obtain additional licenses or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain any such licenses, and, even if we were able to do so, there could be substantial costs and potential product changes involved in maintaining such licenses, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Failure to comply with anti-bribery, anti-corruption, and anti-money laundering laws could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We are subject to a number of regulatory risks in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),BNPL space.
The regulation of BNPL products is evolving, and it is possible that states or countries pass new or additional regulations or additional and changing legal, regulatory, tax, licensing, and compliance requirements and industry standards that could adversely impact our BNPL products or the U.K. Briberyway we operate our BNPL platform. In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced plans to regulate companies offering BNPL products. Increased compliance obligations and regulatory scrutiny may negatively impact our revenue and profitability. Any inability, or perceived inability, to comply with existing or new compliance obligations issued by the CFPB or any other regulatory authority, including with respect to BNPL products, could lead to regulatory investigations, or result in administrative or enforcement action, such as fines, penalties, and/or enforceable undertakings and adversely affect us and our results of operations. Regulatory scrutiny or changes in the BNPL space may impose significant compliance costs and make it uneconomical for us to continue to operate in our current markets or for us to expand into new markets.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA, and therefore is subject to extensive regulation and scrutiny.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing facilitates transactions in shares and fractionalized shares of publicly-traded stock and exchange-traded funds by users of our Cash App through a third-party clearing and carrying broker, DriveWealth LLC (“DriveWealth”). Cash App Investing is registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer under the Exchange Act and other anti-corruption, anti-briberyis a member of FINRA. Therefore, Cash App Investing is subject to regulation, examination, and anti-money laundering laws in various jurisdictions. From timesupervision by the SEC, FINRA, and state securities regulators. The regulations applicable to time, we may leverage third parties to helpbroker-dealers cover all aspects of the securities business, including sales practices, use and safekeeping of clients’ funds and securities, capital adequacy, record-keeping, and the conduct our businesses abroad. We and our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employeesqualification of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party business partners and intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, channel partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, we cannot assure you that all of ourofficers, employees, and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible. Any violationindependent contractors. As part of the FCPA or other applicable anti-bribery, anti-corruption laws, and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, or suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, all of which may have an adverse effect on our reputation, our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Weregulatory process, broker-dealers are subject to risks relatedperiodic examinations by their regulators, the purpose of which is to litigation, including intellectual property claims, and regulatory matters or disputes.
We may be, and have been, subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government investigations, and other proceedings involving intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy, labor and employment, immigration, import and export practices, product labeling, competition, accessibility,determine compliance with securities tax, marketing and communications practices, commercial disputes, and other matters. For example, we are involved in putative class action lawsuits concerning independent contractors in connection with our Caviar business.
The number and significance of our legal disputes and inquiries have increased as we have grown larger, as our business has expanded in scope and geographic reach, and as our products and services have increased in complexity, and we expect that we will continue to face additional legal disputes as we continue to grow and expand.
Becoming a public company has raised our public profile, which could result in increased litigation or other legal or regulatory proceedings. In addition, some of the laws and regulations, affecting the internet, mobile commerce, payment processing, business financing, and employment did not anticipate businesses like ours, and many of the laws and regulations affecting us have been enacted relatively recently. As a result, there is substantial uncertainty regarding the scope and application of many of the laws and regulationsfrom time to which we are subject, which increases the risk that we will be subject to claims alleging violations of those laws and regulations. We may also be accused of having, or be found to have, infringed or violated third-party intellectual property rights.
Regardless of the outcome, legal proceedings can have a material and adverse impact on us due to their costs, diversion of our resources, and other factors. Plaintiffs may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or provisional rulings in the course of litigation, including preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle legal disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Furthermore, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, wetime may be subject to additional routine and for-cause examinations. It is not uncommon for regulators to assert, upon completion of an unfavorable judgmentexamination, that wethe broker-dealer being examined has violated certain of these rules and regulations. Depending on the nature and extent of the violations, the broker-dealer may not choosebe required to appeal pay a fine and/or that may not be reversed upon appeal. We maysubject to other forms of disciplinary and corrective action. Additionally, the adverse publicity arising from the imposition of sanctions could harm our reputation and cause us to lose existing customers or fail to gain new customers.
The SEC, FINRA, and state regulators have the authority to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violationbring administrative or judicial proceedings against broker-dealers, whether arising out of a third party’s rights,examinations or we may have to change or cease certain practices. If we are required, or choose to enter into, royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms or at allotherwise, for violations of state and federal securities laws. Administrative sanctions can include cease-and-desist orders, censure, fines, and disgorgement and may significantly increaseeven result in the suspension or expulsion of the firm from the securities industry. Similar sanctions may be imposed upon officers, directors, representatives, and employees.
Cash App Investing has adopted, and regularly reviews and updates, various policies, controls, and procedures designed for compliance with Cash App Investing’s regulatory obligations. However, appropriately addressing Cash App Investing’s regulatory obligations is complex and difficult, and our operating costsreputation could be damaged if we fail, or appear to fail, to appropriately address them. Failure to adhere to these policies and expenses. As aprocedures may also result in regulatory sanctions or litigation against us. Cash App Investing also relies on various third parties, including DriveWealth, to provide services, including managing and executing customer orders, and failure of these third parties to adequately perform these services may negatively impact customer experience, product performance, and our reputation and may also result in regulatory sanctions or litigation against us or Cash App Investing.
In the event of any regulatory action or scrutiny, we mayor Cash App Investing could also be required to developmake changes to our business practices or procure alternative non-infringing technologycompliance programs. In addition, any perceived or discontinue useactual breach of technology,compliance by Cash App Investing with respect to applicable laws, rules, and doing soregulations could have a significant impact on our reputation, could cause us to lose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches, and expose us to legal risk, including litigation against us, and potential liability.
Cash App Investing is subject to net capital and other regulatory capital requirements; failure to comply with these rules could harm our business.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing is subject to the net capital requirements of the SEC and FINRA. These requirements typically specify the minimum level of net capital a broker-dealer must maintain and also mandate that a significant part of its assets be kept in relatively liquid form. Failure to maintain the required net capital may subject a firm to limitation of its activities, including suspension or revocation of its registration by the SEC and suspension or expulsion by FINRA, and ultimately may require its liquidation. Currently, Cash App Investing has relatively low net capital requirements, because it does not hold customer funds or securities, but instead facilitates the transmission and delivery of those funds on behalf of customers to DriveWealth or back to the applicable customer. However, a change in the net capital rules, a change in how Cash App Investing handles or holds customer assets, or the imposition of new rules affecting the scope, coverage, calculation, or amount of net capital requirements could have adverse effects. Finally, because Cash App Investing is subject to such net capital requirements, we may be required to inject additional capital into Cash App Investing from time to time and as such, we may have liability and/or our larger business may be affected by any of these outcomes.
It is possible that FINRA will require changes to our business practices based on our ownership of Cash App Investing, which could impose additional costs or disrupt our business.
In certain cases, FINRA has required unregistered affiliates of broker-dealers to comply with additional regulatory requirements, including, among others, handling all securities or other financial transactions through the affiliated broker-dealer or conforming all marketing and advertising materials to the requirements applicable to broker-dealers. We do not currently believe that these types of requirements apply to any aspect of our business other than the securities transactions facilitated through the Cash App. It is possible that, in the future, FINRA could require us to comply with additional regulations in the conduct of other activities (i.e., beyond the securities transactions made through the Cash App). If that were to occur, it could require significant effortchanges to our business practices. These and expenseother changes would impose significantly greater costs on us and disrupt existing practices in ways that could negatively affect our overarching business and profitability.
Our subsidiary Square Financial Services is a Utah state-chartered industrial bank, which requires that we serve as a source of financial strength to it and subjects us to potential regulatory sanctions.
On March 1, 2021, Square Financial Services received its deposit insurance from the FDIC and charter approval from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and became operational. The Federal Deposit Insurance Act requires that we serve as a source of financial strength to Square Financial Services. This means that we are required by law to provide financial assistance to Square Financial Services in the event that it experiences financial distress. In this regard, the FDIC’s approval requires that Square Financial Services have initial paid-in capital of not less than approximately $56 million, and at all times meet or exceed the regulatory capital levels required for Square Financial Services to be considered “well capitalized” under the FDIC’s prompt corrective action rules. The regulatory total capital and leverage ratios of Square Financial Services during the first three years of operation may not be feasible.less than the levels provided in Square Financial Services’ business plan approved by the FDIC. Thereafter, the regulatory capital ratios must be annually approved by the FDIC, and in no event may Square Financial Services’ leverage ratio be less than twenty percent, as calculated in accordance with FDIC regulations. If Square Financial Services' total capital or leverage ratios fall below the levels required by the FDIC, we will need to provide sufficient capital to Square Financial Services so as to enable it to maintain its required regulatory capital ratios. If the FDIC were to increase Square Financial Services’ capital requirements, it could negatively impact our business and operations and those of Square Financial Services.
The FDIC’s approval is also contingent on us maintaining a Capital and Liquidity Maintenance Agreement as well as a Parent Company Agreement. The Capital and Liquidity Maintenance Agreement requires, among other things, that we maintain the leverage ratio of Square Financial Services at a minimum of 20 percent following the first three years of Square Financial Services’ operations; maintain a third-party line of credit for the benefit of Square Financial Services acceptable to the FDIC; purchase any loan from Square Financial Services at the greater of the cost basis or fair market value, if deemed necessary by the FDIC or Square Financial Services; and establish and maintain a reserve deposit of $50 million at an unaffiliated third-party bank that Square Financial Services could draw upon in the event that we fail to provide sufficient funds to maintain Square Financial Services’ capital ratios at the required levels. The Parent Company Agreement requires, among other things, that we consent to the FDIC’s examination of us and our subsidiaries; limit our representation on Square Financial Services’ board of directors to no more than 25 percent; submit a contingency plan to the FDIC that describes likely scenarios of significant financial or operational stress and, if we were unable to serve as a source of financial strength, options for the orderly wind down or sale of Square Financial Services; and engage a third party to review and provide periodic reports concerning the effectiveness of our complaint response system. Jack Dorsey, who is considered our controlling shareholder in this context, also agreed to cause us to perform under these agreements. Should we fail to comply with these obligations, we could be subject to regulatory sanctions. In addition, the terms of any settlement or judgment in connectionfailure by Square Financial Services to comply with any legal claims, lawsuits, or proceedings mayapplicable laws, rules, and regulations could also subject us and Square Financial Services to regulatory sanctions. These sanctions could adversely impact our reputation and our business, require us to cease someexpend significant funds for remediation, and expose us to litigation and other potential liability.
Square Financial Services is subject to extensive supervision and regulation, including the Dodd-Frank Act and its related regulations, which are subject to change and could involve material costs or allaffect operations.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of our operations or pay substantial amounts2010 (the "Dodd-Frank Act") effected significant changes to U.S. financial regulations and required rule making by U.S. financial regulators including adding a new Section 13 to the Bank Holding Company Act known as the Volcker Rule. The Volcker Rule generally restricts certain banking entities (such as Square Financial Services) from engaging in proprietary trading activities and from having an ownership interest in or sponsoring any private equity funds or hedge funds (or certain other partyprivate issuing entities). The current activities of Square Financial Services have not been and are not expected to be materially affected by the Volcker Rule. Nevertheless, we cannot predict whether, or in what form, any other proposed regulations or statutes or changes to implementing regulations will be adopted or the extent to which the business operations of Square Financial Services may be affected by any new regulation or statute. Such changes could materiallysubject our business to additional compliance burden, costs, and adversely affect our business.possibly limit the types of financial services and products we may offer.
Square Financial Services is also subject to the requirements in Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act and the Federal Reserve Board’s implementing Regulation W, which regulate loans, extensions of credit, purchases of assets, and certain other transactions between an insured depository institution (such as Square Financial Services) and its affiliates. The statute and regulation require Square Financial Services to impose certain quantitative limits, collateral requirements, and other restrictions on “covered transactions” between Square Financial Services and its affiliates and requires all transactions be on “market terms” and conditions consistent with safe and sound banking practices.
Our intellectual property rights are valuable, and any inability to protect them could reduce the value of our products, services, and brand.
Our trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property rights are critical to our success. We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, a combination of confidentiality, invention assignment, and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, trade dress, domain name, copyright, trade secret, and patent rights, to protect our brand and other intellectual property rights. However, various events outside of our control may pose a threat to our intellectual property rights, as well as to our products and services. Effective protection of trademarks, copyrights, domain names, patent rights, and other intellectual property rights is expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and maintenance costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. The efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient or effective. Our intellectual property rights may be infringed, misappropriated, or challenged, which could result in them being narrowed in scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. Similarly, our reliance on unpatented proprietary information and technology, such as trade secrets and confidential information, depends in part on agreements we have in place with employees and third parties that place restrictions on the use and disclosure of this intellectual property. These agreements may be insufficient or may be breached, or we may not enter into sufficient agreements with such individuals in the first instance, in either case potentially resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and other intellectual property, including to our competitors, which could cause us to lose any competitive advantage resulting from this intellectual property. Individuals not subject to invention assignment agreements may make adverse ownership claims to our current and future intellectual property. There can be no assurance that our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to protect against others offering products or services that are substantially similar to ours and that compete with our business.
As of September 30, 2017, we had 341We routinely apply for patents issued in the United StatesU.S. and abroad and 607internationally to protect innovative ideas in our technology, but we may not always be successful in obtaining patent applications on file in the United States and abroad, though there can be no assurance that any or all ofgrants from these applications will ultimately be issued as patents.applications. We also pursue registration of copyrights, trademarks, and domain names in the United States and in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, but doing so may not always be successful or cost-effective. In general, we may be unable or, in some instances, choose not to obtain legal protection for our intellectual property, and our existing and future intellectual property rights may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our products and services from those of our competitors. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and effective intellectual property protection and mechanisms may not be available in those jurisdictions. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property in these countries, and the inability to do so could impair our business or adversely affect our international expansion. Our intellectual property rights may be contested, circumvented, or found unenforceable or invalid, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing, diluting, or otherwise violating them.
Additionally, our intellectual property rights and other confidential business information are subject to risks of compromise or unauthorized disclosure if our security measures or those of our third-party service providers are unable to prevent cyber-attacks. Unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property rights may also occur if third parties were to breach the licensing terms under which certain of our innovations are offered broadly, including under open source licenses. Furthermore, the growing use of generative AI presents an increased risk of unintentional and/or unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property rights. Significant impairments of our intellectual property rights, and limitations on our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against others, could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
WeAssertions by third parties of infringement or other violation by us of their intellectual property rights could harm our business.
Third parties have asserted, and may not be able to secure financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.
We have funded our operations since inception primarily through debt and equity financings, bank credit facilities, and capital lease arrangements. While we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, and availability under our line of credit are sufficient to meet our working capital needs and planned capital expenditures, there is no guarantee that this will continue to be true in the future. Infuture assert, that we have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated their copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property rights. Although we expend significant resources to seek to comply with the statutory, regulatory, and judicial frameworks and the terms and conditions of statutory licenses, we cannot assure you that we are not infringing or violating any third-party intellectual property rights, or that we will not do so in the future, particularly as new technologies such as generative AI impact the industries in which we operate. It is difficult to predict whether assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or any infringement or misappropriation claims arising from such assertions will substantially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. If we are forced to defend against any infringement or misappropriation claims, whether they are with or without merit, are settled out of court, or are determined in our favor, we may be required to expend significant time and financial resources on the defense of such claims. Legal and regulatory changes in this area may also present uncertainty and risk. For instance, the Unified Patent Court in the European Union creates an opportunity to efficiently resolve such claims in a specialized forum, while also introducing limited operational uncertainty as the court’s procedures and processes scale. Regardless of the forum, an adverse outcome of a dispute may require us to pay significant damages, which may be even greater if we are found to have willfully infringed upon a party’s intellectual property; cease exploiting copyrighted content that we have previously had the ability to exploit; cease using solutions that are alleged to infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property of others; expend additional development resources to redesign our solutions; enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies, content, or materials; indemnify our partners and other third parties; and/or take other actions that may have material and adverse effects on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Increased scrutiny from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders relating to environmental, social, and governance issues could result in additional costs for us and may adversely impact our reputation.
Investors, regulators, customers, employees and other stakeholders are increasingly focused on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) matters. Our ESG strategy is focused on four key areas: driving financial inclusion throughout our ecosystem and in our communities, taking climate action for a more resilient and sustainable future, advancing inclusion and diversity across our distributed workplace, and designing corporate governance to promote trust and long-term value, and we publicly report on certain commitments, initiatives, and goals regarding ESG matters in our annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report, on our website, in our SEC filings, and elsewhere. For example, we are committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce and one of our climate change goals is to have net zero carbon for operations by 2030. The implementation of our ESG commitments, initiatives, and goals may require additional capitalinvestments, and in certain cases, are reliant on third-party verification and/or performance, and we cannot guarantee that we will make progress on our commitments and initiatives or achieve our goals. If we fail, or are perceived to respondfail, to business opportunities, refinancing needs, businessmake such progress or achievements, or to maintain ESG practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations, or if we revise any of our ESG commitments, initiatives, or goals, our reputation and financial challenges, regulatory surety bond requirements, acquisitions, or unforeseen circumstancesour ability to attract and may decide to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into additional credit facilities for other reasons,retain employees could be harmed, and we may not be ablenegatively perceived by investors or our customers. To the extent that our required or voluntary disclosures about ESG matters increase, we could also be criticized or face claims regarding the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of such disclosures and our reputation could be negatively impacted, or we could face claims regarding our policies and programs. In addition, regulatory requirements with respect to secure any such additional debt or equity financing or refinancingcarbon emissions disclosures and other aspects of ESG may result in increased compliance requirements on favorable terms, in a timely manner, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could also involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to operate our business, obtain additional capital, and pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. Our credit facility contains affirmative and negative covenants, including customary limitations on the incurrence of certain indebtedness and liens, restrictions on certain inter-company transactions, and limitations on the amount of dividends and stock repurchases. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and breaches of these covenants could result in a default under the credit facility and any future financial agreements into which we may enter. If not waived, defaults could cause our outstanding indebtedness under our credit facility and any future financing agreements that we may enter into to become immediately due and payable, which event may also constitute a default under our other indebtedness, including our 0.375% convertible senior notes due 2022 (Notes).
If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities, or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock.
Any acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, divestitures, and other transactions could fail to achieve strategic objectives, disrupt our ongoing operations, and harm our business.
In pursuing our business strategy, we routinely conduct discussions and evaluate opportunities for possible acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, divestitures, and other transactions. We continue to seek to acquire or invest in businesses, apps, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our products and services, enhance our technical capabilities, or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The identification, evaluation, and negotiation of potential acquisitions or divestitures may divert the attention of management and entail various expenses, whether or not such transactions are ultimately completed. We also have limited experience in acquiring other businesses. In addition to opportunity costs, these transactions involve large challenges and risks, whether or not such transactions are completed, including risks that:
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| the transaction may not advance our business strategy; |
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| we may be unable to identify opportunities on terms acceptable to us; |
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| we may not realize a satisfactory return or increase our revenue; |
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| we may experience disruptions on our ongoing operations and divert management’s attention; |
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| we may be unable to retain key personnel; |
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| we may experience difficulty in integrating technologies, IT systems, accounting systems, culture, or personnel; |
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| acquired businesses may not have adequate controls, processes and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and our due diligence process may not identify compliance issues or other liabilities; |
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| we may assume additional financial or legal exposure, including exposure that is known to us; |
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| we may have difficulty entering new market segments; |
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| we may be unable to retain the customers and partners of acquired businesses; |
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| there may be unknown, underestimated, or undisclosed commitments or liabilities, including actual or threatened litigation; |
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| there may be regulatory constraints, particularly competition regulations that may affect the extent to which we can maximize the value of our acquisitions or investments; and |
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| acquisitions could result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt. |
We may also choose to divest certain businesses or product lines that no longer fit with our strategic objectives. If we decide to sell assets or a business, we may have difficulty obtaining financing or selling on acceptable terms in a timely manner. Additionally, we may experience difficulty separating out portions of or entire businesses, incur potential loss of revenue or experience negative impact on margins. Such potential transactions may also delay achievement of our strategic objectives, cause us to incur additional expenses, potentially disrupt seller relationships, and expose us to unanticipated or ongoing obligations and liabilities.
Our reported financial results may be materially and adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could materially and adversely affect the transactions completed before the announcement of a change. Additionally, the adoption of new or revised accounting principles may require that we make significant changes to our systems, processes and controls.
For example, in May 2014 and February 2016, the FASB issued new accounting standards for revenue recognition and leasing, respectively, which will be effective for us in fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019, respectively. While we know they will have an impact, we are still evaluating the extent that these new accounting standards will have on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. Changes resulting from these new standards may result in materially different financial resultssupply chain, and may require that we change how we process, analyze and report financial information and that we change financial reporting controls.increase our operating costs.
If currency exchange rates fluctuate substantially in the future, our financial results, which are reported in U.S. dollars, could be adversely affected.
As we continue to expand our global operations, we become more exposed to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Our contracts are denominated primarily in U.S. dollars, and therefore the majority of our revenue are not subject to foreign currency risk. However, fluctuations in exchange rates of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We incur expenses for employee compensation and other operating expenses at our non-U.S. locations in the local currency. Fluctuations in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could result in the dollar equivalent of such expenses being higher. This could have a negative impact on our reported results of operations. From time to time, we may enter into forward contracts, options and/or foreign exchange swaps related to specific transaction exposures that arise in the normal course of our business, though we are not currently a party to any such hedging transactions. These and other such hedging activities may not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
We may have exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities, which may materially and adversely affect our business.
We are subject to income taxes and non-income taxes in the United States and other countries in which we conduct business, and such laws and rates vary by jurisdiction. We are subject to review and audit by U.S. federal, state, local and foreign tax authorities. Such tax authorities may disagree with tax positions we take and if any such tax authority were to successfully challenge any such position, our financial results and operations could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our future tax liability could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, rates, and regulations. The determination of our worldwide provision for income and other taxes is highly complex and requires significant judgment, and there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe our estimates are reasonable, the amount ultimately payable may differ from amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control within our stockholders who held our stock prior to our initial public offering, including many of our employees and directors and their affiliates; this will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, including manycertain of our executive officers, employees, and directors and their affiliates, held approximately 82.5%52.33% of the voting power of our combined outstanding capital stock as of September 30, 2017.2023. Our executive officers and directors and their affiliates held approximately 69.7%52.95% of the voting power of our combined outstanding capital stock as of September 30, 2017.2023. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively hold more than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, and therefore such holders are able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. When the shares of our Class B common stock represent less than 5% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock, the then-outstanding shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock.
Transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers to entities, including certain charities and foundations, to the extent the transferor retains sole dispositive power and exclusive voting control with respect to the shares of Class B common stock.exceptions. Such conversions of Class B common stock to Class A common stock upon transfer will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, our Class B stockholders retain shares of Class B common stock constituting as little as 10% of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock combined, they will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
We will continue to incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company.
As a public company, we incur significant legal, financial, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and are required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as the rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC and the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange, including changes in corporate governance practices and the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls. Continuing to comply with these requirements may increase our legal and financial compliance costs and may make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, our management and other personnel must divert attention from operational and other business matters to devote substantial time to these requirements. If we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the NYSE, which could result in potential loss of confidence by our sellers and employees, loss of institutional investor interest, fewer business development opportunities, class action or shareholder derivative lawsuits, depressed stock price, limited liquidity of our Class A common stock, and other material adverse consequences. Moreover, we could incur additional compensation costs in the event that we decide to pay cash compensation closer to that of other public technology companies, which would increase our general and administrative expenses and could materially and adversely affect our profitability.
If we are unable to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, and the market price of our Class A common stock may be materially and adversely affected.
We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and improve our internal controls over financial reporting. We have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources in order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting.
Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. If we identify material weaknesses in our disclosure controls or internal control over financial reporting in the future, we will be unable to assert that our internal controls are effective. If we are unable to do so, or if our auditors are unable to attest to management’s report on the effectiveness of our internal controls, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline. We have identified significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the past and have taken steps to remediate such deficiencies. However, our efforts to remediate them may not be effective or prevent any future deficiency in our internal controls. We are required to disclose material changes made in our internal controls and procedures on a quarterly basis.
Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results, and cause a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors”Risk Factors section and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our Class A common stock include the following:
•general economic, regulatory, and market conditions, in particular conditions that adversely affect our sellers’ business and the amount of transactions they are processing;
•public health crises and related measures to protect the public health;
•sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders;
•issuance of shares of our Class A common stock, whether in connection with an acquisition or upon conversion of some or all of our outstanding Convertible Notes;
•short selling of our Class A common stock or related derivative securities;
•from time to time we make investments in equity that is, or may become, publicly held, and we may experience volatility due to changes in the market prices of such equity investments;
•fluctuations in the price of bitcoin, and potentially any impairment charges in connection with our investments in bitcoin;
•reports by securities or industry analysts, media or other third parties, that are interpreted either negatively or positively by investors, failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage and/or to provide accurate consensus results of us, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts who follow us, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•the financial or other projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections, or our failure to meet those projections;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new products or services;
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| price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time; |
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry; |
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| volatility in the market prices and trading volumes of companies in our industry or companies that investors consider comparable; |
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| changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other companies generally or of those in our industry in particular; |
•actual or perceived security incidents that we or our service providers may suffer; and |
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| sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders; |
•actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses, or the competitive landscape generally. |
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| issuance of shares of our Class A common stock, whether in connection with an acquisition or upon conversion of some or all of our outstanding Notes; |
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| failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage and/or to provide accurate consensus results of us, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts who follow us, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors; |
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| the financial or other projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections, or our failure to meet those projections; |
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| announcements by us or our competitors of new products or services; |
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| public reaction to our press releases, other public announcements, and filings with the SEC; |
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| rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry; |
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| actual or anticipated changes in our results of operations; |
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| changes in the regulatory environment; |
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| actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses, or the competitive landscape generally; |
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| litigation involving us, our industry, or both, or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors; |
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| announced or completed acquisitions of businesses or technologies by us or our competitors; |
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| new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business; |
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| changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles; |
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| any significant change in our management; and |
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| general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets. |
In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. ThisSuch litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.
Servicing
Our Class A common stock is listed to trade on more than one stock exchange, and this may result in price variations.
Our Class A common stock is listed for trade on the NYSE and as CDIs on the ASX. Dual-listing may result in price variations between the exchanges due to a number of factors. Our Class A common stock is traded in U.S. dollars on the NYSE and our Notes may require a significant amount of cash, and we may notCDIs are traded in Australian Dollars on the ASX. The two exchanges also have sufficient cash ordiffering vacation schedules. Differences in the ability to raisetrading schedules, as well as volatility in the funds necessary to settle conversionsexchange rate of the Notestwo currencies, among other factors, may result in cash, repay the Notes at maturity or repurchase the Notes upon a fundamental change, and our future debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or repurchase of the Notes.
On March 6, 2017, we issued $440.0 million aggregate principal amount of Notes.
Prior to December 1, 2021, the Notes are convertible at the option of the holders only under certain conditions or upon occurrence of certain events. Upon satisfaction of these conditions or occurrence of these events, if holders of the Notes elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares ofdifferent trading prices for our Class A common stock to settle such conversion, we will be required to make cash payments in respect ofon the Notes being converted. In addition, holders of the Notes have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change (as defined in the indenture governing the Notes) at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest. If the Notes have not previously been converted or repurchased, we will be required to repay the Notes in cash at maturity.two exchanges.
Our ability to make required cash payments in connection with conversions of the Notes, repurchase the Notes in the event of a fundamental change or to refinance the Notes at maturity will depend on market conditions and our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. We also may not use the cash proceeds we raised through the issuance of the Notes in an optimally productive and profitable manner. Since inception, our business has generated net losses and we may continue to incur significant losses. As a result, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of Notes surrendered therefor or pay cash with respect to Notes being converted or at their maturity.
In addition, our ability to repurchase or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes may be limited by law, regulatory authority or agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under our credit facility or agreements governing our future indebtedness and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If the payment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes.
The convertible note hedge and warrant transactions may affect the value of our Class A common stock.
In connection with the issuance of theeach series of our Convertible Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions with certain financial institutions, which we refer to as the “option counterparties”.option counterparties. We also entered into warrant transactions with the option counterparties pursuant to which we sold warrants for the purchase of our Class A common stock. The convertible note hedge transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution to our Class A common stock upon any conversion of the Convertible Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount of converted Convertible Notes, as the case may be. The warrant transactions would separately have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of our Class A common stock exceeds the strike price of any warrants unless, subject to the terms of the warrant transactions, we elect to cash settle the warrants.
In connection with establishing their initial hedges of
From time to time, the convertible note hedge and warrant transactions, the option counterparties purchased shares of our Class A common stock and/or entered into various derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock. The option counterparties or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the Convertible Notes. This activity could cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws, and provisions of Delaware law could impair a takeover attempt.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (“certificate of incorporation”), our amended and restated bylaws (“bylaws”), and Delaware law contain provisions whichthat could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors and therefore depress the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Among other things, our amended and restateddual-class common stock structure provides our holders of Class B common stock with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding shares of common stock. Further, our certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions (i) creating a classified board of directors whose members serve staggered three-year terms; (ii) authorizing “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by our board of directors without stockholder approval and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend, and other rights superior to our common stock; (iii) limiting the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings; (iv) eliminating the ability of our stockholders to act by written consent without a meeting or to remove directors without cause; and (v) requiring advance notice of stockholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our stockholders and for nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors. These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prevents certain stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding capital stock from engaging in certain business combinations without the approval of our board of directors or the holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding capital stock not held by such stockholder.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our capital stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that (1) the Delaware Court of Chancery ofor another state court or federal court located within the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders and (2) the federal district courts of the U.S. will be the exclusive forum for all causes of action arising under the Securities Act, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorablechoose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware does not have jurisdiction, another state court in Delaware or federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or other employees to us or to our stockholders; (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law;Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine.doctrine, in all cases subject to the court having jurisdiction over the claims at issue and the indispensable parties. The choice of forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act.
Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our bylaws also provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing bylaw provisions. Although we believe these exclusive forum provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws in the types of lawsuits to which each applies, the exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorableof its choosing for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, stockholders, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such lawsuitsclaims against us and our current and former directors, officers, andstockholders, or other employees. Alternatively, ifOur stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder as a result of our exclusive forum provisions. Further, in the event a court were to find the choice offinds either exclusive forum provision contained in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicableunenforceable or unenforceableinapplicable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material and adverse impact onharm our business.results of operations.
If securities or industry analysts publish reports that are interpreted negatively by the investment community, publish negative research reports about our business, or cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, our share price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends, to some extent, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. We do not have any control over these analysts or the information contained in their reports. If one or more analysts publish research reports that are interpreted negatively by the investment community, or have a negative tone regarding our business, financial or operating performance, industry or end-markets, our share price could decline. In addition, if a majority of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our common stock if the trading price of our common stock increases. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase shares of our common stock. Our ability to pay dividends is restricted by the terms of our revolving credit facility and is also subject to limitations imposed by certain financial regulations.
Additional stock issuances could result in significant dilution to our stockholders.
We may issue additional equity securities to raise capital, make acquisitions, or for a variety of other purposes. Additional issuances of our stock may be made pursuant to the exercise or conversion of new or existing convertible debt securities, warrants, stock options, or other equity incentive awards to new and existing service providers. Any such issuances will result in dilution to existing holders of our stock. We rely on equity-based compensation as an important tool in recruiting and retaining employees. The amount of dilution due to equity-based compensation of our employees and other additional issuances could be substantial.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Not applicable.
Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities
Not applicable.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Item 5. Other Information
Not applicable.
Securities Trading Plans of Directors and Executive Officers
During the quarterly period ended September 30, 2023, the following officer, as defined in Rule 16a-1(f), adopted or terminated a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” as defined in Regulation S-K Item 408, as follows:
On August 17, 2023, Amrita Ahuja, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, adopted a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement providing for the sale from time to time of an aggregate of up to 178,854 shares of our Class A common stock. The trading arrangement is intended to satisfy the affirmative defense in Rule 10b5-1(c). The duration of the trading arrangement is until November 22, 2024, or earlier if all transactions under the trading arrangement are completed.
No other officers or directors, as defined in Rule 16a-1(f), adopted and/or terminated a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” or a “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement,” as defined in Regulation S-K Item 408, during the last fiscal quarter.
Item 6. Exhibits
The documents listed in the Exhibit Index of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are incorporated by reference or are filed with this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (numbered in accordance with Item 601 of Regulation S-K).
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
SQUARE, INC.
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Date: | November 8, 2017 | | By: | /s/ Jack Dorsey |
| | | | Jack Dorsey |
| | | | President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman |
| | | | (Principal Executive Officer) |
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| | | By: | /s/ Sarah Friar |
| | | | Sarah Friar |
| | | | Chief Financial Officer |
| | | | (Principal Financial Officer) |
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EXHIBIT INDEX
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| | | | Incorporated by Reference |
| Exhibit Number | | Description | Form | Form | | File No. | Exhibit | Exhibit | | Filing Date |
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101.INS101 | | XBRL Instance Document.The following financial statements from the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, formatted in Inline XBRL: (i) Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, (ii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, (iii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss), (iv) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, (v) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity, and (vi) Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. | | | | | | | | |
101.SCH104 | | Cover Page Interactive Data File, formatted in Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document.(included in Exhibit 101) | | | | |
101.CAL | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document. | | | | |
101.DEF | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document. | | | | |
101.LAB | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document. | | | | |
101.PRE | | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document. | | | | |
† The certifications attached as Exhibit 32.1 that accompany this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are deemed furnished and not filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Square,Block, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, whether made before or after the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
BLOCK, INC.
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| Date: | November 2, 2023 | | By: | /s/ Jack Dorsey |
| | | | Jack Dorsey |
| | | | Block Head and Chairperson |
| | | | (Principal Executive Officer) |
| | | | |
| | | By: | /s/ Amrita Ahuja |
| | | | Amrita Ahuja |
| | | | Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer |
| | | | (Principal Financial Officer) |
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