The increase in research and development expense for the three months ended September 30, 20192020 as compared to the three months ended September 30, 20182019 was primarily due to an increase in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, of $6.5$6.4 million due to an increase in headcount partly attributable to the acquisition of Feature Labs, Inc., or Feature Labs, as well as additional stock awards provided to employees acquired as part of the Feature Labs acquisition. In addition, there was an increase of $0.7 million in IT and overhead costs to support the additional headcount.
The increase in sales and marketing expense for the three months ended September 30, 20192020 as compared to the three months ended September 30, 20182019 was primarily due to an increase in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, of $14.5$12.1 million due to an increase in headcount, with such amount including the effect of a decrease in travel and entertainment expense of $2.7 million as a result of travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase of $1.6$2.5 million in marketing programs and an increase in consulting and professional fees of $1.0 million as we continuecontinued to expand the reach of our virtual marketing programs, including through the expansion of our international marketing teams.teams, and an increase of $1.5 million in IT and overhead costs to support the additional headcount.
The increase in sales and marketing expense for the nine months ended September 30, 20192020 as compared to the nine months ended September 30, 20182019 was primarily due to an increase in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, of $41.1$45.6 million due to an increase in headcount, with such amount including the effect of a decrease in travel and entertainment expense of $3.0 million as a result of travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase of $7.7$5.6 million in marketing programs, includingIT and overhead costs associated with our Inspire user conference into support the U.S. and the Asia Pacific region,additional headcount, and an increase in consulting and professional fees of $3.2 million.$1.8 million as we continued to expand the reach of our virtual marketing programs. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $0.7 million in marketing programs primarily due to the cancellation of our annual Analyticon and Inspire user conferences and other in-person marketing events, with such decrease partially offset in part by an increase in our digital marketing programs.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $13.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2019. Net cash provided by operating activities primarily reflected net non-cash activity of $34.4 million, offset in part by a net loss of $3.5 million and a change in operating assets and liabilities of $17.4 million.
Changes in operating assets and liabilities is primarily driven by the seasonality of our sales cycle. The fourth quarter of each fiscal year has historically been our strongest quarter for new business and renewals and, correspondingly, the first quarter of the subsequent fiscal year has historically been the strongest for cash collections on accounts receivable and highest for payments of sales commissions. As a result of this seasonality, our deferred revenue, contract asset and deferred commission balances decreased on a net basis during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2019. This was offset by a decrease in accounts receivable indecreased during each of the nine months ended September 30, 2019 drivenand 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2019, respectively. These decreases were offset in part by timing of cash collectionsa decrease to accrued payroll and billings.payroll-related liability balances and a net increase in deferred commission, contract asset, and deferred revenue balances during each respective period. In addition to the sales cycle, our cash flow from operations is also impacted by the payment of our annual cash incentive bonuses to our non-commissioned employees in the first quarter payments related to our annual Inspire user conferences inof the quarter during which each occurs,fiscal year and the timing of obligations on accounts payable.
Net cash used in investing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 was $26.9 million, consisting primarily of $16.6 million in net cash paid in connection with our acquisition of ClearStory Data and $4.2 million of purchasesnet maturities and sales of investments, net of maturities.marketable securities.
Net cash provided by financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 was $566.6 million, consisting primarily of proceeds from the issuance of our 2024 & 2026 Notes, net of issuance costs, of $783.9 million, proceeds from stock option exercises of $18.1 million, and proceeds of $4.9 million from the disgorgement by a stockholder of certain profits under Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. This was offset in part by principal payments on our 2023 Notes of $145.2 million,
The timing and number of stock option exercises and employee stock purchases and the amount of proceeds we receive from these equity awards is not within our control. As it is now our general practice to issue principally RSUs to our employees, cash paid on behalf of employees for minimum statutory withholding taxes on RSUsRSU settlements will likely increase.
Our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and operating expenses, provision for income taxes, and related disclosures. Generally, we base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions in accordance with U.S. GAAP that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates. To the extent that there are material differences between these estimates and our actual results, our future financial statements will be affected.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.
Due to our international operations, we have foreign currency risks related to revenue and operating expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, primarily the British Pound and Euro. Our sales contracts are primarily denominated in the local currency of the customer making the purchase. In addition, a portion of our operating expenses are incurred outside the United States and are denominated in foreign currencies where our operations are located. We are also exposed to certain foreign exchange rate risks related to our foreign subsidiaries, including as a result of intercompany loans denominated in non-functional currencies. DecreasesIncreases in the relative value of the U.S. dollar to other currencies may negatively affect revenue and other operating results as expressed in U.S. dollars. We do not believe that an immediate 10% increase or decrease in the relative value of the U.S. dollar to other currencies would have a material effect on our operating results.
We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in net income (loss) as a result of transaction gains or losses related to remeasuring certain current asset and current liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the functional
currency of the entities in which they are recorded. Volatile market conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic may result in significant changes in exchange rates, and, in particular, a weakening of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar may negatively affect our revenue and net income (loss) as expressed in U.S. dollars. To date, we have not entered into derivatives or hedging transactions, as our exposure to foreign currency exchange rates has historically been partially hedged. Ourhedged by our U.S. dollar denominated inflows have coveredcovering our U.S. dollar denominated expenses and our foreign currency denominated inflows have coveredcovering our foreign currency denominated expenses. However, we may enter into derivative or hedging transactions in the future if our exposure to foreign currency should become more significant.
We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures.
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act as of September 30, 2019.2020. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures, and is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded as of September 30, 20192020 that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and implemented, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues within a company are detected. The inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple errors or mistakes. Controls can also be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and may not be detected. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Item 1. Legal Proceedings.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
We have experienced rapid growth in a relatively short period of time. Our number of full-time employees has increased significantly over the last year, from 756 employees as of September 30, 2018 to 1,176 employees as of September 30, 2019.2019 to 1,519 employees as of September 30, 2020. We have also established and expanded our operations in a number of countries outside the United States.
A failure to manage our growth effectively could harm our business, operating results, financial condition, and ability to market and sell our platform.
Our revenue growth and ability to sustain profitability depends on being able to expand our skilled talent base and increase their productivity, particularly with respect to our direct sales force and software engineers.
In the software industry, there is substantial and continuous competition for engineers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing software, as well as competition for experienced sales personnel. We may not be successful in, and from time to time have experienced difficulty in, recruiting, training and retaining qualified personnel.
Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training, and retaining sufficient numbers of direct sales personnel and software engineers to support our growth. New hires require significant training and sales personnel typically take six months or more to achieve full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as we expect and if our new sales employees do not become fully productive on the timelines that we have projected or at all, our revenue will not increase at anticipated levels and our ability to achieve long term projections may be negatively impacted. We may also be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the markets where we do business or plan to do business. Furthermore, hiring personnel in new countries requires additional set up and upfront costs that we may not recover if those personnel fail to achieve full productivity. In addition, as we continue to grow rapidly, a large percentage of our talent will be new to our company and our platform, which may adversely affect our revenue if we cannot train our talent quickly or effectively. Attrition rates may increase, and we may face integration challenges as we continue to seek to aggressively expand our talent base. If we are unable to hire and train sufficient numbers of effective sales personnel, if we are unable to identify and recruit sufficient numbers of software engineers with the skills and technical knowledge that we require, if the sales personnel are not successful in obtaining new customers or increasing sales to our existing customer base or if the software engineers are unable to timely contribute to the development of our products, our business will be adversely affected.
Further, to date, the majority of our revenue has been attributable to the efforts of our direct sales force in the United States. In order to increase our revenue and sustain profitability, we must, and we intend to, increase the size of our direct sales force, both in the United States and internationally, to generate additional revenue from new and existing customers. We periodically change and make adjustments to our sales organization in response to market opportunities, competitive threats, management changes, product introductions or enhancements, acquisitions, sales performance, increases in sales headcount, cost levels and other internal and external considerations. Any future sales organization changes may result in a temporary reduction of productivity, which could negatively affect our rate of growth. In addition, any significant change to the way we structure the compensation of our sales organization may be disruptive and may affect our revenue growth.
We have a history ofincurred net losses in the past, anticipate increasing our operating expenses in the future, and may not sustain profitability.
Prior toAlthough we generated net income in recent periods, including the yearthree months ended December 31, 2018,September 30, 2020, we incurred a net loss in the nine months ended September 30, 2020, have incurred net losses in each fiscal year since our inception. Although we experiencedthe past, and could incur net incomelosses in the year ended December 31, 2018 andfuture. If the three months ended March 31, 2019, we experienced a net loss in eacheffects of the three months ended June 30, 2019COVID-19 pandemic on us, the economy and September 30, 2019, andour customers are not prolonged, we expect our operating expenses to continue to increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we implement initiatives designed to grow our business, including increasing our overall customer base and expanding sales within our current customer base, continuing to penetrate international markets, investing in research and development to improve the capabilities of our platform, growing our distribution channels and channel partner ecosystem, deepening our user community, hiring additional employees, expanding our operations and infrastructure, both domestically and internationally, and in connection with legal, accounting, and other administrative expenses related to operating as a public company. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently, or at all, to offset these higher expenses and to sustain profitability. GrowthSome or all of the foregoing initiatives have been and may continue to be temporarily delayed or re-evaluated as part of our efforts to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, which may negatively affect our ability to expand our operations and maintain or increase our sales. In addition, growth of our revenue has slowed and may continue to slow or revenue may decline for a number of possible reasons, including a decrease in our ability to attract and retain customers, a failure to increase our number of channel partners, increasing competition, decreasing growth of our overall market, and an inability to timely and cost-effectively introduce new products and services that are favorably received by customers and partners. A shortfall in revenue could lead to operating results being below expectations because we may not be able to quickly reduce our fixed operating expenses in response to short-term business changes. If we are unable to meet these risks and challenges as we encounter them, our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
If we cannot maintain our corporate culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion, and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success, and our business may be harmed.
We believe that our corporate culture has been vital to our success, including in attracting, developing, and retaining personnel, as well as our customers. As we continue to grow and face industry challenges, it may become more challenging to maintain that culture. In addition, we plan to expand our international operations into other countries in the future, which may impact our culture as we seek to find, hire, and integrate additional employees while maintaining our corporate culture. If we are unable to maintain our corporate culture, we could lose the innovation, passion, and dedication of our team and as a result, our business and ability to focus on our corporate objectives may be harmed.
If the market for analytics products and services fails to grow as we expect, or if businesses fail to adopt our platform, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Nearly all our revenue has come from licenses of our subscription-based software platform, and we expect these sales to account for a large portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. Although demand for analytics products and services has grown in recent years, the market for analytics products and services continues to evolve and the secular shift towards self-service analytics may not be as significant as we expect. We cannot be sure that this market will continue to grow or, even if it does grow, that businesses will adopt our platform. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to further penetrate the existing market for business analytics software, as well as the continued growth and expansion of what we believe to be an emerging market for analytics products and services that are faster, easier to adopt, easier to use, and more focused on self-service capabilities. Our ability to further penetrate the business analytics market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our platform, as well as customers’ willingness to adopt a different approach to data analysis. We have spent, and intend to keep spending, considerable resources to educate potential customers about analytics products and services in general and our platform in particular. However, we cannot be sure that these expenditures will help our platform achieve any additional market acceptance. Furthermore, potential customers may have made significant investments in legacy analytics software systems and may be unwilling to invest in new products and services. In addition, resistance from consumer and privacy groups to increased commercial collection and use of data on spending patterns and other personal behavior and governmental restrictions on the collection and use of personal data may impair the further growth of this market by reducing the value of data to organizations, as may other developments. If the market fails to grow or grows more slowly than we currently expect or businesses fail to adopt our platform, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We derive a large portion of our revenue from our software platform, and our future growth is dependent on its success.
Nearly all of our revenue has come from sales of our subscription-based software platform and because we expect these sales to account for a large portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future, the continued growth in market demand for our platform is critical to our continued success. SinceIn 2017, we have announced two new products for our software platform, Alteryx Connect and Alteryx Promote, butand, in 2020, we announced Alteryx Analytics Hub, or AAH, and Alteryx Intelligence Suite, or AIS. We cannot be certain, however, that either productany of these products will generate significant revenue. In addition, Alteryx Connect is designed to be used with our Alteryx Server product and is not sold independently. Accordingly, our business and financial results will continue to be substantially dependent on our single software platform.
If we are unable to attract new customers, expand sales to existing customers, both domestically and internationally, and maintain the subscription amount and subscription term to renewing customers, our revenue growth could be slower than we expect and our business may be harmed.
Our future revenue growth depends in part upon increasing our customer base. Our ability to achieve significant growth in revenue in the future will depend, in large part, upon the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, both domestically and internationally, and our ability to attract new customers. In particular, we are dependent upon lead generation strategies to drive our sales and revenue. If these marketing strategies fail to continue to generate sufficient sales opportunities necessary to increase our revenue and to the extent that we are unable to successfully attract and expand our customer base, we will not realize the intended benefits of these marketing strategies and our ability to grow our revenue may be adversely affected.
Demand for our platform by new customers may also be affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as continued market acceptance of our platform for existing and new use cases, the timing of development and new releases of our software, technological change, growth or contraction in our addressable market, and accessibility across operating systems. In addition, mitigation and containment measures adopted by government authorities to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and internationally, including travel restrictions and other requirements that limit in-person meetings, could limit our ability to establish and maintain relationships with new and existing customers. Further, if competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated products or services that are perceived to compete with our products and services, our ability to sell our products and services based on factors such as pricing, technology and functionality could be impaired. As a result, we may be unable to attract new customers at rates or on terms that would be favorable or comparable to prior periods, which could negatively affect the growth of our revenue. Attracting new customers may also be particularly challenging where an organization has already invested substantial personnel and financial resources to integrate traditional data analytics tools into its business, as such organization may be reluctant or unwilling to invest in new products and services. If we fail to attract new customers and maintain and expand those customer relationships, our revenue will grow more slowly than expected and our business will be harmed.
Even if we continue to attract new customers, the cost of new customer acquisition may prove so high as to prevent us from sustaining profitability. Our future revenue growth also depends upon expanding sales and renewals of subscriptions to our platform with existing customers. If our customers do not purchase additional licenses or capabilities, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected, may not grow at all or may decline. Additionally, increasing incremental sales to our current customer base requires increasingly sophisticated and costly sales efforts that are targeted at senior management. We plan to continue expanding our sales
efforts, both domestically and internationally, but we may be unable to hire qualified sales personnel, may be unable to successfully train those sales personnel that we are able to hire, and sales personnel may not become fully productive on the timelines that we have projected or at all. Additionally, although we dedicate significant resources to sales and marketing programs, including Internet and other online advertising, these sales and marketing programs may not have the desired effect and may not expand sales. We cannot assure you that our efforts would result in increased sales to existing customers and additional revenue. If our efforts to upsell to our customers are not successful, our business and operating results would be adversely affected.
Our customers generally enter into license agreements with one to three year subscription terms and generally have no obligation or contractual right to renew their subscriptions after the expiration of their initial subscription period. New customers may enter into license agreements for lower subscription amounts or for shorter subscription terms than we anticipate, which reduces our ability to forecast revenue growth accurately. Moreover, our customers may not renew their subscriptions and those customers that do renew their subscriptions may renew for lower subscription amounts or for shorter subscription terms. Customer renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including the breadth of early deployment, reductions in our customers’ spending levels, our pricing or pricing structure, the pricing or capabilities of products or services offered by our competitors, our customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our platform, or the effects of economic conditions.conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. If our customers do not renew their agreements with us, or renew on terms less favorable to us, our revenue may decline.
If we are unable to develop and release product and service enhancements and new products and services to respond to rapid technological change in a timely and cost-effective manner, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The market for our platform is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product and service introductions and enhancements, changing customer demands, and evolving industry standards. The introduction of products and services embodying new technologies can quickly make existing products and services obsolete and unmarketable. Analytics products and services are inherently complex, and it can take a long time and require significant research and development expenditures to develop and test new or enhanced products and services. In 2020, we announced AAH, a new product, and AIS, a new product enhancement. The success of any enhancements or improvements to our platform or any new products and services depends on several factors, including timely completion, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies and our platform, and overall market acceptance. We cannot be sure that we will succeed in developing, marketing, and delivering on a timely and cost-effective basis enhancements or improvements to our platform or any new products and services that respond to technological change or new customer requirements, nor can we be sure that any enhancements or improvements to our platform, including, but not limited to AAH and AIS, or any new products and services will achieve market acceptance. Any new products that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain errors or defects, or may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate sufficient revenue. Moreover, even if we introduce new products and services, we may experience a decline in revenue of our existing products and services that is not offset by revenue from the new products or services. For example, customers may delay making purchases of new products and services to permit them to make a more thorough evaluation of these products and services or until industry and marketplace reviews become widely available. Some customers may hesitate migrating to a new product or service due to concerns regarding the complexity of migration and product or service infancy issues on performance. Further, we may make changes to our platform that customers do not find useful and we may also discontinue certain features or increase the price or price structure for our platform. In addition, we may lose existing customers who choose a competitor’s products and services rather than migrate to our new products and services. This could result in a temporary or permanent revenue shortfall and adversely affect our business.
Further, the emergence of new industry standards related to analytics products and services may adversely affect the demand for our platform. This could happen if new Internet standards and technologies or new standards in the field of operating system support emerged that were incompatible with customer deployments of our platform. For example, if we are unable to adapt our platform on a timely basis to new database standards, the ability of our platform to access customer databases and to analyze data within such databases could be impaired. In addition, because part of our platform is cloud-based, we need to continually enhance and improve our platform to keep pace with changes in Internet-related hardware, software, communications, and database technologies and standards.
Any failure of our platform to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our platform. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a timely and cost-effective manner, our platform may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete, and our operating results may be adversely affected.
Moreover, software-as-a-service, or SaaS business models have become increasingly demanded by customers and adopted by other software providers, including our competitors. While part of our platform is cloud-based, most of our platform is currently deployed on premise and therefore, if customers demand that our platform be provided through a SaaS business model, we would be required to make additional investments to our infrastructure in order to be able to more fully provide our platform through a
SaaS model so that our platform remains competitive. Such investments may involve expanding our data centers, servers, and networks and increasing our technical operations and engineering teams.
The competitive position of our software platform depends in part on its ability to operate with third-party products and services, and if we are not successful in maintaining and expanding the compatibility of our platform with such third-party products and services, our business, financial position, and operating results could be adversely impacted.
The competitive position of our software platform depends in part on its ability to operate with products and services of third parties, software services and infrastructure. As such, we must continuously modify and enhance our platform to adapt to changes in hardware, software, networking, browser, and database technologies. In the future, one or more technology companies may choose not to support the operation of their hardware, software, or infrastructure, or our platform may not support the capabilities needed to operate with such hardware, software, or infrastructure. In addition, to the extent that a third party were to develop software or services that compete with ours, that provider may choose not to support our platform. We intend to facilitate the compatibility of our software platform with various third-party hardware, software, and infrastructure by maintaining and expanding our business and technical relationships. If we are not successful in achieving this goal, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be adversely impacted.
We face intense and increasing competition, and we may not be able to compete effectively, which could reduce demand for our platform and adversely affect our business, revenue growth, and market share.
The market for self-service data analytics solutions is new and rapidly evolving. In many cases, our primary competitors are manual, spreadsheet-driven processes and custom-built approaches in which potential customers have made significant investments. In addition, we compete with large software companies, including providers of traditional business intelligence tools that offer one or more capabilities that are competitive with our platform. These capabilities include data preparation and/or advanced analytic modeling tools from International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, and SAS Institute Inc. Additionally, data visualization companies which already offer products and services in adjacent markets have recently introduced products and services that are or may in the future become competitive with our offerings in the future.offerings. We could also face competition from new market entrants, some of whom might be our current technology partners. In addition, some business analytics software companies offer data preparation options that are competitive with some of the features within our platform, such as Dataiku Ltd., DataRobot, Inc., MicroStrategy Incorporated, Paxata, Inc., Tableau Software, Inc.salesforce.com, inc., Talend S.A., TIBCO Software Inc., and Trifacta, Inc.
Many of our current and potential competitors, particularly the large software companies named above, have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, professional services, or other resources and greater name recognition than us. We expect competition to increase as other established and emerging companies enter the self-service data analytics software market, as customer requirements evolve, and as new products and services and technologies are introduced. In addition, many of our current and potential competitors have strong relationships with current and potential customers and extensive knowledge of the business analytics industry. As a result, our current and potential competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or customer requirements or devote greater resources than we can to the development, promotion, and sale of their products and services. Moreover, many of these companies are bundling their analytics products and services into larger deals or subscription renewals, often at significant discounts as part of a larger sale. In addition, some current and potential competitors may offer products or services that address one or a number of functions at lower prices or at no cost, or with greater depth than our platform. Further, our current and potential competitors may develop and market new technologies with comparable functionality to our platform. As a result of the foregoing or other developments, we may experience fewer customer orders, reduced gross margins, longer sales cycles, and loss of market share. This could lead us to decrease prices, implement alternative pricing structures, or introduce products and services available for free or a nominal price in order to remain competitive. We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors, and our business, operating results, and financial condition will be harmed if we fail to meet these competitive pressures.
Our ability to compete successfully in our market depends on a number of factors, both within and outside of our control. We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include: ease of use; platform features, quality, functionality, reliability, performance, and effectiveness; ability to automate analytical tasks or processes; ability to integrate with other technology infrastructures; vision for the market and product innovation; software analytics expertise; total cost of ownership; adherence to industry standards and certifications; strength of sales and marketing efforts; brand awareness and reputation; and customer experience, including support. Any failure by us to compete successfully in any one of these or other areas may reduce the demand for our platform, as well as adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Moreover, current and future competitors may also make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with others, including our current or future technology partners. By doing so, these competitors may increase their ability to meet the needs of our customers or potential customers. In addition, our current or prospective indirect sales channel partners may establish cooperative relationships with our current or future competitors. These relationships may limit our ability to sell or certify our platform through specific distributors, technology providers, database companies, and distribution channels and allow our competitors to rapidly gain significant market share. These developments could limit our
ability to obtain revenue from existing and new customers. If we are unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be harmed.
If the market for analytics products and services fails to grow as we expect, or if businesses fail to develop, maintain, and enhanceadopt our brand and reputation cost-effectively,platform, our business, operating results, and financial condition maycould be adversely affected.
Nearly all our revenue has come from licenses of our subscription-based software platform, including PCS and support included with the subscription, and we expect these sales to account for a large portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. Although demand for analytics products and services has grown in recent years, the market for analytics products and services continues to evolve and the secular shift towards self-service analytics may not be as significant as we expect. We cannot be sure that this market will continue to grow or, even if it does grow, that businesses will adopt our platform. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to further penetrate the existing market for business analytics software, as well as the continued growth and expansion of what we believe to be an emerging market for analytics products and services that are faster, easier to adopt, easier to use, and more focused on self-service capabilities. Our ability to further penetrate the business analytics market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our platform, as well as customers’ willingness to adopt a different approach to data analysis. We have spent, and intend to keep spending, considerable resources to educate potential customers about analytics products and services in general and our platform in particular. However, we cannot be sure that these expenditures will help our platform achieve any additional market acceptance. Furthermore, potential customers may have made significant investments in legacy analytics software systems and may be unwilling to invest in new products and services. In addition, resistance from consumer and privacy groups to increased commercial collection and use of data on spending patterns and other personal behavior and governmental restrictions on the collection and use of personal data may impair the further growth of this market by reducing the value of data to organizations, as may other developments. If the market fails to grow or grows more slowly than we currently expect or businesses fail to adopt our platform, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
If we cannot maintain our corporate culture, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion, and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success, and our business may be harmed.
We believe that our corporate culture has been vital to our success, including in attracting, developing, and retaining personnel, as well as our customers. As we have grown rapidly over the last several years, it has become more challenging to maintain that culture. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all of our employees have been working remotely, which can create additional obligations and difficulties for certain employees and could negatively impact our corporate culture. Further, when the economy begins to recover from the impact of COVID-19, we plan to expand our international operations into other countries, which may impact our culture as we seek to find, hire, and integrate additional employees while maintaining our corporate culture. If we are unable to maintain our corporate culture for any of these or other reasons, we could lose the innovation, passion, and dedication of our team and as a result, our business and ability to focus on our corporate objectives may be harmed.
The competitive position of our software platform depends in part on its ability to operate with third-party products and services, and if we are not successful in maintaining and enhancing awareness and integrity of our brand and reputation in a cost-effective manner is important to achieving widespread acceptanceexpanding the compatibility of our platform with such third-party products and is an important element in attracting new customersservices, our business, financial position, and maintaining existing customers. We believe that the importanceoperating results could be adversely impacted.
The competitive position of our brandsoftware platform depends in part on its ability to operate with products and reputation will increase as competitionservices of third parties, software services and infrastructure. As such, we must continuously modify and enhance our platform to adapt to changes in hardware, software, networking, browser, and database technologies. In the future, one or more technology companies may choose not to support the operation of their hardware, software, or infrastructure, or our market further intensifies. Successful promotionplatform may not support the capabilities needed to operate with such hardware, software, or infrastructure. In addition, to the extent that a third party were to develop software or services that compete with ours, that provider may choose not to support our platform. We intend to facilitate the compatibility of our brand will depend on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide a reliablesoftware platform with various third-party hardware, software, and useful platform at competitive prices, the perceived value of our platform,infrastructure by maintaining and our ability to provide quality customer support. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, the increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand and reputation. We also rely on our customer base and community of end-users in a variety of ways, including to give us feedback on our platform and to provide user-based support to our other customers. If we fail to promote and maintain our brand successfully or to maintain loyalty among our customers, or if we incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract new customers and partners or retain our existing customers and partners andexpanding our business and technical relationships. If we are not successful in achieving this goal, our business, financial condition, mayand operating results could be adversely affected. Any negative publicity relating to our employees or partners, or others associated with these parties, may also tarnish our own reputation simply by association and may reduce the value of our brand. Damage to our brand and reputation may result in reduced demand for our platform and increased risk of losing market share to our competitors. Any efforts to restore the value of our brand and rebuild our reputation may be costly and may not be successful.impacted.
We use channel partners and if we are unable to establish and maintain successful relationships with them, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In addition to our direct sales force, we use channel partners such as technology alliances, solutions providers, strategic global system integrators, management consulting firms,solution partners, and value-added resellersVARs to sell and support our platform. Channel partners are becoming an increasingly important aspect of our business, particularly with regard to enterprise, governmental, and international sales. Our future growth in revenue and ability to sustain profitability depends in part on our continuing ability to identify, establish, and
retain successful channel partner relationships in the United States and internationally, which will take significant time and resources and involve significant risk. We intend to continue making significant investments to grow our indirect sales channel. If we are unable to maintain our relationships with these channel partners, or otherwise develop and expand our indirect distribution channel, our business, operating results, financial condition, or cash flows could be adversely affected.
We cannot be certain that we will be able to identify suitable indirect sales channel partners. To the extent we do identify such partners, we will need to negotiate the terms of a commercial agreement with them under which the partner would distribute our platform. We cannot be certain that we will be able to negotiate commercially-attractive terms with any such channel partner, if at all.partner. In addition, all channel partners must be trained to distribute our platform. In order to develop and expand our distribution channel, we must developcontinue developing and improveimproving our processes for channel partner introduction and training. If we do not succeed in identifying suitable indirect sales channel partners, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We also cannot be certain that we will be able to maintain successful relationships with any channel partners and, to the extent that our channel partners are unsuccessful in selling our platform, our ability to sell, and our channel partners’ willingness to sell, our platform and our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected. Our channel partners may offer customers the products and services of several different companies, including products and services that compete with our platform. Because our channel partners generally do not have an exclusive relationship with us, we cannot be certain that they will prioritize or provide adequate resources to selling our platform. Moreover, divergence in strategy by any of these channel partners may materially adversely affect our ability to develop, market, sell, or support our platform. We cannot assure you that our channel partners will continue to cooperate with us. Further, we rely on our channel partners to operate in accordance with the terms of their contractual agreements with us and any actions taken or omitted to be taken by such parties may adversely affect us. For example, our agreements with our channel partners limit the terms and conditions pursuant to which they are authorized to resell or distribute our platform and offer technical support and related services. We also typically require our channel partners
to represent to us the dates and details of licenses sold through to our customers. If our channel partners do not comply with their contractual obligations to us, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
In addition, all our sales to Federal government entities have been made indirectly through our channel partners. Government entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our channel partners for convenience or due to a default, and, in the future, if the portion of government contracts that are subject to renegotiation or termination at the election of the government entity are material, any such termination or renegotiation may adversely impact our future operating results. In the event of such termination, it may be difficult for us to arrange for another channel partner to sell our platform to these government entities in a timely manner, and we could lose sales opportunities during the transition. Government entities routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government entity refusing to purchase through a particular channel partner or renew its subscription to our platform, a reduction of revenue, or fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities.
We depend on technology and data licensed to us by third parties that may be difficult to replace or cause errors or failures that may impair or delay implementation of our products and services or force us to pay higher license fees.
We license third-party technologies and data that we incorporate into, use to operate, or provide to be used with our platform. We cannot assure you that the licenses for such third-party technologies or data will not be terminated or that we will be able to license third-party software or data for future products and services. Third parties may terminate their licenses with us for a variety of reasons, including actual or perceived failures or breaches of security or privacy. In addition, we may be unable to renegotiate acceptable third-party replacement license terms in the event of termination, or we may be subject to infringement liability if third-party software or data that we license is found to infringe intellectual property or privacy rights of others. In addition, the data that we license from third parties for potential use in our platform may contain errors or defects, which could negatively impact the analytics that our customers perform on or with such data. This may have a negative impact on how our platform is perceived by our current and potential customers and could materially damage our reputation and brand.
Changes in or the loss of third-party licenses could lead to our platform becoming inoperable or the performance of our platform being materially reduced resulting in our potentially needing to incur additional research and development costs to ensure continued performance of our platform or a material increase in the costs of licensing, and we may experience decreased demand for our platform.
The nature of our platform makes it particularly vulnerable to undetected errors or bugs, which could cause problems with how our platform performs and which could, in turn, reduce demand for our platform, reduce our revenue, and lead to product liability claims against us.
Because our platform is complex, it may contain errors or defects, especially when new updates or enhancements are released. Our software is often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, and equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors or failures of our software or other aspects of the computing environment into which it is deployed. In addition, deployment of our software into these computing environments may expose previously undetected errors, compatibility issues, failures, or bugs in our software. Although we test our platform extensively, we have in the past discovered software errors in our platform after introducing new updates or enhancements. Despite testing by us and by our current and potential customers, errors may be found in new updates or enhancements after deployment by our customers. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform could result in negative publicity, loss of customer data, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them, all of which could negatively impact our business and operating results and materially damage our reputation and brand. Alleviating any of these problems could require significant expenditures of our capital and other resources and could cause interruptions, delays, or cessation in the sale of our platform, which could cause us to lose existing or potential customers and could adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
Our agreements with customers typically contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to product liability, warranty, and other claims. However, these provisions do not eliminate our exposure to these claims. In addition, it is possible that these provisions may not be effective under the laws of certain domestic or international jurisdictions and we may be exposed to product liability, warranty, and other claims. A successful product liability, warranty, or other similar claim against us could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
As we continue to pursue sales to large enterprises, our sales cycle, forecasting processes, and deployment processes may become more unpredictable and require greater time and expense.
Sales to large enterprises involve risks that may not be present or that are present to a lesser extent with sales to smaller organizations and, accordingly, our sales cycle may lengthen as we continue to pursue sales to large enterprises. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many large enterprises have reduced or delayed technology or other discretionary spending, which, in addition to resulting in longer sales cycles, may materially and negatively impact our operating results, financial condition and prospects. As we seek to increase our sales to large enterprise customers, we also face more complex customer requirements, substantial upfront sales costs, and less predictability in completing some of our sales than we do with smaller customers. With larger organizations, the decision to subscribe to our platform frequently requires the approvals of multiple management personnel and more technical personnel than would be typical of a smaller organization and, accordingly, sales to larger organizations may require us to invest more time educating these potential customers. In addition, large enterprises often require extensive configuration, integration services, and pricing negotiations, which increase our upfront investment in the sales effort with no guarantee that these customers will deploy our platform widely enough across their organization to justify our substantial upfront investment. Purchases by large enterprises are also frequently subject to budget constraints and unplanned administrative, processing, and other delays, which means we may not be able to come to agreement on the terms of the sale to large enterprises. In addition, our ability to successfully sell our platform to large enterprises is dependent on us attracting and retaining sales personnel with experience in selling to large organizations. If we are unable to increase sales of our platform to large enterprise customers while mitigating the risks associated with serving such customers, our business, financial position, and operating results may be adversely impacted. Furthermore, if we fail to realize an expected sale from a large customer in a particular quarter or at all, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected for a particular period or in future periods.
Our long-term success depends, in part, on our ability to expand the licensing of our software platform to customers located outside of the United States and our current, and any further, expansion of our international operations exposes us to risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We are generating a growing portion of our revenue from international licenses, and conduct our business activities in various foreign countries, including some emerging markets where we have limited experience, where the challenges of conducting our business can be significantly different from those we have faced in more developed markets and where business practices may create internal control risks. There are certain risks inherent in conducting international business, including:
•fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;rates, which could add volatility to our operating results;
•new, or changes in, regulatory requirements;
•uncertainty regarding regulation, currency, tax, and operations resulting from the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union and possible disruptions in trade, the sale of our services and commerce, and movement of our people between the United Kingdom, European Union, and other locations;
•tariffs, export and import restrictions, restrictions on foreign investments, sanctions, and other trade barriers or protection measures;
•costs of localizing products and services;
•lack of acceptance of localized products and services;
•the need to make significant investments in people, solutions and infrastructure, typically well in advance of revenue generation;
•challenges inherent in efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits and compliance programs;
•difficulties in maintaining our company culture with a dispersed and distant workforce;
•treatment of revenue from international sources, evolving domestic and international tax environments, and other potential tax issues, including with respect to our corporate operating structure and intercompany arrangements;
•different or weaker protection of our intellectual property, protection;including increased risk of theft of our proprietary technology and other intellectual property;
•economic weakness or currency-related crises;
the burden of complying•compliance with a wide variety ofmultiple, conflicting, ambiguous or evolving governmental laws and regulations, including those relatingemployment, tax, privacy, anti-corruption, import/export, antitrust, data transfer, storage and protection, and industry-specific laws and regulations, including rules related to labor matters, consumercompliance by our third-party resellers and our ability to identify and respond timely to compliance issues when they occur, and regulations applicable to us and our third party data protection, privacy, network security, encryption,providers from whom we purchase and taxes;resell syndicated data;
•vetting and monitoring our third-party resellers in new and evolving markets to confirm they maintain standards consistent with our brand and reputation;
•generally longer payment cycles and greater difficulty in collecting accounts receivable;
•our ability to adapt to sales practices and customer requirements in different cultures;
•the lack of reference customers and other marketing assets in regional markets that are new or developing for us, as well as other adaptations in our market generation efforts that we may be slow to identify and implement;
•dependence on certain third parties, including resellers with whom we do not have extensive experience;
•natural disasters, acts of war, terrorism, or pandemics, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
•corporate espionage; and
•political instability and security risks in the countries where we are doing business.
For example, in June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendumbusiness and voted in favor of leaving the European Union and in March 2017 the United Kingdom provided notification of its intent to leave the European Union. The United Kingdom was formally due to leave the European Union in March 2019 but this deadline was recently extended to October 2019 and may be extended further. This has created political and economic uncertainty, particularlychanges in the United Kingdom and the European Union, and could cause disruptions to, and create uncertainty surrounding, our businesspublic perception of governments in the United Kingdom and European Union, including affecting our relationships with our existing and prospective customers, partners, and employees, and could have a material impact on the regulatory regime applicablecountries where we operate or plan to our operations in the United Kingdom.operate.
We have undertaken, and might undertake additional, corporate operating restructurings that involve our group of foreign country subsidiaries through which we do business abroad. We consider various factors in evaluating these restructurings, including the alignment of our corporate legal entity structure with our organizational structure and its objectives, the operational and tax efficiency of our group structure, and the long-term cash flows and cash needs of our business. IfSuch restructurings increase our operating costs, and if ineffectual, such restructurings could increase our income tax liabilities and in turn, increase our global effective tax rate.
Tax laws are dynamic and subject to change as new laws are passed and new interpretations of the law are issued or applied. The U.S. enacted significant tax reform in December 2017, and we are continuing to evaluate its impact as new guidance and regulations are published. In addition, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, issued final action items or proposals related to its initiative to combat base erosion and profit shifting, or BEPS. The OECD urged its members to adopt some or all of the proposals to counteract the effects of thetaxpayers’ use of tax havens and preferential tax regimes globally. One BEPS proposal redefines a “permanent establishment,”establishment” under treaty tax law, and changes how profits would be attributed to the permanent establishment. Another proposal calls for ensuring transfer pricing outcomes are commensurate with value creation, adopting the view that the current rules facilitate the transfer of risks, capital, and income away fromSome countries where economic activity takes place. We expect many countries to incorporatehave incorporated the BEPS proposals into their laws. Severallaws and we expect other countries have changed or proposed changesto follow suit, including the adoption of market-based, income sourcing provisions that incorporate some or allassign a greater share of taxable income of a non-resident taxpayer to the country of its customer’s location than do traditional “arm’s length” income sourcing provisions.
Some of the proposals.
Some of theseBEPS and related proposals, if enacted into law in the United States and in the foreign countries where we do business, could increase the burden and costs of our tax compliance. Moreover, such changes could increase the amount of taxes we incur in those jurisdictions, and in turn, increase our global effective tax rate. It is unclear whether the United States and other countries will enact into law the above or similar proposals and to what extent any enacted proposal would affect the amount of taxes we incur in those jurisdictions.
In addition, compliance with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable to our international operations is complex and may increase our cost of doing business in international jurisdictions, and our international operations could expose us to fines and penalties if we fail to comply with these regulations. These laws and regulations include import and
export requirements and anti-bribery laws, such as the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, or the Bribery Act, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to governmental officials.officials as well as commercial bribery. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with these laws, we cannot assure you that our employees, partners, and other persons with whom we do business will not take actions in violation of our policies or these laws. Any violations of these laws could subject us to civil or criminal penalties, including substantial fines or prohibitions on our ability to offer our platform in one or more countries, and could also materially damage our reputation and our brand. These factors may have an adverse effect on our future sales and, consequently, on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Because we recognize a portionOur revenue growth and ability to sustain profitability depends on being able to expand our skilled talent base and increase their productivity, particularly with respect to our direct sales force and software engineers.
In the software industry, there is substantial and continuous competition for engineers with high levels of the revenue from our subscriptions over the subscription term, downturns or upturnsexperience in newdesigning, developing and managing software, as well as competition for experienced sales and renewalspersonnel. We may not be immediatelysuccessful in, and fully reflectedfrom time to time have experienced difficulty in, our operating resultsrecruiting, training and may be difficult to discern.
We generally recognizeretaining qualified personnel. In addition, as a portionresult of the subscription revenue from customers at a point in time when the platform is first made available to the customer, or the beginning of the subscription term, if later. Revenue related to post-contract support, or PCS, cloud-based offerings, and data subscriptions is recognized ratably over the subscription terms. As a result, a portion of the revenueCOVID-19 pandemic, we report in each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any quarter will negatively affect our revenue in such quarter and will continue to negatively affect revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our platform, and potential changes in our rate of renewals, may not be able to hire as quickly as planned and it may be more challenging to entice qualified personnel to leave their current positions to join us.
Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training, and retaining sufficient numbers of direct sales personnel and software engineers to support our growth. New hires require significant training and sales personnel typically take six months or more to achieve full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as we expect and if our new sales employees do not become fully reflected inproductive on the timelines that we have projected or at all, our operating results until future periods.revenue will not increase at anticipated levels and our ability to achieve long term projections may be negatively impacted. We may also be unable to reducehire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the markets where we do business or plan to do business. Furthermore, hiring personnel in new countries requires additional set up and upfront costs that we may not recover if those personnel fail to achieve full productivity. In addition, as we continue to grow rapidly, a large percentage of our operating expensestalent will be new to our company and our platform, which may adversely affect our revenue if we cannot train our talent quickly or effectively. Attrition rates may increase, and we may face integration challenges as we continue to seek to aggressively expand our talent base. If we are unable to hire and train sufficient numbers of effective sales personnel, if we are unable to identify and recruit sufficient numbers of software engineers with the skills and technical knowledge that we require, if the sales personnel are not successful in obtaining new customers or increasing sales to our existing customer base, if the software engineers are unable to timely contribute to the development of our products and services, if we are unable to resume hiring at our planned rates as the economy begins to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, or in the event we are required to reduce our workforce as a result of a significantthe COVID-19 pandemic, our business will be adversely affected.
deterioration in sales, which may prevent us from being ableFurther, to mitigatedate, the effect of such a deterioration. In addition, a significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while a portionrevenue has been attributable to the efforts of our direct sales force in the United States. In order to increase our revenue is recognized overand sustain profitability, we must, and we intend to, increase the lifesize of our direct sales force, both in the agreementUnited States and internationally, to generate additional revenue from new and existing customers. We periodically change and make adjustments to our sales organization in response to market opportunities, competitive threats, management changes, product introductions or enhancements, acquisitions, sales performance, increases in sales headcount, cost levels and other internal and external considerations. Any future sales organization changes may result in a temporary reduction of productivity, which could negatively affect our rate of growth. In addition, any significant change to the way we structure the compensation of our sales organization may be disruptive and may affect our revenue growth.
Political and economic uncertainty, particularly in the United Kingdom and the European Union, could cause disruptions to, and create uncertainty surrounding, our business in the United Kingdom and the European Union, including affecting our relationships with our customer. Asexisting and prospective customers, partners, and employees, and could have a result, increased growthmaterial impact on our operations in the numberUnited Kingdom.
In a June 2016 referendum, the United Kingdom voted in favor of leaving the European Union, and in March 2017, the United Kingdom notified the European Union of its plan to leave the European Union, a process commonly referred to as “Brexit.” Brexit occurred on January 31, 2020 and continues to create political and economic uncertainty. For example, our U.K.-headquartered subsidiary co-develops and licenses our products to customers could continue to result in our recognitionoutside of more costs than revenueNorth and South America, many of which are in the earlier periods ofEuropean Union. Although the United Kingdom is expected to continue its trading relationships with the European Union under a transition agreement through December 31, 2020, our U.K. subsidiary could lose access to the E.U. single market and to E.U. trade agreements with other jurisdictions after that transition period, which could disrupt our business and our relationships with existing and prospective customers, partners, and employees. In addition, depending on the final terms of Brexit and formal agreements or arrangements between the European Union and the United Kingdom, we could face new regulatory costs and burdens, including imposition of customs duties, or tariffs, on our agreements. products licensed to customers in the European Union. We are unable to predict how and to what extent Brexit will impact our future operating results and cash flows.
The nature of our business requires the application of complex revenue recognition rules and changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse, unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect our reported operating results.
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP, is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective, as occurred in connection with our adoption of ASU, 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), or ASC 606. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business.
Accounting for revenue from sales of subscriptions to software is particularly complex, is often the subject of intense scrutiny by the SEC and will evolve as FASB continues to consider applicable accounting standards in this area. For example, ASC 606 became effective for our annual reporting period for the year ended December 31, 2018 and had a material impact on our operating results for the year ended December 31, 2018. ASC 606 is principles-based and interpretation of those principles may vary from company to company based on their unique circumstances. It is possible that interpretation, industry practice and guidance may evolve. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.
We also implemented changes to our accounting processes, internal controls and disclosures to support ASC 606. For example, the timing by which we recognize revenue from each of our products differs as a result of our transition to ASC 606. If a shift in our product mix favors the sale of one or more product(s) over our other product offerings, our revenue may be affected and may grow more slowly than it has in the past, or decline, and our operating results may be adversely impacted. In addition, industry and financial analysts may have difficulty understanding any shifts in our product mix, resulting in changes in financial estimates or failure to meet investor expectations. Furthermore, if we are unsuccessful in adapting our business to the requirements of theany new revenue recognitionaccounting standard, or if changes to our go-to-market strategy create new risks, then we may experience greater volatility in our quarterly and annual operating results, which may have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock.
In addition, effectivein February 2016, FASB issued an accounting standards update on leases, requiring lessees, among other things, to recognize lease assets and lease liabilities on the balance sheet for those leases classified as operating leases under previous authoritative guidance. Effective January 1, 2019, we adopted Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, 2016-02, Leases, or ASC 842. Under ASC 842, we determine if an arrangement is a new lease accounting standard that requires lessees to record the assets and liabilities arising from all leases in the statement of financial position. This update also introduced new disclosure requirements for leasing arrangements. While the adoption of this new standard did not have an impact on retained earnings on our condensed consolidated balance sheet as of January 1, 2019, and is not expected to have a material impact on our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), otherat contract inception. Other companies in our industry may apply these accounting principles differently than we do, adversely affecting the comparability of our condensed consolidated financial statements. Any difficulties in implementing these and other new accounting pronouncements could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us.
If we fail to develop, maintain, and enhance our brand and reputation cost-effectively, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We believe that developing, maintaining, and enhancing awareness and integrity of our brand and reputation in a cost-effective manner is important to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform and is an important element in attracting new customers and maintaining existing customers. We believe that the importance of our brand and reputation will increase as competition in our market further intensifies. Successful promotion of our brand will depend on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide a reliable and useful platform at competitive prices, the perceived value of our platform, and our ability to provide quality customer support. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, the increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand and reputation. We also rely on our customer base and community of end-users in a variety of ways, including to give us feedback on our platform and to provide user-based support to our other customers. If we fail to promote and maintain our brand successfully or to maintain loyalty among our customers, or if we incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract new customers and partners or retain our existing customers and partners and our business and financial condition may be adversely affected. Any negative publicity relating to our employees or partners, or others associated with these parties, may also tarnish our own reputation simply by association and may reduce the value of our brand. Damage to our brand and reputation may result in reduced demand for our platform and increased risk of losing market share to our competitors. Any efforts to restore the value of our brand and rebuild our reputation may be costly and may not be successful.
We have limited experience with respect to determining the optimal prices and pricing structures for our products and services.
We expect that we may need to change our pricing model from time to time, including as a result of competition, global economic conditions, reductions in our customers’ spending levels generally, changes in product mix, pricing studies or changes in how information technology infrastructure is broadly consumed. Similarly, as we introduce new products and services, or as a result of the evolution of our existing products and services, we may have difficulty determining the appropriate price structure for our products and services. In addition, as new and existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, or revise their pricing structures, we may be unable to attract new customers at the same price or based on the same pricing model as we have used historically. Moreover, as we continue to target selling our products and services to larger organizations, these larger organizations may demand substantial price concessions. As a result, we may be required from time to time to revise our pricing structure or reduce our prices, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
As we continue to pursue sales to large enterprises, our sales cycle, forecasting processes, and deployment processes may become more unpredictable and require greater time and expense.
Sales to large enterprises involve risks that may not be present or that are present to a lesser extent with sales to smaller organizations and, accordingly, our sales cycle may lengthen as we continue to pursue sales to large enterprises. As we seek to increase our sales to large enterprise customers, we also face more complex customer requirements, substantial upfront sales costs, and less predictability in completing some of our sales than we do with smaller customers. With larger organizations, the decision to subscribe to our platform frequently requires the approvals of multiple management personnel and more technical personnel than would be typical of a smaller organization and, accordingly, sales to larger organizations may require us to invest more time educating these potential customers. In addition, large enterprises often require extensive configuration, integration services, and pricing negotiations, which increase our upfront investment in the sales effort with no guarantee that these customers will deploy our platform widely enough across their organization to justify our substantial upfront investment. Purchases by large enterprises are also frequently subject to budget constraints and unplanned administrative, processing, and other delays, which means we may not be able to come to agreement on the terms of the sale to large enterprises. In addition, our ability to successfully sell our platform to large enterprises is dependent on us attracting and retaining sales personnel with experience in selling to large organizations. If we are unable to increase sales of our platform to large enterprise customers while mitigating the risks associated with serving such customers, our business, financial position, and operating results may be adversely impacted. Furthermore, if we fail to realize an expected sale from a large customer in a particular quarter or at all, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected for a particular period or in future periods.
Our sales are generally more heavily weighted toward the end of each quarter which could cause our billings and revenue to fall below expected levels.
As a result of customer purchasing patterns, our quarterly sales cycles are generally more heavily weighted toward the end of each quarter with an increased volume of sales in the last few weeks and days of the quarter. This impacts the timing of recognized revenue and billings, cash collections and delivery of professional services. Furthermore, the concentration of contract negotiations in the last few weeks and days of the quarter could require us to expend more in the form of compensation for additional sales, legal and finance employees and contractors. Compression of sales activity to the end of the quarter also greatly increases the likelihood that sales cycles will extend beyond the quarter in which they are forecasted to close for some sizable transactions, which may harm forecasting accuracy, and adversely impact new customer acquisition metrics for the quarter in which they are forecasted to close.close, and result in a revenue shortfall that could adversely affect our business.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, security breaches and if unauthorized parties obtain access to our customers’ data, our data, or our platform, networks, or other systems, our platform may be perceived as not being secure, our reputation may be harmed, demand for our platform may be reduced, our operations may be disrupted, we may incur significant legal liabilities, and our business could be materially adversely affected.
As part of our business, we process, store, and transmit our customers’ information and data as well as our own confidential and/or proprietary business information and trade secrets, including in our platform, networks, and other systems, and we rely on third parties that are not directly under our control to do so as well. We, and our third-party partners, have security measures and disaster response plans in place to help protect our customers’ data, our own data and information, and our platform, networks, and other systems against unauthorized access or inadvertent exposure. However, we cannot assure you that these security measures and disaster response plans will be effective against all security threats and natural disasters. System failures or outages, including any potential disruptions due to significantly increased global demand on certain cloud-based systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, could compromise our ability to perform our day-to-day operations in a timely
manner, which could negatively impact our business or delay our financial reporting. Such failures could also materially adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. Our and our third-party partners’ security measures have in the past been, and may in the future be, breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, fraudulent inducement of employees or customers to disclose sensitive information such as user names or passwords, and the errors or malfeasance of our or our third-party partners’ personnel. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all of our employees are temporarily working remotely, which may pose additional data security risks. For example, there has been an increase in phishing and spam emails as well as social engineering attempts from “hackers” hoping to use the recent COVID-19 pandemic to their advantage. A breach could result in someone obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data, our own data, confidential and/or proprietary business information, trade secrets, personal data, or our platform, networks, or other systems. Although we have incurred significant costs and expect to incur additional significant costs to prevent such unauthorized access, because there are many different security threats and the security threat landscape continues to evolve, we and our third-party partners may be unable to anticipate attempted security breaches and implement adequate preventative measures. Third parties may also conduct attacks designed to temporarily deny customers access to our services.
Any actual or perceived security breach or compromise or failure of our or our third-party partners’ systems, networks, data or confidential information could result in actual or alleged breaches of applicable laws or our contractual obligations, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages, penalties, fines, costs, and other liabilities. Any such incident could also materially damage our reputation and harm our business, operating results, and financial condition, including reducing our revenue, resulting in our customers or third-party partners terminating their relationships with us, subjecting us to costly notification and remediation requirements, or harming our brand. For example, in 2018, we were subject to lawsuits filed against us related to potential access to a commercially available, third-party marketing dataset that provided consumer marketing information intended to help marketing professionals advertise and sell their products. While these lawsuits were ultimately resolved in 2018, future litigation or similar proceedings could be resolved less favorably and adversely affect our business or operations.
Cybersecurity risks and cyber incidents could result in the compromise of confidential data or critical data systems and give rise to potential harm to customers, remediation and other expenses under consumer protection laws or other laws or common law theories, subject us to litigation and federal and state governmental inquiries, damage our reputation, and otherwise be disruptive to our business and operations.
Cyber incidents can result from deliberate attacks or unintentional events. We collect and store on our networks sensitive information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personally identifiable information of individuals, such as our customers and employees. The secure maintenance of this information and technology is critical to our business operations. We have implemented multiple layers of security measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity, availability and privacy of this data and the systems and devices that store and transmit such data. We utilize current security technologies, and our defenses are monitored and routinely tested internally and by external parties. Despite these efforts, threats from malicious persons and groups, new vulnerabilities and advanced new attacks against information systems create risk of cybersecurity incidents. These incidents can include, but are not limited to, gaining unauthorized access to digital systems for purposes of misappropriating assets or sensitive information, corrupting data, or causing operational disruption. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and may not immediately produce signs of intrusion, we may be unable to anticipate these incidents or techniques, timely discover them, or implement adequate preventative measures.
These threats can come from a variety of sources, ranging in sophistication from an individual hacker to malfeasance by employees, consultants or other service providers to state-sponsored attacks. Cyber threats may be generic, or they may be custom-crafted against our information systems. Over the past several years, cyber-attacks have become more prevalent and much harder to detect and defend against. Our network and storage applications may be vulnerable to cyber-attack, malicious intrusion, malfeasance, loss of data privacy or other significant disruption and may be subject to unauthorized access by hackers, employees, consultants or other service providers. In addition, hardware, software or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities through fraud, trickery or other forms of deceiving our employees, contractors and temporary staff.
There can be no assurance that we will not be subject to cybersecurity incidents that bypass our security measures, impact the integrity, availability or privacy of data that may be subject to privacy laws or disrupt our information systems, devices or business. As a result, cybersecurity, physical security and the continued development and enhancement of our controls, processes and practices designed to protect our enterprise, information systems and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access remain a priority for us. As cyber threats continue to evolve, we may be required to expend significant additional resources to continue to modify or enhance our protective measures or to investigate and remediate any cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The occurrence of any of these events could result in:
•harm to customers;
•business interruptions and delays;
•the loss, misappropriation, corruption or unauthorized access of data;
•litigation, including potential class action litigation, and potential liability under privacy, security and consumer protection laws or other applicable laws;
•reputational damage;
•increase to insurance premiums; and
•foreign, federal and state governmental inquiries.
Any of the foregoing events could have a material, adverse effect on our financial position and operating results and harm our business reputation.
We maintain cyber liability insurance policies covering certain security and privacy damages. However, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Risks related to cybersecurity will increase as we continue to grow the scale and functionality of our platform and process, store, and transmit increasingly large amounts of our customers’ information and data, which may include proprietary or confidential data or personal data.
We are exposed to collection and credit risks, which could impact our operating results.
Our accounts receivable and contract assets are subject to collection and credit risks, which could impact our operating results. These assets may include upfront purchase commitments for multiple years of subscription-based software licenses, which may be invoiced over multiple reporting periods, increasing these risks. For example, our operating results may be impacted by significant bankruptcies among customers, which could negatively impact our revenues and cash flows. Although we have processes in place that are designed to monitor and mitigate these risks, we cannot guarantee these programs will be effective. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed. Furthermore, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, existing customers may attempt to renegotiate contracts and obtain concessions, including, among other things, longer payment terms or modified subscription dates, or may fail to make payments on their existing contracts, which may materially and negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.
Our operating results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes our future results difficult to predict.
Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future. Additionally, we have a limited operating history with the current scale of our business, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. As a result, you should not rely upon our past quarterly operating results as indicators of future performance. You should take into account the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets. Our operating results in any given quarter can be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are unpredictable or are outside of our control, including:
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effectiveness of any cost mitigation strategies we may implement, which may be offset by increased costs in other areas;
•our ability to generate significant revenue from new products and services;
•our ability to maintain and grow our customer base;
•our ability to expand our number of partners and distribution of our platform;
•the development and introduction of new products and services by us or our competitors;
•increases in and timing of operating expenses that we may incur to grow and expand our operations and to remain competitive;
•the timing of significant new purchases or renewals by our customers;
•purchasing patterns of our customers, including as a result of seasonality or changes in product mix;
•the timing of our Inspireannual user conferences;
•costs related to the acquisition of businesses, talent, technologies, or intellectual property, including potentially significant amortization costs and possible write-downs;
•actual or perceived failures or breaches of security or privacy, and the costs associated with remediating any actual failures or breaches;
•adverse litigation, judgments, settlements, or other litigation-related costs;
•changes in the legislative or regulatory environment, such as with respect to privacy;
•the application of new or changing financial accounting standards or practices, including the adoption of ASC 606;practices;
•fluctuations in currency exchange rates and changes in the proportion of our revenue and expenses denominated in foreign currencies; and
•general economic conditions in either domestic or international markets.markets, as well as economic conditions specifically affecting industries in which our customers operate, including the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Our business is affected by seasonality.
Our business is affected by seasonality. Due to the budgeting cycles of our current and potential customers, historically, we enter into more agreements with new customers and more renewed agreements with existing customers in the fourth quarter of each calendar year than in any other quarter. The impact of seasonality is heightened on new licensessubscriptions that are multi-year in nature with more revenue recognized at a point in time when the platform is first made available to the customers, or the beginning of the subscription term, if later.later, and the remaining portion recognized ratably over the life of the contract. Additionally, seasonal patterns may be affected by the timing of particularly large transactions. For example, we may achieve higher revenue growth in the first fiscal quarter than in the second fiscal quarter due to the effect of one or more large contracts that are entered into in the first fiscal quarter.
In addition, we generally have experienced increased sales and marketing expenses associated with our annual company kickoff and our annual U.S., European and Asia Pacific InspireAsia-Pacific user conferences in the period in which each occurs. We also generally see increased sales activity following our user conferences as a result of increased customer engagement during and after the events. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we cancelled our 2020 user conferences in North America and Europe during the three months ended June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2020, respectively. Accordingly, we did not incur the related increase in expenses during those periods and the extent of any impact on sales activity as a result of those cancellations may be significant. Our rapid growth in recent years may obscure the extent to which seasonality trends have affected our business and may continue to affect our business. Seasonality in our business can also be impacted by introductions of new or enhanced products and services, including the costs associated with such introductions. Moreover, seasonal and other variations related to our revenue recognition or otherwise may cause significant fluctuations in our operating results and cash flows, may make it challenging for an investor to predict our performance on a quarterly or annual basis and may prevent us from achieving our quarterly or annual forecasts or meeting or exceeding the expectations of research analysts or investors, which in turn may cause our stock price to decline. Additionally, yearly or quarterly comparisons of our operating results may not be useful and our operating results in any particular period will not necessarily be indicative of the results to be expected for any future period.
Economic uncertainty or downturns, particularly as it impacts particular industries, could adversely affect our business and operating results.
As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and over the last decade, the United States and other significant markets have experienced both acute and cyclical downturns and worldwide economic conditions remain uncertain. In addition, global financial developments seemingly unrelated to us or the software industry may harm us. The United States and other significant markets have been affected from time to time by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in equity and foreign exchange markets and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy, including with respect to tariff and trade issues. Economic uncertainty and associated macroeconomic conditions make it extremely difficult for our customers and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities, and could cause our customers to slow spending on our platform, which could delay and lengthen sales cycles. Furthermore, during uncertain economic times our customers may face issues gaining timely access to sufficient credit, which could result in an impairment of their ability to make timely payments to us. If that were to occur, we may be required to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts and our results would be negatively impacted.
For example, the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic globally in 2020 has resulted in travel restrictions and in some cases, prohibitions of non-essential travel, disruption and shutdown of businesses and greater uncertainty in global financial markets. Although we continue to monitor the situation, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and/or the precautionary measures that we, our customers and governmental authorities have adopted have resulted in, and could continue to result in, customers not purchasing or renewing our products or services, significant delays or lengthening of our sales cycles, and reductions in average transaction sizes, and could negatively affect our customer success and sales and marketing efforts, result in difficulties or changes to our customer support, or create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our
business and operating results. It is not possible at this time to estimate the extent of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic could have on our business, as the impact will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted.
Furthermore, we have customers in a variety of different industries. A significant downturn in the economic activity attributable to any particular industry, including, but not limited to, the retail and financial industries, may cause organizations to react by reducing their capital and operating expenditures in general or by specifically reducing their spending on information technology. In addition, our customers may delay or cancel information technology projects or seek to lower their costs by renegotiating vendor contracts. To the extent purchases of our platform are perceived by customers and potential customers to be discretionary, our revenue may be disproportionately affected by delays or reductions in general information technology spending. Also, customers may choose to develop in-house software as an alternative to using our platform. Moreover, competitors may respond to challenging market conditions by lowering prices and attempting to lure away our customers.
We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or any subsequent recovery generally, or any industry in particular. If the conditions in the general economy and the markets in which we operate worsen from present levels, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
We have undergone recent changes to our management team and if we lose the services of any of our senior management or other key personnel, or if we are unable to recruit or retain skilled personnel, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In October 2020, as part of a succession plan, Dean A. Stoecker, our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board of Directors resigned from his role as Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors appointed Mark Anderson to become our Chief Executive Officer. In addition, in the last twelve months, we have added several new members to our senior management team. Any significant leadership change or senior management transition involves inherent risk and any failure to ensure the timely and suitable replacement and a smooth transition could hinder our strategic planning, execution and future performance. In particular, this or any future leadership transition may result in a loss of personnel with deep institutional or technical knowledge and changes in business strategy or objectives, and has the potential to disrupt our operations and relationships with employees and customers due to added costs, operational inefficiencies, decreased employee morale and productivity and increased turnover. We must successfully integrate our new leadership team members within our organization to achieve our operating objectives.
Our future success depends in large part on the continued service of senior management and other key personnel. In particular, we are highly dependent on the services of our senior management team, many of whom are critical to the development of our technology, platform, future vision, and strategic direction. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of operations, security, marketing, sales, support, and general and administrative functions, and on individual contributors on our research and development team. Our senior management and other key personnel are all employed on an at-will basis, which means that they could terminate their employment with us at any time, for any reason and without notice. From time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives. If we lose the services of senior management or other key personnel, including due to illness resulting from COVID-19, of if our senior management team cannot work together effectively, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our future success also depends on our continuing ability to attract, train, assimilate, and retain highly skilled personnel. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous software and other technology companies. We may not be able to retain our current key employees or attract, train, assimilate, or retain other highly skilled personnel in the future. If we are able to resume our hiring at the rate we expected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies, including as a result of new opportunities arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. As we continue to move into new geographies, we will need to attract and recruit skilled personnel in those areas, which may involve adopting new working methodologies, including full-time remote work arrangements. If we are unable to attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who are capable of meeting our growing technical, operational, and managerial requirements, on a timely basis or at all, our business may be adversely affected. Volatility or lack of performance in our stock price may also affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees. In particular, as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, if we do not continue to grow at the same pace the we have experienced in the last few years, if there is a significant adverse change in our business or operations, or if our stock price declines significantly, our employees may not find employment with us as attractive or may find opportunities with our competitors or other technology companies to be more attractive.
We are obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. We previously identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. AlthoughIf we believe the material weakness has since been remediated, we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future, or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting in the future, andwe may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or operating results, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.
As a public company, weWe are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock.
This report will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting, as well as a statement that our independent registered public accounting firm has issued an opinion on our internal control over financial reporting. Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires our independent registered public accounting firm to annually attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, which has required, and will continue to require, increased costs, expenses, and management resources. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. We are required to disclose changes made in our internal controls and procedures on a quarterly basis. To comply with the requirements of being a public company, we have undertaken, and may need to further undertake in the future, various actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit staff.
We previously identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. Although we believe the material weakness has since been remediated, we cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, and are continuing to implement, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to identify or prevent future material weaknesses. If other material weaknesses or other deficiencies occur, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial position could be impaired, which could result in a material misstatement of our financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control, including as a result of any identified material weakness, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline, and we may be subject to investigation or sanctions by the SEC. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, security breaches and if unauthorized parties obtain access to our customers’ data, our data, or our platform, networks, or other systems, our platform may be perceived as not being secure, our reputation may be harmed, demand for our platform may be reduced, our operations may be disrupted, we may incur significant legal liabilities, and our business could be materially adversely affected.
As part of our business, we process, store, and transmit our customers’ information and data as well as our own confidential and/or proprietary business information and trade secrets, including in our platform, networks, and other systems, and we rely on third parties that are not directly under our control to do so as well. We, and our third-party partners, have security measures and disaster response plans in place to help protect our customers’ data, our own data and information, and our platform, networks, and other systems against unauthorized access or inadvertent exposure. However, we cannot assure you that these security measures and disaster response plans will be effective against all security threats and natural disasters. Our and our third-party partners’ security measures have in the past been, and may in the future be, breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, fraudulent inducement of employees or customers to disclose sensitive information such as user names or passwords, and the errors or malfeasance of our or our third-party partners’ personnel. Such a breach could result in someone obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data, our own data, confidential and/or proprietary business information, trade secrets, personal data, or our platform, networks, or other systems. Although we have incurred significant costs and expect to incur additional significant costs to prevent such unauthorized access, because there are many different security threats and the security threat landscape continues to evolve, we and our third-party partners may be unable to anticipate attempted security breaches and implement adequate preventative measures. Third parties may also conduct attacks designed to temporarily deny customers access to our services.
Any actual or perceived security breach or compromise or failure of our or our third-party partners’ systems, networks, data or confidential information, could result in actual or alleged breaches of applicable laws or our contractual obligations, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages, penalties, fines, costs, and other liabilities. Any such incident could also materially damage our reputation and harm our business, operating results, and financial condition, including reducing our revenue, resulting in our customers or third-party partners terminating their relationship with us, subjecting us to costly notification and remediation requirements, or harming our brand. For example, in 2018, we were subject to lawsuits filed against us related to potential access to a commercially available, third-party marketing dataset that provided consumer marketing information intended to help marketing professionals advertise and sell their products. While these lawsuits were ultimately resolved in 2018, future litigation or similar proceedings could be resolved less favorably and adversely affect our business or operations. We maintain cyber liability insurance policies covering certain security and privacy damages. However, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Risks related to cybersecurity will increase as we continue to grow the scale and functionality of our platform and process, store, and transmit increasingly large amounts of our customers’ information and data, which may include proprietary or confidential data or personal data.
Any failure to offer high-quality technical support may harm our relationships with our customers and have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.
Once our platform is deployed, our customers depend on our customer support team to resolve technical and operational issues relating to our platform. Our ability to provide effective customer support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train, and retain qualified personnel with experience in supporting customers on platforms such as ours. The number of our customers has grown significantly and that has and will put additional pressure on our customer support team. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for technical support. We also may be unable to modify the future, scope, and delivery of our technical support to compete with changes in the technical support provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and negatively affect our operating results. In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and expand internationally, we need to be able to provide efficient customer support that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale and our customer support team will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training, and documentation in languages other than English. If we are unable to provide efficient customer support globally at scale, our ability to grow our operations may be harmed and we may need to hire additional support personnel, which could negatively impact our operating results. In addition, we provide self-service support resources to our customers. Some of these resources, such as Alteryx Community, rely on engagement and collaboration by and with other customers. If we are unable to continue to develop self-service support resources that are easy to use and that our customers utilize to resolve their technical issues, or if our customers choose not to collaborate or engage with other customers on technical support issues, customers may continue to direct support requests to our customer support team instead of relying on our self-service support resources and our customers’ experience with our platform may be negatively impacted. Any failure to maintain high-quality support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our platform to existing and prospective customers, and our business, operating results, and financial condition.
The nature of our platform makes it particularly vulnerable to undetected errors or bugs, which could cause problems with how our platform performs and which could, in turn, reduce demand for our platform, reduce our revenue, and lead to product liability claims against us.
Because our platform is complex, it may contain errors or defects, especially when new updates or enhancements are released. Our software is often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, and equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors or failures of our software or other aspects of the computing environment into which it is deployed. In addition, deployment of our software into these computing environments may expose previously undetected errors, compatibility issues, failures, or bugs in our software. Although we test our platform extensively, we have in the past discovered software errors in our platform after introducing new updates or enhancements. Despite testing by us and by our current and potential customers, errors may be found in new updates or enhancements after deployment by our customers. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform could result in negative publicity, loss of customer data, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them, all of which could negatively impact our business and operating results and materially damage our reputation and brand. We may also have to expend resources and capital to correct these defects. Alleviating any of these problems could require significant expenditures of our capital and other resources and could cause interruptions, delays, or cessation in the sale of our platform, which could cause us to lose existing or potential customers and could adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
Our agreements with customers typically contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to product liability, warranty, and other claims. However, these provisions do not eliminate our exposure to these claims. In addition, it is possible that these provisions may not be effective under the laws of certain domestic or international jurisdictions and we may be exposed to product liability, warranty, and other claims. A successful product liability, warranty, or other similar claim against us could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business.
We currently rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, confidentiality procedures, contractual commitments, and other legal rights to protect our intellectual property. Despite our efforts, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. Unauthorized third parties may try to copy or reverse engineer portions of our platform or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property. In addition, we may not be able to obtain sufficient intellectual property protection for important features of our platform, in which case our competitors may discover ways to provide similar features without infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property rights.
Any patents that we may own and rely on in the future may be challenged or circumvented by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Our current and future patent applications may not be issued with the scope of the claims we seek, if at all. In addition, any patents issued in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages, may not be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers or may be successfully challenged by third parties.
Moreover, recent amendments to U.S. patent law, developing jurisprudence regarding U.S. patent law, and possible future changes to U.S. or foreign patent laws and regulations may affect our ability to protect our intellectual property and defend against claims of patent infringement. In addition, the laws of some countries do not provide the same level of protection of our intellectual property as do the laws of the United States. As we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our platform and proprietary information will likely increase. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to infringe upon or misappropriate our intellectual property, to copy our platform, and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available to us in every country in which our platform is available. For example, some foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against certain third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property rights domestically or internationally, which could impair our business or adversely affect our domestic or international expansion. If we cannot protect our intellectual property against unauthorized copying or use, we may not remain competitive and our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with other parties. We cannot assure you that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, use of, and distribution of our proprietary information or in effectively securing exclusive ownership of intellectual property developed by our employees and consultants. Further, these agreements may not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform.
In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to acquire, maintain, monitor, and protect our intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that our monitoring efforts will detect every infringement of our intellectual property rights by a third party. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Further, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform, impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of new products and services, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform, or damage our brand and reputation.
Additionally, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process and to maintain issued patents. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If this occurs, it could have a material adverse effect on our business operations and financial condition.
Our platform may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties and this may create liability for us or otherwise harm our business.
Third parties may claim that our current or future products and services infringe their intellectual property rights, and such claims may result in legal claims against our customers and us. These claims may damage our brand and reputation, harm our customer relationships, and create liability for us. We expect the number of such claims will increase as the number of
products and services and the level of competition in our market grows, the functionality of our platform overlaps with that of other products and services, and the volume of issued software patents and patent applications continues to increase. We generally agree in our customer contracts to indemnify customers for expenses or liabilities they incur as a result of third party intellectual property infringement claims associated with our platform. To the extent that any claim arises as a result of third-party technology we have licensed for use in our platform, we may be unable to recover from the appropriate third party any expenses or other liabilities that we incur.
Companies in the software and technology industries, including some of our current and potential competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, many of these companies have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Furthermore, patent holding companies, non-practicing entities, and other adverse patent owners that are not deterred by our existing intellectual property protections may seek to assert patent claims against us. From time to time, third parties, including certain of these leading companies, have contacted us inviting us to license their patents and may, in the future, assert patent, copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights against us, our channel partners, our technology partners, or our customers. We have received, and may in the future receive, notices that claim we have misappropriated, misused, or infringed other parties’ intellectual property rights, and, to the extent we gain greater market visibility, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims, which is not uncommon with respect to the enterprise software market.
There may be third-party intellectual property rights, including issued or pending patents, that cover significant aspects of our technologies or business methods. In addition, if we acquire or license technologies from third parties, we may be exposed to increased risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement due to, among other things, our lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to such technology and the care taken to safeguard against infringement risks. Any intellectual property claims, with or without merit, could be very time-consuming, could be expensive to settle or litigate, and could divert our management’s attention and other resources. These claims could also subject us to significant liability for damages, potentially including treble damages if we are found to have willfully infringed patents or copyrights, and may require us to indemnify our customers for liabilities they incur as a result of such claims. These claims could also result in our having to stop using technology found to be in violation of a third party’s rights. We might be required to seek a license for the intellectual property, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all. Even if a license were available, we could be required to pay significant royalties, which would increase our operating expenses. Alternatively, we could be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant time, effort, and expense, and may affect the performance or features of our platform. If we cannot license or develop alternative non-infringing substitutes for any infringing technology used in any aspect of our business, we would be forced to limit or stop sales of our platform and may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these results would adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.
Any failure to offer high-quality technical support may harm our relationships with our customers and have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.
Once our platform is deployed, our customers depend on our customer support team to resolve technical and operational issues relating to our platform. Our ability to provide effective customer support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train, and retain qualified personnel with experience in supporting customers on platforms such as ours. The number of our customers has grown significantly and that has and will put additional pressure on our customer support team. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for technical support. We also may be unable to modify the scope and delivery of our technical support to compete with changes in the technical support provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and negatively affect our operating results. In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and expand internationally, we need to be able to provide efficient customer support that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale and our customer support team will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training, and documentation in languages other than English. If we are unable to provide efficient customer support globally at scale, our ability to grow our operations may be harmed and we may need to hire additional support personnel, which could negatively impact our operating results. In addition, we provide self-service support resources to our customers. Some of these resources, such as Alteryx Community, rely on engagement and collaboration by and with other customers. If we are unable to continue to develop self-service support resources that are easy to use and that our customers utilize to resolve their technical issues, or if our customers choose not to collaborate or engage with other customers on technical support issues, customers may continue to direct support requests to our customer support team instead of relying on our self-service support resources and our customers’ experience with our platform may be negatively impacted. Any failure to maintain high-quality support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our platform to existing and prospective customers, and our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Future acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies, products, or technologies could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our operating results.
Our business strategy has included, and may in the future include, acquiring other complementary products, technologies, or businesses. For example, we acquired Feature Labs, Inc. in October 2019 to augment our machine learning capabilities and establish an engineering hub on the East Coast of the U.S., and ClearStory Data Inc. in April 2019 to add talented developers and compelling technology to our organization. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses in order to expand our platform, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, or discount pricing or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult, and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may be subject to third-party approvals, such as government regulatory approvals, which are beyond our control. Consequently, we can make no assurance that these transactions, once undertaken and announced, will close.
These kinds of acquisitions or investments may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. If we acquire businesses or technologies, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations, and technologies successfully, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including:
•inability to integrate or benefit from acquired technologies or services in a profitable manner and the potential for customer non-acceptance of multiple platforms on a temporary or permanent basis;
•unanticipated costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition, including potential liabilities due to litigation and potential identified or unknown security vulnerabilities in acquired technologies that expose us to additional security risks or delay our ability to integrate the product into our offerings or recognize the benefits of our investment;
•incurrence of acquisition-related costs;
•difficulty integrating the accounting systems, operations, and personnel of the acquired business;
•augmenting the acquired technologies and platforms to the levels that are consistent with our brand and reputation;
•difficulties and additional expenses associated with supporting legacy products and hosting infrastructure of the acquired business;
•challenges converting the acquired company’s revenue recognition policies and forecasting the related revenues, including subscription-based revenues and software license revenue;
•potential write-offs of acquired assets or investments, and potential financial and credit risks associated with acquired customers;
•difficulty converting the customers of the acquired business onto our platform and contract terms;
•diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;
•the potential entry into new markets in which we have little or no experience or where competitors may have stronger market positions;
•adverse effects to our existing business relationships with business partners and customers as a result of the acquisition;
•the potential loss of key employees;
•use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business; and
•use of substantial portions of our available cash to consummate the acquisition.
Moreover, we cannot assure you that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized or that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities.
In connection with these types of transactions, we may issue additional equity securities that would dilute our stockholders, use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business, incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay, incur large charges or substantial liabilities, encounter difficulties integrating diverse business cultures and values, and become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, or deferred compensation charges. These challenges related to acquisitions or investments could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and prospects.
Business disruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure, including interruptions, delays, or failures in service from our third-party data center hosting facility and other third-party services, could adversely affect our operating results or result in a material weakness in our internal controls.
Continued adoption of our platform depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our platform within a reasonable amount of time. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, data loss, outages, and other performance problems with our infrastructure and website due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, capacity constraints, denial of service attacks, or other security-related incidents. If our platform is unavailable or if our users and customers are unable to access our platform within a
reasonable amount of time, or at all, we may experience a decline in renewals, damage to our brand, or other harm to our business. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed, and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
A significant portion of our critical business operations are concentrated in the United States. For instance, we serve our customers and manage certain critical internal processes using a third-party data center hosting facility located in Colorado and other third-party services, including cloud services. We are a highly automated business, and a disruption or failure of our systems, or the third-party hosting facility or other third-party services that we use, could cause delays in completing sales and providing services. For example, from time to time, our data center hosting facility has experienced outages. Such disruptions or failures could also include a major earthquake, blizzard, fire, cyber-attack, act of terrorism, or other catastrophic event, or a decision by one of our third-party service providers to close facilities that we use without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems with the third-party services that we use, including a failure to meet service standards. Further, due to nearly all of our employees working remotely as a result of COVID-19, we increased infrastructure capacity in those areas where we anticipated increased demand on our infrastructure.
Interruptions or performance problems with either our technology and infrastructure or our data center hosting facility, including any failure to foresee those areas of our infrastructure that could be adversely impacted as a result of COVID-19, could, among other things:
•result in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business operations, controls, or procedures or information technology systems;
•severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations;
•result in a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting;
•cause us to be in breach of our contractual obligations and result in our customers terminating their subscriptions;
•result in our issuing credits or paying penalties or fines;
•harm our brand and reputation;
•adversely affect our renewal rates or our ability to attract new customers; or
•cause our platform to be perceived as unreliable or unsecure.
Any of the above could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy or the protection or transfer of personal data, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or our privacy policies, could adversely affect our business.
Components of our business, including our platform, involve processing, storing, and transmitting personal data, which is subject to our privacy policies and certain federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection. The amount of customer and employee personal data that we store through our platform, networks, and other systems, including personal data, is increasing. In recent years, the collection and use of personal data by companies have come under increased regulatory and public scrutiny.
For example, in the United States, protected health information is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. HIPAA has been supplemented by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act with the result of increased civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance. Under HIPAA, entities performing certain functions and creating, receiving, maintaining, or transmitting protected health information provided by covered entities and other business associates are directly subject to HIPAA. If we have access to protected health information through our platform in the future, we may be obligated to comply with certain privacy rules and data security requirements under HIPAA. Any systems failure or security breach that results in the release of, or unauthorized access to, personal data, or any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies or any applicable laws or regulations relating to privacy or data protection, could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others. Such proceedings could result in the imposition of sanctions, fines, penalties, liabilities, or governmental orders requiring that we change our data practices, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Various local, state, federal, and international laws, directives, and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and processing of personal data. These data protection and privacy laws and regulations continue to evolve and various federal, state and foreign legislative or regulatory bodies may enact new or additional laws or regulations concerning privacy and data protection that could adversely impact our business. Complying with these varying requirements could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices, either of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, adopted by
the European Union and effective as of May 2018, imposes stringent EU data protection requirements and, on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a decision invalidating outright the EU-US Privacy Shield framework, which companies had generally relied upon for the transfer of data from the European Union to the United States. Additionally, the U.K. implemented the Data Protection Act, effective May 2018 and statutorily amended in 2019, that contains provisions, including its own derogations, for how GDPR is applied in the U.K. These developments in the European Union could increase the risk of non-compliance and the costs of providing our products and services in a compliant manner. From the beginning of 2021 (when the transitional period following Brexit expires), we will have to continue to comply with the GDPR and also the Data Protection Act, with each regime having the ability to fine up to the greater of €20 million (£17 million) or 4% of global turnover. The relationship between the U.K. and the EU remains uncertain, for example how data transfers between the U.K. and the EU and other jurisdictions will be treated and the role of the U.K.’s supervisory authority. These changes will lead to additional costs as we try to ensure compliance with new privacy legislation and will increase our overall risk exposure.
In addition, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, a California privacy law that became effective on January 1, 2020, which became enforceable by the California Attorney General on July 1, 2020, along with related regulations which came into force on August 14, 2020, gives California residents new rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is collected, used and shared. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. Given that CCPA enforcement began on July 1, 2020, it remains unclear whether modifications will be made to this legislation or how it will be interpreted. The CCPA has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state privacy legislation that, if passed, could increase our potential liability, increase our compliance costs and adversely affect our business. Changing definitions of personal data and information may also limit or inhibit our ability to operate or expand our business, including limiting strategic partnerships that may involve the sharing of data. Also, some jurisdictions require that certain types of data be retained on servers within these jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with applicable laws, directives, and regulations may result in enforcement action against us, including fines, and damage to our reputation, any of which may have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business.
We currently rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, confidentiality procedures, contractual commitments, and other legal rights to establish and protect our intellectual property. We currently have “Alteryx” and variants and other marks registered as trademarks or pending registrations in the U.S. and certain foreign countries. We also rely on copyright laws to protect computer programs related to our platform and our proprietary technologies, although to date we have not registered for statutory copyright protection. We have registered numerous Internet domain names in the U.S. and certain foreign countries related to our business. Despite our efforts, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate and we will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Unauthorized third parties may try to copy or reverse engineer portions of our platform or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property. In addition, we may not be able to obtain sufficient intellectual property protection for important features of our platform, in which case our competitors may discover ways to provide similar features without infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property rights.
Historically, we have prioritized keeping our technology architecture, trade secrets, and engineering roadmap confidential, and as a general matter, have not extensively patented our proprietary technology. As a result, we generally cannot look to patent enforcement rights to protect a significant portion of our proprietary technology. Furthermore, our patent strategy is still in its early stages. Any patents that we may own and rely on may be challenged or circumvented by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Our current and future patent applications may not be issued with the scope of the claims we seek, if at all. In addition, any patents issued in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages, may not be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers or may be successfully challenged by third parties. Further, the process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming and we may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. For those patents that we do own and may own in the future, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process and to maintain issued patents. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If this occurs, it could have a material adverse effect on our business operations and financial condition.
Moreover, U.S. patent law, developing jurisprudence regarding U.S. patent law, and possible future changes to U.S. or foreign patent laws and regulations may affect our ability to protect our intellectual property and defend against claims of patent infringement. In addition, the laws of some countries do not provide the same level of protection of our intellectual property as do the laws of the United States. As we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our
platform and proprietary information will likely increase. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to infringe upon or misappropriate our intellectual property, to copy our platform, and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available to us in every country in which our platform is available, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in those countries may be inadequate. For example, some foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against certain third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property rights domestically or internationally, which could impair our business or adversely affect our domestic or international expansion. If we cannot protect our intellectual property against unauthorized copying or use, we may not remain competitive and our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with other parties. We cannot assure you that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, use of, and distribution of our proprietary information or in effectively securing exclusive ownership of intellectual property developed by our employees and consultants. Further, these agreements may not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform.
In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to acquire, maintain, monitor, and protect our intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that our monitoring efforts will detect every infringement of our intellectual property rights by a third party. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Further, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform, impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of new products and services, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform, or damage our brand and reputation.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of third-party claims of intellectual property infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our software, services or other contractual obligations. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other existing customers and new customers and harm our business and operating results.
Our platform contains third-party open source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could restrict our ability to sell our platform.
Our platform incorporates open source software code. An open source license allows the use, modification, and distribution of software in source code form. Certain kinds of open source licenses further require that any person who creates a product or service that contains, links to, or is derived from software that was subject to an open source license must also make their own product or service subject to the same open source license. Using software that is subject to this kind of open source license can lead to a requirement that our platform be provided free of charge or be made available or distributed in source code form. Although we do not believe our platform includes any open source software in a manner that would result in the imposition of any such requirement, the interpretation of open source licenses is legally complex and, despite our efforts, it is possible that our platform could be found to contain this type of open source software.
Moreover, we cannot assure you that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our platform will be effective. If we have not complied with the terms of an applicable open source software license, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our platform on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our platform to remove or replace the open source software, to discontinue the sale of our platform if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, to pay monetary damages, or to make generally available the source code for our proprietary technology, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of open source software can involve greater risks than those associated with use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or assurance of title, performance, non-infringement, or controls on origin of the software. There is typically no support available for open source software, and we cannot assure you that the authors of such open source software will not abandon further development and maintenance. Many of the risks associated with the use of open source software, such as the lack of warranties or assurances of title or performance, cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. We have established processes to help alleviate these risks, including a review process for screening requests from our development organizations for the use of open source software, but we cannot be sure that all open source software is identified or submitted for approval prior to use in our platform.
Responding to any infringement claim, regardless of its validity, or discovering the use of certain types of open source software code in our platform could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition, by, among other things:
•resulting in time-consuming and costly litigation;
•diverting management’s time and attention from developing our business;
•requiring us to pay monetary damages or enter into royalty and licensing agreements that we would not normally find acceptable;
•causing delays in the deployment of our platform;
•requiring us to stop selling some aspects of our platform;
•requiring us to redesign certain components of our platform using alternative non-infringing or non-open source technology or practices, which could require significant effort and expense;
•requiring us to disclose our software source code, the detailed program commands for our software; and
•requiring us to satisfy indemnification obligations to our customers.
Contractual disputes with our customers could be costly, time-consuming, and harm our reputation.
Our business is contract intensive and we are party to contracts with our customers all over the world. Our contracts can contain a variety of terms, including security obligations, indemnification obligations and regulatory requirements. Contract terms may not always be standardized across our customers and can be subject to differing interpretations, which could result in disputes with our customers from time to time. If our customers notify us of an alleged contract breach or otherwise dispute any provision
under our contracts, the resolution of such disputes in a manner adverse to our interests could negatively affect our operating results.
Additionally, if customers fail to pay us under the terms of our agreements, we may be adversely affected both from the inability to collect amounts due and the cost of enforcing the terms of our contracts, including litigation. The risk of such negative effects increases with the term length of our customer arrangements. Furthermore, some of our customers may seek bankruptcy protection or other similar relief and fail to pay amounts due to us, or pay those amounts more slowly eitheror seek to recover amounts already paid, any of which could adversely affect our operating results, financial position, and cash flow.
Economic uncertainty or downturns, particularlyWe may be adversely affected by natural disasters, pandemics and other catastrophic events, and by man-made problems such as it impacts particular industries,terrorism, that could adversely affectdisrupt our business operations, and operating results.our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
OverNatural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce, and the last decade, the United States and other significant markets have experienced cyclical downturns and worldwide economic conditions remain uncertain. In addition, global financial developments seemingly unrelated to us or the software industry may harm us. The United States and other significant markets have been affected from time to time by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, volatility in equity and foreign exchange markets and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy, including with respect to tariff and trade issues. Economic uncertainty and associated macroeconomic conditions make it extremely difficult for our customers and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities, and could cause our customers to slow spendinghave an adverse effect on our platform, which could delay and lengthen sales cycles. Furthermore, during uncertain economic times our customers may face issues gaining timely access to sufficient credit, which could result in an impairment of their ability to make timely payments to us. If that were to occur, we may be required to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts and our results would be negatively impacted.
Furthermore, we have customers in a variety of different industries. A significant downturn in the economic activity attributable to any particular industry, including, but not limited to, the retail and financial industries, may cause organizations to react by reducing their capital and operating expenditures in general or by specifically reducing their spending on information technology. In addition, our customers may delay or cancel information technology projects or seek to lower their costs by renegotiating vendor contracts. To the extent purchases of our platform are perceived by customers and potential customers to be discretionary, our revenue may be disproportionately affected by delays or reductions in general information technology spending. Also, customers may choose to develop in-house software as an alternative to using our platform. Moreover, competitors may respond to challenging market conditions by lowering prices and attempting to lure away our customers.
We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or any subsequent recovery generally, or any industry in particular. If the conditions in the general economy and the markets in which we operate worsen from present levels, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Business disruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure, including interruptions, delays, or failures in service from our third-party data center hosting facility and other third-party services, could adversely affect our operating results or result in a material weakness in our internal controls.
Continued adoption of our platform depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our platform within a reasonable amount of time. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, data loss, outages, and other performance problems with our infrastructure and website due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, capacity constraints, denial of service attacks, or other security-related incidents. If our platform is unavailable or if our users and customers are unable to access our platform within a reasonable amount of time, or at all, we may experience a decline in renewals, damage to our brand, or other harm to our business. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed, and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
A significant portion of our criticalcondition. Our business operations are concentrated inalso subject to interruption by fire, power shortages, and other events beyond our control. In addition, our global operations expose us to risks associated with public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics, which could harm our business and cause our operating results to suffer. For example, the United States. For instance,ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and/or the precautionary measures that we, serve our customers and manage certain critical internal processes using a third-party data center hosting facility locatedgovernmental authorities have adopted have resulted in, Coloradoand could continue to result in, customers not purchasing or renewing our products or services, significant delays or lengthening of our sales cycles, and reductions in average transaction sizes, and could negatively affect our customer success and sales and marketing efforts, result in difficulties or changes to our customer support, or create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our business and operating results. Further, acts of terrorism and other third-party services, including cloud services. We are a highly automatedgeo-political unrest could cause disruptions in our business and a disruption or failurethe businesses of our systems,partners or the third-party hosting facility or other third-party services that we use, could cause delays in completing sales and providing services. For example, from time to time, our data center hosting facility has experienced outages. Such disruptions or failures could also includeeconomy as a whole. In the event of a natural disaster, including a major earthquake, blizzard, fire, cyber-attack, act of terrorism, or otherhurricane, or a catastrophic event such as a fire, power loss, or a decision by onetelecommunications failure, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in development of our third-partyplatform, lengthy interruptions in service, providers to close facilities breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results. For example, our corporate offices are located in California, a state
that frequently experiences earthquakes and wildfires. Additionally, all the aforementioned risks may be further increased if we use without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems with the third-party services that we use, including a failure to meet service standards.
Interruptions or performance problems with either our technology and infrastructuredo not implement an effective disaster recovery plan or our data center hosting facility could, among other things:
result in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business operations, controls, or procedures or information technology systems;
severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations;
result in a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting;
cause our customers to terminate their subscriptions;
result in our issuing credits or paying penalties or fines;
harm our brand and reputation;
adversely affect our renewal rates or our ability to attract new customers; or
cause our platformpartners’ disaster recovery plans prove to be perceived as unreliable or unsecure.
Any of the above could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.
Future acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies, products, or technologies could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our operating results.
Our business strategy has included, and may in the future include, acquiring other complementary products, technologies, or businesses. For example, we acquired Feature Labs, Inc. in October 2019 to augment our machine learning capabilities and establish an engineering hub on the East Coast of the U.S., and ClearStory Data Inc. in April 2019 to add talented developers and compelling technology to our organization. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses in order to expand our platform, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, or discount pricing or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult, and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may be subject to third-party approvals, such as government regulatory approvals, which are beyond our control. Consequently, we can make no assurance that these transactions, once undertaken and announced, will close.
These kinds of acquisitions or investments may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. If we acquire businesses or technologies, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations, and technologies successfully, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including:
inability to integrate or benefit from acquired technologies or services in a profitable manner;
unanticipated costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition;
incurrence of acquisition-related costs;
difficulty integrating the accounting systems, operations, and personnel of the acquired business;
difficulties and additional expenses associated with supporting legacy products and hosting infrastructure of the acquired business;
difficulty converting the customers of the acquired business onto our platform and contract terms;
diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;
adverse effects to our existing business relationships with business partners and customers as a result of the acquisition;
the potential loss of key employees;
use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business; and
use of substantial portions of our available cash to consummate the acquisition.
Moreover, we cannot assure you that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized or that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities.
In connection with these types of transactions, we may issue additional equity securities that would dilute our stockholders, use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business, incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay, incur large charges or substantial liabilities, encounter difficulties integrating diverse business cultures, and become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, or deferred compensation charges. These challenges related to acquisitions or investments could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and prospects.inadequate.
Failure to comply with governmental laws and regulations could harm our business.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governments. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties, injunctions or other collateral consequences. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of
management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, reputation, operating results and financial condition.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy or the protection or transfer of personal data, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such lawsCurrent and regulations or our privacy policies, could adversely affect our business.
Components of our business, including our platform, involve processing, storing, and transmitting personal data, which is subject to our privacy policies and certain federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection. The amount of customer and employee personal data that we store through our platform, networks, and other systems, including personal data, is increasing. In recent years, the collection and use of personal data by companies have come under increased regulatory and public scrutiny.
For example, in the United States, protected health information is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. HIPAA has been supplemented by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act with the result of increased civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance. Under HIPAA, entities performing certain functions and creating, receiving, maintaining, or transmitting protected health information provided by covered entities and other business associates are directly subject to HIPAA. If we have access to protected health information through our platform in the future we may be obligated to comply with certain privacy rules and data security requirements under HIPAA. Any systems failure or security breach that results in the release of, or unauthorized access to, personal data, or any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies or any applicable laws or regulations relating to privacy or data protection, could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others. Such proceedings could result in the imposition of sanctions, fines, penalties, liabilities, or governmental orders requiring that we change our data practices, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Various local, state, federal, and international laws, directives, and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and processing of personal data. These data protection and privacy laws and regulations continue to evolve. Various federal, state, and foreign legislative or regulatory bodies may enact new or additional laws or regulations concerning privacy and data protection that could adversely impact our business. Complying with these varying requirements could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices, either of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. For example, the European Union adopted a new law regarding data practices called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which became effective in May 2018, and supersedes previous EU data protection legislation. The GDPR imposes stringent EU data protection requirements, which could increase the risk of non-compliance and the costs of providing our products and services in a compliant matter. The GDPR provides for penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of total worldwide annual turnover. In addition, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, a California privacy law that takes effect in 2020, gives California residents new rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is collected, used and shared. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. The CCPA has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state privacy legislation that, if passed, could increase our potential liability, increase our compliance costs and adversely affect our business. Changing definitions of personal data and information may also limit or inhibit our ability to operate or expand our business, including limiting strategic partnerships that may involve the sharing of data. Also, some jurisdictions require that certain types of data be retained on servers within these jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with applicable laws, directives, and regulations may result in enforcement action against us, including fines, and damage to our reputation, any of which may have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Future litigation could have a material adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition.
From time to time, we have been subject to litigation. For example, between August and October 2020, three putative securities class action lawsuits were filed against us and certain of our executive officers in U.S. federal court relating to alleged violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. These proceedings are further described in Note 11, Contingencies, in the notes to our condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Additional actions alleging similar claims could be brought in the future. These proceedings all remain in the early stages and we intend to vigorously defend against these claims. In addition, in December 2017 and January 2018, four putative consumer class action lawsuits were filed against us based upon claims we failed to properly secure on Amazon Web Services a commercially available, third-party marketing dataset that provided consumer marketing information intended to help marketing professionals advertise and sell their products. The complaints asserted claims for violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq. and state consumer-protection statutes, as well as claims for common law negligence. These actions were dismissed during 2018. The outcome of any litigation, including the litigation relating to the alleged securities law violations, regardless of its merits, is inherently uncertain. Regardless of the merits of any claims that may be brought against us, pending or future litigation could result in a diversion of management’s attention and resources and we may be required to incur significant expenses defending against these claims. If we are unable to prevail in litigation, we could incur payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, or undesirable changes to our products or business practices, and accordingly our business, financial condition, or operating results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Where we can make a reasonable estimate of the liability relating to pending litigation and determine that it is probable,
we record a related liability. As additional information becomes available, we assess the potential liability and revise estimates as appropriate. However, because of uncertainties relating to litigation, the amount of our estimates could change. Any adverse determination related to litigation could require us to change our technology or our business practices, pay monetary damages or fines, or enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, which could adversely affect our operating results and cash flows, harm our reputation, or otherwise negatively impact our business.
Failure to comply with anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the FCPA and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the United States, could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We are subject to the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bribery Act, and possibly other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. We face significant risks if we fail to comply with the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws that prohibit companies and their employees and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to foreign government officials, political parties, and private-sector recipients for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person, or securing any advantage. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we use various third parties to sell our platform and conduct our business abroad. We or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and we can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. We have implemented an anti-corruption compliance program but cannot assure you that all our employees and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable 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
and, in the case of the FCPA, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results, and prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
We are required to comply with governmental export control laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Our platform is subject to governmental, including United States and European Union, export control laws and regulations. U.S. export control laws and regulations and economic sanctions prohibit the shipment of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, and persons, and complying with export control and sanctions regulations for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. While we take precautions to prevent our platform from being exported in violation of these laws, if we were to fail to comply with U.S. export laws, U.S. customs regulations and import regulations, U.S. economic sanctions, and other countries’ import and export laws, we could be subject to substantial civil and criminal penalties, including fines for the company and incarceration for responsible employees and managers, and the possible loss of export or import privileges.
We incorporate encryption technology into certain of our products. Encryption products may be exported outside of the United States only with the required export authorization including by license, a license exception or other appropriate government authorization. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or could limit our customers’ ability to implement our products in those countries. Although we take precautions to prevent our products from being provided in violation of such laws, we cannot assure you that inadvertent violations of such laws have not occurred or will not occur in connection with the distribution of our products despite the precautions we take. Governmental regulation of encryption technology and regulation of imports or exports, or our failure to obtain required import or export approval for our products, could harm our international sales and adversely affect our operating results.
Further, if our channel or other partners fail to obtain appropriate import, export, or re-export licenses or permits, we may also be harmed, become the subject of government investigations or penalties, and incur reputational harm. Changes in our platform or changes in export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of our platform in international markets, prevent our customers with international operations from deploying our platform globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our platform to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import laws or regulations, economic sanctions, or related legislation, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing laws and regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such laws and regulations, could result in decreased use of our
platform by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our platform to, existing or potential customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our platform or limitation on our ability to export or sell our platform would likely harm our business, financial condition, and operating results.
If weOur financial statements are unablesubject to recruitchange and if our estimates or retain skilled personnel, or if we lose the services of any ofjudgments relating to our senior management or other key personnel,critical and significant accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and related notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Critical and significant accounting policies and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, business combinations, accounting for income taxes, and stock-based compensation expense. Our future success depends onoperating results may be adversely affected if our continuing abilityassumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to attract, train, assimilate,fall below the expectations of securities analysts and retain highly skilled personnel. investors, resulting in a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
If our goodwill or intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings.
We face intense competitionreview our goodwill and intangible assets for qualified individuals from numerous software and other technology companies. Weimpairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be ablerecoverable, such as declines in stock price, market capitalization, or cash flows and slower growth rates in our industry. Goodwill is required to retain our current key employees or attract, train, assimilate, or retain other highly skilled personnel in the future. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. As we continue to move into new geographies, we will need to attract and recruit skilled personnel in those areas.be tested for impairment at least annually. If we are unablerequired to attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who are capable of meeting our growing technical, operational, and managerial requirements, onrecord a timely basis or at all, our business may be adversely affected. Volatility or lack of performancesignificant charge in our stock price may alsofinancial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, that would negatively affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees.operating results.
Our future success also depends in large part on the continued service of senior management and other key personnel. In particular, we are highly dependent on the services of our senior management team, many of whom are critical to the development of our technology, platform, future vision, and strategic direction. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of operations, security, marketing, sales, support, and general and administrative functions, and on individual contributors on our research and development team. Our senior management and other key personnel are all employed on an at-will basis, which means that they could terminate their employment with us at any time, for any reason and without notice. If we lose the services of senior management or other key personnel, if our senior management team cannot work together effectively, or if we are unable to attract, train, assimilate, and retain the highly skilled personnel we need, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
If currency exchange rates fluctuate substantially in the future, the results of our operations, which are reported in U.S. dollars, could be adversely affected.
As we continue to expand our international operations, we become more exposed to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Although we expect an increasing number of sales contracts to be denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar in the future, the majority of our sales contracts have historically been denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore, most of our revenue has not been subject to foreign currency risk. However, a strengtheningchanges in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost of our platform to our customers outside of the United States, which could adversely affect our business,revenue and operating results financial condition,due to transactional and cash flows.translational remeasurement that is reflected in our earnings. In addition, 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. Furthermore, volatile market conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic may result in significant changes in exchange rates, and, in particular, a weakening of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar may negatively affect our revenue. This could have a negative impact on our operating results. Although we may in the future decide to undertake foreign exchange hedging transactions to cover a portion of our foreign currency exchange exposure, we currently do not hedge our exposure to foreign currency exchange risks.
We may have exposure to additional tax liabilities.
We are subject to complex tax laws and regulations in the United States and a variety of foreign jurisdictions. All of these jurisdictions have in the past and may in the future make changes to their corporate income tax rates and other income tax laws which could increase our future income tax provision. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act, enacted broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, some of which are unfavorable and apply to us, including but not limited to: (i) imposition of income tax on global intangible low-taxed income, or GILTI; (ii) repeal of the deduction for domestic production activity; (iii) limiting the deductibility of certain executive compensation; and (iv) limiting the use of foreign tax credits to reduce U.S. income tax liability.
Our future income tax obligations could be affected by earnings that are lower than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory rates and by earnings that are higher than anticipated in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory rates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in the amount of unrecognized tax benefits, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles, or interpretations thereof.
Our determination of our tax liability is subject to review by applicable U.S. and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse outcome of such a review could harm our operating results and financial condition. The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment and, in the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is complex and uncertain. Moreover, as a multinational business, we have subsidiaries that engage in many intercompany transactions in a variety of tax jurisdictions where the ultimate tax determination is complex and uncertain. Our existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, the taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, which could impact our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and operating results.
We are also subject to non-income taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth, property, and goods and services taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. We are periodically reviewed and audited by tax authorities with respect to income and non-income taxes. Tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken and we may have exposure to additional income and non-income tax liabilities, which could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. In addition, our future effective tax rates could be favorably or unfavorably affected by changes in tax rates, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, the effectiveness of our tax planning strategies, or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. Such changes could have an adverse impact on our financial condition.
As a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of tax obligations owed may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and any such difference may harm our operating results in future periods in which we change our estimates of our tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.
Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations which could subject our business to higher tax liability.
Our ability to use our net operating losses, or NOLs, to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations which could subject our business to higher tax liability. We may be limited in the portion of net operating loss, or NOL carryforwards that we can use in the future to offset taxable income for U.S. federal and state income tax purposes, and federal tax credits to offset federal tax liabilities. Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, limit the use of NOLs and tax credits after a cumulative change in corporate ownership of more than 50% occurs within a three-year period. The statutes place a formula limit on how much NOLs and tax credits a corporation can use in a tax year after a change in ownership. Avoiding an
ownership change is generally beyond our control. Although anthe ownership changechanges we experienced in the past hadand in the year ended December 31, 2019 have not prevented us from using all NOLs and tax credits accumulated before thesuch ownership change,changes, we could experience another ownership change that might limit our use of NOLs and tax credits in the future. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs, or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES Act, was signed into law. The CARES Act changes certain provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or Tax Act. Under the CARES Act, NOLs arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2021 may be carried back to each of the five taxable years preceding the tax year of such loss, but NOLs arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020 may not be carried back. Under the Tax Act, as modified by the CARES Act, NOLs from tax years that began after December 31, 2017 do not expire, but NOLs from tax years that began before January 1, 2018 expire after 20 years. Further, under the Tax Act, although the treatment of tax losses generated in taxable years ending before December 31, 2017 has generally not changed, tax losses generated in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 may offset no more than 80% of current taxable income annually.annually for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020. Accordingly, if we generate NOLs after the tax year ended December 31, 2017, we might have to pay more federal income taxes in a subsequent year as a result of the 80% taxable income limitation than we would have had to pay under the law in effect before the Tax Act was modified by the CARES Act. On June 29, 2020, California Senate Bill 85, or S.B. 85, was signed into law. S.B. 85 suspends NOL deductions in each of 2020, 2021 and 2022 when a taxpayer has more than $1 million of taxable income before the application of NOLs. S.B. 85 also limits tax credits to $5 million for each taxpayer for the same tax years to reduce their California income tax liability in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. Both the NOL and credit provisions capped by the annual limits in 2020, 2021, or 2022 have an extended carryover period for each year the limit applies. Therefore, if we have more than $1 million of California taxable income in any of 2020, 2021 and 2022, the application of NOLs and credits would be limited by the new legislation.
We may require additional capital to fund our business and support our growth, and any inability to generate or obtain such capital may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
In order to support our growth and respond to business challenges, such as developing new features or enhancements to our platform to stay competitive, acquiring new technologies, and improving our infrastructure, we have made significant financial investments in our business and we intend to continue to make such investments. As a result, we may need to engage in additional equity or debt financings to provide the funds required for these investments and other business endeavors. If we raise additional funds through equity or convertible debt issuances, our existing stockholders may suffer significant dilution and these securities could have rights, preferences, and privileges that are superior to that of holders of our common stock. If we obtain additional funds through debt financing, we may not be able to obtain such financing on terms favorable to us. Such terms may involve restrictive covenants making it difficult to engage in capital raising activities and pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. The trading prices for our common stock and other technology companies have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may reduce our ability to access capital on favorable terms or at all. In addition, a recession, depression or other sustained adverse market event resulting from the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic could materially and adversely affect our business and the value of our common stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired and our business may be adversely affected, requiring us to delay, reduce, or eliminate some or all of our operations.
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain additional executive management and qualified board members.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, or Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations havehas increased our legal and financial compliance costs, made some activities more difficult, time-consuming, or costly and increased demand on our systems and resources.
The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight have been, and may in the future be, required. For example, our adoption of ASC 606 required us to make significant updates to our financial information technology systems and significant modifications to our accounting controls and procedures and continues to placeplaced a significant burden on our accounting and information technology teams, both financially and through the expenditure of management time. Many of these updates and modifications remain in process as we evolve our systems and controls. We have been able to make timely reporting requirements as of the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q; however, the significant system and process updates required for the efficient operation of our revenue process under ASC 606 remain an on-going initiative with no assurance that we will continue to be successful in meeting our future reporting requirements. Our failure to meet our reporting obligations as a result of any changes to our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our business and on the trading price of our Class A common stock. Furthermore, due to the implementation of ASC 606 and the changes we have made to our internal control environment to adopt ASC 606, there is an increased risk that we may fail to maintain an effective internal control environment. Our failure to maintain an effective internal control environment may, among other things, result in material misstatements in our financial statements and failure to meet our
reporting obligations. As a result of ongoing efforts to maintain and improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. Although we have already hired additional employees to comply with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase our costs and expenses.
In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to continue to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations, and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be adversely affected.
The rules and regulations applicable to public companies make it more expensive for us to obtain and maintain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.
As a result of disclosure of information in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition has become moreis visible, which has and we believe may continue to result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and operating results could be adversely affected, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We recentlyIn 2019, we changed our independent registered public accounting firm due to the possible appearance of a business relationship contrary to auditor independence standards as a result of the accounting firm’s increased use of, and communications and services related to, our software platform with its clients and prospective clients in 2018. If our prior registered independent accounting firm were to determine that it was not independent in prior years, we may be required to have such financial statements audited and reviewed by another independent registered public accounting firm. Moreover, our newcurrent registered independent accounting firm may interpret accounting rules differently than our former firm.
In January 2019, we dismissed our former independent registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, or PwC, and engaged a new firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP, or Deloitte, to serve in that role. PwC, our prior independent registered public accounting firm, has purchased our products and services from time to time in the ordinary course of business in arms-length transactions. Our sales to PwC through the date of their dismissal have beenwere immaterial; however, in January 2019, following
an internal review by PwC, PwC notified us that it had increased its use of, and communications and services related to, our software platform with its clients and prospective clients in 2018 and that this created the possible appearance of a business relationship contrary to auditor independence standards. PwC communicated to us that this concern did not extend to 2017 or any prior year. As a result of the foregoing, we dismissed PwC as our independent registered public accounting firm in January 2019. In the future, if it were to be determined that PwC was not independent for 2017 or prior years, the financial statements audited by PwC may have to be audited and reviewed by another independent registered public accounting firm. There can be no assurance that the new independent registered public accounting firmDeloitte will reach the same conclusions as PwC regarding the application of accounting standards, management estimates or other factors affecting our financial statements in connection with such accountant’s audit and review process, and that adjustments to or restatements of our financial statements for such periods will not be required as a result.
Additionally, Deloitte, our newcurrent independent registered public accounting firm, will be reviewing and auditing our financial statements in the future. Given the complexities of public company accounting rules and the differences in how those rules are interpreted by various accounting firms, it is possible that our new independent registered public accounting firmDeloitte will require us to characterize certain transactions or present financial data differently than was approved by our former independent registered public accounting firm. Similarly, it is possible that our new independent registered public accounting firmDeloitte will disagree with the way we have presented financial results in prior periods, in which case we may be required to restate those financial results. In either case, these changes could negatively impact our future financial results or previously reported financial results, could subject us to the expense and other consequences of restating our prior financial statements, and could lead to government investigation or stockholder litigation.
Our financial statements are subject to change and if our estimates or judgments relating to our critical and significant accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and related notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Critical and significant accounting policies and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, business combinations, accounting for income taxes, and stock-based compensation expense. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
If our goodwill or intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings.
We review our goodwill and intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable, such as declines in stock price, market capitalization, or cash flows and slower growth rates in our industry. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. If we are required to record a significant charge in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, that would negatively affect our operating results.
We may be adversely affected by natural disasters and other catastrophic events, and by man-made problems such as terrorism, that could disrupt our business operations and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may also cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce, and the global economy, and could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, pandemics, and other events beyond our control. In addition, acts of terrorism and other geo-political unrest could cause disruptions in our business or the businesses of our partners or the economy as a whole. In the event of a natural disaster, including a major earthquake, blizzard, or hurricane, or a catastrophic event such as a fire, power loss, or telecommunications failure, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in development of our platform, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results. For example, our corporate offices are located in California, a state that frequently experiences earthquakes. Additionally, all the aforementioned risks may be further increased if we do not implement a disaster recovery plan or our partners’ disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate.
We are exposed to fluctuations in the market values of our investments.
Credit ratings and pricing of our investments can be negatively affected by liquidity, credit deterioration, financial results, economic risk, political risk, sovereign risk, changes in interest rates, or other factors. As a result, the value and liquidity of our cash and cash equivalents and investments may fluctuate substantially. Therefore, although we have not realized any significant losses on our cash and cash equivalents and investments, future fluctuations in their value could result in a significant realized loss, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Notes
Although our Notes are referred to as senior notes, they are effectively subordinated to any of our secured debt and any liabilities of our subsidiaries.
The Notes (as defined in Note 8, Convertible Senior Notes, of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q) rank senior in right of payment to any of our indebtedness and other liabilities that are expressly subordinated in right of payment to the Notes; equal in right of payment among all series of Notes and to any other existing and future indebtedness and other liabilities that are not subordinated; effectively junior in right of payment to any of our secured indebtedness and other liabilities to the extent of the value of the assets securing such indebtedness and other liabilities; and structurally junior in right of payment to all of our existing and future indebtedness and other liabilities (including trade payables) of our current or future subsidiaries. In the event of our bankruptcy, liquidation, reorganization, or other winding up, our assets that secure debt ranking senior or equal in right of payment to the Notes will be available to pay obligations on the Notes only after the secured debt has been repaid in full from these assets, and the assets of our subsidiaries will be available to pay obligations on the Notes only after all claims senior to the Notes have been repaid in full. There may not be sufficient assets remaining to pay amounts due on any or all of the Notes then outstanding. The indentures governing the Notes do not prohibit us from incurring additional senior debt or secured debt, nor do they prohibit any of our current or future subsidiaries from incurring additional liabilities.
Recent and future regulatory actions and other events may adversely affect the trading price and liquidity of the Notes.
We expect that many investors in, and potential purchasers of, the Notes have employed or will employ, or seek to employ, a convertible arbitrage strategy with respect to the Notes. Investors would typically implement such a strategy by selling short the Class A common stock underlying the Notes and dynamically adjusting their short position while continuing to hold the Notes. Investors may also implement this type of strategy by entering into swaps on our Class A common stock in lieu of or in addition to short selling the Class A common stock.
The SEC and other regulatory and self-regulatory authorities have implemented various rules and taken certain actions, and may in the future adopt additional rules and take other actions, that may impact those engaging in short selling activity involving equity securities (including our Class A common stock). Such rules and actions include Rule 201 of SEC Regulation SHO, the adoption by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. and the national securities exchanges of a “Limit Up-Limit Down” program, the imposition of market-wide circuit breakers that halt trading of securities for certain periods following specific market declines, and the implementation of certain regulatory reforms required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Any governmental or regulatory action that restricts the ability of investors in, or potential purchasers of, the Notes to effect short sales of our Class A common stock, borrow our Class A common stock, or enter into swaps on our Class A common stock could adversely affect the trading price and the liquidity of the Notes.
Volatility in the market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock could adversely impact the trading price of the Notes.
We expect that the trading price of the Notes will be significantly affected by the market price of our Class A common stock. The stock market in recent years, including during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of companies. The market price of our Class A common stock has fluctuated, and could continue to fluctuate, significantly for many reasons, including in response to the other risks described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or for reasons unrelated to our operations, many of which are beyond our control, such as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports by industry analysts, investor perceptions, or negative announcements by our customers or competitors regarding their own performance, as well as industry conditions and general financial, economic and political instability. A decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock would likely adversely impact the trading price of the Notes. The market price of our Class A common stock could also be affected by possible sales of our Class A common stock by investors who view the Notes as a more attractive means of equity participation
in us and by hedging or arbitrage trading activity that we expect to develop involving our Class A common stock. This trading activity could, in turn, affect the trading price of the Notes.
An increase in market interest rates could result in a decrease in the value of the Notes.
In general, as market interest rates rise, notes bearing interest at a fixed rate generally decline in value because the premium, if any, over market interest rates will decline. Consequently, if market interest rates increase, the market value of the Notes may decline. We cannot predict the future level of market interest rates.
We may incur substantially more debt or take other actions which would intensify the risks discussed above.
We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional debt in the future, subject to the restrictions contained in our debt instruments, some of which may be secured debt. We are not restricted under the terms of the indentures governing the Notes from incurring additional debt, securing existing or future debt, recapitalizing our debt, or taking a number of other actions that are not limited by the terms of the indentures governing the Notes that could have the effect of diminishing our ability to make payments on the Notes when due.
We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the Notes in cash or to repurchase the Notes upon a fundamental change, and any future debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or repurchase of the Notes.
Holders of a series of Notes have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes of the relevant series upon the occurrence of a fundamental change before the relevant maturity date at a fundamental change repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes of the relevant series to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. In addition, upon conversion of such Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we are required to make cash payments in respect of the Notes being converted. However, 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.
In addition, our ability to repurchase Notes or to pay cash upon conversions of Notes may be limited by law, regulatory authority, or any agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the applicable indenture or to pay any cash upon conversions of Notes as required by the applicable indenture would constitute a default under such indenture. A default under an indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing any future indebtedness. 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 conversions of Notes.
The conditional conversion feature of the Notes may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
As a result of meeting certain conditional conversion criteria during the three months ended September 30, 2019,2020, the outstanding 2023 Notes are currently convertible at the option of the holders during the quarter ending December 31, 2019.September 30, 2020. During this time, and in the event the conditional conversion feature of the relevant series of Notes is triggered in future quarters, holders of such Notes are, with respect to the 2023 Notes, and will be, with respect to all Notes, entitled to convert their Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our Class A common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation in cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders of such Notes do not elect to convert their Notes, we are currently, with respect to the 2023 Notes, and could in the future be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the relevant series of Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, in the future, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital. Accordingly, as a result of the current convertibility of the 2023 Notes, we have classified the 2023 Notes as current liabilities on the condensed consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2019.2020.
Our stockholders may experience dilution upon the conversion of the Notes if we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering shares of our Class A common stock.
Upon conversion by the holders of the relevant series of Notes, we may elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering shares of our Class A common stock. The 2023 Notes have an initial conversion rate of 22.5572 shares of our Class A common stock per $1,000 principal amount of 2023 Notes, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $44.33 per share of Class A common stock. The 2024 & 2026 Notes each have an initial conversion rate of
5.2809 shares of our Class A common stock per $1,000 principal amount of 2024 & 2026 Notes, as applicable, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $189.36 per share of Class A common stock. If we elect to deliver shares of our Class A common stock upon a conversion, our stockholders will incur dilution.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under ASC 470-20, Debt with Conversion and Other Options, or ASC 470-20, an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of ASC 470-20 on the accounting for the Notes is that the equity component, net of issuance costs, is required to be included in the additional paid-in capital section of stockholders’ equity on our consolidated balance sheet at the issuance date and the value of the equity component is treated as original issue discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the Notes. As a result, we are required to record a greater amount of non-cash interest expense in current periods presented as a result of the amortization of the discounted carrying value of the Notes to their respective face amounts over their respective terms. We will report larger net losses (or lower net income) in our financial results because ASC 470-20 requires interest to include both the current period’s amortization of the debt discount and the instrument’s non-convertible coupon interest rate, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results, the trading price of our Class A common stock and the trading price of the Notes.
In addition, under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash may be accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of a series of Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of such series of Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of Class A common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable or otherwise elect not to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of a series of Notes, then our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected.
The capped call transactions may affect the value of the Notes and our Class A common stock.
In connection with the pricing of each series of Notes, we entered into capped call transactions relating to such Notes with the option counterparties. The capped call transactions relating to each series of Notes cover, subject to customary adjustments, the number of shares of our Class A common stock that initially underlie such series of Notes. The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution upon any conversion of the relevant series of Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount upon any conversion of such Notes, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap.
The option counterparties or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock in secondary market transactions following the pricing of each series of Notes and prior to the maturity of each series of Notes (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of such Notes or following any repurchase of such Notes by us on any fundamental change repurchase date or otherwise). This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock or the Notes, which could affect a holder’s ability to convert their Notes and, to the extent the activity occurs during any observation period related to a conversion of a relevant series of Notes, it could affect the amount and value of the consideration that a holder will receive upon conversion of such Notes.
The potential effect, if any, of these transactions and activities on the market price of our Class A common stock or the Notes will depend in part on market conditions and cannot be ascertained at this time. Any of these activities could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock and the value of the Notes (and as a result, the amount and value of the consideration that a holder would receive upon the conversion of any Notes) and, under certain circumstances, a holder’s ability to convert their Notes.
We do not make any representation or prediction as to the direction or magnitude of any potential effect that the transactions described above may have on the price of the Notes or our Class A common stock. In addition, we do not make any representation that the option counterparties or their respective affiliates will engage in these transactions or that these transactions, once commenced, will not be discontinued without notice.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the capped call transactions.
The option counterparties to the capped call transactions are financial institutions, and we will be subject to the risk that one or more of the option counterparties may default or otherwise fail to perform, or may exercise certain rights to terminate their obligations, under the capped call transactions. Our exposure to the credit risk of the option counterparties will not be secured by any collateral. If an option counterparty to one or more capped call transactions becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under such transaction. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, our exposure will increase if the market price or the volatility of our
common stock increases. In addition, upon a default or other failure to perform, or a termination of obligations, by an option counterparty, we may suffer more dilution than we currently anticipate with respect to our common stock. We can provide no assurances as to the financial stability or viability of the option counterparties.
Risks Related to Ownership 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 the value of your investment.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been, and will likely continue to be, volatile. Since shares of our Class A common stock were sold in our initial public offering, or IPO, in March 2017 at a price of $14.00 per share, our closing stock price has ranged from $14.80 to $147.19$181.98 through September 30, 2019.2020. In addition to factors discussed in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the market price of our Class A common stock may continue to fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
•overall performance of the equity markets;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other operating results;
•changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public or our failure to meet these projections;
•failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, inaccurate or unfavorable research published by securities analysts, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•recruitment or departure of key personnel;
•the economy as a whole and market conditions in our industry;
•negative publicity related to the real or perceived quality of our platform, as well as the failure to timely launch new products and services that gain market acceptance;
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations;
•acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
•new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
•lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or our platform, or third-party proprietary rights;
•the inclusion of our Class A common stock on stock market indexes, including the impact of rules adopted by certain index providers, such as S&P Dow Jones Indices and FTSE Russell, that limit or preclude inclusion of companies with multi-class capital structures;
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles;
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the global economy, our operating results and enterprise technology spending;
•other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events; and
•sales of shares of our Class A common stock by us or our stockholders, including sales and purchases of any Class A common stock issued upon conversion of any series of our Notes.
In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. Stock prices of many companies, and technology companies in particular, have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If weFurthermore, market volatility arising from the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased shareholder activism and, between August and October 2020, three putative securities class action lawsuits were filed against us and certain of our executive officers relating to become involvedalleged violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. These proceedings are further described in securitiesNote 11, Contingencies, in the notes to our condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. In addition, activist campaigns that contest or conflict with our strategic direction or seek changes in the composition of our board of directors could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial
condition. Securities litigation it couldmay subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and adversely affect our business.
Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock into the public market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders, or the perception that these sales might occur, could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline. We had a total of 65.066.5 million shares of our Class A and Class B common stock outstanding as of September 30, 2019.2020. All shares of our common stock are freely tradable, without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or Securities Act, except that any shares held by our “affiliates” as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act would only be able to be sold in compliance with Rule 144.
In addition, certain holders of our common stock are, subject to certain conditions, entitled, under contracts providing for registration rights, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of the Class A common stock issuable upon
conversion of such holders’ shares of Class B common stock or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file for us or other stockholders.
Sales of our shares pursuant to registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our Class A common stock.
In addition, we have filed a registration statement to register shares reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. Subject to the satisfaction of vesting conditions, the shares issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options or settlement of outstanding RSUs will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market.
We have issued and may alsoin the future issue our shares of common stock or securities convertible into shares of our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investment, or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with holders of our Class B common stock, including our directors, executive officers, and 5% stockholders and their affiliates, which limits or precludes your ability to influence corporate matters, including the election of directors and the approval of any change of control transaction.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of September 30, 2019,2020, our directors, executive officers, and holders of more than 5% of our common stock, and their respective affiliates, held a substantial majority of the voting power of our capital stock. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively control a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock and therefore are able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval until the earliest of (i) the date specified by a vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the outstanding shares of Class B common stock, (ii) March 29, 2027, or (iii) the date the shares of Class B common stock cease to represent at least 10% of the aggregate number of shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock then outstanding. This concentrated control limits or precludes your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction requiring stockholder approval. In addition, this may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.
Future 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 permitted transfers effected for estate planning purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock 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 securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, about our business, the price of our Class A common stock and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Class A common stock or
publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our Class A common stock would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our Class A common stock could decrease, which might cause our Class A common stock price and trading volume to decline.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that for the foreseeable future we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Provisions in our charter documents, Delaware law, and in each series of our Notes could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees, and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws include provisions that:
•provide that our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms;
•permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly-created directorships;
•require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws;
•authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;
•provide that only the chairman of our board of directors, our chief executive officer, president, lead independent director, or a majority of our board of directors will be authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;
•provide for a dual class common stock structure in which holders of our Class B common stock have the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets;
•prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
•provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our bylaws; and
•establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.
In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, our restated certificate of incorporation, or our restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice
Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. In May 2020, we amended and restated our restated bylaws to provide that the federal district courts of the United States will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or a Federal Forum Provision. Our decision to adopt a Federal Forum Provision followed a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware holding that such provisions are facially valid under Delaware law. While there can be no assurance that federal or state courts will follow the holding of the Delaware Supreme Court or determine that the Federal Forum Provision should be enforced in a particular case, application of the Federal Forum Provision means that suits brought by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act must be brought in federal court and cannot be brought in state court. Neither the exclusive forum provision nor the Federal Forum Provision applies to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Section 27 of the Exchange Act, however, creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations
thereunder. Accordingly, actions by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder must be brought in federal court.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to our exclusive forum provisions, including the Federal Forum Provision. The exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provisionprovisions contained in our restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Moreover, Section 203 of the DGCL may discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations, and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock.
Further, the fundamental change provisions of each series of our Notes that are set forth in the applicable indenture may make a change in control of our company more difficult because those provisions allow note holders to require us to repurchase such series of Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.
(a) Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
None.
(b) Use of Proceeds
None.
(c) Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
Item 6. Exhibits.
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Exhibit
Number | | Exhibit Description | | Form | | File No. | | Exhibit | | Filing Date | | Filed Herewith |
| 4.1 | | | | 8-K | | 001-38034 | | 4.1 | | August 12, 2019 | | |
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| 4.2 | | | | 8-K | | 001-38034 | | 4.2 | | August 12, 2019 | | |
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| # | This certification is deemed not filed for purposes of section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liability of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. |
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.